OK, i will go with Prescott on 478. I found SL7E5 but for 25€
GeForce 6800GT and Audigy2 ZS ..find also in local sale

Type at least 3 boards, with 4xDDR1, AGP8x and 2xSATA
I found this ABIT IC7-G Intel 875P

Now i have only SL6WJ with Zalman Cooler - will be better than any AthlonXP at least for now?

philscomputerlab wrote:

Great post!

Why thanks. 😀

But what's wrong with X-Fi cards? IMO they are essential for this time period with the "last hurrah" of hardware accelerated 3D audio supporting games.

There's nothing "wrong" with X-Fi in terms of it being bad (as long as you avoid the non-EMU20k cards), I just don't like the "mode switch" thing in drivers, and all of the extra complexity they bring vs the "one size fits all" functionality of the Audigy series. And since EAX 5 is really their only selling point over the Audigy, and so few games use that, it doesn't seem worth the hassle imho. Either would be perfectly acceptable for this era running Windows XP, and both will support EAX1-4 and have good quality. 😀

eFatal2ty wrote:

OK, i will go with Prescott on 478. I found SL7E5 but for 25€ GeForce 6800GT and Audigy2 ZS ..find also in local sale […]
Show full quote

OK, i will go with Prescott on 478. I found SL7E5 but for 25€
GeForce 6800GT and Audigy2 ZS ..find also in local sale

Type at least 3 boards, with 4xDDR1, AGP8x and 2xSATA
I found this ABIT IC7-G Intel 875P

Now i have only SL6WJ with Zalman Cooler - will be better than any AthlonXP at least for now?

Sounds like a very good combo. One thing to note on the MB, 865p and 875p are essentially the same for single-socket systems, and there are a lot of very nice 865 boards out there as well.

As far as vs AthlonXP, the 2.8GHz is around where it started to diverge in the NetBurst's favor. Going over 3GHz is where you'll really see the better performance. OFC if SSE2/3 are a factor (like Hitman 4) it's a more significant difference, but a ~3GHz P4 will be very competitive with AthlonXP even in non-SSE titles. Later P4's (Gallatin, Prescott, and Cedar Mill) will generally be competitive with Athlon64 at higher (>3GHz) clocks, although some Athlon64 parts may offer lower power consumption for the same performance. However Athlon64, especially for Socket 939, has become something of a collectable these days so the prices may be higher.

Something else you might consider (and I know, you've already gotten an AGP card), would be an Intel 915 based Socket 478 board with PCIe, like this Albatron:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/171567723551 The advantage of such a board is that you could have PCIe graphics, like GeForce 8, which would improve performance in later DX9 games. I wouldn't go as far as an 8800 Ultra or anything silly like that, but an 8600GTS or 8800GTS would be a very respectable card for this kind of build. If you're sticking with AGP, the 6800GT is one of the best native choices, but you may also consider the 7800GS or some of the bridged Radeon cards. Keep in mind that bridged cards may have compatibility problems, and the Radeon bridge tends to not be as great as the nVidia one (I have a bridged X1600 that works pretty well, but there are some minor artefacts in VGA mode, and the VGA/2D performance is noticeably inferior to native AGP cards like GeForce FX, Radeon 9, WildcatVP, etc).

I just found complete Sc478 PC with X1950Pro 512M AGP for only 27€, its an DirectX9 SM3 graphics so i will use it instead of GF6800
Gallatin is very rare also.. Anyway, what does it mean "bridged" card ?

eFatal2ty wrote:

I just found complete Sc478 PC with X1950Pro 512M AGP for only 27€, its an DirectX9 SM3 graphics so i will use it instead of GF6800
Gallatin is very rare also.. Anyway, what does it mean "bridged" card ?

"Bridged" means a card that uses a chipset that isn't actually designed or capable of interfacing via the card's connector, and uses a "bridge" to translate PCI Express to AGP, or AGP to PCI Express. In the case of the X1950 the GPU itself is designed for PCIe, and it uses the ATi bridge to convert that for AGP connection to the system. This design generally works, but sometimes there are compatibility problems or quirks compared to a native card - like what I explained with my X1600. I wouldn't assume that you will have significant problems with the X1950 (especially if this is a complete working machine that's been configured like this and used for a while), it's just something to keep in mind with those kinds of cards. The X1950 is, in principle, a good choice because it should offer more performance than the 6800, and will have better support for HDR features in some games (like FarCry HDR). Also just to note, the 6800GT is SM3 as well (it's actually the first SM3 card). 😀

I use the X1950 Pro AGP in two systems.

