What CPU Please?

[iconfly]

Hello, I thought I was in luck
when I was given a nearly new
motherboard! It is a Epox 4G4AE
with the 845G chipset. It also has
built in Intel Extreme Graphics.
The CPU support is Pentium 4
478 socket. My problem is that
when I costed a Pentium 4 CPU it
proved expensive. My first question
is; is it worth using a Celeron?
If I do how much do I lose out on,
and what Celeron?

If I have to bite the bullet, what
would be the best Pent. 4 chip to buy?
Also wil the Intel Extreme Graphics
run under Linux?
If anyone can help I would be grateful.
I am loking forward to running Open office
at a useable speed.
Thanks Jimmy.

[Henk Poley]

I think this the wrong place to ask...

But anyways, please note that memory (RAM) is everything. Apps will be bigger in the future, so please consider spending some money on at least 256MB of any sort of RAM that fits on your motherboard, 512MB is even better. More than that is (still) not really needed.

And second, celerons are fine for most things except upcomming 3D games. But well that is a moving target, and then you will also 'need' a good 3D card. I now have an Epia 800 running here, and it does office stuff and webbrowsing just fine. The processor is equivalent to a PII-250/300, it has 256MB of RAM. Go figure. I can even login with multiple users and it use still usable.

[Superstoned]

I'd go for the "lowest" chip you can pay for, put a bit more memory, and upgrade after some time to the best chip which fits in the mobo. That way you are happy for a long time

And you might try Koffice (1.3 will be out soon I guess) it runs alot faster than OO, esp if you use KDE - but it has a little less features - which you probably dont need anyway...

For just plain typing and doing a table or 2, few pics etc - it is really sufficient. looks great too

[iconfly]

Thanks for your input Henk. I dont know where else to ask!
I Googled about, without much success. Especially re. Epox
boards.
I run a 500mhz Celeron, 128 meg memory at the moment.
Mostly fine, but Open office is a real slug for me.

Having such a nice motherboard it would be a shame either
not to use it or spoil it by not fitting a suitable CPU.
I am running a HD instal of Knoppix. before I spend money on
DDR ram and CPU, I need to be sure it will run. I Googled quite a bit regarding Intel Extreme Graphics, but again did not find much..
Thanks again, Jimmy.

[iconfly]

Superstoned yes, thanks. I can see more memory
is the most important. However, the problem is I do not understand
all this new north/south bridge/ DDR / FSB etc.
It baffles me! I would guess a 1Ghz or so cpu would light my
life up! I am worried that by fitting the wrong CPU, I would NOT
get the benefit of the memory, for instance. I realise a lot of
the terms are selling points. I hope to get a nice balance without me
fitting something that drags the average down.
I do no gaming. I do not need anythiing super. I do need to know maybe, which Celeron would work. "real" p4 chips are twice the cost.
Thanks to both of you for helping. It has, I am sure that a budget celeron and 256M of memory will put a smile on my face
Jimmy. If anyone else has a input I would like to hear it, Thankyou.. Anybody know about this Intel Extreme Graphics?

[Superstoned]

hmmm you should go to epox's site and check what proc's fit on your mobo. I'd take the best value for money - for example if the prices are like this

1000 mhz $100 (lowest fitting on mobo)
1300 mhz $110
1500 mhz $120
1800 mhz $200
2000 mhz $300
2500 mhz $500(heaviest for mobo)

I'd go for the $120 proc. then after lets say 2 years you wanna upgrade and just buy the (cheap by then) 2500!

an 1 gig (1000 mhz) is enough for normal browsing/mailing/word etc so go for at least 1 gigahertz. and 256 mb is a nice minimum, for a fast KDE box 512 should be better (dont believe those selling pc's who always try to give a better proc and less ram, thats bullshit. for normal work, more ram = more performance)

north/south bridge is not important
just check the max mem speed your mobo can have (something like 233/266/333) and buy that ram.

And maybe for you ARK linux whould be better, its very much targeted on newbies, very easy (4-clicks installer). Knoppix is debian, and debian isnt that easy. Nice if you want to learn, but not if you just wanna use and not wanna know...