P-4 Build

[bill]

I'm going to build a P-4 system. Besides wanting some personal experience with an Intel system this computer will be used for movie editing, encoding, creating DVDs and data recovery from defective media or drives... no gaming. It doesn't have to be top of the line but I hope to have a system that is stable and relatively fast by todays standards. It would also be nice to do this as economical as possible without being foolish.

Parts that I currently have-
* Mushkin 512mb ddr (two sticks). http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 219&depa=1
* Misc ata 7200rpm hard drives. Is there a big performance gain with sata?
* ATI 9600 or 9800 pro video card.


This motherboard has previously been recommended, Asus P4C800-E Deluxe- http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 464&depa=1

Thinking about using this processor and overclock it on the Asus motherboard to save some money, Prescott Core 2.4A GHz 533MHz FSB,, 1MB L2 Cache - http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 178&depa=0 or should I go with a Northwood?

Any recommendations for specific chipsets, cpu, motherboard etc are greatly appreciated.

Bill

[dodecahedron]

hi there monkey.

first of all, i "recommended" that motherboard to you in another thread.
well, it was a joke....at the expense of hoxlund and aviationwiz, who were sure to spring and hail this motherboard as the best thing since sliced bread.
i guess my humor was a little too subtle
i've no experience with this board so i can't recommend it. other than a general recommendation of Asus boards, with which on the whole i've been fine with.
mind i'm not saying it's not a good board. i just don't have any experience with it.
if i were to build a P4 system, and had the money for it, i would quite possibly choose this board myself.

2nd, as i recall (from the time i read benchmarks of Prescott vs. Northwood), for video-encoding activities and the like, the Prescott is better, these are the kind of applications which gain from Prescott's bigger cache.

[Ian]

* Misc ata 7200rpm hard drives. Is there a big performance gain with sata?

No. Not unless you're going to get one of those 10,000RPM drives. Most drives still aren't pushing the limites of PATA so there is no need to upgrade to SATA yet.

* ATI 9600 or 9800 pro video card.

If you're not playing games, go with the 9600.

[dodecahedron]

If you're not playing games, go with the 9600.

why ?

[eric93se]

why?, because you have absolutly no need for an expensive video card since your not going to do hard core gamming.

I recently built a P4 system, I bought most of my stuff from newegg. I got a very inexpensive MB, its the Abit VT7 (and I can reccomend it if your on a budget, but its a very good value), its dual channel DDR, SATA, ATA 133, and prescott ready.

To my pleasant surprise, my burn quality is now just about perfect, I'm getting quality scores in the 90's consistently!!!!!!!

[hoxlund]

i would not recommend abit boards, just from my previous encounters with them

and yes go for the p4c800-e deluxe you won't be disappointed. aviationwiz, montelds, and I all own this motherboard

also btw, just got back from intel training in denver, won a HP Photosmart 8150 printer, posting it on ebay right now

[dodecahedron]

and yes go for the p4c800-e deluxe you won't be disappointed. aviationwiz, montelds, and I all own this motherboard

what did i say ?

[bill]

why?, because you have absolutly no need for an expensive video card since your not going to do hard core gamming.

I recently built a P4 system, I bought most of my stuff from newegg. I got a very inexpensive MB, its the Abit VT7 (and I can reccomend it if your on a budget, but its a very good value), its dual channel DDR, SATA, ATA 133, and prescott ready.

To my pleasant surprise, my burn quality is now just about perfect, I'm getting quality scores in the 90's consistently!!!!!!!

Eric93se,

I just finished reading some reviews and forum threads for the Abit VT7.

You said "prescott ready".... Are you using a prescott? If yes, what bios version? Also, I'm curious if you are using a radeon video card?

Thank you.

[bill]

hi there monkey.

i guess my humor was a little too subtle

No, I was a dope and misread

2nd, as i recall (from the time i read benchmarks of Prescott vs. Northwood), for video-encoding activities and the like, the Prescott is better, these are the kind of applications which gain from Prescott's bigger cache.

Good point.


Where do you guys think I'll see the largest performance gain.... L2 cache or the FSB? I'm asking because iv'e looked at the prescott P-4a 2.4 ghz w/1mb cache and 533 fsb vs. the northwood P-4c 2.4 ghz w/512 cache and 800fsb? It looks like the northwood cost about $25 more. Maybe I should buy the prescott for the larger cache and try overclocking???

Back to motherboards, any opinions on these chipsets, i875P vs. Via PT880..

Thanks!

[bill]

go for the p4c800-e deluxe you won't be disappointed. aviationwiz, montelds, and I all own this motherboard

Hoxlund,

Are you overclocking the Asus and do you know if the PCI and AGP are locked?

Thanks!

ps. LOL, I about fell out of my chair when I read the price at NewEgg.

[bill]

and yes go for the p4c800-e deluxe you won't be disappointed. aviationwiz, montelds, and I all own this motherboard

what did i say ?

