Looking for a new CPU and I need a little help.

[Beefcake]

Hello all, I need help finding a processor to replace my old AMD K7 Athlon 500mhz and I'm not sure what to get or what I'll need. I was wondering if anyone could recommend a good processor for under 100 bucks. I also need recommendations on a motherboard since I know I'll need a new one too. Thanks.

[OZkansas]

Intel 2.8GHZ........Asus P4PE

Anything else is pointless:)

[Beefcake]

on PW that 2.8 is about 500 bucks....over my budget atm..

[Reschke]

Originally posted by Beefcake
Hello all, I need help finding a processor to replace my old AMD K7 Athlon 500mhz and I'm not sure what to get or what I'll need. I was wondering if anyone could recommend a good processor for under 100 bucks. I also need recommendations on a motherboard since I know I'll need a new one too. Thanks.

Just one question:

How much can you spend total on the whole setup (ie...mobo, CPU, RAM, etc.) or is $100 your entire budget?

Well with that question out of the way here are some suggestions I found over on
Pricewatch.com .

First the less expensive route and as some believe the trouble route (I personally have built many, many systems with both Intel and AMD CPUs and they all work nicely as long as you use good components).

AMD Solution:
www.micropro.com/pricewatch $180 including shipping; A7V8X, KT400 Chipset, PC3200 Memory, Audio, LAN, USB 2.0, Retail, 3 year manufacturers warranty with cpu - Athlon XP 1700, Full 1 year warranty on kit, kit is tested.
 
www.NewEgg.com $85 including shipping; Crucial ( micron )256MB,PC2700,DDR,266MHz,Cas2.5,184-pin DIMM.

www.NewEgg.com $70 including shipping; Antec 400 watt power supply, model number SL400 (check it out at http://www.antec-inc.com)

Intel Solution:
$290 including shipping (online order only); ASUS P4PE-L RETAIL 2YR WARR, 845PE Chipset, CPU , AGP 4, 6 PCI, PC2700 DDR333,ATX, with cpu - Pentium 4 2.0GHz, 2000Mhz , with Heatsink & Fan, complete combo kit.

Same RAM and power supply as above for AMD solution.

By using the same RAM and power supply you can tell where a comparable system will come in price wise. I know that the AMD 1700 XP CPU and a P4 2GHz are not in the same price range but they are "supposedly" comparable in performance. Right now I am getting ready to upgrade from my Athlon 1.4GHz T-Bird w/ 266 bus. I want to be able to utilize my existing RAM but I know it is slower than the new stuff out there now. But expenses are expenses and sometimes you gotta improvise. I would like to give Intel another try after I bailed out of there with my 200Mhz MMX CPU in 1999 but I can not afford to do it. And I make a hell of a lot more money now than I did then.

So do your research and please let us know which route you go with. I for one would be interested.

[ebgb]

Agree with AMD solution.  You'll probably need to replace the memory as well as the power supply too.

Here's what I recommend:
m/b:  MSI KT3 Ultra
CPU  Athlon XP 2100+
256mb DDR266 ram (512mb if you can afford it)
Any case with an AMD approved P.S., case fan, front usb and
speaker ports.

You're looking at $280 or so.

Buy from a  reputable dealer and have them assemble/test it for warranty reasons.


I currently run an XP1900+ on a Shuttle mainboard and it
runs sweet.  I have set up two other systems as described above
with no problems at all.

[Hajo]

http://Http://www.bzboyz.com

Has an ASUS A7M266 board with AthlonXP1600 I believe with memory and heatsink and fan included for 127 dollars.  I would however upgrade the fan and heatsink that is included.

Hajo

Oh.......of course there are many other choices.  When you go to the above site select mobo and cpu combos and the motherboard manufacturer.

[Beefcake]

Thanks guys keep em coming.

Reschke, I'd like to keep the total for everything in the 150$-200$ range. I will admit I'm not really good with installing stuff, so I'd like to keep it simple as possible. I was afraid I would have to change my case power supply, CD rom drives, and ect. I agree with you on getting another AMD to replace my old one, it's just like I said, I'm not sure what I need. What I'm looking for is a Processor (1.5gig or higher if I can), a motherboard that works with said processor, and RAM that works with the motherboard. I'm looking thru the PW site right now and some of these combos look nice.

On another note....how hard is it to switchout a MB/CPU? What would I have to change or will it do it automaticly? The reason I ask is the only Computer shop in our area does not do a great job with PCs. (They're more of a Mac shop but they still service PCs.) Last time I sent my PC over there to have some things fixed it came back with more problems than when I sent it in. So I would rather try it myself than have them screw it up again.

[eagl]

About the cheapest combo you can get now is one I've purchased myself in the past...  Athlon XP2100 and ECS K7S5A.  That mobo can use either DDR or plain SDRAM (2 slots for each) and the combo can be had for under $150.

The ECS K7S5A mobo is definately last year's technology, but it's reasonably fast and I found mine to be very stable, requiring no goofy via 4in1 drivers or anything like that.  Benchmarks showed it to be less than 3% slower than a VIA KT266A mobo I purchased to replace it.  It has some onboard stuff, onboard sound and LAN if I recall correctly, and the onboard LAN works fine.  I dunno about the onboard sound as I used a pci sound card with it.  The neat thing about it is that you don't have to buy new memory yet, just reuse the stuff from your old rig.

When you get more money, you can first upgrade to DDR memory, then when you get even more money get a better motherboard and move the cpu and DDR memory over to the new mobo.  Then when you decide it's time to upgrade the cpu again, first try overclocking the XP2100 because you can gain an additional 200mhz with few problems if you have a good heatsink.

