Are TBird systems unstable?

[krogoth]

I just got a new issue of PCGamer yesterday, and in the hardware section it said that custom-build TBird systems with DDR RAM are frequently unstable, while pre-built systems have no problems. Is this true? How can I avoid the problems? What mobo should I get for TBird/266 that's good but not too expensive?

I'm looking at the Asus A7M266. Is this a good choice? I'd like 2-3 DDR RAM slots, so I can make upgrades without going straight to the bigger modules, but the most important part is price - I need to keep it down if I want to make a good system.

I'll probably be getting UDMA100 drives, and I heard somewhere that some mobos have extra IDE connectors for faster UDMA drives (the tiny picture on the Asus site seems to show this). Do all UDMA100 mobos have these, or is it only some of them?

You can see my planned system at http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=5696 for more information.

 

[DaddyG]

NO !!!!

PC Mags just support NuTEL and the Gates BOY !!

I have built and Designed AMD systems for 20 years !!

Belive me, I have extremelt few problems with AMD !!

WE recently had a burned up BIRD, Maybe a fake OC, AMD replaced that CPU for the guy FREE and he didn't even but it at our Store !!

Free the oppressed !!

G

Out

 

[DarkMajiq]

Homebuilt T-Bird systems, as long as they're set up and configured right, are no less stable than "pre-built" T-Bird or Intel systems.

As for a motherboard, if you can hang onto that P2 a little longer, wait for more VIA KT266 boards to come out before making a choice. If you need it now though, the A7M266 is probably one of the best out there. The A7M266 only has 2 IDE connectors though, but both are ATA/100. While many KT133 and KT133A boards include some type of on-board controller for RAID or just ATA/100 IDE ports (the VIA 686A only supported ATA/66 natively, the new 686B supports ATA/100, so mostly older boards will have this feature, newer ones don't need it as much), I can't off the top of my head think of any DDR mobo that does. They all have the VIA 686B southbridge, or the ALi M1537 (whatever the number is), which both support ATA/100.

Also, that looks like a very nice system there, although I would recommend getting the Hercules Pro or Ultra cards rather than the vanilla GTS, the performance increase is big. I would also say you should consider a 7200RPM drive, IBM or Maxtor. Seagate is alright too, but they're much more known for their SCSI drives than IDE ones, and can't beat the IBM Deskstar 75GXP and Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 40.

 

[Boonesmi]

my asus a7v has been the most stable system ive ever had. including all the pent systems ive owned

 

[rommel]

i just built my first AMD system...infact i have never owned an AMD cpu before....but i cant tell any differance in stability from the plll 1ghz i built just before this....its fast and seems fine.....i think the only thing that could posea problem for users is the VIA 4in1's ...my board has the AMD 761 northbridge so you ahve to load the agp.vxd for it from AMD and then load the 4in1's for the 686b VIA southbridge...but even in doing this with win98se and winMe i havent had any trouble..i like this system

 

[dennilfloss]

My A7V133/1GHz Tbird combo does not appear less stable than my P3B-F/Celeron 500MHz was.

 

[Aegwyn]

A7M266 (AMD 761/Via 686B)
Crucial 256MB PC2100 (running at 141 2-2-2)
Week 5 1.33 ghz (running at 1551 mhz)
Swiftech MC462-A w/ Delta 69 cfm fan
Creative Geforce2 GTS 32 mb (will be upgrading this soon)
3Com 3C905B NIC
Creative Sound Blaster Live! Value
Seagate Barracuda ATA 27 Gig

Amazingly stable. Best system I've ever owned, by far. Before this I had a Slot A Athlon 750 on a K7M...it was perfectly stable too. I beleive the key in stability is not whether or not you use AMD or Intel, but the quality of all your other parts. Actually, I work at a computer store, and I've only seen *1* bad Athlon since the first Athlons came out, and that bad one was a tbird someone burned up. I've seen bunches of bad Celerons and even a few bad P3's.

 

[BuddyHolly]

Mine is very stable..never lockes up..

 

[cnhoff]

Unless you "over-overclock it, it should be as stable as any other system. My Tbird1.33@1.5 runs rocksolid 24/7 running Seti@Home.

 

[Vyle]

I had stability problems with my Duron. Then I looked under the case and found a ball point pen. Removed that sucker and now the case is nice and stable on my desk.