Motherboards, which one?

[ChrisG27]

Which motherboard Asus A7V266-E KT266A or Abit KR7A-133Raid? I'm a first time builder and want something that is not going to give me a lot of problems. Might do some overclocking down the road. Thanks in advance.

Rest of the system (as of today):
AMD Athlon XP 1800
CORSAIR MEMORY CM64SD256-2400H C2 256MB PC2400 DDR RAM
MAXTOR 60GB 7200RPM
VOYETRA TURTLE BEACH SANTA CRUZ
3COM 905CX-TXNM PCI 10/100 network card
TOSHIBA INTERNAL DVD ROM
Teac 1.44MB 3.5 Inch Floppy Drive # FD235HFC291
Case is either Antec SX1040 or Chieftec DX-01BD-420W
OS I have 98SE might buy XP

Chris

 

[Cstew77]

Hey Chris -

Here's my input:

Motherboards:
Both Mobo's are pretty good. Tom had a review not too long ago that put the Abit board above Asus'. In general, I usually stick with these two manufacturers (I'm onto my 6th system - hey, we all have our hobbies...). Are you sure you don’t want to go with the new VIA KT333 chipset? It’s faster than the KT266 and support the latest whiz-bang memory – DDR333 PC2700. Don’t get sucked in by the hype around ATA 133. We’re all waiting for Serial ATA to finally get off the ground.

Hard Drives:
Why a Maxtor? I’ve always thought these were the bargain HDD’s. I tend to stick with IBM or Western Digital (especially lately with some of their 100GB drives…)

Memory
I haven't heard anything about the memory. I've had really good luck with Mushkin - I know a lot of folk prefer Samsung.

Case
I would go with a Lian-Li PC60 Aluminum case. They are the computer hobbyist’s dream. All thumb screws, the switch connections come with a quick disconnect, loads of drive bay space… It’s pricey, but well worth it.

PS
You didn’t mention a power supply – I’ve learned the hard way that if you buy a cheap one, you’ll wish you hadn’t. Enermax puts out some of the best.

Heat Sink
Another area not to skip on. I have a couple of Swiftech 462A HSF and they are beasts!! The bolt directly to the mobo. It’s loud, but it’s cool – especially if you’re into over-clocking. There are several others that are pretty good and quite a bit cheaper.

DVD drives and floppy drives are getting pretty standard these days. Toshiba and Teac are pretty good brands.

Sound Card
Really depends on which camp you go with – pro-Creative Labs or anti-Creative Labs. Ford vs. Chevy. Everyone has examples of good and bad experiences with both. I happen to be pro-CL since I’ve never had problems with ‘em. (I’ve owned 5 cards and installed 2 for my folks – never a problem)

As for the OS, I really like Win2k. Since MS did a pretty bad marketing job trying to convince people Win2k is a business OS and not a home OS, the software support for just about anything current is pretty good. XP has too many stupid little pop-up reminders and WILL NOT SUPPORT YOUR OLD CD BURNING SOFTWARE!! I want to like XP, but they just make it pretty tough.

Good luck!!

 

[ChrisG27]

CStew77,

I thought about the new chipset but I didn't want to be the new guy on the block figuring out all the problems on a new board. Maybe I'll wait to see the new boards.
Thanks for the help.

Chris

 

[FatBurger]

The KR7a is a great board. The advantage is it has tons of BIOS options, so you can do whatever you want to it. The downside is is has tons of BIOS options, so you can do whatever you want to it.

<font color=orange>Quarter</font color=orange> <font color=blue>Pounder</font color=blue> <font color=orange>Inside</font color=orange>
Don't step in the sarcasm!

 

[HonestJhon]

i tend not to agree with you on the fact that maxtor drives are "bargain" drives.
considering that the d740x is quite a drive.
sure maxtor drives dont cost as much, but look at how they perform, and how they last.
compare that to the IBMs lately...hehehe...
even the new 120gxp seems to have problems....
as for memory, i would say crucial is going to be your best bet...
people have had good experiences with overclocking, and they are STABLE, and relatively cheap! and if you order it online, free shipping.
as for the lian li, that is preference.
they are great cases, but expensive.
enermax does put out some great psus.
as for a heatsink, there are so many options.
thermaltake volcano7+<A HREF="http://www.thermaltake.com/products/heatsink/v7plus.htm" target="_new">http://www.thermaltake.com/products/heatsink/v7plus.htm</A>,
alpha pal8045u<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.asp?image=35-112-002-01.JPG/35-112-002-02.JPG/35-112-002-03.JPG" target="_new">http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.asp?image=35-112-002-01.JPG/35-112-002-02.JPG/35-112-002-03.JPG</A>, and the one previously mentioned.
dvd drives...
go for either toshiba or panasonic. they seem to be pretty darn good.
as for a floppy, DONT GET A MITSUMI...i have had several go bad rather quick...with light use. so i bought a sony.
sound card....well, they are also SORT of prefernce based.
i would say stay away from creative....but i know that there are plenty of people who have had no problems with them.
but the thing is, there are other options than creative and turtle beach...<A HREF="http://www.terratec.net/ttus/default.htm" target="_new">http://www.terratec.net/ttus/default.htm</A>
that is one pretty good option.
as for the os, i have had good results with windows xp professional.
there are tweaks and such to make it less childlike...and when you get it to the point that it is set up for you personally, it can be quite nice...a little nicer than win2k in my opinion...and what is especially nice is the driver rollback and the system rollback(they took the one good thing from windows ME ) and when you first set it up, it installs the drivers for you....which is QUITE nice.
as for a motherboard...there are also other options than kt333 based and kt266a based motherboards.
like the Iwill xp333<A HREF="http://www.iwillusa.com/products/spec.asp?ModelName=XP333&SupportID=" target="_new">http://www.iwillusa.com/products/spec.asp?ModelName=XP333&SupportID=</A> or the one with raid.<A HREF="http://www.iwillusa.com/products/spec.asp?ModelName=XP333-R&SupportID=" target="_new">http://www.iwillusa.com/products/spec.asp?ModelName=XP333-R&SupportID=</A>


i think the iwill would be nice...but that is my personal bias because of my bad experiences with via...so....


-DAvid

-Live, Learn, then build your own computer!-