Abit VH6T and 1.1 Celeron Tualatin?

[TUK101]

I am going to upgrade soon, and was wondering if the above mentioned (Abit VH6T and a Celeron 1.1 gig) would be a good choice. I have priced the upgrade at 138 dollars with S/H included on Newegg.com and thought that sounded like a pretty economical upgrade. Is the Abit mobo a good one? Is there anything that I need to know about this mobo to make it run optimally? I currently am running a Soyo SY-VCA mobo and have had problems with it since I bought it. Like 3 CD-ROM drives burning up with it, and it not always recognizing the floppy drive. I get a lot of reboots and games dissapearing with it, and Windows XP wouldnt hardly run a game. I have replaced every other piece of hardware from the PS unit, to the vid card and have the problem still. So you can see why I want to upgrade, not just for the increased speed, but because i think that its time for a new mobo anyways. I wish that I could afford to just go the P4 route, or the Athlon route, but I just cant afford that yet. What do you suggest, is this a good choice for an upgrade? Any suggestions? Thanks

[Bonka]

Your motherboard/cpu combo is an excellent choice. One of the best (if not the best) kind of mobo/cpu combos you can make in terms of price/performance ratio.

There's really nothing to suggest really. I'm not too familiar with Via chipsets but update the necessary drivers to remove any conflicts.

You can make many tweaks to the BIOS to optimize system performance as well as stability. This is a great link.

The Definitive BIOS Optimization Guide
http://www.itcp.net/~awsh/Speed_Demonz/BIOS_Guide/BIOS_Guide_Index.htm

If you plan to overclock with your combo, I also suggest you to get some good aircooling or whatever cooling you are using right now. The chip you've chosen will overclock well so I wouldn't want to waste it's potential running it at stock speed.

Good luck on your purchase (and perhaps overclock later!)

PS: I suggest you run Windows 2000 instead of XP.

[TASOS]

It's a very good combo.
High value for price/performance ratio.

You can contact "takiwa" for more info about it.
He has the same combo like yours.

[ol' man]

I think newegg has the ST6 for around $60 too. i would personally get that mobo but if you want to use 1gb of ram I guess the VH6-t is better.

[takiwa]

You can contact "takiwa" for more info about it.
He has the same combo like yours. That is an excellent combo, and I can't think of any problems I had during the time I had it. I will say, though, that I always wondered if my chip would've done a higher FSB on the ST6 with the Intel chipset as opposed to the VIA...but you are guaranteed 1500+ with that setup, and good cooling. If you need any help setting it up when it comes in, PM me ;)

[ShiFtY2001]

I have been using a VH6-T for 6 months with a celly 1.0A @ 1.4 and have had no problems. There is every overclocking option you will need in the bios; it runs cool and i get decent benchmarks out of it. Only gripes would be that when overclocking between 123 and 124 FSB, it just would not go for some reason. Luckily it does go at 140 lol. Cheap and choice!

[Skitzer]

I had the same components in my other system, (VH6T/Celeron 1.1A), for about 5 months and was able to run my 1.1A at 1500 totally stable. The board was very user friendly and I never had an issue with it. I sold the mainboard recently and am awaiting my new ST6 from Newegg which should arrive on Wednesday. I want to reach 145 fsb and hit the magical 1.6 Gig with this Celeron, (I just know it will do it). You can't go wrong with that setup but I only need 512 megs of ram so I am going for the better chipset, (IMHO).
Good luck with your overclock, if there's anything I can help you with PM me.
Regards

[davefred99]

I have both motherboards currently running as in my sig. I have tested both for max oc and got the same results when I swapped my 1.1a and 1.2 chips. One thing that I can say for the Vh6t is that it gives me better ram speeds in Sandra when set to fastest timmings the Vh6t will show about 5% better benchmarks. I think that this is just the difference in the via and intel chip sets. As for the St6 it seams to be a little better quality and usualy sells for about $20.00 more but at mwave they where priced the same last I checked @ $62.00. I would probably give the st6 a slight edge just because it uses the intel chipset, but truthfully it is a toss up as far as oc'ing the tuly chips. Which ever is cheaper is probably the beat deal if they cost the same go for the St6. I love both boards.

[TUK101]

Cool, it sounds as if I have found a good combo to go with. Now I just have to scrape up the dough to make it so lol. (New baby and wife not working at the moment are making things a bit tight around my house). One question that I forgot to ask......... what are the dividers set at on the board? Does it have a 1/5 divider? I dont imagine that I will ever have to use it, but it would be nice if the board had it. I would probably be happy hitting that magical 133fsb mark and leave it there as it keeps the other devices in spec. Thanks for all the feedback, and I will definately let you know how it goes when I get the combo set up.

[takiwa]

it's got 1/2, 1/3, and 1/4 dividers, at 66, 100, and 133Mhz. It can o up to 200FSB through SoftMenu, but a lot of good that will do on a 1/4 divider! Stil a good board, though, you can hit 133 easy with the 1.1a ;)

[TUK101]

Sounds good. Thats what I always shoot for is a standard setting. I really dont like running the agp and pci busses past about 35 mhz. It seems that things get funky past those settings, and sometimes even at 34-35 they do if your components are finicky. What, 133 fsb on a 1.1 processor should be around 1500 mhz anyways. 14** I am guessing in my head. Thanks for all the feedback, it has helped me to make up my mind on the upgrade. I will go for it in the next two weeks.