Rebuilding comp...couple quick questions

As some of you may have seen in a previous thread of mine, my Athlon 1900+ has been destroyed. A long time ago, I posted here with a problem of the system not starting up at all, with the ECS K7AMA motherboard.

So as it turns out, the motherboard itself was not the problem, the proc was. I tried a new board earlier this week, only to get a similar problem.

Now, I'll be ordering both a new board and CPU soon, and I'm deciding which combo to go with.

The board I'm looking at is the ECS K7S5A. It seems to have gotten an overall solid review at Newegg, and has the features I'm looking for (is this one at least a decent overclocker?)

Now for the CPU, I have to options, both costing about the same. I can go with an 1800+ Tbred core, or an XP 2000+

The 1800 is on Newegg, and the 2000+ is on partspc.com (I've dealt with them before...no complaints) but I can't really tell if the 2000+ they have is Tbred core or not. Are all the AMD released recently the Tbred core? If so, then the question doesn't apply.

I'm working on the assumption right now that the 2000 isn't the Tbred core. The question in that case, which is better? I haven't kept up much lately...how good of an overclocker is the new 1800 Tbred? Right now, I can't spend much on cooling, I've got a copper Volcano 6.


Bottom line, which is better, and does this look like an okay setup?

I would stay away from ecs. They are fine for grandma- but not for a serious overclocker.
Since you are planning on overclocking- the 1800tbred would be the best choice- they get the best overclocks for the tbred As. (some have gotten well over 2ghz on air cooling)
As for mobo- I would get a refurb asus a7v8x. I have one and would highly reccomend it as an overclocking motherboard. Last I checked they were going for about $80 refurb or $120 new.

I agree w/ nealric. Go with the XP1800 tbred as history shows it will o/c better than the XP2000 palomino.

I also agree to stay away from the ECS mobo as it stinks as an o/c mobo. Go w/ Asus, ABit or Epox.

Yeah I would go with the 1800+ as well. Abit and Epox make real nice overclocking boards.

1800 coupled with an nForce2 board of your choice will probably get you the best OC results. If you don't want this chipset, go with the KT333 based EPoX 8K3A+ or Abit KX7-333 (?). The KT400 is just like the KT266 in it was a rushed job by VIA that'll only be solved by an "A" chipset.

~THT

I see...well I'm not going for extreme OC or anything, but I guess when you're kinda on a budget, the higher OC I can get on air would be better!


I'll go with the Tbred and look into one of those refurb Asus boards.

Thanks for the replies, anyone else want to contribute?

How good is the Asus A7N266?

Cupe|ix said:

How good is the Asus A7N266?

Click to expand...

I have built a couple of grandma systems on the original nforce chipset and it worked alright. Personally I would opt for a kt333,kt400 or nforce2 chipset for my own system though.

Are you looking for a card with on board graphics, because the a7n266 has that.

Nah, don't need onboard video at all, I got a GF4 4400 I'm waiting to use.

Basically...I need a inexpensive (looking at close to $100) board with onboard sound + NIC that can also pull off a decent overclock. If I can get a Tbred 1800 up to like ~2000 I'd be happy.


I mean the ECS board has good features for cheap (and is at least a little overclockable right?) saving more money means more for RAM etc...the Epox EP-8K3AE is looking pretty good right now...only 78 bux too

Also, does Newegg have motherboard + processor combos? If so, where are they, I can't find any?

For under $100, i would recomend the EPoX 8RDA standard version ($95 at www.mwave.com)...however, it doesnt have onboard NIC...thats what ill be getting (i hate onboard stuff, so ive got seperate cards anyways)

DO NOT GET THE ECS coupled with the TBRED!!!
That particular board doesn't run the tbreds correctly and disables the SSE. I would suggest you get a refurb EPoX 8k3a+ from newegg w/ the tbred 1800+. Its a good, solid board, which won't be that pricey, or just go for the NF2 board from mwave.
If you want to save every penny then 8k3a+ and a tbred 1800+ is what you need, if you have a bit more funds get the 8RDA+ and a tbred 1800+

The K7S5A disables SSE? This is the first I've heard of it.

The K7S5A is good for someone who needs to upgrade on a very tight budget (like me). But don't count on overclocking. The standard BIOS won't even let you do it, and even with the custom "Honey X" overclocking bios, I can only eke out a minor overclock (138mhz on my 1700+) because you can't change the voltage.

It would cost me another $50 to get a decent mobo that can overclock well, and IMHO, I might as well just keep this mobo and spend the extra $50 on a faster CPU...

Z

i got my k7s5a to 150fsb with sammy pc2100 ram so its not totally bad

also a bios update can enable SSE

see sig

Goodyer,

Did you have PC2100 (note) or PC2700 (sig) RAM?

I think my RAM might be the limiting factor in my overclock. I have PNY PC2100 w/Infineon "-7" chips. MemTest86 reports errors on Test 5 whenever I try to run the RAM faster than 138mhz.

Z

im currently using sammy PC2100
sig is out of date