Advantages: Many Ram slots, 800mhz FSB supported
Disadvantages: Fan on northbridge makes a lot of noise

...like a lawnmower after about 3 months of usage (before then it was unnoticable) it cost me £5 for a whopping heatsink to keep it cool with no fan. Connectors Here is a list of all sockets on this motherboard 1x Socket 478 processor 4x 184 pin DDR slots 4x PCI slots 1x AGP 8x 2x IDE 2x SATA 3x 3 pin fan connectors 1x Floppy IDE connector 2x USB headers 2x Firewire headers 1x audio header 1x HDD activity light connector 2x PS/2 connectors 1x optical in 1x optical out 3x audio out 1x line out 1x mic in 1x LAN 1x Parallel 1x serial 4x USB (not including ones on backplate) 1x Firewire (again not inclding backplate) Conclusion This has been a great motherboard with many good features i would reccomend it to anyone considering building a pc with a pentium 4 socket 478. With the only problem being a noisy NB fan... Read review

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Advantages: Gives me an extra 512MB
Disadvantages: No manual.

...), DDR 266 MHz (more commonly know as PC2100). This is a PC3200 stick. Different motherboards take different RAM. The way I found out the type of RAM my PC took was simple, I looked at the invoice. On it, it stated '2x512MB DDR400 RAM'. This means I had 2 sticks of 512MB over one stick of 1GB. 2x512MB costs less than 1x1GB. Many computers only allow 2 sticks of RAM to be in at once, so I would recommend you open up you machine and look if you have any RAM slots free, look at the pictures to see what they look like. RAM itself is very small, and is less tall than an A5 sheet of paper, and about an inch wide. It is easy to install, you simply pull a little catch, slot it in, and push the catch. Then you boot your machine. The RAM itself is quite fast, hardly any RAM is faster than 400 MHz, and this is 400 MHz. It hasn't greatly... Read review

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Advantages: Inexpensive, reliable, memory upgrade gives huge boost in performance
Disadvantages: You must make sure you get the correct type of memory!

...which type you need: First check that you have some slots free. If not then it will involve removing one of the existing chips. Secondly you need to know the type. Old pentiums will probably take SIMMS (72pin), in which case you need to buy a pair of two chips. Anything will use DIMMS. Usually pentium 2 will use SDRAM 100Mhz or 133Mhz (168pin). Pentium 3s normally take DDR SDRAM (184pin), which can be either 200Mhz, 266Mhz, 333Mhz or 400Mhz. Although 200Mhz is very rarely seen. Roughly speaking a 1 to 2Ghz processor usually goes with 266Mhz RAM, 2-3Ghz with 333Mhz and 3+ with 400Mhz. Very new computers will take DDR2 (240pin) which is even faster speeds. To find out exactly which you need consult the motherboard manual. If that fails then open up the computer and look at the chip inside. If you are lucky it will have a sticker... Read review

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Advantages: Upgrading memory is best way to improve performance
Disadvantages: You must make sure you get the correct type of memory!

.... Secondly you need to know the type. Old pentiums will probably take SIMMS (72pin), in which case you need to buy a pair of two chips. Anything will use DIMMS. Usually pentium 2 will use SDRAM 100Mhz or 133Mhz (168pin). Pentium 3s normally take DDR SDRAM (184pin), which can be either 200Mhz, 266Mhz, 333Mhz or 400Mhz. Although 200Mhz is very rarely seen. Roughly speaking a 1 to 2Ghz processor usually goes with 266Mhz RAM, 2-3Ghz with 333Mhz and 3+ with 400Mhz. Very new computers will take DDR2 (240pin) which is even faster speeds. To find out exactly which you need consult the motherboard manual. If that fails then open up the computer and look at the chip inside. If you are lucky it will have a sticker on it with the information you need. It is also worth noting the "codes" often used to refer to the different types: 100Mhz = PC100 133Mhz... Read review

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Advantages: Stable, Fast, Stable!!!
Disadvantages: Not as cheap as some other brands

...will be accessed as this is used as virtual RAM, but only goes a fraction of the speed, so it's not much use. A good way to combat this is to have more memory. I would typically recommend anyone wanting a computer for desktop and light gaming use to have 512Mb. This will stop the hard disk being accessed so quickly into your session. For someone using a computer for heavy gaming, i.e. wanting to play the next generation of games(Half Life 2, Doom 3) I would say get 1Gb(1024MB) of memory. This gives you plenty of space to run windows and play the game with the bulk of it held in RAM and as such being faster, no frame skipping etc. As for the actual speed of RAM. We'll just look at the current generation, DDR (Double Data Rate). While you may notice that some sticks of ram that are the same size are different prices, but usually... Read review

