Gonna build a new one

[Paleo Pete]

Most of you know I'm not that familiar with the newer parts...give me a 486 or P-200 and I'm jammin', but the newer parts are...well, new...as opposed to me...old, bald and...what was I going to say?....

Going to build a new machine for my sister and she's ordering parts, have the case already (ATX), and she's considering this Abit BE6-II (http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/product.asp?dept%5Fid=76&pid=2334&sid=G6H1DA54W4S92HSE080205RWQLTLB9H9) with a P-III 700 or 750 and 128 or 256MB PC-133.

We'll deal with hard drives etc later, but I wanted to get some opinions/comments about this board. Price seems pretty good, and it has about everything we want, and especially doesn't have the things we don't want...like integrated audio or video. It leaves some room for upgrading later on, since it will handle up to 1GHz CPU, and has 3 RAM slots, so adding more memory won't be a problem, AGP 1x & 2x, and ISA slots so we can put in a good modem.

Anyone have any experience with this board, or knowledge of any issues we might run across? I'm wondering about the Intel 440BX chipset, I don't know much about it, but have heard that it's pretty good.

Any info will certainly be appreciated.

Thanks,
Pete

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If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you!
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[mjc]

I guess I'm not really supposed to reply to this one, twice now I had a response typed in ready to send and lost them.

Here I go again.

I'm looking at the Abit BX133-raid very similar to yours (socket370 as opposed to slot1). Both seem to be the darlings of all the reviews I've seen. MaximumPC gave the BX133 "Gear of the Year" for Intel socket boards. So I guess Abit is doing something right with the 440BX chipset. I haven't gotten mine yet but sure does look good on paper.

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mjc

[sleddog]

Pete, I gotta say it: give me *any* good reason to spend extra money on Intel when an AMD chip is cheaper and will out-perform an Intel chip of its class.

If you're looking at putting together an excellance performance, general-purpose machine, start with a Duron (or a T-Bird of you want the top-notch performance). But dollor-for-dollar, nothing beats a Duron.

Next you want a quality socket A m/b...

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sleddog
[sleddog.f2s.com] (http://www.sleddog.f2s.com)

[Paleo Pete]

Cuz I wouldn't touch an AMD with your fingers.

Also it's my sister's machine, and she won't touch AMD either, has one in this junker and we suspect it's half the problems. Can you say Compuque? Our brother had one (K6-2/400) that was nothing but trouble. Took him 3 weeks to get it to work right, and he's been working on computers 20 years.

Intel invented the CPU, (at IBM's request), leased their technology for other companies to use until the 386, and AMD has been playing catchup ever since.

I also don't trust them, after the K6-2/Win95 incompatibility issue that they refused to admit for about 2 years. I also strongly suspect the K6-2 doesn't like 98 too much, both of the above mentioned machines have K6-2 and win98.

The Intel may be more, but it's what we prefer.


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If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you!
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[sleddog]

The "K6-2/Win95 incompatibility issue" is history and doesn't apply to modern AMD chips. Such talk now is nothing more than FUD, IMHO http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

But you're in luck. Apparently the price of PIII's is going to drop significantly this week, thanks to marketplace competition from AMD.

Best of luck with the build!

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sleddog
[sleddog.f2s.com] (http://www.sleddog.f2s.com)

[sleddog]

... and Bombardier (of Quebec, Canada) invented the snowmobile, but that wouln't stop me buying a Yamaha or Polaris if the price/performance was right for my needs! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

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sleddog
[sleddog.f2s.com] (http://www.sleddog.f2s.com)

[Paleo Pete]

lol...good point.

OK, I was mostly joking around a bit last night, but seriously this time....

I've never liked AMD, probably never will. The K6-2 issue might not have been AMD's fault, the point is they refused to admit the problem existed for ages. To be fair, most software/hardware vendors don't like to admit they have a problem. When have you seen Ford or Chevy issue a recall without Uncle Sam forcing it? Rarely...same for computer related companies.

If you take a look around the forums you'll see AMD's figure into the majority of problems, especially the "just built it and it won't boot" category. These certainly aren't all related to the CPU, but they can't possibly all be coincidence or user inexperience either. When I see a ratio of 15 or 20/1 I have to question it. Even after I drop it to about 1/3 of that to weed out user created problems.

I've checked out the listings at cpuscorecard, I don't think the minor difference in performance would be noticable without actually benchmarking. The P-III/750 is a tiny bit above the Duron 750, definitely not noticable, the Athlon just a bit above the P-III, (can you time 2 or 3 nanoseconds?) and the T-bird 750 just might show a noticable difference if you don't defrag the Intel machine for a month.

This computer also won't be into any serious gaming, mostly typical home use. Internet, word processing, saving pics off the digital camera, etc. No resource-hog 3D games, or tough graphics apps that eat up resources.

The CPU issue is mostly a matter of personal preference anyway, and even if the Intel does cost more, I plan to stick with them after 6 years of good results and every AMD in our family giving us trouble. For people who like them, that's fine with me, I certainly don't recommend not getting the AMD if you want one and like them, but after seeing the problems that I have in the forums, and the past experiences, I'm leary of them, we'll spend the extra bucks. First thing Sis said was "no AMD for me". So basically that's the main point, she wants Intel this time.

