Info for a Newbie...

[Justa]

Hi all, My first post here. I read the review of the P4C800-E Deluxe by Asus, and I was very impressed. Then I read the forums on it as well.. but to my dismay, it's all very technical. But you all seem to have a lot of knowledge, so perhaps you could answer my very basic question.

I have an Old VH6-II motherboard with a celeron 1ghz processor.. and its time to upgrade.. Now, I play a lot of games.. so a few weeks ago i bought a 9600 pro Radeon.. but my board just cant make use of it really.. and with everquest 2 and Final fantasy XI due out soon, I want to buy a board that can make use of my new (and expensive) Radeon, and handle those 2 games.

Could you tell me if a P4C800-E Deluxe, with an intel p4 2.4 ghz processor with 800 fsb on it, My Radeon, and 1 gig of ram could handle those games? Will I notice a big difference in performance.. I wouldnt have the first clue how to overclock it.. so its probably going to stay basic.

I sent a letter to Hawk, but he's so busy I doubt he could reply to all his mail, so, if anyone has an opinion, it would be appreciated.


Justa

[Jim]

Originally posted by Justa

Could you tell me if a P4C800-E Deluxe, with an intel p4 2.4 ghz processor with 800 fsb on it, My Radeon, and 1 gig of ram could handle those games? Will I notice a big difference in performance.. I wouldnt have the first clue how to overclock it.. so its probably going to stay basic.


Justa

That sounds like a great system. What type of ram did you have in mind? :)

[Justa]

I really dont know... any suggestions?

[Mikki]

Justa, welcome to BE! :wave: Hope you enjoy your stay....;):)

Check out the Memory room, you can see quite a few success stories with a variety of different memory...;)

[northsider]

I'd recommend you go for something along the lines of OCZ DDR Gold PC4000 Dual Channel That should keep you happy for the forseeable future. ;)

Oh - meant to say, you should be playing your games without any problems for quite a long time.

[Justa]

I'd recommend you go for something along the lines of OCZ DDR Gold PC4000 Dual Channel That should keep you happy for the forseeable future.


Now If I could find a store who sells that i'd be happy, sounds complicated lol

Justa
:D

[Fossil]

Alot of Canadian computer stores sell OCZ ram. If you would like a store that specializes in ram only, then here you go. www.ramstore.ca If you have any questions about the ram on that site, contact John and he will happy to help you out.

[Justa]

Fossil, do you know any canadian stores online i could order the motherboard from?

[Fossil]

I could post 20 Canadian sites or you look here for the best pricings. www.pricenetwork.ca . Read the fine print as most of the time the prices are listed as 3% cash discounted so they appear as the cheapest. Personally, I perfer to walk in to a store and used the forgotten art of "Haggling" to achieve the best price.

[Thor]

Originally posted by Justa
I'd recommend you go for something along the lines of OCZ DDR Gold PC4000 Dual Channel That should keep you happy for the forseeable future.


Now If I could find a store who sells that i'd be happy, sounds complicated lol

Justa
:D

Here is a store where I frequently purchase things online that I cannot buy locally.

http://www.bigfootcomputers.com.

The are based out of downtown Toronto, and their service/shipping is nothing short of outstanding. But you do pay a little bit of a premium with these guys as they usually have most things in stock, unlike some online stores. If you are in TO, just give them a visit as well.

The setup recommedations aforementioned will pretty much give you a great gaming setup. And if you're lucky, your 2.4 may overclock to atleast 3.0 easily.

Good luck and welcome to BEForums!

[Hawk]

Justa,I dropped you a PM. . . . ;)

[Justa]

You guys are so helpful! Thank you for all your help, now i have to find a reliable canadian store. And i'll start putting it together. :)
:wave:

[Justa]

Well Just a little update. I got my 2.4 processor, and my p4c800-e is on order, should be here next thursday!

My I do have another question tho.. what voltage power supply is a good one for this particular board.. and does the ram speed make a big difference in games?

Justa


:-)

[Schneider]

Well all PSU have the same voltages just different wattages :)
I'd say the smallest PSU most people would run now is 420W, and i think that would be enough for most systems.

The RAM speed does make a difference in some(all??) games, but normally its just as much affected by Latencies :p

[madwelshboy]

Sorry Schneider I have to dis-agree, this maybe true for AMD based systems but with the new Intel P4C based systems, raw speed takes presidence over latencies.
Just as an example I have Geil DDR500, I tried it @ 440mhz & 2,3,3,7 latencies, I then tried it @ 450mhz & 2.5,4,4,7 (stock) latencies and it won hands down @ 450mhz. I think its to do with Intels architecture and their dependence on high speeds (800fsb etc).
I have an Abit mboard atm and runs sweeet (see my sig), I would recommend Geil DDR500 mem any day, pound for pound (or dollar for dollar) they are good dimms, they can run very stably @ stock (DDR500 @ 2.5,4,4,7) and can even overclock to DDR520 @ 2.5,3,3,7 without ANY prime95 or memtest86 errors (on my system atleast:-) )
But you would have to use a 4:5 divider for that (I think the P4C has that choice in the bios?), if it doesn't Id recomend some low latency PC3500 like OCZ or Corsair, you can then run your system @ 1:1 (like me).
Hope this helps.