Whats the best AMD motherboard for the buck right now?

[NTAC]

My friend is looking to buy a mobo and I have a Athalon 950 I can give him. What should he got right now. He's looking to spend about $150 for the mobo and some memory.. probably 256

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Drop the 950 and get a 1700+ t-bred B $42, Epox 8RDA+ $85, 256mb Kingston 2700DDR cas2.5 $33 and overclock the 1700+ for a sweet lil' setup that comes in only $10 over budget.

 

[Insane3D]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
Drop the 950 and get a 1700+ t-bred B $42, Epox 8RDA+ $85, 256mb Kingston 2700DDR cas2.5 $33 and overclock the 1700+ for a sweet lil' setup that comes in only $10 over budget.

Excellent advice.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Out of curiosity, why recommend an overclock? He'd do pretty well with an XP 1700+ instead of a 950 mhz Athlon anyway, and if he ran the 1700+ at factory spec, he wouldn't even have to get PC2700 DDR.

Not everybody wants or needs to OC, after all.

But, yeah, given how cheap some of the lower level XPs are now, there's no reason to re-use a Athlon 950 on a new motherboard.

 

[NTAC]

Thanx for the advice!! I'll run it by him first.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: DrMrLordX
Out of curiosity, why recommend an overclock? He'd do pretty well with an XP 1700+ instead of a 950 mhz Athlon anyway, and if he ran the 1700+ at factory spec, he wouldn't even have to get PC2700 DDR.

Not everybody wants or needs to OC, after all.

But, yeah, given how cheap some of the lower level XPs are now, there's no reason to re-use a Athlon 950 on a new motherboard.

Good questions that deserve answers, 1st. Kingston 2700DDR is the same price as the 2100@newegg so it's a no brainer 2nd. most 1700+ B's are just bin sorts as I understand it and will do 166fsb synch with the 2700DDR@default vcore no problemo making for a nice performance boost over 133 synch. Certainly he doesn't have to overclock but when you consider the substantial performance boost incured by simply bumping the FSB to 166mhz with the RAM@100% on that board with a 1700+ B it's a crying shame not to overclock IMO

 

[Insane3D]

Originally posted by: DrMrLordX
Out of curiosity, why recommend an overclock? He'd do pretty well with an XP 1700+ instead of a 950 mhz Athlon anyway, and if he ran the 1700+ at factory spec, he wouldn't even have to get PC2700 DDR.

Not everybody wants or needs to OC, after all.

But, yeah, given how cheap some of the lower level XPs are now, there's no reason to re-use a Athlon 950 on a new motherboard.

Because it is also at the point now where o/cing is almost not a risk at all depending on how you do it. For instance, on the 8RDA+, he would be able to freely adjust the multiplier and FSB while the PCI and AGP buses stayed in spec. He wouldn't even need to mess with voltages or anything if he didn't want to. At the very minimum, he could run the 1700+ @ stock speed, but with a 166mhz FSB. Technically it is an o/c, but the system or the CPU won't know the difference. To take that one step further, he could likely get 2100+ speeds easily without raising the voltage or needing any exotic components or extra cooling.

Basically, that 1700+ has free speed inside that is not really risky at all to unleash if done right. Wayback when, o/cing used to involve making the whole system run out of spec, nowadays that is no longer the case.

 

[NTAC]

While we're on this subject, I have an 8KHA+ w/ an Athalon XP 2200 and 768 MB of PC2100 ram.. Do I have any "risk free" overclocking options that I should explore?

 

[Insane3D]

Originally posted by: NTAC
While we're on this subject, I have an 8KHA+ w/ an Athalon XP 2200 and 768 MB of PC2100 ram.. Do I have any "risk free" overclocking options that I should explore?

Not really for a couple of reasons...

First, the chipset on the 8KHA+, the KT266A, does not have the ability to change the FSB without affecting the speed of the AGP and PCI buses, and you would need to physically unlock your 2200+ to be able to change the multiplier. The 8KHA+ was a great board in it's day, but it is getting a bit "long in the tooth" so to speak.

 

[RedRonin]

With RAM & CPU being equal, motherboards of choice could be any of these: Biostar M7VIG Pro, ECS L7S7A2, Shuttle MN31N, Chaintech 7NIL1 and Biostar M7NCG.

 

[Vette73]

If you want a cheap board that is strong and fast the get the ECS L7S7A2. It does NOT support 100Mhz FSB only 133Mhz and up. But it has USB2.0, sound, and ethernet, all for less then $59 at newegg.com for a NEW one. But for $150 get this board, some Geil ro other cheap PC2700 ram and a athlon 1700+. If you get a good heatsink then the chip will run 166Mhz FSB EASY.

At newegg.com this is what a $150 budget will get ya...

AMD Athlon XP 1700+
ECS L7S7A2
All Components. 32X64 256MB PC-2700

All this is $126 shipped at newegg. That leaves you enough to get a good heatsink.


I got it for my backup system. My main system runs a nForce 2 Abit NF7-S board

 

[Bonesdad]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
Drop the 950 and get a 1700+ t-bred B $42, Epox 8RDA+ $85, 256mb Kingston 2700DDR cas2.5 $33 and overclock the 1700+ for a sweet lil' setup that comes in only $10 over budget.

Gonna be more than $10...he needs a good HSF. ESPECIALLY if he is going to OC. That could run another $25 +!

 

[Insane3D]

Originally posted by: Bonesdad

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
Drop the 950 and get a 1700+ t-bred B $42, Epox 8RDA+ $85, 256mb Kingston 2700DDR cas2.5 $33 and overclock the 1700+ for a sweet lil' setup that comes in only $10 over budget.

Gonna be more than $10...he needs a good HSF. ESPECIALLY if he is going to OC. That could run another $25 +!

Ummmm..no.

Taisol CGK760092 Copper Insert

Awesome HSF for $9.95. Certified for 2600+ and up...

 

[NTAC]

Will the Athalon 950 work on the ECS L7S7A2?

 

[Insane3D]

Originally posted by: NTAC
Will the Athalon 950 work on the ECS L7S7A2?

No, the Athlon 950mhz is a 100mhz FSB (200mhz DDR) CPU, and that ECS board doesn't support under a 133mhz FSB.

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: Insane3D

Originally posted by: NTAC
Will the Athalon 950 work on the ECS L7S7A2?

No, the Athlon 950mhz is a 100mhz FSB (200mhz DDR) CPU, and that ECS board doesn't support under a 133mhz FSB.

Thats correct, now it MIGHT be able to run it at 133Mhz FSB but you will need to lower the multiplier to somethint like 7.5. That should give close to 1Ghz, and the CPU MIGHT be able to do that stable.