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OK... Time to clean the slate and start again. NEW COMPUTER SUGGESTIONS?

AnitaPeterson

AnitaPeterson

Diamond Member
Hi there,

I'm just about fed up with my primary computer... look at the specs in the sig.

First, the win2k OS started to act up because of the controller card. next, I discovered that my main HD (Maxtor) is defective. Now I can't boot into windows anymore, some file is corrupted, and I have the feeling that the IDE1 port on the motherboard (on which I only had the DVD-ROM) is dead. Shorted or whatnot...

I am extremely pissed, and thinking about all the painful process of extracting my data from the defective HD is enough to give me the creeps.


So...

I'm thinking I should just wipe the slate clean and get myself a new machine.

I will be using a SBlive Platinum or Audigy and an nVidia-based video card with Video In and Video Out. I can't afford the ATI 8500DV, but I would get that if I could.
I'll need a network card (integrated or not, doesn't matter) and if I get the Audigy, I'll use its FireWire port - otherwise, I have a FireWire card right now.

I want to do digital video, so I need a fast bus and processor, as well as plenty of PCI slots. That's why I needed the controller card to begin with...

What are the best and less expensive motherboards right now, with at least 5 PCI slots, and supporting Pentium 4?

I understand (been out of the loop for a while) that the current socket configuration will remain unchanged for Intel specs fo a while. Meaning that if I get a 2.4 GHz PIV now, I could replace it with a 4 GHz in a year or so... is that correct?

Anyway, this is my problem. If you can suggest a good motherboard, I'll be grateful.

Canadians are especially invited to give their opinions, since there are some differences in price and availability of some boards.

Thank you all.
 
Originally posted by: AnitaPeterson
Hi there,

I'm just about fed up with my primary computer... look at the specs in the sig.

First, the win2k OS started to act up because of the controller card. next, I discovered that my main HD (Maxtor) is defective. Now I can't boot into windows anymore, some file is corrupted, and I have the feeling that the IDE1 port on the motherboard (on which I only had the DVD-ROM) is dead. Shorted or whatnot...

I am extremely pissed, and thinking about all the painful process of extracting my data from the defective HD is enough to give me the creeps.


So...

I'm thinking I should just wipe the slate clean and get myself a new machine.

I will be using a SBlive Platinum or Audigy and an nVidia-based video card with Video In and Video Out. I can't afford the ATI 8500DV, but I would get that if I could.
I'll need a network card (integrated or not, doesn't matter) and if I get the Audigy, I'll use its FireWire port - otherwise, I have a FireWire card right now.

I want to do digital video, so I need a fast bus and processor, as well as plenty of PCI slots. That's why I needed the controller card to begin with...

What are the best and less expensive motherboards right now, with at least 5 PCI slots, and supporting Pentium 4?

I understand (been out of the loop for a while) that the current socket configuration will remain unchanged for Intel specs fo a while. Meaning that if I get a 2.4 GHz PIV now, I could replace it with a 4 GHz in a year or so... is that correct?

Anyway, this is my problem. If you can suggest a good motherboard, I'll be grateful.

Canadians are especially invited to give their opinions, since there are some differences in price and availability of some boards.

Thank you all.
Click to expand...


assuiming intel doesnt do any changes you are at least safe with 3.03

2.4b is a good start.
 
If you are not going to overclock I would look at the sis648 which has the firewire with it...I don't like the firewire on the audigy as I have had some issues withit working corretly...Also if you can get the 8500DV which you canlikley pick up for 150 bucks or less in the for/sale forum (like I did), it comes with multiple firewire ports, and again it does have some issues with the audigy (mainly within the mmc and ati's players...no volume control on players)

Look at the asus sis648 as it is feature rich.


If you didn't need it in a hurry I would still say wait for more Grabite Bay DCDDR mobos to hit the street and the price to come around 175.00 and then get 2 sticks of pc2100 to pc2700....


If you plan on ocing then get an INtel i845PE chipset and some corair pc3200 cas 2 memory...Buy the 2.4 at atacom and get the c1 stepping chip and you should be about guaranteed 150fsb or 2.7ghz at default vcore. May llok for a board with a 4:5 mem ratio cause the c1 stepping chip at 2.4 may and should go up to 165+ with a vocre of 1.65-1.7v....
 
VIVO Card

For CDRW I suggest Sony over LiteOn. The Sony is quieter when reading/writing.
For Hard Drive, Western Digital or Seagate. Wait for a <$1 per GB deals.
Right now CompUSA is having a sale on their PNY 256MB PC2700. $49 after $20 MIR with $.01 shipping.

