KT133A or DDR? (1 month from now in mid-May)

[Len]

In about 1 month (mid May) I must upgrade my motherboard, CPU, RAM and video. Was thinking about an AMD Duron or Tbird overclocked of course and a GeForce2 GTS 32MB video card.

But I can't decide on KT133A or DDR. Mb must be overclockable. I must buy 128MB RAM in either case. KT133A seems stable and fast but to invest money into a non-DDR platform at this point doesn't seem right. KT266 looked promising but now seems to offer only slight performance improvements. AMD 760 is fast but expensive and I hear isn't as overclocker friendly (is that correct?).

All opinions on the subject are welcome !!

 

[Aftershock]

I will be upgrading in a month also, and in a similar situation as you.

I have decided to go DDR, why? Well DDR mobo's are only slightly more $$ than SDRAM, and ram prices for both are almost identical (www.crucial.com) Also, going DDR won't HURT performance, at worst it will perform the same, and prices are not drasticaly higher than SDRAM for both the mobo's and ram.

I'd go with 256 P2100 ram over 128, 128 just doesn't cut it anymore.

A7m266 by asus is good except you can't change the multiplier.
AMD 761 or VIA's KT266 chipset is teh way to go, AMD has a slightly faster performance but they are close enough.

MSI's KT266 got some great reviews, Iwill should be comming out with their KT266 board soon and I hear ABIT has one in the works too.

 

[Len]

Let's hope IWill and Abit get their boards out soon!

BTW, is the AMD 761 the same as AMD 760? I've seen both mentioned but I've never thought they might be different. If the 761 is newer, what's better about it?

 

[Aftershock]

761 and 760's are the same... I'm pretty sure there's no difference.

Abit's KT7133E boards look to perform JUST as good as the KT7A's and are around $100.

I'm curious to know if once the GeForce 3 comes out, what will be the new limitation to game performace? If GF3 is STILL the bottleneck, then there's no point for DDR is there?

 

[blakhole]

Len (Apr 13, 2001 10:39 a.m.):
In about 1 month (mid May) I must upgrade my motherboard, CPU, RAM and video. Was thinking about an AMD Duron or Tbird overclocked of course and a GeForce2 GTS 32MB video card.

But I can't decide on KT133A or DDR. Mb must be overclockable. I must buy 128MB RAM in either case. KT133A seems stable and fast but to invest money into a non-DDR platform at this point doesn't seem right. KT266 looked promising but now seems to offer only slight performance improvements. AMD 760 is fast but expensive and I hear isn't as overclocker friendly (is that correct?).

All opinions on the subject are welcome !!

Len,

I'm in exactly the same predicament. DDR is the future, but there doesn't appear to be a stable, OC-able Tbird DDR motherboard yet. So do I buy the mature KT133A and hope that it supports Palominos and PC133 will still be sold in 3 years when I upgrade it?

The cost difference between SDR and DDR is negligable since I have to buy all new stuff anyway. None of my P133 laptop parts are swappable to the new system. Hopefully by next month when that decision needs to be made the next wave of KT266 boards will be out and some of the dust will have settled.

Kyle "BlackHole"

 

[Len]

I'm waiting also but I can't wait more than 4-6 weeks max. Hopefully a good KT266 board will be out by then.

 

[SickBoy]

I would go DDR at that time, more specifically, KT266 flavor DDR. By then there should be another big name mobo company shipping a KT266 board. KT133A is still top dog as far as price/performance are concerned, but I think that the time to jump on the KT133A bandwagon has come and gone but DDR is not quite here yet. If you're going to be waiting a little longer anyway, I'd go DDR.

SickBoy

 

[flyman0]

I'm in the same boat. I am building a new computer in two-three months and am going DDR. So far I don't know the MB to use yet, but it will probably use a new one that I just read about. It's a Dual Socket A MB for Tbirds. Based on either the AMD 760/760PX chipset.

Features:
Suports PC2100/1600 DDR SDRAM
AGP Pro slot
ATA-100/Ultra 160 SCSI
64bit/33MHz PCI
2 LAN onboard

If this doesn't work out, my next choice will be a MB with the ALi MAGiK 1 chipset. Hope this helps

 

[Aftershock]

Well its been a while and new computer time is rolling around in about 2 weeks from now.

I said earlier I was going DDR, well all that has changed! Going SDRAM Iwill KK266 and 512 CAS2 Crucial.

Why the switch? KT266's are screw'd and the Asus's AMD 761 board can't change multiplier (no I do not want to sodder)...

I just pray that in a year or two the performace gap between SDRAM and DDR in games is still the small 10%....

If you playing @ 100 FPS what good is the extra 10 going to do? If you're playing at 30 fps, what good is the 3 going to do?

 

[skip]

I'm testing an Iwill KA266R right now. It will run my AXIA 1.2 at 1470 at default voltage. Very stable and with the newest Bios (Beta), memory scores are awesome! Iwill should be releasing this Bios in a few days and it will change the fact that the ALI chipset currently benches a little lower that the AMD or VIA.

Watch for an article on OC.com

 

[Yomama]

skip (Apr 18, 2001 10:20 p.m.):
I'm testing an Iwill KA266R right now. It will run my AXIA 1.2 at 1470 at default voltage. Very stable and with the newest Bios (Beta), memory scores are awesome! Iwill should be releasing this Bios in a few days and it will change the fact that the ALI chipset currently benches a little lower that the AMD or VIA.

Watch for an article on OC.com

Skip,

I am excited to read that you like the KA266R. In terms of memory scores so far the difference I saw was that DDR is faster at 133FSB, but did not o/c higher than the mid 140s, and only at CAS3. Now this would have to be compared to CAS2 SDRAM at 155 or higher FSB. That comparison used to come out rather close (within 10% or so).

So, in your test can you compare the KA266 to a KK266 (same manufacturerer) running PC133 at 158FSB, while the CPU is at about the same speed?

That would be interesting

Thanks

Yo