New comp setup help [Archive]

Reign

26 Nov 2004, 12:18am

This is what I want to order, just not sure if it's a good setup... input please.

-Intel LGA775 P4 3.2 (or should i get hte 3.4 for $50 more?)
-Gigabyte GA-8IPE775-G (is this a good mobo?)
-RAM I don't know what to get. I know I want 1gig of Kingston DDR2, but not sure if the motherboard i chose needs 4chips or 2chips to enable DDR2.
-eVGA 6800GT 256MB
-2x seagate 80gb 7200RPM HDs
-NEC dual-layer 16x DVD-RW
-Thermaltake Silent Purepower 480W (is this enough power?)
-XP Pro
-LianLi case

Debating if i want the 3.2 or 3.4. Also need to know which RAM to order and if my PSU is ok. Also I heard the stock heatsink on the Intel sucks so I wanted a real good silent cooler. I won't be OCing anything either... Ideas? Thanks.

Armo

26 Nov 2004, 1:51am

giga byte boards are usually over priced, id look at the same range Asus board, most mother bards that use LGA processors have both DDR and DDR2 slots so you wanna look at that before you buy ram or a bard, you can use both DDR and DDR2 at the same time, 1 or the other. 1 ither thing is to pay close attention to the power connector on the board. alot of LGA boards use 24 PIN connectors and standard PSU's come with 20 PIN power plugs, so u wanna either choose a 24 PIN psu, or a 20 PIN mobo, make sure you count them :)

any PSU with 24 PINS will be enuf power :)

madmat

26 Nov 2004, 2:56am

You could always get the DFI Lan Party 875P-T for the Socket T that uses regular DDR and AGP if you want to save a bit of money as well as have a larger selection of vid cards to choose from.
Personally, if I was to make the move to LGA 775 (socket T) that would be the route I take so all I'd have to buy is a mobo and CPU and keep everything else.
As to everything, I agree with armo, look into a different brand of board, the Abit's are supposed to be pretty good and you 926X based AA8 is supposed to be THE LGA 775 board to have.

Jimborae

26 Nov 2004, 10:33am

Reign

1 Dec 2004, 11:30pm

ThermalTake Tsunami case instaed of the Lian Li - better cooling

Why 2 x 80gig drives ??? Raiding them ??? If so dont bother save a few bucks & get 1 x 160g drive, I doubt you'd notice the speed difference. You can always get another 160g drive later if you want to try raid or you need it for a specific application.

Two 80s because I just dont trust HDs anymore. Twice already i've lost ALL my files because of a HD that died on me. This time ill be smart and just have windows on a seperate drive.

Geeky1

2 Dec 2004, 2:05am

Couple general things:
1. LGA775 sucks...
2. ...as do Gigabyte boards...
3. ...and LianLi cases

Thrax

2 Dec 2004, 2:09am

Let's see..

An equivalent AMD CPU is faster, and probably cheaper.
DDR2 is slower than DDR1.

leishi85

2 Dec 2004, 2:32am

and instead of running windows on 1 80gig hdd, and other stuff on another 80gig hdd. you can just get a 160gig hdd, and make partitions for OS and partitions for other stuff.

Reign

2 Dec 2004, 3:59am

and instead of running windows on 1 80gig hdd, and other stuff on another 80gig hdd. you can just get a 160gig hdd, and make partitions for OS and partitions for other stuff.

Done that twice, and the HD died on me... including all the partitions with it. Read my thread in the Storage forum and you'll know my situation.

Geeky1

2 Dec 2004, 5:27am

Just having 2 hard drives won't change anything. I assume you plan to back up your data off one drive onto the other, yes?

Reign

2 Dec 2004, 6:21pm

Just having 2 hard drives won't change anything. I assume you plan to back up your data off one drive onto the other, yes?

Well actually im thinking of just backing everying up on DVDs. I currently dont have a DVD drive so I didn't have a way of backing things up.

GrayFox

2 Dec 2004, 8:16pm

Couple general things:
1. LGA775 sucks...
2. ...as do Gigabyte boards...
3. ...and LianLi cases

Hey lian-li pwns all other manufacturers
:p

This is what I want to order, just not sure if it's a good setup... input please.

