New PC - suggestions / changes

[dirtymafia]

I'm going to be buying and assembling my computer soon. I have already purchased a c3d x800gto from newegg, can't even run it yet cause my MB at home is only AGP. I bought it quickly thinking that the price was going to go up like the gto2's but actually the price for the c3dx800gto has gone down since I bought it oh well. Thankfully here @ work our new systems coming in are PCI-E so I did get to at least unlock it and run some 3dmarks on it.

Anyway, here's the specs that I'm looking at:

Amd 64 3000 ~$130
CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB)~$120
Asus A8N-E~$100

I would like to stay around those prices and can waiver a bit, but would like to know if anyone has anything that they think should be changed to a different product that would increase my performance : price ratio. I will be overclocking the CPU and video card, possibly memory.

 

[mitsirfishi]

well i would get Abit AN8 Ultra nForce4 Ultra $128
GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 $131
AMD Opteron UP 146 San Diego 2.0GHz $201- well worth it good overclocker same with board and ram
the prices are estimates from uk prices into us conversion so could be cheaper

 

[dirtymafia]

Maybe I just live under a rock, but I've really never heard of geil memory. I looked it up on newegg and the timings look for crap. What are the advantages to geil as opposed to corsair XMS.

I've eyed that Abit board as well. Actually, even though I didn't list it I'm deciding between these 3 boards: asus a8n-e, dfi NF4 ultra-infinity, and abit an8-ultra. Why are you recommending the an8?

Yeah I've also heard that the 146 opteron is a great oc'er, and also it has the 1mb cache. It's worth a thought, but it is $70 more than the 3000 and I'm just not sure it's worth it. Yeah it's better, but what I'm looking for is the best performace for price, and I just can't imagine too much diff. between 3000 oc'd and opteron 146 oc'd. I guess the opteron would allow me to open up the multiplier also..alowing for better overclock with lower speed (3200) memory. meh....now you got me thinking again.

 

[zAAm]

First of all, the 146 can overclock quite alot more than the 3000 Venice. With good cooling the Venice would probably reach 2.6GHz while the 146 can reach 3GHz. The 146's multiplier is also locked at 10 I think. So that would allow it to overclock more in any case. (This would be with a good mobo as well.) And Geil makes good memory, but I don't think it would make that much of a difference versus the XMS Corsair... If you're going to overclock it would be wise to get faster memory though like DDR500. I don't know about the different mobos though, haven't looked into them much.

 

[mitsirfishi]

well the geil ram can run 2-2-2-4 @ 250fsb so its really good overclocking for value ram

 

[mitsirfishi]

but my friend has this geil value ram and has got his 2 ddr490 on these timings of 2-2-2-4 so if you losen them abit then you would be able 2 get ddr500

 

[jjcom]

DFI LP Ultra-D is about 125USD and is better board for overclocking. higher Vcore and Vdimm voltages Many more tweaking options in the BIOS
I'd get 2x 512mb OCZ VX myself, good stuff.
Athlon 64 3000 Venice looks to me, that's what I'm running.

 

[mitsirfishi]

well the dfi board have a crappy bois

 

[jjcom]

All a matter of opinion, personally, I feel the DFI BIOS and overclocking is much nicer/easier compared to my AN7.

My comment about better for overclocking was in comparison to the ASUS board. The Abit AN8 Ultra is also a very nice board. Vdimm goes to 3.65v as I remember and the Vcore I believe is about the same as the DFI board. I can't think of anything bad about it

 

[mitsirfishi]

yes but asus for stabilty and renowned for making the best boards out there maybe not for overclocking but ive never had a asus board blow on me depends if this fellow is overclocking if not i would go with the msi board but i hate the dfi board for its vulgornes and colours

 

[jjcom]

MSI Neo 4 Plat I think is the board that has SB Live on board. Wouldn't be a bad a board at all for no or maybe alittle overclocking. Plus save some bucks since if you want good audio the SB on board ain't bad.

 

[dirtymafia]

I think I'll probably go with the Asus or Abit. The Asus has some VDimm settings (not sure on abit their website doesn't tell me). I'm not gonna change the voltages much anyway as voltage decreases lifespan (so I've heard). Plus I think I've managed to talk myself into splurging on the memory and getting some TCCD chips. I've been looking at some G.Skill Extreme Series ddr550 or the Geil ONE series. They both have some nice tight timings at high speeds.

mitsirfishi:
well the geil ram can run 2-2-2-4 @ 250fsb so its really good overclocking for value ram

That seems quite an excessive statement for ~$100 ram. I can't imagine those timings on that ram. What are the voltages on that?

 

[mitsirfishi]

3volts and no joke