Neil Smalley

Considering getting a P4 3.06 to replace my ye olde Athlon 1.33. Looking for top performance, without overclocking(too scary for me )

o DDR333 or Rambus 1066?
o What's double DDR and what will it do for me?
o Should I get a 400W power supply?
o For Optimum non watercooling, what should I get?
o Any motherboard preferences, looking at the ASUS range.

Cheers

super_si

o DDR333 or Rambus 1066?
1,rambus the 32bit modules are extremly fast for £250 ive seen them bundled with a 256MB stick @ Komplett
o What's double DDR and what will it do for me?
Granite Bay? pretty slowing using supported ram, rambus is fastest stock.
o Should I get a 400W power supply?
Not really needed
o For Optimum non watercooling, what should I get?
No idea, im buying a freezer to cool mine.
o Any motherboard preferences, looking at the ASUS range
As above

[Edited by super_si - 1/13/2003 9:01:12 AM]

towzer

Neil,

Gimmie a call at work, I'll go through all this with you.

Phil

PS- aren't you a solution architect, and should know these things!!!!!!

Neil Smalley

Phil,

This is my own money we're talking about

ChrisB

DDR looks to be the future for RAM. AFAIK, there isn't any support for RAMBUS on the next generation of Intel chipsets.

Buying RAMBUS now is a bad investment IMHO.

AFAIK, DDR400 isn't a properly validated standard by JEDEC yet although there's a lot of talk about it by all sectors of the market.

If you want to build now, then an Asus P4PE (deluxe model has GB Ethernet and ATA RAID) would probably be my choice.

400w - depends how much you're planning to stuff into the chassis. 300w should cope with the usual spec.

[Edited by ChrisB - 1/13/2003 11:13:32 AM]

super_si

granite bay is only just breaking even with rambus tho .

didnt surgest future scope to upgrade so surly rd would be perform better.

Mr Footlong

iTrader: (7)

Just answering a couple of things. The cooling. Not overclocking, so don't worry about it too much

The P4's are more efficient with regards to heat production than the AMD's and also has a pretty well folproof overheating protection system. If buying a retail chip, then use the heatsink provided. If not, just something that is nice and quiet, but guaranteed for that speed rating

I would still wait a while on the 3.06 tho, as is still pretty silly money tbh.

A decent 300watt or 400watt psu should keep her nice and happy

At the default speeds that you are talking, there is virtually nothing between Dual Channel DDR and PC1066 Rambus memory.

All of the Dual channel DDR boards are very expensive currently, with the exception of the Aopen AX4R+, which has already been shown to be an extremely stable and fast performer.

If not going down the Granite Bay route, then a better bet than most of the latest i845PE-based Asus boards is the Epox 4PEA/+ board. Top performer in either standard or overclocked form. Stable too and very highly regarded by those in the know.

Really little difference in performance putting this board against a GB board both running stock speeds.

If going down the PE route, then I would actually advise investing in some DDR400 RAM, as you have the option with these boards of having a couple of async speed options for the Memory, leaving everthing stock bus speed wise, but giving you the option of running faster RAM if wanted. This isn't overclocking if you use suitably rated RAM..

E.G. You strap in a 2.8 cpu (21x133mhz). Using the default RAM ratio, you are running your mem at DDR266 speeds. Now, change the RAM ratio to the faster option (can't remember the speed name again...), you will most likely end up running your RAM at DDR354, which is a nice bonus

Tired, stiiill ill, so goodbye

Cheers,

Nick


Typo..


[Edited by Mr Footlong - 1/13/2003 11:18:32 AM]

ChrisB

If you were older Si, I'd have you down as somebody who'd brought a Betamax video two weeks before the format got killed...

carl

Even Si wouldn't have been stupid enough to buy a Betamax video last summer
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertain...lm/2220972.stm

super_si

Who. me