My Ecs Ks75a Pro + Xp1800

[djb5k]

Well I starting looking to upgrade from my amd 450 about when I joined this forum a few months ago. After asking around and starting a couple of n00b topic, I had a basic Idea of what I wanted, it was just a matter what setup I was going to pay for. I had didn't have the budget to do a highend upgrade and wanted to use most of the components I already had.

 

After looking at all the specs and abilities of top of the line systems and reading a Bazillion reviews, I finally took a gamble and bought the ECS kS75A Pro. It had gotten alot of bad reviews, but came strongly recomended from Ronin becuase of its features and abilitly to use DDR and SDR ram.

 

For my proccesor I got the Athlon Xp1800 t-bred. Processor Prices Creep up in increments that slowly led me overbudget so I went with the 1800 becuase it was at the best price at the time, and I can always upgrade later. Plus the Retail version was on sale and I was going to give the Retail HS and fan a chance.

 

My current Cheepo 235w PSU wasn't going cut it either so I was going to get a Herloichi 350w, which is antecs manufacturer. But I ended up giving themaltakes silent purepower 360w a chance. Mostly because it was the same price and I guess thermaltake makes some good quite fans

 

I Lucked out with my new video card and got a FREE one from work. It was just laying around and not bieng used, brand new. I my boss let me have it cuase he was too lazy to return it and he bought it six months earlier. GeForce 2(3?) 440MX 64mb-FREE!

 

I had never bought Parts online before either so I to make things easier and to have the manufacturers warranty I got the retail versions. Everything was bought at

New Egg, becuase they had good reviews, and I like the way they handle Shipping.

 

So total=

 

Ecs K7S5A Pro_______________56$+Free Shipping

AMD Athlon XP w/HSF_________65$+Free Shipping

360W PSU__________________46$

Video Card__________________50$ (if i paid for it)

 

My total at Newegg was 163$. I got all the stuff superfast and went to work right away to make sure nothing was Dead on Arrival. Within 2 hours I was playing Jedi Knight 2. I spent about 5 mins in the bios and about 30min in the device manager.

 

This Mobo has had alot of complaints and supposed problems. I had no problem, and I doubt It was becuase of me. My 320mb of sdr ram works great with the board. My CMOS has never cleared itself, all my devices and 4 usb 2.0 ports work, and i played JK2 Two hours straight. All contradictory to the problems other people had with this board.

 

So right now heres my system:

 

old atx case

old CD drive

old CDRW drive

old 100mb Zip Drive

old 17gig WD HD 5400rpm

old Soundblaster live value

old 56k modem

old SDR ram

New DDR XP Mobo

New PsU

New XP1800 1.53ghz

New 6mb video card

Windows 98se

 

Ive never have played a "high" end system, So I only have my old system to compare too, but I am very please with how this turned out. Its fast, Quiet, and extremely cost effective. I can play all the games I have so far and even get some good Render times in 3dsmax. Overall I would recomend this upgrade to anyone whos a cheap B@$t4Rd, and wants a Nice, better than Intel, system.

 

If anyones interested I can try to get some numbers up. Hope My 2 cents saves some people some time.

[AMDOCuser]

I don't know much about your board, but your bottle neck is your RAM, but if your happy thats all that matters. Plus you can't beat free, and at least you stuck with AMD. And that's such a big upgrade from what you did have, you should be happy for awhile.

[bishop245]

congrats on your system hope everything keeps working like it is now for ya