Building System - Need Critique

M

MacRos

n00b
Joined
Nov 8, 2005
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Hi Guys I'm putting a new box together to replace my aging P4 2.4 system.

During the day i work on dual g5 2.5 mac with 8 gigs of ram, mainly doing photoshop work.
I want to bring some work home onto my PC. I know 2 gigs of ram will be enough for my needs. Where I need crit on my idea of a setup is the MOBO and such.

Here is what I'm planning to get:

CPU
AMD X2 3800+

MOBO
Asus A8N-E ( I realize no firewire on this but that fact I can live without, firewire would be a nice bonus)


RAM
OCZ 2Gb (2x1Gb) Gold Edition DDR2-533 Dual Channel Kit (3-3-3-8)
HDD
Western Digital Caviar SE SATAII 250Gb Hard Drive - WD2500JS
( In additions I have a 74 gig Raptor to use as my C: drive and an old 120 gig IDE drive for backup)

VIDEO
Sapphire Radeon X1800XL PCI-E Video Card w/256Mb (RL)
or
Leadek or BFG 7800 GT (both companies have stock overclocked models, price is around the same as the ati card)

SOUND
planning to reuse my old audigy 2

CASE
Antec Sonata II Mid-Tower Case w/450w Power Supply
The case seems liek a great deal with the bundled power supply from antec

OPTICAL
Pioneer Black 16x DVD Writer (OEM) - DVR-110D

See any holes in this ?
 
I'll point out the holes I see:

Mobo: Get the Premium version of the Asus. It's a lot better than the regular model. And it has firewire.
Video: I'd get the 7800GT. The X1800XL doesn't seem to offer a very good price/performance ratio.
Case is excellent if you don't want splash-and-dash. The bundled PSU is probably good enough, but I would get something a little more solid, like this. Other than that it looks pretty sweet.
 
DDR2's not going to work with that AMD processor. I'd get this if you wanted 2GB.

Also, although that is a good case/PSU combo, I think it would be better to get them seperatley. I'd recommend the Coolermaster Centurion 5 or Cavalier 3 for the case that's not too expensive and of high quality, and an Antec Truepower II 550w or something of similar quality for the PSU.
 
as for power supply i kinda like to stick to the silent solution
the sonata 1 case system i built a year ago forsome one else worked out nicely

my question is why won't he ram work with the chip ?
I know the chipset supports the ram, is there any conflict between an amd x2 and ddr2 ram ?
You have a link where i can find out more info about this ?
 
thanks scooter

i can get the 1800xl and 7800 gt for the same price and they seem to be in the same performance range
right now i'm 50/50 between them, can't find a solid reason to go either way
last few rounds i had an ATI card, upgrading from an x800pro
which i would have kept were it not an agp card, i'll try to sell it instead

any particular reason i should go forh teh premium board ?
other than firewire
 
My configuration is very similar, except I went for a 6600 and Maxtor drives.

I would suggest getting a 92mm fan to put in the cpu duct. It along with the stock cpu cooler will let your system run with low temps, even under load.

The psu that comes with the Sonata II should be more than adequate for what you plan to put in it.

Consider the BeqnQ DW1640 drive. It has received excellent reviews.

I like the A8N-E. In fact if one doesn't want SLI I think its the best buy at the moment. If you want firewire you can add it with a $10 card. A lot less expensive than getting a premium board.

You might try the on-board sound before installing the Audigy.
 
I think the OP asked about the DDR2 and the AMD chip:

AMD's memory controller does NOT talk to DDR2, and the physical chip has different pin count and voltage as well. If you bought that motherboard, and tried to put DDR2 onto it..you would not succeed. Kind of like plugging 120AC plug into a 220AC outlet. They are physically different to avoid accidents.

In summary: the chipset does not support DDR2, and the sockets are only DDR1.

If the site you saw that motherboard says it supports DDR2, they are wrong. :)
 
Thanks a lot for the info I'll post updated specs below.

I switched the memory to
OCZ 2Gb (2x1Gb) Platinum Edition DDR400 Dual Channel Kit (2-3-2-5)
Comes in at the same price.

I would like more arguments for the A8N-E vs. the premium SLI
I have no plans to use the SLI feature, what does attract me is the cool-pipe.
From what I see it will work correcty with the antec sonata 2 since it seems to mount in the standard way, (expansion cards at bottom). The price difference is susbtantial however $125 vs. $203 (canadian) for that i could upgrade the chip by one step or jsut save the cash.
Onboard audio may be an option, I do have zalman surround sound headphones which works great with the audigy but 99 times out of a 100 i'm too lazy to unplug my sound system and reconfigure the audio for 3d just to play a game. Last time I did that was for doom3.

I'll likely add a large silent fan to the system, since this box has potential to be faily quiet.
Which raises the issue is the nvidia card quieter than the ati card ? One review mentioned frequent fan spin up on the ati card even in idle mode.

So the Question that remains is.
A8N-E vs A8N SLI Premium
7800GT vs. 1800XL
Cool-pipe compatability with sonata 2




CPU
AMD X2 3800+

MOBO
Asus A8N-E or A8N SLI Premium

RAM
OCZ 2Gb (2x1Gb) Platinum Edition DDR400 Dual Channel Kit (2-3-2-5)

HDD
Western Digital Caviar SE SATAII 250Gb Hard Drive - WD2500JS
( In additions I have a 74 gig Raptor to use as my C: drive and an old 120 gig IDE drive for backup)

VIDEO
Sapphire Radeon X1800XL PCI-E Video Card w/256Mb (RL)
or
Leadek or BFG 7800 GT (both companies have stock overclocked models, price is around the same as the ati card)

SOUND
planning to reuse my old audigy 2 or onboard audio

CASE
Antec Sonata II Mid-Tower Case w/450w Power Supply
The case seems liek a great deal with the bundled power supply from antec

OPTICAL
Pioneer Black 16x DVD Writer (OEM) - DVR-110D
 
I'd go for the A8N-E. If you really want to spend the money, put it into some other component. AMD cpu run fairly cool and a well ventilated case will keep mobo temps well within spec.
 
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