Hello everyone. I was hoping to get some input for my next AMD rig im going to be building. Specifically, im looking for mobo and chipset help.

Im planning on purchasing a AMD 1.2ghz 266fsb axia core CPU. I plan on o/c this baby. I plan on using this system as a big time game rig and High End Desktop computer.

So what are my best options are far as motherboards, chipset and RAM? Is it best to go with the AMD760 chipset or the via? Is it best to go with DDR RAM or just standard SDRAM?

I'd like to make this rig a workhouse. One that can pump out a lot of FPS.

So please feel free to through your comments my way.
Thanks guys,

S.G.

I would stick with the Via chipset and SDRAM. Get an IWILL KK266-R or ABIT KT7A-Raid mobo and some high end SDRAM. The OCZ PC175 and the Tonikom PC166 will let you crank the fsb up pretty high. I would also use the Swiftech MC370-0A for cooling that bird off. You shouldnt have any problems reaching the limit of the AXIA core with any of the stuff above.

MSI makes a board worth looking at. I think it is the KT7-Mastrer-S (scsi onboard). It is worth looking into for a high end setup. The board is used in www.tomshardware.com's super-box. SCSI is the way to go for speed and a power station as its CPU use is considerably less. The drives tend to have a 10 to 100X MTBF (mean time b4 failure) than IDE units, ie. more reliable. Since the SCSI controller is onboard you don't even get any transfer decrease as might be expected when using a PCI SCSI controller card. The price is a little steper, but look at the advantages. I believe the RAM can be SDram or DDR, so you don't have to decide which, you get both! Boy do I sound like an MSI sales Rep, or what? I expect to be compensated by MSI for this. Anyhoo. Good Luck

Go with DDR memory. The price is simlar to pc-133 but the speed is 266 for PC2100. And why go backward to old memory and an old chipset as in the IWILL board discussed above. Check out the ASUS A7M266. You will be pleased. It is by far the best board on the current market....

Get an ABIT KT7A-Raid and pump the SD-Ram into it, be it for example = 2 x 256 meg PC150 from KIngMax
Easy to overclock, you can even do a solder up job to get extra voltage out of it to pump the overclocking furtherif you dare so wish. www.oc.com.au have this article i think.
Or you could go the MSI board, like the other dude said and then you have the option of sd-ram or ddr, but sdram is still going strong and will for quite some time in the games department. Make sure to get a decent video card if you want good frame rates, and overclock that too. Maybe a GTS if you have the dough and look at global win. they have some kewl (cool) fans combos that will work on geforce 2 cards.
Umm, may i suggest getin a removeable hard drive rack that supports ATA 100 and have two hard drives. One for all your gaming needs and the other for all your important programs/other shit. Then u shudn't have any worries of choppy frame rates and other installed programs slowin yor favs games down.

Above all, run a benchmark/s...sisoft sandra etc. and 3dmark 2001 for yor Fps marks.

I would also agree on sticking/planning for the future by getting the A7M266 with PC2100 preferably 256MB at least. And it will compliment the T-Bird 1.2Ghz 266FSB very nicely

This is the set-up i am looking at now and its been a while and i can't seem to find a better combo. I am waiting mainly because the price keeps droping, but just recently it looks like the processors arn't taking much of a drop anymore along with the memory.

with this combo as the core make sure to get some good cooling and anything else you add should be fine.

If you plan to OC, go for an Abit KT7A-R.
SD-RAM memory is going towards 166Mhz CAS-2, so you can get the FSB up all the way! OC-ing is noisy, unless you go the H2O way. There are many OC sites, check them out.

First off, the iwill kk266 is a better and more stable overclocker than the abit kt7a raid or not. i would go with the raid version either way. but thats if you're sticking with sdr rather than ddr. beings that the prices between the two are both low, and sdr is going out the door and fast, i would go with the ddr. it'll be around for much longer and the performance while not twice is good, has still proven itself to be better. i would agree with everyone on the asus a7m. this is the board i would buy today if i was to buy a board. i'm personally going to wait until boards are released with the SiS 735 chipset. this chipset looks like the way to go with ddr. better performance than the amd 760, with just as many features as via's 266. not only that, but sis has combined the north and south bridges into one chip making the link between the two have an incredible bandwidth. which ever way you go, my money is on ddr.

Right now, I'd reccomend either the Asus or Abit board supporting DDR memory. (especiually if you're overclocking) Those two companies make some of the best board out and do a GREAT job on them.

I'm reccomending the DDR boards because in the future DDR will stick around, whereas PC133 won't be. (and right after I get another 384MB, dmanit) Plus DDR isn't that much more spensive than SDRAM.

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HAHAHA, Work's fun.
Then you put in 65 hours in 5 days. What the hell was I thinking?

How soon do you need to do this? If you can wait until late August, the nForce chipset will be up and running on all the majors' mobo's. I am so psyched about this chipset, and I build PC's (mostly gaming rigs) for a living!! If you want to read up on this new CS, goto nvidia.com and take the virtual tour. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to e-mail me...I'd be happy to help!!

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So I got that goin for me, which is nice.