Thinking of Intel

panzerkwpanzerkw New York City
edited June 2003 in Hardware
Sorry to sound like a herectic, but here are my relevant current specs:

Epox 8RDA+
2100 XP @2205 MHz

This machine has served me well for a few months. I am going to upgrade to last me for the next 6-9 months.

I'm thinking of going for

Abit IC7 (don't need RAID) and a P4 2.6C 800FSB w/HT. With my SLK-800 supposedly these things reach 3.2 GHz pretty easily.

OR, I can wait a few months to see how those Prescotts are going to flesh out. I just want to make sure I don't have to end up having to buy a new motherboard when they are released.

Again this computer is used mostly for gaming, so I haven't yet considered building a Barton Dual CPU (which always piqued my interest before).

Current price combos and/or suggestions? Thanks.

Comments

  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited June 2003
    I just want you to know that there's nothing wrong with Intel at short-media. I mean, yeah we joke around about amd pwning intel and all that, but seriously, good hardware is good hardware, that's indisputable. So don't feel bad or embarrassed about buying an intel box. I have a Pentium M 1.3ghz laptop and I'm pretty sure it's just as fast as my XP 2000+. It folds as fast, anyway. The 1MB cache is amazing. Photoshop flies on this little beast.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited June 2003
    panzer, did you forget your meds again? :aol:

    Just keep calm and repeat after me:
    Intel bad. AMD good.
    Once again...
    Intel bad. AMD good.
    and again...
    Intel bad. AMD good.
    Intel bad. AMD good.

    ;D;D

    In all seriousness, I was looking at boards for JLunar's question (see her thread in this forum) and I happened across GigaByte's 875 Canterwood boards... all I can say is:

    :wow: :respect: why don't they make Athlon boards like that? :bawling:

    Their top-of-the-line GA-8KNXP Ultra has:
    6 DDR slots
    ATA-133 RAID
    4 SATA
    GBit Lan
    U320 SCSI
    6-phase power correction
    6-ch audio
    That thing is almost nice enough to make me buy a 3.0C and 6 512 sticks of DDR466... (but not quite, and I don't have the $$ right now anyhow)

    However, their base 875 board, the 8IK1100, has a lot of the good stuff w/o the BS:

    6 DDR
    4 SATA
    10/100 LAN
    6-ch audio

    and it's only $150 vs. $300-odd for the Ultra...

    Normally I'm not a fan of Gigabyte... I haven't had one, but I haven't heard much good stuff about them, so I dunno if it's a good board or not, but the 6 ddr slots are appealing in and of themselves... 3GB of DDR GOOOOOOD :D
  • Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
    edited June 2003
    Myself I'm waiting for the Epox 4PCA3+. SATA Raid, 4 Channel PATA raid controller (HPT 374), USB2.0 etc.

    You're right Geeky1, they should make Athlon mobos like these. I really don't know why the Epox 8RDA3+ doesn't have specs like these (or the Abit NF7-S v2)
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited June 2003
    but the epox only has 4 dimm slots, which means a realistic max. of only 2gb :(
  • panzerkwpanzerkw New York City
    edited June 2003
    My rig will be for gaming, I don't need 2 GB of RAM
  • Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
    edited June 2003
    Geeky1 said
    but the epox only has 4 dimm slots, which means a realistic max. of only 2gb :(

    When you need more than 2GB you've probably stepped out of the realm of PC and into the world of Workstation/Server.

    The upcoming Opteron (or Dual Athlon) mobos would probably suit you better.

    BTW according to the Epox 4PCA3+ product page it will support up to 4GB of PC3200 ECC Registered DDR

    ALSO According to the Gigabyte 8KNXP Ultra Product (Details) page, it too ONLY supports up to 4GB memory - and it doesn't specify as to whether yoy need ECC to reach that max or not. In practice you probably will need registered DDR to reach 4GB. (also a realistic max of 2GB)

    It is one hell of a board, very few Athlon mobos have SCSI support.
  • WuGgaRoOWuGgaRoO Not in the shower Icrontian
    edited June 2003
    man the gigabyte looks like a 1337 board...almost makes me wanna upgrade...but then i realize whats the point?? However, what is that green PCI looking thing in the upper right hand corner next to the parallel port
  • TekGamerTekGamer Earth
    edited June 2003
    For a modest priced board you cant go wrong with a IC7 from abit. Combine that with a 2.4,6,8,3.0 and moderate cooling and your looking with the 2.4 @ 3.0 easy. Granted quality ram will make a big difference but people are getting massive overclocks with these processors.

    Tek
  • TheBaronTheBaron Austin, TX
    edited June 2003
    i myself (once my check clears) am in the process of buying an IS7 (because the 865 seems to be faster, AND the is7, although the specs dont say it, is shipping with the 3com gigabit controller... thats the chip thats on there at least), a 2.8c, and some geil pc3200, we'll see how it all works out. but im thinking these things are gonna be fast as hell
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited June 2003
    wugaroo... that green looking pci thing is a slot for the extra power circuitry- it comes with a pc board that plugs in there that gives it 6-phase power correction
  • Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
    edited June 2003
    WuGgaRoO said
    man the gigabyte looks like a 1337 board...almost makes me wanna upgrade...but then i realize whats the point?? However, what is that green PCI looking thing in the upper right hand corner next to the parallel port

    From Anandtech's Gigabyte 8KNXP Ultra review page
    An interesting feature that Gigabyte has included on such motherboards as the 8INXP (E7205 chipset) and SINXP1394 (SiS 655 chipset) is Dual Power System 2 (DPS 2). This is a separate, add-in card that gives the 8KNXP 6-phase power circuitry instead of 3-phase. Gigabyte claims that, in Parallel mode (versus Backup mode), DPS 2 is able to deliver better system stability (especially while overclocked) in addition to longer onboard components life.
  • panzerkwpanzerkw New York City
    edited June 2003
    Alright, the Gigabyte looks good. My other main concern is that I won't have to go buy an entirely new board when the Prescott's come out.
  • Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
    edited June 2003
    panzerkw said
    Sorry to sound like a herectic, but here are my relevant current specs:

    Epox 8RDA+
    2100 XP @2205 MHz

    This machine has served me well for a few months. I am going to upgrade to last me for the next 6-9 months.
    .

    Panzerkw, I missed the Obvious suggestion.

    Grab a Barton 2500+ for $90, OC it to FSB400 2.2 or 2.3ghz and you'll have a 3200+/3300+ system. No mess, no fuss, an only $90 out of pocket.

    And Intel conversion would be MUCH more expensive.
  • TheLostSwedeTheLostSwede Trondheim, Norway Icrontian
    edited June 2003
    I have been seriously looking at that Epox Canterwood board for a while now. Vmem up to 3.2 and 14 ide possibilitys. One HPT 4 channel raid and 1 sata raid + the 2 standard ide connectors.
    Some room for space there!
  • Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
    edited June 2003
    I don't know why Epox didn't make an Athlon board like that.

    I'd buy one like that in an instant. The 8K9A3+ HPT 374 controller is the only reason I'm hanging on to a KT400 mobo.
  • panzerkwpanzerkw New York City
    edited June 2003
    I think for right now I'll get the best bang outta my buck by getting a Barton 2500 and overclocking. Thanks folks.
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