Help!

[dannyaa]

OK I have been reading these different guides and forum strings and have just gotten really confused. I am buying a new system soon and am stripping components from my old computer, which is an Intel PIII, and am going to put them into the new system. I only have $600 to spend so I definetly WANT to go AMD but I have become confused.
Here's my plan:
Buy a Socket A Motherboard, AMD T-Bird 1.0 GHz, a new case that I can put this in, and a 256 MB DIMM.
Then, I want to strip my old system of its CD-ROM, floppy drive, Hard Drives, AWE32 Soundcard, NVIDIA TNT2 32 MB Ultra (from Creative), LAN card, and of course mouse monitor and then stick all of those components into my new TBird system.

Ok well it sounded good but then I started reading and I am confused. First of all, am I going to have a lot of compatibility problems if I do this? Is my video card still going to run correctly? Will I still be able to play all of my games and do video editing and use all my software just like I am now or will stuff not run/will there be compabitily problems. Also will my hardware all work with the AMD motherboard/processor, or will my TNT2 not work, or what?
Also I have read alot of stuff about VIA being bad. I am assuming that VIA is the motherboard chipset? What motherboard chipset should I get, from what brand, to run a Tbird on, and how do I know if I got that one?
I am just really confused and want to make sure that I get a good, fast, and STABLE system (I have heard alot about AMD in-stability) and want to get it for cheap as I can't really afford much more than 600 dollars.
Also this isn't an Intel VS AMD thread, as Intel really isn't an option for me. I just need to know if I go AMD: will it be stable, will it be fast, will it work, and what should I buy to get it like that?

 

[FrankW]

Just make sure you don't buy cheap RAM and be sure to get a power supply from the AMD approved list (the Antec PP-303X is a good choice, like I have). Otherwise you shouldn't have any problems.

 

[dannyaa]

what about the motherboard? really confused there...

 

[JOJO]

hey, you shouldn't have any problems....

as for a motherboard, you will find that most enthusiasts and oc'ers use either the asus a7v or the abit kt7 (either with raid or without)

these all (mostly) use the VIA KT133 chipset which is the best, (KT133A is coming out or is already out... someone correct me if i'm wrong)

i've also read the new socket msi board is really good.

or you may want to wait a little bit until the new boards supporting the new 266 bus and ddr ram comes out.

 

[dannyaa]

Ok, thanks. Alright so it looks like everything will work; how about stability? Will it be good, or will my system crash alot? I have heard ppl complaining about Intel being much better in that area. What do you think about that?
Also, so it looks like I want to get a motherboard from Abit or Asus that uses the VIA KT133 chipset for sure; and thats the best one to get?
So basically I just want to know stability and reliability, I really don't want to have a buggy system.
And then my other question is speed. If I do this, will my system be roughly on par with p4 1.5 GHz. Now remember I don't want a intel VS amd war so please don't start one; just curious, in general, how far behind that processor will I be in speed?

 

[Guest]

Your stablility, I feel, really depends on you operating system. I am running a T-Bird 1ghz with a giga-byte ga-7zxr board and micron ram on WIN 2K Advanced Server and I haven't had any stability problems in over a month. As for the speed in comparison to the P4, it depends on what you are running, the T-Bird will be faster on some and so will the P4 on some...If you really want to get indepth in this issue read Toms Articles about the P4.

Also...why is there no one else on this community that runs a giga-byte board???

pill128

Take your Pill, and get some sleep.

 

[Guest]

Because Gigabyte sux, Pill!

Trust me.


If it ain't broke, make it go faster!