building new system soon, need some advice please

[Guest]

hello everyone. i am going to be building a new system in about a month. my budget is about $650. thats enough for a pretty good system, but i haven't really been keeping up with the hardware for a while. the more i try to research, the more confused i get. it seems as if every hardware site has conflicting or confusing opinions as to what i should go with. i was hoping you guys could give me some advice...

1. Processor - AMD XP or Intel P4?
I like AMD, and I also like Intel. I can afford either one. I have heard that a P4 with rambus will beat an XP with DDR, so I was thinking about going with Intel. what do you think?

2. Motherboard - Which chipset?!?!
there are so many friggin' chipsets out there. my dillema is (A) best chipset for XP and (B) best chipset for P4.

3. Motherboard - which brand, which model?
I have always bought ASUS and i was planning on using them again. but, are there better boards out there? I'm not a hardcore overclocker, but its nice to know i can.

4. Best cooling solution?
I don't need a water cooler, but i do want a pretty good air cooler. which one offers the best performance/quietness?

any advice you can give will be greatly appreciated.

 

[o1die]

I recommend either the athlon xp with kt266a or kt333 chipset, or the P4 with the sis 645 chipset (read tom's review of 10 boards with sis 645). You can't go wrong with either one. I would also check out newegg's refurbished section for great deals with free shipping and 30 day warranty. Yes, you can use rambus with the p4 for better performance, but I may switch back to the hammer when it comes out, so I'm sticking with ddram. I beleive more people have had better luck overclocking with the sis 645 than Intel's 850 chipset, but the performance is not quite as good.

 

[FatBurger]

I beleive more people have had better luck overclocking with the sis 645 than Intel's 850 chipset, but the performance is not quite as good.

I have a 55% overclock on my P4 with an i850 board, I'd say that's good enough. The i850 definitely performs better than the SiS645, anyone who says otherwise is trying to sell you something. There are of course other reasons for not getting an i850, but performance should not be one of them.

Here's what I'd recommend for you (prices from Newegg.com):
Athlon XP 1700+ retail - $120
Asus A7V266-E - $148 - $148
Crucial PC2100, 25MB - $78
Total: $346

That is assuming you won't be overclocking. If you will be, I'll change what I recommend.

<font color=blue>If you don't buy Windows, then the terrorists have already won!</font color=blue> - Microsoft

 

[Guest]

thanks, i will start researching possible systems based on those configs. yes, i want a board that can overclock, but i don't overclock until it is actually necessary. for example, my previous system was a P3 750, and i didn't get around to overclocking it until last year because of newer games. and when overclocking, i don't push it to the "extreme", i just crank it up a little.

 

[Rob423]

you can even switch the mobo with the SoyoDRagon+ ....it's cheaper then 148$ i think.

Measure Twice, Cut Once!!