looking for the best socket 7 m/board to go with an AMD 550 mhz cpu

[ghalied]

Hi, everyone, I need some help, I intend buying the amd 550 mhz cpu, what is the best motherboard that goes with this cpu, and a good graphics card and what should I add to get the best out of this processor, I've bought a 128 pc 100 ram too. I would like to get the best out of the system as possible.

Thanks
Bye
PS. AND THE CASE/TOWER, WHICH ONE.

[Win_98]

DFI K6BV3/dma66 AT or
DFI K6Xv3/dma66 ATX
Case? ATX Mid tower
Wider and yet easier on you
has sliding panel left hand side and right hand side, this make it easier if you have to
install harddrive or remove any component.
these are next best to Jumperless design
It doesn't have over 100mhz bus like Asus
do like 112,124,133
maybe the ASUS will suit you better if you don't mind fiddling with jumper pulling them out and resticking them in constantly to see
which speed, multiplier is most stable.
ASUS have only 512K cache on board
No DMA/66 support
Aladdin chipset, no ideas but I do find it slower thought.
DFI have 1meg/and 2meg available too
at only an extra 10 buck
I haven't heard any complain from anyone except that you can't monitor the cpu temperature on one of their model and it is
K6BV3 rev. B AT motherboard
Im not saying it is the best, but it next best thing to jumperless.
I go for ABIT if they had made any super 7 MB
but it sad to see that they have taken on Intel side for the past few years.

[wyvrn]

For quality, most people go with the Enlight cases. Fong Kai also makes some nice tower setups. I believe there was a cheaper full tower for about 25 bucks in the Pc Steals and Deals forum a while back if you want to go check.

For motherboards, I do not know of a specific model off of the top of my head, but some manufactures you might look for are Asus, Abit, Tyan, and Soyo. Gigabyte would be my fifth choice. Look around www.pricewatch.com (http://www.pricewatch.com) for some good deals, but be wary of high shipping costs. This is one way companies get listed first, but will come back to bite you when you order.

[This message has been edited by wyvrn (edited 07-13-2000).]

[Win_98]

The way they do business is not right.
sort of cheating thought
could be 1 dollar case with 50 buck shipping
6 dollar floppy 1.44 drive with 12 shipping man I could get that for 12 buck locally with
taxes, only a dollar more.
I hope they go out of business cause no one is saving anything from buying them
let say a 20 buck case with 25 shipping that
45 total cost you could get it around for
25 buck, therefore making it the last thing on your list.

I've order 128meg dimm for 63 buck
with 10 buck shipping it took 2 week
I saw it in transit in 3 day while tracking it and it just sit there until they feel like shipping it on the date they promise.
Kind of pathetic thought because I am upset
about it and will never ever buy from them again.
This was before the crisis of taiwan being struck with volcanic activities then everything rise back up like now.

[scotter]

for the best SS7 board I sugjest you go over here to toms hardware and read this http://www.tomshardware.com/mainboard/98q3/980731/index.html

this is a little dated as there are a few newer boards out but for the most part what he says still holds true the only thing new is the ata/66 on a few of the newer boards
witch is almost a none issue if you read all the info on ata/66
as far as the amount of cache thats debateable to as some of the 512k boards out perform the ones with 1 and 2 meg

base your buying and how easy it is to set up and how stable it is http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif not on if it's got some cool new stuff you will be more happy in the end http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif

also look in the user revues here at sysopt and see what has been posted by real users

of all the boards out there my personal fav is the Asus P5A
hope this helps ya

[Mike Montoya]

I have a Giga-byte 5AX rev5.2 and it works great with my AMD k6-2 550. But i wish i had a jumperless one i find it cumbersome switching jumpers around. Giga-byte is coming out with new motherboards with Overclocking software make sure if you buy one grab one of these. Also make sure the motherboards supports AGP 4x. I have 2x and i cannot use my 4x AGP video card efficiently. For a video card GeForce2 DDS is still the best out in the market according to PC accelerator. Memory try Crucial PC 100 or PC 133 w/ CAS2 or a Mushkin Mosel PC 133 CAS2 what ever happens get a CAS2 it runs faster. Hope this will help.

[Peter M]

Good boards with a current set of features (UDMA66, 2 MB L2 cache, hardware monitoring) are DFI's K6BV3+/66-2 BAT, and in ATX form factor K6XV3+/66-2, Tyan 1590-2 and Epox MVP3G5. The DFI boards have 4 PCI slots, so their ATX offering isn't first choice - however it's quite a bit cheaper than Tyan and Epox products.

I've had very positive experience with the DFI boards lately. They run stable and fast with everything I plug into them - including high power demand AGP cards and CPUs. The last one I touched now has an ATI All-in-Wonder 128 w/ 32 MB RAM, all four PCI slots populated, a K6-2/533 and 256 MB of PC100 SDRAM. Runs like a charm.

