Second Build : What should I be looking at?

[Eutychus]

Building my second computer; did the first one about two years ago and everything worked like a charm. Problems with the second one, though.

Using a Biostar U8668-D motherboard with a Pentium P-4 processor. It says it should support the P-4 with the 533FSB.

Got it together and there's no boot-up beep.

I took the computer I'd built before and swapped out the memory cards. The old computer still worked fine with the new memory card so I started to look at the processor.

Swapped out the processors. The new computer worked fine with the processor from the old computer The old computer will not work with the new processor. So, it seems to be a processor problem.

Took it back to the shop and got a new one. Same problem. The new computer will work with the processor I took out of the old computer, but neither will work with the new ones.

I suppose it's possible that I got two bad processors in a row, but before I take this one back as well and start complaining, is there anything else I should be looking at?

[flanzig1]

Can you post the make and model of the parts your using?
Possible problem areas: PSU and motherboard. Biostar mother boards are not the best around.

[Eutychus]

Originally Posted by flanzig1 Can you post the make and model of the parts your using? Possible problem areas: PSU and motherboard. Biostar mother boards are not the best around.

That's pretty much it right now. I'm just putting together a bare bones system right now and will add on to it later.

Is there a recommendation for what kind of motherboard might be better for the P4?

[flanzig1]

Asus is probably the most recommended brand around here. Other good brands: Gigabyte,DFI,Intel,Abit. Some of these are more geared to AMD except the Intel.

[glc]

Which EXACT processor, please? If it's a Prescott core, only the very latest U8668-D version 7.5 motherboard supports it, earlier versions do not.

Biostar is not a bad board, but that one uses a Via chipset - which is just plain lousy for Intel processors. You can't get a quality motherboard for 40 bucks.

Do you need onboard video or do you have an AGP card to use? Do you need micro ATX or are you using a standard 7 slot case?