Cost effective Mobo??

I have come into some (limited) funds and have enough to get a water cooler, Duron 750 OR Celeron800 and 128MB SDR/DDR RAM. Now I need a mobo. (This is maybe a post for both AMD and Intel mobo's)

I have enough to get one of the following:
AMD
A7V133-VM
A7V133-M
GA-7VTX-H
GA-7ZX-H

Intel
TUA266
CUA266
CUSI-M

I rather like the A7V133-M for SDR and the GA-7VTX-H for DDR as they are cheapest for me at the moment. But the TUA266 doesn't look bad and since I don't need Tualutin support, the CUA266 makes the Intel deal the cheapest of the lot. I have good water block setup and obviously want the most bang for my buck. Should I wait till after Christmas to get the stuff? (I can wait a bit more, I have been for the last 2 years ) Anyone have experience in any of these mobo's n wanna give me a hand??
Thanks all!

Get the Shuttle AK31 r3.1 it is fast and cheap only $80 to $90 much cheapper than the A7V133

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My Computer:
Shuttle AK31 r3.1
256 MB Crucial PC-2100
Athlon 1.133 GHz 266Bus
Volcano 6cu+ with a 80mm 59.9 CM Fan
Voodoo 3 3500 TV
Promise ATA 100TX2
SoundBlaster Live!
Netgear FA310TX
30.7 GB IBM 75GXP
Removable bay W/ 30 GB Western Digital
Pioneer DVD-116 16X DVD
HP 9100i 8x4x32x
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If you want the best bang for the buck in AMD, there are really only two contenders. The ECS board based on the SIS 735 chip (K7S5A I think) or the Shuttle AK31 rev 3.

THe Shuttle is the better overclocker, but is more expensive ~85. It also requires DDR ram.

The ECS it a stable fast board but is somewhat limited in overclocking ability. It accepts both DDR and SDRAM and runs about 55 bucks.

There is reasonable disagreement about whether these are the best overall boards on the market. But I think there is wide agreement that these are the best boards under 90 bucks.

nihili

Also note that with RAM prices what they are, youll pay about the same for great DDR as for PC133. However.... ....just seen on crucial.com they went up on RAM like 6$ today.

So if youre gonna get RAM do so quickly. Hope it doesnt hit last years prices

I just noticed that you can get the ECS K7S5A at newegg refurbished for 39 bucks. Great value at that price.

nihili

Avoid the GA 7ZX it's a nice stable board, but has practically no overclocking features FSB only.

The ECS K7S5A is a great value. You will need to flash the bios to go higher than 133 FSB and unlock the voltage on the chip-easily done with the pencil. I've got ny 800 Duron over 1Ghz with no cooling and Flounder43 has 750 at 1ghz with this board. The best ive seen is someone here has a 750 at 138FSB with air cooling. Just imagine what water cooling could do. A few other things, the board supports both DDR and SDRAM, has onboard LAN but also likes a good power supply.

This board and a Duron is a great value -under $100

Good Luck

Awww I like my 2 KG7's. So far rock solid

Thanks4 the replies guys! I would go for the ECS or the Shuttle but the problem is that the boards I have listed are the only ones I can get here in South Africa. And the exchange from US$ to ZAR is pretty disgusting ( R9.5 = $1) wich makes anything in US$ unaffordable. I can get the GA-7VTX-H for about $100 and it includes pretty good sound and a Realtek 10/100 NIC onboard. The difference in SDR and DDR is also about $5 so its not much of a problem. But what about the Asus TUA/CUA266 boards for a Celeron? They're also affordable ( for me) so could they be an option? Cos I'm looking at getting the Cele800 and swopping with my Dad's office P3 733. ???? Now what?!

Celeron = not worth the cash you spend.
Duron = deal.

If cost is truly an issue with you, there shouldn't be much of a choice. A DDR/Duron setup will blow the pants off of any P3/Celeron setup short of a Tualatin CPU (1.13 GHz+ P3's and 1.2 GHz+ Celerons).