Help with building a new system

A friend wants to build a new P4 system. I have no experience with P4's. He said he is looking at the 2.4 prescott533($122) with a Asus P4P800($94)I believe. He is definately leaning towards overclocking. Question is what do you guys think of this selection?

I thought he should just wait and get a couple more dollars together and buy the 2.4 800mhz. He also needs ram! Depending on what you suggest on cpu/board give me some ideas on good ram, please.

He doesnt seem to want to spend all that much. Wait to I tell him to overclock he will have to spend at least $100 on cooling Not to mention he needs video, hard drive, cdrom, floppy, case and powersupply

I believe the prescott you are preferring to is 2.4A. Heard it overclocks exeptionally well. If I remember correctly, someone oc to 3.4ghz with that chip. Personally, I would get the Asus P4C800-E dlx model which is about $30 more but the mentioned board is not bad.

The 2.4A Prescotts are cheap and do overclock good. I've heard people getting 3.6 gig from them air cooled. BUT... the Prescott runs hot, so what you save initially will cost you in cooling. Probably less than $100, but certainly a hunk of change if he plans on overclocking. All that and he'll still not have Hyperthreading or the high FSB of the 800 bus CPUs. Talk him into spending a little more for a 2.8C.

If he plans on overclocking a Prescott, then he needs an Asus P4C800 series or Abit IC7 series. For a Northwood CPU, the Asus P4P800 or Abit AI7 is fine. As for RAM, that's less obvious... depends on his overclocking goals and which CPU he picks.

Ok guys I think he is going to go with the p4 2.4c which i believe is the northwood. So you are saying the p4p800 would be a decent board? If so what speed ram would be good for that setup? I know he count change multiplier so its only a fsb overclock. What does he need 4000 or 4200 something like that? Thanks

Yes, the 2.4C is a Northwood and a good choice. I would look at A-Data or OCZ PC4000 or Komusa Hyperram PC4200 with A-Data chips. PC4200 RAM is rated for 266 FSB using the 1:1 ratio (although you can usually get a little more of of it). That is 3.2 gig at 1:1 ratio. My Hyperram will go up to 283 FSB or 3.4 gig with my 2.4C. If you try going higher, you'll need to use the 5:4 ratio. I would still recommend the 2.8C, then you can use any PC4000 RAM for up to 3.5 gig using the 1:1 ratio (maybe 3.6 gig if you get lucky).

with a 2.4c, you can go dirt cheap on the memory like i did (see sig).its actually rated at pc2700 but will let me run my 2.4 all the way up to about 289fsb with the 5:4 ratio with ram around 227mhz 2-2-2-5at 2.9v. in a board with GOOD voltage past 3, like a AI7 (my board needs a mod ) it would be good for 240~mhz at 2-2-2-5. with a ocz vdimm booster, more..

my ram would be fine for a 2.8c 1:1 250fsb provided provided you could give it the power.

trouble is, bh-5 is hard to come by...