I am comparing two systems. One has an Intel BX chipset running a 1G Celeron; it has 448MB of PC100 SDRAM. The other has an Intel 845 chipset that will only run SDRAM. It has 512 MB of PC133 SDRAM and runs a 2G Celeron. Both systems run the hard drive at UDMA 100.

Due to cost constraints, these are my only two options. Is the system with the 845 much faster than the BX? I read on the internet that the SDRAM slows down a Pentium 4 class CPU, and I would do just as well running a Pentium 3 class CPU with the BX chipset.

Another thing. The BX board has RAID capabilities while the 845 board does not. I don't know how using RAID would affect the performance. 

Then there is the operating system. I want to use WinXP Pro. Being that the BX is an older chipset, could that cause problems running XP? I read where it could - in one case the user kept getting the Hardware Malfunction lockup in XP and all the adapter cards and hard drives were fine.

Thanks much in advance for your suggestions.

Mel Emurian

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