Help with building system

[WinOS2Mac]

Hello.
I wanted to build my own system and have a pretty good idea on how to do it. The thing i need help on is the precessor and the motherboard.

I need help in deciding which one to get.
I can spend around 350-400$ max on both of them, i know I want an Athlon800 or above.
I was looking at the Asus A7V. Does anyone have this one that could tell me if it a good board to purchase?

So Far i have bought a full ATX tower and a 15.3 GB hard drive.

I was planning on switching my present computer into the new case and just adding the hard drive but now that i think about it, I am better off building a new system.

So any suggestions?

this is what i was thinking...

-800-900Mhz Athlon
-(128 - 256MB) RAM
-15GB hard drive ( I also have a 2nd 15gb backup hdd, that I'll use as a secondary HD)
-voodoo 4 4500 AGP
-CD-RW drive (i have the HP 8210i that I'll use in the new computer)
-CD-ROM, Floppy, keyboard etc...

*I already have all the software i need, I just wanted suggestions on the hardware part of it.


Thanks!!!

[LordLocksley]

I love it. I have 2 of them. 1 running 1.1ghz and 1 running 800. Never had a prob with the boards.
Go for it.

[Savant]

if I might ask, what are you curently using?

[thekingofpain]

Just put one together for a friend yesterday A7V and T-Bird 800, 310$ including a Vantec heatsink, flopped it all together and it went off without a hitch, have alook at an ata100 drive since the board handles em, got a 15g 7200/100 IBM for 100$, FAST!!

[WinOS2Mac]

Right now I am currently running a Pentium III 550 Mhz, with 256MB 100Mhz RAM, 15gb 5400rpm hard drive. (my new hard drive is ATA/66 7200RPM 15.2 GB)*

and I have no available bins to place my new hard drive in in my case, so thats the reason that i got the full tower.( 90$ ).

but the main reason is that I am going to make my new system and then give the one that i have now to my sister because she needs one.

thanks a lot!

* will there be a problem running a 5400RPM hard drive and a 7200RPM hard drive becasue of the speed difference?


**where can i get that IBM hard drive for only $100????

[WinOS2Mac]

another question i have is...

Whats the difference between a socket A processor and a Slot A processor?

what would be the point of getting one over the other?

thanks a lot!!

[Szech]

The slot A was used for the old school athlons because it had its level 2 cache off-die (thus, the package was bigger, it required more space). The socket A is for the new Durons and Thunderbirds. So whether you get one or the other is determined by which processor you want to get.

[SMITHNC]

My recent expierience suggests to back-up everything you can. Even though you may be using the same hard drive that has been working fine, you could still have problems.
I had some drivers dissappear when a MB was replaced, and since I bought the system pre loaded with the software I didm't have any discs to reload it. Good Luck

[doctj]

Socket A!!! Slot A is now obsolete, future amd processors incl mustang will use this socket.

[qball]

I just put together an Asus A7V with 900Mhz T-bird. I paid around $350 from www.bzboyz.com (http://www.bzboyz.com) . (note, iffin you happen to order from them, note whether you want a required signature on the package, I din't and had to go pick it up form UPS...)

The board/cpu combo is excellent. The BIOS and soft jumpers are awesome (for old-school, you still can do it all on the mobo with jumpers). Even though I don't use, the ATA100/66 support is an IDE dream, though I think ABIT actually has onboard ATA100 RAID.

Iffin you want a t-bird mobo, check out www.maximumpc.com (http://www.maximumpc.com) . They just reviewed the 3 newest tbird mobos, oops, looks like they still need to update the site.

I highly recommend.