Need Help Upgrading P4T533c

  • Thread starter Thread starter Racer X
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Racer X

Perhaps someone could try to answer a few questions.

I have an Asus P4T533C MB with an Intel P4 2.26 and 512MB of PC1066 RDRAM
and the latest BIOS. I am considering upgrading to an Intel P4 3.06 and
adding another 512MB of RDRAM. Do you think that the upgrade is worth $400
or should I just get a new system? Are there any benefits to using a newer
model MB/Memory configuration? I have just purchased a new Geforce 6800
that is NOT PCI Express so that option is not an issue. Is it possible to
mix ECC and non-ECC memory modules? Is there anything I should know before
attempting to upgrade this MB? Also does anyone know of any reputable sites
that sell PC1066 as I'm having a difficult time finding one.
 
Hi.

I'm in the same situation with 2 systems. Both P4T533-C systems. RDRAM is
pretty much dead. It's to bad, but true. Finally dual channel DDR400
systems have surpassed its bandwidth capabilites. I wouldn't spend that
money upgrading it. I think if it were me, I'd Ebay the system for as much
as I could get. Then build a new hot AMD64 system.

N8
 
"Racer X" said:
Perhaps someone could try to answer a few questions.

I have an Asus P4T533C MB with an Intel P4 2.26 and 512MB of PC1066 RDRAM
and the latest BIOS. I am considering upgrading to an Intel P4 3.06 and
adding another 512MB of RDRAM. Do you think that the upgrade is worth $400
or should I just get a new system? Are there any benefits to using a newer
model MB/Memory configuration? I have just purchased a new Geforce 6800
that is NOT PCI Express so that option is not an issue. Is it possible to
mix ECC and non-ECC memory modules? Is there anything I should know before
attempting to upgrade this MB? Also does anyone know of any reputable sites
that sell PC1066 as I'm having a difficult time finding one.
Click to expand...

Samsung stopped making the RAM a while ago. That could be why
you are having trouble finding it. You might end up using Ebay
for that.

The second problem will be finding the 3.06/FSB533/512K processor,
as it is possible Intel has stopped making it. (The Newegg web
page says it is getting some Nov.28/2004.) Pricewatch only has
one page of entries for the non-Xeon 3.06GHz processor, so they
are probably in the process of disappearing. Expect Powerleap
to carry them for a while (they had high end FSB400 processors
so maybe they've stocked up on 3.06GHz ones too).

RDRAM is still pretty good stuff, so changing to DDR or DDR2 isn't
going to make that much difference for most work.

Perhaps a question would be, what are your expectations ?
If the processor was 50% faster, you won't see it for
most desktop operations, and will only see the difference
when "crunching", like in SETI, or rendering, or some
other prolonged operation.

Buying the AGP video card limits your upgrade options a
bit. The P5xxx boards that take an LGA775 socket processor,
for the most part those are using PCI Express video cards.
The P5P800 is one notable exception, but check Google
as people have had a few problems with the board (could
be early BIOS teething pains).

The Athlon64 boards are the exact opposite, with most
of them taking AGP cards, and only one board (with
Nforce4 chipset) having two PCI Express video slots
for use in an SLI configuration. The socket 939 boards
would be the ones to look at there, as they have
dual channel RAM. If you are a gamer, some of these
boards have phenomenal 3DMark benchmarks, especially
when overclocked. (Socket 940 is really a dead end.)

Abxzone.com forums are a good place to look for comments,
and also for benchmarks for some of the boards. Or for that
matter, good or bad experiences with the boards.

HTH,
Paul
 
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