A7V600 - good upgrade choice?

[Ben Nealon]

Hi,
I am currently looking at upgrading my computer system, i am looking at some
new memory, cpu and motherboard. I am planning to get a better graphics card
at a later date (christmas).
for starters, is the ASUS A7v600 motherboard a good choice? I play quite
a few performance hungry games (for example max payne 2 and soon half life
2) I am currently a student and obvioulsy cant afford much more than £70
tops for a mb [i like all the features of the A7v600 though, ie SATA
usb2.0](i am upgrading from an athlon 1.4ghz with 256mb ddr ram.)

I will be looing at the current setup:

ASUS A7v600
Athlon thoroughbred xp 2700 (333mhz)
512mb (maybe 1Gb) pc3200 Ram

old parts include:

300watt PSU
160gb ata133 7200rpm maxtor hdd
ASUS Gforce 3 ti200 g card
.....some other parts will be used, but are not necessary to put here...

I have a few more questions to ask...

Would you recommend purcahsing 512mb ram or 1gb? i want a good computer that
will cope well with future releases, but i dont want any unneccesary
spending.

Is a 300W power supply good enough for this setup? or would you recommend
400w?

My current motherboard has an onboard creative CT5880 sound chip (AC97
codec) - what is better, this one or the one found on the A7V600 MB

Any further comments would be appreciated...

Regards,
Ben Nealon

 

[Ben Nealon]

Just another quick question that i missed,
Does the onboards sound come with a game connector cable or must this be
purchased seperately? I uanderstand there is no port on the I/O Panel!

Regards,
Ben Nealon

 

[Chris C]

Hi, Nforce2 chipset is a better proposition than the KT600. Try a NF7 for
starters....
Chris C

Just another quick question that i missed,
Does the onboards sound come with a game connector cable or must this be
purchased seperately? I uanderstand there is no port on the I/O Panel!

Regards,
Ben Nealon

Hi,
I am currently looking at upgrading my computer system, i am looking at some
new memory, cpu and motherboard. I am planning to get a better graphics card
at a later date (christmas).
for starters, is the ASUS A7v600 motherboard a good choice? I play quite
a few performance hungry games (for example max payne 2 and soon half life
2) I am currently a student and obvioulsy cant afford much more than £70
tops for a mb [i like all the features of the A7v600 though, ie SATA
usb2.0](i am upgrading from an athlon 1.4ghz with 256mb ddr ram.)

I will be looing at the current setup:

ASUS A7v600
Athlon thoroughbred xp 2700 (333mhz)
512mb (maybe 1Gb) pc3200 Ram

old parts include:

300watt PSU
160gb ata133 7200rpm maxtor hdd
ASUS Gforce 3 ti200 g card
....some other parts will be used, but are not necessary to put here...

I have a few more questions to ask...

Would you recommend purcahsing 512mb ram or 1gb? i want a good computer that
will cope well with future releases, but i dont want any unneccesary
spending.

Is a 300W power supply good enough for this setup? or would you recommend
400w?

My current motherboard has an onboard creative CT5880 sound chip (AC97
codec) - what is better, this one or the one found on the A7V600 MB

Any further comments would be appreciated...

Regards,
Ben Nealon

 

[Mike Gorman]

I have to say that I agree with the last response to a degree. The A7V600
has gotten some pretty sad reviews, albeit for the sole reason that certain
bios features are missing such as locking of the AGP frequency and lack of
certian voltage adjustments. These features are partucularly useful to folks
who wish to overclock. Since the big deal about the A7V600 is the Via KT600
bios and it's ability to run up to the 400 mhz FSB, the fact that it's
overclocking ability is stymied by certain features (or lack of) would seem
to fly in the face of it's true purpose. After all, the whole premise of
Athlon equipment is the promise of cheap speed.

It's my understanding that there will be a Via KT800 (or some such) chipset
coming dow the pike that will add a multitude of nifty features desgned to
better compete against the Nforce 2 chipset. The A7V8X-X and the A7V600 are
virtually identical in features (and appearance) ecxept for their chipsets
and are, overall, good, inexpensive performers. The 8X-X runs about $70 US
where the 600 runs about $90 US. All in all, good performers, but not the
best performers.

The Abit NF7 runs somewhere in between and uses the Nforce2 chipset and it's
reviews mark it as stable and versitile. As a gammer, it might be more to
your taste.

As far as the PSU, you can try the 300W but if you find the system not
booting or other strange behavior the larger PSU would be advised.

 

[Gareth Jones]

I have to say that I agree with the last response to a degree. The A7V600
has gotten some pretty sad reviews, albeit for the sole reason that certain
bios features are missing such as locking of the AGP frequency and lack of
certian voltage adjustments. These features are partucularly useful to folks
who wish to overclock. Since the big deal about the A7V600 is the Via KT600
bios and it's ability to run up to the 400 mhz FSB, the fact that it's
overclocking ability is stymied by certain features (or lack of) would seem
to fly in the face of it's true purpose. After all, the whole premise of
Athlon equipment is the promise of cheap speed.

While I'd have to agree on initial specs, having built up two systems
now using this board and an XP2500 Barton, the lack of AGP lock isn't
much of an issue since the board allows the multiplier to be changed and
of course its unlocked on this chip.
Buying good DDR400 (or faster) Ram should allow the FSB to be set at 420
or 440 and then you just set the multiplier to whatever the chip will
allow. > XP3200 performance should normally be achievable with the
XP2500 chip.
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"Reality sucks - go watch a Star Trek"

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[Mike Gorman]

now using this board and an XP2500 Barton, the lack of AGP lock isn't
much of an issue since the board allows the multiplier to be changed and
of course its unlocked on this chip.
Buying good DDR400 (or faster) Ram should allow the FSB to be set at 420
or 440 and then you just set the multiplier to whatever the chip will
allow. > XP3200 performance should normally be achievable with the
XP2500 chip.

That's good news because I'd really like to pick one of these up along with
a 400fsb Barton chip.

 

[Gareth Jones]

That's good news because I'd really like to pick one of these up along with
a 400fsb Barton chip.

Well my board works fine at 440 with Twinmos DDR400 RAM.
However the point I was making is that you stand a very good chance of
getting the much cheaper XP2500 barton (which is 333FSB) to actually run
at these >400 speeds - so why would you buy a 400MHz FSB version at
triple (?) the price?

Overclocking is always a gamble - in that in a worst case scenario, you
CAN'T overclock it at all and so it runs at stock speed, but with the
2500, this appears to be one of those 'classic' overclocking chips.
I'm sure AMD have done this as a farewell present to all those loyal
Athlon fans who made it such a popular chip over the years ;-)

--
__________________________________________
<Gareth Jones> usenet@_ns_swansea.demon.co.uk

"Reality sucks - go watch a Star Trek"

To email, remove the '_ns_' from
usenet@_ns_swansea.demon.co.uk
__________________________________________