System building help...

Hey guys before i go and buy anything i wanna check if im buying the right stuff or not.... Need some feedback and suggestions.. BTW im in canada and looking for can funds...

Mobo/CPU combo from www.ncix.com
P4 Northwood 1.6 ghz @ 2.1 ghz (preclocked) 400 fsb s478 retail
SOLTEK SL-85DRS2 SIS 645A2 S478 DDR ATA100 AGP 6PCI W/ SOUND[ SL-85DRS2 ]
PC2100 256MB DDR 266MHZ NON-ECC OEM Ram
= $415
ANTEC SX1030B 10BAY 300W P/S BLACK PERFORMANCE SERIES WORKSTATION
= $158

Need your help for these
Graphic card (i dunno yet hard to choose)
HD
Monitor
USB
Ethernet card
DVD or CD - Rom
So far it adds up to $573 wht u think?

Personaly I would go with an epox 8k3a+ and xp 1600+ that you would probably be able to hit 1.8 ghz or higher with. You mobo/cpu combo is fine though. The one thing I would recommend is getting some better ram. It sounds like that stuff is generic and I doubt you will be able to hit a high fsb with it. I would go with a geforce 4 ti4200, unless you want to spend more. A 60 gb maxtor quiet drive or an 80 gb western digital hd with 8mb cache. Network card doesn't matter too much, I would get a linksys or d-link card. For dvd, just make sure its a 16x drive.
Good luck on whatever you decide to buy.

Interesting...
So possibly what are the prices for those things? Which has better stability? Intel or AMD?

I recommend a GeForce3 Ti200 w/TV out, best bang for the buck video card. Of course I'm a little partial; I'll be selling some next week cheap in the classifieds.

I dont think i have access to the classifieds

Thantos said:

Interesting...
So possibly what are the prices for those things? Which has better stability? Intel or AMD?

Click to expand...

AFAIK, at stock speed and with good cooling both AMD and Intel are stable. Pentim4s will deal better with heat - they will slow down if cooling isn't working properly. AMD CPUs will just overheat.

k cool now the matter of the fact is where would be the best place to purchase my stuff in Canada?

A search engine is your best bet. Also, you could PM other Canadian members.

I was wondering which would work better? An asus board or a soltek board with a north P4? If its asus, then which one? I'd like preferably an onboard sound and ethernet (if u think its a good idea)

For OCing, go with Asus. AC'97 audio is pretty decent. P4T533 is what I would go with, for DDR I would choose P4S333. I would also check out ABIT's TH7II-RAID or IT7 MAX, or Gigabyte's GA-8IHXP or GA-8IRXP.

For Canadian vendors look under Vendors discussion and the sticky at the top.You should be able to get a decent vendor in T.O.

That combo looks tempting(if the numbers make sense?).But like its been mentioned the weak link would first be the Ram.And if you have to trouble-shoot it,by then you would probably know enough to have done the original OC on a board of your own choosing with quality ram.(just a thought).

yeah i think that asus P4T533 would be sweet but its a little pricey, also its difficult to find pc1066 rdram right now so you might wind up getting pc 800 but either one beats ddr ram. if you can afford it go for that board. this board comes with 4 usb 2.0 ports (works with usb 1.0/1.1 as well) and pretty much any board you but will have at least 2 usb ports (usually 1.1) so you shouldnt have to worry about that. If you get that board dont forget to buy a heatsink/fan and some artic silver 3 thermal paste, you may also want some case fans if that case you picked out doesnt have any.

I realize that soltek board and P4 1.6 are a part of a package deal and it is a good price but if you can afford to get the board above and some rdram along with a P4 1.6A or better I would go for it. The soltek/P4 rig will blow away what you have now though the asus board w/rdram will be a bit better then that.

If you can afford a geforce 4 Ti (even a 4200) then that would be the way to go, if not a geforce 3 or better yet an ati radeon 8500 would be much much faster then what you have. When you get this system put together you wont believe how fast it is compared to your current system.

For the monitor see if you can get a Trinitron monitor for a good price, they are really amazing. go for a 17" or better, make sure that whatever monitor you buy can do at least 1600x1200 @75hz or higher.

