Which is better..

[FetusCakeMix]

Building a new machine soon. And I'm not 100% positive what the "3.2C ghz" and "3.2E ghz" means. I know they have different cores, but, which is the better of the two? Pros and Cons?

Thanks in advance guys.

 

[twajetmech]

It would depend on the mobo you have the "C" is a P4 Northwood and the "E" is a Prescott, list your system and it'll be easier to recomend one
twajetmech

 

[FetusCakeMix]

Case - Thermaltake Black Highest Xaser III Super Tower without Power Supply, Model "V1000A" -RETAIL

Motherboard - Intel "D865GBFLK" i865G Chipset Motherboard for Intel Socket 478 CPU -RETAIL

CPU - Intel Pentium 4/ 3.2E GHz 800MHz FSB, 1MB L2 Cache, Hyper Threading Technology - OEM

RAM - Geil Value Series 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200 (2gb)

Power Supply - Thermaltake Silent Purepower 480W with Black housing - Purepower
Butterfly ATX 2-Fan Power Supply, Model "W0021" -RETAIL

Sound Card - Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum PCI Sound Card, Model "SB0350" -RETAIL

Video Card - MSI ATI RADEON X800 PRO Video Card, 256MB GDDR3, 256-Bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model "RX800PRO-TD256" -RETAIL

Hard drives - Seagate 200GB 7200RPM Barracuda 7200.7 SATA Hard Drive, Model ST3200822AS, OEM Drive Only (400gb)

 

[twajetmech]

...if that is your proposed system then I would reccomend the Northwood processor, over the Prescott. That way heat will not be an issue, OC'ing will be good, power will not be a problem and you'll not have to worry about the prescott underclocking to 2.8, as most mobo's that "support prescott" only do so well up to a 3.0 cpu after that some mobos default to 2.8. You would not notice any gains in performance with a prescott anyway unless, you OC'd it to 3.4+ (assuming the mobo can recognize above 3.0 for prescotts) or had a prescott of 3.4+ Best bet would be to get a good Northwood 3.0 and OC to your hearts content...or not. Either way, I think you'll be more than pleased with its performance. If you are looking to OC however, Intel mobo's are well known for their stability, but don't OC very well at all. For OC'ing choose the Asus P4C800-E Deluxe. I hope that answers your questions...If you need more detail let me know Also, unles you are doing video editing and such 2gigs is way overkill.
twajetmech

 

[DirtyApe]

check the manufacturers website. it should have a list of compatible CPU's there. and also make sure that your power supply will be able to meet power requirements also if you are going to overclock at all.

 

[FetusCakeMix]

I don't really plan on doing any OCing at all. If I OC anything, it'll just be the video card.

 

[twajetmech]

Then go for the Northwood !

 

[DirtyApe]

i would also say that the northwood chip would be the best route. the prescott is notorious for heating your computer up.runs pretty damn hot at stock speeds and it wont perform an better until they can get the speeds up on that architecture because of the longer stepping process. this isnt coming from a biased opinion either. if i could id like to build an AMD 64 system for gaming and a P4 system for a dedicated server and such. and the 2 gigs of RAM will be a very nice addition but wont help with FPS at all. itll make games run smooth and you wont have too much page file utilization during gaming because of the amount of RAM. everything looks nice with that setup too. good choices.

 

[MemoryInAGarden]

IMO, look into either a VIVO X800 or a 6800GT and cut the RAM down to a gig.

 

[Xeon22]

At stock speed, the 3.0C northwood is faster than the Prescott 3.0E. If you overclock beyond 3.5ghz, the hands start to change, although a prescott runs alot hotter, so if you have no intention of overclocking, the 3.0c would be the best choice.

 

[Dan_D]

If your not going to overclock the Intel motherboard is a good choice. Newer versions of the BIOS will allow Intel i865PE and i875P based boards to overclock to a degree. It will lock your AGP/PCI settings and set the CPU to about a 4% overclock. Which on my 3.0C amounted to 3.12GHz. Perfectly stable.

So you can get your feet wet with OC'ing without going to high later if you decide to do so.

The Northwood will be lower on heat and faster at 3.0GHz and 3.2GHz. Prescott starts to even things up around 3.4GHz and beyond that it starts to outperform the Northwood quite a bit.

So I'd recommend a Pentium 4 3.0C.

Also I'd go for the D865PERL instead of the Intel board you listed. The one you mentioned has integrated graphics which you won't need since your buying a video card. I also second the 1GB recommendation. Save that money for your video card. You can go to a 6800Ultra or a X800XT-PE instead of a a GT or Pro card.

