Which board for P4-3.2 CPU - P4P800-E Deluxe or P4C800-E Deluxe?

S

Shawn Barnhart

I'm looking to build a PC around a P4-3.2Ghz CPU. It's not entirely clear
to me if I should avoid the Prescotts or not, but what is confusing me is
which Asus board is right.

They both appear to have nearly identical features, with the biggest
differences I can see being the 8 channel audio on the P4P, the Intel
dedicated bus network adapter on the P4C and the P4P being about $50
cheaper.

Should I care which board I choose? I'm kind of inclined to go for the P4C
one as it appears to be a higher-end board, but I'm not sure it will really
matter all that much. My primary use will be video editing and DVD
mastering, with a little FPS gaming thrown in on top, and both boards seem
more than sufficient for that. I'm not inclined to overclock or the more
nuanced bleeding edge of performance, either.

I am getting some advice from others to avoid the P4s and instead buy an AMD
Athlon 64 CPU. The general advice is that socket 478 is end-of-the-line,
and that by going with a socket 939 or 940 board I can get comperable CPU
now and a much better CPU in the near future when stuff like the Athlon 64
3800+ comes down in price.

I'm not totally swayed, though, since the P4-3.2 appears to be roughly equal
with the 3400+, which is ~$120 more than the P4-3.2. Buying a 3200+ now for
$280 and then buying another CPU later is just twice as expensive.

Thanks for any input or suggestions, especially with regards to the two P4
motherboards.
 
J

John Blaustein

Shawn,

I had exactly the same question and got lots of very good info in reply to
my recent post. You might search for my thread: Building my own PC --
hardware advice needed

I called ASUS pre-sales and you might try that too: 510-739-3777 x2. After
discussing the choices with their sales person, I've now selected the
P4P800-E Deluxe because the P4C800-E Deluxe doesn't do anything I need for
the extra money. One person replying to one of my NG posts suggested that
the 875 chipset is superior to the 865 chipset, but I haven't read
complaints about the 865 and/or the P4P series of MoBo's.

I will follow replies to your thread with interest.

John
 
S

Shawn Barnhart

John Blaustein said:
Shawn,

I had exactly the same question and got lots of very good info in reply to
my recent post. You might search for my thread: Building my own PC --
hardware advice needed

I read your thread, but I guess it didn't seem to answer all my questions
completely.

The other thing I should have added is -- "What about cases?" My biggest
(only?) gripe about building PCs has always been integration of the fscking
motherboard with the damn case, and trying to figure out which 800 leads to
attach to which board headers. I usually get it right, but it takes
forever.

I'm still not 100% sold on Northwood vs. Prescott cores, either -- I guess
one question would be whether Intel is still making Northwood core P4s and
how easy/hard they are to find. Northwood core availability would certainly
influence board selection.
I've now selected the
P4P800-E Deluxe because the P4C800-E Deluxe doesn't do anything I need for
the extra money. One person replying to one of my NG posts suggested that
the 875 chipset is superior to the 865 chipset, but I haven't read
complaints about the 865 and/or the P4P series of MoBo's.

I'm sure it will come down to money at a certain point. I'm recycling video
cards and hard disks from the old box, so there's some extra money to throw
away on higher end stuff, but maybe not that much.
 
J

John Blaustein

Shawn,

I'm no expert, but I've pretty much decided on the Antec SLK3700-BQE case:

http://www.antec.com/us/pro_details_enclosure.php?ProdID=93703

The Antec cases get good reviews. I'm told the case comes with instructions
showing which cables go where. I'm counting on that because I've never put
a system together before.

I can't help with your Northwood vs. Prescott question. Sorry.

John
 
W

Walt

From a test comparison done by PC Quest ...

865 vs. 875
The 875 is the clear performance king here but the edge
it has over the 865 is only 1-4 %, which is not very great.

This might also be of interest ...

The 875 and 865 also support the latest Serial ATA drives
with the 875 also having support for SATA Raid-0 (striping).
 
J

James Bald

ROTFLMAO !.
That's exactly my Chinese imitation, 6A series.
Quality Chinese imports.. The only difference is ANTEC quality paint job.
I can't find pictures easily, but this guy modded the casing.
So you get to see much of it.
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=28699

It's about half the ANTEC price...ANTEC certainly import the same issue from China.
Let's purchase ANTEC's PSU.. The rest is a ripoff.
I've got one...... QUALITY design inside. Fan is also very quiet, with front filter;
ANTEC 480W PSU fits inside like a glove.
Cheers
John Blaustein wrote in message ...
Shawn,

I'm no expert, but I've pretty much decided on the Antec SLK3700-BQE case:

http://www.antec.com/us/pro_details_enclosure.php?ProdID=93703

The Antec cases get good reviews. I'm told the case comes with instructions
showing which cables go where. I'm counting on that because I've never put
a system together before.

I can't help with your Northwood vs. Prescott question. Sorry.

John
(....)
 

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