budget gamers dream mobo?

dubstar

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is this a dream, or a waste of 40 bucks? 3 customer reviews .. the last review kinda makes me giddy like a school girl

http://www.ecsusa.com/products/k7s5a.html

DDR motherboard for AMD® K7 socket A processors with 266/200 MHz FSB

Integrated with the most advanced technologies:

Suspend to RAM
Keyboard power on
Hardware monitoring
LAN/Modem wake up

--PROCESSORS

462 pin Socket A supports the AMD® K7 processors
Athlon XP / Athlon / Duron processors
CHIPSET

--SiS® 735 System Chipset

Super I/O and LPC - ITE8705F
System Hardware Monitor: Built-in ITE8705
LAN: MAC integrated in SiS®735 & PHY on board (Optional)
AC97 Audio Codec

--SYSTEM BIOS

AMI 2Mb Flash EEPROM
Supports Plug and Play 1.0A, AMP 1.2, Multi Boot, DMI
Support for ACPI revision 1.0 specification

--MEMORY

2 DDR DIMM sockets and 2 DIMM sockets support (can not be used simultaneously)
Two 184-pin DDR SDRAM (DDR200, DDR266) or
Two 168-pin 3.3V SDRAM (PC100, PC133)
Maximum: 1.0GB (DDR or SDRAM)

--I/O INTERFACE

Supports Plug and Play function
PS/2 keyboard and PS/2 mouse connectors
Dual USB ports and an optional LAN connector
1 - EPP/ECP mode parallel port
2 - 16550 high-speed serial I/O ports
Audio ports (Line-in, Line-out, Mic-in, CD-in and game port)
Dual PCI IDE interfaces - support four IDE devices (PIO mode 4, DMA Mode 2, Ultra DMA 33/66/100)
Supports 360K~2.88M Byte, 3 mode FDDs or LS120
ATX power supply connectors
Ports, headers and others:
IrDA header
Extra USB header
Two CD-In headers
Front Panel MIC/Line-Out header
HDD LED, ACPI MSG LED, Reset Switch, Power Switch headers
CPU and case fan headers
Modem Ring Wake Up Header
RTC & BATTERY

SiS®® 735 included 256 bytes of CMOS SRAM
With CMOS hardware clear jumper

--EXPANSION SLOTS

5 PCI slots, 1 4X AGP slot, 1 AMR slot
FORM FACTOR

ATX (304mm*244mm), 4 Layers
 
sis == crap for amd setups.. :(

performance below via setup levels..
 
whats a good chipset? im busting my balls looking for something respectable in the $60-80 range. i just want a 2100+ and something i dont need to change my old power supply for. K-7 currently..

dont forget.. main word here is budget.


edit: M7VIT-Pro review + link to specs
 
that m7vit is good. kt400 chipset.

basically, stick to kt400, kt400a, kt600, or nforce2. kt333 or nforce1 are quite old by now and won't leave much room for upgrades later.
 
Kingston PC2700 DDR333 512MB $79.00

Biostar M7VIG Pro Mainboard (Retail) $58.00

Athlon XP-2500+ (1.86GHz, 512KB, 333MHz, Socket A) Box $95.00

Subtotal: $232.00


from https://www.accupc.com

will i need a new Power Supply if my previous motherboard (S30 *all info i got on it from ibm's website*) has a Athlon K7, Slot A?
 
Originally posted by dubstar
Biostar M7VIG Pro Mainboard (Retail) $58.00
eh, you sure you want the m7vig? that's an old km266 chipset which is a kt266 with low-end onboard graphics. not much better than the k7s5a.

go for the m7vit. it's just about the same price, is faster, has more features, and more future-proof.

and yes, you'll need a new power supply as well. sorry. }:\

[edit] that same site has a kt600 board for $71.50. }:O that's an awesome deal.
 
phew, thanks for that.. almost "a day late, and a buck short"

the "VIT" is 85cents more than the "VIG"! amazing what people will miss.

i'd go for the "GA-7VT600-L" if i could use my PC100 ram, but since i cant.. i gotta go cheap style.


edit: what the hell am i saying!! 10 bucks! :eek: im slow tonight!
 
Watch out, tonight dubstar is slow and giddy like a schoolgirl. :D :p
 
Originally posted by dubstar
i'd go for the "GA-7VT600-L" if i could use my PC100 ram, but since i cant.. i gotta go cheap style.
oh! you plan on using your sdr memory with the new board?? in that case, you won't be able to use the VIT. the VIG you can, though. }:\
 
ok, back to the VIG i guess... but it seem so expensive now that i see 85cents can upgrade to a VIT... is it possible there are cheaper boards that let me use a 2100+ with PC100? or maybe a similar costing board that will have better Video/Audio features?


