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New computer tomorrow, Feedback please!

J

JacksonRSX

n00b
Joined
Dec 21, 2005
Messages
11
I've done some research this past week and so far i've come up with the following pc build below that would best suit me. This computer will be used for mainly gaming and i do not plan to overclock. I have a Viewsonic VP191b 8ms LCD, games will be played at native res 1280x1024. I never do any heavy multi-tasking so i decided to go for a single core cpu. Does my build look alright? I plan on purchasing everything tomorrow. My budget is around $1300CAD (before tax).

ASUS NF4 A8N-SLI Premium - heatpipe design, has sli, overall good board
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 2.2 GHz L2 1MB Cache - nice upgrade from my old P4 2.4Ghz
OCZ DDR Premier 1GB (2x512M) PC3200 400Mhz Dual Channel - value ram, dont plan to o/c
Western Digital 160GB SATAII HDD 7200rpm 8MB
Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
XFX GeForce 6800GS 256MB DDR3 XXX Edition - good enough, 7800gt too much $$$ for me
LG DVD+/-RW 16X8X/16X6X Double Layer Black (OEM)
Antec Sonata II Mid tower ATX w/ TruePower 2.0 450watt PSU - inexpensive, comes with decent psu
 
Are you really going to use SLI? If not, I'd drop down to the Abit AN8 Ultra or the EPoX 9NPA+ Ultra. Also, I'd consider the Opteron 146 or 148 instead of the 3700+, if you can find one.
 
Bona Fide said:
Are you really going to use SLI? If not, I'd drop down to the Abit AN8 Ultra or the EPoX 9NPA+ Ultra. Also, I'd consider the Opteron 146 or 148 instead of the 3700+, if you can find one.
Click to expand...

Do those boards work with the Opteron without a BIOS flash? If not, how does one go ahead with a BIOS flash without a CPU?
 
I'm not knowledgeable on the performance of the 6800GS, but would it be worth it to spend $50 more on a x850xt pe? or get a gto2 for around the same price and flash it to pe?
 
6800GS is about = to a 6800GT, and when you OC it you will be gettin a great card for a cheap price. btw, you can get scores of like 6k+ in 3dmark05 when OCed well.
 
Bona Fide said:
Are you really going to use SLI? If not, I'd drop down to the Abit AN8 Ultra or the EPoX 9NPA+ Ultra. Also, I'd consider the Opteron 146 or 148 instead of the 3700+, if you can find one.
Click to expand...

At the moment i dont plan to use SLI, but since this is going to be a gaming pc, i think having SLI will come in handy in the future if i ever decide to use it. As for Opteron 148, how much better is it compared to 3700+ San Diego? Both chips seem to have identical specifications (clock speed, cache size, manufacturing process, etc) with little price difference.
 
JacksonRSX said:
At the moment i dont plan to use SLI, but since this is going to be a gaming pc, i think having SLI will come in handy in the future if i ever decide to use it. As for Opteron 148, how much better is it compared to 3700+ San Diego? Both chips seem to have identical specifications (clock speed, cache size, manufacturing process, etc) with little price difference.
Click to expand...

SLI is really a waste unless you're getting both cards right now. By the time you get the money for your second card, there will already be a single card that performs better than your SLI setup. In my opinion, you're better off saving $50 and getting an nForce4 Ultra board, and putting that $50 towards a better processor or video card.

As far as the Opteron, they're almost exactly equal. At stock. What you have to remember is that AMD's Opteron line undergoes MUCH more intensive testing than the Athlon 64 line, because the Opterons are meant primarily for servers that demand 100% uptime and consistent, reliable performance. As a result, they are much more stable and tested to a higher degree of quality. Also, they are the overclocker's dream, as such rigorous testing usually means it will overclock better. I would advise you to give it a shot, as you should be able to get that 148 to 2.6GHz on the stock heatsink. And that would give you, effectively, an FX-55. Not bad at all.
 
If i drop SLI, and swap the A8N-SLI Premium with the cheaper version with no SLI, A8N-E NF4 Ultra, then i could possibly upgrade my videocard to eVGA 7800GT. I will have to pay about $100CAD more. My only major concern is that the A8N-E uses a crappy fan instead of a heatpipe and has no firewire support but everything else is pretty much the same.
 
the noisy fan issue for A8N-E has been supposely fixed in rev2 so im not so worried about that anymore :)
 
I say drop the SLI board for an Abit AN8-Ultra.....built a computer a week ago around this motherboard (Abit AN8-Ultra, 3500+, XFX 7800GT, 1gb Corsair Value Select) and it was great. I think I may go back to Abit for my next build (past two have been Asus).
 
BTW, the Abit uses a heatpipe and also includes firewire support. And I would recommend the 7800GT (eVGA is one of my favs), especially if you are a big gamer. It'll save you from upgrading again a year down the road. Plus playing games in all their eye candy is great. Made me sad when I had to give that computer I built to my cousin once it was done.
 
JacksonRSX said:
the noisy fan issue for A8N-E has been supposely fixed in rev2 so im not so worried about that anymore :)
Click to expand...

Or you could just get a Zalman chipset cooler like this. It works great. Cools better than the stock fan did, but I have an early version of the A8N-E.
 
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