First rig... anything I should change partwise?

M

[m]idas06

n00b
Joined
Mar 12, 2006
Messages
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Is there anything I've forgotten/need to change? I really don't have much of a clue about this... Hopefully everything here is compatible

If links don't work go through www.pricespy.co.nz


AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4200+ 2.2GHz Socket 939
http://www.clickserv.co.nz/product_...d=709&osCsid=2b84def9d0888107c170b2b61cf53892


Asustek A8N-SLI nForce4 SLI
http://supercheappc.biz/site/produc...=1600&osCsid=6fcefaf2b7507c49d0cae59ba20aa93e


2x 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM
http://supercheappc.biz/site/produc...=1692&osCsid=6117a18796bcb92e52ee67c7989cda50


GeForce 7600 GT 256MB PCI-Express
http://www.dtconline.co.nz/components/componentlist.asp?parttypeid=20


Western Digital 250GB 7200 8M SATA WD2500JD Serial ATA HDD
http://supercheappc.biz/site/product_info.php?cPath=1_36_133&products_id=1487


Samsung TS-H552 Dual Layer 16X DVD Writer
http://pcsale.co.nz/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=728


TP-Link 108mbps SuperG Wireless PCI Adapter
http://madkiwihosting.co.nz/catalog...d=274&osCsid=49d17ca704b84c88fb679fda167877e7


500 Watt PSU ATX
http://madkiwihosting.co.nz/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=31&products_id=93


Thermaltake Mambo Case
http://madkiwihosting.co.nz/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=30&products_id=248
 
Everything looks good except for that PSU. Unfortunately I haven't been keeping track of the PSU game, but for $60 bux I'm sure someone could recommend you a better one. Otherwise good luck with the build.
 
[m]idas06 said:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4200+ 2.2GHz Socket 939
http://www.clickserv.co.nz/product_...d=709&osCsid=2b84def9d0888107c170b2b61cf53892


Asustek A8N-SLI nForce4 SLI
http://supercheappc.biz/site/produc...=1600&osCsid=6fcefaf2b7507c49d0cae59ba20aa93e


2x 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM
http://supercheappc.biz/site/produc...=1692&osCsid=6117a18796bcb92e52ee67c7989cda50
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That ram is not comaptible. You need DDR not DDR2, unless you want an AM2 platform, bu then you need to switch mobo and CPU.
Other than that looks great, a bit unbalanced but overall OK.
I'd get a better GPU and tone down the CPU to a 3800+ , since it's cheaper and only 200mhz less (same cache and everything).
An X1800XT could be good for a bit more or even a 7800GT.
This is for gaming, right?
 
Lose the psu. Sparkle and FSP group make good models in that price range. Read up in the psu forum before you buy.
 
Any reason you're going with a 939 build instead of AM2? If not I'd recommend the following:

4200+ X2 AM2
m2n-sli (AM2 version of A8N-sli with an updated chipset)
2gb Corsair DDR 800 (there are 3 different sets are different price ranges depending on the latency; CAS 3, CAS 4, and CAS 5) pick whichever fits in your budget.

Good luck.
 
maverick777 said:
Any reason you're going with a 939 build instead of AM2? If not I'd recommend the following:

4200+ X2 AM2
m2n-sli (AM2 version of A8N-sli with an updated chipset)
2gb Corsair DDR 800 (there are 3 different sets are different price ranges depending on the latency; CAS 3, CAS 4, and CAS 5) pick whichever fits in your budget.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. The m2n motherboard is quite a bit more expensive here, are Gigabyte motherboards any good?

Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4 Motherboard
 
The m2n board is only $149. The Gigabyte board is over $200. Unless I'm getting something wrong. I recommended the m2n-SLI board and not the m2n32-SLI. I think you might've searched for the wrong Asus board. If you're not doing SLI, then the m2n-e is even cheaper. It's around $100.
 
It looks like only the sli-deluxe version is for sale here... unless I'm missing something

edit: nm I'll just get a non-sli one. I don't think I'll be upgrading anytime soon
 
939 is about to die in favor of AM2. Aside from being a different socket, AM2 will use DDR2 whereas DDR1 is about to be phased out
 
As you list one storage drive only, consider replacing the WD2500JD with the WD2500KS as its larger cache makes for a faster primary drive.
 
