A7M266? To buy or not to buy

[FunkyTechnician]

I am building my first AMD system in the next few weeks or so and was considering waiting for the DDR memory boards to come out to compare to the 133A boards.

I have read many reviews on the 133A chipsets and have read about the Iwill ALi based board, but I havn't read much about the Biostar and Asus boards that support DDR except for a few posts here and there but no head to head comparisons of the DDR boards that are being released (just pre-production models that always lacked something that the company promised would be in the production model).

I was extremely disappointed when I heard that the a7m266 would not allow you to change the clock multiplier??!! Is this true or just another rumor. Quite odd from a company whose products are known for their overclocking ability.

It seems to me that it would be cost effective to go ahead and buy a DDR based mobo now along with the 1600 memory (2100 is not readily available and damn expensive right now) and upgrade to 2100 later on when prices drop, as opposed to buying a 133A board with PC133 memory now and then upgrading to a DDR mobo and memory later down the line.

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Amiel

 

[Nagorak]

Not to buy...

The performance of the AMD DDR motherboards has been less than exceptional. They cost a premium price and don't offer that much extra performance. If you want DDR, I'd suggest waiting for the VIA DDR boards to be out. By then DDR memory will be cheaper also and PC2100 DDR should be easier to find.

Considering the dirt cheap prices of PC133 SDRAM at this point in time, it's not really cost effective to buy even PC1600 DDR at this time. I'd suggest you but an A7V133 KT133A motherboard and 256 MBs of generic PC133 memory (don't waste money on the expensive stuff since you are planning to upgrade to DDR later anyway, generic should do you just fine).

 

[DamnFast]

PC1600 DDRs are as cheap as PC133 SDRAMs so...I guess those PC1600 DDR SDRAM from Crucial.com is a GOOD BUY. I am using two modules of their 128MB PC1600 DDR @ 133FSB(equivalent to PC2100) with CAS 2..and not 2.5. (With slightly higher voltage of 2.6V instead of 2.5 default) They are very very good and very very very stable. Crucial also provides free 2nd day shipping...so why settle for PC133 when you can get a new DDR for the same deal.
If you are planning to upgrade at this moment, definitely go for a DDR system rather than spending less now and spending more again later when DDR becomes cheaper. This way you'll save more money and you'll get the performace of DDR that is surely better than the SDRAM systems.