[wace9178]

Good morning. I am building a budget pc(first time) and i could use some feedback on the purchases that i have made so far. After some suggestions I decided to go with Soyo P600 MB and the athlon xp 2500 processor. I have read good things about athlon processors and their bang for the buck approach, and thought that i would give it a try.

Now here is my dilema. My local electronics store was having a 4th of july "1 day only" sale. Pentium 4 2.40GHz 533-MHz front with a ECS 848p-A motherboard.

I only had a split second to make a decision and i jumped on it. Now i'm not so sure i did the right thing.

Any pros and cons that you guys can think of would be excellent. I have 15days to return.

Thanks.

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Sorry guys. THe price was for the processor and MB was $119. Which i thought was pretty good.

[wace9178]

Sorry guys. THe price was for the processor and MB was $119. Which i thought was pretty good.

[admin]

The price is pretty good, but sorry, but I'm underwhelmed by this bundle.

The P4 2.4 533 mhz processor is a couple of generations old. If choosing a Pentium, you'd get much better performance using a P4C that has an 800mhz FSB and supports Hyper-threading. The 800mhz FSB provides much improved system performance, and Hyper-threading is one of the only reasons to select a Pentium. HT provides much improved multitasking performance (i.e. CD burning and web browsing, or Virus scanning and Office tasks).

ECS is not a top tier motherboard manufacturer. They have more than their share of reliability and quality issues.

You would get better perfomance with a AMD 2500+, especially the Barton which has consisitently shown the ability to overclock to 3200+ with a decent motherboard and PC3200 memory.

[admin]

AMD 45 Watt Mobile Athlon XP 2500+, 266 FSB, 512K Cache - OEM $88
http://www.newegg.co...-103-401&depa=1

ABIT "NF7-S" nForce2 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU -RETAIL $82
http://www.newegg.co...-127-166&depa=1

Would be my recommendation, $170 total -- no tax, free shipping.

Combine this with a decent CPU cooler, and some quality PC3200 RAM you can probably expect 3400+ performance

[wace9178]

So. I didn't get the great deal that i thought i was getting. O.k back to fry's i go.

Thanks for the advice.

one more thing. Same place has.

1. AMD Athlon xp 2700+ W/ ECS KT-600-A MB $114.

2. AMD athlon xp 2400+ W/ECS N2U400-A MB $179.

3. AMD athlon xp 2600+ W/shuttle AN35N-Ultra $179.

Of course price wise i like #1, it fits for an even exchange.

Do you think i should steer slear of ECSaltogether? and how about the AMD 2700+

I'll wait a little bit and see if you guys get back before i go. Thanks again.

[admin]

Neither ECS or Shuttle would be my mfg of choice. They also probably won't provide any overclocking options.

Here's the advantages to the package I recommended. The CPU, a Mobile AMD 2500+, runs at lower voltage that the desktop model, it also has an unlocked multiplier, providing more overclocking flexibilty. The ABIT motherboard is very stable, and a known very good overclocker. It also has the nVidia chipset that offers very good audio performance, built-in networking, and many other nice features.

You might be thinking you don't want to mess with overclocking, but let me show you how easy it can be. Combine the CPU and mobo above with some PC3200 RAM, and simply set the FSB to 200mhz. This will give you 3200+ performance, without changing anything else (if you decide to "tweak" the settings, 3400+ speeds are very possible).