Best AthlonXP motherboard

[Pace]

I have a friend who's planning a nice new system, based around a Athlon XP 'Thoroughbred' 2200+, 512MB PC2100 and a Gigabyte <a href="http://tw.giga-byte.com/products/7vrxp.htm">GA7 VRXP</a> (RAID) motherboard.

Just wondering if there's any advice you can spare. The board is a KT333, but as I've not followed the VIA chipset scene for a while, dunno if this is the best idea.

His <a href="http://webplus.silicon-group.co.uk/acatalog/Silicon_Group_DURON___ATHLON_BOARDS_21.html">suppl ier</a> is quoting around $120 for the board, but there's an MSI KT3 ULTRA2 based on the KT333 there for $105. The Gigabyte has a Promise RAID onboard, and Realtek 8100 10/100 LAN.

I'll post more if you wish. Is the MSI better? How are the SiS chipsets for Athlon's?

Thanks in advance,

Paul.

[Wombat]

SiS is great for Athlons. MSI 745Ultra if you can find it. $65, great performance, and none of the Via hassles. We've covered it in a lot of threads.

At that price, you could go ahead and get a real RAID card.

[GT98]

Forget VIA and get a SIS board! Everyone including myself rave about the SIS boards. The Asus A7S333 is best board I've owned since the Intel 440BX board I had (Abit BH6).

[Pace]

Yeah, I've just pointed this thread and http://forums.murc.ws/showthread.php?s=&threadid=35677 to him

Thanks,

P.

[Pace]

Decided I might as well post everything about the system, just in case there's any stuff I've missed (watch out for GeForce's here, he's a gamer ).

New Computer Price List:

AMD Athlon XP 'Tbred' 2200+ ... $190
17" Daytek Monitor ... $125
Chaintech Geforce 4 4600 128MB ... $380
SOUNDBLASTER AUDIGY PLAYER ... $70
THERMALTAKE VOLCANO 7 ... $30
Crucial 512MB DDR PC2100 CAS-2.5 (MY-006-CR) ... $160
IBM 120GXP 82.3GB (HD-005-IB) ... $100
Chieftech Dragon DX-01GND Golden Green Case (CA-012-CT) ... $125

He has an existing 40GB, a CDRW (IDE) and DVD (also IDE), so there'll be 4 IDE devices.

Better monitor? Radeon/Parhelia? Non Creative card? PC2700 RAM? Non IBM drive? Different case?

P.

[Ribbit]

Wasn't the IBM 120GXP the one with serious reliability problems? Like if it was powered on more than 8 hours a day?

Oh yeah, add my voice to the 'avoid VIA' crowd.

[Wombat]

Aye, I'm wary of IBM drives these days. The 120GXP has the glorious history of the 60gxp and 75gxp behind it.

RAM: Samsung's PC2700 RAM is really nice. They seem to be 1/2 step ahead. Newegg has the 512MB DIMM for $155. Greebe's had his stable at 187MHz - I haven't gotten around to tweaking mine, but it's running at 166 without hassle.

Hele's getting his Radeon 9700 for like $320. I'm not going to get into religious debates, but even if you're going to get a GF4, I have a hard time paying the premium for a Ti4600, and not one of it's slightly slower, significantly cheaper siblings. Does Gainward have a Golden Sample GF4 yet?

It's not like he can play very high res with a cheapo 17" anyway. Funnel money from the card to the monitor, IMHO.

[az]

C't says the Ti4200 golden samples aren't better overclockers than other 4200s.

I, too, would get a better monitor and Ti4200.

AZ

[Ryu Connor]

You could kick the Audigy to the curb and nab a nForce based motherboard solution.

MSI K7N420, Abit NV7-133R, or Asus A7N266-C good choices. The Abit board even comes with a RAID controller. Assuming you don't despise the HPT372.

[Greebe]

High Point raid flat out sux. Abit, well we're accustomed to their failing caps so down the tubes with that one and nVidia mb's... just doesn't sit well on my palet.

Get the MSI 745 Ultra if you can find one. If you've got a bit of time to spare before purchasing wait til MSI has their version of the SiS 746/963 chipseted MB's out. That one is sure to be a pleaser

[Tomasz]

Via motherboards are perfectly fine for normal home office or gaming use, as long as you buy one that is made by competent motherboard manufacturer (e.g. AOpen). SiS motherboards are a wonderful deal right now as well. The choice is a toss up.

There's nothing wrong with the Audigy either. I've used Creative's sound cards ever since the original Sound Baster and have never had problems with them. Hell, the only other sound card I've ever used was a Gravis Ultrasound (RIP).

I have an Audigy and Radeon 8500 128MB installed on my VIA KT333 system (AOpen ak77-333) and everything works perfectly. Moreover, I've built dozens of systems based on this motherboard and have had nearly zero problems.

You can probably tell what motherboard I would recommend...

[Dr Mordrid]

The choice is not a tossup at all. Please read my new post "VIA PCI bandwidth issues confirmed", which links to an excellent analysis of VIA's PCI problems done by TecChannel.de.

Summary: VIA chipsets have now and have had since the MVP3 severe problems with PCI bandwidth. They put VIA and other chipsets on hardware monitors and document the problem in exquisite detail.

Given your long term use of VIA hardware you may not even know what you're missing.....

As for your faith in Creative cards; this is not the experience of many other users, especially when used with VIA hardware. Creatives cards are PCI bus hogs. Combined with a VIA chipset this leaves precious little margin if another high bandwidth card is put in the mix.

Uppance: don't even THINK about putting in a high bandwidth editing card

Dr. Mordrid

[K6-III]

The best KT333 board for your application shall be the Epox 8K5A2+

As for SIS745, my suggestions lie in MSI 745 Ultra or Aopen AK75

[Technoid]

Originally posted by Tomasz
Via motherboards are perfectly fine for normal home office or gaming use, as long as you buy one that is made by competent motherboard manufacturer (e.g. AOpen).

Don't get me started on that firm.....

[Ryu Connor]

Don't get me started on that firm.....

The people who implement the chipset are more important than the chipset manufacturer themselves. One only need to experience a crappy BIOS or a lemon board to quickly learn that.