Recommendations for replacement of P3B-F....!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Alan Dempster
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Alan Dempster

Evenin' all

After a few years of pissing around and a year of storage while I was in
Australia, I'm finally ready to upgrade my PC!

Currently running an Asus P3B-F with an Intel Celeron 1100MHz, clocked at
1232MHz.

OK... Budget is no issue, as I tend to only upgrade every few years or so.
I've already done the peripherals (nice Sony 19" TFT monitor, MS Multimedia
Keyboard, MS wireless mouse etc)... so from the exterior, it looks great!

Now the internals need doing. I've not shopped for PC components for years.
Last time I did this, P2B-F and P3B-F were the dog's whatsits, and these
were the boards that everyone was after, for O'Cing their Celeron 300As etc.

Now, I've lost the plot a little... need to do some catch up.

Some recent shopping on dabs.com led me to realise that today's standard is
Socket 775. Socket 468 already seems to be obsolete.

Which (finally!) leads me to the question... what is the recommended Asus
board for Intel processors? P5P800 looks like a good way to go, since I'm
not too worried about RAID, but would like support for SATA, if at all
possible.

I'm a die-hard PC builder, so boards with everything integrated are not
favoured.

I'd be genuinely pleased to hear recommendations from the group regulars.

Many thanks

Alan
 
Evenin' all
Click to expand...
Evenin'

I'm very pleased with my set up (due not in a small amount to the
fantastic help here!)

My platform
Asus A8V Deluxe
360W PSU
2 x 200Gb sata drives in sata 0 & 1 (Drives C & D - I tried Raid0 but
threw it away as too risky with data)
2 x 512Mb PC3200 DDR @400Mhz = 1GB Ram
AMD Athlon 64FX-53 processors 2.4Gh
Video = FX6800GT 256Mb DDR = great for the Hi Definition 'WMA' imax
films and doom 3!!!
Sound = Creative Audigy2 ZS Platinum + &.1 Speaker system. The blast
of air from the woofer makes for a great cooling system! Truly, the
room vibrates and WWIII takes place with Doom! (Music sounds nice too
:=] ) Seriously though, what I like about it is the fact that you can
use a headset & Mic plugged into the desk volume unit OR in the front
panel of the computer.It also gives an extra firewire on the front
panel.
a pair of Sony dvd drives, one being +R/-R/RW
Extreme Nostromo HID (Google for it - its a worthwhile extra.)

I also run an external USB 120 Gb drive for backups of data.


Hope that gives you some food for thought - All the best


--
Donald Gray
Putting ODCOMBE on the Global Village Map!
www.odcombe.demon.co.uk
You do not have to email me, but if you wish to...
Please remove the SafetyPin from my email address first
Thanks
 
Alan,

I trust the sheilas treated you well....

Donald dived in and pre-empted my answer somewhat with an A8V and a (woa)
Athlon FX processor. If your budget can include the FX then they are the
Bees Knees (next to multiprocessor opterons).

Now, you mention Intel. Honestly, I would not buy one at the moment - the
Athlon 64 bit processors (nearly any) leave them in the dust. The heat
dissipation of the Athlon XP Winchester core CPU's (90nm Silicon on
Insulator) is Intel's envy.

So while Donalds budget may lead him to an FX chip (the best performance
wise, but a little hotter) I would head straight for an A8N SLI with say a
XP 3500 Winchester chip. You do not have to use the SLI or the RAID, or all
the other bells and whistles..

It is getting increasingly difficult to get a basic mobo - no one seems to
make them. It is usual to get sound, network (gbit, sometimes 2), sometimes
a h/w firewall (on the A8N, but i hear its borked at the moment ?), SATA,
RAID ( 2 sometimes) and so on.

If you are anti AMD (they have improved to Intels detriment), then I suggest
making that clear & I won't waste your time.
 
"Alan said:
Evenin' all

After a few years of pissing around and a year of storage while I was in
Australia, I'm finally ready to upgrade my PC!

Currently running an Asus P3B-F with an Intel Celeron 1100MHz, clocked at
1232MHz.

OK... Budget is no issue, as I tend to only upgrade every few years or so.
I've already done the peripherals (nice Sony 19" TFT monitor, MS Multimedia
Keyboard, MS wireless mouse etc)... so from the exterior, it looks great!

