Re: Build A New PC

Well, I have been putting together a few lately and have been using the ECS K7S5A. The AC 97 audio isn't anything to write home about but the integrated 10/100 network interface seems to work just fine. Also, if you are short on cash you can use your SDRAM and upgrade to DDR at a later date.

The performance of the board seems to be top notch and for $65 dollars I can't see where you can go wrong. You can get a combo with a 1.4 Tbird on it for the low price of $189. Throw in 2 stick of 256Mb ram at a measly $80 and you can have new guts in your box for under $300. The only problem I have found is finding a home for the old parts.

I also remember someone saying that the Shuttle AK31 was also a very stable performer. But heck what do I know? Get it straight from the horse’s mouth, FTL.

I have been using Crucial RAM in the systems that I have been building but I think there might be some better alternatives if you are looking to squeak out some more performance.

I would like to get some feedback myself on what chip stepping, and memory to use on this board as well as some suggestions of how to set up the memory and bus timings/speeds to achieve the best performance/stability ratio. I don't get the luxury of being able to play with these settings as I tend to keep things overly conservative for conserns about stability.