P4 "Work" System

Hi,

I'm making a cheap budget Pentium 4 Minimum Gaming-Work PC. Here are the specs.
ANTEC Beige Performance II Mini Tower Case 300W $81.00
Lite On 52X32X52 CD-RW √
Lite On 4X DVD -/+ RW 451S √
80GB 7200RPM IDE 8MB $60.00
Microsoft Natural Multimedia Keyboard PS2/USB
Nanya Technologies 512 DDR PC2700 √
Philips 107E51 17" CRT $127.00
Albatron "PX865PE PRO" i865PE $68.00
Microsoft Intelli Optical PS2/USB √
Intel Pentium 4 2.4C GHz 800 FSB Hyper Threading Technology $167.00
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 $28.00
Logitech √
ATI Radeon 8500 128MB DDR √

The games I'll be playing will be CS, UT2K4, W3, etc.
I'll be designing websites, listening to music, everything else. Should i get cheaper version of p4? I really need HT though. Not planning to OC, yet.

you want cheap? and you want to game?

id say AMD all the way

a 2600 mobile will match that 2.4c stock at a much lower cost and probally have an edge in gaming....and they are great ocers when u decide to take that route

Yeah, get something like a 2600+ mobile. With the money you saved, get a 9800 pro.

Definately.

An Abit NF7-S, AXP Mobile 2400 or 2600, 512 MB Corsair XMS3200 & Radeon 9800 Pro would offer more than comperable performance to that P4 system at a cheaper price.

Screw the Live 5.1 and use the onboard SoundStorm audio on the NF7-S.

I know personally people who have overclocked that 2,4GHz CPU up to +3GHz (best 3342MHz with default voltages and air cooling). I can say this "little boy" is monster when it comes to overclocking. But since you're not going to OC this, I don't recommend anything

SimGuy said:

Definately.

An Abit NF7-S, AXP Mobile 2400 or 2600, 512 MB Corsair XMS3200 & Radeon 9800 Pro would offer more than comperable performance to that P4 system at a cheaper price.

Screw the Live 5.1 and use the onboard SoundStorm audio on the NF7-S.

Click to expand...

Ok. I have an idea. I will get the 2.8C/E( which ? north wood or prescott?) and OC to 3.2 or 3.4

AmThx said:

Ok. I have an idea. I will get the 2.8C/E( which ? north wood or prescott?) and OC to 3.2 or 3.4

Click to expand...

With that craptastic PC2700 memory, you'll just be scraping by 3.4 GHz at a 3:2 memory divisor (if you can even get that far on an overclock).

If you plan on using stock cooling with that Prescott, good luck hitting 3.4 GHz without melting the thing down.

If you are going to overclock and want to stick with the Intel system, get the 2.8C (Northwood, 800 FSB), and 2x 256 MB's of DDR400 (2 matching modules). Running that P4 system in single-channel memory mode (as you have it configured now) is going to severely impact performance in every task you do.

However, I still stand by my original recommendation: See Here

//Edit: Remember: Overclocking isn't guaranteed. My P4 2.4C wouldn't hit 3.00 GHz when everyone else was hitting 3.0 - 3.5 on theirs. Your Mileage May Vary though.

Ill get an Asus motherboard and I'll start out with cheap ****. Then I'll keep upgrading. (selling ram and getting dual channel 512 (256x2s). I won't overclock until i have the hardware to do so. I'm going to buy an AMD 64 2800+ Gaming Rig that will cost 1.4k later and this AMD will be... useless. I just think it woul dbe better to have 2 computers with different processors. I will also upgrade the video card maybe to 9600 pro. I will make it all white. I don't want to do dual monitors either. I can see where you're going with the abit / amd 2500 / etc. build i had that option before but you know for some reason i want intel AND amd!!! So first i think i pretty much made up my mind..At first It will start as a minimum work PC and will eventually be upgraded to an high performance intel machine that will be used for work // gaming // video editing / converting. I will buy a powerful motherboard firstly so I can upgrade without having to switch it.

ANTEC Beige Performance II Mini Tower Case 300W
Lite On 52X32X52 CD-RW
Lite On 4X DVD -/+ RW 451S
80GB 7200RPM IDE 8MB
Microsoft Natural Multimedia Keyboard PS2/USB
Nanya Technologies 512 DDR PC2700 (Will later upgrade to 256x2 PC3200 dual channel)
Philips 107E51 17" CRT
ASUS "P4P800 SE" i865PE
Microsoft Intelli Optical PS2/USB
Intel Pentium 4 2.8C GHz 800 FSB Hyper Threading Technology (Might OC after Upgrades)
Labtec Spin 45 2.0 Speakers Beige (Will upgrade also)
ATI Radeon 8500 128MB DDR (Will upgrade to 9600 XT // PRO )

If I Overclock after I get 9600 XT / dual channel pc3200 ram i will add more cooling fans and a different heatsink. thanks for the advice though but I like having INTEL + AMD ;p.

Fair enough. I know I enjoy owning both Intel & AMD systems.

One other little word of advice though: splurge for the 512 MB DDR PC3200 now (even if it's single channel). The P4C CPU's work on an 800 MHz FSB and require DDR400 memory to even operate at stock speeds. It's $76.00 USD @ NewEgg.com versus $75.00 USD for the cheaper PC2700.

That way, you can sell the module later and get a dual-channel kit, or keep the 512 MB module and add another later on for 1024 MB in dual-channel mode while still being able to operate at stock speed now without having to sacrifice memory bandwidth (or use memory divisors).

ok. i will sell my pc2700 and get 3200. then ill get dual channel