I'm planning on building a new computer. The hardware I'm buying:

• Processor: INTEL Pentium D, either 915 or 925 (reasonably low price tag, correct cache size). €60 or €75.
• Motherboard: ASUS P5ND2 SE (reasonably cheap, Pentium D compatible, four DDR2 slots, PCIe16). €50.
• RAM: 1PC-5300 1GB four-of, to get me to 4GB. €250 total.
• Video: GeForce 8800 Gt (it's got two DVI outputs, and it's supported by CUDA 1.1). €250.
• Screens: twin LG Flatron L194WS-SF (LCD 19", 1440x900, DVI input, and nice contrast). €360 total.

So, I'm looking at a €1000 computer. Any comments or warnings before I go out and buy all this?

I think that the E2140 and Athlon X2 4000+ (or something similar) are faster in most benchmarks, cost about the same and have a lower power consumption (although they have smaller caches if that's a problem for some reason).

Why did you decide to go with that particular processor? Most hardware sites I've seen say that the entire Pentium 4 line should be completely discarded.

EDIT: After searching for a bit I see that the 915/925 has a MUCH larger cache (4MB - I thought it was 2MB) and I didn't find any reviews that refer specifically to it (I was comparing the Athlon and E2140 with the 920). So maybe it is not a bad choice after all, but you should still look at some benchmarks depending on what you'll mostly use it for (I guess you already know that [smile]). I remember seeing benchmarks where the X2 4200+ was faster that the Pentium EE 955 (here).

[Edited by - Gage64 on December 7, 2007 8:33:15 AM]

Hasn't the Pentium D processor series been succeeded by the Core 2 Duo series?

I'd say, if you're going to spend that much on 4GB of RAM, you should get 2GB of faster quality RAM. PC-5300 is the slowest you can get, afaik. Above a certain limit, extra RAM is useless anyway. Unless you're doing CGI renderings or scientific research.

And a 8800 GT seems like overkill to that RAM and CPU, you should probably transfer some of that money to the CPU and Motherboard.

So to sum it up, if I were you, I'd

1) Swap the Pentium D for a Core 2 Duo
2) Get 2GB of faster and better RAM, instead of 4GB of the slowest.
3) Transfer some of the money to the CPU and Motherboard from the graphics card money, and possibly get a 8600.

I hope this helps. [smile]

You'll really want to upgrade the processor. The Pentium D dates back to when AMD was still smoking pretty much all Intel cpus. It's effectively crap. I'm not sure why your ram is so expensive for what it is. Are ram prices really that different there compared to the states?

G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail $109.99

Which still leaves you two slots available to upgrade to 8GB if you ever wanted to.

I'd stick with the 8800GT. It's an amazing card for the price (much better price:performance then the 8600GT)

HI,

Everything is fine except the CPU, which seems a little off. Good CPU = faster compiling :) Try to get a E6XX0 or Q6XX0 from Intel. Those are still the best value for money imho. Not sure if you can get below €1000 then but I think it should just work. Personally I'd save on the video card instead of the CPU, e.g. an 8600 instead of 8800.

Also, with a better motherboard you can upgrade more easily to a newer CPU later if you wish, e.g. an 8-core would presumably become supported by the boards that support core duo 2 and quad cores now.

Ditch the D! C2D's are cheap and easily OC'able.

Doesn't seem like you're playing games so I'd ditch the 8800 and use the extra money for processor and mobo upgrade. Use the mobo upgrade and switch out the 4gb of 5300 to 2gb of 8000, you will thank me later.

Since I don't think this is a gaming machine you may want standard monitors (not widescreen). 19" is small for widescreen and only beneficial for me when I'm playing games.

If you are playing games, leave the 8800 and get a 22" monitor or bigger (my one regret is that I stopped at 1440x900)

I don't know of any good european online stores or how different pricing is, but £720 in the UK (€1000) gets you a 2.2GHz core 2 duo, Intel P35 based motherboard (go with abit or gigabyte), 4GB of memory, 500GB hard drive, case&PSU, 256MB 8600GT (others assumed you weren't gaming, I'll go along with that) and two 20" 1680x1050 monitors.

You might want to shop around.

Quote: Original post by tstrimp
Which still leaves you two slots available to upgrade to 8GB if you ever wanted to.

For what? Your own personal render farm???

I have 2gigs of memory (1GB x 1GB) and I can leave my entire desktop running (Outlook, FF, Word, Skype, Trilian, Gtalk, numerous tray apps, etc) log into another XP account (ironically one originally created to have a minor memory footprint just for gaming) and still play games like GH III and World in Conflict without any problems.

Besides I don't see Windows Vista listed for an OS. If you're going to be running XP you can't even address 4GB of memory anyways.

Kudos on the dual screens. Careful tho, it's hard to stop after two [grin]

And yea, there's absolutely no reason not to invest in a C2D these days.

You can overclock Pentium Ds way further (in clock speed terms -- I think the world record is six and a half GHz) than you can a Core series.

If you're not overclocking, I'd recommend you get a Core 2 Duo/Quad instead. They're much more modern cores, and significantly faster than the D. IIRC, they share the same socket, so you can keep the motherboard.

Regarding memory, you will need to be running a 64-bit OS (either XP or Vista 64) in order to address more than 3-something gigabytes of RAM. Yes, it's a pain in the ass, but that's what you get for wanting a gob of memory.

For the love of all that is holy, don't get a Pentium D, I've had to use it and it was a painful experience, even with 2 GB RAM.