Iwill XP333 or EP-8KHA+ ?

[Sukhoi]

I'm thinking about upgrading to either XP333 or EP-8KHA+ but I don't know much about the Iwill XP333, only that it uses Ali Magik and supports 333DDR. Also, what increase in performance should I expect if I went from my current mobo [K7T Turbo without RAID w/ Duron 800 MX400] to either the Epox or Iwill?

Whichever mobo I go with, I plan on getting an XP processor at some point.

You guys know where the Ali Magik chipset stands with the rest of the socket A crowd?

Thanks,
-Sukhoi<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Sukhoi on 12/27/01 05:21 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[o1die]

I wouldn't upgrade just your mobo, unless you are having problems with it. Wait and upgrade both at the same time. Not much of a performance gain by upgrading the mobo alone.

 

[Sukhoi]

What if I were to keep my mobo (KT133A with 256MB) and add the following video card and processor?

XP1800
Radeon 8500

would that be significantly slower then a system with a KT266A board or would it be pretty much the same give or take 5%?

I wish 3dmark2001 would specify the motherboard chipsets better =(

 

[tilepusher]

Hey S,
I am not sure that your mobo supports the Athlon XP's. If your system works, I would not replace anything just yet. Yes you would get better benchmarking scores, but would this new system do anything that your old system couldn't do.............no. Getting a new video card would help your 3D Marks 2001 scores more then anything else, as this is a graphics bench mark. As far as the Iwill vs. the EPoX, the Iwill & Athlon have not shown that they can take advantage of the PC2700 DDR so they are not benchmarking higher then the KT266A mobo's. My advice: make sure that your SD-Ram is cas/cl 2 and get 512mb, get the ATi Radeon 8500(if this is the card that you favor), and keep everything else. Do not get a new CPU or Mobo. Keep reading about the next big thing, like the Hammers and Norwoods and make the decision weather to upgrade after you have that info. Good Luck!
Peace Out..............tile

WHAT????? I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THE ROAR OF MY CASE FANS! YOU'LL HAVE TO SCREAM!

 

[Sukhoi]

My 256mb stick of SDRAM is CL3, is there a way to safely adjust it to CL2? I've noticed minimal increase in memory bandwidth when I compared my ram to CL2 ram in SiSoft's benchmark.

If I can get someone to buy off my mx400 and D800 for a fair price I might consider getting both a r8500 and an xp1800 since my mobo is listed on the AMD site.

 

[tilepusher]

Hey S,
If there is only a slight performance gain from going CL3 to CL2 just leave it at CL3. It will be more stable at the slower latency. I have not had a problem running a CL3 at CL2, safety wise, but sometimes your system will just not boot, and the pc speaker will make that continuous beep. At that point I have had to clear the cmos and leave the setting at default or CL3. Is this safe? I really don't know for sure, should you try it? No, I wouldn't if I were in your shoes. At work, I hang with a group of like-minded nerds and geeks and we all tweak everything that we can(and some things that we can't). Yes, I have lost mobos and cpus trying to get a little better bench-marks. For everyone that I don't know, I tell them just to get a Dell......when something goes wrong, I say thats what Tech-support is for and the reason you got a Dell. Either you are a Tweaker or you aren't. Either you live safe & happy in your own little world(& I wish I could go back there) or you want to find out what you can really do at the limits.
Last thing, I don't know what your bios flashing procedure is like or if it is hard. You will most likely have to flash your bios to run a Athlon XP. My advice: do not get a Athlon XP, do not flash your bios, unless you absolutely have to. Do get a new Radeon 8500 and be happy. Good Luck!

Peace out............tile

P.S. I am running a Athlon XP 1700+ @1540mhz(140fsb) with a OCZ Goliath HSF @38C, 512mb of OCZ PC2400 DDR, Gainward GeForce3 Ti 200, EPoX 8KHA+ mobo, 4 front intake fans, 1 120mm side intake fan(over cpu), 2 rear exhaust fans, 2 80mm & 1 120mm exhaust fans on top of case. I am getting higher scores then evrybody at work, except one guy running his OC'ed P4 1.8ghz, who beats me with a higher SiSoft Sandra Memory Benchmark with his 512mb of Rambus ram, but I kick his ass on all other scores! To get even higher scores, I have set the FSB to 143. This OC'ing is not a good thing for your system life.........@138FSB, I lose my USB ports, and I have to constantly watch the CPU & mobo temps. But if you want to walk the walk, keep I mind all systems are going to react just a little different to OC'ing even with the same parts, and you could be just throwing your money away.

WHAT????? I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THE ROAR OF MY CASE FANS! YOU'LL HAVE TO SCREAM!