-Intel LGA775 P4 3.2 (or should i get hte 3.4 for $50 more?)
-Gigabyte GA-8IPE775-G (is this a good mobo?)
-RAM I don't know what to get. I know I want 1gig of Kingston DDR2, but not sure if the motherboard i chose needs 4chips or 2chips to enable DDR2.
-eVGA 6800GT 256MB
-2x seagate 80gb 7200RPM HDs
-NEC dual-layer 16x DVD-RW
-Thermaltake Silent Purepower 480W (is this enough power?)
-XP Pro
-LianLi case

Debating if i want the 3.2 or 3.4. Also need to know which RAM to order and if my PSU is ok. Also I heard the stock heatsink on the Intel sucks so I wanted a real good silent cooler. I won't be OCing anything either... Ideas? Thanks.

Heres a new hardware list that will rape those ones

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Processor
WD WD1600JD 160GB 7200 8MB SATA HDD
Asus A8V Deluxe s939 AMD Motherboard
Asus Radeon AX800Pro
LG dual-layer 16x DVD-RW
2x Corsair CMX512-3200C2P 512MB 400Mhz DDR
Antec 550W (or enermax i recomend agenst the thermaltakes *buddy had lots of problems*)
-XP Pro (or home if u wana lose a few useless features)
-LianLi case (i cant wait to get my pc 2000 :) )
Zalman 7000cu (best cooler ever so quiet even on max and keeps my 2.4C at a cool room tempature :)

Gobbles

2 Dec 2004, 8:17pm

Couple general things:
1. LGA775 sucks...
2. ...as do Gigabyte boards...
3. ...and LianLi cases

Let's see..

An equivalent AMD CPU is faster, and probably cheaper.
DDR2 is slower than DDR1.

Seconded.

I understand why you want 2x80 drives. I run a simular setup. OS on drive 0 and my doc, music, video, and pron on drive 1.

TheBaron

2 Dec 2004, 8:30pm

Seconded.

I understand why you want 2x80 drives. I run a simular setup. OS on drive 0 and my doc, music, video, and pron on drive 1.

thirded. but then again i have 5 drives
I love multi-drive setups

Geeky1

2 Dec 2004, 8:30pm

Reign

2 Dec 2004, 9:55pm

ryko

2 Dec 2004, 11:45pm

I don't think the lga775 platform sucks, but it doesn't really offer anything better than an older s478 board. Maybe future cpu upgrades, but that is a big maybe. DDR2 (at the loose timings currently available) isn't any better than good (cas 2) DDR. And pciex16 video cards aren't any faster than their agp8x brothers---yet.

Also SLI for both AMD and INTEL platforms will be out soon (q1 2005 or sooner), so if you really wan't to be an extreme gamer, i would wait and go with an SLI setup if gaming is that important to you.

Don't automatically listen to everybody who says AMD is better than p4. It really depends on what you will be doing with your pc the majority of the time.

If you are a hardcore gamer that spends 10+ hours a day, then by all means get a 90nm s939 AMD and enjoy it's gaming prowess.

However, for everyday computing use like email, word processing, photoshop, video-encoding, etc... i would say a p4 w/ HT will be better and offer you a smoother real-world experience.

multi-tasking = p4.

gaming = AMD.

let the flaming begin....

Thrax

3 Dec 2004, 1:20am

Benchmarks have proven, unequivocally, that with HT enabled, the Athlon 64 architecture is superior to the Pentium 4 in every task but media encoding with up to a 1GHz clock deficit.

The numbers don't lie. It's not just gaming.

LGA775 sucks because the socket sucks - the sockets are rated for a maximum of 20 CPU insertions in their lifetimes. TWENTY insertions, and that's the maximum. OEMs have reported sockets breaking on the first insertion.. And realistically, despite what intel would want you to believe with the 925X and 915X chipsets, the Canterwood is still proving to be a superior product when combined with a Northwood Pentium 4.

But be that as it may, the Athlon 64 is still faster than ANY Intel offering unless you're encoding audio/video streams.

