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Forum: Geek Forum
Topic: New computer?
started by: TonyDennis

Posted by TonyDennis on Jul. 05 2001,08:27

I was just looking around at the dirt-cheap prices for the 1.2GHz Athlons and the RAM sticks, I was just kind of curious if anyone had ventured into the Athlon deal.

I'm due for an upgrade on my PC, and started looking around. Found quite a few decent prices for the Athlons, and figured, hey, what the hell.. why not? Now my question is what's a good motherboard? I was reading some reviews for the one that seems to be the cheapest/most popular on pricewatch.com and they say that it doesn't have much room on it for big cooling systems (obviously ruling out overclocking). Also, I noticed that the BIOS wouldn't let you set the core voltage or anything, not to mention it doesn't support ATA100 by default...

Just hoping you guys could give me some more options...

Posted by The_Stomper on Jul. 05 2001,10:55

I "ventured into an Athlon deal", as you put it, and picked up a TBird 1.2 GHz combo awhile ago.

My recommendation on the motherboard is the FIC AD11. Right now the AMD 760 chipset contains more 0wnage than any other Socket A board out there. VIA KT266-based boards are cheaper, only about 3-4\% back, but they've got some serious stability issues under Win2K, and the 760 alsolutely whomps it in FPU (gaming).

Those "cheapest/most popular" boards - stay the fuck away from them if they're ECS motherboards that use the Ali Magik1 chipset - those things have shit for performance.

I picked up my AD11/1.2GHz combo and a 400W mid-tower case for 跊 - throw in a stick or two of 256MB PC2100 Crucial DDR for โ any you're set.

Happy hunting!

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1.2 GHz Athlon + FIC AD11 + 400W ATX = 跊
512MB Crucial PC2100 = 贄

0wning more 0wnage than anything has ever 0wned before = priceless.

Posted by TonyDennis on Jul. 05 2001,18:05

They make a 1.2GHz Tbird?

The reviews for that motherboard aren't all that impressive, but at least it ranked high on overclocking :) And the DDR and ATA100 support is a big plus. This is probably the board I'm going to buy, but I might hold off until winter, see what the prices do.

Posted by Sithiee on Jul. 06 2001,16:59

they make a 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.33, and 1.4 ghz tbird. all of which easily keep up (or damned near close to) higher p4 counterparts. when it comes to performance to price ratio, AMD rapes the market with both durons and athlons. i bought a 800 mhz duron, and started it up the first time at 920, and its run fine ever since (about 3 months ago). i didnt buy a good board for overclocking, so id have to mess with the bridges on the chip to make it go higher, but i hear almost all durons make it comforatably to 1 ghz, and most tbirds make it comforatably to 1.4, and some as high as 1.6. its an amazingly good deal for the poorer folks out there.

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quote:
Originally posted by Dark Knight Bob:
does anyone not notcie that sithee isnt actually talking out of his ass like a lot of people here

Posted by SimplyModest on Jul. 07 2001,04:33

ok.. no ECS, but what about the Ali-Magic chipset in general, im heard some good thigns about it ( < http://www.firingsquad.com > ). and i have a friend who is wanting to get the new ASUS board w/ it.

any educated opinions?

Posted by TonyDennis on Jul. 08 2001,06:03

*sigh*

I just want to know what the next "300MHz Celeron w/cache O/C to 450MHz" deal is coming, and, if it's already out, what is it?

I'm trying to save up cash for a car, so I'm kinda a cheap skate. But hey, a good deal's a good deal.

Posted by The_Stomper on Jul. 08 2001,11:18

The Ali Magik1 chipset in general is crap. The only advantage it has is that the boards can handle SDR and DDR ram (one at a time). However, the performance boost from using DDR is almost none.

TonyDennis - the next "C300A @ 450 deal" would be buying my C566@850 chip - you won't even need a new motherboard. And that appeals to the cheapskate in all of us.

Posted by TonyDennis on Jul. 08 2001,18:19

Haha, I want at least 1GHz. I'd also prefer a motherboard with DDR and ATA100 support. Right now my ATA100 80GB HDD is just being wasted ;p

Posted by KL1NK on Jul. 08 2001,19:36

Actually, the "celeron 300@450" deal would be an AXIA (that's the production code) Athlon 1GHz (with a 266MHz bus). Those things are a sure bet for 1.4HGz+

Posted by TonyDennis on Jul. 08 2001,20:21

Which motherboard would you recommend, KL1NK?