P4 upgrade questions

I will be doing a major PC upgrade scheduled for this fall. I plan to purchase a P4 system (stay away AMD users. I'm an Intel boy ) I would just like to present the system as planned and have y'all comment/correct my plans.

P4 1.7Ghz (maybe faster, depends on what is available)
ABIT TH7-RAID (I like the raid options and overclocking possabilities)
GeForce 2 (either GTS or PRO, still looking at reviews) 64mb
512 Rambus Ram (personal minimum)

I'm still looking at the options of cases, if I can modify my old case or if I'll just have to get a new one, and where to get the powersupply, if I have to get a case that will be a moot point.

Also I'm not exactly sure of what cooling I will be going for, I'd love to do liquid cooling, but I'm not sure with humidity questions, and questions about getting a heatsink for the p4, I haven't seen any.

Other recomendations that would be helpfull would be good hard-drive options, case/powersupply recomendations (if the old one isn't usable) and help picking a graphics card.

Any other advice would be a help as well.
Erik Ekedahl

you know... ;p you COULD get an athlon and some ddr and buy a geforce 3 with the money you saved ;-) ok, ill stay away now

This is a good P4 heatsink.

Here are some power supplys.

Here are more power supplys and cases.


I would not want a geforce 2 gts or pro on that system GF3 is the way to go.

For hard drive's I would use ibm gxp 60's.

the P4 is great I run a 1.5 (the 1.7 came out the DAY my came ups) with an Asus MOB 512mb ecc Kingston and a swiftech MC426-A HS I changed the Sunon fan to a 80m Delta do to a Fan Finger incident with sunon. I have a 64mb gts card. Buy the biggest PS you can afford. by time you start adding fans it runs out quick. I run four 80m x 38m Deltas a 120m and pancake slot fan, video Card fan and my 350w ps wasn't enough. I have to two ps (because I had a extra one)
When the next generation video cards come out at the end of this year I'm building another P4 set-up with all the right stuff from start.
If you are thinking about P4 set-up your not thinking about money spend it wisely.
good Luck

burn'em (Jun 07, 2001 06:48 p.m.):
the P4 is great I run a 1.5 (the 1.7 came out the DAY my came ups) with an Asus MOB 512mb ecc Kingston and a swiftech MC426-A HS I changed the Sunon fan to a 80m Delta do to a Fan Finger incident with sunon. I have a 64mb gts card. Buy the biggest PS you can afford. by time you start adding fans it runs out quick. I run four 80m x 38m Deltas a 120m and pancake slot fan, video Card fan and my 350w ps wasn't enough. I have to two ps (because I had a extra one)
When the next generation video cards come out at the end of this year I'm building another P4 set-up with all the right stuff from start.
If you are thinking about P4 set-up your not thinking about money spend it wisely.
good Luck

Click to expand...

I forgot I also run all 160 SCSI drive. 4 10000rpm HD, DVD,HP burn and Zip.

My current system is the best I have ever had ... and I did tons of research before I made the purchase. If I had to change anything (for increased speed) I'd set up IDE RAID, and get three IBM 60GB drives, because the platters have a higher density than the older 75GB drives. (And that might not be out-of-the-question in the future.) Otherwise ... I think these components are the best that are available for the money at the present time. Check out the system specifications, and see if it gives you any ideas. Post again if you need any information on a particular component.

Toejam31

For the money your going to spend you will not get the performace that you should, what the Guru's are saying rite now is to wait for a while and see what happens the p4 is more hipe then performance my 1G overclocked benchmarks out better then some p4's this topic has made the front page and they have discussed this in great detail i wish io had a link for you. if you can hold off for a while and use what you have something a little better may come out, i know how you feel i would love to get more more more but at this point its just not worth it. well just my 2 cents if your not worried about money go for it!

I was strictky an Intel fan ever since the 8088 (even then there was an NEC v20 and v30 clone) but in the past year the P3 line has become stagnant, no real advances so I gave AMD a shot and have been absolutly thrilled with the speed! The P4 is just to much money even though I can afford it why not set up 2 faster AMD's for the price. I kind of suspect the P4 will make a comeback with a vengance after the next die shrink when they can put whats lacking back into the core and thats when I'll go back.

I wouldn't mind upgrading to the P4, but like ken257 says, wait for the new die shrink to become available, cause i think those P4's should rock....we'll have to wait and see...
regards

I picked up a P4 1.5 gig Off Anands forum, bought an Asus P4t, and am Presently running 256mb's of Samsung PC800, I have what I think is a stock Intel Sink, Aluminum job with fins, and my Temp ....Air Cooled Mind You, ... For those of you that know me will be shocked I am running air/lol, ( reason being I am waiting for my Swiftech Mcw as we speak), @ 30c, and @ 1725.Why buy a 1.7 gig? It defeats the whole idea of Overclocking, which is in my eyes anyhow= Buying a Lower Multiplier cpu at a Lower price, and Overclocking it to above or Equal to what Intel can do with it, using our Resources,ie; FSB/ Versus Intels Multiplier. Make any sense? As to the Case: I picked up an Inwin Q2000-P4 case @ www.pcprogress.com for 99 bucks, which is P4 ready, and has a Redundant 300 watt supply.... Life is good. To any who care, I am running the P4 Costa rica cpu at Default, and Have Not tried higher

If you're not upgrading until fall, DO NOT buy the current P-4 Willamette CPU. Wait until this winter when the new 0.13 micron P-4 Northwood comes out. The current version of the P-4 will instantly become obsolete. I don't have a clue why anyone would buy the current P-4 piece of crap.

Thanks all for the info, I'm checking into the case/powersupply/heatsink sites, thanks for the links.

Also thanks for the advice to wait, I wasn't aware of the change that was comeing up for the p4. Now that I do know I'll plan the upgrade for late this year, or early next year, depending on how the prices go.

And yes, I will stay with Intel, I don't have anything against AMD and I'm glad they are there to keep Intel's prices down, but I'll stick with Intel anyway.

Thank you all for your advice, you've been a great help.
Erik Ekedahl

chaim79 (Jun 08, 2001 08:32 p.m.):
Thanks all for the info, I'm checking into the case/powersupply/heatsink sites, thanks for the links.

Also thanks for the advice to wait, I wasn't aware of the change that was comeing up for the p4. Now that I do know I'll plan the upgrade for late this year, or early next year, depending on how the prices go.

And yes, I will stay with Intel, I don't have anything against AMD and I'm glad they are there to keep Intel's prices down, but I'll stick with Intel anyway.

Thank you all for your advice, you've been a great help.
Erik Ekedahl

Click to expand...

The Asus P4T mob comes with an adaptor plate to fit an ATX case. I like it my swiftech 426 mounts right to the plate. takes all the stress of the mob.