m/b for AMD Athlon XP 1600+ Socket A

[dammit_billy]

hi
i am getting a AMD Athlon XP 1600+ Socket A cpu and i was wondering what m/b to get i require the motherboard to support pc-133 ram plz if u could help
thnx
David haines

[brad]

If you absolutely must use PC133 memory, then you'll pretty much have to stick with boards based on the VIA KT133A chipset and check the mobo maker's website to make sure the Athlon-XP is supported by that specific mobo. Not all of them are. My own personal preference and recommendation for you would be the Microstar K7T Turbo series board but there are others worth considering. The following link shows which MSI boards are Athlon-XP certified:

http://www.msicomputer.com/Newsrelease/athlonxp.htm

Brad

[rakki]

what about the ALi Magik chipsets that are wandering around out there which give you the option of SDRAM until you switch to DDR ?

[brad]

I have no personal experience with ALI (or SIS) based boards right now because they haven't been around very long. Being able to use standard SDRAM or DDR-SDRAM is an attractive feature but current memory prices make that a somewhat moot point.

One should also consider the maturity of the chipset. ALI and SIS offerings are still very new and thus maturity can't really be judged yet. The KT133A on the other hand is very mature and utterly stable on the right boards. That is just my 2 cents worth of opinion and it would be nice if those with ALI and SIS based socket-a boards would jump in as well.

Brad

[rakki]

To get back to the fundamentals... if he's getting a new CPU and motherboard... then it would make more sense to just switch completely over to DDR Ram (which costs a fraction of the price of the two other "core" components"

[wild_eep]

dammit billy! it just doesnt make sense.. why would you try to make the more expensive parts fit the cheaper parts?

you should get DDR RAM which is just as cheap but double the speed of SDRAM & then get the following:

ECS m/b with Sis735 chipset for $150 which is best value for money

or if you wanna go a little higher than that, the EPOX m/b with the KT266A chipset for about $240 or if you wanna spend big the MSI or ASUS mb's with the KT266A chipsets.

[ton]

check out the ECS k7vta3 and the k7s5a both are recomended
by AMD and you can choose which ram to use.
tony

[wild_eep]

Before purchasing any ECS board, you may wanna check out the forums at www.amdmb.com

There are mixed feelings towards the boards - some are very good, but others are very very bad.

[rakki]

when the ECS boards work.. they are great... but they seem to have a high failure rate out of the box.

[ton]

i have built three computers using ECS boards and have no problems with them,plus they cheap,cheap,cheap;)