As far as PCIe is concerned; it's an unfortunate reality that it's here to stay, the lack of performance increases nonwithstanding. Supply chains sure don't care; it's a forced upgrade virtually all around. If people want the newest, and they do.. People are forced into a new video card and probably a new CPU at the same time. OEMs just love being able to put:
NOW WITH PCI EXPRESS x16 GRAPHICS
On their marketing spreads. It's a jackpot of sales; that's pretty much it.

Reign

3 Dec 2004, 2:04am

LOL why won't anyone help me here. I want an Intel system, don't be telling me to get AMD. I'll be getting an Intel either way. ;)

Now...

Intel 3.2 Socket 478
Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000 PRO-G
Kingston HyperX PC3200... DDR 400... 1gig low latency
Seagate 80 and 120 7200rpm HDs
Nvidia 6800GT

Can someone tell me if this setup would work well? I plan on playing HL2 and world of warcraft.

I want the Asus P4C800 Deluxe but $170 is a little much. Also Corsair has so many RAM choices i can't figure out which to get... XMS series... regular... silver casing... so much variety. I won't be OCing so i guess low latency or getting really expensive ram won't mean much to me. I'd also want the X800Pro cuz it runs HL2 better but geez its practically soldout everywhere. Also I heard the X800 is pretty loud, and i want to be running a silent comp.

Thrax

3 Dec 2004, 2:06am

Look, we're suggesting AMD because it's a superior product and you're going to get more for you're money. So, unless you earnestly do want a slower product, for more money spent, 98% of the people here are going to suggest AMD.

But if you're hell-bent on screwing your wallet over; and you really are going Intel, can the Gigabyte board. Just don't even buy it. Get Corsair 3200XL.

Reign

3 Dec 2004, 2:09am

Look, we're suggesting AMD because it's a superior product and you're going to get more for you're money. So, unless you earnestly do want a slower product.. For more money spent...

Ive gone through a few AMDs and all my friends have as well, and i just can't stand how much cooling they need. I really need a quiet comp and it just won't work with AMD. All my friends with Intels have extrememly quiet comps even with stock heatsinks. Plus i want intel for once. Also you guys suggested the AMD 3500+ which retials around 280.... i rather pay 220 for the 3.2...

I want to spend about a grand between the CPU, RAM, Mobo, and graphics card. Can you help me with that?

Thrax

3 Dec 2004, 2:15am

You're running on misinformation, Reign.

The Athlon 64 is actually one of the coolest CPUs in history. At 2.3GHz, the chips often run below 110*F, which is quite a feat of engineering. This is on the stock heatsink. If you buy a large copper cooler and a low RPM fan, you can have excellent and QUIET cooling for your CPU, I can guarantee you of that. The cooling necessity of AMD is, by in large, an old standby that WAS right... In 2002. With the advent of the Barton and the Thoroughbred, the CPU temperatures and cooling requirements of the AMD CPUs have plummeted.

I don't know who made the 3500+ suggestion, but it's unnecessary. A 3200+ is still faster than the 3.2, and retails for less if I recall correctly.

Reign

3 Dec 2004, 2:19am

What would be a good motherboard and RAM for the 3200+

Im running a 1900+ now and even with an SLK-900 and it's still running at about 48C and its loud...

primesuspect

3 Dec 2004, 2:32am

I hate to interject with this, but it's true, Reign. AMD chips run way cooler than intel equivalents. It's just a plain fact, you can't go any other way about it.

Geeky1

3 Dec 2004, 2:50am

If you've got a SLK-900 on a 1900, it's running 48*C, and it's loud, you're doing something wrong.

a 3.2GHz Prescott puts out a tib under 2x the heat that a 3200 does, iirc.

Reign

3 Dec 2004, 3:41am

AMD 3200+
Gigabyte GA-K8NS PRO
1gig Corsair pc3200 ddr400 (should i get valueram or XMS series)
ATI x800Pro

Hows that sound?

