Building this beast

[jigsaw]

I am looking to build a system for a good price. 
It is important to me that I spend just enough money to not have a crappy machine, I want this beast to be reliable.  Can anyone recommend a good motherboard/intel processor (~2.5 Ghz P4) combo for me at a decent price?

Also where can I get the best prices?

[Yegg]

The prices will vary depending on the company. Compaq has some pretty good prices and pretty good products.

[jigsaw]

Im looking for components, not complete systems, and especially not compaq.

[MyndFyre]

Whatever you do, make sure that you get an 800MHz FSB mobo (if you want better than 2.5GHz, that'll put you at 3.2 on (I believe) a Prescott P4), that supports dual-channel DDR.  I highly suggest getting four memory slots, too -- it's been popular to supply 3 slots (expandable to 3GB), but that's just silly.

Dual channel DDR works such that parallel memory sticks use different edges of the clock cycle.  For example, I have 1GB in 2 sticks total in my home machine.  If this is your clock cycle:

__|---|__|---|__

then the memory stick in slot 0 changes bus state on the leading edge (0->1) of the pulse, and the stick in slot 2 changes bus state on the falling edge (1->0) of the pulse.  This allows for faster data transfer (twice as much in fact) over traditional DDR memory.

However, as I said, you need to have 2 sticks of the same size in parallel slots.  So it's wise to have a multiple of 2 slots. 

[Yegg]

What's wrong with Compaq? Anyway, they do sell "components". Compaq also produces some pretty powerful server systems. Maybe not as good as a company like IBM. But they are still very good.

[Topaz]

If you're looking for an off-the-shelf computer, go to Dell or IBM. Compaq's machines have components that are all squished together.

If you'll list what else you're looking for, suggested price range, and certain add-ons that you'd like to have, I'll find all the parts and you can make the final decision. Of course, it'll be scrutinized by the forum crew :-]

[jigsaw]

Topaz, I want a Good quality MB preferably Gigabyte, Asus, or Intel, and p4 processor - whatever the slowest Ghz is that still has HT. and a decent case/ps.  I have all the rest.

[Topaz]

What kind of RAM do you have right now? I can't find a mobo for you until you tell me.

[MyndFyre]

Topaz, I want a Good quality MB preferably Gigabyte, Asus, or Intel, and p4 processor - whatever the slowest Ghz is that still has HT. and a decent case/ps.  I have all the rest.

I have an MSI mobo with P4/HT at 2.4GHz....  Don't know if that helps you out or not.

[Lenny]

Whatever you do, make sure that you get an 800MHz FSB mobo (if you want better than 2.5GHz, that'll put you at 3.2 on (I believe) a Prescott P4), that supports dual-channel DDR.  I highly suggest getting four memory slots, too -- it's been popular to supply 3 slots (expandable to 3GB), but that's just silly.

Dual channel DDR works such that parallel memory sticks use different edges of the clock cycle.  For example, I have 1GB in 2 sticks total in my home machine.  If this is your clock cycle:

__|---|__|---|__

then the memory stick in slot 0 changes bus state on the leading edge (0->1) of the pulse, and the stick in slot 2 changes bus state on the falling edge (1->0) of the pulse.  This allows for faster data transfer (twice as much in fact) over traditional DDR memory.

However, as I said, you need to have 2 sticks of the same size in parallel slots.  So it's wise to have a multiple of 2 slots. 

I believe you just decribed DDR compared to SDRAM.  Dual Channel DDR memory is just as it sounds.  Two ways to reach the CPU instead of one.