Which MB??

Okay guys, I'm new to this and waat to build a decent new system. Which MB out there will offer the most upgradeability and which CPU offers the most bang for the buck? What's the deal with the dual processor MBs? Do two 1Ghz chips work like a single 2Ghz chip?

Thanks, Eric

(WOOHOO!! OC'd my free 366C to 550 and it's rock steady!)

I just got an Asus TUSL2-C and couldn't be more happy with it.
it can hold a
P3 tut
a celeron tut
a celeron
a p3

I would be thinking along the lines of a 1-gig Athlon. With the Palomino (sorry, AthlonXP) hitting the shelves, prices will plummet faster than a Lemming. Good OC results too.........A quality mobo like an EPoX 8ka3, 8K7A, or 8KHA (their new one) will also help, and not be too expensive.



If you look in the classifieds on the front page, TC (a member) is selling two dual-PIII mobos.......

knuckledragger said:

Okay guys, I'm new to this and waat to build a decent new system. Which MB out there will offer the most upgradeability and which CPU offers the most bang for the buck? What's the deal with the dual processor MBs? Do two 1Ghz chips work like a single 2Ghz chip?

Thanks, Eric

(WOOHOO!! OC'd my free 366C to 550 and it's rock steady!)

Click to expand...

First of all, you'll need to decide if you want to stick with Intel (more robust chip construction, higher GHz, medium performance) or AMD (fragile core, higher performance, low prices).

If you decide for Intel, you'll need to decide between PIII cores or P4. If going for a PIII core you should look for VIA's Apollo 133T or Apollo 266T chipsets or Intel's 815 B. The mobos manufacture's of choice are ASUS, Abit or my own choice Iwill.

For P4, seems that SiS new P4 chipset might be good but need some more data for it. MSI is the only manufacturer I have seen with it.

If you want a AMD system, look for VIA's KT266A mobos.

As for your dual question, no. If you have a dual system compared againts the same CPU in a single system you might see and improvement of 10-25% with the duallies, and only with SMP software. You will be running Windows 2000, Windows XP Pro or Linux (if you are into running alternate OS seems that you could use Unix, but I don't know)