• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

'Back to the Future' or 'What's the better deal?'

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.

kingopain

New Member
Joined
Sep 10, 2003
Location
USA
Greetings OC'ers...

Been a forum fan for many moons and finally registered. So here it goes:

I've been milking my ol' i440BX since '98. Learned about slockets and got a Cel 1.2 G Tualatin when they came out. I'm not getting the most out of my ol' rig cuz the OEM mobo won't let me make adjustments, has max ram of 384 and is limited to 2x AGP.

After much searching, I found a Soyo board (SY-TISU) for $59.00. It has the i815EP-B chipset, 512 RAM, 4x AGP and SOYO's "Combo Setup".

It arrived yesterday and I've been backing up my files in preparation of a blissful upgrading day. Lo and behold, I open up today's fishwrap to see Fry's (that ubiquitous Western US place O' gadgets) has a 2.4G Cel and ECS Mobo combo for $80! I'm not a big RMA'er, but my knee-jerk reaction is to run down and get the Fry's combo.

The ECS's L4VXA2 is a low-end P4 board with the Via Apollo P4X400 chipset:

http://www.ecsusa.com/products/l4vxa2.html

Any recommendations?

--The Soyo/1.2G Cel rig is ready to go and barely cost anything.
--The Frys' ECS/2.4G Cel would require DDR RAM and a CPU cooling investment...an I'm hoping my 200w PS will do it.

I'm saving my pennies for WIN XP Pro, a super fast i875 board and P4. Apologies for the novella, but would appreciate some advice. Thanks in advance!
 
I'd stick with what you got too. Your setup may not be cutting edge but it's pretty nice.

That P4 board is a low-end POS, you'll need $100+ of RAM and your 200W PSU will be very, very marginal with anything other then the CPU, a little RAM, one HDD, optical drive and a less-than-top-end vidcard.
 
Back