630 vs. 640 vs. 650

Senior Member

20. May 2005 @ 17:25

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I was going to choose the Intel P4 640, 3.2 ghz with 2 mb l2 cache, I am starting to second guess myself. Is the 650 worth the money, it's doesn't have great ratings either.

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21. May 2005 @ 01:36

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i wouldnt say so when your going for that good any better isnt really required personally id go for an AMD but that me however i have built many intel systems and i know for a fact that peformance wise that model (640) is definately not rubbish where as the (650) barely improves over it. The difference was by a few hundred points in a benchmark i done think it was PcMark04. What you could do though is if possible you could pay the extra for the 650 and overclock but i have no experince with overclocking intels so its up to you but id ask somewhere else about that. if anyone knows then that would be nice to post.

Senior Member

21. May 2005 @ 08:23

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thanks, I have read many people ocing the 640 to almost 4 ghz. Haven't heard much about the 650.

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21. May 2005 @ 08:31

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no problem theres an idea though get the 640 oveclock it and itll be better than the performance of the 650 for cheaper can't beat that.

Thats what i did with my Amd Athlon Xp 3000+ it has 400Mhz FSB but i didnt want to pay the extra for the 3200+ which was about £40 at the time. So i changed the multiplyer half a point and walla 3200 performance. Granted needs a good fan but thats alright im a cooling freak i can get it above 3200 performance too but its very unstable so good luck!

Senior Member

21. May 2005 @ 12:40

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Do you know how much of a performance boost there is from DDR2 533 and DDR2 677?

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21. May 2005 @ 18:17

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Quote:
Do you know how much of a performance boost there is from DDR2 533 and DDR2 677?

DDR2 533 (PC 4200) = 4.2 GB/S *2 = 8.4 GB/S

DDR2 677 (PC 5400) = 5.4 GB/S *2 = 10.8 GB/S

Thats what 1.2Gb/s - 2.4 Gb/s with DDR2 thats quite an improvement id go for DDR2 677 depending on the costs though but obviously the choice is yours..

There will be quite a difference in a benchmark id estimate about 1000+ improvement in points easily as for gaming and other performances most things will be notiably faster but when you get that good were not talking a HUGE improvement im sure youll notice using the system but in a benchmark it will certainly show its beast potential.

bare in mind that your whole board must be able to support this frequency of memory at this exact speed

Hope it helped and that is gonna be one hell of a system :-D

This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 21. May 2005 @ 18:32

Senior Member

21. May 2005 @ 19:13

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Wow, never thought I would get so much help. I'm having a hard time choosing the right motherboard. I don't know if I need a motherboard that can support a 1066 mhz bus or not, I don't plan to get Intel Extreme but I want a computer that's future-proof. Is the Abit AA8XE compatible with DDR2 667? Here's a link: http://www2.abit.com.tw/test_report/AA8XE_Series/memory.php.

THANKS!!!

Senior Member

21. May 2005 @ 19:21

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I forgot to ask, I am going to buy a case where a USB, Firewire, mic, and speaker port are on the top of it. How would I connect them to the motherboard for them to work. I understand I need a header but do all mobos have them?

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22. May 2005 @ 05:55

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Quote:
Wow, never thought I would get so much help. I'm having a hard time choosing the right motherboard. I don't know if I need a motherboard that can support a 1066 mhz bus or not, I don't plan to get Intel Extreme but I want a computer that's future-proof. Is the Abit AA8XE compatible with DDR2 667? Here's a link: http://www2.abit.com.tw/test_report/AA8XE_Series/memory.php.

Ok that board supports DDR2 677 for sure, id suggest getting one of the brands listed there Kingston would be better suited. Both modules must be exactly the same remeber ie both must be 256mb or 512mb or 1gb and they must be both the same freuqency and preferably make so two kingston modules would go down nice.

Quote:
I forgot to ask, I am going to buy a case where a USB, Firewire, mic, and speaker port are on the top of it. How would I connect them to the motherboard for them to work. I understand I need a header but do all mobos have them?

As for that all intel boards have an expansion Header and if you go for that board it will have a firewire header for sure it says so on the specs page. As for audio i.e headphones, mic, usb will all be there on the board too as its standard for many new intel boards.

# 2 x USB 2.0 headers
# 2 x IEEE 1394 headers
# 1 x FP-Audio header
# 1 x CD-IN

That should support the case extras no problems but a case link would be great to verify it 100% also you should check that the USB's on the case are infact USB 2.0 enabled or else youll be using USB 1.1 but no big deal it has USB 2.0 connectors on the back anyway.

Great Motherboard choice too its got PCI Express too very wise choice my friend lol im stuck with AGP as for the Intel Extreme it cant hurt the more features the better.

A great motherboard makes upgrading much easier i found that out a long time ago!

Anyway good luck and happy building, also some beast cooling will be rather good for that system its going to kick out a lot of heat.

Senior Member

22. May 2005 @ 15:40

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Do SATA2 and SATA use the same connector? Would I be able to put an SATA150 drive in a SATA300 mobo? I did mean the AA8XE not the Fatal1ty, just making sure.

This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 22. May 2005 @ 15:41

Member

22. May 2005 @ 16:24

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Quote:
Do SATA2 and SATA use the same connector? Would I be able to put an SATA150 drive in a SATA300 mobo? I did mean the AA8XE not the Fatal1ty, just making sure.

Yeah that would work fine but obviously it would underperform but it will still operate properly so no worries.

Senior Member

22. May 2005 @ 16:30

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wow, quick response. Should I spend another $100 just for dual core and SATA2 support?

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23. May 2005 @ 07:07

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wow, quick response. Should I spend another $100 just for dual core and SATA2 support?

It all depends if your going to use the extra features mate, when you say dula core i assume your talking about a dual core processor ?

If so then im not really sure to be honest but i would say dont get dual core support. It's no where near main stream technology yet and it will be a good bit before it does and by then im sure things will have changed and youll need something else. Again though its up to you if you think it will be benificial to you then by all means do it otherwise i woldnt burn your money.

Senior Member

23. May 2005 @ 18:15

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how much do dual-core cpus cost?

This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 23. May 2005 @ 18:15

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23. May 2005 @ 20:45

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how much do dual-core cpus cost?

Well there haven't been any made available to the public as far as im aware and a quick search on kelkoo confirmed this. I think you might be getting mixed up with the dual core processor idea and dual cpus. Dual core is basically two cores on one chip where as dual cpus is two seperate processors. Dual cpus are good but in my experience not really worth it. When your going for a 3Ghz or more cpu thats enough anything above that really is overkill and almost no software at all is written to take full advantage of the power of both. So really if you get say 2 3Ghz cpus itll be like having a 6Ghz. But once it gets above 4Ghz its hard to notice much of a difference in speed to the user. Obviously 6Ghz would rape a benchmark and no doubt cost a lot and spit out a huge amount of heat. This kind of power is really only needed for servers and the such and even then its rarley used to its max. But as always its your money but personally i wouldn't.

Long story short it must be dual cpus it supports so basiclaly two of the processors you want is the cost.

Senior Member

24. May 2005 @ 11:58

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thanks for all your help!