Albatron px845G - Graphics? Celeron?

[MadAd]

Ive found an Albatron px845G locally and cant seem to find much about what kinda on-board graphic chip is on it - all i need to know is if it will play basic 2d kinda card/board games, and 'maybe' cope with 3d driving games with low gfx settings.

I know the easy answer is 'get a gfx accelerator' but the person its for is not a great gamer, and is also very price concious.

Ive checked the albatron webby and there doesnt seem to be an awful lot on the gfx part, nor is there anything on whether it will take one of these new S478 Celerons and hoped one of our readers here can tell me the answer to either/both of these questions.

Thanks to anyone that knows and can post

 

[Vette73]

PLEASE do not get a celeron, they are total JUNK.

Get a Athlon XP and a nForce motherboard, will be the same price or cheaper, just a whole lot better.

If you are going to do a P4 system make sure you get a TRUE P4 chip with 512 L2 cache, if that cost to much get a Athlon XP 2000, they can be had for less than $99

 

[MadAd]

This PC is for an older person, newish to computing that has currently a 133Mhz machine, but also wants to upgrade it once he retires from work - usb 2 is essential as is a S478 machine for an intel base, however his budget does not stretch to a full blown P4 just yet. Im sure you are not suggesting the celeron is worse than a 133?

We would rather not go to an athlon base, nor an S370 - the downside of 50 quid for the celeron is a good mid ground till he outgrows it rather than get stuck with an A system no-one wants. We are talking about stabilty and upgradability here, not rip roaring performance.

So, how about an answer please anyone? Are these cellys good to go in any S478 board?

 

[First]

You can slap a P4 Celeron in an 845G-based board while utilizing the onboard graphics, but that'll be an utterly slow system in comparison to the following system, which I highly suggest:

Athlon XP 1600+ CPU: $55
ASUS A7N266-VM (nForce1 sound, GeForce2 MX video, LAN, etc.): $80

The onboard GeForce2 MX video will not be as fast as an actual GeForce2 MX card, but will certainly be faster than 845G video. The 1600+ CPU will be plenty, and will be significantly faster than the 1.7GHz P4 Celeron. Stability won't be an issue since this particular motherboard and chipset are very mature and have become a favorite in certain parts of the enthusiast community (which is pretty tough to do).

Otherwise you'll be stuck with a more expensive S478 system, like:

1.7GHz P4 Celeron CPU: $80
Epox 4G4A+: $100

It's your choice though.

 

[Oakenfold]

Nforce board is what you want like Evan said.
I built one for my mother in law and she simply loves it!

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

First off.. Are you going to bebuilding a complete new system for this person? If so, there is really no reason not to go with the celeron/Albatron combo. Going with 7200 rpm HDDs' and DDR ram even with the Celery, this person is going $h!t his pants at how much faster it will be than the 133.


I know the easy answer is 'get a gfx accelerator' but the person its for is not a great gamer, and is also very price concious.

Sorry to say it, but it's true..Even a lowly GF2MX will be a substantial increase over integrated graphics for EVERYTHING..Not just gaming. You need to educate him in the benefits of having non-integrated setup and hopefully, he will open the wallet a little farther.

Now..A message to all that have suggested an Athlon setup here..I agree with you and run AMD boxes myself for just such the reasons mentioned(cost,performance,etc), But some people you JUST CAN NOT get to switch from Intel as that is all they have ever known and trusted. Or possibly they had an earlier AMD K6/ALI chipset combo that was so crappy that they will never try it again...

 

[MadAd]

ok, thank you all - I take it thats a yes for using a C1.7 in S478's with no problems. I know there might be several alternatives (namely Athlon) but I do not want to deal with noise or heat factors (and wish to steer clear of anything via based) and also want to provide an easy upgrade path for a newer user when he does need something a bit more powerful. Everyone knows intel, seen the adverts, familiar with the brand, trusts the stability and wether its marketing bs or not, Its easier to say 'replace with any 478 pin P4 up to ... ' rather than have to educate someone into different breeds of Athlon and justify why hes got a bunch of names hes never heard of in his box, instead of parts that are advertised on national TV regularly.

Also he wont be buying a P4 for ages, when they are as cheap as P3s are today, so you can see it aint about performance at all - why does he need a rocket box when the worst abuse will be a 3d driving game mebee 3 times in 6 months? He plays 'who wants to be a millionare' Q & A game more than anything, and for that i hope something like the 845G will be pretty invisble compared to a videocard he might not need (or can be added later if/when he does find a need). For a beginner surfing the net and learning basic functions like word and 2d gaming, a C1.7 will be more than adequate, and is something i can 'instal and forget' for him, knowing hes unlikely to come back moaning about noise, or unstable technology etc etc.

 

[First]

Originally posted by: MadAd
ok, thank you all - I take it thats a yes for using a C1.7 in S478's with no problems. I know there might be several alternatives (namely Athlon) but I do not want to deal with noise or heat factors (and wish to steer clear of anything via based) and also want to provide an easy upgrade path for a newer user when he does need something a bit more powerful. Everyone knows intel, seen the adverts, familiar with the brand, trusts the stability and wether its marketing bs or not, Its easier to say 'replace with any 478 pin P4 up to ... ' rather than have to educate someone into different breeds of Athlon and justify why hes got a bunch of names hes never heard of in his box, instead of parts that are advertised on national TV regularly.

Also he wont be buying a P4 for ages, when they are as cheap as P3s are today, so you can see it aint about performance at all - why does he need a rocket box when the worst abuse will be a 3d driving game mebee 3 times in 6 months? He plays 'who wants to be a millionare' Q & A game more than anything, and for that i hope something like the 845G will be pretty invisble compared to a videocard he might not need (or can be added later if/when he does find a need). For a beginner surfing the net and learning basic functions like word and 2d gaming, a C1.7 will be more than adequate, and is something i can 'instal and forget' for him, knowing hes unlikely to come back moaning about noise, or unstable technology etc etc.

Well, for one, you'll be wasting about $45 for less speed and the illusion that Intel hardware automatically = no headaches. It's certainly true that Intel chipset-based motherboards are the best of the best as far as reliability is concerned, but compared to an ASUS + nForce combo, in this scenario, there is simply no reason to go with Socket 478. ASUS boards and nForce chipsets are the cream of the crop (reliability, speed, features etc.), and since I've built the latest and greatest systems at AnandTech for months now, I can tell you from experience that either system won't be more reliable than the other, although it's impossible to accurately judge that 100%. However, I can tell you for a fact that the Athlon XP system I recommended will be faster (for what you need) and, more importantly, cheaper. IMO, reliability between the 845G and nForce system is a toss up.

It's up to you, but IMO, there's no point in going Socket 478 in this situation.