My possible ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe i875P Upgrade!

[Ace]

Hey ppl,

Really nice place I found here :D I mean, ALOT of interesting answers to questions I've had for some while (and this forum seems to be just about ASUS P4C800..., which is good in my case) However, need to persionalize abit for some questions, Thing is as follows:

Wanna upgrade my fully working and beloved 1ghz PC. Now all I have to buy is a new mobo, RAM and CPU (and a PSU).

Since,
1. I got "alot" of hds + cd and burner, which is IDE I needed something that had IDE RAID :) And buying a SATA -> PATA is abit expensive...
2. 875 is, according to some friend of mine that really seems like he knows what he is talking about, the best! (a 865 is just a 875 that is "overclocked" according to him, and not much of a benefit) And with later BIOS updates he said the 875 will be atleast as fast as the 865. ( http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=1831&p=25 )
3. And I wanna have 800Mhz on the buss. :cool:

So, it seems that its gonna be AUS P4C800-E Deluxe :D (although its rather expensive)

Now for some questions (although I wouldnt mind comments on the above aswell).


1. Shoosing RAM is the hardest part for me. Alot to shoose from and not sure what to pick. On the site where I plan of order they currently have the following interesting ones:

* Corsair CMX256A-3200LL XMS3200 Low Latency 256Mb DDR PC3200 CAS2 400MHz with Heatsink (AMD OK) $94
Maybe this * 2, but I think its too low amount. Gonna be a "waste" of RAM slots..?

* Corsair CMX512A-3500C2 XMS3500 512Mb DDR PC3500 CAS2 434MHz with Heatsink (AMD OK) $199
434Mhz? How does that work on a 400?
PC3500.. Just for OC?

* Kingston KHX3500/512 HyperX 512Mb DDR PC3500 184pin 433MHz (AMD OK) $167
Rather nice, but * 2 gonna be too expensive.

* Standard 512Mb PC3200/DDR400 DDR 184pin 400MHz (AMD OK) (CAS latency 2.5) $89
Nice price, but maybe to risky? Mabye I should go with a known brand to make sure it works ok?

* TwinMOS Original 512Mb DDR-DIMM PC3200/DDR400 184pin 400MHz CAS2.5 (AMD OK) $94
Seems quite OK actually. Maybe not for OC though..? Probably gonna go * 2 on this one if I pick this.

* TwinMOS Original 512Mb DDR-DIMM PC3700/DDR466 184pin 466MHz CAS2.5 (AMD OK) $141
Maybe abit overkill? And still, how does that 466 go into 400? Its just limited to 400 so it
it works fine...?


1a. 2 256 better than 1 512? (something about the mobo going to double something, when 2 slots are used (of the same color)??)

1b. Do I really need heatsink?

1c. 1Gb RAM a "must" these days?



2. CPU isnt gonna be too hard and I dont really have any question, although Im gonna mention
some here for comments.

* Intel Pentium 4 Northwood 2.4GHz -C Hyperthreading 512Kb 800MHz Boxed (with cpu-cooler!) Socket 478 $189
or
* Intel Pentium 4 Northwood 2.6GHz -C Hyperthreading 512Kb 800MHz Boxed (with cpu-cooler!) Socket 478 $229
The 2.4 seems better pricewise.


Please help me lay this puzzle! :D

Thanks, and hope this will give me more answers than questions! :D
Ace

[dbwillis]

Youll need to usse 2 sticks of ram to get he benefit of dual cahnnel from the 875 chipset.

You might, but not gaurenteed to get agood overclock from the 2.4B...but maybe a better OC from the 2.26...but its a guess

[Duvie]

1a) You are getting a i875 mobo which is a dual channel DDR mobo...You don't want anything less then 2 sticks or combination of pairs to take advantage of the dual channel. Single channel and you might as well buy an i845pe chipset and sayve a butt load of money....

1b) Heatspreaders are pretty common on all ram above pc3200 these days....Some of it is a marketing ploy.

1c)1GB is not a must unless you run video editing intensive apps. I say buy what you can afford. If you can afford 2 sticks of 512mb then get it. Otherwise get 2 sticks of 256 now and get 2 more sticks later as the board should have at least 4 dimm slots...For a majority of users 1gb is plain overkill even on ram hungry winxp...

2) the 2.4c is a better price, or cheaper that is....12.7mhz/$ whereas the 2.6c is 11.4mhz/$....maybe be neglible...



Are you going to OC any???

If so...

1) get an aftermarket cooler....
2)You should look at minimum 430 watt PSU with at least 20amps on the 12v rail...Antec and Enermax are good....

[Ace]

Ok, most likely Im not gonna OC. So, it comes to this:

* Corsair CMX256A-3200LL XMS3200 Low Latency 256Mb DDR PC3200 CAS2 400MHz with Heatsink (AMD OK) $94

This * 2.


* Standard 512Mb PC3200/DDR400 DDR 184pin 400MHz (AMD OK) (CAS latency 2.5) $89


* TwinMOS Original 512Mb DDR-DIMM PC3200/DDR400 184pin 400MHz CAS2.5 (AMD OK) $94

The most likely one I pick, since here I get some brand, double compared to the first one and for the same price. (but without heatsink)


So, is TwinMOS something good? Since its rather "cheap" it seems like a bad choice... Also, works nice with the mobo?

Edit: Wait a minute. Some rams are considered double, even if they only take one slot? (doublesided)

Edit2: Hmm, when I think about it. 2 of that TwinMOS IS rather overkill. Dont _really_ need 1gig of RAM I think. That means I think I pick Corsair (the first one mentioned here), since that I know is some nice brand + it got heatsink!

[Ace]

Hmm, some other thing.. About the PSU... What do you here think should be minimum Watts (if I shoose NOT to OC that is)?

[Duvie]

Originally posted by Ace
Hmm, some other thing.. About the PSU... What do you here think should be minimum Watts (if I shoose NOT to OC that is)?

minimum 430 watts....I have 430 watts and I pretty sure if I shoot for 3.6ghz I may need the 480watts and that is based on how my 12v holds up with my high oc now..Now boards can vary but I have seen on 2 boards that this 430watts may be near its limit now....

[sierra_bound]

Originally posted by Ace
Hmm, some other thing.. About the PSU... What do you here think should be minimum Watts (if I shoose NOT to OC that is)?
Total wattage is not the most important thing. Alot of PSU makers use peak wattage ratings to make their power supplies look better than they really are. In most instances, you will never see peak power. What's more important is the ability of your PSU to maintain constant voltage. Under peak loads, the voltage should vary by no more than five percent. Also, some PSU makers like PC Power & Cooling and Fortron use conservative wattage ratings based on sustainable power. A Fortron 350W, for example, can actually deliver power of up to 450W.