PC upgrade... amd / p3?

[thytoothpick]

Hey...

I'm looking into getting my pc upgraded, because its really slow.

First, I'm trying to decide what kind of motherboard to get, because what motherboard I get would really affect what i do down the road.

Anyways, I'm pretty much decided that I'll get some kind of AMD board. I've been hearing lots of good things about them.

But, I have no idea on what kind to get (I don't know too much in this area). I'm trying to decide what i want... Duron, Athlon, or Thunderbird, and what would be best for me.

(First of all, whats the big diff between an Athlon and a T-bird?)

I want a some-what fast board, that'll give me lots of upgrading options later, and has plenty of "expansion" slots.

But, i don't want to spend a ton of money... (I need to be able to buy the actual cpu later)

I'm just looking for recommendations and thoughts.

Thanks.

 

[mcoski]

Im a true intel fan, personally but price is the way to go noawadays, imho w00t w00t

 

[Kraeji]

asus + thunderbird. or duron if you are on a budget.. forget intel.. i see no point in paying more money for an inferior product.. hehe well in my opinion anyways.

for a cheaper motherboard go with epox.. i think that's what the company is named. its similar to the asus a7v

 

[thytoothpick]

Oh yeah...

Maybe some of you could actually list some specific motherboards. That would really be helpful.

Okay, where could i find more info on the asus and epox?

Thanks for the input. (keep 'em coming. )

 

[paulip88]

First of all:
The Tbird is an Athlon with a faster L2 cache. Its on die so its faster AND cheaper.

However, since you mentioned that you are on a budget, you'll probably want the Duron, since it is cheaper and very OCable.

As for mobos, I'd go with the Asus A7V or the ABit KT7.

 

[K6 3]

Go with Amd, you simply can't beat the price.....or performance for that matter. Get yourself a duron for ~$70 and overclock the crap out of it. I'd recomend the Asus A7V to go with it.

 

[Dante26]

I just built my PC and was faced with the same dilema. I was always an Intel fan, but when I looked at the horsepower available for the price, AMD was clearly the winner. My 950 gets higher FPS in Quake than my friend's 1Ghz PIII with the otherwise same layout. If money is a question, go for the Duron. It performs almost as well as a T-Bird, and costs less. For boards, the Abit KT7 is great insurance for future upgrades. Get the non-RAID to save more money.

 

[thytoothpick]

righto.

Looks like I'm going w/ a Duron or T-bird. (probably Duron for $$)

But, I have connections (wholesale connections) so I might be able to get some real nice board. (then, the cpu, gpu, and who knows whats next...)

Anyways, I've never overclocked anything, so I wouldn't know how to do that.




Oh yeah, do tv tuners require a graphics accelerator card? (like ATI tv wonder) It probably would on my cpu, because every movie seems to be c ho pp y.

Thanks for all of the replies, too.