rec.autos.simulators

I'm thinking of going to a P4 setup with the 533 CPU bus and reusing my 266
DDR ram. I have been running AMD since N3, but I thought it was time to give
the other side a try.

I was just looking at Newegg and I can get an Abit P4 board with the 845
chipset which supports the 533 front side bus and upto 333 DDR ram , and a
retail 2.4 gig CPU for around $305.  I'd be reusing the rest of my stuff
which includes 512 meg of 266 DDR ram, my GF3 video card, and Santa Cruz
sound card.  A bubby of mine but together a similar system, but using a SIS
chipset board (Soyo Dragon IIRC) and a GF2 Ultra and smoked my AMD XP1800,
ASUS A7M266 mobo, and GF3 in NR2002.

So what is the hot ticket these days in the P4 motherboard world?  Is there
any known issues with any of my other hardware?

MadDAWG

MadDAWG

I run mine at 150Mhz front side bus, and the memory is set to run at 385
Mhz.  Everything is running Rock Solid, and the highest CPU temp I noticed
has been 39 degrees Celcius, while playing the NR2003 demo.

I would recommend this board to anyone looking to get into the P4 platform.

I also upgraded from an AMD product.  The high CPU temps with my XP2000 chip
was the reason for switching back, but the new AMD chips are supposed to be
a lot cooler operating than the older ones.

Glen Pittman

  Abit's are good boards, shouldn't have any problems, same with your older
hardware with it.  In terms of power supply, I'd go for a 400 watt.   More
power is always good :)

John

True but if I go adding the price of a power supply in then the upgrade is
getting a little spend. This is just my game box so all it runs is just the
CPU/Video/sound. I have other computers that I use for burning CDs and that
kind of stuff. I'm thinking mine should be enought to get me by. IIRC it was
rated for P4s when I bought it.

MadDAWG

  Well, I had a 350 w, and it only lasted a relatively short time on a
lesser system.  What exactly fried it, I don't know, but the 400 w I
replaced it with has been flawless fwiw.

  You can get a quality one for around $60 or so.

John

I'm still using my old GF4 4400 and at 1024 x 768 x 32 I get 100+ Frame
Rates on all games except GPL of course with no overclocking. Lowest fps in
Nascar 2002 with all details on and back of the grid of 43 cars is 59 fps at
start (Daytona).

I really recommend RDRAM although its a bit more expensive.

Good Luck!

Jo?o Gonzalez

The SimBin guys are largely responsible for this and I am thinking of asking
them for

I have a GF4 4400 and my system flies like a jetplan

Andi.

--
Jone Tytlandsvik
http://tytlandsvik.no

Beers and cheers
(uncle) Goy

http://www.theuspits.com

"A man is only as old as the woman he feels........"
--Groucho Marx--

MadDAWG

Are those just for RDRAM? I want to stick with DDR for now.

MadDAWG

I was doing some research myself recently and Sparkle has
pretty good reputation. Many says that 350W Sparkle can give
much more power than it is rated (unlike many other PS which
don't even give what was promised). So it's likely you PS will
be good enough. You can find plenty info and feedback on
Sparkle's. Just look at overclocking sites/forums.

Alex.

   At this time I would AVOID any item that is related to Hyperthreading.  
So far, from what I've read, Intel has found a way to slow down a very fast
chip.  The HT is supposed to mimic two chips..but what it mimics are two
chips with only half the onboard cache and half the pipelines available to
either.  You can turn OFF the HT but the XP system will still load a crap-
load of extra files needed to support HT.  Apparently only a full wiping
and re-install will remove all those extra files.  HT 'MAY' someday become
a good idea, but right now, ESPECIALLY FOR *** it is a bad bad idea.
   The only reason to look for support of HT in a Motherboard would be to
ensure some future upgradeability, but the performance cost of the actual
product is too great to be of ANY advantage.

dave henrie