Topics today

[L. Lim]

> An Athlon board/chip combo looks particular promising.  $150.00 for a
> K7-500Mhz, and they are overclockable to 750 (see
> www.step-thermodynamics.com for more info on this).  I'm putitng a little
> more money into the motherboard, getting a good K7V from Asus.  It's
> supposed to be the best K7 board out there, and it's about an additional
> $150.00.  It will support the newer Thunderbirds and up to 1Ghz CPU
> speed.  Which is plenty for future expansion.
> 

I would actually recommend the Abit KA7. The KA7 comes with 6 PCI slots as
opposed to the K7V (5PCI + 1 AMR slot) and 1 ISA. Also, the layout of the
board is much better (4 vs 3 DIMM slots, ATX power connecter at the edge
of the board, etc.)

Reviews:

ASUS K7V
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1214
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/k7v/default.asp

Abit KA7
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1222
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ka7/default.asp

A quick price check on Pricewatch showed the KA7 selling around
$160-170. It's a little bit expensive because the board just came out.

Cheers,
Lenny