Advise needed for AMD rookie

[Angus]

It's about time I broke out of the 100% Intel mode, since the P4 seems to be such a turkey.

What's a good solid mobo for an AMD newbie to start with, not necessarily with OCing in mind? I'm thinking probably an XP1900 or so, and replacing an old FC-PGA ATX board and Celermine 566 OC'd to 708 in an ATX case, and using mosts of the existing components.

I'm no stranger to PC hardware, but haven't played at all with AMD, and haven't paid any attention to what mobo/CPU combos are the hot ticket.

Stepping out in Seattle

Angus

[Darkness Productions]

Most any Abit board will be good for non-overclocking, but very good for overclocking (when you decide to). I suggest the KX7-333 (333 FSB), the KR7(A) (a 266FSB board that's rock solid), or even the AT7 (if you want to go without your PS/2 devices). Otherwise, the Soyo Dragon Platinum is good, but a bit pricey for my tastes.

[FireCracker]

Hi Angus,

I'm sorry that I don't know more about your question.
I have been using AMD for three or four years now but
my area has been to play in the lowest of the low budget
items. $100 for a mobo and cpu combo has been out of my
field of play.

I'm sure others will come along and add more info soon.

What is your budget for this computer?

Down and out in Houston.

FC

PS
DP edged me out by a couple mins but with good info.

[The Shaman]

Somebody say AMD? :D

Since the Socket A platform first came out, I have owned nothing but AMD. My last Intel chip was a Celermine 566 (OC'ed to 850, of course), and I haven't even thought about buying another Intel chip until recently. (Got a 2.4B in a deal so sweet that even I, Mr. AMD, couldn't refuse! :D )

I'll be glad to help steer you in the right direction, as will others here, if you could provide a bit more information such as:

1) What will be the main function of the system? Will it be your main rig, or just a cruncher?

2) What features, if any, are you looking for?

3) What price range are you considering?

Let us know, Angus, and we'll be glad to help you out. :)

[Angus]

1) What will be the main function of the system? Will it be your main rig, or just a cruncher?

It will replace the OC'd Celermine 566 as my main home unit - browsing, web page building, email, etc, but also crunching 7x24.

The Celermine will stay as the backup unit, replacing the even older P166 that has earned retirement. It currently acts as firewall, NAT server, and not much else except as a repository of old files.





2) What features, if any, are you looking for?

Nothing special- no RAID, no onboard video or lan card, PS/2 kybd and mouse, a handful of USB ports



3) What price range are you considering?

If I can stay under $300 to $350 for the mobo, CPU, and ram, I'm happy.
It looks like the retail boxed XP1900 CPUs (including fan and heatsink) are less than $100, mobo $85-90, and whatever I can get for ram after that.

[Paratima]

Everybody's got their favorite...

If you don't mind going a few dollars LESS (;)), I've had good luck with the Gigabyte GA-7VKML shown here (http://www.tcwo.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_prod.html?p_prodid=2367&sid=1gi2Ty0Wj0YgDpv).

I started out building a couple for friends who didn't need blazing 3D graphics or state-of-the-art sound, but just wanted a rock-solid platform. As you can see, it comes equipped. I now have a couple of these crunching at home, on account I don't have to provide a video card or a NIC, both right there! Very stable crunchers. Auto update on all drivers from Giga's web site. Oh, and micro-ATX size, in case you want to stack 'em up. (Which I do.) Sweet!

Sorry it's so cheap. :p

[The Shaman]

Like Paratima said, everybody's got their favorites. I haven't used any of the newer Gigabyte boards personally, but I know a few folks that do and they love them. I also haven't used any Abit boards since the KT7/KT7A garbage, but alot of their newer boards seem to be doing very well and they seem to be winning back alot of people.

