Newbie

[Guest]

Ok, First, I am a complete and utter newbie when it comes to computer hardware, so please bare with me. If I am in the wrong forum for this kind of question just ignore me or tell me where to go.

I've owned a computer for 5 years but I know next to nothing. I've been lurking here for a for weeks and reading all I can about CPU's, mobo's and chipsets.

If anyone feels like it, could you recommend a good AMD system for me? I am looking for specifics. Such as motherboard, chipset, video card etc. I want to run the T-Bird 1 ghz.

I will not be building it, but a tech friend of mine will be. He is recommending an "all in one" motherboard. I think he said its made by pc-chip and the chipset is SiS630 or something. He says I can allocate 64 meg to the on board video card and I will be fine. Is this board any good? Or is it a pile of crap?

I do play games, including online games that require a decent system including graphics card. I also have a cable modem.

Anyone want to recommend a decent setup around the 1Ghz T-Bird that will support a good graphics card? My friend either has or can get all the hardware and do the work, I just need some suggestions.

I appreciate any help.

Thanks.

Shaidar

 

[wapaaga]

most people here like to stayt away for all in one mobos becuase the graphic card usaaly aren't as good as you can get in a agp. they can alos be somewhat harder to upgrader later if you want to.about the only thing i've found that people say is ok to have the mother board is the sound hardware but it is a good route if you don't have as alot of money to spend

 

[Guest]

scrap the board man

beleive me scrap it its junk

For a little more you can get a good name brand board like
Asus or Abit or MSI or whatever
but they perform very well

=-)
If you want to save money buy a Asus board or Abit with on board sound. Do not get on baord video
Ask around on here for a good cheap video card but yea
good luck

-- They have found a way to harness the power of a thunderstorm and expell it with great force!--

 

[JOJO]

man, u can do it yourself, it's not that hard.

and don't ever...ever...skimp on a moboard, get a good one or it will come back to haunt you...pcchips = get what you paid for = not good

for a good budget chip that performs well, get a duron,
or spend a little more and get a thunderbird 800 ~ 1000Mhz

For a good board, get the asus a7v133 (really stable) or the abit kt7a raid (a little tricky sometimes...).

I believe the asus comes with onboard sound, so that might be good enough for you (i'd get the sound blaster live value card, cheap and good)

get some good ram, suggest 256mb of crucial/micron pc133

for a graphics card, get a geforce2 MX for a lower cost (still performs very well)

or a geforce 2 GTS 32 or 64 DDR, or the ultra ifu you wanna blow some cash.

ibm deskstar hard drive, 7200 rpm

cdrw drive/cdrom...up to you...(i just have a cdrw drive)

a good NIC card, maybe 3Com

get a good atx case

a good heatsink/fan

a couple of case fans

keyboard,mouse and moniter and there you go.



I wish I had a signature.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by jojo on 03/22/01 10:05 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Guest]

Thank you for the replies.

So I guess the all in one board is a pile of crap.

1) It seems the Asus A7V133 is the best motherboard going. What chipset does it have? (if that is a stupid question just ignore it as I am still learning)

2) What about the AMD 760? Is that any good?

3) And finally, I have read that the VIA chipsets are unstable. Should I avoid boards with this chipset? And if so how do I know if the board has this chipset?


Thanks again.

Shaidar

 

[jlbigguy]

The ASUS uses the VIA KT133 or KT133a chipset. I think that answers your other question about the stability of VIA chipsets.

While VIA does have a bad reputation for chipsets, the KT133(a) series have matured, and with the latest drivers, are as stable as anything else on the market. My AMD system has never crashed or frozen since going "live" at the new year.

I have no experience with the 760 chipset. From what I have read, it is a bit faster then the KT133(a), more expensive, and harder to find. If you are looking for the fastest system you can build, then get a board with the 760 chipset.

 

[RCPilot]

I agree with jojo. He gave you a great system to build except for 1 thing. I'm a gamer both on line & off & I'd tell you not get below a Geforce Ultra on a viedo card. Sweet & you won't be dissapointed in 4 months that you didn't get it. The've came down in price now to $330. For a gaming system don't scrimp, or you'll be sorry.

