Please Help with new box!!!

[garywkfung]

I have done some researchs and decided to build a new p4(2.4c) platform however, all the reviews seems to contradict each other and I cant seems to decide on each component, could anyone help?

1) Which chipset to go for? 865 or 875? I've heard many stories, and said 865 is better value, however others have said 875 has more oc potential? In either case, I think I'm going with abit, any objections?

2) Which memory to get? I heard some say pc3200 but others said pc3500 would be best for 2.4c. pc3500 worth the money? OCZ or corsair?

3) Will extra cooling be needed if I intend to OC? I heard p4 dont heat up all that much, so what kind of fan/case will I need?

Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks

 

[dwellman]

1) No objections to Abit. 875 does have a better chance of successful overclocking.

2) Corsair seems to be the best memory choice if you <i>intend to overclock</i> or are interested in spending more money for the ability to run at faster timings. Otherwise, I recommend Micron, especially if you <i>never</i> intend to overclock and want the best memory performance possible at default timings.

3) There's no good excuse for not going with an aluminum case, nowdays. The boxed HSF units for P4 are decent and adequate. Best price to performance ratio for CPU coolers is the PC Power & Cooling CPU-Cool 478L ($19,00, including shipping. VERY quiet, and ultra low profile.). The best way to answer that question about extra cooling is to let your CPU tell you if you need more cooling to OC. P4s shut off if they get too hot. Also, you can use the HW monitor that comes with your motherboard to monitor CPU temp.

<b>UPDATE:</b> Use Arctic Silver 3 paste

Anyone will agree that video cards are the component most in need of better cooling solutions. So look into that, as well.

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<b><font color=red>Three great virtues of a programmer are: laziness, impatience, and hubris.</font color=red><b><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by dwellman on 07/10/03 08:48 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[garywkfung]

Great suggestions! thanks, although I have 1 more thing to confirm before buying all these stuff. What psu will I need? Is 350w enough? I will only be using a pci nic with a geforce4 card and a cdrom, nothing more. Overclock will be expected however. Any advice?

 

[shadus]

I would really suggest buying a seperate PS from the case, get whatever aluminum case you like and pick up a good 400w ps... perhaps an antec. Ram wise if you OC you want 3500, if not you want 3200 but *NOT* LL (any ram with timings of 2 2 2 5 T1, min you want 'base' is 2 3 2 6 T1) If you get C2 designated ram you'll be fine. If you can get the pc immediately I'd probally pick up a P4P800 Deluxe (865) if you have to wait a while I'd go with a P4C800 Deluxe (875)... but I'm an asus fanboy

Shadus

 

[dwellman]

You should buy the best (most powerful) PSU you can afford. The PSU is a critical component. It is the <i>heart</i> of a computer system.

Antec is good.
PC Power and Cooling is good (despite what the THG review said-- they have the best warranty.
Fortron is decent (sometimes under the name Sparkle)
Enermax is ok.

Basically, you want to stick to a name brand on this one. Make sure the PSU you buy has at least PFC and over volt protection.



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<b><font color=red>Three great virtues of a programmer are: laziness, impatience, and hubris.</font color=red><b>

 

[dwellman]

You should buy the best (most powerful) PSU you can afford. The PSU is a critical component. It is the <i>heart</i> of a computer system.

Antec is good.
PC Power and Cooling is good (despite what the THG review said-- they have the best warranty.
Fortron is decent (sometimes under the name Sparkle)
Enermax is ok.

Basically, you want to stick to a name brand on this one. Make sure the PSU you buy has at least PFC and over volt protection.



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<b><font color=red>Three great virtues of a programmer are: laziness, impatience, and hubris.</font color=red><b>

 

[garywkfung]

once again, great info guys, thanks! As for the ram, I will be gettin pc3500 of either corsair or kingston, ocz at worst, however I am not familiar with the LL/C2 brand, do they stilll apply for pc3500 or pc3200 strightly? Do I have to ask for a particular type of pc3500?? confused

 

[12th_Man]

LL (Low Latency 2-3-2-5-T1) and C2 (2-3-3-6-T1) are specifications about the stock timings of the memory modules, not brands. These specifications do apply to all memory bandwidths, ie PC3500 in your case.

Shadus is recommending that you not pay a premium for the LL version of Corsiar but instead use the cheaper but still very good C2 model. FYI Corsair is the only brand that uses the LL designation (part of their XMS series) but C2 or CL2 is universal. Be careful, there are C3 sticks out there which is not what you want. I can't say I've got a lot of personal experience, but this is what I've learned from reading the boards over the last month.

One other thing to be sure of, is to get 2 sticks of memory instead of one so that you can run in dual channel mode.

I'm pretty new at this too, so if anyone sees any mistakes please correct them.