Final questions before purchasing.

M

Miller

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 30, 2004
Messages
207
Well, I've been reading a heck of a lot about each part I want to order to, and here's what I've come up with:

* ASUS A8N-SLI Premium (Yeah, I've read about a LOT of problems with it, mostly central to the nvidia firewall, IDE drivers and most importantly, RAM, but unless there's an equally-effective alternative, I'm liking this option ~_~ That said, I AM open to suggestions :p)
* AMD Athlon X2 3800+ (Machester Core, I think...didn't say)
* Antec TruePower 520w (was going to go with the OCZ Powerstream, but someone suggested this...can anyone give more insight?)
* 1gb (2x512) Corsair XMS PC3200 DDR 400mhz (2-2-2-5)
* eVGA GeForce 7800GT

Now, I've subbed in a lot of things for other things, which leaves me with a few closing questions before I make this rather large order:

Motherboard:
* I've read about X2 conflicts with the A8N-SLI boards...will it require any tricky BIOS updating to get the 3800+ X2 to run properly? As I don't have another Socket 939 processor, would I be able to flash the BIOS with the X2 processor in it relatively risk-free?
* Any alternatives I should look at for motherboards? My friend has the A8N-SLI Deluxe, which he (somewhat ironically) just RMAed because of a bad PCI-e slot, but other than that he says the board works amazingly well...I looked at the DFI LanParty SLI NF4 (and all variants), but didn't see any reason to use it instead of the Asus.

Processor:
* Well, same concerns, will there be any "out of the box" issues with the 3800+ X2?
* Is it 'shady' at all that the processor doesn't list the core type? Up until now I've been able to view what type of core the processor was, which partly influenced my previous ideas for purchases. I can always fall back on the regular 3800+ (Venice) if there's anything "up" with the lack of specifics.

Power Supply:
* Some big questions here. Which would be the most highly recommended of any of these (assume that they're all 500+w): OCZ Powerstream, OCZ Modstream or the Antec Truepower? Like I said above, the Powerstream was my first choice, but someone recommended the Antec to me, since it provided less fluctuating voltage, which I understand is a big deal.
* Are there any other power supplies I should know about? I recently discovered the benefit of cable management, so if at all possible, I'm looking for a good, reliable, 500+w power supply that has (what looks like) 6-pin connectors for PCI-e cards (I guess those are advertised as "SLI-ready") and preferably has sleeved cables. I was looking at power supplies with plugs for only the cables you need, but as I understand they haven't been getting very good reviews.

RAM:
* Well, not much here. I checked the A8N-SLI Premium online pdf manual, and somewhere around page 36 or 37 or so they list the compatible RAM modules, so I based my choice off that (subbing some equivalent OCZ RAM for the Corsair). That said, does anyone have that combination of motherboard and RAM? Trying to get as much as possible right here, so I don't have to send anything back. :)

Video Card:
* Nothin'. The 7800GT has been getting good ratings across the board, and with the rest of what I'll be getting, I'm not too worried.

Well, that's about it. My posts always end up being so long...oh well. Any insight on any of these questions would be great.

Thanks in advance.
 
free bump

(my set up that i want to build is a lot like thsi and i wanna see what ppl think about it too ;0)
 
* ASUS A8N-SLI Premium

I've heard great things about this board, with the exception of one. This board is 100% INCOMPATIBLE with the Antec NeoHE line of power supplies. That issue aside, Intel, ASUS, and ABIT are the only brands of motherboard I would trust. ASUS moreso than ABIT, and Intel is not an option to you

* AMD Athlon X2 3800+ (Machester Core, I think...didn't say)

Heard nothing but good stuff about this. Most hit 2.4GHz easy

* Antec TruePower 520w (was going to go with the OCZ Powerstream, but someone suggested this...can anyone give more insight?)

Antec doesn't even make a 520w, what are you talking about? If you mean the TP2 550w, then go for it, I have one and love it. If you mean the NeoHE 500/550w, then referr to above comment.

