Another CPU/MB Thread

[MrLars]

I'm thinking of building a new system and need some input from some of you tech types..

MB  ASUS P4T-E...i850 chipset
    P4 1.6ghz Processor
    256mb PC800 Ram
   

Using my old CDRW, GeForce3 Ti200, 7200rpm HD's

I'll be getting a new sound card also but have no idea of what to get.

Pros/Cons anybody?

[AKDejaVu]

You may want to establish why you are going with that system... especially chosing a 1.6 GHz P4.  If the purchase is special deal driven or not up to debate... then fine.

Otherwise, you better steal yourself... cause a tidle wave is coming

AKDejaVu

[aknimitz]

Hiyas,

Wonderful choices MrLars.  curly and I just built two systems identical to yours except that we put in 1.8Ghz CPU's.  We bought our stuff from monarchcomputers.com I think.  One of the wonderful things about this motherboard is that it allows upgrades all the way upto 2.4Ghz.  

Nothing but wonderful things to say about the system you just listed.  

Nim

[Camel]

If the 1.6 is a money issue, then I would think about the SiS645 chipset on the Asus P4S333(supports 2.4Ghz and beyond), with DDR333. The savings on these items may yeild you a higher clocked CPU, and a cheaper RAM upgrade later.

I just built myself and a buddie 1.8's on this setup, Its solid! Im running my 1.8 @ 2232 (fsb 124)(1.825 volts), with the stock heatsink and fan. SiSoft Sandra shows it within 10% of the Rambus P4 on the memory benchmark, and atleast 10% over any DDR266 systems. Im still monkeying with it, but so far I am very happy!!!

[bloom25]

I just wrote a MB article for P4 supporting  boards (and Athlon), there's lot of good info in there.  Whatever you do, make sure the board you get is a socket 478 board and not socket 423.  Also, get either the i850 or Sis 645 based board.  (The Sis board uses much less expensive PC2100 or PC 2700 DDR SDRAM, and not Rambus PC 800 RDRAM.)  Don't get the PC 133 SDRAM based i845 board, those are terrible performers.

That particular Asus board has a good reputation.  I think you would be happy with it.

I don't really have much to say on sound cards.  Soundblaster Live! cards are pretty much the standard, but they *can* be a pain to setup.  (Creative's drivers are not that good.)  Unfortunately I don't have any firsthand experience with any of the alternatives, but there are other choices out there now.  Hopefully someone else will chime in on that one.

(I'm not even going to get started on the AMD vs Intel CPU debate.  You asked for opinions on that rig, not which CPU a better choice.   )

[715]

Some more notes on 850+RDRAM vs SiS645+DDR:  Up until awhile ago RDRAM was way more expensive than DDR SDRAM, so I waited for the DDR version of the 845 chipset or the SiS645 DDR solution for P4s.  About the time they came out, DDR ram prices went up while RDRAM did not.  Now there is only a small price advantage for DDR.  Also, according to Anandtech.com testing of the SiS645 board, DDR266 (PC2100) is slower than RD800 and you have to use DDR333 (PC2700) to get faster than RD800.  According to pricewatch.com PC2700 is about the same price as RD800.  Of course, the current price rise in DDR RAM is likely to be temporary and DDR might again become much less expensive than RDRAM so that future memory upgrades could end up cheaper with the 845D or SiS645 mobos.  But if you are going to stuff it with 512MBytes now and are not likely to upgrade to more later, then you might still consider 850 mobos with RDRAM.

715