Component Indecisions

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CornofStarchy

Hi, I'm trying to build a gaming PC. I've decided to go with an Intel P4
2.4GHz w/HT. Now I'm stuck with choosing a good motherboard. I do plan to
overclock as much as I can and in general (I haven't decided exactly which
brands) two 512Mb DDR PC3200 for the RAM, an ATI Radeon 9800, an ethernet
card, a sound card that isn't very pricey (I usually mute my sound so a
decent card will do), a case for 400W and I don't think I missed anything.

The problem: I have a rather large list of "recommended" motherboards, about
15 different ones. Which should I choose?! The ones that seem to be
recommended most often is the ABit IS7, IS7-G as well as the ASUS P4P800
Deluxe, P4C800-E Deluxe. Are these good choices for gaming and overclocking?
I really would prefer to get the most out of it all. Also, I don't plan to
use the integrated LAN and Sound components.

Also, which brand of RAM would you recommend? Most people have been telling
me to get Kingston or Corsair. What's the difference between the two? Since
I'm asking anyway, what is a good stable ethernet and sound card? Finally,
for the power, is 400W good enough or do you highly recommend me to go for
higher wattage? Oh yea, I did miss out something: the fans. Should I buy the
retail processor (the one with the fan included) or just the processor
itself and get a better fan for the overclocking? I read somewhere that the
cooler the processor is, the higher you can overclock it (and the better it
runs in any case). Any recommendations for these things? Feel free to go all
out. Money isn't a big issue. I'd rather get something that's easier to
upgrade in the future and worth my money than to get something that I'll
throw away in a couple of years.

For interest, what's the difference between DDR SDRAM, DDR, and just SDRAM?
I'm looking at some of the titles for the memory and some have a DDR SDRAM
at the end, others have just DDR and still others have SDRAM.

Thanks for all the help!

--- CornofStarchy ---
"We are the Corns. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."
 
CornofStarchy said:
Hi, I'm trying to build a gaming PC. I've decided to go with an Intel P4
2.4GHz w/HT. Now I'm stuck with choosing a good motherboard. I do plan to
overclock as much as I can and in general (I haven't decided exactly which
brands) two 512Mb DDR PC3200 for the RAM, an ATI Radeon 9800, an ethernet
card, a sound card that isn't very pricey (I usually mute my sound so a
decent card will do), a case for 400W and I don't think I missed anything.

The problem: I have a rather large list of "recommended" motherboards,
about 15 different ones. Which should I choose?! The ones that seem to be
recommended most often is the ABit IS7, IS7-G as well as the ASUS P4P800
Deluxe, P4C800-E Deluxe.

Get a p4p800 and not the deluxe IMHO. All the deluxe really has is a LAME
Via raid controller that is a POS. I'm using one with a 9800 pro and it's
great. The onboard sound and ethernet work fine, I don't see any reason to
change them for off boards ones.

-DDR sdram- and -DDR is the same thing. Plain Sdram is the old PC133 type
stuff. Just make sure it's PC3200 and you'll be fine. Corsair ram is good
and I've been impressed with their XMS versions that I've used, it oclocks
well. If you are planning on Oclocking I'd get at least PC3500 as well.

On the PSU, I'm running a P4 2.4/533 on that board with DDR333 ram (CPU and
ram pulled from an older system) with one 7200 80gig drive and a CD-RW on a
good 300W PSU slightly oclocked (2.85Ghz). You need to do some research on
which PSU's are good, a crappy 400W may not work as well as a good 300W as
they fudge the numbers by putting more amps on the voltages that don't need
it! I've been happy with this one, it's came with my lite-on case but
sparkle seems to be another good brand.
 
Get a p4p800 and not the deluxe IMHO. All the deluxe really has is a LAME
Via raid controller that is a POS. I'm using one with a 9800 pro and it's
great. The onboard sound and ethernet work fine, I don't see any reason to
change them for off boards ones.

This might be a really stupid question but how do you tell if parts of it is
made by Via? I looked but the manufacturer's name isn't printed anywhere in
online stores.

Thanks for answering all the other questions. =)

--- CornofStarchy ---
"We are the Corns. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."
 
CornofStarchy said:
This might be a really stupid question but how do you tell if parts of it
is made by Via? I looked but the manufacturer's name isn't printed
anywhere in online stores.

Only the raid controller is made by Via.

http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket478/p4p800-d/overview.HTM

scroll down to IDE raid and it says:

The VIA IDE-RAID controller supports two-channel ATA 133, enabling users to
build Maximum 4 ATA-133 hard disk as an RAID0, 1 , 0+1 , JBOD array.


Many people have talked about this controller using massive amounts of CPU
cycles when operating and causing all sorts of weird problems. You'd be
MUCH better off with a PCI IDE raid controller is you really want one.
 
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