Shivian

3 Dec 2004, 4:28am

Whoa hate to be an Intel fanboy here! :p

Just wanted to throw in a few pts... unless you are an overclocker, 20 insertions of a chip into a socket is way more than you'll ever need. Also I've heard of plenty of stock intel setups sounding like the neighbour's lawn mower or vacuum or something like that. Those things cook eggs. I reckon there's an "Intel Inside" badge on my cooktop somewhere :)

Geeky1

3 Dec 2004, 4:33am

Lose the gigabyte board. Gigabyte boards are notorious for being unreliable, flaky pieces of crap. Get an ASUS, ABIT, or MSI board.

Reign

3 Dec 2004, 4:55am

Alright i've decided to go with the AMD 64 3400+ and the ASUS "K8V SE Deluxe" K8T800 Chipset. Now I don't know which RAM to get. Is the Corsair XMS 2-2-2-5 PC3200 DDR400 ... 512x2 alright? Or is the low latency not necesary? What would ya'll recommend. Should i save myself $50 and get the 2-3-3-6 instead?

Thrax

3 Dec 2004, 4:58am

Low latency isn't necessary on the Athlon 64. The margins between 2/2/2 and 2/3/3 or even 3/4/4 could be measured in mere fractions of a percent.

ryko

3 Dec 2004, 9:45pm

umm Reign, stick to your guns---if you want to go INTEL, then don't let these AMD fanboys talk you out of it. If you want a quiet INTEL system, then get a northwood instead of a presscot. I have a 2.8c with thermalright 948u that idles @ 32 degrees Celsius and I can't even hear it sitting right next to me.

Also, in response to Thrax, you can keep your pretty little benchmark numbers that prove AMD is better and faster than INTEL, but in my previous post i talked about REAL-WORLD experience. The fact of the matter is that any new AMD cpu is going to have noticeable slowdown if you are a heavy multi-tasker. Unless it's dual opterons, the p4 w/ HT offers a smoother experience. Personally, i wouldn't go AMD b/c of this. As a web designer, i usually have dreamweaver, photoshop, illustrator, and maybe acrobat running all at the same time. Not to mention my tv tuner and about 10+ tabs in firefox. All of this with no noticeable slowdown. Sure an AMD system might be able to load photoshop a few seconds faster than my INTEL system, but who cares---it's about not slowing down between apps for me.

Here is a quote from a similar philosophy.....

Pricing aside, AMD looks to be producing some of the best performance CPUs we have ever seen. The only hole I can really shoot in their armor is the lack of a HyperThreading-type feature. Now depending on how you use your computer, this may or may not impact your experience. When multitasking, the Pentium4 simply feels smoother to use. You get a seamless experience. Now this is not say that you never feel a lag here or there on a 3.4GHz Pentium4 desktop, but I will assure you there are not many of them. As of writing this, I have 15 windows open on 3 monitors running 8 different applications. If I wanted to, I could also encode a ripped DVD to DivX while I work and never be aware of it for the most part. My experience is that cannot be done on AMD's CPUs.

Here is the article that i took this quote from...

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NjI2LDE=

Now all of this aside, everyone is correct in telling you to stay away from gigabyte boards. I would also stay away from anything with a via chipset, but that's just me. Lastly, I think the cas 2.3.3.6 pc3200 from corsair will be just fine for your needs--no matter what type of system you build. :thumbsup:

pokesquid808

3 Dec 2004, 10:00pm

i'm a mushkin fan and always will be. some of the best customer service around and rock solid memory. haven't had a problem yet.

Mushkin pc3200 DDR Level 1 (512x2)-$214

one thing to make sure of before you buy memory is if it works with the board you are going to get. mushkin has a mobo qualifications page on their site if you want to check it out. www.mushkin.com

good luck with your system

Thrax

3 Dec 2004, 10:21pm

Also, in response to Thrax, you can keep your pretty little benchmark numbers that prove AMD is better and faster than INTEL, but in my previous post i talked about REAL-WORLD experience. The fact of the matter is that any new AMD cpu is going to have noticeable slowdown if you are a heavy multi-tasker. Unless it's dual opterons, the p4 w/ HT offers a smoother experience. Personally, i wouldn't go AMD b/c of this. As a web designer, i usually have dreamweaver, photoshop, illustrator, and maybe acrobat running all at the same time. Not to mention my tv tuner and about 10+ tabs in firefox. All of this with no noticeable slowdown. Sure an AMD system might be able to load photoshop a few seconds faster than my INTEL system, but who cares---it's about not slowing down between apps for me.

