Note to mods: If this better belongs in another subforum, please move it there.
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I've had an idea for a while now of building an "ultimate" Socket 423/Pentium 4 Willamette desktop just for some impractical fun, and to see what the platform is truly capable of. I'm not planning on starting to buy parts yet - I'm actually not sure exactly when I will, but definitely not until after the June swap meet (unless there's stuff at the june swap meet that I could use). The point of this thread is to put a parts list together so I can start to look out for stuff, and so I can get a rough idea of how much this would all cost. Please reply with any advice or ideas you have,
Planned Components:
Motherboard: Intel D850GB is what I'm currently looking at. The downside is that they're expensive, but it's one of the only 423 boards I've found with 5 PCI slots instead of 3, it has AGP, it's an Intel board, and it looks like the caps they use are decent as well.
Edit: Looking around, there are a couple cheaper options that may work. I found a Gateway board that's under $50 and looks like it has identical capabilities to the Intel board. There are also a whole bunch of Dell Dimension 8100 boards out there for cheap, but they're a proprietary form factor so I can't use them.
CPU: 1.9GHz looks like the fastest I can reasonably get.
CPU Cooler: Unless the board I buy comes with one, I have no idea what to get. The boards I see appear to have four holes that go to likely standard mounts in the back of the ATX case, but what keyboards should I look for to find a cooler that will fit properly over the CPU?
RAM: 1GB of RDRAM
GPU: No clue. What GPU would pair nicely with a 1.9GHz Willamette while also not costing an arm and a leg?
Case: The plan here is to scavenge some old build off craigslist or facebook marketplace, then sell whatever parts were in it. Just looking in my area I've already found two candidates so it shouldn't be too much of a challenge. I need a case with four 5.25" bays and at least two 3.5" bays. I think I'm going with something that's silver aluminum. I love the 2000s look of those. Must also have at least two internal hard drive bays.
PSU: I'm just going to go with something modern and reliable here instead of trusting some cap plague crap. I do however REALLY like the idea of getting a modern, reliable supply, then slapping a reproduction "Bestec" sticker on it or something like that, right in view of anyone that looks inside.
Storage: I'm going to stick to spinning rust and get two fast drives in RAID 0. I'm thinking dual WD Raptor 10K drives with a SATA card.
Front bay drives: DVD-ROM, CD writer, and a multi card reader (will need an adapter) in the 5.25" slots with one left over for the future. I may also try to get a 5.25" floppy drive in there if I can. 3.5" bays will hold a floppy drive and a ZIP drive, with one left over the future if I get the ideal case.
PCI Slots: Creative Audigy 2, FireWire 400, WPA-2 compatible WiFi card, SATA controller, will probably also need a second IDE controller.
Fans: I'll probably try to replace all fans with Noctuas for noise reduction. Gotta be able to hear those dual 10K hard drives clearly
OS: Windows XP Service Pack 3
So, I mainly need advice on what GPU to use, the cooler, and if all of this sounds like it would possible (ie, there aren't any incompatibilities I've missed).
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I've had an idea for a while now of building an "ultimate" Socket 423/Pentium 4 Willamette desktop just for some impractical fun, and to see what the platform is truly capable of. I'm not planning on starting to buy parts yet - I'm actually not sure exactly when I will, but definitely not until after the June swap meet (unless there's stuff at the june swap meet that I could use). The point of this thread is to put a parts list together so I can start to look out for stuff, and so I can get a rough idea of how much this would all cost. Please reply with any advice or ideas you have,
Planned Components:
Motherboard: Intel D850GB is what I'm currently looking at. The downside is that they're expensive, but it's one of the only 423 boards I've found with 5 PCI slots instead of 3, it has AGP, it's an Intel board, and it looks like the caps they use are decent as well.
Edit: Looking around, there are a couple cheaper options that may work. I found a Gateway board that's under $50 and looks like it has identical capabilities to the Intel board. There are also a whole bunch of Dell Dimension 8100 boards out there for cheap, but they're a proprietary form factor so I can't use them.
CPU: 1.9GHz looks like the fastest I can reasonably get.
CPU Cooler: Unless the board I buy comes with one, I have no idea what to get. The boards I see appear to have four holes that go to likely standard mounts in the back of the ATX case, but what keyboards should I look for to find a cooler that will fit properly over the CPU?
RAM: 1GB of RDRAM
GPU: No clue. What GPU would pair nicely with a 1.9GHz Willamette while also not costing an arm and a leg?
Case: The plan here is to scavenge some old build off craigslist or facebook marketplace, then sell whatever parts were in it. Just looking in my area I've already found two candidates so it shouldn't be too much of a challenge. I need a case with four 5.25" bays and at least two 3.5" bays. I think I'm going with something that's silver aluminum. I love the 2000s look of those. Must also have at least two internal hard drive bays.
PSU: I'm just going to go with something modern and reliable here instead of trusting some cap plague crap. I do however REALLY like the idea of getting a modern, reliable supply, then slapping a reproduction "Bestec" sticker on it or something like that, right in view of anyone that looks inside.
Storage: I'm going to stick to spinning rust and get two fast drives in RAID 0. I'm thinking dual WD Raptor 10K drives with a SATA card.
Front bay drives: DVD-ROM, CD writer, and a multi card reader (will need an adapter) in the 5.25" slots with one left over for the future. I may also try to get a 5.25" floppy drive in there if I can. 3.5" bays will hold a floppy drive and a ZIP drive, with one left over the future if I get the ideal case.
PCI Slots: Creative Audigy 2, FireWire 400, WPA-2 compatible WiFi card, SATA controller, will probably also need a second IDE controller.
Fans: I'll probably try to replace all fans with Noctuas for noise reduction. Gotta be able to hear those dual 10K hard drives clearly
OS: Windows XP Service Pack 3
So, I mainly need advice on what GPU to use, the cooler, and if all of this sounds like it would possible (ie, there aren't any incompatibilities I've missed).
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