Will Parhelia run on my current PC ?

[Conker]

Will Parhelia 128 MB AGPx8 run on my current computer ?

* Celeron 633 MhZ
* 384 MB ram
* Matrox Millenium G450 AGP ( This of course will be changed )
* 250 W power supply

[G400SG16mb]

what's your motherboard? Do you use WinXP?

[Conker]

I actually don´t know what motherboard I am using since it is a computer that I have borrowed. I use Win XP Proffesional.

When I start up the PC it says:

ASUS CUBX ACPI BIOS Revision 1008 Beta 004

10/15/2001-i440BX

Does that help ?

[Maggi]

the older Parhelias should be running fine, at least they work on Asus P2B boards.

Dunno about the new AGP8x revision Parhelias though.

[Kruzin]

Moved to Matrox Hardware forum...

[DGhost]

i don't see any reason why it shouldn't run... that being said, i don't think you will see that big of a performance increase in switching from a G450 to a Parhelia... you might though...

[Conker]

I just checked with the guy who originally bought the system - and he said that it will only accept AGPx1 or x2 cards

Guess it´s time to get a new PC

[Maggi]

I saw quite a boost when switching from G550 to Parhelia, when using my former Celeron850 ...

[Maggi]

Originally posted by Conker
I just checked with the guy who originally bought the system - and he said that it will only accept AGPx1 or x2 cards

Guess it´s time to get a new PC

so did my Asus P2B-S ...

[Conker]

I am looking at this system:

• X-Terminator ATX 400Watt.
• Prescott 3200 mhz P4 FSB800 1Mb Box
• Floppy drev 1.44.
• Maxtor 9 - 80 GB SER 150 8M
• CD-RW 52x, DVD 16x.
• Mainboard SL-865PRO2.
• 512MB DDR-333M
• Soundcard 6-CH Surround 5.1.
• Net RJ45 10/100/1Gbit.
• Dual 533MHz/800MHz FSB.
• Multi (AGPx4/x8), 5xPCI.
• ATA-100, SATA, RAID 0-1.
• Chipset INTEL-865PE/ICH5.

Can you see any bottlenecks here ?

[banzai]

Yes, your floppy drive!

[UtwigMU]

Originally posted by Conker
I am looking at this system:

• X-Terminator ATX 400Watt.

Is it a good brand. I adwise sticking to top quality (Antec, PC Power and cooling or good brand like Chieftec, Enermax, Enhance, Sparkle power supplies. While 400W should be plenty for any system, note the requirement of GeForce 6800 cards. I'd consider 480W.

• Prescott 3200 mhz P4 FSB800 1Mb Box

Northwood is slightly faster at same clock and runs cooler. Unless you can't find one, I recommend not getting Prescott

• Maxtor 9 - 80 GB SER 150 8M

If it's existing drive, it's OK, if you're buying new drive, 120GB - 200GB drives have better price performance. Check reliability survey on storagereview.com and get a drive with 3-year warranty.

• CD-RW 52x, DVD 16x.

I'd seriously consider DVD burner, if you're buying new optical drives.

• 512MB DDR-333M

You want PC3200/DDR-400 RAM for P4, 200MHz FSB AthlonsXP and Athlons64. This will be a bottleneck. Also 1GB of RAM is starting to become the norm for good consumer system. If you're short on money now, I recommend 1 512MB PC3200 stick and getting another 512MB stick soon. You want two sticks to run in dual channel. If you plan to live with 512MB for a longer time, get 2 256MB sticks to run in dual channel.

Can you see any bottlenecks here ?

While this is quite a respectable system, the PCI Express motherboards with 915/925 chipsets are shipping now and availability should be better in autumn.

Ask yourself, which is better for you:

Impressive system now, that will likely offer you no upgrade potential in 6months to 1 year

or

waiting for 3 months and getting a bit more impressive system for a bit more money that will be upgradeable for 6-12 months.

[Conker]

Hey... just found out that I could change the RAM to 3200 400 ram for a very small added cost.

Now what to do...

Soren

[rylan]

Get an AMD system for less money
Or get a Northwood P4 3.2, as mentioned the PrescHotts perform slower and run hotter.

[G400SG16mb]

I'd rather go for an AMD64 3200+ myself; it runs cooler, uses less electricity, can overclock better, and is about $10 cheaper . 120gb is the best price point for hdds right now.