Hardware advice...

[EvilCabbage]

Okay guys.. its been a while since I forked out for hardware (of my own, anyway) and Im looking at getting an Athlon XP setup.

I have some hardware already, but I need :

CPU, Mainboard, and RAM, to get me started. Memory will just be however much DDR stuff I can get my paws on, CPU will probably be an Athlon 1700+, but I am undecided on mainboard...

Anyone got an opinion? I dont want to pay too much over $250.00AU.

[cc_penguin]

I was (still am) a fan of Asus, but I just built one with the MSI KT266Pro, I must say its a pretty sweet board. I will probably be going with that one myself when I build mine, if I dont go with one of the new KT333 chipsets, I havent seen to many of those yet though.

[kato]

I'm not sure how much that translate to american. ABIT or ASUS for fast and reliable but expensive. Gigabyte for budget conscience but still pretty stable and relatively fast. Also put DFI in this category. An ECS solution for FAST, & REAL CHEAP, but maybe some minor to major compatibility and setup issues (depending on who you talk to)

[EvilCabbage]

[quote]Originally posted by cc_penguin:
<strong>I was (still am) a fan of Asus, but I just built one with the MSI KT266Pro, I must say its a pretty sweet board. I will probably be going with that one myself when I build mine, if I dont go with one of the new KT333 chipsets, I havent seen to many of those yet though.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Yeah.. a friend of mine has that board, and is pretty impressed with it ...

[deseqer]

last month I upgraded my MB and processor see sig..

so far the abit board has been pretty stable for my needs (no overclocking). My company has sold a couple of those MSI KT266Pro boards and they seem to be a pretty good board, plus the add fact is that MSI are cheaper. I have not been to impressed about the dfi boards, we have had many problems with the ak75-ec models. We have sold just one DFI AD70-SC and so far its been running ok, but it is two eary to tell.

side note: the ak75-ec boards that we have sold before the last 1.5 months have be pretty stable. but now it is a different story. not sure if we just got a bad batch of boards or one of the other peices of hardware in the computer is clausing the problems. replaced mainboard problem solved.

[Stalemate]

Another fan of the MSI boards here.

I just set one up last Friday with a 1700+ and it booted into winXP Home Edition in under 10 seconds!

To me it's the price price:quality ratio out there at the moment.

[jaeger]

[quote]Originally posted by kato2274:
<strong>I'm not sure how much that translate to american. ABIT or ASUS for fast and reliable but expensive. Gigabyte for budget conscience but still pretty stable and relatively fast. Also put DFI in this category. An ECS solution for FAST, & REAL CHEAP, but maybe some minor to major compatibility and setup issues (depending on who you talk to)</strong><hr></blockquote>

Not to knock on you Kato, but several of these are the brands I wouldn't recommend. Abit's and Asus's quality control and websites are in the sh***er and ECS is rebadged PCChips (if memory serves me) thus a huge waste of money. I don't have much experience with DFI and Gigabyte. The current great mobo manufacturers are Epox and MSI. MSI for features/stability and Epox for balls-to-the-wall speed.

[Gameguru]

I have installed at least 5 manufacturers boards in more than 1000 computers and I am an ABIT fan all the way with a close second going to asus.

<a href="http://www.abit.nl/eng/product/mb/kr7a-133r.htm" target="_blank">ABIT KR7 RAID</a>

If you want to save money ditch the raid. Still an excellent board.

JM2¢

[gxavier]

Check my sig. I love everything I have. No complaints here.

[Radical Dreamer]

8kha+, even though I got 2 bad ones :( I think it was just teh company that I was ordering them from