Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (
More info?)
Dear Paul
I just bought the P5GD2 .
I also bought 2 sata 160GB Maxtor and I have one PATA 250GB Maxtor.
I a also have to connect 2 x DVD/CD drives to the PRI- IDE 1 connector ( I
presume )
How and where to plug the HDDs to the MB .??
Thanks
Roland
"Paul" <nospam@needed.com> schreef in bericht
news:nospam-1301051026000001@192.168.1.177...
> In article <NIednXGpavijknvcRVn-3g@portbridge.com>, "Ðavïd"
> <one.DM3@esn.net> wrote:
>
> <<snip>>
>>
>> Thanks again Paul for your valued response. Wow! I dunno where to
>> start. As for the cash, I do not need the latest and greatest cutting
>> edge technology as I'm not going to attempt to squeeze every bit of
>> performance out of it by overclocking. My main reason of asking for
>> advice from this newsgroup is to hopefully avoid problems that plague
>> some motherboards and/or new releases.Yes, I want to spend my hard
>> earned money wisely and get it right the first time. I was
>> considering a full flavor Pentium 2.8 or 3.0 800FSB processor for
>> reducing an expendure. Starting out with 512 RAM and doubling it at a
>> later date. Utilizing the onboard audio saving the expense of a sound
>> card.
>>
>>
>>
>> Pretty much everything else is laying around the house for use or
>> reuse, case, power supply, hard drive, CD writer, monitor, speakers,
>> cables, keyboard and mouse, except for the PCIe video card. Ouch!
>> That is where I'll prolly spend more than I intended from the onset.
>> What I want is at least 256mb. At this point, everything about the
>> video card is undecided. Heck, I'm not certain if I should go with
>> ATI or nVIDA. Should I purchase a value priced video card now and
>> update later when the price comes down on the nicer video cards?
>> Also, I'm wondering if this strategy would be prudent towards the
>> evolving technology of the PCIe video cards.
>>
>>
>>
>> I went to memtest.org and saw a lot of downloads. Not being certain
>> which download to select along with the apprehension of downloading
>> anything to see what it does, I will need a bit of advice before I
>> attempt this. I guess Prime95 and 3DMark are similar type test.
>>
>>
>>
>> Again, thanks Paul for your advice.
>>
>> Davïd
>>
>> Greenville, NC
>
> Asus has just about ever conceivable technology combination
> covered in their product line. So, you can reuse as much or
> as little of your existing gear, as you want.
>
> The situation with regard to the marketing of video cards,
> is about as poor as it can get. High end products exist in
> both camps, that are hard to find, and prices in some cases
> are $200 above MSRP. We call that gouging, where I come
> from.
>
> If the yield of chips is that poor, then these products are
> not ready for market. Period.
>
> The cards are not even carefully labelled in every case, as
> to whether they are PCI Express or AGP. You could consult
> one of the larger web sites, like newegg.com, and see what
> versions of cards are actually available, but for the high
> end cards, some of them are only available in ones and twos
> from the smaller retailers. This is a horrible environment
> to be shopping in, because it is easy to get taken for your
> hard earned cash, if you don't spend the time determining
> what the best price is.
>
> Will the situation improve ? I think the thing is, video
> card design is in every bit as much trouble as processor
> design. Will there be higher performance video cards ?
> Could be, but how hot will they be. Where video cards
> go next, depends on whether 90nm or 65nm chips are going
> to allow even faster cards to be constructed.
>
> SLI is a bandaid solution, and with a computer dissipating
> 300 watts while gaming, is not very practical. Not all games
> are accelerated by SLI, which means a single card is still
> the most compatible gaming solution.
>
> What would I do in such an environment ? Punt.
>
> Wait a bit, until video card availability improves, to get
> a better price. I'd be damned, if I'd waste money on a
> cheap video card now, and an expensive one later. That
> would be getting gouged twice (as the price on all video
> cards is higher than the tech curve). I'd do the upgrade
> a bit later this year.
>
> What you can conclude from that, is my personal opinion is
> that an AGP video card slot is still the choice _at this
> instant_ in time. At the rate that computer design is changing,
> it is really not that practical to invest in future
> upgradability, so find the solution that solves your
> problems now. A P5P800 with AGP slot would allow you to make
> one (expensive) AGP video card purchase now, and use it for
> a couple years.
>
> Where are we with technology ?
>
> S478 - dead and gone. Buy a 3.4GHz if you don't plan on
> upgrading.
