New rig update

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 3:59 pm

I was all set to buy my new rig a couple of months back, when things went seriously south. I cracked two teeth, car broke down, wife lost her job (company downsizing...even with 10 years with the company they just laid her off with 2 hours notice),
and oh yeah, my fish died (beta fish...been with me for 2 years). needless to say my new rig was put on the back burner.

fast forward a few months and I've almost gotten to the point where I can buy this rig (again). things have changed a bit however, and I'm in no hurry to buy since my p4 2.2 is still going strong.

this was my recipe a few months back:

Thermaltake Tsunami Dream Tower
PS 520W OCZ

DFI Lan Party NForce4 SLI-DR
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ venice
----> I was thinking of the 3800 venice also
1 GB DDR (2 pcs 512) PC-3200 OCZ Platinum Revision 2
120 GB WD SATA -
DVD-RW - NEC 3520A

eVGA 6800 GT 256MB
UV Round Cables Kit 2-24" IDE 1-18" FDD 1-18

So I have 3 questions:

1--anything need replacing on the above list, or is there something better to consider?
(I dont have the cash for the new nvidia 7800GTX, but I could possibly for the 7800GT...assuming it's $100 or so cheaper. I havent seen anything about availability though.

2--If I were to go with a P4 solution, which mb should I choose? (an MSI nforce4 P4N diamond SLI or an ASUS nforce 4 Deluxe SLI)

3--SATA 2 caviar HD or a standard WD SATA HD? I dont know much about HDs, so I'm in the dark.

I can wait a couple of months for availability of the video card/savings on the CPU if the savings would be substantial.

thanks for any input

-RM

Mr. Perfect · Post by **Mr. Perfect** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 9:36 pm

There wher some AMD price cuts yesturday. The 3200+ wasn't effected, but all of the higher Athlon 64 CPUs where(except the rich boy FXs).

The 7800GT is supposed to be launched with some national LAN party or other. Quakecon I think it was? Either way it's not out yet. Since the price cuts haven't taken effect in the retail market yet, you could hold out for both them and the new card.

CritterB · Post by **CritterB** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 10:36 pm

I'm thinking about building a new comp around the amd athlon 64 x2 3800+ recently announced. It seems to o/c like crazy and it gets you into an amd dual core. Checked out some reviews on it and its looking good so far.

Matrix · Post by **Matrix** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 11:11 pm

1- Stick with what u have there, expect go with the 3800 now because the later Venice chips are not overclocking very good anymore (speed binning).

Everything else looks good still; dual core is a waste unless u do tons of multi tasking or use multi thread programs. Like encoding a video while u play HL2

Otherwise u are paying more for a CPU that has almost equal gaming performance clock for clock compared to its single core counter part.
Plus the cheapest one is 400bux

Don't get me wrong tho, dual cores are great stuff, just not needed by everyone yet.

Donâ??t know anything about the 7800GTs yet but the 6800GT and Ultra are still insanely powerful cards for the games that are currently out. With my Venice @ 2.8 and my 6800GT I play HL2 and Doom3 @ 1280x1024 w/ all max settings. Smooth as butta. And the GPU isnâ??t even OCed.

Waiting to see what the 7800GT will do and what price it goes might be worth it tho. Even if its not for u, when its released, other GPU prices will probably fall.

3- SATA 2

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 8:52 pm

sweet!

any opinions on a Pentium setup (other than the 'dont do it dude' tip)?

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 10:17 pm

The Pentium can't hold a candle to the Athlon 64 in games or much else. Right now it's a waste of time.

Matrix · Post by **Matrix** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 10:19 pm

Krom wrote:The Pentium can't hold a candle to the Athlon 64 in games or much else. Right now it's a waste of time.

2X that =)

suicide eddie · Post by **suicide eddie** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 5:33 am

i would stick to the 6800 myself. the 7800 doesnt seem to have any gains till your running above a res of 1200 or so.

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Sun Aug 14, 2005 5:51 pm

I'm pretty sold on the 7800 series. the GT really seems like a great card...I'm really tempted to get the GTX, but the extra $100 is a big deterrant.

I've got a couple more questions:

1--Is there any problems with upgrading the cpu from the 3800 90nm to a Athlon 64 X2 3800+Dual-Core 90nm?
the difference is $40
Does it make sense to have one for the future (I probably wont touch this system for a couple of years) software/aps since its just a couple $ more right now?

2--Would there be much difference between the DFI mb and an Asus A8N-SLI nforce4 mb?
I really hesitate to bring this up (again), but since I have no experience with OC'ing an AMD CPU, I'm leary of the DFI mb (I read another review about it being a very "picky" mb). Remember that I may not even OC this system until I need to squeeze some power out of it to keep it current. Stability and ease of use is my main concern (and that it is fast of course). I read that the Asus mb's are pretty stable, and yet the DFI mb comes highly recommended by all the reviews I've seen. I just wonder if its better suited for someone who really wants to tweak a myriad of options (which I dont)
(sorry matrix/krom...I know we've been over this before

)

3--If I decide to SLI in the future, will I need anything to make the OCZ modstream 520w PSU work? I hadnt thought of it, but I've noticed some PSUs that say "SLI support Power Supply"...which the OCZ PSU doesnt say.

4--Case lighting. I'd like to put one of these in my case: http://www.xoxide.com/12linespcoca.html
or one of these: http://www.xoxide.com/logisys-15in-ccfl-blue.html

are they tricky to install, or is it just "plug it into an empty power cable and tape it to the case"?
Monarch charges an extra $50 to "mod" the case with one of these....

