Seeking opinions on a P4 CPU/Mobo combo

Howdy,

This will be my first foray into buying these two components. I have read customer reviews and comparison articles and I was hoping to get a suggestion or two from people that have more experience than I do at this sort of thing.

Here's the motherboard I was looking at.... it seems to be a good deal cuz it supports DDR and DDR2 as well as both SATA and IDE:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131527

I got a little confused when it came to choosing the CPU though. There are conflicting reports as to which is better between the Prescott and Northwood in the 478 socket. The prices of these are all pretty close so I would like to ask if anyone has a preference or one to avoid. Here are the CPU's in question:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...1707443+1050706985&Submit=ENE&SubCategory=343

In case you are wondering why I am asking about P4s is that I'm frugal (cheapskate) and the RAM I have is DDR and I can have this box back up and running for less than $150 if I go this route. I'm not a gamer so this should be sufficient unless anyone else has any other suggestions....

Thanks,
LF

 

You ain't a gamer so I suppose you are not interested in overclocking, right?

 

Thanks for the reply. Yes, you are correct. I have no plan to overclock.

 

I'm not sure where that little blurb about DDR2 came from on the newegg page, but I can assure you the board only supports DDR. Have a look at the Asus product page http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=407&l1=3&l2=12&l3=45

While Asus makes great boards, the SIS chipset is inferior to Intel or Nvidia chipsets.

For your budget and desire to use youe existing DDR, I would recommend an AMD Athlon64 socket 939 solution. The prices just dropped on these like crazy to urge the move to socket AM2 and DDR2, so for a similar price as the P4 system or slightly more, you can get a very nice machine that is faster.

Here is an example:

This motherboard

and any range of CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...8+1051707439&Submit=ENE&Nty=1&SubCategory=343

My 2 cents

 

I agree that SiS chipsets are not exactly top notch. Also, socket 478 CPU's are more or less outdated even though some fast ones are available. If you're gaming go with the A64 as mentioned above in the AM2 socket.... GigaByte makes great mobo's as does Abit.... check 'em out.....

hopperdave2000

 

Forget ya P4's, Junk
SIS chipset also junk

For around $150 you can get a Awsome Socket 939 CPU & NF4 mobo that will Smoke any P4 system
A quick look at Newegg, AMD socket 939, 3500 CPU for $80 & choice of several NF4 mobos for under $70
Socket 939 performance is within 10% of the new AMD AM2 hardware, most people cant tell the differance of 10%

The Best Bang for your Buck is Socket 939 CPU & NF4 MOBO, Period!

 

If you are going to stick with Intel, spend a few extra bucks and get a Pentium D (dual core, socket 775).

A 2.8 Smithfield on Newegg is only about $30 more than a 2.8 P4 socket 478 single core, and there are plenty of socket 775 boards that support DDR. On the system I recently built using an Intel D101GGC board, setup was easy and it will support mismatched DDR (ex: 1G 3200, 512m 2700) if you're recycling old memory.

The extra $30 will speed up photo/video apps (PaintShopPro, Pinnacle, etc.) dramatically versus a P4, will support 64 bit processing and; with a 775 socket, you'll have something you can upgrade later on.

 

Wow, thanks for all of the great suggestions! I was able to cancel my order so I will check out my options and make a decision in a couple of days.

Thanks again