Help with possible new build

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wtburnette

2[H]4U
Joined
Jun 24, 2004
Messages
3,580
Okay, I've been using the same hardware for the past year to 18 months and I'm wanting to do an upgrade that should last me for another year or two. I haven't kept up to date with the latest info, so I'll need some help with what I'll need. I'm a gamer, so I'll definitely want a system that'll easily handle the latest and greatest games.

I'm thinking I'll need a 7800GT video card, an SLI capable motherboard and 2GB of RAM. The CPU I'll most likely get with be a Athlon64 4000+. I'd like a board that can do moderate overclocking, but I'd like the system to be what I need without overclocking it. If I do OC, it'll just be an added bonus. What I mean by that is I don't want suggestions for getting an A64 3000+ and just OC it to do what I want. I want a system that will do everything I need without overclocking and then if I can squeeze a little more performance out of it, that's just icing on the cake.

Recently, I bought an A64 3000+ and a MSI Neo2 mobo and was pretty discouraged by the combo. I didn't do enough research and I'm not at all happy with what I got. The mobo has a compatibility issue with Nvidia 68xx series cards (possibly now fixed or at least better with newer drivers) and the board lacks a PCI bus lock for overclocking. Because of these two issues and my wanting to get an SLI capable mobo, I'm selling the parts I got and getting better parts that I hope will last me a while.

I see that the [H] has been recommending the ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe mobo. Is this a good pick? If so, I'm thinking that, plus an A64 4000+ and 2GB corsair XMS will do me fine, along with a 7800GT card (with a second one to be added in the future). I think the 7800GT will be good enough on it's own for 3 to 6 months, at which time I can afford a second one.

Does this seem like a good plan? Feedback and suggestions welcome. Thanks in advance... ;)
 
Absolutely a good plan but take a look at the premium board rather than the deluxe as Asus ironed out a few deluxe problems with the premium. Some talk of a compatibility issue re. the 4000+ and premium combo but seems like just that, talk.
 
Sounds like an excellent plan to me. However, a few glitches in my eyes are the choice of CPU and RAM. Right now it makes sense to just go dual-core. ClubIT has the X2 3800+ for $322, which is a really good deal. And the XMS RAM is way overpriced. Something from G.Skill or OCZ would be a lot better for the money.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I'll certainly take a look at the premium version of the mobo and see what I think of it. If it addresses some issues with the deluxe, it may definitely be the way I go. $5 - $10 difference in price doesn't bother me any and that's what I see at the vendors I use.

I have a question about the 3800+ dual core versus the 4000+ single core CPU. Is there any benefit, at this time, for gaming using dual core vs. single core? Most of what I've read points out that there isn't any current benefit, so I'd prefer to go with the 4000+. I don't multitask much on my home machine, but I do game a lot. I think the 4000+ would be the faster CPU, which would be what I'd want. If I want dual core, I can always upgrade to a faster version later once the prices have come down... ;)
 
The 3800+ is actually supposed to be worse in (most) current games. However, there are a few games that are optimized for it. I believe they are B&W2, FEAR and CoD2. But all other games tested ran at a few FPS slower than their single-core bretheren. *But* When you're running a game at 80+ FPS you're not going to notice a performance hit of 5-10 FPS. On top of that, a lot of new games that are going to be coming out (UT2k7 for one) will be optimized best for dual-core, in which case it'll run them better. Another plus of dual-core is that you should notice a boost in everyday performance and speed. And you say that you don't multitask much. But wouldn't it be nice to, for example, be posting on this forums while running WoW and burning a disk without any slowdown?
 
Nice, but not really necessary. I've also heard on a few boards where certain games had some problems with the dual core CPU's (as mentioned here in this TR article). I think I'm just gonna bite the bullet and do the 4000+ and then do dual core in a year when the prices have come down... :D
 
Wow, just priced out my build and it's gonna cost and arm and a leg! :(

Here's what I have:

Asus A8N-SLI Premium
Athlon 64 4000+
2x BFG 7800GT OC video cards
TWINX2048-3200C2 2GB RAM
Antec TruePower II 550W PSU

Bleah! $1615 @ ZipZoomFly or $1620 @ Newegg. I'll probably do ZZF over Newegg because they have free 2nd day shipping instead of using 3 day UPS for $10. The prices are added into the totals above, but still, I'd rather get my stuff cheaper a day early. I've bought from ZZF many times, so I don't think there'll be a problem. Now to try to get the okay from the missus... :rolleyes:
 
Wow, anybody else see this on TR?

