The time has come!
 
I need to choose between these two systems.
 
The price between them is about 15 quid.
 
Athlons are supposed to be better on benchtests.
I've always had a Pentium and had no problems.
 
Pentiums are easier to build.
I'll need a BIOS download for the PIII.
I've heard the A7M266 can be an arse pain.
No overclocking!
 
WHICH?
 
These are the specs:
 
AMD Athlon 1GHz Socket A 256Kb (266 MHz FSB)
Asus A7M266 (Socket A, AMD 761, 266MHz, UDMA100, 2xDIMM)
2 x 256Mb PC2100 DDR
 
Pentium III 1GHz EB FCPGA (133 MHz)
Asus CUSL2 (socket 370, i815e 133MHz, UDMA100, 3xDIMM)
2 x 256MB 133 SDRAM
 
These parts will be bought for either choice:
 
Quantum Fireball AS 40.0Gb (UDMA100, 7200rpm, 8.5ms, 2Mb)
ATI Radeon 64Mb DDR - AGP 4x
Creative Sound Blaster Live! Player 5.1
Aopen CRW1232 (IDE, 32r12w10rw, 4mb internal)
300W PSU
 
No Intel/AMD wars allowed. Give good answers.
 
 
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Heatsinks, fans & whisky...Everythings Cool!    
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If you're building a gaming system, I've heard A7M266 might not be exactly for you, since it only has one unshared interrupt. If you do consider going with DDR SDRAM, K7 Master seems to be a good alternative, or even K7T266 (just make sure you get the updated BIOS).
 
However, the problem with DDR mobos is that they're still raw and need to mature. I'm still waiting for a good DDR mobo to come out. If you're in a hurry, you might want to consider a normal SDRAM solution, be it Athlon or Pentium.
 
Oh, and by the way, what is a "quid"?
 
Leo

1 'quid' = £1 Sterling = 1GBP
 
<b>
Heatsinks, fans & whisky...Everythings Cool!    
</b>

i would suggest the game theater xp from hercules over the sb live 5.1 and also the amd configuration you gave.  i don't know about you, but i'm staying away from via chipsets for a while since they've been buggy recently.  let them settle and stabilize first.