Plz just tell me what to buy: M/B+athlon+fan = under $150

[AlwaysWong]

So it's time to finally get rid of the 300Mhz PII.

I'm obviously not a system builder; that is why I spent about 8 hours online during the past two days trying to figure out what to buy. Conclusion: TOO MANY CHOICES!!! On-board options, bios, nforce2, kt333, fsb, ddr... seriously, anything I buy will be a gigantic upgrade even if this is a budget machine.

So this is what I've decided on; a mobo + athlon XP + fan that will accommodate a mild overclock for under $150. Somebody please just tell me what to buy before all my hair turns grey! Preferably all from one shop to save on shipping. Extras like adequate on-board audio and usb 2.0 are a plus for me. I'll probably pick up a geforce mx 64 for display... saw them cheap on pricewatch.

Thanks for any help. After I buy, I'll be back on the boards for overclocking advice.

ugn

 

[Vette73]

Well it will be a little over $150 but...

Get a cheap nForce2 board($115 or so) and a Retail Athlon 1700+ ($63 at newegg.com)

Board will have good sound, USB2.0, firewire, ethernet.

 

[gaidin123]

Get an Athlon 1700XP retail from newegg for $62. This gets you a fan and a 3 year warranty on the CPU since you definitely seem to hold onto your computer for a long time.

As for a motherboard, there are a ton of choices. The Asus A7n266-VM is an nForce1 motherboard with onboard video, LAN, good sound, for about $72 from newegg. It's micro-atx so there are only 3 PCI slots though. Also it's USB1.1 only I believe..

Also, if you are upgrading from an older system, you need to be sure that you have at least a semi-decent quality power supply. You of course can try your current one but overall system instability and/or not POSTing could be indicative of a sub-par power supply. And you didn't mention RAM. You need DDR RAM to run almost any of the new AMD or Intel motherboards. There are a handful of boards out there that will still take SDRAM but your P2 300 may not even have PC100 SDRAM in it.

Be aware that with your pricerange you are pretty much limited to older or budget boards even if you spend merely $60 on your CPU. If you bump it up to to around $175 you will have a much larger selection of motherboards to choose from. Are there any features you require such as onboard LAN or USB2? If so, that will really cut down on the number of possibilities and make it a lot easier to choose.

Gaidin

 

[AlwaysWong]

Originally posted by: gaidin123
Get an Athlon 1700XP retail from newegg for $62. This gets you a fan and a 3 year warranty on the CPU since you definitely seem to hold onto your computer for a long time.

As for a motherboard, there are a ton of choices. The Asus A7n266-VM is an nForce1 motherboard with onboard video, LAN, good sound, for about $72 from newegg. It's micro-atx so there are only 3 PCI slots though. Also it's USB1.1 only I believe..

Also, if you are upgrading from an older system, you need to be sure that you have at least a semi-decent quality power supply. You of course can try your current one but overall system instability and/or not POSTing could be indicative of a sub-par power supply. And you didn't mention RAM. You need DDR RAM to run almost any of the new AMD or Intel motherboards. There are a handful of boards out there that will still take SDRAM but your P2 300 may not even have PC100 SDRAM in it.

Be aware that with your pricerange you are pretty much limited to older or budget boards even if you spend merely $60 on your CPU. If you bump it up to to around $175 you will have a much larger selection of motherboards to choose from. Are there any features you require such as onboard LAN or USB2? If so, that will really cut down on the number of possibilities and make it a lot easier to choose.

Gaidin

Thanks Gaidin... good info. I neglected to mention that this will all be for a brand new system. All the old parts on the hog are staying on... to be reformatted and transferred to the parents as a web appliance. I haven't yet decided on the rest of the necessary components (case, PS, video, etc) since I wanted to decide on the 'heart' of the system first.

I like the sound of a mobo under $85... any more suggestions?

 

[mechBgon]

If your budget were larger, I'd say wait for nForce2 with integrated graphics because it has lots of features and a good upgrade path. The onboard video wouldn't be as good as a GF4MX 440 add-in card, and would definitely call for a pair of memory modules in order to use nForce2's dual-channel memory controller to make the video work at its best (which is between GF4MX 420 and 440). But you would get Firewire, USB 2.0 and very simple overclocking using the BIOS menus.

Since your budget would probably only cover an nF2+video board by itself, I'll leave that be. If you could give up the overclocking part, an Asus A7N266-VM would offer you excellent 5.1 onboard sound, onboard LAN, and support for all 200- and 266MHz-bus AthlonXP's or Durons, and is only about $70. If you don't mind installing the heatsink and leaving it on, the retail-boxed AMD's come with an adequate heatsink and a one-use-only phase-change thermal pad that eliminates the need for Arctic Silver 3. This board seems to be giving Win98 users some driver-installation hassles, but nVidia has published a guide to the proper procedure on their site.

So if you went that route, and shopped at Newegg.com, you would have

• A7N266-VM $73 + free shipping
• Retail AthlonXP 1800+ Thoroughbred with heatink/fan + free shipping

Total $150.99

Or you could try getting an EPoX 8K3A+ or 8K5A2, an OEM AthlonXP 1600+ and a fairly good heatsink/fan unit, plus some Arctic Silver 3, and overclock the 1600+ to 2100+ levels, assuming your RAM is capable of PC2700 speeds. I have a system similar to this one at home.