Yeah, yeah, yeah but do you know your wife that well!

[dodecahedron]

and yes go for the p4c800-e deluxe you won't be disappointed. aviationwiz, montelds, and I all own this motherboard

what did i say ?

Yeah, yeah, yeah but do you know your wife that well!

can anyone know his wife that well ???

[dodecahedron]

any opinions on these chipsets, i875P vs. Via PT880

i would prefer the Intel chipset. VIA has had problems in the past, i don't know if/how well they've grown out of them.

Where do you guys think I'll see the largest performance gain.... L2 cache or the FSB? I'm asking because iv'e looked at the prescott P-4a 2.4 ghz w/1mb cache and 533 fsb vs. the northwood P-4c 2.4 ghz w/512 cache and 800fsb? It looks like the northwood cost about $25 more. Maybe I should buy the prescott for the larger cache and try overclocking???

i think the faster FSB is preferable. these video-encoding tasks are also memory-heavy (if i'm not mistaken...i'm no expert at these things) and faster bus speed + memory speed would help i imagine.
(take these notes with a grain of salt - i don't have too much confidence in what i say )

Are you overclocking the Asus and do you know if the PCI and AGP are locked?

i think the PCI/AGP frequencies can be locked.
check up on the Asus website, i'm sure it gives that info there.

ps. LOL, I about fell out of my chair when I read the price at NewEgg.

agreed

[pranav81]

A friend of mine recently got a 3 Ghz LGA 775 P4 with original Intel 915 motherboard.I must say that the machine is simply awesome with 1GB of RAM.If you want a good peformer,go for Intel 915 with the LGA processor.The PCI Express graphics card is a little costly now,but the onboard display works quite well.You could use it until the prices for PCI Express graphics cards come down.

And,as all the further pentium processors will be in LGA package,you can easily upgrade the processor in future.


::Pranav::

[eric93se]

why?, because you have absolutly no need for an expensive video card since your not going to do hard core gamming.

I recently built a P4 system, I bought most of my stuff from newegg. I got a very inexpensive MB, its the Abit VT7 (and I can reccomend it if your on a budget, but its a very good value), its dual channel DDR, SATA, ATA 133, and prescott ready.

To my pleasant surprise, my burn quality is now just about perfect, I'm getting quality scores in the 90's consistently!!!!!!!

Eric93se,

I just finished reading some reviews and forum threads for the Abit VT7.

You said "prescott ready".... Are you using a prescott? If yes, what bios version? Also, I'm curious if you are using a radeon video card?

Thank you.

I got the board from newegg about three weeks ago. Arrived with bios 13 which is prescott ready, and I immediatly flashed 14. I'm running the 2.8E prescott, and everything is absolutly flawless (all the latest drivers installed). Everything in the system is new except for an old 4X AGP Radeon 7000 which runs without a hic-up (ofcourse I'm not gamming with it).

Those reviews are mainly from people who unfortunatley recieved bios 12 or less and needed a northwood cpu to flash the bios and upgrade the cpu to prescott. Thats definitly abits fault
When putting my system together I initially thought it was DOA, but it turned out that the cpu was not fully seated, so that was easy to correct, and no problems since.

I scraped off the thermal past that comes with the intel cpu reatil package, cleaned the heat sink w/acetone, then put on arctic silver 5. Idle temps are now 39C idle, and 51C full load.

[bill]

Well, I busted my budget by a few dollars but I hope its money well spent. I'll just slide back the Athlon 64 build a little while.

I went to NewEgg and purchased the Asus P4C800-E deluxe (refurb.) for $109.00. If the board turns out to be bad I'll RMA and give more consideration to the Abit VT7 because of the price difference. The Asus board does have firewire and the agp/pci lock...features that I like. Throw in the mature chipset and I made my decision. I couldn't find any information on Abit's site for the agp/pci lock.

For the processor I decided against the P4/2.4A because of the FSB speed. My next thought was to buy the 2.8E (thanks Eric) but NewEgg is having a special on the 3.0/E for $9.00 more so I picked that up and there went the beer money.. But with any luck, this computer will have a two to three year life span.

I read that the prescott puts out a lot of heat. I'm familiar with the athlon temps but at what temperature should I be concerned with the prescott?

Thanks to everyone for your time, you've been very helpful.

Bill

[eric93se]

I posted previously, I'm at 51C while under full load. Which is pretty damn good, and people usually say it takes a little while for the thermal paste to fully cure and obtain full thermal conductivity.

I'm actually not sure if I have the pci/agp lock, I've read that the previous board revision did have it, but now I'm not sure. Also the VT7 does not have gigabit lan, personally I have no need for it. The other thing it does not have is firewire, but fortunatley I have an add-on card from my previous set up that has three USB and three firewire.


Good luck with your build!

[bill]

If anyone else is interested, here is a link to look up the maximum temperature for Intel processors- http://www.intel.com/support/processors ... -prd52.htm