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Advantages: Good experience, Could save you money, Fun, Choose your parts.
Disadvantages: Needs the know-how and experience. Not for everyone

...with static or short circuiting the components • Requires knowledge of components and some experience helps • Confusing for some CONCLUSION Building computers can be an enjoyable experience. Especially if you’re a computer gee…errr…enthusiast like me. Just be careful not to break the components. If after all that, you’re still not confident of doing it but you want a custom built PC, then ask a friend to do it for you. ;o) By the way, if you still don't think I'm a geek, I call my computer Tiffany. :oP So here's what I've managed to put together: Pentium 4 3.2Ghz 512Kb Northwood 800FSB Processor ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe Motherboard Corsair Value Select 1GB (2x 512MB) DDR400 (PC3200) DDR RAM Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9600 256MB 8x AGP Graphics Card Western Digital 120GB HDD 7200rpm ATA Seagate 80GB HDD 7200rpm ATA Seagate 160GB... Read review

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Advantages: Outstanding performance
Disadvantages: Battery life poor

...at the start, this is by no means a cheap laptop, indeed some would say a little over-priced. The results however I believe speak for themselves, in this instance I do genuinely believe I did get what I paid for. FULL SPECIFICATIONS ----------------------------------- Processor & Chipset: <><><><><><><><><><> Microprocessor Full Name: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5600, Supports Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology Microprocessor Manufacturer: Intel Microprocessor Speed (GHz): 1.83 Microprocessor Type: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor Frontside Bus (MHz): 667.0 RAM: <><><><> Memory Speed (MHz): 533.0 Memory Type: DDR2 SDRAM (2x512MB) Max. Memory (MB): 2048.0 Memory Size (MB): 1024.0 Cache Memory: <><><><><><><><> L2 Cache (KB): 2048.0 Hard Disk Drive: <><><><><><><><><> Hard Drive Capacity (GB): 80 Hard Drive Speed (rpm): 5400... Read review

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Advantages: Good price well designed and user freindly
Disadvantages: None that I have found

.../ usability of the PC has been well thought out. Advantages I have found plenty, disadvantages so far I have found none! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ FACTS AND FIGURES ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dimentions: Width 18.3 cm Depth 45.5 cm Height 37 cm CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ (Dual Core 64bit) RAM: Maximum accepted -- 4 GB (max) PC2-3200, 400 MHz Installed configuration: 2 x 512Mb (1 GB) Hard drive: 1 x 160 GB - standard - Serial ATA-150 Storage Controller: 1 x 2 channel Serial ATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10 Optical drive: DVD±RW (+R double layer) Graphics controller: Integrated NVIDIA GeForce 6100 128Mb Audio controller: Integrated 7.1 channel surround High Definition Audio Interfaces: 6 x Hi-Speed USB - 4 PIN USB Type A ( 2 in front ) 1 x parallel - IEEE 1284 (EPP/ECP) - 25 pin D-Sub (DB-25) 1 x serial... Read review

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Advantages: Ready for future technologies
Disadvantages: No temperature monitoring hardware, BIOS flashing only works on windows

.... This was excellent seeing as though I didn't want to upgrade my memory right away. Up to DDR 400 and DDR II 667 is supported in Dual-Channel, meaning that two modules of the same ram can be installed at the same time. For instance, you could have 2 x 512mb DDR 400, or 2 x 1gb DDR II 667. - AGP + PCI + PCI-E - Another nifty feature of this motherboard is the amount of interfaces it supports. As with the memory, the addition of both AGP and PCI-E means that you will not have to upgrade your graphics card just yet. You can use your old AGP graphics card until you feel that you need to install a PCI-E one. You can of course use both an AGP and PCI-E graphics card simultaneously if you wanted a four monitor setup for example. The motherboard has one PCI-E slot, one AGP slot and four - Supported PCI-E Cards - Whilst you do not necessarily need to use... Read review

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Advantages: None
Disadvantages: Loads of problems

...I came across OCZ RAM products after purchasing a new PC from a UK web based company called PC-DEPOT.CO.UK. During the initial set-up of the PC, and installing of software, the PC often rejected the installation throwing up VxD errors and System crashes. Eventually the PC became a working unit. After just a few days I was forever getting system crashes and freezes. So I contacted the suppliers, who in turn sent a small program by email to test the fitted RAM. This program proved that the OCZ (elixir) RAM PC2700 256mb was in fact the fault. They agreed that if I removed it myself and sent it back they would replace it (foc). Before I could do this the PC crashed beyond recovery. SO I purchased replacement RAM from a local supplier of a totally different make. Having had to format the HARD DRIVE, and start from scratch loading... Read review

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