Please help with decisions!!!

[Commited]

My Existing PC:
Pentium II 200Mhz MMX (overclocked to 233)
196Mb Ram Simm
4mb graphics Card

My upgrade to make:
AMD Duron 800Mhz
128Mb SDram P133MHZ
QDI ATX Motherboard KINETIZ7T
ATX MIDI Tower Case ATX4010-6
300 Watt Power Supply 300VAPSU
TITAN Heatsink and Fan 579672H
S3 Trio 3D 8MB Video Card - AGP Interface

Should I get an AMD Athlon 700 instead? (its slightly more expensive)
Should I go with the ABIT KT7 Raid instead? (This is quite a bit more and i have to downgrade to 100Mkz ram)

I have a standard compaq motherboard. Do you think I should get a new socket 7 motherboard(if so which one), an AMD K6-2 550 and keep the ram?

I have enough spare bits to make the upgrade into a whole PC, therefore I will have 2 PC's.

I am not that familiar to overclockin as i got my 200 up to 233 by doin
nothin but flickin a switch on the motherboarc

How much could I overclock this Duron? Could I get it up to 1000 fairly
easily?
Would 128 SDRAM be faster than my old 196Mb Simms?
Anyone ever bought a QDI motherboard before?
8mb graphics card - is that enough for a low budget student?
I want to network these two together - is it worth buying a hub, or just connect the 2 together?

I built the PC above myself, and i am quite knowledgable about all off this
stuff. This will be the last upgrade I will do for a while as i am a
student. This is costin me a good bit, so I dont want it to go wrong.

I would appreciate all of your feedback. Please help a poor student who is splashin out!!!

Thanks,
Mark.

P.S all suggestions for products have to be available in Europe!

[proze]

the athlon 700 is a better processor, but you'll probably be able to clock the duron higher. speaking of that, you don't need to get a duron 800. it seems like the lower clocked durons overclock just as well. i.e. a 650 is just as likely to get to a gig as an 800.

you should definitely go for the abit instead.. but not the kt7. get the kt7a. the asus a7v133 and epox 8kta3 are also great motherboards. the mobo is a vital part of a good overclock and a fast machine, so that's the last place you should be scrimping.

i don't think you'll find a new socket 7 motherboard that takes simms. all new boards are dimms. and the duron drops the k6-2 for dead, so it would be a MUCH better upgrade.

most people with durons have gotten them up to around a gig pretty easily. esp. the newer ones. but consider doing as i suggested above. buy a lower clocked duron if you're not going to get a tbird, and use the saved money elsewhere, like for your mobo.

would the ram be faster? yes. but you get ram, and ram, if you know what i mean. crucial cas2 pc133 is crazily cheap atm, so if i were you i'd get that. kingston is also cheap, but good. get good cas2 name-brand ram whatever you do.. it'll help your overclocking and does make a big difference in performance.

the 8mb card really doesn't do justice to the rest of the system, and will struggle with games. if it's going to be your last upgrade for a while, then rather do it right. even if it's just a geforce 2 mx, it''' still make the world of difference. who knows, the gts might drop drastically in price in a while because of the release of the gf3.

if you don't have more than 2 pcs, you don't need a hub. just make/get a crossover cable and you're set.

hope this is of some help. good luck, and don't hesitate to post if you need more help. :)

[Commited]

My Existing PC:
Pentium II 200Mhz MMX (overclocked to 233)
196Mb Ram Simm
4mb graphics Card

You see they come in 2 packages (excluding the graphics card)
The packages are:
AMD Duron 800Mhz(or Athlon 700-1100)
128Mb SDram P133MHZ
QDI ATX Motherboard KINETIZ7T
ATX MIDI Tower Case ATX4010-6
300 Watt Power Supply 300VAPSU
TITAN Heatsink and Fan 579672H

or:

AMD Duron 800Mhz(or Athlon 700-1100)
128Mb SDram P100MHZ
ABIT ATX Motherboard KT7-Raid
ATX MIDI Tower Case ATX4010-6
300 Watt Power Supply 300VAPSU
TITAN Heatsink and Fan 579672H

The latter is more expensive, and im trying to save money. This wont be a primarily games machine, because I have a PIII 500 which i use for web designing and games.

I will upgrade the graphics card again once i have enough money.

Thanks,
Mark.

[proze]

do you have to go with one of the two packages? if so.. i'd still say the latter.

[Commited]

I am very much strapped for cash. i don't work, and this would tke up 1/3 of what i have left.
I will probably go with the second (but if I could I would get different stuff!)
This will cost me IR£500, (UK£400 and US$450)(I think!)
I know this seems expensive but i get a practically new Pc for this.
Also over here in Ireland we get little choice.
Im buying from www.peats.ie

[Commited]

This is what i am currently putting together form overclockingstore.com:
Globalwin GW-802 Midi Tower ATX No PSU
Unbranded GeForce 2 MX OEM=20
256 mb PC133 DIMM
ABIT KT7A Socket A Motherboard
AMD Duron Socket A 800Mhz unlocked
TaiSol TaiSol CGK742092 Socket A Cooler
Macron 300Watt ATX PSU
Arctic Silver Compound II

This comes to £417, and that is all i can afford.
Any suggestions or thoughts?
All i need is abit of reassurance that this is good, because its alot of money for me, a poor student!
I know it would be easy for the duron to rocket to 1000 but how easy would it be to go past that?
Have you ever bought from the overclockingstore?
Know of any other cheap english (or irish!) internet stores?
I have to get the 800 as thats all theyve got!

[DaveB]

Regarding this question:

"I have a standard compaq motherboard. Do you think I should get a new socket 7 motherboard (if so which one), an AMD K6-2 550 and keep the ram?"

You can pick up an excellent socket 7 motherboard which has 4 SIMM and 2 DIMM slots - the FIC VA-503+. It's a super 7 board that has an AGP slot and is a Baby AT format board with AT and ATX power connections. It has a BIOS upgrade available to run the K6-2+ and K6-III+ CPUs which easily O/C to 600 MHz.

I just did an upgrade for a friend using this mobo with a K6-III 450+ running at 600 MHz. It runs great due the O/C'ed CPU speed and two on-die caches. Plus they also use the enhanced 3DNow instructions that the Durons and T-Birds have. You can pick up the the FIC VA-503+ for about $65 and Tiger Direct has the K6-2 475+ for $50. I've built several FIC VA-503+ systems over the years and all have run great. One guy ran his for over a year using old SIMMs befor upgrading to SDRAM DIMMs. You will need to flash the JE4330 or JE 4331 BIOS which are available at the FIC site. You only need the JE 4331 for Win ME

You can run the K6-2 475+ with SIMMs below the 100 MHz FSB by using the multiplier remapping built into the CPU. If you set the multiplier on the board at 2, the CPU will remap it to 6. So, if you old SIMMs will not run at 100 MHz, you can run the CPU at 6 x 75 = 450 MHz or 6 x 83 = 500 MHz. The K6-2+ is identical to the K6-III+ except for a smaller cache (similar to the Duron vs. T-Bird. These systems run very well, much better than standard K6-2 or K6-III systems. And being you probably have an old AT-format case, you'll save money on the case and the memory. The whole deal will only run about $125 shipped.

Here's a reliable vendor for the FIC for $66:

http://direct.mwave.com/mwave/doc/va503+.html

And, here's a link to Tiger Direct for the K6-@ 475+ for $50:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?sku=CP2-K62-475P C