Specs. on Computer Upgrade?

[BoyElroy]

Well, I'm finally going to rebuild/upgrade my 3 + year old overclocked PIII (750 to 933 mhz) and boy have times changed!

Here's a list of items I'll be getting. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd appreciate a timely holler before I order the stuff next week. All the prices are from www.mwave.com as they seem to have fairly cheap prices and pretty good service.

1) Intel P4 2.8Ghz (800) CPU $304.50

2) Abit IC-7G (875P Chipset) Motherboard $188.68

3) 1 GB Corsair Memory TwinX1024-3200LL 2X64X64 400mhz 2X512mb (matched pair) DDR DIMM w/Heat Spreader $312.46

4) Zalman CNPS6500B-CU Pure Copper Flower Cooler for Intel Socket 478 Processor $49.95

5) Antec True 480 480Watt PSU $86.00

I plan on doing some heavy duty overclocking with the CAS 2 Corsair memory so I'm hoping the extra bucks will be worth it.

Right now, the P4 2.8G (800) seems to be in the price/performance sweetspot but maybe the P4 3.0G or P4 2.6G prices will fall a bit soon.

All of this, of course, is to let me play my mp3's and wavs at 24/96 while downloading/multitasking, as my current setup has begun to stutter and choke at anything past 16/44.

 

[MusicLover]

That'll be one hell of a computer. But you didn't mention a video card. What kind are you using? Also what kind of sound card?

 

[BoyElroy]

er.....I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it, but I'm using a 4 year old Matrox G400 max with a measly 32 mb of memory. Its saving grace is that its one of the few cards out there with dual vga db15 connectors so I can run two analog CRT monitors off it. I'm not really into games and the Matrox has excellent 2D graphics quality for movies and text.

The new Matrox Parhelia seems outstanding for graphics work but its a lot of money and I figure I'll wait on that a bit.

As for soundcards, I'm currently using an M-Audio Revolution 7.1 card. I had been using a Creative 24/96 Audigy 2 card but the analog outputs were crap and the Revolution has much better 2 channel performance.

OTOH, the software support on the Revolution leaves much to be desired and I sometimes wish for the convenience of the Audigy 2 drivers.

 

[aeberbach]

Someone likes Creative drivers? There's a first! It certainly is a good looking board, built-in firewire is great. I'm not sure I like the idea of using a converter on a SATA port just to use an IDE drive but I guess you've researched it. It's great the new P4 C variants use hyperthreading.

 

[Aong]

Quote:

Originally posted by BoyElroy All of this, of course, is to let me play my mp3's and wavs at 24/96 while downloading/multitasking, as my current setup has begun to stutter and choke at anything past 16/44.

if you plan on using it for mp3s and no gaming. That pc seems a bit obsesive. If you plan on listening to music, money would probably be better spent on keeping the pc silent.

- I would personally swap the Antec True 480 480Watt PSU, for something a bit quieter. I would recommend a silenx 400W PSU 14db. Trust me there is nothing more annoying than the whirl of fans when you wanna just listen to music.
- If you MUST overclocking, the Zalman just aint going to cut it. Since you look like you are sparing no expense on this pc, you probably should at least get a Thermalright SLK800 or SLK900U, paired with a panaflo LA1 Or maybe even go for watercooling. Trust me money spent on cooling will go a lot further than RAM, when overclocking. Even if you dont plan on overclocking, the extra cooling would also be good to keep the CPU cool and quiet.
- What harddrive have you got planned? I would reccomend a seagate. Again for silence.
- Case fans?

 

[Neophyte]

Abit IC-7G (875P Chipset) Motherboard $188.68 -

Soyo is introducing a new Dragon Ultra in the next few months and I've never had a prob with Soyo! don't know the cost... Current Ultras with the older chip set are only in the low $100s

 

[LSU_Tiger]

Resellerratings.com agrees with your assessment of mwave.com. They score very well.


http://www.resellerratings.com/seller2089.html

 

[CaptBubba]

Quote:

Originally posted by BoyElroy er.....I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it, but I'm using a 4 year old Matrox G400 max with a measly 32 mb of memory. Its saving grace is that its one of the few cards out there with dual vga db15 connectors so I can run two analog CRT monitors off it. I'm not really into games and the Matrox has excellent 2D graphics quality for movies and text.

