$350 for mobo and processor
 

Hey I've got about $300-350 for a mobo and processor. I would like to get a pentium4 2.4c or 2.6c and do some mild overclocking, but I don't know what motherboard will make this the easiest. I don't need onboard video, but I want 800mhx fsb. I haven't done any overclocking yet, but I don't think Ill have much trouble doing it. What should I get? Would I be better off buying AMD? I want to be able to play HL2 in its glory, after upgrading my video card once the 9800s come down in price.
thanks

is7

I'd second the Abit IS7 as a great overclocker mortherboard, pair it with a 2.4c and watch it scream :D

Re: $350 for mobo and processor
 

I have an Abit IS7 and I definately agree, it works great. The standard IS7 will run you about $109 and the 2.4c will run you about $171 for the retail box (which I prefer because of the 3 year warranty), but its up to you. Also might I recomend that you get some very high quality DDR since that is a big factor when overclocking. If you want to keep a 1:1 ratio for your RAM then you will need DDR433 or DDR466 depending on how little or how much you want to overclock. And also think about getting two smaller DDR's versus one larger DDR stick, so that you can run them Dual-Channel. Well good luck, and post if you have any other questions.

G_Lock

I've seen some serious shit done with a 2.4 C core and the IS7 combo. You could compare the IS7 to the Abit NF7-S 2.0, if that gives you any inclination about how good it is. I know absolutely nothing about Pentium overclocking except for the fact that I've seen plenty of 2.4 C's go well over 3.0. Good luck!

-Lasereth

i love my ASUS MB for OC, ill take it iver an abit any day.

get a big heat sink as well

Swiftech MCX4000-B is what i would recomend, its a bithc to install but once its on its the best one out there i swear by it. idling at 96 F and around 116F at full tilt.

get ic7 better mobo then the is7. along with the 2.4c

Well that depends. The IC7 is more expensive than the IS7, and the IS7 comes with a 10/100 and if you are lucky with the GigaBit LAN, but the IC7 comes with neither. So if you want more features then you might consider the higher price of the IC7, but otherwise, I would still stick with the IS7.

<b>I've got about $300-350 for a mobo and processor</b>

Go AMD.

What mobo / processor combo would you suggest?

Right now, if you want to spend $300 or less, you should DEFINITELY get the Abit NF7-S 2.0 motherboard and AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Barton at 1.8 GHz. That will put you at about $200-$250 total. That is an extremely powerful combination, capable of insane overclocking. The motherboard is literally the best on the market for performance with the nForce 2 chipset. NewEgg has them both; you can usually find the processor on sale for about $90.00.

-Lasereth

I have 3 NF7-S motherboards. They are without a doubt the best motherboard I have installed for a long time. The onboard sound is amazing, and I hate onboard devices. Dolby Digital encoding on the fly, and Optical toslink output right on the board.

Umm, overclocking would void the CPU warranty wouldn't it?

<b>hahaha</b> Get a SOYO KT600 for around 160.00. Yeh, expensive, but worth it. Then, throw a Barton 2800 on that mobo.
I will sell you a 2800 Barton that is still under warranty for 140.00. You pay shipping. We just hit 300.00!

There are some ASUS boards also. You can do a lot for the price range you suggested, however (oh damn, the horrible "however")

You have no ram.

Let me know.

i wouldnt waste your money on anything above a AMD XP Barton 2500+ since you can just EASILY overclock it to 3200 speeds.

same core, lower price, same speeds.

Do this with a ABIT Nf7-s, and you are one set mother f'er :)
(note a decent heatsink would be great - 30-40$ max)

Abit NF7-S motherboard (103$) (Best Nforce2 mobo & best oc'er atm as long as you get reversion 2.x)
AMD XP 2500+ Barton (90$)
(i know this is beyond your limit, but for future reference) 512Mb Corsair XMS Low Latency 400mhz DDR (140$)
Vantec Aeroflow Heatsink & Fan (25$)

Default CPU@ 166x11 = 1830mhz
CPU@ 220x10 = 2200mhz @ 42c Idle / 49c Max Possible Load
RAM@ 7-2-3-2 440mhz

MSI K7N2 DELTA-ILSR $125

AMD ATHLON XP 2800+ Barton $173 or $183. Depends on if you get the Retail version which comes with a heatsink. I'd suggest getting The OEM and just buy better heatsink.

Ok, more choices now. Is there going to be a huge difference in performance between a barton 2500+ and a 2.4c P4? Is the barton 2500+ easily overclocked like the 2.4c?

With an nForce board you can also plug in digital speakers and record sound from a digital source (music CD, DVD, etc.). The Audigy 2 doesn't allow this. Digital speakers have much fewer cables to work with, too. Just one cable from the computer to the subwoofer, instead of three. I actually own a bog-standard Intel board with a 2.4B Pentium 4, but I got it cheap and would have gone Barton/nForce if I'd had the money.

There is almost zero discernable difference in performance between the two platforms at that CPU speed. Don't worry, you're getting great performance at a great price.

I got my Barton 2500+ to 2.2 GHz with shit RAM on an Abit NF7-S Rev. 2.0. That's easily as good as a 2.4 P4 C Core. I hear the Pentium 4 C cores OC really good, but frankly I don't know anything about overclocking a Pentium 4. I know that if you go more than a few hundred MHz then you have to go water-cooling or even vapor cooling in some cases.

My Barton 2500+ went to 2.2 GHz with a Volcano 7+ CPU fan, which is about $30 US.

And the Abit NF7-S on-board sound is amazing. It's literally better than most sound cards you can buy; it even has a built-in Fiber-Optic Dolby Digital jack. They don't call it SoundStorm for nothing. :)

-Lasereth

if you really want to overclock a p4, get an Abit IG7-MAX3.