Advice required for mobo update or mobo replacement

[XtremeNewbie]

Hi all,

I have a MSI k7 pro via kt 266a mobo with an athlon xp1600, served me well, however time has moved on.
1/ MSIs website states the max cpu my mobo can take is xp2100 (upgradeing cpu would be cheapest option). Does anyone know any different?

2/ There are some good "bargains" in mobos, as low as 80 bucks Australian, able to take an AMD 64 3200 , based on SIs chipsets. Of the chipsets available, eg, Sis , Via , nforce, are folk noticing any "real world" difference between them.

I occasionally edit and render video-rendering times not a key consideration and occasionally play Lomac and Il2 flight sims. Thats it. Apart from surf the net.

Your input appreciated. Thanks

 

[redeyemindtrick]

i just bought an ecs N2U400-A MB, i already had a couple xtra processors so i didnt need to get the combo, but if I had got the combo, i beleive it came with an athlon xp 2400+ for around $100 american. so far i am very happy with the quality and performance of this new board. BTW, it is an nFORCE2 board

 

[RealBlackStuff]

For an AMD64/socket-939 the board of choice is currently MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum.
The socket-754 will be faded out shortly, -939 is more future-proof. I'm getting an Abit AV8 3rd-Eye, which I won in a competition. Not my first choice but seemingly very acceptable. Go for the Winchester 90nm AMD64-3200.

 

[Samstoned]

looks like a lot of AMD lovers here
I stick with the Intel stuff every white box I built with intel is still running the AMD's have all died or have constent problems from Abit to tyan and MSI

 

[GAGEtheBEAST]

BEWARE of "bargain" motherboards...they are not what you bargained for, I know from experience. You should consider a stronger processor considering the AMDs are so cheap, this way, you will have a nice "cushion" of space to not crash under heavy loads.