> S775 - where Intel wants you. Up to 3.8GHz available.
> Not dual core ready. So S775 is a dead end. The
> writing is on the wall.
> S462 - AMD will discontinue this soon.
> S754 - AMD will discontinue this maybe this year
> S939 - where AMD wants you. Up to 4000+ P.R. rating.
> Is the socket dual core ready ? Dunno.
> S940 - Oh so dead.
> DDR - where the customers want to be. Best price.
> DDR2 - where Intel wants you.
> FB - fully buffered DIMM standard. the next generation.
> Introduction date unknown. The cynic in me says
> this could displace DDR2, but who is to say. FB
> is like registered RAM, and uses a buffer chip.
> AGP - dead and gone. Where the customers want to be, as
> you could get a better price.
> PCIE - where the industry wants you. Nvidia uses bridge chip,
> to convert AGP to PCIE. Which means the bandwidth
> of PCIE is not necessary. ATI does theirs with a native
> interface, and the only saving is in product cost and
> a bit of heat. The power envelope will limit future
> performance. Video cards are all about the width of
> memory chips on the video card, and number of pipes.
> The bus interface is immaterial. Chip supply constrained.
> Why ? Either yield, or evil gouging.
> BTX - Pointless case design. Irrational motherboard layout.
> Where Dell wants to be.
>
> All I can suggest, is buy for today, pick the solution with
> the best price, and let tomorrow sort itself. The very reason
> these technologies are being introduced, is to prevent you
> from having an upgrade path. As a customer, all we can do,
> is retaliate by upgrading less often, using the most cost
> effective components on the date of purchase.
>
> Memtest86 (memtest.org):
>
> This is a program that formats a blank floppy disk for you.
> The disk will end up with a self booting program on it, that
> tests all of memory. For computers without floppy drives,
> there is also a version suitable for burning an ISO CD. Set
> boot order to floppy/CD first, and let the computer boot
> with the disk. You can run this test, before even connecting
> a hard drive to the motherboard.
>
> Prime95 (mersenne.org):
>
> This program is intended to find prime numbers. As a side
> benefit, it also has a test of processing integrity. In other
> words, it can detect when the CPU isn't 100%, and it heats up
> the processor by running at full speed. Also seems to be
> effective at finding speed faults in memory (faults that
> memtest86 might have missed). Prime95 runs under an OS, so
> you run it after installing an OS on the hard drive.
>
> 3DMark (futuremark.com):
>
> Once the processor and memory are known good, you can run this
> benchmark. Compare your benchmark, to other comparable
> benchmarks, as a test that the drivers and software are
> set up properly. On an AGP machine, get a copy of Powerstrip
> from Entechtaiwan.com , as a simple way to get a listing of
> what capabilities are enabled on your card. (The versions of
> 3DMark I use, like 3DMark2001SE, have a demo mode, which can
> be left running overnight. If the video is stable, it should
> be running the next morning. Otherwise, you'll find the computer
> crashed or hung.)
>
> ************ Bus standards ************
>
> Southbridge ----+----+----+----+----+----+ PCI bus
> | | | | | |
>
> Southbridge PCI Express
> | | | |
> 1 2 3 4
>
> The PCI bus is a multidrop parallel bus. The bus is unterminated
> and signals ring and bounce off the ends of the bus. A bus
> standard tamed by determined engineering and 1000's of hours
> of simulation. Typically offers more slots than PCI Express.
>
> PCI Express is private and point to point. One card cannot
> interfere with another (except if there isn't enough bandwidth
> between North and Southbridge).
>
>
> Northbridge ----+----+----+ Memory channel(s)
> | | | using either DDR/ DDR2
>
> Northbridge FB memory
> | | | |
>
> FB memory will be a similar improvement like PCI Express.
> Point to point interface, preventing interference between
> memory slots. DDR and DDR2 modules can interfere with one
> another (which is why there are speed versus number of
> memory slot rules, and why overclockers use one module
> per memory channel).
>
> Whether bandwidth/latency/cacheing issues can be solved for
> FB remains to be seen. Also unclear, with AMD and Intel
> taking different architectural paths, is when it will roll
> out. An FB DIMM could use DDR or DDR2 chips, as the memory
> chips go through a buffer chip. It is like registered memory,
> on steroids. And conveniently, makes more of the memory you
> own, obsolete.
>
> HTH,
> Paul
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