Looking to upgrade, need some info.

[Gryphon]

Ok I'm going to buy my first AMD, and I know nothing about them.<br><br>I'm looking at the AMD Athalon XP 2100+, it is the most I can get for the money I want to spend. For the motherboard I am looking at the <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://usa.asus.com/mb/socketa/a7v333/overview.htm" target="top">ASUS A7V333</a><!--EZCODE LINK END-->.<br><br>My questions,<br><br>Is the board going to be ok with PC133 until I can get better ram, or is it required to get different ram?<br><br>What resonable cpu fan should I get? <p><div align="left"><hr color="#daae52"><a href="http://www.thzclan.com/gryphav.gif/sigs.php" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.thzclan.com/gryphav.gif"></a> <a href="http://www.thzclan.com/cam" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.thzclan.com/cam/gryphon/thb_ccam.jpg" border="0"></a><br><font size="1"><b><a href="http://www.thzclan.com/tcdb" target="_blank">Tribes Clan DB</a> - List your Tribes1/2 Clan, Guild, Fansite, League, or Script site<br><a href="http://www.thzclan.com/snooknet" target="_blank">SnookNet Web Design</a> - My web building adventures<br><a href="http://www.ryanaaron.com/dtm" target="_blank">Dragon Talon Mercenaries</a> - Online Gaming Guild<br><a href="http://www.planettribes.com" target="_blank">PlanetTribes</a> - Sp3ci@l pr0jekts<br><a href="http://www.3dactionplanet.com/planetside" target="_blank">PlanetSide Shuttle</a> - Newsie extraordinaire<br><a href="http://www.thzclan.com/hosted/planetside" target="_blank">Allied Tribal Forces</a> - A PlanetSide alliance started by Tribesplayers</font></b><hr color="#daae52"></div></p><i></i>

[Spinning Hat]

I have a Volcano 9, and I got it for $25. Asus is generally an all around good board, and I would recommend it, unless you want to keep it for a while, and I'd say go to the Nforce 2 chipset if you're gonna do that. <p><!--EZCODE CENTER START--><div style="text-align:center"><!--EZCODE FONT START--><span style="color:red;font-family:arial;font-size:xx-large;"><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>I HATE EZBOARD!!!</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></span><!--EZCODE FONT END--></div><!--EZCODE CENTER END--></p><i></i>

[XMEN Gambit]

And be VEWY VEWY careful installing the heatsink!! Many's the newb who's chipped his CPU core by getting it on backwards/crooked. <p><!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://www.xmenclan.org/xmengambit.gif"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--><br>XMEN member<br>Card-carrying DTM<br>OKL Fish-napper<br><br>Though a program be but three lines long, someday it will have to be maintained.<br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em> The Tao of Programming</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--></p><i></i>

[Gryphon]

Aren't Nforce boards, boards with integrated video? <p><div align="left"><hr color="#daae52"><a href="http://www.thzclan.com/gryphav.gif/sigs.php" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.thzclan.com/gryphav.gif"></a> <a href="http://www.thzclan.com/cam" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.thzclan.com/cam/gryphon/thb_ccam.jpg" border="0"></a><br><font size="1"><b><a href="http://www.thzclan.com/tcdb" target="_blank">Tribes Clan DB</a> - List your Tribes1/2 Clan, Guild, Fansite, League, or Script site<br><a href="http://www.thzclan.com/snooknet" target="_blank">SnookNet Web Design</a> - My web building adventures<br><a href="http://www.ryanaaron.com/dtm" target="_blank">Dragon Talon Mercenaries</a> - Online Gaming Guild<br><a href="http://www.planettribes.com" target="_blank">PlanetTribes</a> - Sp3ci@l pr0jekts<br><a href="http://www.3dactionplanet.com/planetside" target="_blank">PlanetSide Shuttle</a> - Newsie extraordinaire<br><a href="http://www.thzclan.com/hosted/planetside" target="_blank">Allied Tribal Forces</a> - A PlanetSide alliance started by Tribesplayers</font></b><hr color="#daae52"></div></p><i></i>

[XMEN Ashaman DTM]

Yeah. They have integrated video.<br><br>The nForce2's have a lot of good stuff, serial ATA w/ RAID for one. Gigabit ethernet port, onboard sound, AGP 8x, support for the latest DDR, etc.<br><br>But if you want to upgrade, and have the best features for your money, wait till summer. That's when you'll see features that are just being put on boards more commonplace.<br><br> <p><br><img src=http://www.xmenclan.org/avatars/ashaman2.jpg width=150 align=left><br><left><a href=http://www.dragontalonmercs.com>Dragon Talon Mercenary</a><br><a href=http://www.xmenclan.org>Member of the XMEN</a><br>Have a Nice Day!<br><br>"Politics, war, martial arts;<br>these are tools to bend the <br>universe to your will."</left><br><br><br><p><i>Edited by: <a href=http://pub3.ezboard.com/uxmengambit.sho ... ge=EN>XMEN Gambit</a> <img src=http://www.xmenclan.org/images/x.gif> at: 7/14/02 8:16:26 pm</i></p></p><i></i>

[Gryphon]