Anyway, she's just about decided to go for the Abit board I asked about, I looked up some info and saw some pretty good reviews, and have heard good things about the board before. Abit also has a long standing reputation as one of the best.

Only problem I see is I just found out the case she got has a 250W power supply, and I know from some of the problems we've dealt with here, that might be a source of grief, but we'll wait and see. She didn't know about the power supply issue when she got it, and already said if it turns out to be a problem, it will be replaced. We can always use it in a less demanding machine.

Thanks for the input guys, and no, I'm not upset about the CPU brand issue. I knew I'd catch some flak about it before I ever posted, and it's always an interesting debate anyway...

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If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you!
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[sleddog]

Fair enough Pete.

You might hold off a few days ordering the PIII as there *are* some serious rumours about significant price drops this week. But perhaps you know about it...

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sleddog
[sleddog.f2s.com] (http://www.sleddog.f2s.com)

[hacker]

Just to put an outsiders opinion in, I think most of the posts you see for for problems with AMD systems come from ASUS & ABIT MBs.

A Fic AZ11 is almost never mentioned or MicroStar either. (I don't work for them)

No matter what you choose, they are both fast. Just a matter of $$$.

My opinion, don't get a Slot processor of either flavor.

GoodLuck!



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I was called "hacker" before there was a HeathKit.

[Paleo Pete]

sleddogg: We plan to hold off a bit on the CPU, didn't know the prices were expected to drop, but have been expecting it since AMD seems to be getting quite a bit more popular recently. With them generating more sales, Intel would almost have to drop prices a bit to stay in the game.

I think more motherboard manufacturers building boards with better AMD support figures in too, and the recent 800MHz-1 giggers getting better reviews probably helps too.

We'll be looking at online sources instead of much higher priced local retailers anyway, unless some place has one heck of a sale...

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If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you!
Note: Please post your questions on the forums, not in my email.

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[blazer2boy]

I currently have the ABIT BE6 2 motherboard with a P3 500 with no problems.
Running Windows NT. But I also have a Soyo Motherboard for the AMD 333MHZ
and it works just as good as a Pentium.

The ABIT 133BX motherboard is Good I had issues with the assignment of the IRQ for this motherboard. .

You might also want to look into the KX133 chipset Motherboards they seem to be hot sellers on the market know.

Good Luck on the New PC.

Blazer

[Randy_tx]

Abit builds an excellent Mobo and although I'm a AMD Athalon fan personally, the PIII is a great chip as well. You will love the "soft menu" feature inherent in Abit Mobo's, but(not that you were thinking of it) I wouldnt recommend trying to overclock the cpu !! It is a very stable board and she will love the performance @ 800mhz . Prices went down on Monday.

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"I didn't have a relationship with that OS...Win ME."

[Paleo Pete]

Don't plan to overclock, not for her machine anyway, I'd like to try it sometime just for educational purposes and experience, but I plan to use an obsolete machine that won't cost me major bucks if I scrap it. Like maybe this one after I upgrade to something made in this century...

I'll have to see how I like the software setup, sounds like it might be pretty cool, not having to search for jumpers, guess I'll see when I get to dig into it. We're watching prices, not in a great hurry to buy everything right now, and checking everywhere we can find for parts and sales etc.

And I'm sure now I know you from Mplayer...light or grey hair, own or work in a shop outside Dallas, dual monitor setup, Intel cam, I think you were running about a 600MHz machine or so at that time, about a year ago...But Paleo Pete wasn't my nick there...hehe

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines!
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[Randy_tx]

Yep......you got most of it right....no Intel though...wish mine was an Intel! BTW...if you do try overclocking on a CPU that requires any soldering......let me know how ya did it........I'm scared to death of trying that! All I've done is screw around with mulitpliers & Voltage and you cant do that any more with the locking devices on them now. Tom Pabst (Tom's Hardware) is about the best I've seen at overclocking.

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"I didn't have a relationship with that OS...Win ME."

[Paleo Pete]

Soldering? Not a chance! I'll stick to the jumpered types. This one's a P-200MMX, and I might get a board for it later that will handle 233 or 266, and try it just to see how it goes. Thinking about trying to overclock a Cyrix 133 at 110, but they tend to get hot to begin with, so I might scrap that idea. Already have the board to do it with, but I'm betting it would fry the CPU.

I'd have a hard time finding out what to solder on one of those old things anyway. Might be fun to try though...if I could find out where the contacts are, I know how to solder well enough I don't think I'd damage the board. Also have about a half dozen older boards I could tinker with and see...

First time I set up the Cyrix I got the jumpers wrong, and it came up as 150MHz...shut it down quick! I'm not sure if I want to try that one or not. By the way, I'm about 3 hours from you, Angelina county near Lake Sam Rayburn.

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines!
Note: Please post your questions on the forums, not in my email.

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)