No issues to report and I would think that as long as you only play games from 2003- 2006 everything will work great.
Only the X1950 Pro is worth 20 Euro and the Gallatin another 20 Euro so the price for the bundle seems fair to say the least.

You already made up your mind about Intel P4, it seems, but I still suggest something around AMD 754 or 939 sockets (Athlon 64), which will be probably much more interesting, IMHO. A socket 754 MB like Asus K8N-E Deluxe (nforce3 - AGP) or Asus K8N4-E Deluxe (nforce4 - PCIe) would do nicely (nforce4 is not out by the way; released in October 2004). They are both fully featured boards (SATA RAID, DDR400, gigabit LAN, etc.) which will be good for a "high end" PC, and the second one with PCIe will widen your available choices of graphic cards.

The PC that I put together in 2006 (K8N-E Deluxe with Athlon 64 3200+) after my Asus P4PE fried itself, was my main rig till late 2009 (and second PC and XP box since then), had no problems ever at all. I played Far Cry, MOH Pacific Assault, and some more from the same era on it, without any problems (1GB RAM, Geforce 6800 256MB - I know, this is not 2004)

Now it has 3GB RAM, HD3650 1GB AGP display card and AMD 3700+ CPU, still very good as the XP box and for fiddling with Linux.

Socket 754 is cool. I have an Asrock board with Nvidia chipset and onboard graphics and PCIe slots. With a GeForce 7 it's a nice machine.

tayyare wrote:

You already made up your mind about Intel P4, it seems, but I still suggest something around AMD 754 or 939 sockets (Athlon 64), which will be probably much more interesting, IMHO. A socket 754 MB like Asus K8N-E Deluxe (nforce3 - AGP) or Asus K8N4-E Deluxe (nforce4 - PCIe) would do nicely (nforce4 is not out by the way; released in October 2004). They are both fully featured boards (SATA RAID, DDR400, gigabit LAN, etc.) which will be good for a "high end" PC, and the second one with PCIe will widen your available choices of graphic cards.

The PC that I put together in 2006 (K8N-E Deluxe with Athlon 64 3200+) after my Asus P4PE fried itself, was my main rig till late 2009 (and second PC and XP box since then), had no problems ever at all. I played Far Cry, MOH Pacific Assault, and some more from the same era on it, without any problems (1GB RAM, Geforce 6800 256MB - I know, this is not 2004)

Now it has 3GB RAM, HD3650 1GB AGP display card and AMD 3700+ CPU, still very good as the XP box and for fiddling with Linux.

The Gallatin do keep up with the Athlon 64 CPUs pretty well. I do also prefer Athlon 64 over Prescott and Pentium D if we are talking about the later PCI-E platforms but almost every non Asus s754 or s939 AGP board needs recapping by now and the Asus boards often cost and arm and a leg.

I have tried to find a nice s754 Nforce3 board for about two years, I have bought alot of boards but im still looking...
The only boards I managed to buy that actually have worked are two MSI K8N Platinum but those boards are in my opinion not very good.

That's the board I have: http://www.asrock.com/mb/NVIDIA/K8NF6P-VSTA/

I also got a Venice core chip for it. I believe it;s the top model. 3700+ maybe?

philscomputerlab wrote:

That's the board I have: http://www.asrock.com/mb/NVIDIA/K8NF6P-VSTA/

I also got a Venice core chip for it. I believe it;s the top model. 3700+ maybe?

I think he was looking for AGP boards only.
If you go PCI-E and do not (like you and me) have sentimental reasons for going s754 I would get a s939 board.

There is no Venice top chip for s754 😉 You have the 3500+

The 3700+ is a Clawhammer 😎

philscomputerlab wrote:

An AGP system will struggle with games such as Doom 3, Far Cry or F.E.A.R. let alone Company of Heroes or Lost Planet.

Not exactly true. Doom3, Far Cry and FEAR was smooth sailing on X800, and so will Quake 4.

PcBytes wrote:

I run 7 on my P4M800 motherboard and it's very very fast.

Windows 7 didn't exist in 2004.

eFatal2ty wrote:

Why you dont mention nForce chipsets too?

nVidia really dropped the ball on nForce3 IMO. Buggy ethernet, bad onboard sound and a firewall that doesn't seem to work properly are the bad things I remember about it

Smooth sailing? No way. FEAR struggles on a GeForce 7.

