Thoroughbred or Northwood?

[Roba]

I am really confused on what to buy. Any suggestions?

1. I am currently running a P-III 700E(7*100)on a ZX mobo, which easily overclocks to 931MHz(7*133) but I don't use this setting as it really strains my SB Live!(cracking sound) on this ZX board. I hear that the Coppermine has a ceiling of 1.1GHz. Do you think this P-III 700E will reach 1162MHz(7*166) on a good mobo? Actually 1GHz(7*143) will do(It's the coool GHz factor!). I'm looking for a good mobo for overclocking. How about Sis 635/AliPro5T/ViaPro266 based mobos? Is Via or Sis gonna come out with DDR333 support for P3? Will they be any faster than the current boards? If money is not the issue, which board should I buy? How far will the Socket 370(Including the Celeron Tualatin) go?

I have an Asus 6800(GeForce DDR) OC'ed to 135/345 using Detonator 21.81. They proved to be very stable while overclocking in my case, though I haven't heard anything like that before. Earlier I maxed out at 145/320 (As you may know, GeForce being memory bandwidth limited gives more performance on increasing Mem clk than core clk, even dropping from 130/345 to 120/345 I only lose 2fps in Q3A) but I'm not sure if this is the best driver for my GF-256/DDR. Which driver series is the right one for this card?

WinXP was a big dissapointment. Should I go for WinME? I upgraded to WinME previously but I had a large drop in framerate (10-20fps) in some games like Q3A, Max Payne and Serious Sam which caused me to turn back to Win 98SE. Never locked up or crashed tho...


I'm planning a new second system for gaming/DVD viewing with a Thoroughbred vs. P4/Northwood. I wan't to be able to play the coming DX8/9 games at good IQ and reasonable framerates. Again money is not an issue. Neither is time. I'd rather wait for good components on the horizon than kick myself later! Right now my P-III/GF256DDR is good enough for most DX7 games. Which of these upcoming processors in you opinion has more potential? Also I read in a magazine (Chip) that there will eventually be an nForce for intel procs. Does anyone else know anything about this or any other good P4 mobos on the horizon? Also I hear the P-4 will reach 10GHz. But will that require a new mobo? How long will Socket A live?

I am very finicky about sound and currently have a SB Live Platinum and a Cambridge Desktop theatre 5.1 (old model). The sound is not bad but I am dissapointed with the proximity effects. Audigy was a very dissapointing release. Sensaura and Qsound seem to do these effects better than Creative, but if Creative uses the Wavetracing and A3D tech in a new product I would definitely like to have one. 3D sound seems to be evolving rather slowly as compared to 3D graphics I can't afford a good Home theatre system so for the new system I'm planning to buy a good set of Digital speakers. Which model do you recommend? Also how is the 3D sound in nForce chipset? I hear it is DX8 compliant. What is new in sound in DX8? Is the EAX(via DX8) in nForce as good as Creative's EAX? Finally if somebody could recommend a couple of good sites for sound. My current fav is www.3dsoundsurge.com and www.3dai.com(infact they are the only sites I know of).

No first post/newbie jokes please

Thnx

 

[Roba]

Hmmmm...... what 2 posts?
Did I post twice?
Sorry

 

[Adul]

lots of questions here.

Socket 370 is pretty much dead. It is not worth spending the money for a NEW imho.

has for win me. forget it. Stick with 98se or XP.

Just to let you know XP like lots of memory and it works much better from a clean install.

Socket A will be around until the hammer comes around then it is on to a new socket. Has for the P4 and given intel's history. I wonder how long socket 478 will be around. can't say much on the nforce for p4 has there is nothing comfirmed. You could get a dual athlon system for the price of a P4 2.2 Ghz cpu. If money matters to you.

I suggest reading hardware sites like this, to gather your own information. That way you know the pro's and con's

 

[rip22]

OS suggestion: if you dont like winxp then i suggest win98se or win2k with servicepack2.

<< I'm planning a new second system for gaming/DVD viewing with a Thoroughbred vs. P4/Northwood. >>

When is Thoroughbred expected to be released? Northwood is expected to be released officialy early Jan2002 i think (its in stock already)

Edit: link added

 

[Roba]

Thanx Rip22

I am currently using Win98SE. What about WInME?
Basically I need an OS for Gaming/DVD viewing etc.

Don't know about Thoroughbred either. No news at inquirer.
Plz Anybody?

 

[ColdFlare]

throughbred will be out first half of of 2002, i suggest you wait for the northwood to come out and look at its performance before purchasing. intel has a habit of releasing unfinished products with unfulfilling promises. (pentium 4, how many versions of it were there?

 

[Roba]

Thnx Adul,
Think I'll stick with 98SE for now. I'll get XP with the new system.

The Socket 370 is for the old system (P-III 700). This way I can overclock to around 900MHz+ which is enuff till the time these new processors come out. I'll give it to my brother after I upgrade. I just wan't to make sure he will also be able to upgrade later on, at least till 2GHz.

Well that settles the pocessor and OS. What about Soundcard/speakers and
DVD decoding. Anyone?