Posted by brian on 5, 2001 at 2:26 PM:
In Reply to: Re: Choosing the right Mobo? posted by lightspeed on 5, 2001 at 2:09 PM:
: For MAME, I would go with an Athlon to keep the prices low. Best bet would be a 1.4 TBird for best price/speed value. I have one, and it runs all my MAME games just fine.
: I used a cheap Biostar mobo for mine. VIA KT266A chipset, which, from what I understand, has some issues with GeForce and Radeon cards when using XP (shouldn't affect you). If you want the best and the fastest (AMD wise):
: 266 FSB
: DDR SDRAM
: AGP port
: USB 2.0
: ATA 100
: However, for MAME purposes, only the first 3 items above are necessary.
: Shameless plug: http://www.tcwo.com
: I got my stuff here - real cheap prices, real cheap shipping (although I live next door to them, so I didn't have it shipped), nice selection, and nice people. Check resellerratings.com before using any online vendor.
: : I am looking into stepping into the lofty 1.5GHz+ arena of processors, and am trying to figure out which motherboard would be right for my Win98SE machine which will run MAME as well.
: : The things I am having trouble with are these
: : Prices range from around 60 bucks to well over 200 for motherboard alone. But does low price generally equal slower performance or is that more to do with chipset, memory, etc.?
: : What features should I look for? 266FSB, DDR capable,
: : Anybody having any luck with onboard sound? As in, should I get that or just use a sound card?
: : If the board uses DDR memory, can I still use the PC133 I already have until I can get some DDR or do I just need to get the DDR with it?
: : I am not looking for which board to buy, but what features to look for so I can make my own decision.
: : Anyone have any suggestions about where I can look that is NOT just one of those "This board is great, but some of these others suck" hardware review?
: : Thanks
: : K
whatever you do, don't combine an athlon with a via chipset board.