Hmm, that's all I can suggest right now.
 
I hadn't heard that...Thanks....Read anandtech sis648 review and se if they liked any of the boards....The board had a lot of potential with the fact it had Serial ATA as well...

I guess one thing to consider is PE intel chipsets are compatibe for HyperThreading P4's so you should likely look no further....It does 3.06ghz fine and I don't see why it wont do higher with a simple bios update to give more fsb options. Some boards already can give fsb up to 200+ fsb so that should be able to take advantage of possible prescott chips with a 667 to 800mhz fsb. I think intel will likely take current chips up to 3.2 to 2.4ghz in current 533fsb form. Plus Intel is going to drop back and release lower chips like the 3.4ghz chip in 800mhz fsb and HT enabled...
 
hi,
i'm quite happy with my asus p4pe (the version with 10/100 ethernet, soundstorm, ieee 1394, usb2, sata, not gigabit ethernet) and i'd reccomend it highly. all the built ins keep you from having to get the audigy, which has caused me nothing but trouble. as duvie points out, the 845pe chipset means that hyperthreading is enabled on this mb so it's futureproof (translation - for the next 6 months).
have you considered the nforce2 with a xp2400+?
turns out the p4pe + 2.4b and the a7n8x + xp2400+ cost exactly the same when i was looking. the amd combo adds superior sound, dual chanel ddr and agp 8x. it was a hard choice.
anyway, add 512 mb of samsung and you should be really happy with either.
good luck.
 
whatever you do, stay away from ECS motherboards. i used to recommend them, but not anymore. i've heard giga byte and epox make good boards.
 
well, I decided to go with Intel not because I don't like AMD (my first two systems were K5 and K6-2), but because various sources indicated the P4 is much better at encoding/decoding video. Of course I like the nForce, but what can i do if these great boards aren't available for Intel? and also, I'm fearful of more changes in chipset/socket/etc... what I have right now, basically, is at the end of its life, although it's by no means a slow system (P3-900 MHz...) and so is the memory...

basically, I'm just tired of having problems with my system. I want to be able to put the HDs directly on the motherboard's IDE ports, without sacrificing speed. I want to be able to play any video file - from divx to MPEG-2 and send it to a TV source. I need video in, on top of the FireWire... If need arises, I'll get a controller card and connect other stuff to it. But no more HDs on controller, I'm sick of all of it.

Of course - time for a reality check! - I'd like lots of bells and whistles (like a remote control for the video card and the like), but after all the experience I've had, it's clear to me that I need to establish a very strong hardware foundation, and only afterwards add stuff (if I cam get the money)
 
I see lots of people recommending the P4PE although I must admit I know nothing about P4's.
Also, you should get two identical HDD's for IDE raid 0. That is sweet for video editing.
 
Raid 0 = stripping. Stripping is the fastest but has the greatest risk of data loss because data is stored on both hard drives simulatenously. If one goes. You loose all data.
Raid 1 = mirroring. Data is copied on both hard drives preventing its loss if one hard drive goes bad. I dont see how this will benifit performance any though.
Raid 0+1 = Stirrping & Mirroring at the same time. You need 3 hard drives for this?
 
For an upgradable P4 motherboard, look for one with 3-phase power source, such as the Abit IT7 Max2.
Most boards still use 2-phase power, which would limit any upgrade beyond 3.06 GHz.
This is a "legacy-free" board, has no serial or parallel ports, but the -Max2 version does include PS2 ports for keyboard & mouse.
A video review here: Text
Another review: Text
Seagate SATA 80 & 120 GB HD's should be available soon.
For system stability, go with WinXP.
 
Originally posted by: optimistic
Raid 0 = stripping. Stripping is the fastest but has the greatest risk of data loss because data is stored on both hard drives simulatenously. If one goes. You loose all data.
Raid 1 = mirroring. Data is copied on both hard drives preventing its loss if one hard drive goes bad. I dont see how this will benifit performance any though.
Raid 0+1 = Stirrping & Mirroring at the same time. You need 3 hard drives for this?
Click to expand...

"Stripping"? 😕 😀

RAID = Redundant Array of Inexpensive Drives
AT FAQ on RAID
Here's a quick breakdown:

RAID 0 - Striping
Data is spread out over all disks in the array.
Pros: Both reading and writing is done very quickly (Drive speed x number of drives)
Cons: A single drive failure costs you the whole array.

