Will this work fine ?
 

Hi,

I'm trying to pick my main two important pieces for the first time in building a PC and wondered if anyone could just take a quick look and let me know if there is anything that would not work in this combination:


Motherboard:
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=49472

With the following CPU:
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=58515

Thanks for taking a look.


I'd then be putting in 512mb "Crucial" memory, and then a "Radeon" 8x graphics card. Is that ok ?


Thankyou :-)


Tim.

Re: Will this work fine ?
 

yep, everything is fine, should be running like a dream :)

Re: Will this work fine ?
 

.. If you like a processor that could cook eggs for a living ;)

What's it's main use going to be ? Gaming? Can you not be tempted to go to the dark side and get a A64 ? :)

Re: Will this work fine ?
 

That combo should work together nicely. The memory and graphics card shouldn't cause you a problem either.

Just a few tips for you as it is your first time:

1. DON'T FORGET THE HEATSINK. If you do, your new processor won't last very long. I'm not an expert on them, but this should work.

2. The mobo you are getting is ATX, so your case should be too. For simplicity you might want to get one with a built in PSU. The bare minimum you should get is 450w. I'd aim for higher if you could. A high spec PC needs good ventilation from fans as well as probably running a lot of drives.

Re: Will this work fine ?
 

Make sure any hard drives you get are SATA, doesn't look like that board will take the older IDE drives. :)

Re: Will this work fine ?
 

It will. But you should get a Serial ATA hard drive anyway, as they are really fast to read and write from.

Re: Will this work fine ?
 

That's a socket 478 MB - wouldnt it be a wiser move to get socket 775 MB and a socket 775 Pentium which is more future proof?

Re: Will this work fine ?
 

So this thing runs quite hot then ? No overheating problems I hope.
As for the AMD processors.... OK they've got the upper edge with their 64bit designs but Ive always had problems with AMD in the past and I hear they are hard to fit anyway. Im sticking with the P4.


The Retail version of the CPU should come with heat sink and fan if I am correct. I think its the OEM version that comes without.
Thanks for the info about the case. I'l be getting a normal ATX one and I'l have a look at a good 450watt PSU.


Do you know any good ones ?

Thanks for the replies people, much appreciated.

Re: Will this work fine ?
 

I've just been trying to phone Ebuyer to find this out but they gave me absolute no help whatsoever.
You see I've discovered that this motherboard in the link in this topic apparently doesnt like the CPU I want to put in and that according to the user reviews, people have had to buy a celeron processor, bang it in there, boot the machine, update the firmware, and then put the new P4 CPU in, as putting it in directly it wont boot up.

So do you think that the board has this updated firmware now ?
I dont want to go and buy another processor.
This is driving me mad.

Re: Will this work fine ?
 

not really cos I'm no expert but my mate always uses AOPEN and their web site is very easy to follow when picking out a board.

I also suggest you try another supplier - e.g.

www.microdirect.co.uk

www.addonsonline.co.uk

www.aria.co.uk

Re: Will this work fine ?
 

Thanks.
Il give those sites a look.

:)

Re: Will this work fine ?
 

Try SPD Ltd. They are an official ASUS distributor and their board is only a quid dearer than EBuyer:

http://www.spd.co.uk/dept.asp?dept%5Fid=41

Their support can be reached at:

http://www.spd.co.uk/contact.asp?

Re: Will this work fine ?
 

You'l be fine with that board mate, I can't see you having any problems at all.. I think you've been told a load of bs personally ;) The P4C800 is an extremly popular board :)

Seriousley though, I think going the AMD route would be far better.. I'm almost certain your going to be wanting it for gaming & there is a marked improvement on benchmarks with the A64 compared with its P4 pressy or northwood equivilent. Don't let a few bad experiances turn you away from them. Another issue's overclocking.. yeah people have got pressy's up to 3.6ghz on air, but only if you mind it running at 70 odd degrees ;)

Anyway, if your stuck to Pentium then that board and processor is fine. Go and order it :)

Re: Will this work fine ?
 

If you'll have no use for firewire, there's a cheaper model without, and cheaper still 875 chipset boards from Gigabyte etc, but onboard firewire is a feature that's nice to have if you want to go for a digital camcorder, or an external drive - firewire tends to be faster than USB2.

