i'm starting to build a pc and still looking for the best motherboard for intel P4 that is not too expensive... so what would you suggest? 1. Asus board or Intel board? 2. do i need to have more than 3 pci slots? 3. do i need to have more than 2 ddr slots?
That really depends on what you're looking for. If this is just a machine to surf the web, word processing. 1.)Either will work. Asus will more than likely give you more tweaking options than Intel will. I've not had a problem with an Asus board, but they aren't always the cheapest. On the flip side they are more likely to offer more options over Intel. 2.)Depends on how much upgrade options you want left open. With all the on-board stuff these days, 3 can be enough. 3.)Not necessarily. Again, citing upgrade options, more is better, but not absolutely necessary. If you wanted to go to 2GB, you're limited to 2 1GB sticks of RAM, and those can get pricey. On the other hand, going with a board with 4 slots would give you more flexibility. You wouldn't have to have 1GB sticks, and could upgrade to 2GBs with 4 512MB sticks instead. That's just an example. Another thing that would affect what's recommended would be if you've got the CPU or not. Right now their are two main options for socket types: Socket 478 and LGA775. LGA775 boards are newer and are simply going to run for a hefty sum (~$100 for starters), unless you get a board with a non-Intel chipset. For an Intel CPU-based system, you really don't want anything but an Intel chipset. The chipsets themselves are solid backed by great drivers.
1. i'm studying asus P4S800-mx mobo, do you think that's good for future upgrade? how about overclocking it? 2. is P4 2.4C a lot much faster than P4 2.4B?
1.) It's probably alright, but it's a mATX, which usually don't have many options for overclocking in BIOS. Second, while it's not as big as it may seem, you will loose a chunk of performance from the lack of dual-channel memory controllers. The P4 is designed to love bandwith, so this will hurt performance. Third, there's an SiS chipset in there. It's likely going to run, but that chipset doesn't have a lock for the PCI and AGP busses, which, even if your CPU can OC like crazy (and it probably should), a PCI bus is gonna cause all sorts of hell when you start getting up around 40MHz on it. 2.)The 2.4C has an 800MHz FSB; the 2.4B has a 533MHz FSB. Clock for clock they're the same speed, but the 2.4C will have some extra memory bandwith by default, which will give it the edge. If you have to stick with an mATX motherboard (and quite honestly, if you want overclocking, you're gonna want to look elsewhere), I'd probably look at the Asus P4P800-VM. Otherwise, I'd highly recommend the Abit IS7-E (or the IS7 or IS7-G---more features) for a cheap overclocking board.
i have read some cons regarding Abit IS7, but i'll try to read some other reviews... what'z the edge of having dual channel DIMM? do i need to have those? does it used the same kind of RAM as non-dual DIMM?
Dual channel RAM has two independent channels (it's like having a 4-lane highway vs a 2-lane street) to work with. It will give more memory bandwith when in use---something the P4 loves. Yes, you want it, but you can run fine without it---you just won't have peak performance available to you. The channels come from the chipset, and it's not a special function of the RAM. Much like you can have vehicles on all lanes of the highway, but you don't have to. It has the extra capacity to handle more traffic than the street. There are match DDR sticks sold in pairs to make it easier to have a dual-channel system going, instead of having to order two sticks, you just buy a kit. You'd be able to buy the same two sticks individually, however, the price should be the same either way. If you don't get the IS7's, your best bet would be to get some motherboard with the i865PE chipset. Asus P4P800 is another good one. Otherwise, MSI, Gigabyte, or AOpen will be good choices.
how about I865G! it has an integrated graphics right? does it really hurt the speed performance or do i have do buy mobo w/o vga and just add AGP card? how about SATA HDD? is it really much faster than parallel ATA?
Any Intel board with intergrated graphics will most likely have the Intel Extreme Graphics range, most likely the Intel Extreme II. It's quite reasonable graphics considering its onboard, however if you want to play any new games i would definately not get onboard graphics, although the Intel Extreme II will play quite alot of games, it will not play recent games on medium graphics (all low settings) and i doubt it would manage to play games such as FarCry / Doom III / HL2. Intel Intergrated graphics, like most Intergrated graphics cards, will take the memory it needs to run out of your physical memory, so if you get a board with the Intel Extreme II it use's 64MB, and you had 512MB of memory you would only be left with 448MB of physical memory for your system to utilise. Sata is quite abit faster than ATA and more reliable.. for little difference in cost, Sata can transfer upto 150Mb/s where as ATA can only do max 133, Sata also use's different connections and cables which provide better connectivity and stability. New Sata drives can be found with 7200RPM-15,000RPM and 8MB - 16MB Cache - where as a fast ATA drive will be found with 7200RPM and 2MB - 8MB Cache. Graphics card wise (AGP) I would recommend: ATI 9700Pro 128MB ATI 9800Pro 128MB Nvidia Geforce 6600GT 128MB Personally for the money i wuld get a 6600GT, if you don't want to play all the new games, or have games you'd like to play later in the next upcoming months then i would get: ATI 9200Pro 64MB/128MB ATI 9550 64MB/128MB
While integrated graphics are getting better, they're not as good as what you can get with a separate video card. The graphics chip being integrated isn't the problem so much as that it borrows from your system RAM. Compared to what mid- to high-end cards have, the speed isn't nearly as fast, and it also has to be shared with the rest of the computer. In terms of on-board graphics, Intel's aren't great, but then again, the target is to make it work. Also, boards with integrated graphics tend not to have overclocking options, since these features aren't what enthusiasts are looking for or would use.
how about P4 2.4C and 2.4A, 2.4C has 512kb L2, 800mhz and HT while 2.4A only has 533mhz but has 1mb L2? so which one would you prefer? considering it has the same cost of price right?
