Is this a good computer? i have questions!

[nehalmistry]

i got a socket 370 m754lmr mobo by pcchips.... my first question is ... is pcchips a good company? are their mobo's good?

the second question is i'm 99% sure im getting a celeron 700 and my mobo manual said it supports PPGA Celeron FSB 66mhz ..... now will it support 100mhz because the multiplier only goes up to 8 and therefore i can't clock it to 700 with 66fsb....

it's pretty good i think.... it has a onboard agp TNT2 with max shared mem of 32megs... which means im gonna become an nvidiot but you gotta admit it kicks g200's ass... well, its a generation ahead... sound is CMI onboard, but i can get a good ol' SB PCI128....

btw, the celeron 700 is gonna cost me $125 CDN... .... which is ~$83 US...

here is website
http://www.pcchips.com.tw/M754LMR.html

all opinions are appreciated....

EDIT: it is 4x agp i think.....

------------------
Asus P5A-B MoBo w/AMD K6-266@300 (100mhz FSB)
Matrox Milleniumm G200 AGP (oh, lets party)
Creative SB Awe32 (a classic, superb card)
Realtek 8029A NIC Card
128meg (2x64) 100mhz SDRam
Ali V agp chipset (2x)
30 gig HD 7200 RPM UDMA 66
ALI 1543 IDE Controller (ATA 33)
Optiquest Q53 15" Monitor
Actima 36X CD-Rom
Slackware Linux 7.1
Windows 95B (for gaming)
ICQ UIN: 24730025

[This message has been edited by nehalmistry (edited 10 May 2001).]

[Rags]

PCCHIPS==GARBAGE MAXIMUS!!

Rags

[dsp]

nehalmistry,

Personally I don't especially like PCchips/Houston Tech motherboards. But for a highly integrated board they are very nice.

About the Celeron 700, it should work as the CPU automatically tells the motherboard its needed info, and since it supports Coppermines it very well should support the Celermine 700 (10.5 Multiplier). If nothing else check for a new BIOS which should support it. Hope this helps.

dsp

------------------
AMD Duron 650@900MHz
256MB Micron PC-133 CAS3 -7E @ 137MHz CAS2
ABIT KT7-RAID
13.6GB Maxtor 7200RPM Hard Drive
8.4GB Quantum CR
20 GB Quantum LM
Toshiba SD-M1212 6X DVD ROM
Plextor 8/4/32A
SB Live X-Gamer 5.1
Matrox G400 32MB Dualhead Vanilla @ 150/200/150
Zoltrix TV-MAX Capture Card (BT848)
17" Hansol 710P
Win 98SE/Win2kPro
10/100 Ethernet card (D-Link)
Cable @Home
Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer

[Rags]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Personally I don't especially like PCchips/Houston Tech motherboards. But for a highly integrated board they are very nice. </font>

Yeah, if you don't need quality, stability, and support.

Stay far, far away from anything PCCHIPS. Stick with the name brand stuff. Asus, Aopen, Abit, MSI, Intel.

Rags

[nehalmistry]

darn, i knew i would get bad comments about pcchips... ... anyway..... it wont suddenly f**k up my computer parts... at the minimum it will work... right?

[dsp]

Rags,

I know about the stability I had an old Super 7 board and the memory traces were broken I think. I've worked with other versions of the board (stupid school policy) and they work fairly well, but I agree name brand is better.

Nehalmistry,

About the Celeron 700, check page 31 of the manual, it mentions CPU PNP allowing you to change the multiplier. Also I notice that leaving all the jumpers open is not documented (for the multiplier) so that might be something to look at.

The board shouldn't screw up your parts, if anything it alone should go.

dsp

[This message has been edited by dsp (edited 10 May 2001).]

