a few intel questions (c/e, best mobo/chipset)

[ajna_star]

ok, so im a computer building noob and im about to build a box...will be mostly used for photoshop/dreamweaver, rarely a game, and everyday surfing/etc

i wanna go with a p4 2.8 & i noticed theres a C and E... whats the difference and which will be better for me?

whats the best chipset for my needs?

also whats a good mobo thats reasonably priced...no sata, no firewire, onboard lan/audio. no overclocking, and something easy, that will basically set it self up


thanks

[HeadBand]

C is norhtwood core E is prescott core...prescotts are slightly slower than northwoods but better for overclocking

also there are now socket T processors which are much more future proof and i highly recomend them...there are only 3 chipsets i recomend the 915P it is the one that is most widley availible...it will let you use pci-express and ddr/ddr2 ram, the onboard audio is much more advanced than previous versions and it also includes matrix raid which lets you have 2 partitions on an array one in raid 0 for speed and another in raid 1 for stability...i like this motherboard because it will give you a GEAR slot for agp graphics cards and 2 extra ide controllers because the new chipset only has one because we are moving away from IDE to sata but not as fast as intel would like us to...btw why don't you want SATA drives

if you want to go for socket 478 for price or some other reason i recomend the 865PE chipset

also know that intel will slash prices sunday and the 3GHZ will will be the same prie as a 2.8 is now but a 2.8 will not change because i guess it is figured to be obselete http://theinquirer.net/?article=17935

[Sweeper]

I also agree going with the 865PE chipset if you are going with the 2.8C. As for the motherboard, it depends on what you want. Basic board I would recommend something along the lines as what I am using "MSI 865PE Neo2 LS". Great board, does what I need it to do and has the SATA incase I decide to upgrade my HD from IDE. Very stable.

Sweeper

[ajna_star]

i wont be buying everything till monday/tuesday... so ill go with the p4 3ghz... is it the same deal with c/e with the 3ghz?

will the 380watt powersupply / single fan in the antec sonata case be ok for that cpu?

is sata gonna make a big difference for what im doing?

i dont know what pci-express, raid, or agp are... and have no plans on using any of them.

can u point me towards a mobo knowing all that, fast & good sound is a must. but it needs to basically set itself up... i dont wanna have to fool with anything

[HeadBand]

yes C/E are the same things on all speeds

yes it should be but if you get a super high end video card it may not be enough power

sata won't make a big difference but neither will the price of it and it will be more future-proof if you wanted to use the drive in another system later

pci express is the new graphics format agp is the old one....without using either you will need onboard graphics which suck and also take up cpu power and ram...raid is using 2 hard drives to act as 1 with raid 0 it writes different things to the drives at the same time so its faster raid 1 writes the same thing to 2 drives so if one dies you still have your data

i still recomend that mobo for the socket T and the one sweeper said is good for socket 478...the only fooling you would have to do would be if you get sata you would have to press f6 at the begining of windows setup and put in the floppy disk but don't let that scare you away from sata its really easy and its good to learn these things....your next computer will most likley be sata so why not start now

[ajna_star]

i cant find 'MSI 865PE Neo2 LS' on newegg...(searching msi, 865pe chipset)

i found these:

MSI "865PE Neo2-V"
MSI "Neo2-PFISR "
MSI "865PE Neo2-PFS (Platinum Edition)"

[Sweeper]

I'd go with the MSI "Neo2-PFISR " i865PE. That's one sweet board!!!! Plus it gives you more memory options rather than limiting yourself to DDR400 max.