Mobo recommendations....

Ok, I have been forced to buy a new mobo because I want to move past 550 Mhz dual processors. For the money I could spend getting two SECCII 1Gighz proc's, I can buy a new mobo and processor combo. You guys tell me what to buy because I don't know new mobos (obviously) like you guys do. I want something fairly cheap yet powerful. Basically, I need a dual board, preferably Tualatin. (Don't know much about AMD, better/worse?)

Just give me some Ideas.....



Appreciate it

What hardware do you have to work with, now?

That is pretty important.

If you are starting from scratch, a dual AMD system will give you more bang for your buck, then a new PIII system. If you already have some PIII's, then a newer PIII MB is probably the best plan.

Well the problem is...My P3s are out of date because they are Slot 1.

As far as my components go here is what i have:

IDE WD drive hdd
IDE Quantum Bigfoot TS hdd
IDE Liteon CDRW

SCSI IBM harddrive
SCSI Toshiba CDrom


I have a PCI Riva TNT2 32mb vid card that I plan to upgrade to a AGP card

Basic PCI devices: V.92 modem, LAN card, audio-game port card

So, basically, you are starting from scratch, as far as MB and CPU's go.

I assume you have some SDRAM and that should be a consideration, since AMD duallies require DDR. Still, I think a dual AMD is more cost effective.

Consider this:

MSI K7D Master motherboard - $180

Two Athlon XP1700's - $45 each (these overclock GREAT)

512 MB Samsung Registered ECC PC2700 - $80 (this is great memory for AMD duallies, as it overclocks high and with aggressive timings)

You will also need a decent Power Supply, preferable 450 watts or higher. You may already have this.

You will need two, decent heatsinks. Dual SK-7's are a good choice. - $20 each




Compare the price of those components with the cost of a pair of PIII's.

Yeah I've got the powersupply, but I probably won't mess with oc'ing cause, well, I just don't know how. So i will probably leave it alone. Will the dual XP1700's pull their weight?

dukeofurl4ever said:

Yeah I've got the powersupply, but I probably won't mess with oc'ing cause, well, I just don't know how. So i will probably leave it alone. Will the dual XP1700's pull their weight?

Click to expand...

Yeah, they will do great! They are as powerful as PIII's, only faster. Those chips are multiplier unlocked up to 12.5 and the FSB goes up to 150 (on the MSI K7D.) There's an easy overclock, right there. You can do that, right from the BIOS (of the MSI K7D.) 12.5*150=1875 MHz and they will probably do that at default voltage or less.

that is probably what i will do. It will take me some time to get up the extra money, but you will probably hear from me sometime thanks again for your help