Antheus said:
939 is about to die in favor of AM2. Aside from being a different socket, AM2 will use DDR2 whereas DDR1 is about to be phased out
Click to expand...
DDR1 is about to be phased out!!!!
LOL
My friend, I promise you two more years of DDR1 at least until it starts to gradually fade and dissapear in about 4. DDR2 has not had much adoption due to it being Intel only material untill AM2 launched.
939 is not being phased out yet.
 
939 has seen the end of the road and so has DDR. (Socket 754 will last longer than 939.) Midas, get the AM2 and the DDR2 unless you are planning to build another rig in the next year or two. I think that Corsair 800 that was suggested is really expensive though. You can save money there.
 
altcon said:
DDR1 is about to be phased out!!!!
LOL
My friend, I promise you two more years of DDR1 at least until it starts to gradually fade and dissapear in about 4. DDR2 has not had much adoption due to it being Intel only material untill AM2 launched.
939 is not being phased out yet.
Click to expand...

AMD has announced that there will be no new products brought to market for s939, the last chip is the fx-60 (isn't 62 am2?) if I'm not mistaken. DDR factories will be shut down and retooled in the next 6-10 months to produce DDR2 memory for desktops.

It all depends on your definition of "phased out." Yes, 939/DDR products are much more readily available from any vendor, and will be available for quite some time. But AMD has already stopped production of 939 3000+ chips, for example, and the socket is starting to witness the beginning of the end. They have also announced that they will stop all 4000+ and 3700+ production july 2nd (this sunday!). That's a dying socket by my definition.

I'm not saying that it isn't faster or cheaper than AM2, but you can't justify spending $1000+ on a computer with no simple upgrade path.
 
-=Antimatter=- said:
I'm not saying that it isn't faster or cheaper than AM2, but you can't justify spending $1000+ on a computer with no simple upgrade path.
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I must be missing something because as it seems now AM2 is faster and not 939, but only 1-2% faster in best case scenarios. Apart from that, X2 processors for 939 will be made for some quite time and they are the only upgrade path I see.
But in this case, he is going with an X2 to begin with and I seriously doubt he will upggrade the CPU over this PC's lifetime.
Looking at AMD's roadmap I don't see any new SKU's for AM2 either. FX-62 is the top and apart from better power management on the special series (for the love of me I can't recall the name), there's nothing new in AM2.
The only real plus I see is if you really want a Conroe, you can keep the DDR2 memory and just ditch the CPU and mobo .On another note, aparently 939 X2's arent dropping in price, only single core 939's are. So I'm guessing AMD isn't going to be selling them short since they still are every bit highend as they were before.
Truth be told, I'm waiting for retail Conroes to see some hands on, and that seems to be where my money would go if I were buying right now.
 
altcon said:
I must be missing something because as it seems now AM2 is faster and not 939, but only 1-2% faster in best case scenarios. Apart from that, X2 processors for 939 will be made for some quite time and they are the only upgrade path I see.
But in this case, he is going with an X2 to begin with and I seriously doubt he will upggrade the CPU over this PC's lifetime.
Looking at AMD's roadmap I don't see any new SKU's for AM2 either. FX-62 is the top and apart from better power management on the special series (for the love of me I can't recall the name), there's nothing new in AM2.
The only real plus I see is if you really want a Conroe, you can keep the DDR2 memory and just ditch the CPU and mobo .On another note, aparently 939 X2's arent dropping in price, only single core 939's are. So I'm guessing AMD isn't going to be selling them short since they still are every bit highend as they were before.
Truth be told, I'm waiting for retail Conroes to see some hands on, and that seems to be where my money would go if I were buying right now.
Click to expand...

It takes some damn good DDR2-800 (or faster) to match and top a good stick of DDR in benchmarks. That is one of the downfalls of AM2 right now until prices drop on faster DDR2 (it's also why I'm running DDR2-533 for the time being). That's why I mentioned the better price/performance of DDR in the current market.

You're right in saying that X2 processors will be produced for 939 for a while longer, AMD isn't one to abandon its high end 939 adopters and force them to convert to AM2. However, AMD's new processor architecture, K8L, is rumored to run on AM2 for several reasons, the largest of which is the fact that it needs more memory bandwidth than the K8 architecture does. I doubt that they would switch to another DDR2 socket for a new processor series less than a year after introducing a socket with minimal performance gains over the previous generation. There has to be something in the works for AM2, in other words, since existing processors don't need DDR2's bandwidth.

Assuming the OP is going to buy another rig next summer, 939 is a perfectly economial and powerful choice right now.
 
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