Im building a new DDR system! Help!!!!

Hey guys! This is my first time posting a messege. I think the site is great and packed full with usefull info.

Ok, I am building a new system for my birthday and ive decided to go with DDR. I've narrowed it to two motherboard's: the FIC AD11 and the BioStar M7MIA. Ive looked at both and I liked them both by my standards. One major difference though is the price. The lowwest price ive found for the BioStar mobo is $129. The FIC mobo cost $168. These prices are using pricewatch. Im going to hopefully OC the processor im going to put in it. Im going for a Duron 800 or T-Bird 800. I also need help deciding which CPU to use. I am on a VERY tight budget. I really dont want to OC the cpu alot...only by 100-200mhz. Thanks alot!!!!!!!

ALSO!!!!!!!! Im am considering the IWill KA266 motherboard. This one cost $162. Remember, I am on a TIGHT budget!

-comppimp
irc.vortex-irc.net

dude, if u r on a tight budget, dont go DDR.
get yourself a nice MSI or EPoX KT133a board, and a Duron 800. Stay SDR for at least a year. let DDR come into full swing be4 u buy.
it's an infant rite now.

But the thing is I wanna keep this system for a long time without havin to upgrade. And also the prices of SDR vs DDR mobo's are almost identical. So instead of buying SDR mobo and SDR ram now and then havin to upgrade the memory and mobo, just buy DDR now.

I'm running a Biostar M7MIA setup and it works great!(now that I figured out how to set it up properly).

1.2gig Socket A thunderbird 266fsb
biostar m7mia motherboard
256meg pc2100 ddr membory from samsung

Just make sure you got a decent heatsink/fan.

Argh! Just when ive decided on which motherboard to get I find a new ones. There are 2 motherboards from Asus. One is called the A7A266 which sells for $179 on pricewatch (http://www.asus.com.tw/Whatsnew/whatsnew2101.html)and the other is the A7M266 which sells for $185 on pricewatch(http://www.asus.com.tw/products/Motherboard/socketa/a7m266/index.html). Are these good? Has anyone tried them out? Thanks for the help!!!

WOOOOHOOO! I FINALLY FOUND A REVIEW FOR THE ASUS A7AM266 http://www.gotapex.com/reviews.php?rev=a7m/index.html .
I did a search on Maximum PC's website (www.maximumpc.com) and found this on the front page of the first link. The review gave it good scores and said it was a good motherboard. I think I may go with this one. If anyone has the motherboard post a messege about it on here! Thanks!

Before you leap and get the A7A266, you'd better take a look at www.lostcircuits.com
He reviewed the board and says to stay well away from it.
I have a KA266-R and i absolutely love it. It's 100% rock solid and overclocks well.

Thanks for the post but i was leaning to buy the A7AM266 which has the AMD 760 chipset i belive and the review on that site i posted was good enough to trust. Thanks

There's no such board as an A7AM266 from Asus.
It's either the A7M266 or the A7A266.

Seeing as i didn't know what board you were talking about (i didn't read the link you added) i just let you know that at the moment the A7A266 is a Dud.

BTW, the A7M266 does not have any clock multiplier adjustments, which is why i suspect your "trusted" reviewer doesn't test the CPU @ 266 FSB.
Yet, he doesn't seem to make any mention of it anywhere. Not real thorough if you ask me, and his memory benchmarks aren't all that great.

My Iwill KA266-R DDR board has Sandra Memory Scores of 590/771 with a TB900 running at 7x146 (1022Mhz).

Yes im talking about the A7M266....I have so many motherboard models in my head right now its confusing. Hehe. But yes he was testin the cpu at only 200FSB because it was a 200mhz Athlon not the 266mhz. He said he was going to test it with the new 266mhz CPU when he gets it. But I guess your right about the IWill motherboard. One big plus which i think most people are not interested in is the heatsink with the letters DDR in a silver background. It looks sexy doesnt it? Welp, I guess ill go with the IWill mobo. Thanks for the help!

I have a ddr system w/ a 900 Duron,256mb ram,52x cd-rom,Vocano5,Biostar m7vkg Mobo.ATX 300w case,Windows 98se OS.

I had it built 4 about $512 CHEAP

and i got the HD second hand from a friend.

Check out www.newegg.com for awesome prices on motherboards. I'm thinking of the Epox 8kha+ or the Soltek SL-75 DRV4, both for about $100

I'd say Shuttle ak31 or ak35.

Let's see, I just bought that mobo for my mom and here's the breakdown of it all for ya, roughly :

Shuttle ak31 rev3.1: $76
256 megs pc2100 crucial $76
amd xp1500 $106
enermax case (300W PSU) $55
Pioneer 16x slot DVD drive $60
Swiftech MCX370 $33
Floppy + round cable $14
2ata 100 round cables $10
2 80mm fans $10
ATI Radeon 7500 $96
Total Price: $602!

The only parts I used from her old HP Pavilion was the modem and a 30gig 7200 RPM HD she bought a while ago. Honestly, you can't beat the mobo/cpu price on that from newegg.com. $180 for both, compared to $160 for just a mobo? Screw that!

It also Oc's like nutz. There's really not any good case cooling in her box (she didn't want it to be noisy blah blah ), just a good hsf and I had it running at 150fsb(1500mhz) within 10 minutes of installing win2k. I didn't try any higher, because it's not mine and I didn't want to break it. Temps were 38c under load, 32 idle. It was super easy to do, and I whole heartedly suggest the shuttle for an easy overclock.

Wish my box oc'd that easy

i used the a7m266 motherboard for a while... really nice actualy i liked it alot only thing is if u are going to overclock make sure u have good ram that can handel the higher fsb crusial is good for that and even if u buy the cas 2.5 from them it should still run at cas 2 up quite high(i know from experience hehe mine made it up to 166) i would say out of thos choices go with the asus a7m266 because asus is known to make great boards and i had no problems with it when i used it

OK someone with some sense needs to interject here.

If you are going to be blowing $150+ on an ALI Magik1 board or an AMD 760 board you are nuts. KT266A boards are everywhere, and they're good and cheap. You could pick up a KR7A for less than what that A7M266 would cost you, and the KR7A is a vastly better board IMHO.

Shuttle also makes a couple really decent KT266A boards, the AK31 Rev 3.1 and the AK35.

Not to mention the Epox 8KHA+.

So go ahead and get that A7M266 (or worse, the A7A266) if you want to blow a lot of cash on an overpriced, underperforming board.

Biostar M7VKG now $99 on price watch

I have to agree with Sickboy on this. I have both the FIC AD11 and th Epox 8KHA+ and although the AD11 was at one time one of the "top dogs" it has become long in the tooth, not to mention expensive. When you throw in the limited future support for any board with an AMD 760 chipset the choices become fewer. Then there's the memory issues that are coming to light on the latest 333DDR boards and you narrow the field even more.

In my opinion, get one of the proven KT266A boards from one of the major manufacturers, ASUS, Epox, Shuttle, Soyo etc. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

For the record, my money's on the Epox 8KHA+, available for around $100.00, $69 refurbished from New Egg.

My .02.

Good Luck!