Need tech advice on abit kt7a raid board

[damnlimey]

I've just been given an abit kt7a raid board along with a 800mhz athlon .
Rather than spend hours or days searching the net for advice I thought I'd throw it
out to the techs at FR first.My questions are:

Is there an appreciable speed advantage to using the raid technology and 2 drives?(stripping?)
What video card should I get?
Are there any heatsink/fan choices that work better than others?(dual fans?)
What type of memory ,I know this board supports pc133 but is it DDR compatible.

Any other advice would be greatly appreciated,
Thanks.

[Brett66]

I caught that sale a couple of weeks ago. I have 256 Megs of DDR RAM on my system so I didn't really need it. They were also selling 17 inch monitors for $159 with a $100 rebate! That deal was too good to pass up, I grabbed one.

[Scully]

Also be very carful installing the fan. It is not terribly difficult to damage the CPU with too much force.

This sounds like the voice of (unfortunate and expensive) experience.

[RadioAstronomer]

Thanks for the reply. I have never used an MX and was unfamiliar with the visual performance. I only have either Gforce2 Pros or Gforce3s. I gave away my one Geforce2 GTS.

So it sounds like the MX is the better option for the price.

[RadioAstronomer]

Cool! I have dual channel RDRAM as apposed to DDR. I don't think there is much performance difference between the two.

[RadioAstronomer]

This sounds like the voice of (unfortunate and expensive) experience.

LOL! Sigh!!!

[RiVer19]

Well, on a slot-A, which an AMD 800 very well could be, he doesn't have that worry. It's in that big 'ol case. ha! But, with a little care he shouldn't be afraid of clipping a fan on a socket-A CPU. It's just a metal clip...although you've got to carefully push it into place for that "snap" on the CPU mount. Just hooks on one side, and clips over a catch on the other. Don't be scared.... :-)

[fnord]

bump for morning

[RadioAstronomer]

I also "killed" a 1.7 Ghz P4 a while back when changing a heat sink. Why? To this day I still have no idea. Intel did replace it for free though. Double Sigh!

[RadioAstronomer]

ROFL! :) Not scared just got in a hurry. I have built lots and lots of machines. :) My first was an S-100 where I had to solder the chips onto the boards.

[Scully]

Intel did replace it for free though.

Interesting, and a bit surprising. How old was the P4?

[RadioAstronomer]

Be careful on your fan selection

I use a Swiftech 462A. Great CPU cooler!

[RadioAstronomer]

About a month! :)

[Scully]

About a month! :)

I'd say you done real good, RA ;) Hehe

[RadioAstronomer]

Felt damn lucky! The did replace it with no hassles at all. The even sent it next day air. :)

[damnlimey]

Thanks again to everyone here,those prices are very
encouraging,a lot less than I was expecting to pay,
I also checked on Ebay I can get a real nice 300W case
for $25-$30 and I already have a spare cdrw and floppy
so it looks like I'm in good shape.
One more thing ,this is a jumperless board,any problems to look forward to there?

[RiVer19]

Jumperless Motherboards are great. No different from a motherboard with the jumpers. Just that you don't have to twiddle with the little jumpers. You just make the changes in the SETUP program. You know, that's where you hit something like DEL when the system is starting up and it takes you to the setup. Just make whatever changes there. You probably won't have to change a thing considering that this motherboard and CPU combination was working together already for your brother.

$20-$30 case + eBay. Be afraid. Be very afraid.... You'll regret getting a cheapo case I promise you. The best case I've experienced for the money is a $49.99 AMD approved 300w case from TigerDirect. I've installed a bunch of systems with it. It just came down in price. Was $60 a couple of months ago. Check it out on their site. It's very well made with nice strong metal and no rough edges to cut you up (like most cheap cases). Lots of space in it too for adding disks and such. It's a bargin considering the quality. Think hard about saving $20 on a crappy case. You'll kick yourself everytime you have to open it up to change something. Just a thought based on experience....

[RiVer19]

Oh yeah, didn't see you mention a having a sound card.... Good bargin is a Creative Labs Soundblaster Live Value (OEM) for $29 (@ Shentech.com). Good card that doesn't waste your CPU cycles doing sound stuff (at a great price).

[RadioAstronomer]

I use Lian Aluminium cases. :) Great case but expensive.

[RadioAstronomer]

I like the value card. Great card! SB has now added the Audigy line. What do you think of them?

[RiVer19]

You obviously have a nice budget for computers. ha! I've got six systems on my network in my house. My wife and I both are programmers and she works from home. Plus my two kids are both seriously into computers. So, I've got a lot of systems that I have to spread my computer budget over. I buy inexpensive, but quality. There's a nice compromise you can find there if you're careful. There's nothing more frustrating than dealing with just plain "cheap" hardware. It's never worth it. So, I don't do "cheap". Just look for quality at bargin prices...