mobo and processor upgrade advice please

[deejay]

Hi All,

Iam planning to replace my motherboard and processor, and as this is the very first time I have attempted this major surgery I would welcome your comments on the following:

1) The 2 mobo's of choice are ;Abit SA6R
or Asus CUSL2-C. I have read some pretty damming reports about the Asus board and installation nightmares under W98.
Anyone have experience with these boards or have better suggestions for a gaming board?
Is there a forum anywhere dedicated to Abit Mobo's. (You can't beat user forums for telling it as it is)

2)Processor; P3-850 or 866.
The dilemma here is to go 100 or 133mhz. I have pc100 ram and don't particularly want to buy pc133(funding limitations). I know the above mobos bios can be set individually for processor and ram etc but I have heard conflicting stories about stability issues when setting the processor at 133 and the ram at 100mhz, anyone tried this and with what results.

3)Is it necessary to format the hard drive? Some say yes others say no, just make sure that the cmos settings are noted. A consensus of opinion here would be appreciated.
My OS is W98. I have no plans to move to Win ME or 2000 yet.

4)finally , recommendations of a good stress councillor, 'cause I have the distinct feeling I'm gonna need one after this!!.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Dave

[SCompRacer]

Hi deejay,

I don't have any experience with either of the two MB's you mention, but do a search as there was a post recently about the Asus CUSL2-C and I remember it sounded pretty good.

This forum http://www.apushardware.com/vb/index.php just got back up again, (was taken out by hackers), pretty good info on Abit KT133/133A MB's, RAID and O/C.

As far as your hard drive goes, your best to start from scratch. If you have problems, you may not know why or not get much help till you do....too many variables.

Stay calm, patience...

[Greebe]

deejay, for mem see this thread...
http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum3/HTML/003265.html

[deejay]

Thanks for the replies folks.
Sorry about the delay in acknowledging you, but I was waiting for my email facility to inform me of the replies and it didn't.
Certainly some interesting stuff to look through.

Thanks again.

Dave.

[SCompRacer]

No e mail notice of replies here, deejay. Just gotta check back now and then.

[paulcs]

I found the CUSL2-C to be a lackluster performer with a 100:100 FSB compared to some other boards. I didn't try it at 133:100, but I haven't heard of any stability problems. Performance problems, yes. It really comes into it's own with a 133:133 FSB.

There are installation issues with Windows 2000, not Windows 98. With Windows 98, you pretty much install the OS and the latest INF, and you're done. Windows 2000 is a little trickier, and if something goes wrong, you most likely will find yourself reinstalling the OS.

There's a bit of a scandal attached to this board. At first, I dismissed it as mere rumor. Asus has confirmed it, however, on their *US* website. It tend to use the site in Taiwan, so I didn't find their little disclaimer until today.

Asus has shipped two versions of the CUSL2-C. One is based, properly, on the i815EP chipset. The other is based on the older i815E chipset, and, presumably, has had the onboard video removed. This is believed to be the more problematic of the two versions.

The CUSL2-C and CUSL2 are virtually identical. With the onboard display adapter and second CNR slot absent on both versions, it'll be tough to distinguish between the two.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[This message has been edited by paulcs (edited 01 February 2001).]

[Taz]

Just a thought, for the price of an Asus CUSL-2 + PIII 850/866 you could get an Abit KT-7A + 900Mhz Athlon and have enough left over for a decent 128Mb PC133 DIMM! For about £30.00 more you could get 256Mb

[Laurie]

Paul, I'm afraid you've lost me on this one(not your fault). I was planning on upgrading to the Asus CUSL2-C and am wondering what the problem is. I took a look at Asus' small print disclaimer and at the specs on the 815EP chipset. What am I losing out on if I buy just a CUSL2-C with the 815E chipset? There is too much techie mumbo-jumbo there for this old brain to decipher.

