Brad - Your opinion ?

[kyjet]

Hi Brad. I never really thanked you for your comments you gave me early this year when I was upgrading my M571. A big thanks to you !

Now, I am thinking of moving forward. I am also a big fan of AMD chips particularly Athlons and ASUS mobos particularly the newer 233 series. I know it's too much to ask but could you suggest to me a good config ?

I plan to use Win2K Pro, not big in games and so-so sound card is good enaugh for me. I need a system that can last me a while.

Thanks heaps.

kyjet from sydney

[brad]

You're welcome. Since you're a big Asus fan I think the A7V266-E is the right board for you. It is a VIA K7T266A based board with several rock-solid reviews to vouch for it and also supports the new Athlon-XP chips, a big plus for CPU upgradability. The product info page is:

http://www.asus.com/products/Motherboard/ddr266/a7v266-e/index.html

Remember that this board uses PC2100 (DDR) memory so you can't use conventional PC100 or PC133 SDRAM sticks you may have. Memory prices here in the states are dirt cheap right now but I don't know about Australia.

If you're not into gaming then consider an ATI Radeon or Matrox AGP card for a bit higher 2D display quality than most gaming oriented cards generally provide.

Lastly, make sure you have a good, fast hard disk. Must be 7200 rpm ATA-100 with 2 meg or larger buffer. Examples include WD's "BB" block drives such as the WD200BB, 300BB, 400BB, 600BB, 800BB, 100BB, IBM 60GXP, Seagate Baracuda IV, and equivalent maxtors. The WD drives have come a long way in performance and reliability, very nice drives indeed, especially the WD1000BB. The IBM 60GXP family is noted for being very fast but an awfull lot of people are wary of IBM after the 75GXP fiasco left a sour taste in a lot of people's mouthes, mine included.

Hope that helps......

Brad