Considering building a P4 system

[NL]

Hi,

I'm more familiar with AMD, but I am considering building a Pentium 4 system.

Any help/answers would be much appreciated

1.) What's a good mobo? I'm open to both RDRAM and DDR-RAM. At the moment, I'm looking at the Asus P4T533-C (850E chipset) and Asus P4B533-V (845G chipset). Are these any good?

2.) Can the 845G motherboards utilize 333mHz PC2700 DDR-RAM? Hardware review sites seem to say yes, but Asus seems to say no on their description for the P4B533.

Also, is the DDR-RAM used for P4 systems the same as that used on AMD systems? Or are there certain differences I should be aware of?

3.) RDRAM must be used in pairs? So if I want 256mb RDRAM, I should stick 2 128mb sticks in?

Where is the best place to get good prices for RDRAM?

4.)Recommendations for a good heatsink? I don't plan on overclocking, so would the stock Intel heatsink be sufficient for cooling? If not, how is the Alpha PAL8942?

 

[human2k]

I just recently put together a new rig for a cousin..........man.........THE HEATSINK INSTALLATION WAS EXTREMELY SIMPLE............no worries about cracking the cpu core. Here's wut I recommend if ur overclocking:

PSU = get a good branded 350W PSU to make sure your parts get enuf juice......Enermax 350w for $50 will do the job.
Board = MSI i845G MAX-L is a steal for $102, 6 pci, 3 dimm, usb 2.0, lan/snd... good overclocker, my 1.8A does 2.3GHZ rock stable. OR grab an EPox i845G @ mwave.com for $99, has more overclocking tweaks.
RAM = Samsung PC2700 512MB stick can be had for $99 = 50 cents shipping @ googlegear.com........this a steal, get 2 or 3 sticks.
CPU = 1.6A or 1.8A, u pick.......both great overclockers
HSF = Retail does the job pretty good, 2.3GHZ runs full load @ 49c....if u want to lower it down get an Alpha.

 

[SteelCityFan]

RDRAM

For 256, yes, you need 2-128MB sticks.

If you don't plan to OC...Get the 128MB - 4 device (chips), or the 256MB - 8 Device
If you plan to OC, get the 128 - 8 device or the 256 - 16 device.

The lower density chips OC better. Go with Samsung.


Googlegear has good ram prices. They were lower than newegg at the time I bought mine.


DDR-RAM is the same for P4 and AMD.

Stock heatsink is good (and quiet... about 3000RPM). There are a ton of people OCing 1.6A chips to 2.1-2.5 using nothing more than the stock heatsink (some of them do remove the thermal pad in favor of Artic Silver).

 

[Duvie]

Be careful when getting 3 ddr sticks if the board has 3 slots....First off i845 boards can take a maximum of 4 banks which does not mean 4 sticks...often 256mb stick if 2 sided will be 2 banks meaning 2 sticks will fill the 4 banks....Get 1 stick of 512mb ddr if you want 512 or 1 stick of 256 if you want max of 256....single sticks tend to oc better....