Intel Motherboard and CPU Recommendations

The Intel side of things is a little less difficult to assess. There haven't been any major developments lately that are due to upset the balance, so things remain largely unchanged. The impending launch of the 600 series processors will hopefully breathe some new life into the platform. With the lowest clocked models scheduled to run at 3.0 and 3.2 GHz and targeting a reasonable $200-$300 price according to recent Intel roadmaps, the Prescott 2M is definitely something to think about if you're not in any particular hurry. The additional L2 cache should boost performance to beyond current Pentium 4 Extreme Edition levels - the L2 cache is faster than L3 cache, remember - and given the much lower pricing of these mainstream oriented processors, it seems unwise to make a large investment in a high-end Pentium 4 right now. In the Mid-Range, however, price/performance is not likely to be dramatically different from current options, with an extra 10% to 15% performance coming from the cache upgrade. Waiting a few months for a 10% performance increase is just delaying the inevitable, so here is our Intel suggestion.


   
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Intel Platform Recommendation

Motherboard: ASUS P5GD1 (915P)
Price: $116 Shipped
Processor:Pentium 4 540 (3.2 GHz) for 775 (Retail)
Price: $215 Shipped

While we haven't given the P5GD1 [RTPE: ASUS 915P P5GD1] a formal review, it shares many similarities with the Gold Editor's Choice P5GD2 from our 915P motherboard roundup. We chose the "lesser" board for a couple of reasons. First is price, with the P5GD2 generally costing $30 more than its little brother. The bigger factor also plays into price: the P5GD1 uses DDR RAM instead of DDR2. DDR2 continues to cost quite a bit more than regular DDR memory, and it has yet to show a tremendous performance advantage. Unlike the AMD options, there really doesn't seem to be any point in avoiding PCI Express on the Intel platforms, as you would have to opt for an older chipset and fewer features in order to go that route. This can be good or bad, depending on the graphics card that you plan on using, but we'll get to that topic shortly.

As far as features go, the ASUS board has pretty much everything that you could want. The integrated gigabit Ethernet (GbE) is on the PCI Express bus, so performance is not limited by the slower PCI bus. That really doesn't seem to matter too much, however, as nearly all GbE setups that we've tested can handle 30 to 40 MB/s transfer rates, which is usually as fast as any non-RAIDed hard drive setup. Only serious networking types are likely to be concerned with maximum GbE performance. One minor shortcoming is that unlike the P5GD2, ASUS decided to use a cheaper non-HD audio solution. We would have preferred the Azalia HD solution, but the Realtek ALC861 8 channel audio is plenty good. If you plan on adding your own sound card, this becomes a moot point, but we certainly don't feel that better sound hardware is necessary.

For the processor, we try to keep things relatively close to the price and performance of the AMD system by going with the 3.2GHz Pentium 540 [RTPE: BX80547PG3200E]. We actually end up being slightly cheaper than the AMD platform here, due to the lower cost of the motherboard, but overall, the AMD system will often outperform the Intel system, so that seems fair. There are still areas where Intel leads in performance, most likely due to better optimizations for their architecture; so if gaming isn't your primary concern, it becomes more of a toss up. A slight upgrade in performance via the P4 550 is also something to consider, but for a $60 price increase, you only get an extra 200MHz, so it's not a great bargain.


AMD Recommendations Memory Recommendations
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  • bigpow - Friday, January 21, 2005 - link

    Very nice write-up.
  • spartacvs - Friday, January 21, 2005 - link

    To unhaiduc,

    A good place to start is
    http://www.computers-canada.com/index.html
  • unhaiduc - Friday, January 21, 2005 - link

    does anyone know of any canadian stores that sell the ViewEra V172D Silver 17" LCD?
    the best canadian deal for a decent 17lcd that i could find is the BenQ FP783.. its got 1280 native res, dvi/analog, and is 12ms (ncix.com has it for $373.75CAD after rebate)
  • Glassmaster - Friday, January 21, 2005 - link

    On page 2 with the AMD recommendations there is a typo: "[RTPE: MSI 915P Neo2 Platinum]" of course this is an intel board.

    Great guide!

    Glassmaster.
  • bupkus - Friday, January 21, 2005 - link

    Does the XFX 6600GT AGP 128MB have the same heat-sink issues as the PCIe version?
  • arfan - Friday, January 21, 2005 - link

    I need full review NF4 Ultra n SLI, I want motherboard DFI Ultra, n I hope all manufacture motherboard make board like DFI Ultra ( 2 SLI X16). Why after 3 mounth chipset NF4 release, there are less motherboard come, I don't understand. How long I must wait ? :(

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