That's all well and good, but the example you cited in the part I've quoted is true of any sufficiently powerful desktop computer. Hyperthreading is meant to address the problem of sluggish application loading when the pipeline is filled to the max. You stated having Dreamweaver, photoshop, illustrator, acrobat, firefox and your TV tuner open all at one time.. Out of all of those programs, only photoshop and illustrator are capable of filling the pipeline, forcing the "Importance" of HT. The rest of the programs, once loaded into resident memory impact the CPU little more than making it keep the DLLs loaded and the executable alive. It's not filling the pipeline, and they don't require complex computations.

Any sufficiently powerful desktop computer wouldn't experience any slowdowns from having those programs loaded at one time. With the combination you cited, you're vastly more likely to have a slowdown as a result of an inadequate memory capacity.

ryko

3 Dec 2004, 11:09pm

So why push him towards AMD when any sufficiently powered machine will cut it?

Seriously, a p4 "feels" faster to me than an a64 when multi-tasking. Now i don't have two systems side by side for comparison, but i have played around on my friends a64 3000+ s754 system quite a bit, and i can tell you it just feels sluggish at times. Mostly we game on it though, and there have been no problems with that. He also doesn't multi-task like i do, so he doesn't really notice it. It could also be that his system is in need of some tweaking to get it running smoother. Or maybe i am just accustomed to how my pc works.

I was just offering a different opinion...

Jimborae

4 Dec 2004, 12:23am

If you do go with the Asus board & AMD64 system, and i ain't gonna make a comment on Intel vs Amd, Corsair Value ram will work well if you're not overclocking.

I sold my mate my S754 Athlon64, Asus K8V Deluxe & Corsair value ram system & it runs sweet as nut. He put in a 6800gt graphics card & the whole system is very fast & never crashes. Its cooled with Thermalright cooler in a quiet and the whole thing runs very cool & very quiet.

Just my tu'pence

Geeky1

4 Dec 2004, 2:20am

ryko: I was actually thoroughly unimpressed with HT for multitasking in a real-world setting. It works great for folding, but I had PeerGuardian and Morpheus running on my laptop the other day (for a total CPU usage of ~70% including both the CPU and the HT "CPU"). It was unbearably slow. Frankly, it was not noticeably faster than running the same two apps on my old 2.4GHz P4 (non-HT) laptop. As far as multitasking goes, get a real dual CPU system or go home. :p

//EDIT:
The laptop has a 3.4GHz P4 & 1GB of dual channel DDR400

Sonorous

4 Dec 2004, 8:38pm

I have had the chance to use a p4 3.2 with HT, and 2 gigs of ram with an app called 3dsm 7. I have also used it side by side in a studio with an Athlon 3500+. The Mental Ray render takes advantage of HT. When rendering, the scene is broken down into rectangles sized at 64 by 48 pixels, called "buckets". We tested the p4 against the athlon, and even with two buckets working for the p4, the Althon was still able to render faster. We didn't recard any times, just based on on what was done first. HT seems as if it is a catch marketing ploy, rather than a useful tool.

-The Tricky one.

Straight_Man

4 Dec 2004, 10:49pm

Can someone tell me why the LGA775 platform sucks? I don't plan on OCing or anything. Just an everyday computer and gaming.

What if I grab the Intel 3.2 Socket 478.... what's a good mobo for that? What type of RAM would be best? Low latency?

I really don't want AMD anymore... its time for a change.

I'll tell you what is wrong for the LGA775 right now where you want to game. Most games are NOT hyperthreaded or even very deeply multithreaded. AND, AMD at 2.8-3.0 GHZ TRUE speed beats the crap out of Intel P4s in gaming or 3D rendering. As far as general stuff, it is decent. BUT, my Northwood outfolds my Prescott. Both are within .1 GHz of each ohter right now. Let's look at why. First, very few WUs use SSE2 heavily. They mostly use SSE. OLD games use SSE and SSE2 adn frankly the Athlon FX 55 beats everything but a newest gen Prescott at 3.4 or better in most SSE2 or SSE benches.

