New Rig Advice

[marvs5]

My current desktop rig has unexpectedly died on me (something on the mobo or CPU dies when it heats up and kills the system). It was an Athlon XP 1700+ with a Gigabyte VIA-KT266A based mobo. When I built it in late 2001, the choices back then were pretty simple. You could get an Athlon XP or Intel Pentium. The XPs were cheaper, but ran faster and hotter.

Now that I'm forced to get a new CPU/mobo setup and after having done some research, I'm really confused by the plethora of choices available today. So I'm seeking input from the community.

The machine first and foremost is a work machine for my business (Microsoft Office apps). So reliability is key. The machine will also act as a PVR, will do some video/audio processing and very limited gaming (Unreal Tournament).

I also want to re-use the remaining parts of the old system that still work: 2 IDE/ATA-100 hard drives, 2 IDE optical drives, Hauppauge PVR-150 (PCI), Antec case with 400W PSU (the 412X) and a cheapie ATI AGP video card (though I would be willing to upgrade to a cheapie PCI-E card). I also want to get technology that would be upgradable into the future.

So, all that being said, I'm looking at both the Athlon 64 and Pentium 4 630 as they seem to be the coolest running CPUs (and I'm guessing heat killed my existing rig). I am open to other ideas. That being said, anyone have any thoughts on this and which chipset is the best to accompany each CPU?

Thx in advance for your help and input.

 

[dunklegend]

For the A64 the nForce 4 or nForce 4 Ultra are good choices but I think they only come with PCIe

 

[marvs5]

Thx. Anyone else have any advice?

 

[chuck232]

If you want something cool, go for a S939 motherboard and a Venice stepping Athlon64. The 630s are cooler than most Prescott based P4s, but they're not exactly cool running. You can get S939 boards with AGP so that's not an issue although PCI-e would definitely be more thinking to the future. A cheaper PCI-e card like a Geforce 6200 can be had for ~$100 and can unlock to give very good performance. A nForce4 chipset board and a Venice A64 would be great for what you're looking for.

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[lonelypauly]

Go AMD, definately a socket 939 board, you will be able to upgrade your system for a long while. An Abit, Asus, or MSI board, Athlon 64 3000+ or higher, PC 3200 name brand Memory...your 400W PSU is borderline...I would say be on the safe side and get at least a 480W.

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[apache_lives]

Newer p4's are way hotter and suck alot more power (perhaps nearly double the newer amd's in terms or raw watt's), go with the AMD and id go for a nice PCI express based mobo for the system for future upgrades.

If you PSU is branded then it should hold up aslong as you have a more basic video card (no powerful cards like a 6800gt, im currently getting away with a cheapo 400w psu with a 6600gt and a p4 2.6c @ 2800) and sufficent airflow through the psu might help (my other system only works with a second fan straped to the back of the psu thanks to the power hungry prescott core).

Chipset wise VIA has been horrible in the past (iv had issues with many of their based boards aswell - instability, crap performance, random resets but that was in the days of early p4's and p3's) so id say something based on the nForce series and try for the branded boards eg Gigabyte and ASUS etc.

And finally - your old system - check that the thermal paste between the hsf and the cpu is still intact and reset the bios and see if you have any luck - its a waste when a good system bails out on you.

 

[Crashman]

The best AMD chipsets are the nForce4 series and nForce3 250 series. There are nForce3 250 boards that support Socket 939, which is AMD's latest socket.

Intel's pushing Prescott cores right now, they don't perform all that well given their clock speed, and they spew out THREE TIMES the heat of AMD's latest cores. That also means having a prescott in your system is like having a 100W bulb added to your power bill.

I'd suggest a Socket 939 board with nForce3 chipset if you're interested in keeping the video card, or a Socket 939 board with nForce4 chipset if you don't mind upgrading the video card.

Either way, the AMD Athlon 64 3000+ with Venice core is a great CPU for performance, value, and low power consumption. When you buy from sites like Newegg, the core type is listed.

As for boards, solid, inexpensive boards using those chipsets are available from Chaintech and Epox.

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