FWIW, ECS had a small problem with quality on these mobos when they first came out, but that was a year ago and they're still cranking out these boards.  I had no problems with the board I received.  There might be better combos or solutions out there, but this one is cheap, has a lot of flexibility especially with the memory configuration options, and it worked for me...

[Beefcake]

Well I've been looking at the different sites you guys have provided and I like this one atm.

AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (266MHz FSB)AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (266MHz FSB)

Only 99 Bucks and includes the heatsink and fan. Does it look like a good one? Also if this is a good deal, what would be a good MB for it? Eagl's suggestion is good, that MB he picked out is only 53 bucks, but I was wondering if there were any other recommended brands.

[Reschke]

Its not hard to do it yourself. In fact it is pretty simple as long as you follow the manual for the motherboard. Depending on your OS you may or may not have to format the hard drive. I have had a few WinXP installations that have required formatting the hard drives and I have had a few that don't require it at all. Those were generally the ones where the people used the same motherboard maker (ASUS, Abit, Gigabyte, etc..) and they stayed in the same CPU family.

One other thing to remember is that your power supply will need to be able to handle the new AMD and Intel power requirements. Just about every power supply that is made these days will say something about being compliant for both AMD and Intel. I also think you might be pushing it to stay under $200 but if you search around enough you might be able to locate a few good deals. I typically get some Intel and AMD reseller information on motherboard combo specials from big time hardware sellers and those deals are hard to pass up. If I get anything in the near future I will pass it on to you.

As for the CPU you listed above it will be a huge improvement over the 500Mhz you have now.

Good luck in the hardware search.

[eagl]

Definately check the power supply compatibility with any new motherboard.  I think that ECS board uses a generic ATX power supply connector but other boards may not.  A 300watt power supply is considered by many to be a minimum spec for a modern system, and most computer geeks I know will go for at least a 300 watt power supply from a name brand supplier.  I've had mixed results with Enermax...  They make good power supplies that actually are capable of putting out their specified power (unlike many cheap power supplies), however their return policy depends on the retailer's policy and I DID have one Enermax power supply go poof.

At least the enermax didn't take out my mobo when it died, which is one other characteristic of a quality power supply.

I read an article (I think it was on Tom's Hardware Page http://www.tomshardware.com) that compared power supply quality with weight.  They found a linear correlation with the quality of power conversion and the weight of the power supply.  Even a cheap no-name power supply was often very good if it weighed a lot.  The article went on to explain that the components that make up a high quality power supply are heavy (mostly larger than necessary capacitors and heatsinks) and their test samples supported the theory quite well.  Enermax power supplies are pretty heavy

Jerry Pournelle has been writing a column in Byte magazine for many years.  He's about as mistake-prone as they come (his motto is that he does these stupid things with computers so his readers don't have to) and he relies on PC Power and Cooling power supplies almost exclusively.  It seems like every year or so he gets a generic power supply, it fails and takes out some other bit of hardware when it blows, and he replaces it with a PC Power and Cooling power supply and swears he'll never use a generic power supply again.  Sure enough, 2 years later he'll somehow end up with a generic power supply and it will eventually fail and again his readers are told that the pain and suffering isn't worth the cheaper power supply cost

Back to the subject, make sure your power supply is good enough to take the extra load of the newer cpus, whether it's an AMD or Intel chip.  Some motherboards (Pentium 4 mostly but some Athlon boards also) need an extra 4-pin connector so check the power requirements before you buy.

One last unrelated item - Frys has a GF4-4200 (64 meg) for $89 after mail in rebates.  This is a very good price.  If they're out of stock, the price is good until Tuesday so check back for open-box returns because Frys usually just puts returns back on the shelf, so just because they're out of stock today might not mean they're out of stock tomorrow  Best buy had a similiar deal after Thanksgiving so check there too.

[Beefcake]

Ok thanks again guys. I'm thinking about going with the AMD2100XP and the ECS board with 256 2100DDR RAM. This means I'm probably going to have to change the Power Supply. To tell you the truth I have no idea what my current one is. Heck I don't know even know how to look up my system specs. (yes I really am computer dumb)

Anyway I have another question, the ECS board needs a 300W Power Supply, if I get....say a 450W PS will that overload it?

[DAVENRINO]

No matter what she tells ya - bigger is better.

Just make sure you get a good quality PSU.  I have an Antec 430W.  It will still allow for some upgrading in the future.

DJ229

[ebgb]

Caution:  ECS mainboards are junk!

I assembled one and found it would not run DDR.  If it says it on the box, then it should do so - this one didn't.  It did run SDRAM fine, but not DDR.  These boards are cheap for a reason.

I encourage you to buy a quality mainboard.  It is the single most important component of any system.

Price/performance/stability -  hard to beat the MSI KT3 Ultra.
You don't need one that will run DDR333 or DDR400, DDR266 is
within 5% in application.  Another good look is the Soyo Dragon
boards or any ASUS, but I think you'll find the MSI to be cheaper.
Heck, any big name manufacturer would be better than ECS
Gigabyte, Abit, Shuttle, there's a bunch.

Oh - you're existing PS - there should be a label on the power supply itself.  If considering a new Power supply, you can check on AMD's website whether it's approved or not.  Seriously though, a new powersupply is around $35 - and a new case with a power supply is $50??  But you get front USB ports, removable motherboard trays, pretty lights, flush mount floppy, etc etc etc.
Just a hint.

And . . . if you assemble yourself - keep in mind if you cook something it would be difficult to warranty.  Some dealers will not warranty self installs for this reason.  That is why I recommend you have the store, any store assemble and test it.  That way if it doesn't work it's their nickel.  I personally don't have a problem with this as I've done quite a few setups, but if you have any doubts . . .