"TheKeith" <no.RemoveThis@spam.com> wrote in message
news:OPSdnY1_epzCK-fcRVn-sg@giganews.com...
> well, I'm finally ready to build a new computer after not having built one
> since 2001. I'm a bit behind on all the latest hardware and confused about
> what to get. I'm pretty much settled on a p4 3+ GHz, but don't know
> whether to go with the new 775 socket with one of the intel 9xx chipsets
> or one of the older 875 chipsets with the 478 socket. I've been reading
> some about the differences and how the 9xx chipsets don't really offer any
> practical performance improvements for the time, but still I can't see
> getting an older technology when I don't have to worry at all about
> backward-compatibility. All hardware including the HD, will be purchased
> new.
>
> Can someone explain what this pci max (I think it's called) is all about?
> Is it supposed to compete with AGP or something? Thanks.
>
>
> Keith
I absolutley can't be bothered to read everyone else's replies, and have no
idea where this topic has lead, and don't care that it seems to have ended 3
days ago. For what it is still worth, if you are going to buy a new system
there are a couple governing theories behind what to get.
One says to get the latest and greatest as that is where technology is
going. Sounds good and all, but seems like Intel with the 915/925 has just
implemented a few standards that are new. PCI Express, for one, and DDR2
for another. First off, simple mathematics will tell you that DDR400 and
DDR2-667 should perform the same. Anything less than DDR2-667 should
perform worse than DDR400, and anything higher than DDR2-667 should perform
better. Why? Latencies. If you have 400MHz @ 2-3-3-6 vs 667MHz @
4-4-4-12, you should find they'll be the same. Just think about the number
of operations it can perform (which is of course to say, that with DDR400 @
2-2-2-5, an operation takes 2+3+3+6 clocks = 14 clocks. 400/14 = 28
operations. 667 @ 4-4-4-12 = 24 clocks/op, 667/24 = 28 operations.).
Whether or not it actually works that way, benchmarks seem to show it does.
Often you'll find that DDR400 can run at 2-2-2-5 with special DIMMs. In
this case the operations is increased to 36 (BTW, 36 means 36,000,000
operations, and since the width of the bus is the same in DDR1 and DDR2,
they are directly comparable. For example, if DDR2 did what RDRAM did, then
you would need 4 operations for DDR2 to do what 1 operation of DDR1 does,
but it doesn't work that way so it's a 1:1 ratio).
So, DDR2 = more expensive slower buggier unproven Intel shit. DDR is more
abundant, faster (especially with tight timings), proven, less buggier,
cross-platform stuff. As we all know, stuff is better than shit.
Next up, the LGA775 socket. What's wrong with that? The first ones made
actually break after a few changes. How many is a few? Who knows, you wanna
find out, it's been done before, so it can't be too much. Have they
improved it? Wouldn't that mean making a new socket? Speaking of that, look
at the P4 alone, from Socket 423 to Socket 478 to LGA775 in just 3 years.
Odds are, by the time you need an upgrade, your new board is out of date
again. Intel loves to do that. Check out what AMD has done in the same
time.....Socket A for 3 years straight. Sure, they changed the bus speed a
few times which would make you need a new board, but you can use your old
CPU in it atleast. With Intel, to get the new features you need a new
socket'd CPU, so you need to spend more.
As we all have learned by now, the new technology gets quickly replaced by
faster things. Just recently, I saw a SATA-II hard drive for sale on
newegg. SATA is still fairly new, old enough to be trusted by most and used
as a generally reliable subsystem for hard drives (no optical drives for
SATA, though).
Surely PCI Express is going to take over, but how many PCI cards do you
actually have? I have a 6 PCI slot board, and have used 1 slot. It is for
a TV tuner. When you think about it, PCI cards are for the generally
obscure things. Maybe add firewire/usb2.0 to older PCs. Add a TV tuner.
Give a PC SCSI. Give a PC SATA. Get a better sound card. Outside of those
things, there's not much. Most PCs have firewire/usb2.0/sata built in. Few
use SCSI. Sound cards apply to gamers mainly, AC97 is good enough for most
of us, including light gamers, and those with Home Theater PCs (provided
there is a digital out, and it's atleast 5.1). TV tuner cards aren't too
popular. Maybe you would use it for a wireless card, or a 2nd NIC. But
there are already 802.11-Pre-N PCI cards out, along with the routers for
wireless (108mbps). I haven't seen PCI Express versions. Perhaps an
802.11g PCI Express. Point is, at this point, PCI Express offers no
advantage. Most boards seem to have PCI Express x1 and PCI Express x16
ports only. There are x4 and x8 ports, but it seems nothing is using them.
The PCI Express x16 replaces AGP, but offers no real performance gain.
So, by going LGA775 now, you are only setting yourself up for the hardware
that is available now. I think you'll find that the same hardware is
available for Socket 478, too. Often, it should be cheaper.
Depending on your needs, I would seriously consider first if Intel is where
I want to be, or if AMD has what you want. I'm not just saying that because
I haven't touched an Intel system as my own since 1997, and intend to keep
it that way, but because they are cheaper. Even on AMD, check out what's
happened to them since they introduced the Socket 754, 939, and 940
together. nVidia came out with nForce3, that became the standard chipset.
Now, what's happened is Socket 940 is banished, and nForce3 has been
replaced by nForce4 which comes with PCI Express. So, they introduced
something new and the first chipset got replaced and one of the sockets got
eliminated. What makes you so sure Intel won't come out in December with
something like a 935 that gets rid of LGA775 and introduces a faster bus
speed that will become standard?
As far as SATA goes, BTW, tagged command queing sounds good on paper, but
it's unproven. SATAII will be available in some sort of PCI / PCI Express
add-in card when it becomes released.
BTW, FoxConn makes shit boards. Check out someone else, like Asus or Abit
or MSI, I went with Gigabyte, but used an AMD platform. I chose Socket A,
about two months before they introduced Athlon64/FX, and don't care because
what I have is still fast and while I can't upgrade too far, I already knew
that, what you are doing by buying 915 is setting yourself up for an
eventual road block in your upgrade path.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
>> Stay informed about: Which p4 chipset to get? 
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