IT hardware help?

[airhead]

can someone explain the profusion of P4 chip sockets to me?

and if I was buying a new motherboard & chip, which socket would I want - and why?

edit:
Super 7, 470, 775, 478, 423

See P4 chips all with different slots. Motherboards too. Since I am starting from scratch, which is the best slot. and why? Obviously the chip and mother board have to have the same socket.

 

[Mosch]

Actually I don\'t get the question.... the CPUs use different sockets depending on the manufacturer. A CPU will usually only fit in one specific socket.

 

[fire-dragon-studios]

i\'m not an expert on P4s as I\'m an athlon man myself, basically cpus need certain sockets, so your P4 will need a P4 compatable system board/mother board,

are you intending to build the computer yourself and if so what experience do you have?

 

[DragonPaint]

Originally posted by airhead
can someone explain the profusion of P4 chip sockets to me?

Actually you dont\' have many choices... P4 CPU actually uses only one socket: 775
All other sockets type are old and you cannot find anymore new CPU for them.

On the other side you can have multiple choices for the CPU, the graphic card and the memories.

CPU: actually you can find 2 series of Pentium 4 cpu, Pentium 6xx and Pentium 5xx.
Make sure to select a series 6xx CPU because they have 2MB of internal cache and the support for some 64bit features.
Series 5xx cpu have only 1MB of internal cache (slower performances) and only few of them support 64bit features.
http://developer.intel.com/products/processor/pentium4/index.htm

Probably the best processor for price/performance is the Pentium 640 3.2Ghz priced around 220$

Graphic card: actually you can find around motherboards with 2 different graphic card sockets: AGP and PCI-Express.
Not many differences in performance now but the PCI-Express is newer and can reach better performances in future.

Memories: also here you can find two standards, DDR and DDR2
Actually bot of them have the same prices so try to find a motherboard that supports DDR2 memories because they runs at 533 or 800Mhz against the 400Mhz of the older DDR.
Oh.. you need to buy 2 DDR2 to mount them correctly so go for 2 x 512Mb modules.

Probably the best motherboard with these characteristics is the Epox 5LWA+, if you want to save some money check the ASUS P5LD2.

Just one advice.. the P4 CPU is really hot and the Intel Heat sink is really noisy, consider to buy something better like the Thermaltake Silent 775 or the Arctic Cooling Super Silent 4 Ultra TC

Hope this helps

 

[Trevor]

Socket 775 is the latest. What do you want the PC for? I find for many tasks new PCs are overkill (typing this from a P3 733mhz!).

I just built a new system very cheaply using a AMD sempron (even has 64 bit support now, not that I\'ll use it in the forseeable future). I simply couldn\'y justify the extra cost of intel.

Generally if you just want a PC that works and don\'t need anything fancy, get a Dell.

Soemthign else to bear in mind is that P4 is at the end of its life, next year sees the next intel chip family.

 

[supervike]

hey hey hey...

Originally posted by Trevor


Generally if you just want a PC that works and don\'t need anything fancy, get a Dell.

I\'ve got a Dell, and it does plenty of fancy stuff!

 

[Evil Dave]

Ack, go AMD 939.
The good thing about AMD is they try to keep the footprint the same on their newer chips so you don\'t have to get a new motherboard everytime some new technology comes out.
ie. the AMD dual core 939 processor.
Other pro\'s they\'re cheaper than intel, and they fixed the heat problem that the AMD XP\'s were having.

My comp:
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum/ SLI
Geforce 6600GT PCI-express
KWORLD PCI Interface TV Tuner, Video Capture Card
OZC modsteam 450W power supply
AMD 64 3200+ Winchester
2G CORSAIR XMS2 DDR2 SDRAM PC 3200
2 80G Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM SATA150 Harddrives (RAID 0 config)
120G Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM SATA150 Harddrive
Lite-on DVD/RW
All packaged in a nice CoolerMaster aluminum Praetorian case.
Cost Around $1500, but much, much cheaper than a compareable Dell, or Alienware.

 

[DragonPaint]

I agree with Trevor and Evil Dave, if you dont need a P4 for some special requirement (video editing, 3d animation) look at AMD.
Sempron (socket 754) if you want to save some money and you dont need too much power or AMD 64 socket 939 if you need some moe power for your games.
AMD processors costs less and you dont have to fight with heat issues.

 

[Evil Dave]

Also, the best bang for your buck is at http://www.newegg.com/
Excellent, speedy service with customer reviews on almost everything, while you might be able to get some individual parts cheaper elsewhere the shipping will kill you.

 

[Mr.S.Marbo]

What processor you buy will dictate what socket you need on the motherboard you buy. If its a new P4 you need a motherboard with a 775 socket. Nothing else will work with a new P4.

Do you need a Pentium processor for anything in particular? AMD have got some nice 64-bit chips that I am sure are much better value that pentium. 64-bit chips are ready for 64-bit software that will be coming out in the future. For future-proof power that I think is value for money go for a 64-bit AMD Athlon Socket 939 chip with PCI-Express on the board and SATA 2. 64-bit software is coming and PCI-Express seems to be coming as well, SATA 2 is the latest / newest \"standard\" for hard drives.

If you want something cheaper AMD Sempron (Socket 754) is cheap and good value. Dunno much about Pentium stuff sorry.