Help building system... which motherboard
 

Hi,

I am in the process of building a new system and would appreciate some views on various components. I am building it with the intention of it allowing me some upgrade potential over its lifetime of the next 4 years or so.

I have decided to go with the Intel socket 775 after a bad experience with AMD some years ago with incompatible drivers\motherboards\grapics cards\ram etc. I promised myself in future the systems I build will be stable and offer me as much "up time" as possible. In contrast to the amount of "down time" that system had :)

I am trying to strike a balance between cost (getting the most for my money) and having a decent games playing platform (HL2\Counterstrike\Doom3 et al) that will also be used for video encoding (VHS to DVD) and office applications.

So to start off: The Motherboard & Processor;

Asus P5AD2 Premium 925X (LGA775) or Abit AA8 3RD Eye (LGA775)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...et_LGA775.html

Which is the better board?

to be used with a suitable P4 processor:

Intel Pentium 4 "LGA775 64-Bit Prescott" or Intel Pentium 4 520 "LGA775 Prescott"
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal..._4_LGA775.html

Can someone more experienced than I offer any advice on which of the above combinations would be the best to go with?

Thank you.

My budget for this system is a £1000.0 0 maybe a little more, but I also require recommendations for:

Case (CoolerMaster Stacker STC-T01)?
Memory?
Suitable cooling if any as I am considering placing a PCI-E 6800 (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...00_Series.html) graphics card in it. Though which one!?

I also require x2 harddrives(removable), x1 DVDRW.

Any and all thoughts\opinions\advice\experiences would be welcomed at this point. :) Thanks again.

Re: Help building system... which motherboard
 

Methinks Bifta needs to take a look at this............ :dunce:

Re: Help building system... which motherboard
 

Well I've always been happy with Asus motherboards so I'd reccomend them.

They seem to support DDR2 RAM which means it will be a bit more expensive than standard DDR memmory, and if you want to be doing video work with it and games, then you'l want to put in atleast 1 Gb of Ram in Dual channel.
http://www.crucial.com/uk/index.asp do cheap memory.

As for the Hard drives. Take a look at Seagate Barracuda Drives. I've never had problems and have always heard that they are reliable.
Your motherboard offers SATA so it would be best for you to choose SATA hard drives which are much easier to set up and are faster too.

As for the case, get something thats gonig to offer a lot of room for good airflow.
Remember to set aside some of your bugdet for a good power supply too and ensure its atleast 450 Watts with plenty of power connectors, SATA power cables, etc. I reccomend Tagan for PSU's.
If you go for a big case, you'l have roomm for extra fans. I'd put in an extra 2 if I was you just to make sure all is OK.
Asus boards come with a diagnostic tool to detect temperatures so you can see if you need more fans. Just make sure you have your cables out the way and your fans mostly at the top of the case, but with some towards the middle, and if things get too hot, one blowing onto one of the cards.

Re: Help building system... which motherboard
 

If you want value for money I'd ditch the P4 as the Athlon 64 outperforms it pretty much across the board (especially for gaming and nowadays you won't find the same instability you might have done with older AMD processors)

For £1000 I'd go for the following

Athlon 64 3500+ - £194
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (S939) - £82
1 gig Geil PC4000 Ultra Platinum - £129
Powercolor X800 Pro VIVO (these are guaranteed to flash to an XT PE) - £278
Coolermaster Stacker is a great case (I ordered one last night) - £130
NEC ND3520 16x 16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - £50
2 x Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 200GB - £150
Antec TruePower 480W PSU - £79
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS 7.1 THX Sound Card - £52.76
Floppy Drive - Black - £7

Comes to around £1150, you could skimp on the case, perhaps go for an Antec PlusView 1000AMG saving you £50 , possibly on the HDD's and get 2 120gb Maxtors, that'd knock another £50 off, you could also lower yourself and get a 6800GT (Asus V9999GT/TD GeForce 6800 GT 128MB DDR TV-Out/DVI (AGP) doesn't have video in like the X800 VIVO though but will save you a further £60)

I've not included mouse/keyboard or monitor

Whatever you do though, don't waste money on a P4

Re: Help building system... which motherboard
 

I agree with Bifta on going for an Athlon 64 system over the P4, so much faster and more future proof.

Re: Help building system... which motherboard
 

Hi, Thanks for everyones replies and advice.

Though I am curious as to why the AMD chip over the Intel? This is owing to everyone I ask about this always asks what uses I am going to put this system. As soon as I mention video encoding, the usual reply is that Intel offers better encoding than AMD. Intel chips also run cooler than AMD and as such are much more stable. Something I am inclined to agree with owing to my previous experience with AMD.

Has anyone got any experience or any benchmarks that directly compare the P4 with AMD when using them for Converting\encoding video?

Thanks again.

Re: Help building system... which motherboard
 

Unless you go with the Northwoods, the Prescott range of processors generate almost the same amount of heat as the AMD 64 chips (give or take a few degrees) -

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu...64-90nm_5.html

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu...escott_12.html

Re: Help building system... which motherboard
 

Whoever you've been speaking to is talking out of their behind. As an example, encoding WMV, an Athlon 64 3400 spanks a P4 Extreme Edition, using Canopus Procoder, again it spanks any P4, in Rightmark, same again, in just about every gaming benchmark, again, it stomps all over the P4.

As for the heat aspect, I have a 3500 which runs at 34 degree's under heavy load .. find me a P4 that'll do that.

Intel lost their grip on the performance PC market as soon as the Athlon 64 was released, now they only offer overpriced, underpowered and out of date out of processors. There's no comparison, A64's totally own.

Re: Help building system... which motherboard
 

Seconded. :D