NEW TO AMD NEED A LITTLE HELP!!!

[Carmine_Paterno]

Hey guyz...i want to switch over to amd since my Celeron II 700 @ 877 (1.65v 1.7v default...ATI RADEON 32MB DDR 166/333 @ 200/400...64mb pc100...ASUS P3V4X) just isn't cutting it anymore. I need to know what is the difference between the 1.2ghz ddr athlon, 1.2ghz athlon, and the xxxmhz thunderbird? Is the thunderbird ddr? does it run at 200mhz fsb? What would be the best price for a thunderbird 900, where could i buy it, and how far could it o/c? What would be a good mobo for it where i can put pc2100 ram in there? I was looking to hit 1.2-1.4ghz with this chip...unlocked of course and want to stay away from peltier/water. THANX ALOT FOR YOUR RESPONSES!!!!

[Eriksson]

The Thunderbird line is using DDR 100mhz fsb (referred to as 200 mhz) Dont confuse the Tbird line with the Classic Athlons (non DDR) slot A cpus. Current Tbirds are rated for 100mhz fsb, but can be oc'ed up to 140mhz+ in most cases. An official 133/266 cpu line is comming up from AMD.

You dont have to get the official 133mhz Tbird to run one of the new DDR boards (133mhz DDR) an old one will do.

[Carmine_Paterno]

what motherboard should i get with pc2100 ram? where can i buy them?

[Carmine_Paterno]

nevermind about the pc2100 ram i am an idiot...is the kt7-raid a good motherboard...i heard it is one of the best...but i saw it for 175 dollars...that is alot of money...is there any other motherboard with raid or w/o raid for around 100?

[Tachyon]

The least expensive board that I'm aware of that has all of the overclocking capabilities built in is the MSI K7T Pro2A. :)

[Carmine_Paterno]

What is the website for msi?

[Tachyon]

The website is http://www.msicomputer.com. :)

[Eriksson]

Well you can choose from three major types of boards for a Tbird.
1
With KT133 chipset. These are limited to 100-110mhz fsb. uses sdram

2
With KT133A chipset, designed to run at 133mhz and can be oc'ed to 140mhz+ . Slight performance increse over KT133 but better future cpu support. uses sdram

3
DDR boards with the new AMD 760 chipset or Ali DDR chipset. pc1600 or 2100 DDR memory.

I would consider the KT133A or one of the DDR boards, with future upgrades in mind. The DDR technology is still expensive and gives worse bang for the buck than the KT133A though.

Good KT133A board is i.e the Abit KT133A-R

[Carmine_Paterno]

I am only 15 and have no job so it takes time for me too make money so i am looking into the 133a chipset...can that hit 150fsb??? how much will that cost? Where can i buy it?

[ReNeG@dE]

I assume by Abit KT133A-R you mean Abit KT7A-RAID, right?

[Eriksson]

Yes I mean Abit KT7A-RAID, I suggest this mobo since it is only a minor upgrade from the well known Abit KT7-RAID. There are more good boards out there, I just dont know them and therefore cant recommend them.

Since I dont live in the US I am not the right one to recommend a reseller. ;)

[Eriksson]

ppl has been hitting 145mhz fsb with the KT133A chipset....Some say it is maxed out @ 146-148mhz...Abit claims to get 155-160 in experiments... It is the old story, I guess the same things apply to chipsets as cpu's there are no guaranties, only averages

[Carmine_Paterno]

i want to thank all you guyz for helping me out...but i do have a little bad experience with motherboards. When i bought my ASUS P3V4X i thought there was only 1 version. Well there was two, i bought the new one. The new one uses the winbond chipset not the ics...therefore i can not set my celeron II 700 to 85,90,95 fsb's. I was sooooo mad, so is there anything like that i should look out for with any of these motherboards? By the way, i want more fsb than multiplier so i would very much like a motherboard that can handle 140-150 fsb. What are the fsb increments? for example 141, 142, 143 or something like 140, 150, 155? Thanx again guyz!!!

[ReNeG@dE]

Just make sure you get the KT7**A**-RAID as there was a KT7-RAID (no A, see? ;) but yeah, nothing I know of like that.... I don't know how it handles higher FSB, Eriksson is the guy to talk to about that I guess. It goes up in 1 MHz increments from 100-183 I believe.... check this site, sharkyextreme.com, anandtech.com, firingsquad.gamers.com, hardocp.com, etc., etc. for more info on this mobo

[Carmine_Paterno]

O wow 1 mhz increments, thats great!!! if i set the fsb to 133 than it will be 266 effectivly right?

[AZZKICKER]

yes