Hi folks, I'm prepared to upgrade a K6 PC to following config; CPU – AMD Athlon X 2600+/2800+ 512K RAM – 1G, DDR400 Hard drive – SATA I have been searching for a new motherboard and found following boards interested; 1) Gigabyte GA7UT600-1394 http://tw.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Products/Products_Spec_GA-7VT600%201394.htm Chipset 1. Northbridge : VIA KT600 2. Southbridge : VIA 8237 3. Integrated peripherals 1. VIA VT6306 IEEE1394 controller 2. Realtek Ethernet 10/100Mb LAN chip 4.Realtek ALC655 AC97 codec Chip Internal I/O Connectors 1. 1 x FDD port 2. 2 x UDMA ATA133/100/66 Bus Master IDE ports 3. 2 x IEEE 1394 connectors(support 3 ports) 4. 2 x USB 2.0 connectors (support 4 ports) 5. 1 x GAME/ MIDI connector 6.2 x Serial ATA connectors Front Side Bus 1. 400/333/266/200 MHz FSB Memory 1. Type : DDR400(PC3200)/ DDR333 (PC2700) / DDR266 (PC2100) -184pin 2. Max capacity : 3GB 3. DIMM slots: 3 [/code] 2) ASUS A7V600X North America http://usa.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?m=A7V600-X&langs=09 CPU Socket A for AMD Athlon XP/Athlon / Duron Thoroughbred/ Barton Core Support Chipset VIA KT600 VIA VT8237 FSB 400/333/266/200MHz Memory 3 x 184-pin DIMM Sockets support max. 3GB unbuffered non-ECC PC3200/PC2700/2100 DDR SDRAM memory Expansion Slots 1 x AGP 8X 6 x PCI Storage 2 x UltraDMA 133/100 2 x Serial ATA with RAID 0, 1 function Audio ADI AD1888 6-channel CODEC S/PDIF out interface LAN Integrated 10/100 Mbps LAN controller with external PHY[/code] 3) 2thMax 8RDA3I Pro Socket A Motherboard http://www1.2themax.com/products/mainboard/details.asp?board_id=51330 http://www1.2themax.com/products/8rda3ipro.htm New nVidia nForce2 Ultra 400 + RAID MCP AGPset chipset Supports socket-462 based AMD Athlon XP processors Support DDR400/333/266 On Board P-ATA IDE: * 2 IDE ports (up to 4 IDE devices) with UDMA-33, ATA-66/100/133 support from embedded IDE controller. onboard S-ATA: * 2 x S-ATA ports from RAID MCP with up to 150MBps bandwidth. On Board LAN: * 1 x RJ45 from onboard Realtek RTL8201CL 10/100Mb Fast Ethernet PHY. DRAM Memory: * 3 x 184-pin DDR SDRAM DIMM sockets. * Supports single or double sided 2.5v DDR-266/333/400 DIMMs with dual channel architecture in 128/256/512Mb technologies. * Supports up to 3GB system memory. On Board LAN: * 1 x RJ45 from onboard Realtek RTL8201CL 10/100Mb Fast Ethernet PHY.[/code] Kindly advise and comment. Besides is there much difference in performance between AMD Athlon X 2500+ and 2600+ TIA B.R. satimis

If you are planning on overclocking get the NF7-S rev 2.0 from ABIT or the Infinity from DFI, those boards are very good. But I will suggest you consider a 64-bit upgrade considering the timing of this upgrade.

VIA KT600 chipsets don't perform that well with Socket A. I have one Asus A7V8X-X motherboard which im NOT too fond about. (Other Asus products are excellent though) Here's an interesting article you might want to read: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/asus-a7v600.html My advice would be, stick with an Asus motherboard, but get one with an nVidia nForce chipset.

