SimonH

Anyone know of a Socket A motherboard that would take an Athlon XP CPU (up to about 2100) but that would also take 168 pin PC100 SDRAM? I've found a couple but they only seem to have 2 slots on them.
I'm looking to upgrade my computer and the XPs seem good value however I've got about 1 gig of SDRAM which I don't want to waste.

Any ideas?

Ta

Mr Footlong

iTrader: (7)

I would be surprised, as I have never come across a board capable of running the Memory asynchronously, slower than the cpu. Running faster Asynchronously than the CPU has been around for a couple of years now tho.

As in a 100mhz-based AMD Athlon/Duron(200mhz internal FSB) running on a Via Based board with the RAM running either in sync, PC 100 SDRAM, or async, PC133. When you whack in a 133mhz-based AMD, the usual option that appears is for running the RAM sync at 133Mhz. SIS-based boards may have async slower, but I wouldn't no as they are stinky and I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole

Cheers,

Nick

Mr Footlong

iTrader: (7)

Obviously, you have the option of running the XP2100 at 100mhz bus instead of 133, but would lose a fair chunk of the CPU power.

Cougar

Depends on what OS U are running??? If you are using 98 then you will be only using the first 256Mb anyway. Try and get a deal and get some 512Mb dimms (DDR for about £90)

Ken E

If you're going to buy a motherboard that takes SDRAM then you might as well buy some PC133 to go with it as it costs next to nothing these days. You can get 256mb for about £20 or so.

A motherboard recommendation is either Gigabyte GA7ZXE if you can get hold of one, or Soltek SL-75KAV. Both use the VIA KT133 chipset, have onboard sound, 3 DIMM slots and 5 PCI and will take all the Athlons and Durons. I built systems with both these boards in the past and had no problems, only gone up to XP1600+ but provided you get one with the latest bios then no reason why you can't run a faster one. Solteks available from microdirect

SimonH

Thanks for the info guys. I'll look at the Soltek board although it's just a bit annoying that I've got all this PC100 RAM that I'll have to ditch for PC133 [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img] Ho hum
Btw I'm running XP at the moment with a PIII 750 CPU.
Thanks

DominicA

ELite/ECS K7s5a but only 2 or 3 SDram slots.... and 2 DDR... can run cpu at 100/133 and Ram at 100/133...

GCollier

Pretty sure the Abit KT7 will allow this, and is switchable 100/133 from BIOS. I have one at home in a self-build PC, but whether you can still get one or not, I don't know.

Mr Footlong

iTrader: (7)

No it doesn't allow for reverse async operation. I was tempted to mention that as well as having owned 4 of these boards and still having one, but didn't.

The Gigabyte 7ZXE board mentioned get a double thumbs up from me, we have recently bought 3 at my house and they work really, really well. Fast, stable and the 2.1 revision boards support upto XP2600+cpu(based on the 266fsb, not 333) Cheap too. Bought all of ours from Dabs.com for about £35 each +vat. All 3 have been 2.1 rev boards too. Slight correction though. They are KT133A chipset boards, not the old KT133 goats.

The Solteks seem to be ok, but my freinds have not been getting good results with some them recently reliability-wise under stress

The board that Dom recommends is very hit and miss if I am remembering the right one. Some are spot on reliability-wise and some of them suck big time. Of course may not be the same model tho. ECS (Elitegroup) are Budget-oriented motherboards at the end of the day, bar a few special editions, so be wary.
People are steering away from Abit in their droves now that they have outsourced a large portion of their Motherboard production to ECS.

I rest my case

Cheers,

Nick

DominicA

You are correct in thinking that the ECS K7s5a boards are a bit hit n miss. I have one that is very much a hit!! Other people have not been as lucky.... I do believe the more recent versions of the boards have been a lot less problematic tho..

SimonH

Cheers Mr F - currently looking at the Dabs.com pages for some prices etc
How does one tell if the CPU is 266 or 333? The blurb on dabs doesn't help much. I'm looking at one of their XP2000+ 1.67Ghz CPUs....The AMD pages aren't particularly helpful. Bck to Google methinks.
Think I'll need a new PSU for the AMD CPU as I'm going to be running a Radeon 9500 128mb graphics card too......300W be enough?....I'm a bit new to this DIY PC thing!

Ken E

Yes, would agree the 7ZXE was my preference for SDRAM based AMD builds. I built a couple with Solteks due to availability, or lack of it, from my usual supplier. To be honest I have found Gigabytes in general to be reliable, well documented and easy to set up.

The Elite K7S5A I would not recommend to anyone, only used one once, never again. Had problems with it, got it exchanged, had problems with the exchanged one so it's on my list of things to never buy again.

The CPU FSB should be stated in the description, and it is only the latest ones that are 333. You should be OK with a 300watt PSU with a XP2000+ and your video card but if you are also having multiple disks and CD/DVD/CDR/DVDR drives and wanting to power stuff via USB then I would go for a higher output one.