Need Help: 2.0 P4 / Motherboard

blueness

Junior Member
Jan 22, 2000
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I'm looking to buy a P4 2.0 ... and need suggestions on which P4 to get, which motherboard is most stable, and time to buy.

CPU.
I want the p4 2.0 mainly because I want a 2.0 GHz processor and am willing to go beyond the value cpu (1.6 I think) to get my 2.0 GHz. Also... I don't plan to overclock. I bought my last CPU and motherboard based on plans to overclock and never did, so I'm not going to waste my time this go around. Are there a lot of different types of P4s out there? When I look at pricewatch.com, they have prices for 478 and non-478. I confess, I really haven't been following things lately and don't know what that is.

Motherboard.
Since I won't be overclocking, I'm only really concerned with what is the best value in a stable motherboard (with plenty of memory slots and a fast HD bus).

Timing.
When to buy? I know the first smart-ass answer, "wait a week and the price will go down". I understand that. I also understand that there are cycles based on new products coming out and sometimes you can expect a larger price drop to coincide with new product. THAT is why I am asking this question... I am going to buy now or in the next 30 days and really am not in synch with what is coming out, is there anything that would make it worthwhile to wait 30 days, or just buy now?

Thanks for any feedback
 

PowerMacG5

Diamond Member
Apr 14, 2002
7,701
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I would get the P4 2.0A mPGA478. This is the new Northwood A core in the 478 pin package (Northwood is only available is 478). The reason I recommend the 2.0A is because the difference between the Northwood and the non-Northwood CPU's is only $5. The most stable motherboards for the P4 if you don't plan on overclocking are the Intel motherboards. They offer no options to overclock. From my experiance they run the most solid and have never failed on me. If you get an ATX form factor case I would get the D850MV series. They offer RDRAM, and their are a few different configuration of that series (Audio/Lan, Audio/CNR, USB 2.0/Audio/Lan, and USB 2.0/Audio/CNR). If you get a micro-ATX form factor I would get the D850MD series. They also offer RDRAM and a 2 different configurations (Audio/LAN, Audio/CNR).

So the 2 different configurations I recommend are:
P4 2.0A processor with the D850MV series of motherboards or
P4 2.0A processor with the D850MD series of motherboards.

Hope this helps you
 

o1die

Diamond Member
Jul 8, 2001
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About May 25th, Intel will drop the price on some high end northwoods 25-50%, but I don't know if the venders will pass all the savings on to customers. Check out the asus p4s533 for about $107. A great board to use with pc2700-3200 ddram.
 

blueness

Junior Member
Jan 22, 2000
18
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0
Thanks for the timing info... now to decide if I feel like waiting 30 days for about $90 savings