Order to be placed Monday, Final Thoughts?

[JoKeR]

Ok, after several weeks of deliberations and flip-flops I am finally gonna place my order with newegg on Monday. Here's what I'm going with:

Athlon 64 3200+ 512MB Cache, Retail
MSI nForce3 250 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Athlon 64 Socket 754
CORSAIR XMS, Xtra-Low Latency 2-2-2-5, 184-Pin 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200
Seagate 160GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive
eVGA nVIDIA GeForce 6800GT Video Card, 256MB GDDR3
ANTEC Performance Plus Case with 430W Power Supply

I decided to go with a 754 socket system over a 939 system because the minimal performance increase was not enough to justify the extra money. I also found out through these forums that the 939 MoBo's were having issues that have not been completely ironed out yet while the 754's were more stable. When it comes time to upgrade in a couple of years, the 939's will be more stable and I will also probally want to go PCI-Ex by then as well. The difference between the 3200+ (754) and the 3500+ (939) is minimal for my purposes. In the Doom3 hardware guide, the 3000+ (754) actually did better than the 3500+ (939).

I'm still not sure if this is the best memory and case decision, though. Does anyone have any feedback/opinions on this setup?

 

[GaleForce]

The memory is great. I have the pro-series version of it. Very good memory.

BTW, I would go with the S939 system... thats what I did. Its the same reason I didn't buy a sempron processor. S754 is just going to be phased off as a value brand instead of a performance one. I know you want PCI-Ex but I think that shouldn't justify putting yourself in a better position, just my opinion though. I think S939 is going to have much more potential in the future since its newer. Makes sense anyway.

Either way, sweet system! I got that video card too, its awesome.

 

[Liam]

That looks good, but I wouldnt get a 3200+ newcastle. A clawhammer 3200+ yes, newcastle no. Get a 3000+.

 

[Jason711]

nice... ive always wanted an a64 with 512MB of cache

but seriously... you may want to reconsider the type of ram you are choosing. i have seen some ppl through out the forums that have problems combining that and a64's...

i would pick OCZ's EB series or Crucials Ballistix...

the last thing you will want is for something to be incompatible for some silly reason...

 

[JoKeR]

That looks good, but I wouldnt get a 3200+ newcastle. A clawhammer 3200+ yes, newcastle no. Get a 3000+.

Liam, Please clarify...I know the newcastle is 512 KB Cache while the Clawhammer is 1MB. Is that the only reason? Is there that big of a difference in performance? Also, newegg doesnt have either the 3000 or the 3200 in Clawhammer (neither does ZipZoomFly) Thank

 

[JoKeR]

Regarding 512 cache Vs. 1 MB Cache, this article played a factor in my decision (http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2149&p=5 )

 

[Schro]

The memory is great. I have the pro-series version of it. Very good memory.

BTW, I would go with the S939 system... thats what I did. Its the same reason I didn't buy a sempron processor. S754 is just going to be phased off as a value brand instead of a performance one. I know you want PCI-Ex but I think that shouldn't justify putting yourself in a better position, just my opinion though. I think S939 is going to have much more potential in the future since its newer. Makes sense anyway.

Either way, sweet system! I got that video card too, its awesome.

But the price delta for the same specs (3500+ == 2.2ghz 512k, 3200+ == 2.2ghz 512k) is approximatly $200 for this honor at this time with nearly no tangible increase in performance. AMD should continue to market the A64 for S754 for at least the next year or until they finish the .9u ramp. The other thing to consider is the upcoming nForce4 chipset, which will be here during the yule season- grabbing one of these boards for some SLI action would be worth the 100 bucks to replace a motherboard....