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So the PC I finally decided on was...

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G

goodcow

Member
... a P4 3.0C Northwood core, with an Abit motherboard. (i875P)

Along with it, I snagged a nice 74GB Raptor drive, so I can use that as Drive C, and I'll then move my 120GB IDE to D, my 30GB IDE to E, and continue using my 200GB firewire and 80GB USB2 as F and G respectively.

Now I just need to buy a gig of RAM, and potentially a new case.

This upgrade seemed costlier than my last, though admittedly last time I just upgraded only the processor and motherboard.

I really don't even want to think about spending money on a good videocard now though... would this machine run Doom III fine even if I have a piece of crap GeForce 4 MX 440?
 
T

teh_pwn

"Saturated fat causes heart disease as much as Brawndo is what plants crave."
I don't think it will run at all. Not sure, but I think the Geforce 4 MX is a the Geforce 2 in disguise.

Good news is that 9800 Pros are dropping in price fairly quickly. They should be $150 by the end of the year. Right now they run at $195 3rd party, and $220 for built by Ati.

Which Abit mobo did you get? Some of them overclock nicely, but you've got to be selective about your RAM. The IC7 Max III has a problem with voltage on RAM. Can't go above 2.8 Volts without modding.

I've got this stuff and it works great:

Welp, newegg is down so I can't give you a link.

But I've got OCZ PC4000 Gold 1 GB Dual Channel Kit. $297, works great at 2.8 Volts.

Don't blow $350 for Corsair XMS with low timings. You'll get infinitely more performance from higher bandwidth and OCing than lower latency.
 
G

goodcow

Member
I don't think it will run at all. Not sure, but I think the Geforce 4 MX is a the Geforce 2 in disguise.
Click to expand...

Fuck. :( The "demo" ran though... just really shitty...

Which Abit mobo did you get?
Click to expand...

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-127-152&depa=0
ABIT "IC7-G MAXII ADVANCE" i875P Chipset Motherboard for Intel Socket 478 CPU -RETAIL

Model# IC7-G MAXII
Item # N82E16813127152

Specifications:
Supported CPU: Intel Pentium 4 (Prescott and Northwood) Processors
Chipset: Intel 875P + ICH5R
FSB: 800/533MHz
RAM: 4x DIMM support Dual-Channel DDR400 Max 4GB(ECC)
IDE: 2x ATA 100 up to 4 Devices
Slots: 1x AGP Pro 8X/4X(0.8/1.5V), 5x PCI
Ports: 2xPS/2,1xLPT,1xCOM,SPDIF In/Out,3xIEEE1394a(Rear 1),8xUSB2.0(Rear 4),1xLAN,Audio Ports
Onboard Audio: 6-Channel AC97 Codec
Onboard LAN: Intel PRO/1000 Gigabit Ethernet
Onboard SATA/RAID: 4x Serial ATA, RAID 0/1
Onboard 1394: 3 Ports
Form Factor: ATX


Can you suggest specific RAM for me to buy? I'd really rather not pay $300 though... I was hoping more like $200...
 
M

Mrbob

Member
You really should grab a new video card.

That Geforce 4 is really going to hold you back. Anything less than a 9800PRO is going to hinder your setup you are creating.

Have you thought about going with a 7200RPM/8MB Cach Hdd instead of the Raptor? I know you seem to be set on it but you could grab a 7200 RPM/8MB Cache 120 gig Seagate HDD for 95 bucks. You could use that extra money towards a video card upgrade.
 
G

goodcow

Member
I already have a WD 120GB 8MB cache drive.

I think the main reason I want the Raptor is for the five-year warranty, and feeling that it'll be rock-solid stable all the time.
 
P

Poody

What program do you use to photoshop a picture?
goodcow said:
... a P4 3.0C Northwood core, with an Abit motherboard. (i875P)

Along with it, I snagged a nice 74GB Raptor drive, so I can use that as Drive C, and I'll then move my 120GB IDE to D, my 30GB IDE to E, and continue using my 200GB firewire and 80GB USB2 as F and G respectively.

Now I just need to buy a gig of RAM, and potentially a new case.

This upgrade seemed costlier than my last, though admittedly last time I just upgraded only the processor and motherboard.

I really don't even want to think about spending money on a good videocard now though... would this machine run Doom III fine even if I have a piece of crap GeForce 4 MX 440?
Click to expand...


hahah you better decide again. INtel sucks! Go with athlon 64 fx or the opteron and run windows xp 64bit that was released months ago for free.
 
G

goodcow

Member
Poody said:
hahah you better decide again. INtel sucks! Go with athlon 64 fx or the opteron and run windows xp 64bit that was released months ago for free.
Click to expand...

Yeah, because the Anandtech benchmark showing the Northwood 3000 pulling ahead of the Athlon64 3000+ by 20% in DivX encoding really means Intel sucks...

Besides which, I'm not getting this system for gaming. It's primarily going to be for video editing, and encoding, which is where HT shines.
 