[paulcs]

Laurie, the 815E was designed to have integrated graphics. The 815EP was designed to remove this feature. It's not just a matter of motherboard manufacturers removing the VGA connector. Intel designed a new North Bridge which removes integrated VGA.

Asus has used the older i815E North Bridge instead of the i815EP on some CUSL2-C boards. If what people are saying is correct, and the problem boards are using the i815E North Bridge, then you would be potentially losing stability.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[Laurie]

Thanks Paul, I appreciate the info.

[deejay]

Back again,

Thanks Paul,Taz and Laurie.
For those interested in the Asus board here is an interesting site to visit;
http://radified.com/Misc/cusl2.htm
Just check on the forum link to find users experiences with the CUSL2-C.

Taz, I agree it looks good economical sense to go for the Athlon, but am a little concerned about the via chipsets and stability when playing games.
I've read alot of posts where people have had to constantly tweak and download various fixes for problems associated with the via chipsets.
I certainly don't want to add to Intel's mounting profit margin, but stability is a big issue with me and Luckily I've not had a problem with the pentiums......(yet!!).
Please pursuade me otherwise.

Dave

[Laurie]

Just noticed the place that has the cheapest price (Vancouver) for the processor I wanted also is now advertising the CUSL2C as 815EP . Now to hop the ferry to Vancouver one of these weekends.

BTW Thanks for the link Dave.

[This message has been edited by Laurie (edited 02 February 2001).]

Hmmmmmmm...... just went to Dave's link to take a look and then to the CUSL2 forums. A lot of people having a lot of problems. I think this is just normal stuff when you build your own system though.

[This message has been edited by Laurie (edited 02 February 2001).]

[Taz]

I understand your concerns about VIA based boards, there are quite a few people on this board who have been in a similar situation but have made the jump and seem to be pretty happy. VIA chipsets and drivers have improved greatly over the past couple of years, they're not perfect but are worth consideration. I've got an old Slot A Athlon on an Abit KT-7 at it has been very stable up to now, you just need to make sure that you have a decent PSU and memory.

[Novdid]

I would definetly go with the Athlon!!!!
Here´s a number of reasons.

1, It´s cheap
2, It´s faster
3, The VIA boards are stable nowadays.

With these three points in mind it would be hard to neglect a system based on a Athlon CPU.

If you don´t like VIA you can always look for a AMD 760 board.

Before you all start to say that it´s impossible to find a 760 board and some sticks of DDR I just want to say that I have found store that has ASUS A7M266 and Micron PC2100 memory in stock a week ago...and I live in Sweden. We get things rather late up here.

So I bet if you Canucks or Americans look hard enough you will find some of the mentioned hardware. And the cost of DDR+MB+CPU is the same as if you would buy a PIII+new PC133 RAM+MB. I strongly reccomend you to buy some faster memory. PC100 is kinda slow for the latest CPU:s.

[paulcs]

If you're going to get a CUSL2-C, maybe you should get this one:

http://www.ocworkbench.com/archives/...lack-pearl.GIF

Pretty black motherboards aside, the CUSL2-series does a lot better, performance-wise, with a PIII that runs on a 133 MHz bus or a 100 MHz FSB PIII than can be overclocked to 133 MHz:

There isn't a 100:133 MHz CPU/Memory bus ratio option. It supports 133:100 and 133:133.

Performance is relatively poor with a 100 MHz memory bus when compared to a BX chipset-based solution. The board comes into it's own with a 133 MHz memory bus.

The 1/2 AGP and 1/4 PCI dividers are engaged automatically at 133 MHz. At 132 MHz, you're stuck with 2/3 AGP and 1/3 PCI dividers. If you're overclocking, and your PIII can't quite make it to 133 MHz, but runs fine at 129 MHz, AGP will be running at 88 MHz and PCI at 44 MHz. This, of course, can be an impediment to overclocking.

At 133:133 and above, it's a very nice board. In my opinion, you're much better off with a CPU that runs on a 133 MHz bus and PC133 RAM.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net