Best Socket T Motherboard?

[jcarle]

In my experience, the stock heatsink is just fine. However, if you're concerned about heat, you could always go for something like the CoolerMaster AquaGate R120. NeoSeeker's Review will give you a bit more overview on it.

[Technoguy]

@jcarle if ya got a prescott and northwood of same speed then why not go for the northwood.Overheating is a issue with Prescott.

[ringfinger]

jcarle, as far a dvd drive I was wondering if you could help me find a good one for a good price. I know you said you love that Pioneer but I'm really looking for a SATA DVD burner with Dual-Layer capabilities for DVD-R so I won't have to upgrade later. Just wondering if you knew of any good ones or could make some suggestions... or any one else.

This is what I currently have:

Asus P5WD2 Premium $215.50 Newegg

Intel Pentium 4 640 3.2 800MHz FSB LGA 775 EM64T $267.99 Newegg

Kingston KVR667D2N5/1G 1GB DDR2-667 PC2-5300 $167.00 ZipZoomFly

SATA Dual-Layer DVD +/- R/RW $?

ATI RADEON X300 SE 128 MB Freeeee

19" Samsung Sync Master 910t $300.00 Friend

Western Digital Raptor WD740GDRTL 74GB $188.89 Newegg

Antec PERFORMANCE TX640B Black $120.99 Newegg

Total: $1260.37

I guess all I'm lacking now is the DVD. I'm planning on upping the RAM to 2GB at some point down the road to be able to use the dual capabilities, and most likely the vid card too. The case seems a little high, but I guess it's about right for a quality case. What do you think about this case? Any more suggestions, cheaper places to buy, different components? Thanks.

Edited August 3, 2005 by ringfinger

[jcarle]

You've made some great choices for your parts. That will garantee you a powerful machine with a long life that you will really enjoy.

For your DVD+/-RW the only one I could recommend would be the Plextor PX-716SA. It's a great burner technically, but you HAVE to use good media such as Verbatim with it, or else you'll get bad burns. It's not as forgiving on low quality media as Pioneer is.

And in regard to the case, it looks great, but honestly, I reconize the manufacturing and the power supply manufacturing. Add to that the price and I can say only this. The case LOOKS great and will do just fine, you may be very happy with this case BUT if you DO get this case, then for your sake, CHANGE THE POWER SUPPLY. I can't stress that enough. I just would hate to see you build yourself such a nice machine only to have it blow up in your face (literally) due to a low quality power supply. And if you do get this case and you do buy a quality power supply such as an Enermax or an Antec, then after you remove the cheap one and before you put the nice one in, weight the two and you'll see what I'm talking about. The cheap one will weight nothing and the good one will weight a hefty amount.

[ringfinger]

Alright, thanks for the drive suggestion.... looks like a good one to me. And I think I will just go with the Antec and get the whole package on the first time. No sense in buying a case then paying for another PSU and shipping and all that jazz. Plus I like the 1394 in the front. Which brings me to something I was wondering. I notice on the board there are extra connections for USB, 1394, Game port and all that... the cables that are coming with the board itself... can I just run those to the front of the case and then the ports become active? I was wondering that looking around at all the cases, and that seems the only way. Thanks again jcarle!

[jcarle]

By the way, I was checking at prices and the hard drive is cheaper at ZipZoomFly, $175. The case is cheaper at Provantage at $81.02. And the DVD+/-RW is cheapest at mwave.com at 115.00.

The connections you're talking of, the ones on the front of the case, the cables are actually part of the case. Everything is pre-installed in the case and all you have to do is match the cables in the case to the connectors on the motherboard. When you get to that step, there are instructions that come with your motherboard in it's manual, and we can walk you through the specific details of actually pluging in your power/reset switch, power led, hard drive led, as well as your front USB, audio and firewire ports.

Edited August 4, 2005 by jcarle

[ringfinger]

Awesome! Thanks so much.

[jcarle]

Anytime.

