I'm currently running the follwing.....
Athlon 850 T-Bird
512mb pc-100 ram
Xtasy Geforce 4 MX 400 64mb
Diamondmax 40gb (failry new)
Sounblaster 16 PCI (old...i know...been good to me though).
Running win98SE

and some other stuff, that should work fine with....

Asus A7N8X-Deluxe
512mb 3200 ram (considering Crucial), going with a single stick, because I plan on adding another 512mb when I finally get XP.
Athlon XP 3000+ 400FSB

Ok, here's my ?s. I read that there are some problems running win98SE on the new nVidia chipset. I won't have the money for XP after I buy the board, cpu, and memory (child support is a drag). Can anyone confirm this?

And would I have any problems running my old gear with this board? Just curious. I plan on transferring a bunch of videos to a DVD burner I bought, and thought this would be a pretty cost effective upgrade.

But I'm seeing advertisements with the Barton core, Thoroughbred core, etc.....what's the difference? Will it make a difference with this board? Is there just a difference in the core after a certain model? (like between the 1700, and the 3000+?)

Any help would be appreciated. i've been skimming the forums for about an hour now, and see that you guys really know yer stuff.

Whip

Windows 98 should work with that board. It is supported & there are drivers for all the integrated components of the board for Windows 98. I don't have any hands down expericence with that OS/mainboard combination so this is all in theory.

What other harwdare are you planning on porting over to the new mainboard ? You shouldn't have any troubles with the VGA card & the HDD. You won't need to use your old sound card & the PC2100 will be useless if you ever get a CPU with an FSB above 133 ( 266 ).

The Thoroughbred & Barton are names for the different cores of AthlonXP CPUs. The main difference between both is the size of the Level 2 Cache. Thoroughbreds have 256kb, Bartons have 512kb. There are also Thoroughbreds with 133 ( 266 ) FSBs & 166 ( 333 ). Bartons are available with 166 ( 333 ) & 200 ( 400 ) FSBs.

Make sure to check out this thread ( Identifying AMD processors ) to know what speed the chip is running at & what FSB it uses. If you get a CPU with a 166 ( 333 ) FSB, you will need PC2700 Ram, if you get one with a faster FSB such as 200 ( 400 ) you will need PC3200.

Anything else you'd like to know about the board ?

PS. Welcome to TechSpot. Hope you enjoy your stay.:wave:

I'm going with the Barton core on the 3200+, with the 400fsb. I figured matching the numbers would yeild the best performace. Think I would have to still check the ship itself? or trust the vendors notes?

And thanks for the warm welcome. =)

Hmmm, if I were you, I'd buy a 2500+ and get some PC3200 memory and overclock the CPU to 3200 speeds (it can be done with stock fan and HSF).

That way, you'll be getting faster speeds with less money and you can buy Windows XP!



That's what I'm doing.

actually, I can get Win XP Pro for $50...licenses and legal. =)
I've never overclocked before...I can put the stuff together no problem.

Grand idea, Barton is $80, a CHEAP and GOOD upgrade. really good, going from a Athlon 850 . However the stuff of "OCes to 3200+ speeds easy with stock cooling" is kidna bogus. My friend's 2500+ wouldnt with AMD's retail stock cooling, so I dont think everyones will

I will say this...the Athlon 850 with the K7M has been a good rig for me. But once I got into video capture, I realized I needed a little more "oomph!". I play EQ and neverwinter Nights, so the extra power will let me enjoy the games a little more, being able to use more of the options.

I have the money set aside, so I'm just going to get the 3000+, and play with OCing on the old Athlon. Get the hang of it before I mess something up, even though I'm sure there are different routes of doing it. Just wanna be comfortable with the process.

I was considering memory from Crucial, (PC3200), but I see this Extreme series from Corsair.....can anyone tell me what the advantage would be? Does something in the architecture of the chip make better or more stable?

I could use a recommendation on cooling this thing. I have two fans in the case now, so the air moves through the case pretty well. But fans are pretty cheap, so recommendations are welcome.

Thanks guys.

i have the corsair twinx set of matched duelchannel pc3200 (2x512mb) i also have the same mother board as you and these sticks were designed around this mother board and they work just fine. i have read that the asus a7n8x deluxe board is a bit picky with its ram, but seeing as the corsair site mentioned these where designed around this board i went for these, expensive but very good. my friend got the same board and some crucial memory and he sent it all back in the end as it was giving him jip. it could have been the ram but i dont know.
i used to have 1 stick of 256 twin mos pc2700 in my pc then i got the corsair stuff and was amazed at the results games were alot faster at loading etc..

i made the mistake you will not make hopfully!, i got the 3200+ when i should have got the 2500+, but was unaware at the time that 2500+ had good O C'ing abilities

Well not everyone is into overclocking, no matter how easy it might turn out to be.

o. I'm gonna go with the Corsair then....but there's two types.....just wondering what the difference is....
I'm going with a stingle stick of memory for now....and get another later. Then I can use the dual channel.
which would you suggets?