Now the internals need doing. I've not shopped for PC components for years.
Last time I did this, P2B-F and P3B-F were the dog's whatsits, and these
were the boards that everyone was after, for O'Cing their Celeron 300As etc.

Now, I've lost the plot a little... need to do some catch up.

Some recent shopping on dabs.com led me to realise that today's standard is
Socket 775. Socket 468 already seems to be obsolete.

Which (finally!) leads me to the question... what is the recommended Asus
board for Intel processors? P5P800 looks like a good way to go, since I'm
not too worried about RAID, but would like support for SATA, if at all
possible.

I'm a die-hard PC builder, so boards with everything integrated are not
favoured.

I'd be genuinely pleased to hear recommendations from the group regulars.

Many thanks

Alan
Click to expand...

The 875/865 can control four IDE and two SATA drives. The 865
chip is used on the P5P800, so you get two interfaces for
SATA drives. The P5P800 has an AGP slot, so you can reuse an
AGP card if you have one (but it cannot be a really old
3.3V only card - a simple check is look for two slots cut
in the edge of the card, as a guide). RAM is DDR (so you
cannot reuse your SDRAM from the P3B-F).

The 915/925 chips are used on the majority of the other S775
boards. They support two IDE and four SATA drives via the
Southbridge. The boards have PCI Express video slots, so
you'll need a new video card. RAM type is either DDR or DDR2,
so again you cannot reuse your SDRAM. I would also expect a
ton of onboard peripherals, so generally you'll be able to
support a lot of disk drives.

If you own a lot of ATAPI drives, you'll want to download and
read the manuals for the boards first. ATAPI CD/DVD devices
can certainly go on the Southbridge IDE interfaces, but on the
915/925, you only have room for two devices. Yes, there are
now a few SATA ATAPI devices available, but that reduces your
shopping options considerably. Some of the onboard storage
controllers used (like a Promise 20378), cannot use ATAPI
IDE devices, and according to the Plextor web site, cannot
use a SATA ATAPI either.

The P5P800 should be the easiest on the pocketbook, as the
components you would use with it, will be cheaper than trying
to populate a DDR2/PCI-E based board.

In terms of the socket, be aware that the current S775 boards
will not work with the new Intel dual core processors when they
arrive. I've read that something will need to be changed to
work with them, even if the socket form factor is kept. I
really don't think that matters, because if you buy a 3.6 or
a 3.8Ghz now, with today's mix of applications, you'll breeze
by those systems anyway. (I.e. Dual cores will be pointless,
so enjoy a fast single core for years to come. In my opinion,
until better software development tools are available, applications
that can take advantage of multiple cores will be few and far
between. If you are a gamer, of course games will be the driver
for dual core technology, but other desktop apps have no
incentive to use both cores at the same time. Photoshop would be
an exception, as it has been able to use multiple computing
devices for years. For the software you run currently, a single
thread on a dual core 3.0Ghz processor will run slower than a
single thread on a single core 3.8Ghz.)

If you want a cooler and quieter system, you might consider a
socket 939 AMD board. They have dual channel RAM, and processor
speed goes up to the P.R. (processor rating) equivalent of a
4Ghz Pentium4. When one of those boards is idling, expect it
to run cooler. If you normally work in an air conditioned
environment, you likely will not care one way or the other.
(Modern systems function as space heaters, expecially if you
put a high end video card in there as well.)

To minimize processor cooling noise, you might also want to
consider an after-market heatsink/fan. Some ones to consider
are Zalman 7000, 7700 or Thermalright XP-90, XP-120. Before
buying something like that, first test the retail fan and
see what you think of it. Run Prime95 and see how fast the
fan has to spin, to cool the processor. The Zalman and
Thermalright products use copper bases and aluminum fins,
for best weight versus cooling performance effort. They are
also so big, that they will overhang the edge of the motherboard.
You may need some clearance (like 10mm or so) between the
top edge of the motherboard and the PSU, so if you plan on
buying a tiny case, those kinds of heatsinks won't fit. Check
the manufacturer's web site for compatibility info.

http://www.thermalright.com/a_page/main_product_xp120_775.htm
http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=146&code=

HTH,
Paul
 
Over had www.2cpu.com they are having a laugh at the new DP Xeon being an
LGA 771.

So the new xeon is 2 x P4's in disguise....

Its time for more sockets and new mobos - again.
 
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