Marcia wrote: >Dear All, > >Thank you for your comments about upgrading. I am still window shopping and >comparing barebone kits running Athlon XP's. Sometimes I see OEM and I really >do not know what that means. > >I am comparing a Jetway 830CF Barebones w/AMD XP 1600+ CPU and PC Chips 817LR >Athlon Socket-A Ali Chipset, DDR/SDRAM support. My son-in-law said to stay >away from Duron. It sounds like many of you use Duron though without a >problem. The Jetway 830CF is being offered for 229.00 I believe while the >other one is being offered for 151.00 which includes shipping. I really do >not have the know-how to make a good comparison. I was told that they both >work with Linux. Anyone know anything about the PC Chips 817LR Athlon >Socket-A ALi Chipset? > >Any help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much. > >Sincerely, > >Marcia > Yes the ALi chipset has a broken clock which can sometimes corrupt the filesystems and make it difficult to run BT848 video capture and TV cards. Besides that, PCChips does not have one of the better reputations in the industry though I don't avoid them as strongly as I did a few years ago. BEWARE also of VIA KT266 chipsets which ALSO have broken clocks.
Now 229 for the Board and processor seems a bit steep. I see at www.surpluscomputers.com that a barebone system based on the 830CF (including case and power supply) with the AMD XP 1500 is 229.95 while a mobo with the processor is 199.95. Regardless of which you decide to purchase, take the plunge and get a copper-bottomed heatsink with a 7000rpm fan. The copper is less likely to wear away the corners of the chip or the very thin layer of special glass on top of it (actually SiO2), and the cooling is absolutely essential for processor life. Most AMD chips still do not have thermal shutdown, so it is possible that yours will self-destruct in thermal overload. Whatever fan that comes with the packages should be discarded or sold to a Duron owner, where cooling isn't such a critical task. www.directron.com has a large assortment of fans. I have been using the Dragon Orb 1, but it isn't copper-bottomed. Civileme > >
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