RAID 1 - Mirroring
Data is duplicated across drives.
Pros: Reading is done at (Drive speed x number of drives) and a drive can be lost (if promptly replaced!)
Cons: Write performance is the same as single-drive mode - a little slower, in fact.

RAID 0+1 - Stripe of Mirrors
Data is mirrored across drives, then the mirrored sets are striped.
Pros: Reading is done at (Drive speed x number of mirrors) and writing is done at (Drive speed x number of mirrors). Up to half the drives can be lost as long as no mirrors are broken.
Cons: Cost. Requires at least 4 drives.

- M4H
 
Disclaimer! All prices stated are in U.S. dollars. 🙂


The Albitron i845PE board is good. (Forgot it's name) but generally you'll never go wrong with any i845PE board. You can find 'em under 100$ if memory serves me correctly. (Albatron's board can be found in the states for 85$ U.S.) Firewire can be an after market upgrade, if you want. Or you could go SiS648 like Duvie said (Heh.. he knows his stuff when it comes to intel) and i'd be against overclocking if you want hassles free operation. the PE boards will most likely give you headroom up to around 3.5GHZ because intel is changing gears this year and moving away from clockspeed rushes. If you want to upgrade in the future, hyperthreading would be more important to your application type (I assume it's MPEG-2 encoding) than clockspeed.

I would strongly suggest the All in wonder type of videocard and if you can't afford the 8500DV you could always try for the 7500 all in wonder if gaming isn't your primary concern. And from what i've seen from your posts, gaming isn't what you're after. 🙂

If you're looking for cheap HDD power you could probably go with the reasonably priced 800JB (115$ online) as this thing screams with almost any disc demanding application. And if you ever felt the need, you could backup to DVD with a DVD burner in the future, plop in another and RAID Them (And that would *scream*).

Any specific reason why you want an audigy? There are much cheaper sound cards...

Oh, and go for as much RAM as you can afford. Since generally speaking for video editing it gobbles that stuff up like there is no tommorrow. PC2700 is also a very good decision, as 2100 reaches the end of the line with the 2.2, then it ceases to satisfy the P4's bandwidth requirements.

Hope i've been helpful. 🙂



 
P.S. RAID0 doubles data transfer rate if done correctly. And with Video, that's very important. 🙂 It also doubles the chance that one of your HDD's will fail since if one dies the whole thing dies. It's your risk. 🙂

RAID1 also doubles the read rate, but same write rate and halves the combined space of them. The key about RAID1 is that it if one HD dies you still have all of your dada.
 
excellent points!'

I must say I was thinking about Audigy because I want digital input as well as output (for all my audio experiments)... and todauy I was looking at the 8500 DV, which is like $260 Canadian... even if I'm not much of a gamer (still use my GF2 GTS) I won't go for cards that will be going obsolete too soon...

I'm not sure if this is the best time for upgrade... however, I'll be on the lookout and check possible deals...
 
Then perhaps you would do best by buying an ATi TV wonder and continuing to mate it to your GTS. That would be perfect for your situation.
 
Either that or a vanilla capture card from another company. Frankly, I bet you dont' really need more than your GTS for now...
 
I don't recommend the Audigy or Platinum. You can get the same sound quality with the Hercules Fortissimo II or the Philips Rhythmic/Seismic Edge. They are cheaper and arguably better on the musical side of things. The positional audio is pretty nice on the Philips cards too.

If you are going with an Intel CPU, then and Intel chipset should be paired with it. The 845PE chipset with PC2700 memory is a good balance of cost and performance. They're all very stable and fast motherboards. Choose the one that has the features you need a the price you like. Some manufacturers I like are Soyo, Asus, are EPoX (Mostly for overclocking). I have had one motherboard from each manufacturer and I have been pleased with them all. I tweaked and overclocked all of them. I have an ECS board that plagued me with problems. However, ECS seems to have turned their act around lately.
 
My current card is the VIVO version of the GF2... unfortunately I'm not sure If i have drivers for it in XP... which is probably what I'll be using on this new computer.
 
They'll most likely have a new version. But i'd get away from the Geforce2 because of sub par image quality.

You could just buy an 8500LE and mate it with an ATi TV wonder (I think that will work. Can anyone else chip in their knowledge of how the TV wonder gets along with other cards?)

But I mean you're just looking for composite in and out, right?
 
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