Given your criteria, the two boards that come to mind that I am familiar with, are the Shuttle AK35GT2 & the MSI KT3 Ultra2. The Shuttle board has proven itself to be reliable, doesn't have a bunch of stuff you don't need/want, and can be had for around $70 -75 from reputable online vendors. If you don't mind spending another $10 -15, then I would strongly suggest the MSI KT3 Ultra2. With the exception of the Pro2-A, MSI boards have proven themselves to be very reliable, IME. The board does have a few bells and whistles, but is light on integrated devices.

Linkage:

MSI KT3 Ultra2 (http://www.msicomputer.com/product/detail_spec/product_detail.asp?model=KT3_Ultra2)
Shuttle AK35GT2 (http://www.shuttleonline.com/spec.php3?model=ak35gt2)

HTH

[dale.dorman]

:) :)
I have used AMD CPU's ever since I started to build these PC's as a past time, with one exception I have a VIA/CYRIX machine that was just to see how it would work. Have used boards from Chaintech, Amptron, Asus, Soyo and Soltek also Shuttle. So far the only problem I have ever had was with the Soyo [my fault too]inadvertently cracked a capacitor and when the power was applied it exploded. Hello wake up .. sure was loud. Currently the two machines I use have a Shuttle kt266a with the bios flashed to upgrade to the AMD XP1800 and a Soltek sl-75drv5. The Soltek is very easy to overclock if you want to do it.

Dale

[Chinasaur]

Dear Stepping Out In Seattle,

As long as you are breaking away from the pack and freeing your mind, you might as well break out of the single CPU mindset as well.

Get a dual mobo and populate it with some XP2200's for some real bang for the buck.

Just keep chanting "If it is to be...it is up to me!"

And remember Stepping Out...White shoes in Seattle before Memorial Day is a bozo no-no!!

:jester:

[ECL]

Angus, I have a couple of notes which may help.

1) Heat: AMD chips run pretty hot, so cooling is more of a challenge. Not that you have to go nuts and build a water-cooled system, just make sure you have good airflow. I've switched to rounded drive cables and put a bunch of Vantec Stealth fans in my various AMD boxes, and everything is stable and quiet. My first AMD system suffered from stability problems because I had essentially no airflow through the case - now it's fixed and happy.

2) Power: AMD chips are picky about how clean their power is, so make sure your power supply specifically claims to be usable in AMD systems. Almost all newer power supplies are good for AMD.

3) Pricing: AMD announced price cuts this morning, so the prices should drop a bit more during the next week. You may be able to get an XP2000 (or better) for what the XP1900 cost last week.

4) Motherboards: I've got an Asus A7V8X I'm happy with, and I've had some luck with those cheap ECS boards. Lots of decent choices out there.

[dragongoddess]

Since overclocking is not a goal I would go with A BIOSTAR board. They are reliable boards and wont break your budget.
You might want to try out the BIOSTAR M7VIT PRO. Its 68.00 at TCWO.com plus free shipping. You will have plenty of room for growth since it can support up to a BArton 3000.

From TCWO.COM
motherboard bundle BIOSTAR M7VIT pro and XP 2400 for $195.00

from mushkin
http://www.mushkin.com/cgi-bin/Mushkin.storefront/3e9af11006e9b112273fc0a80103064a/Catalog/5403
512megs of PC2700 memory at cas 2.2.2
for $159.00

total cost for mobo cpu and memory is $354.00

[magnav0x]

I'll throw my hat in on this one. I would like to suggest a Albatron KT400 8X motherboard. Albatron's CEO is the ex-CEO of Gigabyte. The motherboard supports up to 400 MHZ DDR Ram, has fallback bios (main bios goes bad, or bad flash...flip the switch to goto secondary bios), Voice Genie (not important but kinda neat when it tells you in a nice friendly voice what's wrong), 4 USB ports, no onboard LAN or Video, and 8x AGP. The motherboard cost $75 and i believe it can be fount at Egghead.com (I got mine at a local Fry's Electronics). For that price I believe you could easily get an Albatron board, Athalon XP 1900 and 512mb DDR ram for less than $300.