Also I noticed you have the X800Pro listed. I would consider a 6800GT. I own both a 6800GT and an X800Pro. At stock speeds the GT is hands down faster in everything. 16 Pipelines vs. 12 makes a lot of difference. Don't get me wrong the Pro is fast and all, but not as fast and the 6800GT can be found for cheaper than the X800Pro.

You also mentioned OC'ing your video card. If your going to do that, the 6800GT is a better choice again. Most all of them overclock to Ultra speeds. While alot of X800Pro's OC to XT speeds, they will never be as fast due to having less Pixel Pipelines.

And lastly while I've heard good things about Seagate SATA drives, their EIDE drives are about the worst you can buy. They've got a much higher failure rate than Maxtor or Western Digital.

That's a preference of mine, but as a service tech I see more dead Seagates than anything.

My $.02 take it for what it's worth.

 

[FetusCakeMix]

Thanks guys. I appreciate everybody's reply.

I have the 2 gigs of ram because I do a lot of digital media editing. I'm an audio/video production major.

But yea, I'll be taking some of the advice you guys offered. Thanks again.

 

[bountyhunter]

I"d recomend a different motherboard........ASUS P4S800D-E, which should cost the same as that mobo, and performs better + has more potential then an Intel Motherboard.

 

[punkitup]

First off let me say that you have obviously given this some thought and I applaud that, I don’t want you to think that my comments to follow are meant to denigrate your choices, just add food for though and another persons outlook to the mix.

I would go with the 3.2C (Northwood) as others here have suggested.

Motherboard - Intel "D865GBFLK" i865G Chipset Motherboard

I have to go with the other comments here and say I would be looking at a different motherboard. My reasons are pretty simple. First, with you including a nice graphics card you do not need the i865G with its integrated graphics core (that’s what the (G) stands for). And secondly you have no RAID options, which might be something you would find very useful in time, particularly if you do a lot of digital media editing as you have stated. If it were I, then I would look for a board with an i865PE or i875P chipset that included the ICH5R Southbridge, its native SATA RAID 0 (and now RAID 1) support works very well. Further most of the boards in this class include a separate RAID controller chip. As is apparent, I am partial to the Albatron i865PE/ICH5R based board in my signature below as the best price/performance point, it’s also of superb quality and I highly recommend it. But there are a quite a few good choices available with the chipsets I mentioned. Examples of i875P/ICH5R solutions are Soyo SY-P4I875P Dragon 2, Asus P4C800-E Deluxe, DFI Lanparty 875B and if you don’t need the second RAID option the Chaintech 9CJS Zenith. Boards using the i865PE/ICH5R combination other then my Albatron are a bit more limited in number, but include ASUS P4P800-E Deluxe, Epox EP-4PDA2+.

I know you didn’t ask for comments on the other items, and it is off topic, but might as well go the whole hog while I’m at it

Video Card - MSI ATI RADEON X800 PRO Video Card, 256MB GDDR3, 256-Bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model "RX800PRO-TD256"

I will toss my hat in with the other folks and say look to an nVidia 6800GT based graphics card. As a matter of fact you would actually save a few bucks from your choice by going with the Leadtek A400GT TDH nVidia 6800GT, if that isn’t a deal I don’t know what is. Man the custom cooling arrangement on that card alone is enough to make my heart go pity-pat.

Hard drives - Seagate 200GB 7200RPM Barracuda 7200.7 SATA Hard Drive, Model ST3200822AS

Just to give a counter opinion to what someone else stated. Seagate drives have come a long, long way from a few years ago when they were admittedly kind of questionable at times. I use them exclusively now, after on two occasions last year having had Western Digital drives die after less then a week of use (as have several of my acquaintances since). If there is one reason above all to go with Seagate it’s a 5-Year warranty on every drive they make, Retail or OEM.

Maxtor, I wouldn’t use one for a paperweight, oh, I take that back, I think I still have a few around here that are just that, paperweights.

I am sure whatever you choose will be just fine in the long run, its all a learning experience, but most of all I hope you have fun.

Peace
James

 

[DanK]

As somebody who's done work with digital media, I recommend going with a full 2GB RAM. You can never get enough!

I also recommend going for a different motherboard. I heard from a man who designs motherboards for a living, that often times MB manufacturers will design a board, then (in an effort to save money) pull the capacitors off one at a time until the system bluescreens, then put that last capacitor back on and mass produce the board. Intel was said to be one of the manufacturers that does so.

 

[Dan_D]

As somebody who's done work with digital media, I recommend going with a full 2GB RAM. You can never get enough!