I'm running the same system & it's rock solid stable & the fastest machine I've built. I agree with jojo also, build it yourself, you'll learn more & will have that sense of accomplishment as well.

1 gig T-bird
ASUS a7v kt133
256 sdram pc133
40 gig WD HDD
Geforce II Ultra
Sound Blaster Live Value

Have Fun!!!!!!!

 

[HolyGrenade]

Don't even think about buying PC-Chips. They are complete cons. In the past they got done for advertising & selling Mode-4 IDE Motherboards as Ultra-DMA33.

They use the cheapest parts available, and are not reliable at all!


<i><b><font color=red>"2 is not equal to 3, not even for large values of 2"</font color=red></b></i>

 

[jeffg007]

If I was you I'd get the abit KT7a-raid. It seems to be easyer to set up than the asus board. The abit has an awsome manual. Also get good hard drives like the ibm deskstars, 2 for raid. Must get a good power supply 300watt+ and amd recommended. Must get good ram like micron. If you buy crappy parts you will have a crappy system. So get good quality components.

It seems that the bios settings are KEY! Once you have them set up correctly you will run stable and really fly. Also install one card at a time with the sound card last and do not put a pci card beside the agp leave that slot free.

Sorry to say this but if your friend recommended that all in one board he really does not know what he is doing. From what I heard that board is crap.

Jeff

 

[JOJO]

Hmm.... interesting....
I've set up 3 asus boards now and 2 abits (i have the kt7a raid myself, it's awesome)

I found that that the easyest board to set up was the asus a7v and a7v133.

I just found that the asus board was a little easier to set up than the abit for a begginer. Although after a few of those, the abit seems like a snap too.

I wish I had a signature.

 

[JOJO]

The asus board i've recommended uses the via kt133a chipset, i've been using boards with that chipset for awhile now and they work very well for me. They all use sdram.

As for the amd760 chipset...
It supports the new ddr ram. While this does give a higher level of performance, it is still more expensive, and it isn't as mature as the via kt133a. ie a few more revisions and it could be much faster , so wait a bit... (always seem to be waiting though)

If you wanted to think about a ddr ram based board, wait until the via kt266 chipset becomes availiable (soon i hear) and check out some benchmarks of it vs the amd760 chipset.

Again if i was going to get ddr, i'd wait until asus and abit came out with their boards based on the via kt266 and see them compared to the boards that use the amd 760 chipset.

I wish I had a signature.

 

[Guest]

Ok first of all I would like to let you know that if you want to play 3d games and the like you need a performing computer... Why simply because games are the most demanding software for the computer with some exceptions ( 3d studio max and the like )...


You have to check your needs and your budget...

I would recommend you a P3 over an AMD because you said you were a newbie and as such AMD can be a bit more daunting because it requires a bit more tuning ( Simply because of the stupid via chipsets ).

well a good idea if you don't want any computer problems is to go with a P3 ( in my opinion, even though for those who know how to "debug" their computer I would recommend them to buy an AMD system).

ok well it's better to buy a middle cpu and a big video card (for games that is ) than a big cpu and a poor video card ( though all depends on budget ) so I would stay far from all-in-on boards.

So

Asus cusl2-c or Abit Sar6 for p3 is a nice idea. ( Stay away from VIA please or else you might have problems. 9 computers out of 10 that come back for repairs are using via chipset where I work, so that's an indication of the stability of the chipset ).

so

summarizing

1 - buy a good video card
2 - nice mobo ( one of the most important part of your computer. It's like the spine of your computer. When your back hurts you're not going as well as when it doesn't.. Same thing for the computer.. Bad mobo = Bad computer)
3- Cpu (intel if you don't want any problems AMD if you like tuning your machine )..­.

That should do it I want to make sure that you understand that AMD isn't selling a bad product. It's just that it's not necessarily the easiest product to work with.. With experience I would suggest you to go AMD but then you need more.