[ringfinger]

Quick memory question. I was reading this review of the P5WD2 and they are talking about overclocking the memory. Using PC2-5400 Corsair@667MHz they were able to reach clock speeds of 1066! Think the kingston can do that or atleast achieve 800MHz and stay stable? And second, I know that the board comes with alot of new features that allow you to OC inside of windows itself. Yet they are in the BIOS... Looks like they are selecting DDR2-889?? Why are those not the normal frequencies and is this where I would go to safly OC the RAM in the BIOS? Thanks.

[jcarle]

Honestly, that's one of those "you have to try it" things. Overclocking varies part by part, even within the same company, even within the same model. Two identical parts can overclock differently. Personally, I don't really see the benefit of overclocking said the cost of the parts used. The primary reason why I choose Kingston is because their memory is always error free, stable and garanteed for life. Things for sure, anything is possible. Who knows how far you could overclock kingston memory?

[nomisuk]

Hi this is my first post on this forum and just wanted to say great suggestions for hardware you will get an excellent system out of the components you have chosen. My machine is overclocked and differs slightly from the spec you have suggested. I try to upgrade whenever i can or when i can afford it. At prsent i have recently bought a dual core 830 p4 3ghz and have recently after a bios upgrade to my motherboard (Abit AW8-Max) started to overclock it. I have been overclocking my system for years to try and get that bit extra out of it. Again as suggested earlier on this topic it really depends on what you get to be see if it can overclock. I have had p4 chips that do amazing overclocks and then others that dont. It all depends on the core type of the chip that you get and where it was manufactured. Usually the earlier ones from that core type are usually best and will overclock well. I hope your machine is a great success any problems with overclocking let me know

[ringfinger]

Thanks nomisuk. I got the LCD today!!! It's absolutely gorgeous and huge!! Going from a standard 13.1 on my laptop to this 19" is just INSANE. Can't wait to get it hooked up into my new machine once it's built and see this baby on digital. Even on analog it looks awesome! I'm most likey going to order the case tomorrow and possibly the RAM or WD76. Just an update. Later!

[ringfinger]

jcarle... What are you opinions on these two boards? The ASUS P5WD2 Premium ATX (the one we've been looking at since the beginning of the thread) and the ASUS P5AD2-E Premium ATX. Which one is better? It looks like on the P5AD2-E the wifi or radio is built in. Looks like 800MHZ RAM is native only to the P5WD2 and 533 on the P5AD2-E. Is the P5WD2 the best of the two?

Also, I was reading more on the specs for the P5WD2 and under the description for CPU support on the ASUS website it says "This motherboard supports the latest Pentium 4 CPU from Intel in LGA775 package. With 1066/ 800/ 533MHz FSB, 1MB L2 cache, Hyper-Threading..." does the part about the L2 Cache mean it only supports CPUs with only a 1MB L2?? B/C as you know I'm looking at the 3.2/3.4 w/ 2MB L2. TIA.

Edited August 8, 2005 by ringfinger

[jcarle]

The P5WD2 is definately the better of the two, even if you get it without WiFi built in. The P5AD2 uses the Intel 925X northbridge and the Intel ICH6R southbridge, whilst the P5WD2 uses the newer Intel 955X northbridge and the Intel ICH7R southbridge. Regarding the L2 cache, what they mean is that it ALSO supports 1MB cache as well. Both motherboards will support 2MB caches and the processors your are looking at. Do keep in mind though, at this moment, the Intel 955X, 945P and 945G are the only northbridges that support dual-core processors. Older chipsets will NEVER support dual-core processors (even with a BIOS update) and only those current chipsets or newer yet to be released chipsets will support dual-core processors. So choosing the P5WD2 over the P5AD2 will open up the option of one day installing a dual-core processor without changing your motherboard, whilst the choosing the P5AD2 will not give you that option.

[ringfinger]

I figured the P5WD2 was the best... thanks. I've got the LCD, vid card and am getting the case today. I suppose I'll go ahead and order the mobo next and then I may have to hold off on buying for a little while and let the cash flow replenish. I could probably handle little things though like fans and other accessories if you can think of anything.

Also, could you tell me what actually occurs when my RAM will be running in "Dual channel" mode. Once I have 2 1GB sticks in, obvisouly it will be quicker, but what actually occurs within the mobo itself when dual channel is activated?

Edited August 10, 2005 by ringfinger