AMD guy thinking about going with Intel this time .... I need advice...

[HardwareAddicted]

So I'm out of the loop on what chipset is the fastest... need that.

Then, what MB with that chipset is best for me (Overclock/lan/sound)

I'm guessing the DDR would be the same for this, but tell me if that's different too. (Rambus is stilll slower.. right ?)

Then I can shop for the best chip for that setup... Hyperthreading blah blah ....

I'm may go for the 3ghz or so ... almost the top chip.

The rest will be a fast WD 8mb HDD ..... If you know of a fster drive, let me know.

You get the idea.... give me your ideas guys...

Thx for the help...

~ Mark

 

[mechBgon]

i875P is Intel's top chipset but i865PE is pretty close, sometimes actually faster. RAMBUS can still mow down i875P in at least one area I'm aware of but the ol' i850E chipset pales in the feature department, and RDRAM is expensive too, so go with i865PE or i875.

I keep seeing good comments about the Abit IS-7 and IC-7. If it were me, I'd get the Asus P4C800-E for the full-meal-deal treatment with CSA LAN and ICHR5 southbridge, but I've got more of a "workstation/server combo" usage pattern in mind.

As for a HDD, the WD Raptor is going to be getting a fresh revision soon that would make it ideal (10000rpm, 4.5ms seek, SCSI-like command queueing, fluid bearings). The fastest drives of all are the Fujitsu MAS-series 15000rpm Ultra320 SCSI drives, however.

Athlon 64 might be worth a peek too. The performance is excellent even with a 32-bit Windows. AnandTech and others have reviews: Adul's thread with reviews listed and mechBgon's Hot Deal on the A64 bundle with free Asus watch!

HTH

 

[DAVIDS]

If you plan to overclock, I would recommend getting a P4 2.4Ghz and either an Asus P4C800-E Deluxe or P4P800 Deluxe. The 2.4Ghz is a better overclocker than the 3.0Ghz because it uses a lower multiplier. It's also a lot cheaper. Abit has decent boards using the i875p chipset. The Athlon64 CPU's are supposed to be good, but they're expensive. If you're in no big hurry, you could also wait for Intel to come out with its Prescott processors later this year.

 

[mechBgon]

Let me add that with i865PE or i875P, you would want to use either two or four matching memory modules so the system can run the memory in dual-channel mode. 1GB of RAM seems to be where people are heading now, for gaming systems anyway.

 

[lordtyranus2]

A nice cheap motherboard is the Shuttle Model# AB60N. 800 Mhz FSB, 4x dual channel DIMM, 8x AGP, 5 or 6 PCI, onboard LAN, and SATA are things that I'd get. Also hyperthreading. It retails for $88 on newegg.

I'd get 2x512 MB PC3200 wherever you can.

The P4 2.4 Ghz is the best buy for chips. 2.8 is ok, other than that they aren't worth the money.

I'd also get a RAID card and 2 HDD.

 

[orion7144]

Originally posted by: lordtyranus2
A nice cheap motherboard is the Shuttle Model# AB60N. 800 Mhz FSB, 4x dual channel DIMM, 8x AGP, 5 or 6 PCI, onboard LAN, and SATA are things that I'd get. Also hyperthreading. It retails for $88 on newegg.

I'd get 2x512 MB PC3200 wherever you can.

The P4 2.4 Ghz is the best buy for chips. 2.8 is ok, other than that they aren't worth the money.

I'd also get a RAID card and 2 HDD.

No need to get a RAID card with the SATA mb's since most of them support SATA RAID. If you are looking for bang for your buck than the 2.4C and Abit IS7 is the choice. It comes with the 3Com gigabyte lan (even though they say it is 10/100. If you want to spen a little more than go for the Abit IC7 or the Asus Delux board.

 

[HardwareAddicted]

Originally posted by: orion7144

Originally posted by: lordtyranus2
A nice cheap motherboard is the Shuttle Model# AB60N. 800 Mhz FSB, 4x dual channel DIMM, 8x AGP, 5 or 6 PCI, onboard LAN, and SATA are things that I'd get. Also hyperthreading. It retails for $88 on newegg.

I'd get 2x512 MB PC3200 wherever you can.

The P4 2.4 Ghz is the best buy for chips. 2.8 is ok, other than that they aren't worth the money.

I'd also get a RAID card and 2 HDD.

No need to get a RAID card with the SATA mb's since most of them support SATA RAID. If you are looking for bang for your buck than the 2.4C and Abit IS7 is the choice. It comes with the 3Com gigabyte lan (even though they say it is 10/100. If you want to spen a little more than go for the Abit IC7 or the Asus Delux board.

You guys are giving me ALOT of GREAT info here .... you ROCK !!

So I'm now looking at the IC7 & the IS7 ... I'll have to go to the site and figure out what the diff is... but hey, that's part of the fun.

Note: I'm not going to be behind if I wait a month or two am I ?
In other words, nothing REALLY cool is about to be released..... is it ?

Thx again you guys...

