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Need board for e4300-advice please

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v8440

Member
Joined
Sep 5, 2001
Hi all,

I'm about to order the stuff to build my next machine. I'm way out of the loop on what the good boards and memory are these days. To give you an example of where I'm coming from, I'm currently running a shuttle an35 ultra with 1.5 gig of ddr, and an xp2500 overclocked to about 2.3 GHz. The videocard is a bfg 7800 gs, which is enough video power for me. Of course, it's an agp card.

Here's what I need to do: I know I must buy new memory, a new board, a new cpu, and hard drives. I may try a raid 0 system for the first time. I'd like to be able to continue using my two IDE hard drives as bulk storage, with windows being on the fast drives. Does anybody make a good board for the core2duo that has both ide and sata connections? Also, any chance of getting a board with both agp and pci-e connections for future video upgrades?

Memory-my understanding is that I won't have to push the memory too hard with the 4300 to get high clock speeds, since the multiplier is higher than some of the faster chips. Still, I'd like some memory recommendations.

CPU cooler-I have no idea there. I plan on pushing the cpu moderately hard, so I need to buy a cooler accordingly-open to suggestions there too.

Hard drives-what are some blazing fast drives (sata) to use for a raid 0 setup?

Case-I have a janky old koolance case that I'm no longer using the liquid cooling system in. I've had it since late 2000 or early 2001, so it's time to replace it. I was thinking I want to stick with a mid atx, though I'd consider a full size case since there will be a bunch of stuff crammed in there. It doesn't need to have a power supply, as I plan to buy one separately. I don't much care what the case looks like, I just want it to be sturdy and well made while not being hard to get into if I need to mess with the guts of the machine.

Sorry to cram all of this in the board section, but I couldn't see posting 5 different threads in a bunch of sections, each about one component.
 
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Most of the new mobos only have 1 IDE connector (supports 2 devices, master and slave). There are a few Conroe mobos that have both AGP and PCI-E slots, but they generally suck.

Sounds like you are on a tight budget. If you want a decent O/C, but don't mind not going to the extreme limits, check this out:

E4300 $175 newegg
Abit AB9 Pro $146 newegg
Super Talent 2X1GB DDR2-667 $124 (see cyber deals section)

This will O/C to an easy 333 FSB (3 gig) on low voltage and a quiet Zalman 7700 cooler. With a bit more voltage and luck, maybe 3.2 gig.
 
Since I posted, I've been looking around newegg. It seems they don't carry a board with both agp and pci-e slots, and if those that do exist suck, then I'm gonna up the budget and do it right. This includes buying another videocard. I'd REALLY like raid 0-what chipsets support this? It seems like a board to do everything I want may not exist, so I'll have to prioritize. I'll say that if I have to choose between raid 0 and the ability to go SLI in the future, I'll pick raid 0.
 
Yes it does sound like you want your cake and eat it.

What batboy has suggested is a nice set up at a good price. if you like the idea of raid 0, read up on matrix raid that the AB9 pro supports.
Though Intel doesnt supports sli you can get hacked drivers other than 8800 series.
 
Most decent mobos will support RAID, but for SLI you need to look at the more expensive and finicky Nvidia chipset mobos. Just get one good vid card and go with a good Abit or Asus mobo with an Intel chipset.
 
What's matrix raid-a specific raid controller? (Sorry to sound so ignorant, but I've never done raid before, and I haven't built a machine using technology any newer than about 5 years old.)
 
Ok, will do. I'm starting to look at the ab9 pro now. Thanks a lot for the help guys-I appreciate it. Any recommendations you have for the rest of the stuff I mentioned in the original post would be great too.
 
Oh thank God-the ab9 pro has an ide hookup so I can run my old hard drives. I guess I'll have to buy a new sata dvd burner though.

The p5b has two pci-e 16 connectors. What would I use a second one for?
 
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No problem. My head's spinning here-I was set on a 4300, but now I'm wondering if I should maybe spring for a 6300 or 6400 since either of the boards referenced above ought to do higher fsb's pretty easily, and I don't plan on skimping on the ram.
 
If you plan on doing high FSB, like 450+, then I'd recommend the Asus P5B Deluxe.

Check out the cooling section for heatsink recommendations. I have watercooling and have been out of the loop there.

Harddrives? The Seagate perpendicular 7200.10 SATA 3.0GB/s series.

Case is a personal thing. Pick a sturdy one that tickles your fancy.

You will need a decent PSU though, don't skimp here.
 
You'd recommend the p5b over the ab9?

On hard drives-I was planning on doing a raid 0 with 10k rpm sata drives for the OS (XP Pro), and using my old 7200 rpm IDE drives for bulk storage/apps. On the power supply, it'll either be a power pc and cooling or a zippy, in the 600 watt range. No skimping there-I learned that lesson years ago.
 
I'm looking at this badaxe 2 board also. Apparently, it's a really top notch board, and $176 is supposed to be a great price.

http://www.microcenter.com/byos/byos_single_product_results.phtml?product_id=251723

I guess I could add a raid card to do raid 0? One other thing about the board-it says this about the pci-e slots:

"(1) PCI Express x16 Graphics Interface Slot; (1) PCI Express x16 Graphics Interface Slot (electrical x8); (1) PCI Express x16 Interface Slot (electrical x4)"

What do the "electrical x8" and "electrical x4" parts mean?
 
It could be a bit hit or miss getting over 400mhz with the AB9 pro and thats what you'll need if you go for the 6300 or 6400

But with the 4300 you only need 355.5fsb to hit 3.2ghz so the AB9 pro would be fine.

Before you spend lots on a 10k drive read up matrix raid some more.

You just cant go wrong with a zippy 600w psu, but I would say that (read sig)
 
Ok, I was figuring on the 10k drives simply because of the rotational speed. I can't see any way a raid setup could compensate for a slower-spinning platter.
 
v8440 said:
Ok, I was figuring on the 10k drives simply because of the rotational speed. I can't see any way a raid setup could compensate for a slower-spinning platter.
with matrix raid in a Raid-0 setup with seagate perp. drives you can out do a raid-0 setup with twin raptors. plus you get more space for alot less. so you prolly now asking how can they be faster with only 7200rpm's. well with matrix raid you can slice out the front of each drive to make the partition. meaning you can take the first 20gigs on each drive and make one really fast 40gig drive. there is a really nice thread about matrix raid and seagate perp. drives in the storage section.

here:
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=467848

as far as the cpu i have to ask if you are dead set on gettin a E4300. simply cause i have one and from the results i have seen. you either get a good ocing cpu or you dont. i would suggest if you can go with a E6400 cpu if you can come up with the extra money. IMO you wont regret it and will have more of chance getting to the 3.2ghz you want for a oc. you might get even higher though.

Ab9-pro is a solid mobo, i like mine alot.
 
No, I'm not dead set on an e4300. I was thinking about an e6300-any real advantage of the 6400 over the 6300? It's a good bit of a price jump. Thanks for the link to the info on the raid and drives-I'll be reading that here in a minute.
 
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