--and again, thanks for the input!

-RM

Matrix · Post by **Matrix** » Sun Aug 14, 2005 6:16 pm

$50 to install a CCFL?!!!?!?

Ya do it ur self, just throw it into the button of ur case and plug it into a molex connector, a monkey could do it.

And if you want stability with easy of tweaking with less options but donâ??t care about much of an overclock then the ASUS board is ur best choice, it is known for its stability.

I don't know anything about this board when it comes to running to running a dual core chip in it tho. I haven't done any recent reading on it since the dual cores were released.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Sun Aug 14, 2005 6:28 pm

ReadyMan wrote:I'm pretty sold on the 7800 series. the GT really seems like a great card...I'm really tempted to get the GTX, but the extra $100 is a big deterrant.

I've got a couple more questions:

1--Is there any problems with upgrading the cpu from the 3800 90nm to a Athlon 64 X2 3800+Dual-Core 90nm?
the difference is $40
Does it make sense to have one for the future (I probably wont touch this system for a couple of years) software/aps since its just a couple $ more right now?

2--Would there be much difference between the DFI mb and an Asus A8N-SLI nforce4 mb?
I really hesitate to bring this up (again), but since I have no experience with OC'ing an AMD CPU, I'm leary of the DFI mb (I read another review about it being a very "picky" mb). Remember that I may not even OC this system until I need to squeeze some power out of it to keep it current. Stability and ease of use is my main concern (and that it is fast of course). I read that the Asus mb's are pretty stable, and yet the DFI mb comes highly recommended by all the reviews I've seen. I just wonder if its better suited for someone who really wants to tweak a myriad of options (which I dont)
(sorry matrix/krom...I know we've been over this before )

3--If I decide to SLI in the future, will I need anything to make the OCZ modstream 520w PSU work? I hadnt thought of it, but I've noticed some PSUs that say "SLI support Power Supply"...which the OCZ PSU doesnt say.

4--Case lighting. I'd like to put one of these in my case: http://www.xoxide.com/12linespcoca.html
or one of these: http://www.xoxide.com/logisys-15in-ccfl-blue.html

are they tricky to install, or is it just "plug it into an empty power cable and tape it to the case"?
Monarch charges an extra $50 to "mod" the case with one of these....

--and again, thanks for the input!

-RM

1: You have no use for a dual core CPU, you won't be doing anything that will need that type of power, a single core 3800+ will likely be faster for you.

2: Just because the DFI board has a ton of options does not mean you need to tweak them from the defaults, actually changing them from defaults may do more to hurt performance then help it if you aren't overclocking. If you are talking how many BIOS tweak options there are, the ASUS board will likely be much the same as the DFI board, it is unlikely you will have cause to even look at the options so it doesn't matter how many there are.

Also Matrix and I used the DFI board to build Shadowfox's new system, and Shadowfox tried his very best to screw up every aspect of assembling that system and fry it, yet the board held together and works perfectly. (Eventually after SF burned over 5 hours just trying to get the board in the case we had JF go over and finish assembling the system in 30 minutes).

3: All marketing rubbish, ignore it.

4: $50 for that? Rip off. Like Matrix said, too easy to pay $50 for.

CritterB · Post by **CritterB** » Sun Aug 14, 2005 9:55 pm

For $40 more I'd get the dual core. Especially since this may be the comp for you for quite a while. I have read that it helps here and there while using multi apps at once. But one thing it makes a huge difference in is alt tabbing back to the desktop in games. I had to alt tab out last night when TS crapped out midgame and I had to switch to the backup TS. I was in BF2 and it took awhile so I would have appreciated that extra speed right there.

I'm building a new system shortly and I'm watching this thread so I'd like to hear how your final system works out and what you ended up going with etc. I've also heard good things about the DFI boards especially for o/cing which I plan on doing.

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Sun Aug 14, 2005 11:24 pm

Hrm...now I'm undecided about the dual core...
Krom--you said in some instances it might slow things down?

CritterB--The collective DBB gurus have helped me compile quite an awesome setup. Much of the reasoning behind each component is in this thread:
phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=6080&highlight=
and this thread:
phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=6651&highlight=

I hope this helps.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Sun Aug 14, 2005 11:55 pm

The X2 3800+ will be slower in all current games then a 3800+ single core. Doesn't make sense from the model numbers right? Here is why: The X2 3800+ has two cores each running at 2.0 GHz, the same speed as the single core 3200+. The 3800+ is a single Venice core running at 2.4 GHz. All modern games can only use one CPU at a time even if there are 128 CPUs available to the system the game will only run on one of them. Games will continue to be single threaded in this manner for a while because the developers are terrified of multi threaded programming (it's not exactly easy for most programmers, and next to impossible for deadline approaching lazy baka game programmers). In other words for running your favorite game, the X2 3800+ is 2.0x1, vs. the Venice 3800+ which is 2.4x1.

Now for doing more then one thing in windows at a time, like compressing a zip archive, surfing the web and watching/encoding a video at the same time, the X2 3800+ will eat the single core Venice 3800+ for breakfast lunch, dinner, dessert and probably a midnight snack too. If this is the kind of multi tasking you normally do, go for the X2 3800+ all the way, but if all you do is surf the web OR watch a video OR play a game not all at the same time, the Venice 3800+ will give you a noticeably higher FPS in CPU bound situations.