AMD CPU/Mbd recomendations wanted

I am in the planning stages of building a new system. Prefer an AMD b/c of price break over Pentium.

After some extensive research, I've narrowed my choices to the following. Please provide input:

1) Mboard: Abit KT7A or KT7A-RAID -- Is the RAID worth extra $25 (and hassle?) I have heard plenty of horror stories. This is a PC not a server, although I am considering throwing in an extra, very small hard drive to seperate the OS (win98se) from my files.

2) Proccessor: For the life of me, even on the AMD website, I can't find a distinction b/tw Athlon and T-birds. I am looking at about 800-900 MHZ, depending on price, and overclocking it to 1GHz.

3) Wrong forum, but figured I'd throw it in? Video Card recomendations? Quality budget card ($100 or so). Have also heard about compatability issues with AMD. Any insight.

Thanks for any help.

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"Hey, you can't fight in here. This is the War Room."

Well for $1300, I got the system lableled below. I actually don't need RAID right now, but hell you never know. Another Deskstar would only cost me $145 if I wanted.

Definitely get a Thunderbird, and stay away from Classic Slot A Athlons!!!! The cache is on-die and runs at full speed on the Tbird, and its cheaper to make in Socket than the Slot ones.

As for a video card, I'd get a Radeon 32DDR. I got my retail 64DDR for $198, and I'm astounded by the image quality in 32-bit colour.

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1.1 GHz Thunderbird
Abit KT7A-RAID
256megs Crucial CAS3 PC133
ATI Radeon VIVO 64DDR
IBM 45gig 7200/ATA100
Pioneer 16X DVD
Sony 8X/4X CD-R
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
350W ATX Power Supply

After reading the reviews, I think I would take the Asus A7V133 over the Abit KT7A/RAID configuration.

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Knight for the OC Crusaders

P3 700@945 (135x7.0 1.7V)
Asus CUV4X
128MB PC150 (2-2-2)
Viper 770 @ 144/164 core/mem
SBLive! Value
13.5GB Maxtor ATA100 (5400RPM)
Memorex 36X CD-ROM
Aiwa 10GB Tape Backup
SCSI ZIP 100MB
Linksys 10/100 NIC

I'll start with the video card. for about $115 you can get the power color GeForce 2 mx, it has a hsf on the card that most do not carry on most mx based cards. there's not no concernable difference that I have found and for the money it's a good card.
If you're going to do any oc'ing then I would go with the abit kt7a-raid, it is oc frindly and the kt7a is going to be able to accept the 266 cchip from amd, thus it's was my choice.
the cpu I went for the tb-900 with a little pencil work I should be able to go over 1ghz with no problem, and right now they are about $125.
these were my choices hope this helps

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From Fish Food
to
Fish Bait
I Feel A Lot Better Now

Pick up a 900MHz Athlon Thunderbird if you have the money, but do it after March 5, 2001 as I've already stated in another post I put up a while ago (AMD will be having some serious price cuts) Unlock your processor and pair it with the IWill KA266-R (Final Revision Retail) motherboard. It features an onboard RAID controller, 4x AGP, UDMA/100, DDR SDRAM, and the 266MHz FSB support all for $150. Make sure to pick up the retail final revision of this board, then download/install the latest BIOS for it (Radeon fix.) Pair it with PC1600 Crucial DDR RAM, then overclock your RAM to PC2100 speed (133MHz = 266MHz = PC2100) Lastly, buy the ATi Radeon 64MB VIVO card, these components together will give you an awesome system with amazing performance for a very hard to beat price. Good luck to you, and get ready for the "AMD Experience"

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[x] AMD
[x] Abit
[x] 3dfx

Iwill performs badly though...

anyway if your going for the gig Don´t buy a 800 you´ll only get there if you really lucky, cuz the 800 ocz only up to 950.. the 900 will surely make the gig..

all asus+abit are good
get the 133 versions! DDR ain´t worth it.. that little perfomance does not compensate for the cost!
have fun!