Help with system specs

D

dante2010

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Joined
Sep 26, 2005
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I'm in the middle of specing out a new system and had some questions re: it.

Currently I'm looking at:

AMD Athlon64 3000+ S939 Processor
Asus A8N-SLI-Premium NF4 Ultra S939 PCIe Mainboard w/GB Lan/SLI/SATA II/FW
Corsair DC ValueSelect 1GB (2x512) PC3200 CL2.5 DDR Memory
Seagate 250GB 7200RPM 8MB IDE HDD
Asus EN7800GTX Geforce 7800 GTX 256MB PCIe VC, Vivo (EN7800GTX/2DHTV/256M)
Antec NeoPower 480 Wattt Power Supply

1) Is having a 3000+ going to end up being a bottleneck to the 7800 GTX? Would I be better off upping the processer a bit and then going to a 6800GT (to balance out the cost as I am on a budget).

2) How much of a difference is there between the 6800GT and 7800GTX? Will I see a huge improvement in gaming with the 7800GTX? Is the extra $300+ worth it?

2) How easy will it be for me to overclock the 3000+ (with the above configuration) should I decide to stay with it? I don't want to get into any fancy cooling devices.. I'd want to do it with a regular heatsink/fan and some case fans to keep things cool inside. Keep in mind I have very little knowledge of how to overclock a processor.

3) I've heard great things about the NeoPower.. but would 480W be enought to power all the above, plus another IDE hdd, DVD-ROM, DVD-RW and soundcard (from my current system)?
 
You may want to check out some different hard drives. Yes, Seagate is the gold standard in hard disk reliability, but there are other much faster drives out there. In particular, the WD2500KS, Maxtor 6L250S0 (If 5 year warranty is important, there is also 7L250S0), and Hitachi T7K250 will all deliver better application level performance than the Seagate drive. The Maxtor is crazy cheap ($107.50 for a 250GB drive with a 16MB buffer and a five year warranty), but Maxtor drives have the industry's highest power consumption. The WD2500KS also packs in a 16MB buffer, but you trade down to a three year warranty and a higher price (~$120) for a cooler/quieter drive. The Hitachi reaches a pretty happy medium between the two. If you are looking for a quiet hard drive, your search begins and ends with Samsung. Seagate does not allow end users to control noise profiles on Barracudas, and you may get a drive locked in performance mode if you buy a Seagate.

Also, Zipzoomfly is the best place on the Net to buy hard drives.

The NeoPower has two pretty solid +12 rails. It will power all of your gear just fine. I will wanr you that overclocking on the A8N-SLI has been a bizarre adventure, and more trial and error than anything else, for me. In all fairness, it has been a 100% stable stock board, and I still like it.
 
1) Yes. the 3000+ is going to bottleneck. I think you should get at least a 3500+ and a 7800GT.

2) There is a big difference.

3) If you don't know I would avoid it.

4) The Neo power should be fine.
 
Doug,

Would this be the Maxtor drive you're speaking of?

Maxtor 250GB DM10 7200RPM 16MB SATA, 3YR, RoHS
 
Indeed, that's the one. If your case has front fans to keep hard drives cool, then you will not be disappointed by that drive. It is StorageReview's desktop performance leader right now.
 
Ok.. so I've now got two systems in mind. The first is basically what I posted earlier, with the proc bumped up to 3500+ and the Maxtor drive substituted in.

AMD Athlon64 3500+ S939 Processor
Asus A8N-SLI-Premium NF4 Ultra S939 PCIe Mainboard w/GB Lan/SLI/SATA II/FW
Corsair DC ValueSelect 1GB (2x512) PC3200 CL2.5 DDR Memory
Maxtor 250GB DM10 7200RPM 16MB SATA, 3YR, RoHS
Asus EN7800GTX Geforce 7800 GTX 256MB PCIe VC, Vivo (EN7800GTX/2DHTV/256M)
Antec SLK3000B Mid-Tower Case NO PS, Black
Antec NeoPower 480 Wattt Power Supply

The second is one that will help my wallet a bit more. It is as follows:

AMD Athlon64 3000+ S939 Processor
Asus A8N-SLI-Premium NF4 Ultra S939 PCIe Mainboard w/GB Lan/SLI/SATA II/FW
Corsair DC ValueSelect 1GB (2x512) PC3200 CL2.5 DDR Memory
Maxtor 250GB DM10 7200RPM 16MB SATA, 3YR, RoHS
Gigabyte GFX 6800GT 256MB PCI-E DH Video Card w/TV-OUT
Antec SLK3000B Mid-Tower Case NO PS, Black
Antec NeoPower 480 Wattt Power Supply

There ends up being a $360 price difference between the two. My question is, how much of a performance difference will I see between these 2 rigs?

Also, does anyone have any opinions on that Gigabyte 6800GT card? I can't really seem to find any reviews on it.
 
One 6800GT will be about as good as the next. The 7800GT is about $100 cheaper. I would suggest getting that instead. If you can’t spend the cash get the 6800GT with the 3500+. :D

You may want to get 2GB of memory instead of one. ;)

 
If I go ahead and buy the 1gig kit as I have listed above, will I be able to buy another one at a future date and use all 4 512mb modules? Will they all run in dual channel mode as well?
 
dante2010 said:
If I go ahead and buy the 1gig kit as I have listed above, will I be able to buy another one at a future date and use all 4 512mb modules? Will they all run in dual channel mode as well?
Click to expand...

That should work, but having 2 modules is always better.
 
I'd go with a 3200+ and the 7800GT or GTX. The video card is more important than the CPU.

Definately want to have at least 1GB of ram. Plan on adding more later if you like FEAR and BF2.
 
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