My article about building my new PC brought a lot of folks out the woodwork who shared similar problems with their nForce4-based systems. I work with nForce4 test rigs almost daily and have for the last year, and I've become acutely aware of some of the chipset's weaknesses and purported issues. Online forums are brimming with discussions of several key problems, as well. I noted some of these problems in my initial review of the nForce4 one year ago, and some of them persisted in April when the nForce4 SLI Intel Edition was introduced. From what I've gathered, the problems fall into a few main areas.
First, there are the Ethernet problems, which seem to center on the ActiveArmor acceleration. For one, the highly touted hardware-level TCP offloading acceleration has long been a work in progress. Sometimes, it doesn't work, and other times with newer drivers, it does. I think NVIDIA is making headway, but as I noted, nvtcp.sys cased a BSOD on my new system. A year into the life of the product, they still seem to be struggling with getting their Ethernet acceleration right. I've heard that these problems may clear up if you're willing to forego the acceleration and just use the Ethernet port. What have you guys found?

Next, there is the large file data corruption issue that some folks have noted. I've not run into it myself. Have you all?

I have, though, run into the boot-time problem with the nForce4 IDE drivers. Sometimes, Windows XP is very slow to boot, and the Event log shows errors during a paging operation. Some folks say you can fix these problems by disabling command queuing, but in my experience, I've had to uninstall the NVIDIA drivers entirely in order to avoid the problem. This problem persists even on the latest 6.70 drivers for 32-bit Windows.

Are you all seeing these same sets of problems? Are the three described above persistent over time, or have you found fixes that aren't just workarounds? Any other problems that seem to be common to a high percentage of nForce4 motherboards? Or do you think some of these issues are confined to a single mobo or brand of board?
Click to expand...

Anyone else seeing these problems? It's things like this that have kept me on my current platform for so long...
 
No comments about issues with nForce4 boards? This is making me rethink whether I want to upgrade. I was looking at these parts at Zipzoomfly:

247010 Asus A8N-SLI Premium nForce4 SLI Athlon 64(FX)/Sempron/Athlon 64 X2 Skt939 DDR Motherboard w/Audio, Dual Gigabit LAN, RAID/Serial ATA Retail ***Free 2nd Day*** 1 $173.00
270001 Antec TruePower 2.0 TP-II 550 550W Power Supply Retail ***Free 2nd Day*** 1 $98.45
321029 XFX PV-T70G-UDF7 Geforce 7800 GT Overclocked PCI Express 256MB DDR Video Card w/HDTV-Out, Dual DVI & VIVO Retail ***Free 2nd Day*** 2 $339.99
80097-54 Corsair TWINX2048-3200C2 2GB Kit DDR400 XMS3200 Memory w/Black Heat Spreader Retail ***Free 2nd Day*** 1 $269.99
80724-5 AMD Athlon 64 4000+ Processor (San Diego) Socket 939 Retail ***Free 2nd Day*** 1 $334.00

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subtotal $1555.42
Click to expand...

That's what I'll probably go with. Any compatibility issues between these parts that anyone knows of?
 
No, I've never heard of any problems with the nF4 chipset. All my friends use it, as well as everybody I know over the internet. I wouldn't worry about it. The SLI-DR is also a very good board, but I'd still go with the Asus. It has a fanless chipset, which'll help with noise/durability. And the RAM is better.
 
Well, made my decision for now. I was talking with a buddy of mine with almost the exact same system build, except he has 2GB RAM. He said all his games run smooth, even newer games like Quake IV and F.E.A.R. Mine stutters on occasion, which is why I was thinking of upgrading. I figured that if I upgrade my rig to 2GB and it doesn't give me the increase I want, then I'll order the rest of the parts I've been thinking about. I'm just loathe to spend $1500+ if I can drop less then $300 and take care of the problem. Yeah, upgrading the rig is a nice thought, but the extra thousand dollars could go to buying a new fridge, which we need even worse... :rolleyes:

I'm hoping the 2GB of RAM will help. If so, I'll be good to go until spring, at which time I'll be thinking along these lines again. Hopefully by then things will be even lower in price and my upgrade will be a little easier to swallow... :p
 
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