LCD panels

Tim Schmidt computer_holic@hotmail.com
Wed, 20 Jun 2001 06:40:57


>Here is my whole story.  I am getting my annual bonus from work
>of $1200.  I wanted to get an LCD for about $800 and then use the
>other $400 for system upgrades.  My K6-2 450 is feeling a bit
>slow lately.  I wanted to get a new MB + Athlon 1Ghz, but my LCD
>price keeps creeping up and up.  Oh, what a dillemma....

I'm not an expert on LCDs, but I know x86s...  Here's what I reccomend:

<pricewatch>

$108  AMD 1.2Ghz 266Mhz FSB Athlon

$105  Abit KT7A (Via KT133A Chipset, PC133)
or
$125  Abit KT7A-RAID (" + HPT370 UDMA-100 controller)
or
~$200 Abit KG7-RAID (AMD 760 Chipset, DDR 2100, HPT370)

$52   PC133 (likely CAS3) 512Mb
or
$36   PC150 (CAS2 @ PC133!) 256Mb (I'm thinking buy 2 of these ;)

$52   DDR 2100 (likely CAS3 or 2.5) 256Mb
or
$90   DDR 2400 (CAS2 @ 2100!) 256Mb

</pricewatch>

of course none of those prices included shipping...  on a side note, just 
about any cooler listed here: http://216.157.14.244/socketnew.htm should 
work for you.  That should not be taken as an endorsement for Plycon, they 
just have a lot of info up on a lot of good coolers.

The KT7A w/ PC150 is an excellent performer for the price, you'll likely see 
it perform within 5% of the 760 based board on most apps, memory-intensive 
stuff usually runs 10-30% faster on the 760.

I like Abit's boards because they seem to be on the same wavelength as most 
computing 'enthusiasts'.  The KT7A[-RAID] still has an ISA slot! (along with 
6 PCI and an AGP 4x).  Their BIOSs have more options than you probably will 
ever use, and they always seem to be very stable, well thought-out boards.  
Also, Abit doesn't have 10 bagillion different models for every single OEM 
out there that you could get confused with your board *ahem* Asus 
*cough-cough*.

Just my personal preference.

Check out Abit at www.abit-usa.com, and you might want to look for HSF 
reviews on www.hardocp.com

If you prefer a different mobo manufacturer, I can help you decide on a 
board, just give me a hollar, and I'll fill you in.

Incidently, the 760MP board from Tyan is available.  Nice.

Nvidia's Crush chipset is in the hands of taiwanese manufacturers (I've seen 
the Abit board), and Nvidia is claiming a 30% performance lead above any 
other current chipset.  Nvidia's been spot-on with recent performance 
numbers, so this will be a good one.  The set includes integrated GeForce 2 
MX, Dual channel DDR memory, AMD's Lightning Data Transfer bus (800Mb/s 
between north and south-bridge), 6 channel Audio, 10/100 NIC, 'Level 3' 
cache, and a few very neat performance optomizations.  Boards will likely be 
available in 1-3 months for ~$200-$300
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