Athlon mobo combos

[Carnivore99]

Somebody asked earlier so here you go...

Athlon 850mHz classic CPU on an Epox EP-K7XA+ motherboard, $159 for the package:

TigerDirect.com

I think you'll need to add $9 for the
fan.

I just picked up the 950mhz version including the fan for $199, which I think was a little better deal, but its no longer on the web site. You could always call and ask if they have any MBM-950 packages left though, as it IS in their new printed catalog, which I just got in the mail today. My motherboard came in a retail box bundled with Norton Ghost and Antivirus. It's slot A so forget about upgrading later, and it's a classic K7 Athlon, not a Thunderbird, but I think it's a pretty good bang for the buck (especially for the 950mHz combo). That Epox board alone sells for around $100 on most sites, and got good reviews when it was released last year. And the CPU is still selling for over $100 everywhere if bought separately.

 

[TungFree]

The athlon clasic I beleive has 2/5 th speed of the stated L2 cash ( and has not been dropping in price cause many OEM pakage it in their bargain bare bones systems (so I think)

TungFree

 

[Carnivore99]

Most of the comparisons between Thunderbird and Classic that I've read put the Thunderbird about 10% faster than the Classic of the same speed rating for games. The margin is less when you're running less demanding apps. So sure, the Thunderbird is better but the classic is still pretty fast, and you get a nice price break by buying the one that's getting dumped.

 

[bolomite]

The original Athlons have 512K of L2 cache running at half speed, but there are ways to change this divider to 2/5 or 1/3, in the BIOS of most of the boards out there.

 

[diablonhn]

The speed of the cache of the classic athlons really doesn't matter. The speed difference between 1/2 or 2/5 cache is insignificant. Of course, a 700 with 1/2 cache will be slower than a 750 with 2/5 cache.

 

[Crucial]

I've got one of these boards with an Athlon 650 running at 750. It runs GREAT. One of the most stable systems I have ever had. I got the combo for $150 at icompz.com This combo isn't there anymore but the MB is. It's only $68. LINK.

 

[Trinity2000]

Not to crap, but i had the original Athlon 650 oc'd to 800 on this epox board. I had major driver problems and frequent crashes. However, I do believe this was due to the via 4 in one driver-

My opinion, as they say, is free.....

 

[KevinH]

There's no such thing as crapping on a hot deals thread. You're not taking from anyone's sale. But I definitely hear yah, the Epox was a headache to get going but I got the board almost right when the kx133 chipset hit the market. The maturity of the bios and drivers was the culprit IMHO since my friend's board is running flawless right now. Still hard to argue for 159...

my 2 cents.

kh

 

[SemperFi]

Just got mine with the 950. Took almost 4 weeks to get. It came with the heatsink and has dual fans. A very nice deal IMHO if you don't mind the wait.

I am still trying to get the os installed. It seems it doesn't like any of my old cdrom drive's one is a 8x the other 12x. Well off to get a new drive. I was looking for a reason to go buy a faster one.

One other thing I ordered a case from them it is a real POS! A couple of the plastic clips on the front cover is broken. I mounted the board in the case and the slots at the bottom of the case is too close to the card opening meaning that add on cards won't insert into the board. L50-3000 is the item # on the case don't buy it!

I just got this thing up and running with a new cd drive. Deffinately not a MB problem. This is an awesome deal !