Suggestions required

Hewin

Hi, I am a Uni student studying Computer Science/Software Engineering - I havent upgraded or even bothered to look at hardware development/prices since I last upgrade my machine which was some time ago. In October I start my final year and I will be writing C++/Open GL code which is going to require lots of number crunching. I also produce music on my machine.

I want to buy basically a new processor, motherboard and RAM. As well as a new hard drive most probably. I was reading an artical the other day from toms hardware guide which discussed the advantages and disadvantages of RIMM vs DDR. I think that DDR is the most likely option and I will be going for a mininum of DDR333. I think I will opt for 512MB.
Without starting a huge debate I was planning on going for a P4 as opposed to a AMD since the benchmarks I have seen look better. Would somebody be so kind as to explain the difference between a P4 with and without Northwood?
I am now at the point where I know I want DDR ram (i think!) and a P4 2GHz or higher. I have read into motherboards and would like a board with RAID. I think that the Asus are a good brand to opt for but this is only from what I have heard. I think I will also get a HDD of a minimum of 80GB (IDE).

Given this could someone recommend the best components to buy. I live in the UK btw.

I would appreciate your help since my time is too soaked up to drudge through hundreds of articles.

Thanks

Dan

(Given the spec the price is not too much of a worry but i think around £400 - £500 UK Sterling should be enough)

Any websites you recommend for service and price would also be appreciated.

Thanks again!

alewisa

Could be tight on that budget... but after visiting a comp fair in Kendal last week, here's what I /almost/ picked up

Abit KG7-RAID £80
Athlon XP1700 £69 (offered best bang per buck)
256Mb RAM £29 (or was it £19...)
ATI8500 £125

Company was called Sunny Computers, istr they are in Preston. Plug-n-Play were offering a Gigabyte board (can't remember the model, but it was a /good/ board) for £99... PlugnPlay (don't confuse with a company called PnP) are good people.

hard disk, well, I don't need anymore of them. Take it you will use existing CD/DVD/CD-R(w), case, floppy, etc. Factor in cost of a 400w+ PSU.

What you save, you could use for other components - firewire, MIDI, compilers, whatever...

__________________
TRS-80, dual 5.25", 32K
C-64 o/c to 2Mhz, 1541 with PhantomDOS
Amiga 4000/040@66Mhz, C64-3D, 64mb, 4.3gb SCSI
Netware 4.11
And too many damn PC's to care!

Hewin

I have been looking and alothough its not a RAID board I like the look of the ASUS P4S533 .

http://www.asus.com.tw/mb/socket478/p4s533/overview.htm

Does anyone know when they say :
C-Media CMI8738 6-channel audio (optional)
Intel 10/100 Mbps Ethernet LAN controller(optional)

Is that there are versions of the board with and without these features or that they can be turned of on the board or via BIOS? DOes anyone know if I will have any sound problems with this board? I will probably be buying an expensive soundcard at some point so I dont want onboard sound. The onboard LAN is appealing though.

I think I am going to go for a
ASUS P4S533
DDR333 (512MB)
P4 2GHz (northwood)
and a maxtor HDD

Two questions though....

Does the brand of RAM matter really? What is ECC registered?

and does the quiet drive technology on the Maxtor HDD's prohibit performance? If so to what degree?

Thanks again

Dan

DallasStar

y'know, I'd recommend RIMM ram for P4. That 533mhz bus is something that the DDR just can't offer.

__________________
"A picture of my existence... would show a useless wooden stake covered in snow... stuck loosely at a slant in the ground in a ploughed field on the edge of a vast open plain on a dark winter night." --- Franz Kafka

Marktait

If your looking for a cheap online retailer then Ebuyer are fantastic, i am in the UK and use them all the time. Forget shops or Comp Fairs ebuyer is the place and if u spend more that £100 u get free delivery. They are great and i have order over £1000 of stuff from them and not had 1 problem.

__________________
[color=yellow]• AMD Duron 1.2Ghz – Gigabyte GA-71XE4 – 512MB PC133 RAM - 60GB IBM 7200RPM - 40GB Seagate 5400RPM – 16x/48x LG DVD Drive - 24x/10x/40x Samsung CDRW Drive – 2x 10 / 100 Mbps Realtek Network card – 10 / 100 Netgear network card – Creative SoundBlaster 128 – 64MB nVidia® GeForce2™ MX200 Graphics – Logic 2.1 300Watt Speakers - 17” AOC LCD Monitor – Epson Stylus C80 Printer – APC BackUPS CS 350 – Windows® XP Professional Corporate Platinum Edition

• AMD Athlon XP 1800+ - Gigabyte GA-7DXR+ – USB 2.0 - 512MB 2100 DDR RAM w/Thermaltake DDR Cooler- 80GB IBM 7200RPM – 60GB IBM 7200RPM - 16x/48x LG DVD Drive – 16x/10x/40x LiteOn CDRW Drive - 10 / 100 Mbps Realtek network card – Creative SoundBlaster 1024 Live! - 64MB nVidia® GeForce3™ Ti200 Graphics w/TV-out – 4.1 Cambridge Soundworks Speakers - WinTv Primio FM – 17” NEC Multisync A700 Monitor - Windows® XP Professional Corporate Platinum Edition[/color]

Crash Override

Not gonna go on a debate thing

But I will say currently yes the P4 Northwood B....(note not P4 or Northwood but the Northwood B) is faster than the Athlon XP series

It is also 3 times the price

You can find an OEM Athlon XP 2200+ for 209 dollars american
In order to get a P4 Northwood B 2.6Ghz Processor that means around 600 dollars american

For that price you could get the 2200+ (which is right behind the 2.4Ghz P4...trust me at these speeds its not much difference in most things...), a motherboard (I recommend the Abit AT7), Samsung PC333 DDR Ram (Yes brand of RAM does matter and without it being an opinion I will say this is the best currently) and 2 Maxtor 80GB ATA 133 L series quiet drives

So heh tell me which one would you want to buy?

shai

isnt there sumsung 400ddr
and this new 3500 from some company

Crash Override

i dont know is samsung has 400ddr out to the public yet or not but i will say if its not samsung at this point I dont trust it

alewisa

Thank god someone else has understood that this dude dos not need the absolute fastest thing on e the planet no matter what the cost! Comes back to what I said a good few posts ago, buy what suits your needs, rather than suits this week's bragging rihgts ;-)

__________________
TRS-80, dual 5.25", 32K
C-64 o/c to 2Mhz, 1541 with PhantomDOS
Amiga 4000/040@66Mhz, C64-3D, 64mb, 4.3gb SCSI
Netware 4.11
And too many damn PC's to care!