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need help! Pentium 4 system

L

lagvoid

Senior member
Sorry to have to do this, but I need to set up a P4 system ASAP and have not been able to follow along with the latest reviews. Can anyone help me choose parts for a complete set-up?
Looking for mainly the system to be STABLE.
Heres what I'm looking at right now. Everything look okay?

2.2 ghz Pentium 4
1 gig DDR
Asus P4b266 motherboard
Asus Geforce 3 64MB
40 gig 7200 RPM HD
Iomega Zip Drive
24x Plextor CD burner
16x Acer DVD
Tower Case

I need 2.2 ghz (if I can overclock and stay stable that would be a +++)
I need 1 GIG of RAM (any brand recommendations? DDR sounds like the best route)
I like ASUS.
Whats an attractive tower around $100? I currently have a antec 1030 but anything else?
Whats the best video card to purchase under $250?

Thank you very much and again I apoligize.
lagvoid
 
that looks like a sweet setup. i'm running the Asus P4B266 myself (however only with a lowly 1.5GHz P4)...i'm loving it!
 
Looks great, but to really answer if the chosen components are a good choice, it would be good to have an idea what the purpose of that machine is going to be.
 
Texmaster has the same setup. Hes running his stable at 2.7ghz. I've got my 2ghz@2.46 with just retail cooling and it hasnt crashed for 2 weeks now. Everything looks ok. You could save some money by going the ti200 route on the geforce 3. The geforce 3 is only a little bit faster and the ti200 can usually overclock past geforce 3 stock speeds.
 
thanks for the replies.
the system is going to be used to CAD and programs such as that.
any recommendations to a brand of RAM besides Crucial? I'm going to order everything or almost everything from newegg and they don't have crucial in. I think Mushkin is what I would go with, any thoughts?
 
It's hard to explain to people my ideas of liking Athlon over the P4 and how the Geforce 2 is a better buy than the Geforce 3. They just go from what they see and hear around town.
 


<< thanks for the replies.
the system is going to be used to CAD and programs such as that.
any recommendations to a brand of RAM besides Crucial? I'm going to order everything or almost everything from newegg and they don't have crucial in. I think Mushkin is what I would go with, any thoughts? >>



I would recommend Kingston Ram as well. PC2700. Great Stuff 😀
 
I'm going to be the odd guy out here, and say go with RDRAM and the Asus P4T-E. RDRAM isn't any more expensive than namebrand DDR anymore, and my computer kicks Texmaster's computer's ass in 3Dmark... with the same video card chipset but with my P4 at lower clock speeds than his. 😛

(thankfully I live a long way from Tex 😉 )
 
I have to agree with AmusedOne on getting a P4T-E and RDRAM. IMHO the P4T-E is the best P4 motherboard out followed by the Abits TH7-II and Intel 850MV.
 


<< I'm going to be the odd guy out here, and say go with RDRAM and the Asus P4T-E. RDRAM isn't any more expensive than namebrand DDR anymore, and my computer kicks Texmaster's computer's ass in 3Dmark... with the same video card chipset but with my P4 at lower clock speeds than his. 😛

(thankfully I live a long way from Tex 😉 ) >>




LOL Yes yes. The i850 is better at 3dmark than the i845.

But Amused, I'm still kickin your ass in 3dmark 😀

9522
 
Ah, yes, but I'm at 9266 with only 2.2GHz. You had to go to 2.7 to get 9522. Clock for clock, I'm kickin' your butt 😛

BTW, are you number one for your CPU clock and video card? No??? I am. For both 2.0 and 2.2. Next I'll do 2.3, then 2.4 😛

LOL 😀
 


<< Ah, yes, but I'm at 9266 with only 2.2GHz. You had to go to 2.7 to get 9522. Clock for clock, I'm kickin' your butt 😛

BTW, are you number one for your CPU clock and video card? No??? I am. For both 2.0 and 2.2. Next I'll do 2.3, then 2.4 😛

LOL 😀 >>



hehe as long as I have lead I don't care.

No one brags about getting the best gas milage at 55mph when you can go 100! 😀
 
Hey Tex, check my sig 😀 I'm gainin' on ya. As soon as I get the nerve to clock it to 2400, you're toast! 😛
 
I'm going to agree with the other Intel peps on this thread and say go RDRAM, it's worth it, if you want real speeds boys and girls on P4 OC speeds check this site on WCPUID scores, if you check the top of the list for OCing boards, my friend the ABIT TH7-II is around quite a bit, with the ASUS P4-TE right there, I would take either, and with RDRAM at the same price as DDR, and with the greater mem bandwidth, it's worth it. Don't let everyone sell you down the DDR path because unless your board supports FSB increases into the 533+ MHz using DDR which doesn't exist for that speed then you prolly won't have nearly as much upgradeability in a year or 2 when PC1066 or PC1200 comes out from Rambus (yeah I know I said a dirty word). I know on the ABIT TH7-II and TH&-II RAID (I have the raid) and the ASUS P4-TE they FSB multiplier as well as the clock multiplier allows for greater than PC1200 speeds (i.e. greater than 600MHz FSB). Theoretically speaking the max FSB on the ABIT TH7-IIs is around 1020MHz (255MHzx4). But DDR boards tend to OC much better if that's your desire unless you get some really good handpicked RDRAM...
 
the system is going to be used to CAD and programs such as that.

With that in mind, two things are important, IMO:

- Don't base your decisions on overclockability of parts. Boxed Northwood and standard speed RAM will be fine (IMO there's not much between RDRAM and DDR in real world, get a least a Gig and see what's cheaper).

- Go with a standard consumer GeForce (like the Asus you listed) and see if it's good enough - but be prepared to shell out some more $$ for a card with professional CAD drivers. Here's a nice
Review of some current cards.
 
I'll also through in a vote for RDram, may as well go with the fastest possible ram for P4. Asus is always a good choice, IMO.

That said, you probably are already aware of this, but I'll state it for the record, CAD is the domain of Athlons.
 
In 3dmark2001 benchmarks from hardware sites DDR based P4's are only 100-200 points behind an equally equiped RDRAM system. Which is around 2% slower. So if tex and amused are getting vastly different scores that shouldnt be the case. Someone is out-tweaking the other.
 
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