1.2 Ghz Tbird 200 Unlocked vs 1.2 Ghz Tbird 266

[Mark W 0]

I am thinking of jumping on the AMD bandwagon any day now. Is there a difference between an unlocked 1.2 Tbird running at multiplier of 9, 133 fsb and the new Tbirds made to run at 133 fsb? Is there any reason to get one over the other? Also, any suggestions about putting a new tbird rig together would be welcome. Right now I am leaning toward the Abit KT7A-Raid as a mobo. Win2k compatibility and performance is a high priority.

 

Thanks.

[Brian Frank 0]

Well, as I understand it, having a faster memory speed will have a little bit better path for the memory than the T-bird 1.2GHz (12x100). On the other hand, they will probably perform about the same.

 

The unlocked T-Birds would be helpful if you plan to overclock. Id go with the cheaper T-Bird, whichever one it is. Just get PC133 ram whichever processor you get.

Also, depending on what HSF you get, the Abit board may have a problem with space around the socket, so make sure whatever one you get will work on it. The Asus A7V and A7V133 have plenty of space around the cpu socket, so you can put any hsf on it you want.

If you want to overclock, go with the 100MHz FSB T-bird, if not go with whatever suits your budget.

Also, as far as sound cards go, there seem to be some problems with SB Live cards in particular.

I have had no problems with the Guillemot Maxi Sound Fortissimo sound card. Its got front and rear speaker outputs, mic, line in, S/PDIF out, and supports A3D and EAX.

If you can still find it, Id highly recommend this one. You wont even have to get drivers to get it to run, although it wouldnt hurt to.

The Asus A7V board does have one problem that can be fixed with a bios update: the conflict between PCI slot 2 and the Promise ATA100 controller causes that PCI slot to be unusable, except for a slot fan. I dont know if the A7V133 has this problem though.

The only other board comparable to this is the Abit KT7 series boards. These are some very popular s, so either one should be fine.

Tip: with these boards having an additional pair of IDE controllers, just install Windows under the regular IDE controllers, then after the install, put in the drivers for the controller, then plug in the hard drive into the extra controllers. Its a little less problematic this way.