suggestions anyone?

[JuDgE_DrEaD]

This is my first time posting in this part of the forum. I finally got fed up with my AIO pcchips mobo and decided that its time to start new and buy a new mobo. Now i have about $400(canadian) to blow on a new mobo, cpu, sound card, and some thermal compound. For the mobo im considering getting an asus a7v, socket a, with the via kt133 chipset and then buying an Athlon 800MHz as i have read they can be oc/ed to 1000+MHz with proper cooling. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Rob Cork]

I dunno how different Canadian dollars are from American dollars (excuse my ignorance), so I'm not quite sure what you could actually afford with that, but here's some of the more 'budget' options I'd look at:

Mobo: For me it'd have to be the Abit KT7a - I wouldn't buy a KT133 board now, go for a KT133a board - proper 133MHz fsb, giving better upgrade potential (Palomino) and better performance, as well as native UDMA100 support. If you can afford it, you might want to look at the version with RAID, or maybe the Iwill KK266 (again, with or without RAID).

Cpu: Might be worth looking at a duron - on a KT133a board, running at 133MHz+ fsb they'll still kick ass, especially when you oc one to 900MHz+! Plus it'll save you a lot of money over a tbird - duron 750 or 800 should be fine for an oc to 950ish, maybe a gig with good cooling. Of course, if you can afford it a tbird will give better performance, and for a price/performance ratio a 1gig AXIA would probably be the best bet (AYHJA's probably a bit pricey, seeing as they're 1333MHz).

Sound Card: Unless you're a complete audiophile, go with a cheap SB Live! card like the SB Live! 1024.

Cooler: You'll need a good cooler - Millenium Glaciator looks to be the best at the moment.

Wait and get some other opinions of course, but I hope this helps :)

[Da Whip]

Rob has the right idea,
1. As far as MOBO's go get a Iwill KK266 , it comes w/ very good on board sound that in its self saves you $70canadian.
2. You will get alot of mileage out of a Duron 800 and they are less expensive than the T-Bird.
3. Heastsink Fan - since you are dealing w/ a Duron and will want to get to at least 1gig. a great HSF is needed. Vantec , Globe Win, Thermoengine, Taisol and Swiftech are all good. See what you have left after MOBO/CPU and get the best you can afford. LOL

[Megahurtz]

The one caveat about the Iwill KK266 is that you'll most likely need to do some bridge work to the 'L6' bridges in addition to the 'L1' s as the Motherboard will attempt to initialize the processor at 8*133 if you've set the jumper to 133Mhz. It could very well not boot at 8*133= 1064Mhz.

Not a reason to stay away from the motherboard, just something that you should be aware of, cr0nos.

T

[JuDgE_DrEaD]

thankx for the advide, i just have one follow up question, what exactly is vcm133 sdram, i just saw this in the chipset description on the asus web site, and also what is a amr slot used for exactly, i know it stands for audio/modem riser card, but what it does is beyond me. anyone care to enlighten me?

Thankx for the tip Megahurtz