Will be building my first personal Athlon-based PC in a few days...

[GremlinHater]

This is what I ordered, any tips or info i should know about like flashing to latest bios or card drivers, etc...

IWill KK266-R (newegg) (from MSI K7T Turbo-R)
Antec SX1040 (techstore)
1X 256MB RAM (crucial)
ATI Radeon 64MB DDR VIVO (newegg) (from Matrox G450)
Aopen 16x DVD (newegg)
Thermaltake Volcano II HSF (newegg)
Athlon 1.2 OEM w/o fan (mwave)
Boston Acoustics BA4800 (ucdweb)
60 GB 7200 ROM 60GXP IBM DeskStar (newegg)
1.44 MB Mitsumi Floppy Drive (newegg)
Hercules GTXP (newegg)
Lite-on 16/10/40 CDRW (newegg)

I think that's it, could really use the feedback as I'm new to this...

 

[jaredm77]

if you plan on doing any overclocking flash the BIOS to the newest overclockers BIOS at MSI's website (www.msicomputer.com), other than that it looks like a sweeet system, have fun putting it together!

 

[Modus]

The CPU and video card are unbalanced when it comes to 3D gaming. Even a D/750 would easily max out that Matrox G450. If you're worried about 2D image quality, the newer nVidia cards aren't that bad; you have to have a pretty swanky monitor to notice it at high resolutions. Even better would be an ATi Radeon based card like the LE (no TV out or dualhead but cheaper than the G450 and way faster for 3D) or the 64M ViVo part. These offer excellent 2D and very competitive 3D performance.

Other than that, looks great.

Modus

 

[Monel Funkawitz]

Modus is right (For once. Winmodems still suck in my book)

That Matrox will be a big bottleneck. Get a GeForce2. Great performance, without a hefty price. Forget about a GF3 until that price drops.

 

[MichaelD]

Darn, you guys are quick on the draw! I scanned his list, and that Matrox jumped out at me. RU gonna be gaming a lot? If so, these guys are 101% right. That card isn't gonna cut the mustard for games like Quake/Unreal Tournament/Giants/NFS4/etc. Otherwise it looks fantastic from top to bottom! I'm waiting on my SX1040 as well! Sweet case. Good luck.

 

[GremlinHater]

Hey guys, thanks, I called newegg and had them change my order to the Retail ATI Radeon 64MB DDR VIVO card, any other suggestions?

Also, in a review I read, a guy had the same mobo and card and when he went to use the video in the mobo died on him, do you think this is a unique problem that only happened to him or would you think that it is a serious compatability problem?

 

[pay]

I would order a different board for overclocking, the MSI K7T Turbo has problems with cold boots and multiplier adjustments.

 

[GremlinHater]

What kind of problems?

I don't think I'll be overclocking anytime soon as I'm still new to all of this.

 

[GremlinHater]

Bump.

 

[Insane3D]

If you can still change your order, I would suggest the Iwill KK266-R instead of the MSI. The Iwill is just as stable as the MSI, and if you want to overclock down the line, the Iwill is built for that. In my opinion, the KK266-R is the best SDRAM Athlon motherboard out right now. That is not to say the MSI is a bad choice, I just think the Iwill would give you more performance for your dollar...great setup either way though!

 

[WildeBeast]

dont know about problems, most overclocking tests use the MSI board. The GA-7DXR and EP-8K7A are the best by far though right now!

 

[agg123456789]

I would go for the Iwill if i were you.. i have one and it is fantastic

 

[NesuD]

Well My system is very similar to his and i have overclocked from day one with my turbo board with no significant problems. You are going to love that case. If you have no real overclocking plans then the volcano II should be fine for cooling but if you have plans to do any future over clocking you may want to go for something more robust Like a the new copper bottom taisol with a delta 38 fan on it.

 

[GremlinHater]

Alright based on suggestions and feedback the MSI K7T Turbo-R and the IWill KK266-R are both great performers however the IWill has slight edge over the MSI being as stable with greater overclockabily, so with that understanding (mine) any other suggestions or info?