Note that I come from the expectation of all details and high resolution with 60+ FPS so keep that in mind. For me a 8800GTX / 8800GT is what's required for these games.

Ars Technica God Box AD 2004

GL1zdA wrote:

Ars Technica God Box AD 2004

http://dl.maximumpc.com/Archives/MPC0904-web.pdf - page 24. Socket 775 + DDR2 in 2004 😳 I'm a little bit behind 😊 I will stick to 2003 year

eFatal2ty wrote:

GL1zdA wrote:

Ars Technica God Box AD 2004

http://dl.maximumpc.com/Archives/MPC0904-web.pdf - page 24. Socket 775 + DDR2 in 2004 😳 I'm a little bit behind 😊 I will stick to 2003 year

For '03 at the absolute top end you're talking Pentium 4 Extreme Edition or Athlon64 FX with GeForce FX 5950 or Radeon 9800XT, dual DDR400, Audigy 2 ZS of some sort, and whatever drive configuration you like. No point in going SMP because games won't use it, and depending on what you get it will actually hinder performance. Step down from the EE/FX and 5950/98XT as budget and other considerations require. 😀

FEAR was super demanding, at higher resolutions even the 8800GTX will have a hard time maintaining 60fps with everything that's going on. Granted, if you accept drops to 30s or 20s, you're going to have a blast 😀.

Far Cry and Doom 3 however are quite smooth on 6800GT, so I suppose the X800 will be a little better and should provide a great experience up to 1600x1200. With a 7800GTX you'll practically make sure it never drops lower than 45-50fps, no matter what's going on 😀.

So I found and I am gona buy this:

-MSI Neo2 865PE Platinum //edited: Abit IC7-G (instead of MSI)
-Intel Pentium4 HT 3.2GHz Prescott
-Corsair 2x1GB XMS 3500LL Pro DDR1-438MHz CL2
-Enermax EG465AX-VEG ATX 460W
-WD1500ADFD 150GB SATA 10000 RPM
-Thermaltake Matrix VX ATX case

but GPU i found only 7600GT 256M

eFatal2ty wrote:

So I found and I am gona buy this: […]
Show full quote

So I found and I am gona buy this:

-MSI Neo2 865PE Platinum
-Intel Pentium4 HT 3.2GHz Prescott
-Corsair 2x1GB XMS 3500LL Pro DDR1-438MHz CL2
-Enermax EG465AX-VEG ATX 460W
-WD1500ADFD 150GB SATA 10000 RPM
-Thermaltake Matrix VX ATX case

but GPU i found only 7600GT 256M

Think twice before getting a 10k RPM Raptor. These drives are very fast, yet wear out quicker than others. Besides, these drives were made mostly for enthusiasts. Just like DFI Lanparty boards, great as new, but soiled and beaten if you find one used.

eFatal2ty wrote:

So I found and I am gona buy this: […]
Show full quote

So I found and I am gona buy this:

-MSI Neo2 865PE Platinum
-Intel Pentium4 HT 3.2GHz Prescott
-Corsair 2x1GB XMS 3500LL Pro DDR1-438MHz CL2
-Enermax EG465AX-VEG ATX 460W
-WD1500ADFD 150GB SATA 10000 RPM
-Thermaltake Matrix VX ATX case

but GPU i found only 7600GT 256M

Try out the 7600GT if you get in a bundle with the other stuff but its not worth paying more than $10-$15 for it. Its about as fast as a 6800 GT if its the DDR3 version, a little bit slower if its the DDR2 version but you can often overclock the memory from 800 to 1000 Mhz on the DDR2 version and that brings its performance close to the DDR3 version.

RacoonRider wrote:

Think twice before getting a 10k RPM Raptor. These drives are very fast, yet wear out quicker than others. Besides, these drives were made mostly for enthusiasts. Just like DFI Lanparty boards, great as new, but soiled and beaten if you find one used.

When it comes to the Nforce3 socket 754 DFI Lanparty board I agree (Bad caps on 100% of the non recapped boards) and also the RDX200 socket 939 board seems to be a gamble but the Nforce4 socket 939 boards with solid caps seem to work fine more often than not. When dead its mostly because a failed BIOS flash. They often seem dead though as there are different BIOS versions for different memory and they do not always post with the "wrong" memory modules.

For those who want a hassle free socket 939 experience I would recommend Asus...

I found this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7TeUWx8H6w -44fps in HL2, Is 2GHz Opteron better than IP4HT 3.2?