[Fineus]

Hey all, sorry to keep asking but I don't want to bump the old thread but since it's about hardware, things have changed a bit since I last asked.

The current Mobo I'm looking at is this:

http://www.chaintech.com.tw/eng/products/SOCKA/7NJS.asp#top

The Chaintech Zenith 7NJS, it looks to be a good choice but does anyone know of a better offer, I'm going for high end performance but will settle for slightly less if it's that much cheaper.

To go in this thing I want to get an Athlon 2.6GHz XP but again, is this the most effective price/performance offer? I've waited untill after Christmas to try and take advantage of any online special offers that may occur but if anyone knows of anything else please let me know. Again, does anyone know of a particularly cheap place to buy chips or the above motherboard from? I can ship from overseas (am in the UK) if I need to.

Finally, any other advice?

Thanks all

[Kazashi]

The 7NJS is a very nice board - top performance and tweakability, and loaded with features. However you do have to pay for all that with a lighter wallet. Some more info on the 7NJS can be found here.

I'd also recommend the Asus A7N8X again a great feature set and performance, with the resulting pricetag, or the EPoX 8RDA+ if you're looking for the best price/performance mix. A word of caution with the 8RDA+ though, they put the memory slots too close to the line the video cards take, so if you're using a video card such as Ti4600, or with a similar large PCB you'd have to bend the card slightly during installation to avoid a transistor being knocked off.

The XP2600+ will make for a great CPU, the ones being produced now come with a 333Mhz DDR FSB by default, allowing it to make more effective use of the available memory bandwidth. Below that, and you go back to the 266FSB, above that and the prices jump substantually to the XP2700+ and XP2800+.

[Fineus]

Really helpful advice there, thanks - I have got a problem with the CPU though - I'll tell the story:

For christmas as a "main" present I arranged with dad for an IOU for a new CPU and motherboard. We aren't exactly a "rich" family so price is a factor in all of this and obviously as far as he's concerned anything above a P2 350Mhz is unneccessary since he only uses business applications. Right now he's looking at the 2400XP with the 266FSB but I want to take advantage of the 333FSB and extra power of the 2600.

Like I said though, prices are a factor. The motherboards price I can explain away but the CPU needs to be as cheap as I can make it. When will the next big price drop occur (approximately) since theres about 50 or 60 pounds between the 2.4 and the 2.6, I'd like to get a 2.6 for around £170 but right now that's the going price of the 2.4. I don't want to wait forever and yes I know that prices and parts change like the wind in the computer industry but I've got to draw a line somewhere... how long can I expect to wait before I can take advantage of the 2.6 but at a cheaper price (or indeed... is there a special retailer in the UK I should look at for cheaper prices already?)

Thanks again!

[Stunaep]

just do make sure, you get a good cooling system with the AMD, and try not to use the PC in a sauna. AMD is really touchy about that.

[01010]

Originally posted by Thunder
Really helpful advice there, thanks - I have got a problem with the CPU though - I'll tell the story:

For christmas as a "main" present I arranged with dad for an IOU for a new CPU and motherboard. We aren't exactly a "rich" family so price is a factor in all of this and obviously as far as he's concerned anything above a P2 350Mhz is unneccessary since he only uses business applications. Right now he's looking at the 2400XP with the 266FSB but I want to take advantage of the 333FSB and extra power of the 2600.

Like I said though, prices are a factor. The motherboards price I can explain away but the CPU needs to be as cheap as I can make it. When will the next big price drop occur (approximately) since theres about 50 or 60 pounds between the 2.4 and the 2.6, I'd like to get a 2.6 for around £170 but right now that's the going price of the 2.4. I don't want to wait forever and yes I know that prices and parts change like the wind in the computer industry but I've got to draw a line somewhere... how long can I expect to wait before I can take advantage of the 2.6 but at a cheaper price (or indeed... is there a special retailer in the UK I should look at for cheaper prices already?)

Thanks again!

Your best bet's  gonna be a computer fair. Go here and see where the one nearest to you is.

[Fetty]

well i cant help you decide because i cant do that myself
ether asus or chaintech
http://www6.tomshardware.com/mainboard/20021111/index.html
hers a good read about those boards

[an0n]

Get the 2.4, spend the saved cash on a monster-fan and overclock it to a 2.8

[Anaz]

Thunder, have you checked pricewatch or techbargains? You can usually find some really good online deals there.


(and if I didn't spell it right...fix it yourself...)

[Vertigo1]

Yo T, check this out:

http://usa.asus.com/mb/socketa/a7n8x/overview.htm

nForce2 is your best bet right now.

[Fineus]

Thanks for the links and thoughts guys - this is really helping me out, lots of ideas flowing but I've one last question. Is it worth paying twice the price of a 2.4XP to get a 2.6XP? I've not seen benchmark comparisons for them so I've no idea wether its' worth all that extra cash for the faster model. I am a gamer and a net user but will I be making the best use of the extra power I get from the 2.6 or is it really not worth it at the cost?

[Ulundel]

Better save your money for something else. Don't waste it this way, it's not just worth it.

[Ulundel]

BTW, am I the only one who sees vadar_1 online?

[Fineus]

Yes?

And thanks for the advice... anyone strongly disagree? If not I'm inclined to go with what the man says and save myself a substantial amount of cash.

[Ulundel]

No, Stunaep saw it too. Vadar was here, doing something in his control panel. Or it was was just you?

[Fineus]

Wasn't me

Oh, and I read up about the Asus... I'm a little worried about space on the motherboard since a powerful CPU like a 2.4+ would need a decent sized cooler. By the looks of things there's trouble with spacing on that thing - the Chaintech also has that issue but it doesn't seem to be considered so serious. Any thoughts on that?

And again with the "anyone disagree with the 2.4XP?" question

[Ulundel]

Well, you got the motherboard for christmas, if my memory still serves me so you can't change that...

I recommend you to find some professional IT dude. Most of the time they're very friendly and give some good advice.

and aren't you just a little bit worried that vadar still has access here? I know it's not my problem but...I don't like any hackers nosing around here - HLP's cool and I'd like to keep it that way.

[Fineus]

I've got an IOU on the parts - I just have to find what I want, hence me worrying and asking questions to get it right now

And I rank the advice from here much higher than my local hardware specialists. They try and sell GeForce2s as "cutting edge"....

As for Vadar... I'll ask around

[Redfang]

It's not 2.4+ XP. It's 2400+ XP. And it's not 2.4GHz either, but 2.0GHz.
 
2600+ is 2.13GHz, so that's not a too big difference, not enough to pay the double price, in my opinion. Though if you have the money...
 
Of course, the 166MHz (333MHz effective) front-side bus is nice, and should help the performance if you have good DDR333 or faster memory.
 
And yeah, the cooler might take too much space. You might want to check the AMD pages and motherboard manufacturer pages and cooler manufacturer pages. Good luck!

[Knight Templar]

Originally posted by ToT

and aren't you just a little bit worried that vadar still has access here? I know it's not my problem but...I don't like any hackers nosing around here - HLP's cool and I'd like to keep it that way.

I don't know about access, but if you watch the who's online list, he comes on every so often and tries to mess with his control panel..

[Ulundel]

Originally posted by Thunder
They try and sell GeForce2s as "cutting edge"....

now I understand you completely.

Thunder, since you're doing the motherboard-CPU thing, maybe you could give me some details about their compatibility