Looks like I need a new cpu and motherboard what should I get?

Factual Questions
1

Mods, I feel this is a GQ question but if you think it is more suited for IMHO then please move it.

My every day system is or should I saw was a Athlon 850 system on a KA7-100/Raid motherboard. It has a 400 Watt powersupply. I was using it earlier and it just shut off for no reason. I powered it back on and got no display. So I took all the cards out of it and unhooked all the drives. Taking a spare AGP card I put it in and turned on the system, no beeps. no viceo, no nothing :frowning: This leads me to suspect either the motherboard or the cpu died and I don’t have a second one of either knd to test (my other system is an Intel)

I would like to keep the replacement system AMD and use my existing memory. I have 4 PC-133 DIMMS I also need it to have 5 or more PCI slots and RAID would be prefered. I need to be able to support 6 IDE Devices (4 hard drives, a dvd drive and a CD-RW)

What do you suggest

2

Well, depending on if you want all-out power, i would go with a Tyan mobo, and throw in two Amd Athlon MP’s. That would be killer. THe trick is to find a mobo that will support your ram. Most amd systems are DDR based, and not SD, unless i assumed incorrectly. An awesome site you ought to check out for finding what you need at awesome prices is pricewatch.com. I have found items for really inexpensive. Also, go to arstechnica.com, it has a lot of helpful information, especially for AMD.

Also, check this motherboard out: http://www.axiontech.com/cgi-local/prdtinfo.asp?prdt=MBTYS2390

This also looks worthwhile: http://tyan.com/products/html/thunderk7x.html

When it comes to RAID, you might just have to throw on a third party raid controller, and you’d be set to go.

3

Well since I was using an 850 for a few years and the preformace was acceptable, I’m not going to look for all out power, just something affordable under 200 lets say for board and chip

4

First of all, check power. Did you get a green light on the keyboard? Did the fan start?

5

I get power cause the drives activate and fans spin, but nothing on the keyboard lights up

6

Your best bet, for what you need, is an Abit KT7A-RAID motherboard (Revision 1.4 supports Athlon XP/Durons over 1Ghz) combined with an Athlon XP at low speed. It only has 3 DIMM slots, but that’s the best you’re gonna get. I personally own this board, and it’s an absolute dream to work with, even though its rather old by now.

I suggest that you purchase from www.newegg.com, along with a Thermaltake Volcano 7 for cooling (NOT Volcano 7+, or any of the lower end volcanoes, except perhaps Volcano 6Cu). This cooler is temperature controlled, which should allow you to keep a low noise level if the case is decently cool.

7

Thank you FDISK, I was unable to find the KT7A-RAID on newegg but I found it on pricewatch for the board, a XP 1500 and the Volcano 7 from NewEgg I’m looking at 203. I’ll have to make due with my Intel system with no sound, no dvd and no burner until I can get the funds together.

8

When you turn on the computer, does the cooler fan spin? Don’t forget to check the power connection to the mobo.

9

As for Motherboards, I haven’t checked in the past few months if anything better was out, but you really can’t go wrong with an ECS model K7S5A .
Mine came with onboard LAN and Audio, but I disabled the audio and kept the Lan, which works excellent. It has slots for both PC100/133 Ram, or the DDR Ram so you can choose which memory you wish to use at any given time.

The Processer slot is socket A, so it accomodates the latest AMD processors.

It is rock solid, and I love it. The best part, is that right now it is only about 90 bucks CDN (50 USA bucks on Pricewatch) and outperforms many other more-expensive boards. It earned a 9/10 review which you can read here:

http://www.amdmb.com/article-display.php?ArticleID=112

It’s a steal, and you won’t be disappointed. I just can’t believe how good it is for so cheap!