I reccomend the Maxtor d740x hard drives, get at least 40Gb. the seagate barracuda are also good. the eithernet card/cdrom/dvdrom doesnt matter so much, i would say go for a dvdrom or cdrw drive that is within your price range, the brands already mentioned are good.

ncix is good and basically the cheapest i have found, www.pccanada.com is also pretty good. I have ordered from both of them and reccomend them both. I recently found a site called www.vibecomputers.com and they have good prices but I have not ordered from them so i cant comment about their service.

ugh long post..fingers sore..must stop

Thx for the info good post i needed that

However wht would help me in the long run rd ram or ddr? Im thinking of keeping this comp for at least 2 years i dont want anything that will phase out too quickly

a few points:

I dont think ddr or rdram will be going anywhere for a long time, you will still be able to buy it 5 years from now (you can still buy pc100 sdram).

AMD will release a chip (and other companies will release motherboards) that support ddr 400mhz (the chip will have a 400mhz FSB) in about a year (maybe january but i expect it to be delayed) but i think intel will stay 533mhz (pc1066) until they release their next chip (P5?). intel may release a chipset that will support the 400mhz DDR RAM around the same time amd does but pc1066mhz will still be faster.

When you buy/install rdram you must always use 2 identicle sticks (ie 2 samsung 256Mb for a total of 512Mb).

If you buy 2 sticks of pc800 with the computer and then wish to upgrade to pc1066 in the future then you will have to toss the pc800 out, the ram will only run as fast as the slowest ram you have (the pc1066 would run at pc800 speeds). so either buy pc800 and stay with that or do some hunting and find pc1066 now (if you get the RDRAM motherboard).

That P4 will run faster on RDRAM then it would on ddr ram and pc1066 is the king of bandwidth right now (just came out).

the system as a whole will kill your current system in every way, so even if you go with ddr ram you wont regret it. there is nothing wrong with ddr ram but the P4 was designed to work with RDRAM and that will allow for optimum performance.

I would recommend the stuff in my sig. I researched a very long time on this stuff and it seems like the best to me. Can't wait till the parts come in.

Edit: 2 things
www.ncix.com looks WAY overpriced, $174 for an xp1800??? they're usualy only $99. If you go with the stuff in my sig be sure to get Samsung original pc2700 & at least 512mb if you are gonna use winxp.

Double edit:
Duh, I'm so stupid, Canadian money. Well, in amarican cash they still are a bit overpriced.

thx guys been looking over the stuff uve written very good info that is helping me. I was looking at the board that Daddyb posted... it appears very good however i read so reviews qnd they say that the mobo doesnt preform very well using office appz and games i was wondering if this is a big problem or not...

Besides that im conflicted with fears... I want to overclock however I have been looking at information and I am a little afraid... Will overclocking reduce the life span of my processor?

The reviews I have found show that the asus board performs pretty well:

http://www.hothardware.com/hh_files/Motherboards/asus_p4t533(3).shtml

http://www6.tomshardware.com/mainboard/02q2/020624/i850e-17.html

Overclocking can reduce the lifespan of your processor but if you get a good heatsink/fan, some artic silver 3 and dont go too crazy with the Vcore then you shouldnt have too much to worry about. the good thing about P4 processors is that they will slow themself down if they begin to overheat, this will make sure they dont burn out. get a good heatsink/fan, some artic silver 3 and dont go too crazy with the Vcore and your processor should last well beyond the 2 years you want it to.

k cool I am also wondering about the p4 to get... Ive been looking in the database and I see that 1.6a and 1.8a have the best ability to o/c however im not sure if it would be advisable to purchase a 2.0 GHz instead... Other than this... Lately Intel has been releasing their chips at .2 increments... Is this because of marketing or something else? I wanna know cuz if I buy say a 1.6 ghz Im afraid they might just come out with a 5 ghZ the next month....

However, the Motherboard (p4t533 i850) sounds good but it only comes with 2 ram slots... Is that enough if someone were choose to add more ram?

the 1.8 seems at the best point for overclocking,and doesnt cost much more than a 1.6

and just so you know, AMD will not be releasing a higher FSB cpu this year, and wont do until the release of the Hammer sometime next year

Ok thats good... But the final thing remains... Ive been looking at all your specs and most of you use AMD XPs why is that? is it because they are faster better and cheaper or is it preference?

I know pentium 4s have better performance ratio but I have friends that say they arent worth it...