I know what you mean about the plethora of choices to look at... definitely information overload Let me add to the confusion by reminding of the need for a pretty strong power supply compared to what your P2 300 probably came with. 200W or more on the 3.3V + 5V lines combined is a good idea, and even some generic "400W" power supplies don't have that much. If you need a new PSU, newegg has reputable Sparkle Power 300W and 350W units for $27 and $42 respectively.

edit: ok, that is a new record for me, I was pre-empted by THREE other helpful people Guess I better trade in my Cheetah avatar for the Snail...

 

[AlwaysWong]

Hmm... an interesting deal in today's Fry's ad:

Athlon XP 2100+ Retail with Quantispeed Arch and FIC AT31 Fusion Mobo
Features:
ATI onboard video
AC97 sound
10/100 LAN
Heatsink/fan included
3 yr warranty

$149.99 for combo

Looks like a 'mini' board with 3 PCI slots. It's not exactly what I was looking for, but it sounds like a decent deal. Is this mobo any good? I just need a quick opinion to either divert or entice an impulse purchase.

Thanks again. Please keep more suggestions coming.

 

[gaidin123]

I'd say no to that ATI board. For whatever reason I only see Fry's carrying it and no other place. That doesn't mean it's bad, just not many people seem to have it or have posted about it. I'd take that Asus board and a 1700+ over the ATI one. mech8gon's suggesting of possibly one of the Epox boards sounds good to me. I recently bought a refurbished 8k5a3+ from newegg and love it. I use an Epox 8kha+ board in my main athlon rig and have had absolutely not problems with it. It works great with my old Sparkle/Powerman/FSP Group 300W PSU too.

As for other motherboard suggestions, take a look at newegg's motherboard area. Use the search on the left to search for KT333 chipset motherboards. There are several under $85 that look good to me but I don't have personal experience with any of them. You can get the 8k5a2 which has USB2 and overclocking options for <$85 off of pricewatch. A LAN card should run you $10 or so...or a USB2 card should run you $15 or so if you end up with a motherboard with USB1.


Gaidin

 

[novice]

newegg.com has the MSI KT3 Ultra2 for $81 with free shipping, and the retail XP1700+ for $62 also free shipping. I have been running this combo with a visiontek Geforce 3 Ti200 and 512 MB of PC2100 ram and have been very happy with it so far. Finally did give up on the onboard sound and put the old Turtle Beach Montego II sound card back in, though. Seems to work better.

 

[AlwaysWong]

All very interesting suggestions. The MSI might be it, but does anybody have any input regarding the Biostar M7VIT?

Biostar Motherboard for AMD Athlon/Athlon XP/Duron Processors, VIA KT400 Model# M7VIT
Specifications:
CPU Supported:Socket A AMD Athlon/Athlon XP/Duron processors.(Athlon XP 2700+, Athlon 1.4GHz, Duron 1.3GHz
Chipset: VIA KT400
FSB: 333MHz
RAM: 3x DDR(PC3200/DDR400)
IDE: Supports ATA 133
Slots: 1x AGP(8X), 5x PCI, 1x CNR
Ports: 6x USB 2.0, Audio ports (6 channel, CMI8738 MX)


http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?description=13-138-214&DEPA=1

 

[gaidin123]

Most likely the Biostar motherboard will work great for you, however it won't have many (if any) overclocking options. You can't expect much support from them, but then which motherboard manufacturer really provides great support? If you aren't interested in overclocking I'd snag the Biostar board. If the MSI one or other Epox one isn't much more for equivalent features I would probably get that one.

Also, the KT400 offers almost nothing over the KT333 chipset.

Gaidin

 

[novice]

Always Wong, if you do snag that Biostar M7VIT, let me know how it goes. I am also trying to decide between the MSI KT3 Ultra2, the MSI KT4VL, the Biostar M7VIP and the Biostar M7VIT. Haven't been able to find much info or feedback on the newer Biostar boards. I know the KT3 Ultra2 is solid, been running one for a couple of months, but would like to try something different (and maybe cheaper, too if I could be reasonably sure it would work reasonably well). Either way, let us know how it goes.

 

[AlwaysWong]

novice,

It really does seem quite difficult to find feedback on Biostar... but apparently, the little that I can find is mostly good. Besides the mobo, what are your plans for your next system? Is your current MSI system overclocked any? It seems to be pretty easy to be torn between these choices since both companies build well-priced, adequately featured mobos with pretty good reputations.

So how's about this... since you're the experienced builder, I'll go for a Biostar if you pick one up too. Otherwise, I think I'm fine with MSI and I'll milk you for advice for that as well, haha . We might perhaps be on the same budget and might as well put two heads together. My target is to have something built by the first week of the new year... after having taken advantage of all the holiday sales (already have an 80 GB HD and 256MB PC2700).

So, the flavor of the day is either MSI or Biostar (or Epox... argh!), unless a better suggestion is made or any striking combo deals pop up at Fry's for the week to come. Like I said, whatever I build will kick crab in comparison to any other system I regularly use. Keep me informed and thanks.