A little help with MB selection

[Rigit]

I have an out dated gateway computer. I want to salvage what I can from it to make a "new" box. There's no way I'm going to convince the wife to let me go buy one. I'm going to salvage the processor and overclock it as much as possible. The processor is a P4 2.93 ghz. I'd like to have a board that allows me to up the bus 1 mhz at a time as well as generous voltage selection. I haven't done this in a while so to say I'm out of the loop is an under statement but I have the basic skills required. Right now I'm researching boards and I'm looking for suggestions to suit my purpose. The graphics would have to be either on board or agp because all i have right now are agp cards. Other than that the usual suspects... network audio stuff like that.
thanks Mark

 

[jamesyboy]

TBH, i dont believe you can get acceptable performance out of a P4. They put out A LOT of heat too, overclocking the thing safely is going to cost you a lot of money cooling wise. If you wan a basic computer than can crunch number fairly well....spend your money on this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103644&cm_re=phenom_ii_x4-_-19-103-644-_-Product

$130

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131318

$70

 

[saint19]

Hi.

1- What exactly model of processor do you have?, because not all the P4 are socket 775.
2- With a good mobo, and correct form of OC, you can get 4GHz or more from a P4. But that depends of a good cooler.

 

[jamesyboy]

Like i said...the p4's put out a tremendous amount of heat...your likely going to apend 100 bucks cooling the thing to get it overclocked to the point where performance is acceptable.

Put this money into a new mobo and cpu...its not worth it.

 

[apache_lives]

2.93 = most likely prescott 775

those things struggle to get 3.7 most of the time and even then your spending too much on cooling for such crap crap performance hell even a crappy E1400 would blow the doors off that thing

 

[Rigit]

Hmmm Thanks for the thoughts. I think I'll likely go for a processor as well. I new that heat was an issue with p4's but the system it's in now rarely turns the case fan on. It does when doing some video conversions but even then not on high. So I was hoping maybe it might work.

 

[flyinfinni]

Not really worth it. You can get a much better mobo and CPU for not much money these days. You can pick up an AMD triple or quad core with a mobo for less than $150 (especially if you have a Frys Electronics, or Microcenter nearby).

 

[saint19]

^Yeah that's true, but you also need add DDR3, so CPU+mobo+RAM. You need at least $250 for that.

 

[flyinfinni]

Thats true- DDR3 is also thrown in there at $90ish for 4gb. Still, at under $250, its an amazing deal to get everything you need to upgrade to a new system.

 

[Rigit]

Best answer selected by Rigit.