Which Pentium?

[da_ging]

they dont outperform tho, they are pretty much on par overall

and p4's will beat a64's in video encoding etc of which he's says he does a lot of ,and while the a64 may beat the p4 in gaming you are not going to notice any difference in real life with the gaming side where as you will notice and be glad of the extra speed of the p4 with the video processing

[planetgong]

Ideally you want to run your memory at the same fsb speed as the cpu, ie 1:1. 250fsb is what most people seem to get with these on air, so you should be able to get a 2.8 up to 3.5 (mine is just short, 3.45, but rock solid) and a 3.0 might go above 3.6, but you'd maybe need water cooling to get 3.75. You'll want a decent HSF, like a Zalman 7000 AlCu or an Thermalright SP94 maybe.

To run the memory that fast you'll need either some good PC3700 that overclocks well (you'll need to hunt through some reviews - try cluboverclocker.com) or some PC4000 which is guaranteed to run at 250fsb. If you want low-latency memory then you will pay a heavy premium on LL PC4000 and anyway it'll be CAS2.5 - there is no CAS2.0 PC4000 (yet!) If you're on a budget I recommend Adata (I've got some too) - this place is the cheapest I've seen for memory:
http://www.pc-memory-upgrade.co.uk/m...ram-pc4000.asp

Motherboard-wise, Asus and Abit are generally the overclockers choice for P4 mobos. P4P800 or AI7 at the cheaper end (~£75?) or P4C800-E and the IC7 Max3 (~£130?). Or go for a DFI Lanparty if you want a UV reactive board!

Check out the "Trust" section for retailer reviews (on the menu on the Hexus front page). Overclockers.co.uk are cheap tho not everyone rates the customer service highly!
http://users.hexus.net/companies_list.php

This is a good article that got me fired up for a big P4C overclock... a little dated now but still a usefull read!
Breaking The Sound Barrier: the Pentium 4 With a 1-GHz FSB and DDR500
http://www20.tomshardware.com/mother...812/index.html


You might want to check this out too:
http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20040106/index.html

Hope that helps!

Thanks for the very informative reply! Do the motherboards you mention support the higher speed RAM you were talking about(DDR500)? Also, if getting RAM that speed, how much would people recommend? I currently have a gig(which I like), but if it is that much faster would 512mb be enough?

[blockers]

512mb would be enough, but 1gb is really a lot better. As it will have to load the same amount of data, with faster RAM the data just gets access quicker.

For video encoding 1gb would be considerably better than 512mb.

[planetgong]

512mb would be enough, but 1gb is really a lot better. As it will have to load the same amount of data, with faster RAM the data just gets access quicker.

For video encoding 1gb would be considerably better than 512mb.

Looks like 1 gig it is then! Is it worth getting the PC4000, or just some really good PC3700 that overclocks well?

[shredisn@tdead]

Top quality PC3700 could well be more expensive than regular PC4000 (esp as Adata is such good value for money). Also if you get PC4000 you at least know you'll be able to keep 1:1 operation up to a guaranteed 250fsb and so will get monster bandwidth.

BTW, if you want something to keep your box busy whilst its not editing video then run SETI on it + join Team Hexus! With the kind of box you're thinking of building you might even top 20 units a day! Take a look at the Distributed Computing area if interested ;-)

[planetgong]

Top quality PC3700 could well be more expensive than regular PC4000 (esp as Adata is such good value for money). Also if you get PC4000 you at least know you'll be able to keep 1:1 operation up to a guaranteed 250fsb and so will get monster bandwidth.

BTW, if you want something to keep your box busy whilst its not editing video then run SETI on it + join Team Hexus! With the kind of box you're thinking of building you might even top 20 units a day! Take a look at the Distributed Computing area if interested ;-)

I'll take a look mate, when I have it all set up!

[shredisn@tdead]

Excellent! Let us know how you get on... when are you planning to get the kit??

I'm tempted to get hammer my credit card again myself...

[planetgong]

Excellent! Let us know how you get on... when are you planning to get the kit??

I'm tempted to get hammer my credit card again myself...

Have sorted the chip and the motherboard, have got them second hand. £110 for the processor(apparently it has been running at 3.8ghz on a vapo, and 3.6ghz on a cheap hsf), and £105 for the motherboard(IC7 Max3).

Not got the RAM yet, so might be stuck with my PC3200 Kingston Hyper-X for a while!!

What do you reckon? Sound like ok deals?

[blockers]

Yeah that sounds like a bargin Bit of an arse with only pc3200.

Best brands:
Corsair - definatly
OCZ - definatly good
TwinMOS - not sure how good their fast RAM is e.g. pc3500 upwards
Adata - cost effective.

If i had teh money i would go for corsiar or OCZ

[planetgong]

Yeah, the Adata is cheap, only thing is they don't seem to do matched pairs, and I obviously want to run dual channel. Depends how much I can get for my current rig though! Any ideas how much I should ask for : Abit NF7(just the standard version), Athlon 2500XP with AQXEA stepping(has been running at 3200XP speeds with ease) and 1 gig PC3200 Kingston Hyper-X.

Also, as an aside, I need a new heatsink and fan, to enable me to clock my new P4 to hell! Any recommendations?

[shredisn@tdead]

You don't need to buy the Adata as a "kit" - I didn't - I just bought 2x256 sticks and they work perfectly dual channel. And that must've been 4+ months ago when they didn't have heatspreaders on them; now they come with red ones that look great.

The Zalman 7000 AlCu is very popular plus the retail version comes with a voltage regulator so you can keep it quiet too. I've got the all copper variety 7000Cu but apparently the AlCu is just as good and a little cheaper.

http://www.frostytech.com is a good place to check out HSF performance as they have good "league tables".

[planetgong]

Hmmm, just been looking on Overclockers. Not sure which one to go for. Might go for the Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu Ultra-Quiet CPU Cooler. May as well get the best if I am building a new system I guess!

[planetgong]

Right! Just ordered by cooler and RAM, so now all I have to do is sit back and wait!!

I'm really looking forward to building this baby!

[shredisn@tdead]

Damn you're too quick!

extremecooling.co.uk have the AlCu for only £22.32 + FREE P&P! Says OEM version which I guess means it just doesn't come in the pretty packaging but s'pose you'd still get all the parts:
http://www.planetprices.co.uk/hardwa...tra-Quiet.html

Cheapest all copper is £2.50 less at easyetrader so would probably come down to P&P charges...
http://www.planetprices.co.uk/hardwa...tra-Quiet.html

[planetgong]

It's ok, have cancelled that order. Don't really like ordering from overclockers, the packaging always seems a bit dodgy. Off to extremecooling.co.uk I go!

[shredisn@tdead]

Polly best to call them and ask what exactly OEM means and if u still get the "fanmate" to control the voltage...