Im not looking for a bunch of features, and I have a video card and sound card, my expierence with on-board sound and audio in the past is that it is a pain. <p><div align="left"><hr color="#daae52"><a href="http://www.thzclan.com/gryphav.gif/sigs.php" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.thzclan.com/gryphav.gif"></a> <a href="http://www.thzclan.com/cam" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.thzclan.com/cam/gryphon/thb_ccam.jpg" border="0"></a><br><font size="1"><b><a href="http://www.thzclan.com/tcdb" target="_blank">Tribes Clan DB</a> - List your Tribes1/2 Clan, Guild, Fansite, League, or Script site<br><a href="http://www.thzclan.com/snooknet" target="_blank">SnookNet Web Design</a> - My web building adventures<br><a href="http://www.ryanaaron.com/dtm" target="_blank">Dragon Talon Mercenaries</a> - Online Gaming Guild<br><a href="http://www.planettribes.com" target="_blank">PlanetTribes</a> - Sp3ci@l pr0jekts<br><a href="http://www.3dactionplanet.com/planetside" target="_blank">PlanetSide Shuttle</a> - Newsie extraordinaire<br><a href="http://www.thzclan.com/hosted/planetside" target="_blank">Allied Tribal Forces</a> - A PlanetSide alliance started by Tribesplayers</font></b><hr color="#daae52"></div></p><i></i>

[Spinning Hat]

Nah, I have onboard sound right now, but it is disabled in the BIOS, and I have a PCI Sound Card instead. The newer stuff is easier to deal with than the first integrated stuff. <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START ;) --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/wink.gif ALT=";)"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <p><!--EZCODE CENTER START--><div style="text-align:center"><!--EZCODE FONT START--><span style="color:red;font-family:arial;font-size:xx-large;"><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>I HATE EZBOARD!!!</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></span><!--EZCODE FONT END--></div><!--EZCODE CENTER END--></p><i></i>

[zoohoot]

I've been happy with my a7v8x mobo. <p><!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://www.zoohoot.com/media/images/ava ... <!--EZCODE IMAGE END--><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://pub31.ezboard.com/bsoup">Bouillibaisse of SOUP</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> | <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.zoohoot.com">Zoohoot.com</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--></p><i></i>

[XMEN Ashaman DTM]

Well, I only mentioned the features bit because in about a year (supposedly) harddrives with parallel cables will be less common as serial ATA takes over.<br><br>My <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>mistake!</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>The A7N8X from ASUS does NOT have onboard video. It does have onboard audio though. If I am understanding the material correctly, it's got two sound chips. One puts out dolby 5.1 surround sound, the other puts out 6 channel audio. They are interconnected though so no separate audio ports on the back.<br>I am also going to say that the other nForce2 boards have no onboard video. BUT, the nForce boards had onboard video that was the equivalent of a GeForce2, which isn't bad considering that it had a <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>direct</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> interface with the system's memory and CPU. <p><br><img src=http://www.xmenclan.org/avatars/ashaman2.jpg width=150 align=left><br><left><a href=http://www.dragontalonmercs.com>Dragon Talon Mercenary</a><br><a href=http://www.xmenclan.org>Member of the XMEN</a><br>Have a Nice Day!<br><br>"Politics, war, martial arts;<br>these are tools to bend the <br>universe to your will."</left><br><br><br><p><i>Edited by: <a href=http://pub3.ezboard.com/uxmengambit.sho ... ge=EN>XMEN Gambit</a> <img src=http://www.xmenclan.org/images/x.gif> at: 7/14/02 8:16:26 pm</i></p></p><i></i>

[XMEN Gambit]

<br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.cybercpu.net/review/sata/" target="top">"CPU utilization while using native IDE controllers on nForce2 boards <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>sucks hard</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->."</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br><br><br>The quote is from [H]ardOCP, but the link is to an analysis by CyberCPU. The last chart on a page is a comparison between the native parallel ATA versus serial ATA, so if you're getting an nForce2 board you'd better use SATA. They were using the ASUS A7N8X Deluxe mobo. <p><!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://www.xmenclan.org/xmengambit.gif"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--><br>XMEN member<br>Card-carrying DTM<br>OKL Fish-napper<br><br>Though a program be but three lines long, someday it will have to be maintained.<br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em> The Tao of Programming</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub141.ezboard.com/bxmenclan.sho ... ambit>XMEN Gambit</A>&nbsp; <IMG SRC="http://www.xmenclan.org/images/x.gif" BORDER=0> at: 2/16/03 8:05:53 pm<br></i>

[FaLLGuY]

I have the ASUS AV7333 Board. It runs pretty good for me. There are three sockets that are available for both 266MHz-PC2100 or 200MHz-PC1600 DDR DIMMs to form a memory size of 64MB to 3GB. Only 2 DIMMs will support 333MHz-PC2700; if more than two 333MHz DIMMs are installed, the system automatically reverts to a maximum speed of 266MHz. This is what the manual said. Hope this helps.. <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :) --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/smile.gif ALT=":)"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> I have one stick of Samsung 512MB PC2700 DDR333 instaled right now. <p><!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://homepage.ntlworld.com/planetburt ... <!--EZCODE IMAGE END--></p><i></i>