Hi there.
What temps are you getting there on your boards.
I have a 2.4C @ 2.9ghz and according to Asus Probe it says it idles at 29 and reaches the high 40s under strain.
Can that be right?! it all seems a bit too low to me.
Oh thats with stock vcore and stock HSF.
Well Granite Bay would be a good choice although availability seems slim.
Otherwise the 845PE chipset is good if a bit slower than Granite Bay...but it does come significantly cheaper for only marginally less performance.
If there was no budget I would get either the Asus or the Gigabyte Granite Bay boards with a 3.06ghz CPU.
Otherwise i would be happy with a XP2400+ and a Asus A7N8X.
Yep at the moment on the AMD side of things the Nforce2 is best.
As for which one to get have a look at the 6 way Nforce2 roundup right here at Anandtech.
I don't think the version of the Nforce2 with video is out yet.
If you are willing to buy a AGP graphics card seperate then the Epox 8RDA+ or the Asus A7N8X would be nice boards. They were the preferred boards in the Anandtech review. They have all the features you want except for the built in...
If only light overclocking then you could just get DDR333 and run the memory in sync with the FSB.
But if you may get more serious about overclocking in the future then theres no harm in having that extra headroom for overclocking by getting DDR400 now.
I guess just buy the best quality ram...
If you were looking at the AMD side then yes the Asus or the Epox would both be good boards. The Asus has dual LAN ports and also SATA but you may not need those in which case the Epox better value.
For the Intel side.....I would look at the boards with the 845PE chipset onboard. Although to...
Or just hook it up to a monster Dolby Digital/DTS receiver with 5 floorstanding speakers and a 12 inch subwoofer ;)
Hehe yes but more practically the Logitech set would be nice. Or something from Altec Lansing.
Firstly AGP8X does not give significant improvements.
Therefore I think something with the Intel 845PE chipset would be best as it supports DDR333, Hyperthreading CPUs and also has 6 USB2 ports.
Have a look at the Asus P4PE or the Epox P4PEA+ i think it is?
There are reviews of both boards right...
The sound quality is good enough so that you do not need to get a sound card.
Other integrated features include firewire, USB 2, and up to 2 network adapters onboard.
You will not need a firewire card.....just need to plug in the cables to the rear panel included.
With the case....you should be...
Yes the XP2100 will be plenty for what u seem to plan to use the system for.
Also the 8RDA+ is the one without the built in video. I think the version with video is called the 8RGA+?
But yeah if you are not going to play many games then the onboard video and sound will be plenty.
With memory if...
Well Intel boards pretty much force you to run everything at default speeds so no tweaking.
But they will be stable and the onboard video will be fine if she is never going to play games.
In the Anandtech review of this Gigabyte board it says that it cannot run more than one stick of ram at DDR333. Is this true with all boards or is it just an isolated problem?
Has anyone else had similar problems because I have read other reviews and this issue has not come up.
Yes have a look for the Granite bay chipset next week.
I think reviews will be posted next week and we're all looking forward to it!
That plus a 3.06 CPU...if you can afford it....will last you for ages as long as games don't get too demading!
Yep totally agree.....but there is one problem
How do we get the cables to reach!
Say we have 2 CD drives and 2 HDD.
In most cases the HDD mounts are under the floppy mounts. The CD mounts are right at the top of the case.
How do we set up so we have one CD drive and one HDD on each IDE cable...
Why not have a look at the 845PE chipset. It supports DDR333 oficially and also Hyperthreading.
There was a review of a couple of PE boards right here at Anandtech a month ago i think?
Have a look at this article which goes over the basics. Click here
Make sure you have a good heatsink and also adequate ventilation in your case for good results.
Also make sure you know where the reset jumper for your BIOS is just in case you go too far and can't start the computer up!
Well you could get the new Nforce2 chipset boards. They are loaded with features and also has Dual DDR....don't think that has huge gains but sounds good anyway!
The Asus board with the Nforce2 looks great.
Otherwise a lot of people are keen on the Epox line of boards.
Well if you want AGP8X then there isnt much choice but to go a motherboard with the SiS 648 chipset.
Whether the Asus one is the best I couldn't say but Asus seems to usually put out good products even if they are a bit more expensive than the other brands.
If they were true audio purists they wouldnt be listening to music or watching movies on a computer anyway. They would probably have a $2000 DVD played running through a $200 optical cable into a $5000 THX certified 600W amplifier which powers speakers more expensive than my car hehe :)
Seems...
Good review....now just waiting for it to hit Australia's shores!
Hey wasn't the northbridge supposed to have a LED illuminated fan on it?? Thats what i read somewhere.....cant' remember where though :confused:
Ahhh interesting.
Yeah I've used both SETI@Home and Folding@home and they use 100% CPU under the WinXP task manager.
Whether this is stressing the rest of the system I'm not sure.
Any ideas?
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