Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="Paul, post: 6313791"] First of all, Google is your friend. Try searching on P4R800 and see what has been said already. You've selected a Prescott processor. This is Intel's latest, but may not be their greatest creation. I'm convinced, in the fullness of time, better compilers will come out, and this processor will outperform the Northwood it was designed to replace. But right now, it performs about the same, and consumes more power. And the worst part of it, is the power isn't even spent in calculation, it is something called leakage current, which means it will be flowing even when you are sitting idle in Windows. Normally, power dissipated in CMOS is proportional to the toggle rate of the gates, which means when Windows is idle, your power bill drops. The tiny 90nm features of the Prescott makes it so that the transistors can no longer be fully turned off. That isn't a good thing for your power bill. (Can you tell I'm annoyed at the concept ?) As for the -VM motherboard, virtually all Asus microATX boards have unadjustable BIOS. Some of the adjustments in a full featured BIOS give you options that can make the computer stop crashing or stalling. These options are missing from the microATX boards, as these boards are intended for mass deployment in business, where the IT staff figure out how to make them work, then outfit them all the same. For a home user to figure this out, means purchasing and returning parts, until the recipe is perfect. For example, some microATX boards will only run well with PC2700 RAM, and no home user in their right mind would buy dead end PC2700 RAM right now, as there would be no resale market. But a business is quite happy to buy such RAM, as they throw the old stuff away when they next upgrade (or go bankrupt). The next thing to do, is download the manual, and examine it for issues. For example, the manual for the P4R800-VM says it can only take a single sided PC3200 DIMM per channel. At lower speed, any combination is possible. But, if you want the best performance from your FSB800 processor, what better way to do it than with two channels full of PC3200 DDR400 ram ? That limitation would mean you would likely end up with 2x256MB single sided PC3200, if you wanted performance, and that isn't enough ram for any practical work. (Funny thing about that. There are two boards, the P4R800-V full size board and the P4R800-VM. Both use the same Northbridge, and the -V can take a double sided DIMM in each channel, which means you could use 2x512MB on the -V, while on the -VM the manual says you are limited to single sided at DDR400. Pretty strange limit - both boards should have the same limit ?) If you want a board with slightly different characteristics, there is the P4P800-VM. It has integrated graphics, but from a gamer perspective, the 3D performance isn't as good as the P4R800's IGP graphics. For 2D, it should be adequate, and it sounds like that is what you are interested in. The sweet part, is the RAM end of things. You can use 4x512MB PC3200 if you want. And, whereas the P4R800 wants the DIMMs to be matched in pairs (i.e. it is a strict dual channel board), the P4P800-VM lets you mismatch the DIMMs, and then it runs in virtual single channel mode. This certainly doesn't perform as well, but if you are operating on a shoestring, it means you can open your desk drawer, and pull any DIMMs out and install them, and the board will work. Now, when you download the manual for the P4P800-VM, it has adjustable RAM voltage, manual RAM timing adjustment, but processor overclocking adjustments are missing. This is a fair tradeoff. The only other thing I would have liked to have seen, are AGP settings, for helping a cranky plugin AGP video card work, but if you are happy with the non-gamer graphics built-in, this shouldn't be an issue. For an overclocker, or an enthusiast who likes to tweak settings, a full sized board gives you more BIOS options, so if you see that being a future consideration, then shop around some more. HTH, Paul [/QUOTE]

Verification