Need advice on some things.

Sorry guys, If this post is off topic here. I read the discusion topics and this seemed the most appropriate place. Firstly, I am A+ certified but I feel like I earned that with half knowledge/ half memorization. The point being I am not a total idiot/newbie. But I have never delt with putting together a new computer (which is my plan in about a month)
Currently I have a pent2-300 mhz machine. Couldn't tell you what kind of MOBO is in there. But I do know this, Even if I could OC that chip to around 400+ it still wouldnt be enough. No, it's definately new CPU time.

The thing I need advice on is weather or not I even need to OC once I get my new system. And I am hoping you guys can guide me on what "type" of system to build based on my needs. Here is what I do while I am at the PC.

I do multitasks. I listen to MP3 while checking email. I download emmmmmm errrrrrrr "stuff", while surfing the net, while listening to MP3's. I may even want to get a cd-burner at some point and do ALL FOUR things at once. The point is, I am constantly doing more than one thing on the PC at the same time and it seems like after a while the latency between commands gets to a point where I think to myself "dang this is taking too long, I need more power"

Having said that, 3d games is my second love. But I figure If I have a machine powerful enough to do all the things listed above (ALL FOUR THINGS AT ONCE) without missing a beat (or very little anyway) then the games will take care of themselves.

( I recently picked up Mechwarrior 4 at the store and read the minium requirments for it. My system didn't even come close. That is NOT acceptable....hehe)

Let me stop there and tell you the rest of my specs.
128 ram. (don't know the latency but I assume it's nothing special since I don't know)

13 & 4 gig HD's @5200 Rpm. Or is it 5400? Point is I know its not the new 7200 rpm kind.

Cd/DVD rom, Dvd currently disabled due to a video card that is not compatible with it. (it's ok, I don't miss DVD)

Floppy drive of course.

Sound blaster live sound card and a Viper550 TNT video card. (old vid card I know but it still works real nice)

17' monitor. Real nice. Happy with it.
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Here is what I am planning to do. Get a new Abit KT133A mobo and an AMD Duron 800 Mhz chip.
HSF to be decided upon later. Tower/case to be decided upon later. (important stuff but info not needed to help me with this post)

A 350 watt power supply (any suggestions there?)

Basicaly I am planning on just plugging my vid card and my sound card into the new MOBO. Connecting my two HD's and CD Rom and FLoppy and see what happens.

Is this possible to do? I don't even know if I can "plug in" my vid card and sound card into that kt133a mobo. Can I do that?

Also, assuming Everything works out like planned, am I going to notice a huge performance difference just by going from this P2 300mzh to the AMD 800?

If yes will it do all the multitasking I want it to do without "bogging down"? (I realize memory is important to that question, and I plan on upgrading to Pc-133 Cas-2, 256 MB as soon as possible, but not right away)

Last, It would be ashame to NOT overclock that chip, and I want to OC it, But (and this is REAL important) I don't care to squezze every last hz out of it. In fact, I don't want to spend any extra money JUST SO I can overclock it a little more. (IE artic ice thermal compound, IE a better HSF) etc..etc..

If you guys tell me "hey if you get this HSF, you DO NOT have to worry about anything else, and you can OC that chip to 850mhz or even 900mhz" then I will be happy. I don't care to see how high I can go or outdo someone else. (that'll come later.....hehe)

So please take a second and help a newbie out if you could. Sorry for the long post. Thank you.

Ps. You like my cat? (not mine) (no photo enhance)

Wow, it looks like you've done some research. Pretty much you should be able to plug most of your stuff in, although people have had problems with SBlive cards in the kt133a motherboards. It looks like you've gotten a good start on your plan, my main concern would be your OS. Are you going win98se, win2k, Linux? That makes a difference as to what will work and what won't. I despise win98se, win2k is quite nice on my kt7-raid and Duron 650@1070. I haven't had too many PnP problems with it.

I guess I should just tell you to get started and find what works best for you. We're all different here, what's acceptable to one person might be unacceptable to another. You need to find your sweet spot between price/performance and go from there. Good luck and stick around to let us know how it's going.

The Abit KT7A is a good mobo for sure(kt133a) chipset. The Duron 800 is a good chip but its a 100/200 FSB chip, wont take advantage of the kt133a chipset unless you modify the chip-id actually go with the tbird 800 for an equal-overclocks better and produces less heat because of the difference in core size. Also has more on-die cache(faster), if the $$$ is the issue for the Duron then get a 750 tbird and it should still out perform the Duron 800-look in the cpu database at the tbird 750's its a great chip. 750, or 800 is a good speed and probably would let you do all those at once, but with that board and the tbird chip its sooo esy so why not take full advantage-OC IT. You can hit a gig with a 750 using air cooling. For a fan that would work great on either of those chips -get a FOP 32, or the FOP 38-definatley one of THE BEST out-unless you get an EXPENSIVE alpha-also the CAK32 is a great new fan. Hope this helps and good luck

HUGE CAT! hahem sorry for that... I'm not an hardcore overclocker so a 350watts supply seems high but some would say it's some kind of investment...For your cooling requirements, I suggest you to go to the cooling section and ask about it, there are a lot of helpful veterans, several brands will hold your attention (Alpha, Globalwin, Swifttech...) but some are maybe not enough user friendly for your needings. Try to keep good notes about noise level, because some of new heatsinks/fan combo are real ears killers. A Duron 800 should be enough and would allow you to invest in a more recent graphic card if you like games instead of keeping this one with a 1Ghz+ CPU...

Though the 800 Duron is spec'd for a 100 Mhz FSB, I can assure you they will run faster FSB speeds. My 600 loves 133 Mhz FSB. Faster if I don't mind reducing the multiplier. It will run 8x133 "til the cows come home".

Hoot

On the powersupply question, Enermax units are very stable, AMD approved and readily available for $60-90.

With the heatsink I do not think you could go wrong with a GlobalWin FOP38-1, FOP32-1 or the new WBK series coolers. Beware of the units that come with a 38cfm Black label Delta fan, the fan is extremely noisy. A 60mm 26cfm YS-Tech fan works almost as well with very little noticeable noise. You will not need arctic silver; make sure that you scrape the stock thermal pad off the bottom and replace it with some generic Radioshack thermal compound. The alpha-66 series coolers are also excellent, but pricy.

Just slap that cooler on, bump the voltage up and you should be able to see 950-1000 MHz, the Duron 800 is an excellent overclocker. I have a Duron 800@1000 MHz at 1.8V on a ABIT KT7-RAID motherboard and GlobalWin FOP-32, very stable.

I question the viability of using a 800 MHz duron though, when 1 GHz AXIA T-Brids are going for $140. The possibility of 1.3-1.5 GHz with air cooling is so enticing.

straight w98. no se. just patched 98. is this ok?

To do MB swaps on Win98 systems I have used a few different methods, neither of which required reinstalling the OS. The easiest one was using a program called Regcleaner available from jv16. In Regcleaner, under the tools menu, there is an option to reset hardware configuration. Back up your system first though and only use this option when you are ready to do the MB swap. Best of luck.

not much differences between 98 and 98se. But all win9x version is very bad with multitasking!! win2k/nt has great multitasking and is ALOT more stable than win98 but a bit slower on games and some old games dont work.

From my experience abit kt7 aint so stable had alot of problems with the board atleast the non (A) version, the A version might be better i dunno.

But i bought the asus a7v133A today and no problems at all where the abit card had stability problems but i hard to tell since i havent had it for one day yet.