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What would you get? I'm really ignorant whem it comes to AMD, as all the systems I've built have been Intel based cpu's. My son is looking for a new mobo and cpu combo. He wants it >=1GHz in speed. I also have a WTB thread in the forsale/trade.

I quickly went to Anand's site just to get some ideas. Once guy has a Asus A7V Rev 1.02 1008 bios with a 1.2G B Tbird with an Alpha 6045 heat sink and fan, plus 1 256 meg stick of PC133 CAS2 ram all for $200. Is this good???

Another individual has a Tbird 1.0 (200FSB) chip with a Gigabyte GA-71XEH (KT133E) board. He's selling it for $100 shipped. Is this good?

Please educate me on AMD systems!

the second setup ant bad for a starter. but the first one is overpriced...and I never had good lick with that mboard.

Greg

Find you a Iwill KK266 rev 1.2 board for 60-65 and a 1 gig Duron for 40-50 i think... I know they ain't much but i could be wrong... Would be a real good setup good motherboard and the 1 gig and up Duron's uses the XP's core.

you might also check out a shuttle ak31 rev 2 (kt266) or rev 3.1 (kt266a) + 1 gig + bird from someplace like newegg - i have the rev 2 and it runs a 1.2 or a 1.33 @ 1.4 just fine - the mobos are discounted now because the ak35 is out and you can get a axia or ayhja tbird new ~ 100-120 - you can also find used ones in the ~80 range - i just picked up an 1.33 ayhja which does at least 1.4 for $80 - i would spend the extra few dollars to get a system which will get that high, that way if will be good for longer - also over at ferengi tech they list reasonable combos from frys, etc in the $200 range.

OK, I've gotten 2 other combos:

3. MSI K7T Turbo Limited Edition with VIA KT133A chipset. Comes with Athlon 1.0GHz (266 fsb) with HSF from an AMD XP 1600+, and 128 mb PC133 ram. $200 shipped.
and
4. This fellow has a Abit KT7 (non-raid) mobo for $65, and a MSI K7T raid with on board audio $75. All I would need is a cpu either a Duron or Althon.

What is the difference between a Duron or Althon?

Will I need a new power supply? My son currently has a 300w ATX power supply.

#3 sounds like a good deal.

SDR or DDR? A lot of the older mb's are being sold because of problems with amd X`P support so realize may not be able to upgrade again. I like the amd chipset mbs as they are pretty reasonable and stable yet support XP and DDR ram. I've seen them down to 65.

The via chipset mbs are a bit more popular and vary in price/capability more. The shuttle and ECS are very reasonable but earlier revisions lack overclocking settings.

I'm very happy with my epox and gigabyte so far. Keep checking back here with what you find. I wouldn't go with a kt133a chipset unless you really dont want to buy ddr ram.

I don't have XP or anything, but I do have the same motherboard as blackhawk, and I agree. Gigabyte has made the GA-7DXR a nice stable board.

Well, my son decided to stay with an Intel system. So he's getting a P4 1.4GHz Abit mobo and cpu. He does not want to deal with possible problem with a non-Intel chipset. Thanks for all your input.

I've built a couple P4 setups and it don't matter AMD or Intel there are always bugs and always hardware compatability issues... We're dealing with 1000's of different Vendors all trying to get their hardware to work with each others... Nothing will ever be perfect in the PC world

yea...the chipset MYTH is pritty much eithor No existant among any present boards or they ALL have it. no 2 ways about it. and he will be pritty disapointed with a 1.4g p4 in all honosty. its the same as a 1g tbird.

Greg

AMEN

I appreciate your thoughts and concerns, but he's 17 and has his mind set on a P4 system. What's the old saying, "live and learn"?

ROFL yeah teens know all wish i could go back about 10 years and do it all over again oh well i lived i learned and i'm paying the price now... Amazing when ya get older you actually figure out that your old man was right... well most of hte time anyways

I just built a machine for my son,

Its based on the Abit Kt7.... 20GB Barracuda, 750MHz Duron, 768MB PC133, with a GF2 MX400 and Hercules Muse XL sound. Very cheap system to build finding parts on the FS&T forums, but is just outstanding for a 9 year old Matter of fact I am using his sytem right now, and its pretty darn good!