Help with Mobo selection, please

Not everyone can afford Pentium when they can pay a lower price for an Athlon with the same performance.

That is only if you intend to get the athlon64-FX. The athlon64 3200+ is half the price is just almost as good. It doesn't have dual channel but it have faster memory since it can use unregistered DIMMs.

He did say he wanted a board with an upgrade path.

If he goes with an athlonxp, he'll prolly use a 2500+ for now & end up getting a 3200+ in a few weeks or months. That's not much of an upgrade path IMO.

It would take some time before 64bit applications become mainstream therefore the athlon64 will not perform to its maximum capability. So i personal feel that spending on a Athlon64 may be not be justified. My opinion is to stay away from the 64 until its mature enough with more program support, otherwise it will not be worth the money.

I'd rather get a system which is putting out top of the line numbers allready right now & will only get better once OS & Program support is there. The only reason I would stay away from it would be lackluster performance but that's not the case at all ( & once again the upgrade path it offers is the best ).

The athlonxp 3200+ has been confirmed as the last chip on the K7 platform, so why go a dead end route ?

The K8 ( athlon64 ) has an architecture very similar to the K7 so it's not like the platform is completely different. I believe that platform to be much more mature then when the Slot-A athlon was introduced with the amd-751 chipset for example. Athlon64 samples ( running at 800mhz ) had been available for a very long time allready, so board makers have had the time to tweak & optimize everything as it is.

& it also has a IHS ( integrated heat spreader ) so it'll be easier to install the heatsink without fear of cracking the core or bad core contact leading to overheating. I know for someone who has experience installing CPUs correctly that shouldn't be a problem. & I say correctly because it seems some people have been installing CPUs for a long time & still don't do it right. Just take a look at the number of threads with people complaining their system doesn't startup ( fans running, power led on but no POST ).

I see a lot more threads with problems on the "tryed & true" athlonxp platforms then with the new athlon64 ones.

PS. I'm not flaming anyone BTW, just giving my $0.02 with conviction.

SuSE 64 (Linux) is already out. A lot of Linux distros are working on AMD64 support and most will be done before Windows XP 64 will be out...

hi everybody,

i'm planning to buy an athlon XP 1800 or 2200.

mobo available here are MSI and Asus for the reliable brands, ECS Jetway and Asrock.

Asus A7333 SiS745
Asus A7S266VM SiS740
Asus A7N266VM nForce
Asus A7V8X-MX KM400
Asus A78X-X KT400
Asus A7V8X KT400

MSI KT2Combo KT266
MSI 745 Ultra SiS745
MSI746F-Ultra SiS746
MSI 6380 K7T266
MSI K7N Delta-L nForce2
MSI K7N Delta-ILSR nForce2
MSI K7N420 Pro GF2
MSI KT4 Ultra-BSR bluetooth
MSI KT$AV KT400AV
and so and so

which one would be the best?

thanks!

I would recommend a A7N266VM nForce...I don't have good experience with the VIA KT400 chipset
anyway, it would be better if you can get hold of a ASUS nForce 2 if your budget permits. ASUS has always been known be rock solid and stable.

ok thanks a lot