Some review for the board suggest that it needs a bios update to support the 3.2 - and that it needs a supported CPU to do the update - maybe later production has a later bios?

Re: Will this work fine ?
 

Yeah thats what Im trying to find out wether or not it will need a firmware upgrade on the BIOS....and seeing that you would then need another processor eg. a celeron to do it, I dont want to go out and buy another processor just to do a firware upgrade.

I think Il have a firewire port as I would like to hook up a Camera to it and do a bit of video editing.

Its not going to be used for gaming as Ive never really been a PC gamer.
Im more a console person for games.



UPDATE: Having been advised to check out the newer ranges of motherboard chip sets, eg. 775, I have been looking at this:

CPU: Pentium 4 LGA775 3.2ghz

With this motherboard: 775 socket Motherboard

This combination takes advantage of all the new features, eg. PCI Express.

I hope you dont mind my long topic, but all this help is appreciated and I just have a couple more questions:

1) What do you think of this other solution I've posted here compared to my first choice motherboard and CPU.

2) Can you use normal PCI cards in PCI express slots ?

3) Can an AGP graphics card go into PCI express ports seeing that there are no longer any AGP slots.


4) It takes DDR2 memory. Ive never heard of it. Any good ?



Thanks a million for the help you can give me. I really appreciate it.



Tim.

Re: Will this work fine ?
 

No AGP - Intel claim they can't be mixed with PCI Express, but either VIA or Sis went an did it anyway.

http://uk.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?m=P...eluxe&langs=11#

The board has one large Graphics card slot, 3 small PCI-X slotes (have you EVER seen anything for them?) and 3 standard PCI slots - now I though the idea was that they were working on something backward compatible, but it sure doesn't look like it!

DDR2 - more expensive, and available in speeds that are not recognised standards for DDR - not a great advantage though.

You CAN find, apparently, boards with both AGP and PCI-express, but they will not have an Intel chipset.

I'm biased towards an AMD 64, actually - a great CPU for 32 bit mode, and future expansion to 64 bit use, whil not being much more expensive (for the basic socket754 models) than the top of the range socket A solutions.

Re: Will this work fine ?
 

That shouldnt be a problem now as I will not need an AGP card.
Ive been looking at the Sapphire Radeon X600XT PCI Express 256mb DDR RAM graphics card and that connects through PCI Express.


That ASUS board has the Intel chip set and has the new DDR2 memory as you mentioned.
It is quite expensive and thats why I'l be only putting in 512 memory, in two lots of 256 to make it dual channel.

I have put all the parts I want with their specs in a Word document so if anyone could check it out and see if this stuff is OK, I'd really appreciate it.
I'm going to be running the Hard drive in SATA.

I think its best I go for this board to make sure I'm ready for the future.

Thanks for all your help. It has been great.

Re: Will this work fine ?
 

Halcyon,

I'll add my two pennies worth as I've just been specing up a new system from ebuyer.

Personally I'm sticking with AMD - had an XP1600+ for two years and will prob go A64 - much better value than Intel.

Are you going to re-use your old case or did you just leave it out of your Doc? I'll be going for the Antec Sonata - designed for quiet computing with 120mm fan and variable fan speed according to case temp.

Why no DVD-RW? You can get a decent DVD-RW for only £30 more than your CD-RW and still write your MP3 CD's. I would also go for a second optical drive (DVD-ROM) so I can copy direct from CD to CD and for the extra ten quid I would still put a floppy drive in (good for recovering dead OS's!).

I could be wrong :shocked: but I think you need 'Orignal Matched' DDR to use dual channel mode.

Finally, unless you are a confident PC builder, I would recommend going to a reputable local PC shop (ie not PCWorld ;)) to get them to assemble the new beast - mine quoted £50, much better than several hours of frustration !

Re: Will this work fine ?
 

Thanks for the help.
I havent forgotten those little extras. I've just not included them as they are standard parts I'l be adding.
I'l also be putting in a new soundcard to replace the onboard sound as I'm Im into music producing.

Its good your reminded me about another optical drive though. I'l have a look around for a DVD drive and as you say, it is useful for copying from disc to disc.