New Build - Comments or suggestions

[JugHead McGraw]

Intel P4 3.2Ghz 800mhz FSB 1mb cache
Lian Li PC-60 USB Silver Aluminum MidTower ATX
Asus P4C800-E Deluxe 875P P4 ATX Audio/GbLAN/1394/SATA/RAID/AGP
8X/WiFi
Kingston 512MB DDR400 PC3200 CL2.5 DIMM
ENERMAX EG475P-VE NoiseTaker 470W ATX12V PSU
Sony DRU530A 8X DVD±RW Drive (Retail)
Mitsumi 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive Silver (Drive Only)
ATi RADEON 9600 XT 128MB DDR AGP8X TVO/DVI (Retail)
18" 3pos ATA/133/100 Round IDE Cable (Copper Shielded)
18" 2pos Round Floppy Cable (Clear)
ASUS WiFi-b 802.11b Wireless LAN Card for ASUS motherboard
WD Caviar 80GB 7200RPM 8MB Buffer ATA/100 HDD (Drive Only) (Part of
RAID 0 configuration - already have a matching drive)

 

[sheer]

double your ram

 

[JugHead McGraw]

Meant to put that x2, so I'll have 1GB

Can this board take the DDR500 PC4000 DIMMS?

 

[Paul]

Meant to put that x2, so I'll have 1GB

Can this board take the DDR500 PC4000 DIMMS?

Yes.

Remember, though, that PC4000 memory is an "overclockers memory".
It is intended for people who will be overclocking permanently.
In your case, to get full use from the memory, your processor
would have to run at:

DDR500
3.2GHz * ------ = 4.0GHz
DDR400

You can run a PC4000 memory at DDR400 rates, but the timings
might not be as tight as a low latency memory selected for
running at DDR400.

Check this website, to see how overclockable your processor
will be. With the 1MB cache, I guess you are buying a
Prescott. The website appears to be down right now, so I
cannot look up your processor to verify how much overclocking
headroom it might have.

http://www.cpudatabase.com/CPUdb/

HTH,
Paul

 

[JugHead McGraw]

I would like to overclock the CPU to a "reasonable" level, as I will have 6
case fans (counting two in the PSU) and an aluminum case, but no special
cooling setup. Maybe a modest 3.5 or 3.6 ghz. But even with a modest
overclock, will the memory bandwidth benefits be worth it to use the PC4000
DDR500?

I'm currently running a P4 2.2ghz overclocked to 2.42ghz on a P4T533-C with
1066 RAMBUS, which utilizes 100% of my memory bandwidth (actually a little
more). With overclocking this system, the memory has always been the
limiting factor, as the CPU temp has never risen above 112F under full load,
which is well below specs.

My thought is that with the DDR500 I would get a little more room to
overclock, so I could get better performance up to a reasonable CPU temp
without having to first worry about the memory limitations like I currently
have with the 1066 RAMBUS.

I'll check out the site, but I've read reviews of this board using the
DDR500 DIMMS and overclocking, but they never give any sense of the
relstionship between performance and CPU temp, but I assume this can vary
from case to case and depending on individual cooling setups.

 

[Paul]

I would like to overclock the CPU to a "reasonable" level, as I will have 6
case fans (counting two in the PSU) and an aluminum case, but no special
cooling setup. Maybe a modest 3.5 or 3.6 ghz. But even with a modest
overclock, will the memory bandwidth benefits be worth it to use the PC4000
DDR500?

I'm currently running a P4 2.2ghz overclocked to 2.42ghz on a P4T533-C with
1066 RAMBUS, which utilizes 100% of my memory bandwidth (actually a little
more). With overclocking this system, the memory has always been the
limiting factor, as the CPU temp has never risen above 112F under full load,
which is well below specs.

My thought is that with the DDR500 I would get a little more room to
overclock, so I could get better performance up to a reasonable CPU temp
without having to first worry about the memory limitations like I currently
have with the 1066 RAMBUS.

