- Aug 15, 2010
- 5
- 0
- 18,510
Hey, so to make a long story short, I play a lot of older games, and so I'm basically building a (outdated) PC around a 3dfx Voodoo5 5500 graphics card. After a bit of research I found that the most recent motherboards I can use are either those based on the VIA KT266 or the VIA KM266 chipset for Socket A AMD processors, because those were the last to support 1x/2x AGP cards drawing 3.3v, which is the Voodoo5.
The problem, though, is that both chipsets have their advantages and disadvantages. The KM266 was basically a budget chipset and so the boards built around it are all microATX and support less RAM and a lot less features than the KT266, but on the other hand, the KM266 supports Athlon XP Thoroughbred processors whereas the KT266 only supports the slower Palamino CPUs.
These are the two boards I'm looking at... MSI K7T266 (based on the KT266,):
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=226&redirect=yes
Gigabyte GA-7VKMP (KM266):
http://www.gigabyte.de/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ProductID=3174
Basically, the trade-off is between having the expandability of a full ATX board and the ability to use 3GB of RAM vs. being able to use the faster Thoroughbred processors. I really have no previous experience building PCs, so any help would be appreciated... which motherboard do you think I should use? Is the difference between 1 and 3 GB of RAM or the difference between a 1733 MHz Palomino CPU and 2133 MHz Thoroughbred processor more important? Price is not an issue as both are from about 2001 and dirt cheap.
Thank you!
The problem, though, is that both chipsets have their advantages and disadvantages. The KM266 was basically a budget chipset and so the boards built around it are all microATX and support less RAM and a lot less features than the KT266, but on the other hand, the KM266 supports Athlon XP Thoroughbred processors whereas the KT266 only supports the slower Palamino CPUs.
These are the two boards I'm looking at... MSI K7T266 (based on the KT266,):
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=226&redirect=yes
Gigabyte GA-7VKMP (KM266):
http://www.gigabyte.de/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ProductID=3174
Basically, the trade-off is between having the expandability of a full ATX board and the ability to use 3GB of RAM vs. being able to use the faster Thoroughbred processors. I really have no previous experience building PCs, so any help would be appreciated... which motherboard do you think I should use? Is the difference between 1 and 3 GB of RAM or the difference between a 1733 MHz Palomino CPU and 2133 MHz Thoroughbred processor more important? Price is not an issue as both are from about 2001 and dirt cheap.
Thank you!
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