New gaming system bought, need advice

Ardent

Hi all,

Just placed an order with Komplett for the following items:

* Chenbroo XpiderII case
* Q-Tec PSU ATX 550W Dual Fan
* Abit AI7 Mainboard S478, SATA, 800Mhz FSB
* Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz Prescott
* 2 X Corsair XMS3200 DDR-DIMM 512MB
* Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 200GB 8MB
* NEC DVD recorder ND-2510A IDE
* Sony Floppy Drive, 3,5" 1,44MB Black

My two main considerations for this system were 1) I'll be able to play Doom III (I have yet to buy the GFX card :mad: ) and 2) that, down the line, I'll be able to overclock this PC if needs be.

Can any of you guys see any problems with this system or is there anything I should change ?

Thanks a mill,
Ardent

netman

That's a pretty nice setup.

If you plan to overclock, that CPU heats up like a furnace, even at default settings. You'll need a powerful heatsink/fan for it, Coolermaster Hyper6 is a pretty good choice.

Also, the memory is pretty good, but if you're going to overclock you'll run into problems if you want to run the memory synchronously.

I'm not sure what memory options are available on AI7, if you can run the memory asynchronously at 4:3 or 5:4 ratios that ought to do the trick.

And if Doom 3 is your game, have a look at the GeForce 6800 cards. GT is probably the best choice (cost/performance ratio) if you can afford it.

RE*AC*TOR

It doesn't have a PCI express slot. All new graphics cards will be PCI express - not AGP. Having said that it is a good system - and the current top batch of graphics cards are very expensive (PCI express). YOu can always change the motherboard in the future for a PCI express one.

Ardent

Cheers for the replies lads. I've done a lot of research into this and I'm hoping I'll get plenty of bang for my buck with this system for at least a couple of years,

Netman: I don't plan to overclock for the forseeable future, only when I have to! Question: the stock cooler that comes with the chip should work fine at the stock speed yeah? Also, is there any problems using the stock cooler and then replacing it down the line with another cooler? I.e., should I place a super duper cooler on it straight away to avoid messiness down the line?

Reactor: I realise it doesn't have PCI Express but that doesn't really bother me. I plan to go AGP for as long as it's viable and, as you said, I can always change the motherboard.

Does anyone know what speeds the P4s goes up to - I've most I've heard of is 3.6 GHz - and would the A17 motherboard support them?

Ardent.

RE*AC*TOR

Stock cooler - stock speed is fine - you won't need to overclock that in a hurry - save yourself a bit of money now on a fancy cooler - invest it in a good graphics card (9800 XT).

The processors go up to 3.6ghz currently (3.4 for extreme edition). Abit AI7 (865pe chipset) does support them AFAIK.

BloodBath

The Prescotts are good for overclocking once you have a decent heatsink. The cooler that comes with it will be fine for stock speeds, nothing more.

The only cooler worth getting is the Thermalright sp-94. It's the best P4 air cooler you can get costing about 50 euro and another 10 for a decent 92mm fan.

Why not overclock straight away. You will need faster RAM. It's not worth overclocking if you have to use a divider. You want the RAM to run in sync with the processor. Get pc4000 instead of pc3200. Practically all 2.8e's will reach at least 3.5ghz with a decent cooler like the one above. That's 250mhz fsb making your RAM run at it's full 500mhz speed and your system fsb at 1000 instead of 800. This gives big gains in performance.

So for the extra cost of the faster RAM and the better heatsink(about 100 euro) you could have your system at 3.5ghz and your RAM at 500mhz. Definetely worth an extra 100 euro if you ask me.

Look out for the D0 stepping of the Prescotts. It's the new stepping, they are about 10c cooler and overclock more than the older stepping. I'm not sure if it's available in 2.8 though but look into it. You could be looking at pushing near 4ghz with one of those.


BloodBath

Ardent

Bloodbath - excuse my ignorance on the subject but what is a divider?

Also, you're saying get the faster RAM (PC4000) even though the board specs state that it only supports PC3200. Will the faster RAM work on this board regardless?

Jammer

Q-Tec Power supplies aren't the best. surprised no one has already said that...

Creamy Goodness

yeh ditch the q-tec and get a quality psu,

some good brands include, antec, enermax, zalman, tagan. :cool:

other than that it looks good

OfflerCrocGod

RE*AC*TOR wrote:

It doesn't have a PCI express slot. All new graphics cards will be PCI express - not AGP.

Excalibur X800 Pro IceQ - AGP, AGP should be around for another 18 months or so; don't worry about it.

aidan_walsh

RE*AC*TOR, thats not exactly true for the time being... Eventually AGP will be supersieded by PCI Express, but for the first few years they'll release cards in both flavours, much like they did when AGP came on the scene first. Thay have to let PCI Express penetrate the market enough to risk going exclusively into making PCI Express only cards.

netman

It's a pretty bad time to be buying a PCI-Express / BTX / DDR-II system.
You'd be paying a high premium for little or no gain in performance.

In fact, Intel's new offering is riddled with problems, and AMD doesn't even have one out there.

I'd stay away from it until:
a) prices fall down
b) there's a performance benefit from the new technology
c) all the teething problems have been taken care of