Hey, nothing wrong with 4 year old graphics cards! I have the first Geforce 2 in my desktop (Elsa Gladiac) and t still does fine.

 

[BoyElroy]

Hey Aong--

Thanks for the tip on the Thermaltake 900. I think that's the one I'll pick up. I've got a heavily modded case with three 80mm fans and one 120 mm fan on the side so the noise is already pretty noticeable.

I've got 7 stacked hard drives and two optical drives so I have to draw in air over and under these drives at the expense of increased fan noise.

As for overclocking, I do a lot of .wav and .psd editing so the faster the cpu, the better!

Aeberbach--

The Creative drivers make it easier to switch from 2 channel to 5.1 channel audio and also makes it easier to equalize the channels, in the analog domain at least. I found that the minimal installation of the Audigy2 drivers was not that painful!

Neophyte--

I've been looking at the Soyo Dragons for a while but I've been through 4 Abit boards now and the IC7-G has gotten top reviews so far.

CaptBubba--

Luckily for us non-gamers, I think that 2d video card tech. is one thing that's remained pretty stable over the years. I just couldn't imagine shelling out $400 every year to upgrade my videocards!

And thanks for the link LSU_Tiger--

 

[blip]

Looks pretty good... I'm tempted to suggest you swapping the Pentium for an AMD but that's just a personal preference on my part.

Anyway, I'm sure it will truly kick. Have you thought about a fan bus to cut some of that noise?

The Abit board is not a bad choice but I've been skeptical of them ever since the faulty capacitor fiasco of a few months ago. Sure it wasn't there fault and they did do a recall but the fact that they were using cheap, knock-off electrolytic caps makes me a bit suspicious.

In case you don't know the fiasco occured when Abit used some cheap capacitors. These capacitors were manufactured using a flawed formula that, rumor has it, was incorrectly copied from a competitor. Anyway, this flaw led to the caps working just fine innitially but having a FAR higher failure rate than most of them. This led to caps leaking which, in turn, led to all sorts of fun problems for the computers they were used in. My girlfriend had 3 Abit boards die on her because of this. (They were all the same model and all exhibited failed caps.)

Of course Abit wasn't the only one that was caught in this, those caps have been used in many different applications. Indeed, some people think that they are a sort of ticking time-bomb that will lead to higher failure rates in all sorts of equipment. Also, I would guess that the board you are looking at was manufactured after the problem was discovered and that they use different caps now... but I'd still be a little uncomfortable buying from them.

 

[LSU_Tiger]

I'd second the AMD recommendation.

If you go that route, think about the nForce2 chipset.

It's pretty sweet.

 

[CaptBubba]

Quote:

Originally posted by BoyElroy CaptBubba-- Luckily for us non-gamers, I think that 2d video card tech. is one thing that's remained pretty stable over the years. I just couldn't imagine shelling out $400 every year to upgrade my videocards!

Too bad the GTS is perhaps the worst card I have ever seen as far as 2d quality is concerened.

 

[BoyElroy]

Blip--

Yikes! I'd heard about the caps problem but I didn't know Abit was involved. Maybe it would be wise to check on their current cap situation first. I know that a few years ago Asus boards were pretty much the cats meow but they don't have the current overclocking features I'm looking for.


LSU Tiger--

Any idea when the 64 bit AMD is coming out?


CaptBubba--

I'll sell you my Matrox when I upgrade!

 

[ai0tron]

The 64 bit AMD opteron is already out, but if you get it you should wait for the 2ghz version model number "246". This information is from anandtech, they reviewed the opteron vs the latest xeons and determined that the opteron is being seriously hindered by its much slower clockspeed. This is all based on 32 bit apps though. When 64 bit aps become available then opteron will really start showing it's stuff.

The bad news is, opterons are expensive. The 240 is cheap though and is better performing than similarly priced intel chips but I would wait for the 246 based on what I have read.

 

[JuveDuke]

If you want to save some money go with an 865 (springdale) board. If you get the correct model it will perform as well as the more expensive Canterwood boards. The IS7-E and Asus P4P800 both offer the performance enhancing feature (PAT) found on all Canterwood motherboards.

I'd say if you have the money and want to do some serious overclocking, stick with canterwood.