* 1gb (2x512) Corsair XMS PC3200 DDR 400mhz (2-2-2-5)

2GB of "Value" RAM > 1GB of "Gamer" RAM. The suggested/tested memory chart is just guidelines. Memory is memory, no discrimination here.

* eVGA GeForce 7800GT

Again, nothing but good stuff here.
 
I've been hearing great things about the Opteron 165 dual core. Its 939 and basically equivalent to the 3800+ X2 but has a bigger L2 cache and it is about $300 from mwave and monarch. It is something to consider
 
Ah, yeah, you're right, it is the TP2 550w. My mistake. x)

Alas, it would appear that it's very advisable to use memory listed on the memory chart, as many people have been having problems with incompatible RAM types/amounts (like I said, the motherboard does NOT like 4 512 sticks, or 4 of any stick for that matter, and simply refuses to work with different types; for example, any RAM made by OCZ seems to cause issues). In any case, people seem to be having luck with the Corsair, so I'll stick with that. I just hope they release...well, something, I'm not sure what it would take, BIOS update or something along those lines...so that I can actually stick 4 sticks of something in there later on.

As everything else looks ship-shape...fantastic. :) Thanks a lot.

Any more info or insight anyone wants to add is fine. I think I'm just about ready to order this stuff. Thanks again.
 
Miller said:
Alas, it would appear that it's very advisable to use memory listed on the memory chart, as many people have been having problems with incompatible RAM types/amounts (like I said, the motherboard does NOT like 4 512 sticks, or 4 of any stick for that matter, and simply refuses to work with different types; for example, any RAM made by OCZ seems to cause issues). In any case, people seem to be having luck with the Corsair, so I'll stick with that. I just hope they release...well, something, I'm not sure what it would take, BIOS update or something along those lines...so that I can actually stick 4 sticks of something in there later on.
Click to expand...
The 4-sticks-of-RAM problem is one with the AMD processors themselves, not the motherboards or chipsets. You CAN run 4x512MB on your RAM, but you have to lower your command rate from 1T to 2T (I'll let eclipse give you his sermon, as I don't feel like searching for it). I really think you should get 2x1GB "value" RAM, much more performance for your money than the insanely-overpriced XMS stuff. Corsair and Crucial's value lines come to mind come to mind. Again, I'll let eclipse or robberbaron talk here.
 
Hmm, I'll take that into consideration. Is it really a processor problem? I just assumed it was some weird compatibility issue with the board, or the BIOS or something. I don't know all the little technical aspects of it, so honestly it all sounds feasible to me.

What's different about "valueRAM" besides timings? If it's just timings, I can live with that...my old RAM was something like 2.5-3-3-8, worked just fine for me. Never fiddled with it.

That said, I'm only a little hesitant because I've just been reading so much about the headaches caused by incompatible RAM. Trying to avoid as much of that as possible, as you have noticed. :) If anyone can offer me some lower-priced alternatives (2gb in 1gb-stick form sounds darn good to me), that'd be awesome.

Thanks again. This research really pays off.
 
Miller said:
Hmm, I'll take that into consideration. Is it really a processor problem? I just assumed it was some weird compatibility issue with the board, or the BIOS or something. I don't know all the little technical aspects of it, so honestly it all sounds feasible to me.
Click to expand...
Yes, it is a defect on all 939 AMD CPUs.

Miller said:
What's different about "valueRAM" besides timings? If it's just timings, I can live with that...my old RAM was something like 2.5-3-3-8, worked just fine for me. Never fiddled with it.
Click to expand...
AMD procs don't see that much improvement with tighter memory timings, I really wouldn't worry about it. Most high-end RAM is made to overclock more, but this is pointless on AMD since you can easily use a RAM divider to run your RAM at normal speeds and AMD procs don't get much speed boost from high RAM speeds..
 
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