I also recommend going for a different motherboard. I heard from a man who designs motherboards for a living, that often times MB manufacturers will design a board, then (in an effort to save money) pull the capacitors off one at a time until the system bluescreens, then put that last capacitor back on and mass produce the board. Intel was said to be one of the manufacturers that does so.

That's BS as Intel D865PE boards are made in Asus Factories. Secondly, Intel boards are known for stability and reliability. I've owned several Asus, and Intel boards and I find them to be just that. Stable and reliable.

By no means is the Intel board and enthusiest part. Without any serious overclocking features it doesn't really meet the needs to that particular market segment. Also more advanced users will find the BIOS somewhat limited in options for configuration.

You can never have too much ram, but I work in a school where computer animation, video production classes and all sorts of programs are taught and used. I can tell you that few programs even for that type of usage you wouldn't notice the difference in memory under most cicrumstances. But there is a bennifit to having it.

Basically on the ram thing all I am saying is that 1GB of ram is fine, unless you've just got the extra cash lying around. In which case 2GB is better of course. It doesn't hurt to have more.

 

[punkitup]

That's BS as Intel D865PE boards are made in Asus Factories. Secondly, Intel boards are known for stability and reliability. I've owned several Asus, and Intel boards and I find them to be just that. Stable and reliable.

Agreed, this sounds like some sort of second-hand urban legend, or would that be Silicon Valley legend. Intel designs the initial reference boards for their chipset releases, these are a starting point for all the other manufacturers, it would hardly be conducive to good business practice to hobble their own product (chipset). And it surly would be dopey to release their self-branded production motherboards if they couldn’t stably live up to their own reference.

Basically on the ram thing all I am saying is that 1GB of ram is fine, unless you've just got the extra cash lying around. In which case 2GB is better of course. It doesn't hurt to have more.

Ditto, I would use 1GB as a starting point, it is easy enough to add more later, and in the meantime put the savings toward higher quality memory and/or a better power supply.

Peace
James

 

[punkitup]

We have kind of strayed from the CPU question, but what the heck might as well round things out. Again these shouldn’t be taken as criticisms, just insights.

Case - Thermaltake Black Highest Xaser III Super Tower without Power Supply, Model "V1000A"

This is a cool looking case and if that is the sole reason you are buying it then more power to you. It certainly has many features, but do you need them and can you make use of them; an especially pertinent question I think given the hefty $135 price tag. If I wasn’t planning on OCing, as you say, I am not sure how much need I would have for case fan controls in a box that takes up an external drive bay space, let alone seven fans. Let’s mention 5.25” external drive bays, if you implement your plan as listed here you will use one for the case fan control/temp sensor, one for the PSU fan control and one for your Audigy I/O box, that leaves you with just one available 5.25” external slot. Slip the necessary optical drive into that slot and you’re done, no option for a second optical drive, video-capture I/O box, card reader or anything; wouldn’t work for me. Then there is the question of redundancy in outputs; yes the case has top mounted headphone, microphone and IEEE 1394 ports, but so does your Audigy front panel I/O box and there are only so many headers on a motherboard for attaching these ports. Also do some in-depth reading of the owner reviews at Newegg and you will find repeated mentions of the problems with full size PCI/AGP cards and their tool-less holder, and more importantly the under CPU temperature probe in relation to P4 CPUs.

I would be looking for something a bit more utilitarian in a case, but obviously still of high quality. I have built several systems using this case from Chenming they are the manufacturer of Antec and Chieftec cases. There are different colors, and even identical models that for about $15 more use aluminum chassis as opposed to 1.0mm steel. Put for $56 this one is hard to beat, 4 snap-in fan mounts (2 fans included), 2 removable hard drive cages, 5.25” drive rails, 2 USB and 1 IEEE 1394 ports hidden behind a flip up panel when not needed, very easy to open side door with a nice secure feel when closing. These are extremely well built cases and photos don’t do justice to how nice they look. This is of course just my personal preference but I would save the $79 difference and put it toward another component.

Power Supply - Thermaltake Silent Purepower 480W with Black housing - Purepower Butterfly ATX 2-Fan Power Supply, Model "W0021"

Ok, there is a lot going on here, fan control box and all that, but at its root you still only have a power supply offering you a potential 18-Amps of drawdown on the +12 Volt rail. There are other PSUs that do a fine job of automatic (thermal) control of the fans, and more importantly offer more usable current. This is something to seriously consider given today’s power hungry graphics cards.

Peace
James

 

[Dan_D]

I'd go with an Antec case and power supply and save yourself some major dollars.