[sasa]

Stay away from PC CHIPS!!! Their MB are THE WORST you can buy. Dont buy it no matter how low the price is. Anyone who says different is stupid. Once I made comp with PC Chips MB and I was forced to look how it works for a whole year. I can not believe how their MB even got the permission to enter market.
You have celery 700? cool, but be warned that your system will be im most cases slower then celery 500 with decent MB. If your game will run long enough to measure speed...

[SteveC]

Ugh! PCChips - we've built a few machines using these boards... once in a blue moon they release a stable model, but stable at the tradeoff of being very poor performers.

(edit: OK, so I read their site, and answer my own questions )

It is a TNT2, so that's not too bad. However, it's made by Ali, and I've personally never been impressed by them.

Also, get the SB128 if you can - the CMI sound Pro things aren't very compatible for games.

If you can, take the board back and save up a touch more and get another make - or see if you can get a 2nd hand board. If not, don't worry - at least it's not a SiS based board, like most of PCChip's stuff. It'll probably all work, jut not as fast as another make of board.

good luck!

------------------
Cheers,
Steve

"Life is what we make of it, yet most of us just fake"

[This message has been edited by SteveC (edited 10 May 2001).]

[The PIT]

Yep PCChips ought to be renamed Pcshits. There crap, so crap they even made the pages of pcplus mag.

[nehalmistry]

damn you guys...... damn..... should i return it and get my $0 refund?

you really dissapointed me, but i guess i should know how shitty pcshits is....

well i'm not getting my celeron... someone else is....should be here tonite... if it doesnt work out... i'll get a new mobo..... but anyway.... at least i can try this out... right? i mean i'm not planning to do anything special like o'c it.... as long as i keep it to its limits.... i think i should be fine

[Technoid]

Q. What's Worse than a PCChips Mobo?

A: A PCChips mobo with VIA Chips!

[The PIT]

Via on pcshits god thats the ulimate shit.
Not even a black hole could swallow that.

[Nuno]

I really can´t understand this primary "IT SUCKS, MAN" reflex. Let me ask you all bashing pcchips how many of you actually tested these motherboards?

Look, I´ve owned a pcchips board and tried another. The first one had a ALI chipset (more or less like intel TX), and my p225MMX is still running after 4 years, and it performed on par with Intel chipsets at the time. It even had assyncronous memory/bus speeds, so you could run the fsb at 83 mhz with the pci within spec.

The second pcchips mobo I´ve tried had a KT133 chipset and it was merely to troubleshoot another board. I didn´t keep it, but it actually let win2k to install, and my usb scanner worked with it, and that´s more than I can say about the Lucky-Star and the Abit KT7-raid, accordingly. I ended getting a Asus A7V.

So, nehalmistry, try the damn thing. If it works and if it fits your needs, what the heck.

[This message has been edited by Nuno (edited 10 May 2001).]

[Technoid]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by The PIT:
Via on pcshits god thats the ulimate shit.
Not even a black hole could swallow that.</font>

I thought that that would be the general consensus.

[Rags]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by Nuno:
I really can´t understand this primary "IT SUCKS, MAN" reflex. Let me ask you all bashing pcchips how many of you actually tested these motherboards?

Look, I´ve owned a pcchips board and tried another. The first one had a ALI chipset (more or less like intel TX), and my p225MMX is still running after 4 years, and it performed on par with Intel chipsets at the time. It even had assyncronous memory/bus speeds, so you could run the fsb at 83 mhz with the pci within spec.

The second pcchips mobo I´ve tried had a KT133 chipset and it was merely to troubleshoot another board. I didn´t keep it, but it actually let win2k to install, and my usb scanner worked with it, and that´s more than I can say about the Lucky-Star and the Abit KT7-raid, accordingly. I ended getting a Asus A7V.

So, nehalmistry, try the damn thing. If it works and if it fits your needs, what the heck.

[This message has been edited by Nuno (edited 10 May 2001).]</font>

Don't open your mouth too soon. Many of us here, including me, have to work on systems that are based on PCCHIPS motherboards. The general agreement is that there is not a lower form of motherboard manufacturer.

Rags