Watch out, tonight dubstar is slow and giddy like a schoolgirl.
:eek:


edit: this looks better than the M7VIG but is it? usb2, agp 2.0 2x/4x
.this looks the same as the link above, but advertises "jumperless overclocking" im inturpreting that as "this is a good o/cing board
 
I dont think you'd get any mobo that allows you to run a 2100+ with pc100 ram? Isnt the fsb on those cpus originally 133 before being boosted to 266/333?
 
maybe they only accept the higher processors with the ddr...

dang it! i need more money.. screw it, im saving up again.

thanks guys for bringing me down from my computer high... you know the one, where you start thinking about a new motherboard and start thinking of things you can add to it, and how fast it will be... ok, my high is officially down.
 
you can get athlon cpus and mobos that run with pc133 memory, but the pc100 would be in a state where it would be overclocked and it may not last you very long if its constantly running at 133mhz+

However, you can get an athlon 2000+/2100+ based system (edit: with DDR memory) for reasonably cheap.

As you'd only be getting a new cpu,hsf,ram,mobo etc - What else do you have in your current PC that you'd be transferring to the new one?

The way I did it prior to upgrading mine was save more money than I needed - that way if theres a slightly better mobo at the time than the one you planned to get, you're always covered for the extra expense - however, I'm always open to changing my mind at the last minute in order to get the best bang per buck (the mobo i got was ~£20 more expensive than the one I had planned to get - I've found out it was well worth the extra money since buying it)


I dont know an awful lot about AMD mobos - we only use cheap sis based ones in work (ok for office usage, but not for heavy usage - multitasking or gaming etc).

I would have a look in the direction of these... (all in uk, but u can find american/canadian places to buy it surely?)
http://web6.scan.co.uk/Products/Info.asp?WPID=35818 <- abit kd7 raid
http://web6.scan.co.uk/Products/Info.asp?WPID=50975 <- abit kd7-s raid
http://web6.scan.co.uk/Products/Info.asp?WPID=60010 <- asus a7v8x-8 (kt400)
http://web6.scan.co.uk/Products/Info.asp?WPID=46010 <- chaintech (funky looking) kt400
http://web6.scan.co.uk/Products/Info.asp?WPID=64051 <- epox 8rda (nforce2 chipset)

no idea if those are actually good - just a few I picked out that are both cheap and kt400 or nforce2 - people may pick at them as they wish, but like I said, I dont know a lot about AMD, I always buy Intel (not saying I'd never buy AMD - nor am I an Intel fanboy :p)
 
Cheap dream board

The K7s5a is not a bad inexpensive board, setup right its stable as hell but the sis 735 chipset is getting rather long in tooth. The ECS L7S7A2 id a real good cheap($54.00 us at newegg) mobo that uses the sis 746fx chipset and when configured properly will be maybe 10% less in gaming performance than most Nforce2 boards.

Soltek has a single channel Nforce 2 board that kicks butt for $76.00 at newegg. Oh, Asrock K7S8X is a good budget board too and its cheap.

I have built a couple score of budget gaming machines and I think the asrock is my new favorite in the $50.00 us range. Supports 333fsb and DDr 400, stable and fast.

I personally stay away from via boards now with others now available in the last year that are cheap and stable.

Dont get a kt400 if you can get a kt 400a for the same price.

:cool:
 
Nforce 2 boards start at like $60US on pricewatch and go up from there its a great chipset, i see a Asus, Epox and Msi for around $80US... check it out
 
Originally posted by dubstar
edit: this looks better than the M7VIG but is it? usb2, agp 2.0 2x/4x
.this looks the same as the link above, but advertises "jumperless overclocking" im inturpreting that as "this is a good o/cing board
that board will support a 2600+ (the fastest 266fsb chip). actually, a lot of km266 boards (like the m7vig) support up to the 2600+ through the latest bios update. go for it.
 
if u want a good board and gaming machine get a Asus Motherboard for AMD Athlon XP Processors, Model# A7N8X-X Retail its 88.99$, then also get a xp 2500+ barton which is 96, and 2 x 256 stick of any memory and u'll be SET for mobo, cpu, and ram.

Even if u d like get a xp 2100+, but your better off with a 2400 or above.
 
Originally posted by Brando457
if u want a good board and gaming machine get a Asus Motherboard for AMD Athlon XP Processors, Model# A7N8X-X Retail its 88.99$, then also get a xp 2500+ barton which is 96, and 2 x 256 stick of any memory and u'll be SET for mobo, cpu, and ram.

Even if u d like get a xp 2100+, but your better off with a 2400 or above.

but dubstar want a budget 1 ;)
 
u get what u paid for and in the long run he'll be better off spending the few extra dollars now so :D :p
 

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