Gigabyte's offerings, in their latest revisions, also have UDMA66 IDE, but aren't offered with more than 512 KB L2 cache - and with a K6-2, you don't want to miss the extra speed from the 2 MB their competitors offer.

Regards, Peter

[wing7788]

The best SS7 motherboard is definitely from Epox, MVP3-G2 with 1MB of cache. It's rock solid and has the best features with temperature detection, UDMA 66 supported, and comes with a good software like Norton Anti-virus and Norton Ghost. No wonder its been tagged as the best SS7 motherboard by most SS7 motherboard reviews.

You can purchase the Epox G5 with 2 MB cache but the upgrade on a per dollar basis is not quite impressive.

As for the other components, they have mentioned it already and its your choice which one to pick. But definitely, whatever you choose, it should come out great with a great motherboard.

I strongly recommend the MVP3-G2 from Epox.


P.S. No, I don't work for Epox... hehehe http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/redface.gif)

[Peter M]

Hi again,

If you want the 2 MB L2 cache, and don't want to pay Epox's price for that, then think again if you really need that 5th PCI slot. When the answer is No, get the DFI K6XV3+/66-2. This one has 2 MB L2 cache, and still costs less than the Epox G2 model with 1 MB.

Regards, Peter

[bKasey]

At work we have about 40ish or so epox(3g2, 3g5, and the older mvp3g) and while I can't say they overclock well(I can't get any ss7 chip to overclock worth a bean) I can definitely say they are reliable...

I would recommend them without hesitation.

And just as Wing said; I also, do not work for epox(though next board I'll get will probably from abit and that's only because I've heard so many good things about them and to try something new).

Good luck

[drn]

well i have had a few of them and the best was the mobos with the mvp3 chipset also you will never find a ss7 with 4 x agp as they all only support 2 x and alot of them dont like the agp cards ttay do run them but not at there optimal specs as they dont supply enough voltag to the agp cards hope this helps you

[Peter M]

drn, please try to use some of these for easier reading .,;: :-)

The AGP power supply is exactly why I recommend using only the latest of mainboard designs, whatever the platform. AGP specification has been changed for higher maximum 3.3V amperage more than once, and if you try to stick a new high-end AGP card into an older design mainboard, then that probably won't work right.

The Epox MVP3C2 and DFI K6BV3+/66 haven't been around for too long, and for the DFI, I can assure you it doesn't have an AGP power problem. Even hungry stuff like ATI's All-in-Wonder (32 MB) runs perfectly fine and stable at AGP 2x mode w/o wait states. I haven't used the Epox with high-end AGP cards so far, so I don't have first hand experience on that.

Regards, Peter

[ghalied]

Hey everyone, thanks a mill for all the info thus far, I am reading an observing your replies with great interest...........so keep them coming.

Bye

[jmorrell]

I'm currently using the Epox MVP3G2 (1Mb cache) with a K6-2/450, an ATI Rage Fury Pro 32mb AGP card, Pioneer 10X DVD, Ricoh MP7040 CDRW, Diamond MX 300 sound card, 100Mb Zip drive, Maxtor Diamond Plus ATA 66 13.6gb hard drive, and Aopen 10mb NIC card (for cable modem). The Epox, installed in a new ATX case with better cooling, replaced my old FIC 503+ in an old AT case with the same hardware listed above. I truly love this motherboard. Fastest and most stable Super7 motherboard I have owned. The ATA66 feature allowed me to use my Maxtor at the speed it was intended to be used. Plan to install either a K6-2/550 or the new K6-2+/500 on the Epox within the next 30 days or so. I've read elsewhere on the Web that this motherboard can run the new K6-2+/500 at 600mhz easily, so I may go that route.

[neo_otyugh]

epox mvp3 g2 is an awesome board, had an fic va 503+ followed by a gigabyte ga5ax then got the epox...it is awesome!! i paid $85 locally for it about a year ago. if you mail order it pricewatch has it for about $75 , that is about $4 more than the dfi...i found the epox to be the most stabel ss7 i have used.

[jmorrell]

In case someone is interested in the Epox, I got my MVP3G2 from www.z-buy.com (http://www.z-buy.com) for $68.95 plus $11.50 for three day FedEx supersaver shipping ($80.45 total). Full retail package included Norton Anti-virus and Norton Ghost as well as the Ultra ATA66 IDE cable. Board actually arrived in two days vice three (I live only two states away). www.resellerratings.com (http://www.resellerratings.com) rates z-buy as one of the better mail order sites. I'm certainly very pleased with their service.

[ghalied]

Hey, there, just a bit of info on myself, I am actually from South Africa so the currency here is times 9x against the dollar, shipping the board won't be viable for me though.............what do you guys think?

On the otherside I have been in contact with the Gigabyte and Asus distributors, now I just need to get hold of the Epox people.

C ya'll