H

Hitman

Edmonton's milkshake attracts no boys.
Oh yeh... But I heard OCing a 3.0C took alot mroe work and the results are'nt as drastic especially with just stock cooling for the 2.4C. But yeh 3.0 to 3.7 would be better if thats what you plan to do. If you were gonna settle for 3.0 speeds then the 2.4 would be the way to go.
 
P

Poody

What program do you use to photoshop a picture?
:rolleyes

2365.png



2363.png



2364.png



And this wasn't even running XP 64bits!
 
G

goodcow

Member
Okay, your first image shows my Northwood beating your equivalent Athlon64, and I don't know how the second image is relevant.
 
P

Poody

What program do you use to photoshop a picture?
I wasn't clear in my first post but i was talking about the FX chips. esp the 939s which has gone down on price and continue to.
 
D

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Yeah, quit with the AMD shit...

Quite frankly, they've still got a lot to prove. EVERYTIME I've trusted AMD (based on benchmarks, reviews, and fan talk) I got burned. They have yet to live up to the hype in real world usage...

Cow, the videocard is far more important for gaming than the CPU. A P4-1.6 with a 9800 Pro will blow the doors off of your 3.0c + GF4mx. Doom 3 will run, but it will be missing A LOT of visual effects and run very slowly. A dirt cheap 9600 Pro card will pull you light years ahead of that awful MX card...
 
G

goodcow

Member
Oh I know the MX is shit, I just wondered if it would RUN. (and at least decently with the P4 3.0C and gig of RAM)

Would a 9600 run Doom 3 well with the rest of my system? I really just don't want to spend $200 or more on a videocard after spending nearly $800 for this. (even if the Raptor really wasn't necessary)
 
D

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
A cheap 9600 Pro (or XT) would do wonders for your system. Sure, you could do better...but if you don't want to throw around anymore cash, the card will allow Doom 3 to run quite well.
 
G

goodcow

Member
dark10x said:
A cheap 9600 Pro (or XT) would do wonders for your system. Sure, you could do better...but if you don't want to throw around anymore cash, the card will allow Doom 3 to run quite well.
Click to expand...

The prices are ranging widly from about $70 to $200 or so on NewEgg... Any specific recommendation? Preferably towards the $70 range? :p
 
D

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
...or, you could just try this...

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-348&depa=0

It's a 9800se. It only has 4 of the 8 pipelines open, however, so it obviously won't match a Pro. However, there is a way to "soft-overclock" these cards through flashing the BIOS, I believe. Will it work? Who knows, but even if you get stuck with just an SE...it will be able to handle Doom 3 very well.

It goes for $131, though.
 
W

WHOAguitarninja

Member
Yes, the GF4mx WILL run doom 3. That much was specifically stated in the PCGamer review. It obviously won't be as good as better cards, but it absolutely WILL run the game.
 
D

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
morbidaza said:
Yes, the GF4mx WILL run doom 3. That much was specifically stated in the PCGamer review. It obviously won't be as good as better cards, but it absolutely WILL run the game.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but he spent $800 on PC hardware. Playing Doom 3 with a lot of missing graphical effects and a totally shit framerate is not the way to go.
 
T

teh_pwn

"Saturated fat causes heart disease as much as Brawndo is what plants crave."
LOL, that guy is trying to say that the AMD fX53 Socket 939 is better. Well no shit. You're comparing the $200 P4 3.0 C to a $900 AMD FX53 Socket 939.

If you're going with video editing, intel's the way to go definitely. Even Intel's old processors beat AMD's newest stuff at video editing.



"Oh yeh... But I heard OCing a 3.0C took alot mroe work and the results are'nt as drastic especially with just stock cooling for the 2.4C. But yeh 3.0 to 3.7 would be better if thats what you plan to do. If you were gonna settle for 3.0 speeds then the 2.4 would be the way to go."

It's very doable. I've got very similar hardware and I've gotten to 3.5 GHz no problems. I would go to 3.75 (i've done it before) but there's no need right now. That would also require boosting the core voltage, and that would decrease CPU lifetime.

Abit's max series OC so easy.


goodcow, go to these forums, and they'll hook you up with OCing. Your likely to find come across this guide from them anyway, but it doesn't hurt to sign up for those forums and ask questions. Or at the very least, see what RAM people got with your mobo.

http://forum.abit-usa.com/

http://www.jscustomcomputers.com/overclocking.htm
 
C

ChrisReid

Member
goodcow said:
Oh I know the MX is shit, I just wondered if it would RUN. (and at least decently with the P4 3.0C and gig of RAM)
Click to expand...

The Geforce 3 is the minimum on the box.. and the 4 mx is worse than the 3. There's no ambiguity there, the 4 mx was never meant to be anywhere as good as the 3. It was a budget card that came out at the same time as the real geforce 4s.
 
T

teh_pwn

"Saturated fat causes heart disease as much as Brawndo is what plants crave."
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