I'm going to assemble myself a new PC in the next month or so, and I'm planning to get something with the following features:
A) I believe I want the i845G chipset. Onboard graphics would be handy until I can afford a 3D adapter, plus the optimized memory controller is nice
B) PC2700 DDR SDRAM. I'm planning to get the Corsair CL2 stuff, probably 512MB to begin, and then another 512 later when the prices fall a bit.
3) P4 1.6A or perhaps 1.8A, overclocked to 133 MHz FSB, not past.
This system will be used in the near term for general purpose stuff, but in a couple months will probably become the basis of a digital audio workstation setup. DAWs are very sensitive to timing and stability issues, so I'm going to be pretty conservative about things. I want an EXTREMELY stable motherboard that will not cause me any problems.
Because of this fact, I don't plan to overclock the CPU past 133 MHz FSB - I figure that the i845G is designed to run stably at that speed, and we all know the 1.6A and 1.8A can easily get there. Additionally this will ensure that the PCI and AGP busses are within spec - for a DAW it is particularly important that the PCI bus is in spec because some of those audio interface cards are really picky about PCI communications.
It looks like the 1.8A is about the same price as the 1.6A, and since I'm limiting myself to the 133 MHz FSB, this might be a good investment.
I've been considering a few boards, but primarily the EPoX 4G4A+ and Gigabyte 8IGXP - both have RAID, LAN, sound (which will be disabled of course), USB 2.0, basically all the important stuff. Of course, I'm wondering if the 8IGXP can actually be purchased or what, so I'm leaning toward the EPoX at the moment.
I'm also a little torn about Asus - I know they have a stellar reputation for stability, and stability is at the top of my list of priorities, but the P4B533-V is so expensive, and has no RAID. The P4B533-VM is more affordable, but only has.. what, 3 PCI slots? That isn't enough - I may add more audio interfaces in the future and it's important to me to have room for them. I also have been unable to determine if they have the ability to lock the PCI/AGP bus speeds.
Basically, I just want to know if anyone has any concerns, comments, or suggestions about this setup, or if my head is in the right place... I'll probably order from a combination of www.mwave.com and www.newegg.com to maximize good deals while minimizing shipping costs.
Definitely going to get one of the Antec cases, probably PLUS 660 or 880 or something along those lines. I don't want or need something as large as the 1080, though I do want at least a 330W PS and would probably prefer 400W...
So, any comments? Thanks in advance...
Jake