*my 2 cents* a 7200rpm sata harddrive is not always better than a 7200rpm pata harddrive and sometimes worse than the pata drive if you are going to get a sata drive make sure that it is a 10000rpm drive or faster because then you will definetly have performance increase over pata and if you're looking at prices you will like this advice because 7200rpm sata harddrives cost $20-$50 more than 7200rpm pata harddrives *just my 2 cents* ^(-.-)~~~]>:}>

Hi folks, Tks for your advice. Re SATA I won't get it immediately because not many selection with 10000 rpm available on market and its price not attractive. For such reason I need both PATA and SATA ports. In fact I'm more interested on 64 bit AMD CPU taking into consideration of the timing of this upgrade. However most software available are 32 bit. It sounds that I may own a powerful race car able to run 300+ KM but the speed limit on road is 100 KM. One further question, is there any disadvantage/problem in running 32 bit software on 64 bit CPU? B.R. satimis

" is there any disadvantage/problem in running 32 bit software on 64 bit CPU?" no, 64bit processors are in fact better at 32bit software than 32bit processors are wow! i just saw at the top you are currently using a PII 350 and 256 mb ram, this will be a big upgrade lol may i suggest a harddrive for you? the western digital caviar sseries is really good i have 2 of the 80gig 800JB models and one of the 120gig 1200JB models they were all cheap $50-bestbuy for the 80gig ones and $40 for the 120gig-circuit city after mail in rebates arguably the very best pata harddrive is the western digital 2500JB it costs about $160 ^(-.-)~~~]>:}>

HI giggles, Tks for your advice. I'm answering this posting from a Athlon 1.4 PC. processor : 0 vendor_id : AuthenticAMD cpu family : 6 model : 4 model name : AMD Athlon(tm) processor stepping : 4 cpu MHz : 1397.367 cache size : 256 KB fdiv_bug : no hlt_bug : no f00f_bug : no coma_bug : no fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 1 wp : yes flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr syscall mmxext 3dnowext 3dnow bogomips : 2744.32 total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 503 500 3 0 22 269 -/+ buffers/cache: 208 295 Swap: 1019 0 1019 Sorry for not having those information changed. I found following combination may meet my target; Athlon64 2800+ 512K cache Gigabyte GA-K8S760M motherboard RAM 512MB (upgrade to 1024MB later) Any comment on GA-K8S760M motherboard; http://tw.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Products/Products_Spec_GA-K8S760M.htm SiS 760 chipset Processor Socket 754 for AMD Athlon64 Chipset SiS 760 Chipset SiS 964 Chipset Super I/O: ITE IT8705 chip Integrated peripherials Realtek 8100C Ethernet controller Realtek ALC655 Audio AC'97 Codec Local Frame Buffer memory 64 MB Memory Type: DDR400/ 333/ 266- 184pin Max capacity: Up to 2GB by 2 DIMM slots Internal I/O Connectors 2 x Serial ATA connector 2 x UDMA ATA 133/100/66 Bus Master IDE connectors 1 x FDD connector 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 connectors (supports 4 ports) S/P DIF input/output pin header 2 x cooling fan pin headers CD/AUX in 1 x Game/Midi connector 1 x COM connector Expansion Slots 1 x AGP slot (8x/4x-AGP 3.0 compliant), supports 1.5v display card only. 3 x PCI slots (PCI 2.2 compliant) Rear Panel I/O PS/2 Keyboard / Mouse 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports 1 x VGA port 1 x RJ45 port 1 x COM ports 1 x LPT Audio (1 x Line-in / 1 x Line-out / 1 x Mic) connector CPU/AGP/DIMM setting CPU FSB adjustable via BIOS Power ATX power connector and ATX 12V connector Power-off by Windows 98/ Me/ 2000/ XP shut down and switch Form Factor Micro ATX form factor 24.4 x 24.4 cm H/W Monitoring System health status auto-detect and report by BIOS Hardware detecting and reporting for case open, CPU voltage, and fan speed. BIOS 2M bit flash ROM, Award BIOS Other Features Xpress Installation, Xpress Recovery Xpress BIOS rescue Q-Flash @BIOS I need both PATA and SATA ports because I won't get a SATA ncq (native command queuing) nor 10000 rpm SATA immediately, waiting their price down. I'll continue using the old ATA-133 7200 rpm hard drive first. Any advice. TIA B.R. satimis