Honestly, with a fast HD, and enough RAM, yes (although AutoCAD will be significantly faster with an Athlon XP 1600). My 2 desktops are 900MHz (Celeron CuMine-128) and 1GHz (Morgan Duron). Both have 7200RPM Hard Drives, and while the Celeron 900 has only 128MB (and it could use 256, its running Win2K), the Duron has 256MB. Both systems are perfectly fast for typical office apps. AutoCAD will be faster with an Athlon XP 1600, but for typcial Office apps yes, P3 800's are fine. So, its up to you to decide whether inmproving AutoCAD performance via a CPU/Mobo upgrade is worth it. Honestly, depending on the Hard Drives and RAM in the P3 800 systems, you may get a decent boost just by getting each PC 256MB PC133 and a WD800JB.is the piii-800 still good enough for working?
Why is Matrox too old? It's clear you aren't interesting in gaming performance correct? Then I think there's absolutely nothing wrong with the G400/450/550. It will give you top notch 2D Performance/Quality (better than that of a GF4 Ti, or Radeon).Radeon 9000 is out of question is 2D was crap (its now in my server) Matrox is too old Nvidia has stellar drivers so maybe TI-4200 for all
What kind of oboard features are you looking for? LAN? Audio? Honestly, if you are willing to go with 845PE and DDR333, I would lean towards either the Albatron PX845PEV PRO (with onboard Audio and LAN) which costs $93, supposed to be a very good fsb ocer (AT hit 667, which will be plenty for ocing of any P4 CPU). Another good board (although more expensive) would be the cheapest $125 version of the Asus P4PE with only On-Board LAN.Which MB are good?
Ok, I take it some of these (possibly all???) are on Slotket's???well only one pc is pii-800 most are cel300 to c600
Well, I honestly am not exactly greatly knowledgable in how GF4 vs G400/450/550 would be for you, but I see no reason not to go Matrox. I really doubt Matrox will be going out of business. They produce video chips (IIRC) that are used in environments outside the PC Market so even if they are very non-competitive in the PC market, they will still live on I think. So I'd still say go Matrox.matrox is on the way to going out of business so I think I should spend the money on nvidia/ati gf4 with dual 400 ramdac has crisp 2d too
OK Thankswe use 3com cards (because of a nic based software will use the onboard lan later when we dont use the nic software anymore)
Audio? not needed
Ok. Well that certainly limits your selection. Any 845PE/GE will support Hyper Threading. I would suggest that you read Anandtech's 3-way 845PE Roundup, including the Gigabyte 8PE667 Ultra and MSi 845PE MAX-FIR Review. Honestly, I'd lean towards Gigabyte's because it is the better overclocker. The cheaper version of the 8PE667 costs around $100.I can only buy shuttle , gigabyte and msi here for future use it should support ht and oc
Originally posted by: Athlon4all
Ok, I take it some of these (possibly all???) are on Slotket's???well only one pc is pii-800 most are cel300 to c600
yes cel 600 and piii 800 are on a slotket
Well, I honestly am not exactly greatly knowledgable in how GF4 vs G400/450/550 would be for you, but I see no reason not to go Matrox. I really doubt Matrox will be going out of business. They produce video chips (IIRC) that are used in environments outside the PC Market so even if they are very non-competitive in the PC market, they will still live on I think. So I'd still say go Matrox.matrox is on the way to going out of business so I think I should spend the money on nvidia/ati gf4 with dual 400 ramdac has crisp 2d too
I have some G400 at work but I want to go to a nvidia or ati base and with nvidia driver topnotch I think nvidia is the way to go
OK Thankswe use 3com cards (because of a nic based software will use the onboard lan later when we dont use the nic software anymore) Audio? not neededbut you would still appreciate Onboard LAN right?
Ok. Well that certainly limits your selection. Any 845PE/GE will support Hyper Threading. I would suggest that you read Anandtech's 3-way 845PE Roundup, including the Gigabyte 8PE667 Ultra and MSi 845PE MAX-FIR Review. Honestly, I'd lean towards Gigabyte's because it is the better overclocker. The cheaper version of the 8PE667 costs around $100.I can only buy shuttle , gigabyte and msi here for future use it should support ht and oc
You're going for a 50% overclock on 9 PCs? And you're concerned about stability issues with stock Athlon XP machines?I dont know a stable chipset for a XP!
Yea I know, I just really don't know of what stores he would be going to so I just used the prices I had available to give Hardware some kind of picture how muich more it would cost to build new systems.Athlon4All. I don't think you can use US funds as an example to hardware as i do believe he is out to spend Euros and not *US Dollars*.
He posted yesterday @ 2:19. I doubt he's left although, it seems that most people posting here are not really posting for the reason of the thread (which is that he needs help). So, I would ask that people who are thinking about (or have) posting sarcastic and mean remarks to/about Hardware to stop.I wonder if he suddenly abandoned this thread now that a majority of the posters are opposing him one way or another.
Originally posted by: ReMeDy{WcS}
Athlon4All. I don't think you can use US funds as an example to hardware as i do believe he is out to spend Euros and not *US Dollars*.