need advice

[rusmin]

Hi,
I'm building an entry-level internet proxy server (my company uses a dialup internet) and thinking about using Pentium 4 1.8GHz and 533MHz FSB motherboard. I think the official spec for the CPU is 400 MHz FSB, and I'm wondering if I can get better value-for-money, by spending on a faster processor (or bigger cache, i.e. Pentium 4 1.8A) and leave FSB at 400MHz. Any suggestion on a good chipset?

Thanks,
Russ

 

[o1die]

If you don't need a dual xeon setup, that may work well for you. I would also post your question to "crashman" at tom's hardware guide. Register and post your question in the motherboards forum. Newegg has some refurb 845ge boards with onboard video that might work for you. But these are "bare bone" without manuals, cds or even backplates for your case. Some though have standard port configurations that will work with any atx case without having to remove the backplate. Windows xp should have the drivers you'll need for the board, and the video driver can be loaded off the manufacturer's website. For the cpu, spend a little more and get the 2.4b p4 for about $160. With 2 sticks of 512 meg pc2700 memory, you'll be ok.