Recommendations

[Larry2004]

Hi,
I am an average PC user, I don't game, I will be doing some lite video work nothing elaborate, transferring video to PC and burning dvd's, and I will be working with some digital photographs. My question is I am building a new computer utilizing a P4 2.8 Prescott CPU and I want to know how much difference if any I would notice building on a 848 platform versus a 865 or 875 chipset platform. How much improvement would I notice with the dual channel versus single channel memory board. Should I install 512 or 1024 memory? Would I be better off with a nVidia or ATI video card? Would the ATI 9600 AIW or the nVidia FX5200 suffice? All recommendations will be appreciated.  Final question, I was considering using an old ATX case with USB  1.1 ports on the front, the new board will have USB 2.0, will this work in this case?
Thanks!

[johnwill]

You won't notice any significant difference between the single channel vs. dual channel memory IMO.  I have both types in different systems, and the overall feel is identical.  I'd start with 512mb of memory, I really doubt you'll need more unless you do some serious photo editing on very large files.  I'm sure the more inexpensive video boards you mention will be more than sufficient.

Your case should work, though the connections to the USB on the front panel may or may not connect or work properly, hard to know unless I saw the case.  I'd make sure you have a quality power supply for the new machine, 400 watts or more.  I like the Antec supplies, but there are others that get good reviews.  Check over at http://www.tomshardware.com for a good review of P/S brands.

Also, the hard disk will be a significant part of the performance equation, so I'd consider at a minimum a 7200 RPM drive with the 8mb cache.  If you want to step up, perhaps the WD SATA Raptor 10K RPM drive.

[merlin_2]

all seems ok ...till you load winxp....load win2k [pro]

[Raptor]

Or find out for yourself and donot listen to Merlin's more than unfit prejuidice against Windows XP.

[Larry2004]

Raptor,
I sure wish you would voice your opinion on my hardware I am considering and help me out.
Thanks,
Larry

[Raptor]

Dual channel memory is nice to have, but I donot think you will gain much benefit from it or even notice it at all.

You will require two indentical RAM sticks and a motherboard that supports them. If you buy a motherboard that supports Dual Channel technology you may as well use it.

512mb DDR RAM is more than enough, unless you do decide to play games. In which you may want to have installed 1024MB DDR RAM. Speeds up loading times.

An ATI or an Nvidia card depends entirely on what you like best. I find ATI cards to be of very good quality. But perhaps, if you are not going to do anything that requires 3D graphics it is best to obtain a motherboard that has a (decent) onboard videocard this is probably cheaper and easier to maintain.

As for your USB question, here are a few articles related to USB:

USB

Universal Serial Bus Information and Troubleshooting

If you want information on the different chipsets, I suggest you ask Intel technical Support for a comparisment chart.

[MalikTous]

Try it... 512MB RAM is probably plenty, if you have a dual channel capable board use 2 256MB sticks for best results. If you need more, the breakpoint seems to be 768MB, and a couple of 128s are cheaper than another pair of 256s. If your MB uses single channel, start with a 512 and add a 256 if necessary.

For a video card, an AGP card (either NVidia or ATI) will outperform an embedded, especially if you will be using it with a frame grabber or genlock card to capture streaming video from NTSC or PAL tape and VCD players.

For an OS, start with either XP or 2K, whichever you prefer. If it dumps out, it's still good enough to download a Linux distro that will work...

Most front panel USB ports will work OK as whatever the MB and OS supports on the MB or card connector they are wired to. If they are connected to an MB USB2 connector and run with WinXP or latest Linux, they should be USB2...