I'll check out the site, but I've read reviews of this board using the
DDR500 DIMMS and overclocking, but they never give any sense of the
relstionship between performance and CPU temp, but I assume this can vary
from case to case and depending on individual cooling setups.

All I'm saying is, plan your processor speed and memory purchase,
based on the most likely operating conditions. If you are going
to spend a lot of extra money, for the small gains that performance
memory buys you, at least make sure the two match.

I like easy overclocking targets, like how much can you overclock
with only air cooling and little or no Vcore increase. The
cpudatabase.com site can answer that question (it is still down
for me - cannot be reached).

A given cooling solution achieves so many degrees rise per
watt of input power. Let us pretend that is a constant for
a moment.

Power consumption in a CMOS circuit is proportional to
FCV**2. (Frequency, Capacitance, Voltage squared). Increasing
frequency alone gives a linear increase in delta_temp with speed.
If your overclock also needs some extra Vcore, then a higher
order function is implied, because F and V are increasing at
the same time. In effect, there will be an abrupt point
where you'll start contemplating one of those "bar fridge"
R404 based coolers. Or maybe blocks of dry ice or an LN2 dewar.

HTH,
Paul

 

[JugHead McGraw]

Thanks for the help Paul. I'm not sure the extra cost would be worth the
modest increase in overclockability. I think I'll stick with my original
setup, although the DDR500 does look tempting, it probably won't pay in the
long run with cooling limitations of my setup.

Of course it would be just my luck that Intel would release a 1000mhz fsb as
soon as I get this thing running.

To tell you the truth, I'm tired of chasing the speed demon. I'm only
upgrading my PC in the first place because I am going to give my old one to
a family member to use in their home business since it is extremely stable
and reliable. They're paying me about what an equivalent Dell would cost,
so I'm taking the cash and making it go a little further.

I would like to overclock the CPU to a "reasonable" level, as I will have 6
case fans (counting two in the PSU) and an aluminum case, but no special
cooling setup. Maybe a modest 3.5 or 3.6 ghz. But even with a modest
overclock, will the memory bandwidth benefits be worth it to use the PC4000
DDR500?

I'm currently running a P4 2.2ghz overclocked to 2.42ghz on a P4T533-C with
1066 RAMBUS, which utilizes 100% of my memory bandwidth (actually a little
more). With overclocking this system, the memory has always been the
limiting factor, as the CPU temp has never risen above 112F under full load,
which is well below specs.

My thought is that with the DDR500 I would get a little more room to
overclock, so I could get better performance up to a reasonable CPU temp
without having to first worry about the memory limitations like I currently
have with the 1066 RAMBUS.

I'll check out the site, but I've read reviews of this board using the
DDR500 DIMMS and overclocking, but they never give any sense of the
relstionship between performance and CPU temp, but I assume this can vary
from case to case and depending on individual cooling setups.

 

[Paul]

Thanks for the help Paul. I'm not sure the extra cost would be worth the
modest increase in overclockability. I think I'll stick with my original
setup, although the DDR500 does look tempting, it probably won't pay in the
long run with cooling limitations of my setup.

Of course it would be just my luck that Intel would release a 1000mhz fsb as
soon as I get this thing running.

To tell you the truth, I'm tired of chasing the speed demon. I'm only
upgrading my PC in the first place because I am going to give my old one to
a family member to use in their home business since it is extremely stable
and reliable. They're paying me about what an equivalent Dell would cost,
so I'm taking the cash and making it go a little further.

With DDR400 memory, you can run FSB:MEM ratio of 5:4, and
do a 25% overclock on the processor, without the memory having
to go faster than DDR400. The DDR400 memory gives you the option
of 1:1 ratio and no overclock, or the 5:4 ratio and the potential
to overclock. The 5:4 ratio is available when you select "DDR333"
for the memory.

The benefit of the DDR500 memory, is you run 1:1 all the time,
and overclock plus 1:1 is slightly faster than overclock plus 5:4.
So, you can still try some overclocking with the DDR400 memory.
PC4000 memory is for when you want "memory bandwidth bragging
rights".

Paul