Easy questions -

I am planning on buying a northwood p4 3.0 with 800fsb. I need a fast motherboard with good features, notably RAID and if possible some sort of EAX/Dolby onboard, with the 875 chipset - as im told its the better one.

Next question, my current ram is 1gb of pc2700 - would that do the job or should I upgrade for this P4 - if so, what speed ram?

intel mobo/cpu profit most from RAM speed ... you may better go PC3200 or even PC4000 to max out performance ... e.g. corsair PC4000 (PRO if ya like LEDs)
I would choose Abit or ASUS i875 mobo ...

EDIT: logically AMD system profit most from fast timings ... which does not mean that intel wouldn't profit either

For the same $ amd 64 3000+

No thank you, or only when they actually perform better than the P4's.

also check for the motherboard to be Prescott compatible.

an amd 64 3000 outperforms a p4 3.2 on most benchmarks

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/dis...-3000.html

my choice was 1 asus p4c800-e deluxe with pc4000 ram, 2x256
twinmos modules, and i never did better...
i use 3-5 mashines and had a7n8x rev.2 del boards with 2700+,
3000+ and 64bit amd 3000+, but the p4 mashine easily outperformed
all of them, so now i have a second p4c800-e del board and maybe
1 day i will go 4 another try with these 64bit things, but 4 now there is
nothin` close 2 this kind of speed/performance and stability...
my 1st p4 is 3ghz@3.6, rams set 2 performance, system settings
set 2 turbo etc bla bla, the second/new 1 is 3.4ghz @ 4.2, the "scores"
in the benchworld r like this:~22000-23000 in 3dm2k1, some 8000
points in the newer version, 55000 in aquamark3, qualitysettings
always cranked up, the 64 bit version of my amd chip was way behind
this and even somewhat slower than the 2700+chip in the same board,
with identical settings and hardware...
maybe your idea is the right 1...amd`s 64 bit chips will still be sold in a
year or 2, so there will be much time 2 "upgrade"...
just my 2 cents, enjoy your new monster...

I don't want a useless overpriced hardware that only performs about 1% better for 25% extra in price.

Yeah why not go for the AMD 64 3000+ or 3200+? They are much better, expecially the 3200+. Athlon 64 are 800 FSB as well if i am not mistaken. The 3200+ have 1MB of L2 Cache and 128 kb for L1 Cache which is similiar with Pentium 4 ©.

With the Athlon 64, you can run both 64 and 32 bit of operating system, which is benificial if you have a copy of win xp 64bit. You just can't run a 64bit of win xp on the p4. So why not go for the Athlon? Go to http://www.anandtech.com and check out the review.

The P4 is good if you don't want to have any problem cause they are compatible with any software. The Athlon is not compatible with all software if you are running the 64bit of operating system but not 32 bit(less performance).

If you are going to choose the P4 then go for asus motherboard.

The ASUS P4C800E-Deluxe seems to be a great Mobo!
But the ABIT IC7-MAX3 looks better to me because of the OTES Cooling Technologie and the 4 USB 2.0 Connectors.

The RAM is an interesting Point when you buy a P4 System and because of that I prefer faster RAM like PC4000 or better PC4400 TWINX1024-4400PT (Corsair).

When you buy a nice CPU Cooling Unit, you would easily get the FSB from the Standard 800 to 1000Mhz !!! . That Rocks and outperforms every AMD System !!

Try It!


Why going to buy a 64bit AMD when there is no Software available for it to use the performance ?

No software for 64bits for the meantime doesn't means forever. i can tell 64bits makes different. just look at MAC, G5 is both 32bits and 64bits too.
The Atholn 64 likes fast ram speed like P4 too cause it is not 400FSB anymore but 800 FSB, just like the P4.

hmmm ?
what are you discussin here .... he said he wants a P4 system not an Athlon64
so stop the stupid AMD/INTEL war

Yeah he is asking about P4 but i am trying to give opinion on getting the most out of his budget. If that cause problem then please kindly accept my apologize.

:beer:
sure if it would only be one reply ..... but helll one says a word and soon all ppl. start to flame ... hell anybody must take what he wants ... I would choose INTEL, too but I use AMD :hmm:

AMD 64 computers will cost me more than a 3.0 P4, and be just about as good - I will eventually get a 64bit solution, but until this whole thing becomes useful I'm not going to bother.