~ Mark

 

[Sunny129]

the IC7 uses intel's i875 (canterwood) chipset, while the IS7 uses the i865 (springdale) chipset. orion mentioned that a P4 2.4C and an IS7 would be the best bang for your buck b/c right now the 2.4C is the cheapest 800mhz fsb and hyperthreading intel CPU (AND probably intel's best OCing chip right now as well). the IS7 is not Abit's full-featured mobo. Abit's top of the line i865 board is the IS7-G. if you here you'll see the differences btw the IS7 and IS7-G, as well as several other boards.

some say that intel's chipsets are "binned" like their CPUs, meaning the best chips become i875's and the ones that come in below it become i865's. now i've never read up on it, but these chipsets are extremely similar, i.e. both have the ability to use intel's new CSA bus, provided the mobo manufatcurer wants to implement it in their design, both use the MCH northbridge, both use the ICH5/ICH5R southbridge. of course this all depends on which version of springdale you're talking about (there are 3 versions of springdale - 865P, 865PE, and 865G, while there is only in canterwood - 875P). now the 865P doesn't officially support DDR400, but the PE and G versions do, making them almost identical to the 875P. i suppose this is all very strong evidence to suggest that the chips are the same, and just binned based on performance.

one other thing intel did to make the chipsets different was to include PAT (performance acceleration technology or something like that...) with the 875, and not the 865. however, certain manufacturers (Abit and ASUS, maybe others but i don't know...) have been able to mimic intel's PAT code, and have implemented it in their 865 boards. example: the IS7, although an 865PE board, has GAT (Abit's version of PAT) w/ certain revisions of the BIOS, 13 and 14 to be specific.

so the facts that there is little difference btw the 875 and 865 and the 865 can be had for much less $, the 865 chipset is the best bang for the buck. however, i see many people buying the IC7 max3 anyways, so if you have the money, why not? i don't have the money, so that is why i'm using the IS7. and when i get a little more, i'll be doing just as orion suggested earlier and getting a 2.4C. but it sounds from your post about going w/ intel's top CPU right now, that money is no object, or at least you don't mind spending the extra $ on your system, in which case i would also get an IC7 max3.

 

[orion7144]

Originally posted by: HardwareAddicted

Originally posted by: orion7144

Originally posted by: lordtyranus2
A nice cheap motherboard is the Shuttle Model# AB60N. 800 Mhz FSB, 4x dual channel DIMM, 8x AGP, 5 or 6 PCI, onboard LAN, and SATA are things that I'd get. Also hyperthreading. It retails for $88 on newegg.

I'd get 2x512 MB PC3200 wherever you can.

The P4 2.4 Ghz is the best buy for chips. 2.8 is ok, other than that they aren't worth the money.

I'd also get a RAID card and 2 HDD.

No need to get a RAID card with the SATA mb's since most of them support SATA RAID. If you are looking for bang for your buck than the 2.4C and Abit IS7 is the choice. It comes with the 3Com gigabyte lan (even though they say it is 10/100. If you want to spen a little more than go for the Abit IC7 or the Asus Delux board.

You guys are giving me ALOT of GREAT info here .... you ROCK !!

So I'm now looking at the IC7 & the IS7 ... I'll have to go to the site and figure out what the diff is... but hey, that's part of the fun.

Note: I'm not going to be behind if I wait a month or two am I ?
In other words, nothing REALLY cool is about to be released..... is it ?

Thx again you guys...

~ Mark

In a month or two I don't think so, however in 3-4 months there are quite a few things that will be coming out like PCI express etc. Thats why the 2.4C is such a good choice right now. It is fairly cheap, only ~$50 more than the Barton with better performance. The Abit IC7 MAX3 is rumored to be compatible with the upcoming Prescot but I am sceptical about that.

 

[HardwareAddicted]

Oh yeah... a few more questions ...

1) Is the multiplier locked ? And if so, is it UNlockable ? And if not, is all my OC'ing thru the FSB ?
And if so, what's the best ram to get for this ? (I know... 4 part question)

2) Is the stock heatsink and voltage going to get me from a 2.4c to 3.0 ?
If I need a aftermarket HSF .... what is the best one to get ?

3) And is the PCI bus locked, or is it going to climb with my overclocking ?

Thx guys ... you ROCK !

~ Mark

 

[mechBgon]

Since no one else is answering this, I think the answers are:

1) Certainly not unlocked or unlockable. FSB OC'ing is your solution, with memory:CPU ratios as an option. Get fast RAM like PC3700 or faster to maximize your headroom.

2) I don't know what your chances are, but if you want a new heatsink, Thermalright has a new one, the SP-94, which looks like a very good bet.

3) AFAIK the PCI/AGP can be locked on the boards you'd be interested in.

 

[HardwareAddicted]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
Since no one else is answering this, I think the answers are:

1) Certainly not unlocked or unlockable. FSB OC'ing is your solution, with memory:CPU ratios as an option. Get fast RAM like PC3700 or faster to maximize your headroom.

2) I don't know what your chances are, but if you want a new heatsink, Thermalright has a new one, the SP-94, which looks like a very good bet.

3) AFAIK the PCI/AGP can be locked on the boards you'd be interested in.

Thx Mech .... I knew you would know .... and thx for taking the time to let me know.

I think this gives me a clear vision of what I need to do .....

~ Mark