Building Computer Need Help

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Curtisbeef

Gawd
Joined
Sep 22, 2000
Messages
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Posting this for a friend he cant post yet....

These are the parts I have picked out and I need to know if they will all work togeather.
Im mostly concerned about the ATI chipset on the motherboard, will this work ok with the video card I choose?


AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Venice 2000MHz HT Socket 939

ASUS A8R-MVP Socket 939 ATI Radeon XPRESS 200 CrossFire ATX AMD CrossFire Motherboard

Thermaltake Mambo VC2000BNS

XFX PVT42EUDE3 Geforce 6800 XTreme 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card

Thermaltake TR2 W0070 ATX 430W Power Supply

Patriot Signature Series 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model PSD1G400KH

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
 
Your parts for the most part seem fine. Your ATi chipset will work with your nVdia card but it will not work if you later wanted to upgrade to a dual nVidia graphics solution. The purpose of having a crossfire/SLI enabled motherboard is for the potential to upgrade to a dual graphics card solution for better performance. If you are not interested in crossfire/SLI then I'd suggest you go with a different motherboard.. it will even save you some dough.

If you feel as though you might want a dual card solution later on with nVidia gpu's, then I'd suggest you get an SLI enabled motherboard such as the Asus A8N SLI Premium with the NF4 chipset. If you wish to go with an ATi dual card solution later on, keep the motherboard you picked and go with an ATi card such as the x850xt not the 6800 XT. It wouldn't hurt to have a psu with more wattage. The Cooler Master RS550w is nice or the Enermax Liberty 620, basically any quality psu above 500w. Enough power for your dual core cpu and possible dual graphics later on. Always leave yourself with an upgrade path.
 
That should all work together just fine. Looks like your friend is trying to keep a budget, but I would suggest that maybe he look at a 7600GT instead of the 6800.

The 7600 uses less power, runs faster and cooler and should be only about $40 more. He also might look at socket AM2, as socket 939 is at the end of its life, there shouldn't be much of a price differential in the motherboard, DDR2 memory and 3800+ AM2 CPU. That setup will have more life, but maybe your friend is getting a really good deal or something.

My 2 cents. Wish your friend good luck.
 
Why go for a Crossfire motherboard if you won't be using two graphics cards (now or later)?

When does he want to put the system together? Price cuts galore happen on the 23rd/24th of July for both Intel and AMD, along with the introduction of the superior Core 2 Duo.

The TT TR2 doesn't supply much power for its price. ~$50 shipped for only 18A on the +12V rail (singular)... pathetic.

Might I suggest the following:

Fortron FSP400-60GLN - $45 + ~$10 shipping
Enhance ENP-5240G - $45 + ~$10 shipping
Sytrin Nextherm PSU460 - $70 + ~? shipping
 
454Casull said:
Why go for a Crossfire motherboard if you won't be using two graphics cards (now or later)?
Click to expand...

Same reason everyone buys the A8N-SLI series even though they have no intentions for SLI... it's just a great motherboard. In Anandtech's review the A8R-MVP broke their previous benchmarking records set by the DFI SLI-DR, and it did it passively, and for less than $100 Retail. I switched to this board from my Ultra-D and couldn't be happier. All the performance without the 4 power connections and whiney, poorly placed chipset fan.

That being said, my recommendation would look more like this..

800rig.jpg
 
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