Goin AMD! Should I do it?

Yo all,

I´m about to change my motherboard and CPU. I am not really satisfied with my present combo, Celeron 700 + Asus CUV4X-E. I can´t make it work any good overclocked, and performance isn´t really very much better than my old Celeron 300A@464. (In all fairness I should say that the mobo is really good)

A friend of mine really needs an upgrade, so I´m selling the combo to him at a discount price. I was thinking: an Thunderbird 266 FSB CPU + a good mb (+ DDR memory?)

NOW: Should I do this? If yes, what do you think I should buy? Shall I go for an AMD760 based board with DDR memory and a 1,2 Ghz CPU or a board with SDRAM(have a branded 256 Mb PC133) and the fastest possible (1.33 or 1.4 Ghz)CPU? Or just a 1.2 Ghz?

The mobo/cpu will be the heart of this already existing system:

Aopen HQ08 case.
Asus iPanel.
300W OEM power supply, 1 intake fan(Papst 80mm 0.9w), 2 exhaust fans(Papst 80mm 0.6w).
Cpu-cooler Alpha FC-PAL35U(does it work on AMD?) /w Y.S. tech 1.44w(21 cfm). Artic silver.
Fasttrack100 + 2 x Samsung Spinpoint V11+ 30.7 Gb(raid 0)
Inno3D GeForce2 MX400 64 Mb, SB 128, lan/CD etc.

Any opinions welcome.

regards,
Henry.

AMD is a good choice, it's worth changing anyway, u won't be disapointed. Now u did not tell us , the price you'r willing to pay. If money is not a problem get a DDR board, otherwise geta SDRAM, but make sure you've got very good ram brand (crucial, micron, corsair etc... take PC 150 cas 2).
A 1.2 should do, or maybe u wanna try an Axia, im not sure.

I certainly have not regretted going AMD.. however I personally would not yet go with DDR as the chipset is not mature and some producers are having problems with them. SDRAM continues to increase in performance with the latest offering being PC180 which reduces the marginal performance gain of DDR even further.

Stability is a issue for me, which is why I would choose a KTa chipset mobo and SDRAM at this point in time

I would also vote for SDRAM vs. DDR. The boards that are available are okay, but there are still quite a few issues. If like Unseen said, you have good(almost great) ram, make sure you get a board w/ KT133A chipset; Abit KT7A, Asus A7Va or Iwill KK266R. ( my fav).
As far as CPU's, 1.2 or 1.3 is good, although 1.2 is getting much cheaper everyday.
LOL

Da Whip (May 31, 2001 07:41 p.m.):
I would also vote for SDRAM vs. DDR. The boards that are available are okay, but there are still quite a few issues. If like Unseen said, you have good(almost great) ram, make sure you get a board w/ KT133A chipset; Abit KT7A, Asus A7Va or Iwill KK266R. ( my fav).
As far as CPU's, 1.2 or 1.3 is good, although 1.2 is getting much cheaper everyday.
LOL

Click to expand...

I agree with the previous posters regarding SDRAM vs. DDR. I would suggest to find a TBird CPU that has the letters AXIA printed on top - this should not be too difficult anymore. If you can find an AXIA CPU, you can get a 1 GHz. 200/266 also does not matter just look for AXIA, and you will be able to oc to a good level.

Yo

...Doent left to say much...
Just As I found DDR adds only the 1/3 perfomance to the HDD-orientated perfomance.
Choose wise!

OK!

I bought an Asus A7V133 today, and ordered an Athlon 1200/266 as well, supposedly it should be an Axia.

Discovered that the mobo doesn´t support the iPanel. Grrr

Can I use the Alpha FC-PAL35 with this CPU?

regards,
Henry.

Dude... A Duron beats a similar clocked P3 in most areas and its under half the price....
The Athlon on the otherhand ***** on everything and its still round 1/2 price of similar locked P3's and P4's.

OK!

Henry Rollins II (Jun 01, 2001 05:22 a.m.):
I bought an Asus A7V133 today, and ordered an Athlon 1200/266 as well, supposedly it should be an Axia.

Discovered that the mobo doesn´t support the iPanel. Grrr

Can I use the Alpha FC-PAL35 with this CPU?

regards,
Henry.

Click to expand...

Thats a great choice a7v133a is a nice board. But i dunno about the Alpha FC-PAL35. Im using the globalwin fop38 on my [email protected][old avha] And gets great temp that never reach 50 under load, but its really bit noisy.

You'll probably need a new heatsink, most Intel HS are not AMD approved I believe. I'm using the Vantec FCE-62540D with a T-bird 1.33 @ 1.46GHz, under full load my temperature readings never hit 50C - usually 46C. I would highly recommend this heatsink, but it is VERY loud with the 38cfm Delta fan. For me, loudness makes no difference since my chassis is in an insulated and airtight chamber in my desk.