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-416&depa=0

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-420&depa=0

I just don't see any differences in the descriptions.

Gonna check out the Overclock thread....maybe I'll grow some b@lls. LOL

One has platinum heat spreaders, the other one doesn't. That's all.

That's a great way to fry your CPU :rolleyes:.

Well, I think he'd only do that if the temps were suitable, in which case, wouldnt fry the cpu

I think it's possible...if you live in Antarctica and have the case open and facing into the wind.

He'll just have to hope that AMD package the same heatsink with the 2500+ as they do with the 3200+. This is quite possible as it would save costs through buying in bulk. Its a case of increasing the fsb gradually and monitoring the temps. Also, the bios can be set to shut the PC down and/or throttle the cpu clock if the CPU overheats. Overclocking requires that you increase the cpu vcore voltage, otherwise you'll get errors and your system will lock-up and freeze intermittantly. Its a good idea to test stability using a stress test, such as Prime95 (http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm), which will definitely show up any errors that occur in your memory or cpu when overclocking, even if you think your system might be stable. All (fingers crossed) 2500+ Bartons should be able to reach 3200+ speeds (and occasionaly beyond), provided you increase vcore to 1.75v. Don't expect to OC to 3200+ speeds at default voltage of 1.65v, as this will definitely not be stable (use Prime95 and see for yourself).

Ummmm....guys? I don't plan on OCing at all. I'm going with the 3000+, and the matching memory for 400fsb. If I do OC, it might be to get 3000 to 3200 (or whatever). I'm ordering a seperate fan to cool the bugger. This rig should run fine for me without overclocking. I'll play over clocking on my old Athlon T-bird, and see what happen. In fact, since I have never done it before, I may start off with my olf Athlon 600.

Sooo..I figured I would give you that little bit of information, to keep you guys from getting too deep into this conversation before it gets outta hand.

here's what I'm getting......planned it all out...should be a decent rig. I've got everything matching, for what little I know about hardware, but manage to know enough to keep from screwing things up:


Asus nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU, Model "A7N8X-E Deluxe"

AMD Athlon XP 3000+ "Barton", 400 FSB, 512K Cache Processor - OEM
Specification
Model: AMD Athlon XP 3000+
Core: Barton
Operating Frequency: 2.1GHz
FSB: 400MHz
Cache: L1/64K+64K; L2/512K
Voltage: 1.65V
Process: 0.13Micron
Socket: Socket A
Multimedia Instruction: MMX, SSE, 3DNOW!, 3DNOW!+
Packaging: OEM(Chip Only)

Corsair XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200C2PT - OEM
Specification
Manufacturer: Corsair
Speed: DDR400(PC3200)
Type: 184 Pin DDR SDRAM
Registered/Unbuffered: Unbuffered
Error Checking: Non-ECC
Cas Latency: 2-3-3-6 1T
Support Voltage: 2.6V
Bandwidth: 3.2GB/s
Organization: 64M x 64 -Bit
Special Features: with Platinum Heat Spreader
Warranty: Lifetime

Kingwin CPU Fan, Model KCU-7025 -OEM
Specifications:
Compatibility: Socket A/ Socket 370
Dimensions: Fan: 70 x 70 x 25 (mm),Heat Sink: 70 x 70 x 40 (mm)
Bearing Type: 2 Ball
Nominal Speed(RPM): 4200
Max Air Flow(CFM): 42.08
HeatSink Material: Copper
Rated Voltage: 12V DC
Connector: 3-Pin
Noise(dBA): 32
Features:
Intel
PIII (FC-PGA2) up to 1.2 Ghz and higher.
Celeron up to 1.2 Ghz and higher.
Tualatin up to 1.40 Ghz
AMD
Athlon up to 1.4 Ghz.
Athlon XP 3000+ and higher.

I'm going to be running Windows 98SE, until I get a copy of WinXP Pro (which I'm getting for $50 with a license)

CPU will run at 400, memory at 400 (gonna get another 512 stick later), so things should run smoooooooth.

I appreciate the help though.

got another question.....do I really haev to set IRQs on the board? Like the old days with the 486s? that would suck! i haven't done that in sooooo long! I'm just transferring my old stuff (HDD, video card and modem) over to the new board. Not even formatting my hard drive....think I'll run into problems? Just not sure if I need to change any of the jumper settings for the IRQs on the board. i downloaded the manual, and it was a little vague.

Not at all. ACPI takes care of that. I explained pretty much everything about the board here -> The ASUS A7N8X-X/A7N8X/A7N8X Deluxe Thread

Have fun with your new system.

Sooo...just pplug everything in....set my jumpers for the cpu and memory, and boot it up? (aside from the drivers I'll probably need for win98se). and all should boot up? that would be nice. I have to check my current power supply though, and make sure it's good enough. I tihnk it's a 350w....