Best CPU For Epox 8RDA+

Hello,

I realize this is probably a boring question to you guys. Being too poor for a new system, a friend gave me his Epox 8RDA+ (socket A) motherboard recently and I need to get a cpu for it. The board is version 1.1. According to the cpu compatibility list at http://www.epox.com.tw/eng/faq.php?serno=9 it does not support Barton or Sempron CPUs. I don't know if that is correct or not - seems like it would support them if it supports 400 mhz fsb...

What is the best possible CPU (for cheap) I can get for this board? I was thinking maybe a Duron 1.8 which would probably overclock to 2.2 ghz or so, but I would like to hear your opinions.

Any help would be appreciated.

ambition13

When I had my 8rda+ I was using a Thoroughbred B 1700+. Don't know if you can find those any more but that was a very nice combo on that board. I would think any Thoroughbred B would be good though if you can't find a bios that supports Barton core cpu's.

Have you inspected the capacitors on the board yet. I think all of the v1.1's were affected by leaking caps. Do a search on them and you'll see what I'm talking about. I just recapped mine for my niece and it cost me about $20. If you run it with bad caps sooner or later damage your other hardware. Like a mXP2500+ <-mobile Barton. Which myself and many others ran on it with 2.5GHz not being uncommon.

If you don't feel up to recapping it then I'd look into a socket 754 combo. As they're pretty cheap right now. Not really much more than getting a retail cpu that's already out dated. That or look around (classified adds) for a used Athlon that's not factory locked. My XP2100+ did abit above 2.4ghz.

Good luck. That board does have great onboard sound.