I THINK I would stick with AMD for now, if you plan to game. I'd toss the money into a better HS for CPU, better video card, more RAM (I'd go a minimum of a Gig). My Prescott can run more things at once than my Northwood, but I do NOT game. Very few games are tuned for Prescott, and very few apps are. So the only advantage I have with Prescott is that I can run multiple non-HT apps at once. This does not help a game situation, worth beans, compared to an Athlon FX 55 or an Opteron.

Opteron and Northwood do better with older software than does Prescott, with LESS heat generated. It's only 71 degrees right now, in summer the room is 81 degrees with teh AC on. I live in Florida. Not a normal everyday heating scenario. To go to a 3.4 or better GHz P4 I would HAVE to watercool the computer. Think about where you live, and how to control the heat buildup in the case, before you jump into Prescott. IF you have to go to a P4, figure on not liking its gameability but for normal things a P4 at about 3.2 GHz that is not a Prescott will rock decently. When I tout the P4 Prescott, I do NOT have gaming in mind. Period.

I will NOT build a Prescott box for a gamer in the next year. Period. I started building boxes when the newest thing was a 386 computer, so you might say over a very long time I learned to cut through the hype. intel, for gaming, you need a 3.4 GHz to rock, have not seen those in non-Prescotts on commonly vailable boards yet. Most of the touted alternatives have not been out long enough for real good feedback to be gotten yet. Look for sponsorship of any site that touts Intel for gaming. I could say that for pure GHz P4 outshines an Athlon FX for m,any things, but gaming WILL be an exception.

Because of the "older code" thing, you will find an AMD chip is best for gaming. Period. IF you want TWO boxes, build one AMd and one Intel, but for one gaming plus everything else box, go AMD. No, I am not siding with Thrax, he simply is right as to gaming and folding. I have TWO 3 GHz P4 boxes here. I MIGHT catch up with him in about a month and a half-- probably will in fact-- BUT, I am NOT running one box folding only. did I make a mistake??? Um, I think when I bought the Prescott I made no mistake, but I do not game. For business, webdev other than motion video stuff, and for common things like word processing and surfing, the P4 is fine. For advanced gaming, NO.

In your case, you are thinking one box. I would say AMD now, maybe in a year or so, a second box for homework, math calcs, stuff you NEED that is not gaming. THEN, we will have to see what Intel has out and what the software dev climate is like. Unless you really want to jump into Linux, Linux likes Intel P4s and has a small amount of games. Then I would build a P4 box to run Linux on. My Northwood box runs Linux, and my Prescott box is in fact running XP. Linux runs more efficiently, sans (WITHOUT) games in the equation. WITH games, WELL the story changes. It's acceptable with what is available. But most is not, and Windows games, unless recoded (called PORTING) for *nix, generally do not run on Linux. The 64 bit versions of Linux CAN run on an Athlon FX 55 CPU system.

I'm not changing sides, gang, I'm saying gaming and everyday things can use different platforms and do better ON different platforms. So, if you want to game heavy, build an AMD box, and if you want to game older games than bleeding edge brand new (with some bugs) games, go AMD. For now and the next year or so minimum. EVEN assuming no OCing-- because of how games are coded. Normal game, on a Prescott, you will be using one core of the two, (in this case one of the processing pipes, both SHARE a common cache as far as what is out there and economical at all).

You will not get the performance you might expect from two pipes for gaming. Period. 100% guaranteed. For the next 12-18 months mimimum, and then we will have to see where software dev and hardware dev go (Intel WILL be releasing a real 2-core and two dedicated cache CPU, but it is not here yet. Prescott, given software, is a year ahead of its time. When manythreaded games appear, then it will be a contneder, at 3.4 to 3.8 GHz. For now, NOT, as far as gaming. I've said it ALL the ways I can, for emphasis.

compu-geee-whiz

5 Dec 2004, 12:27am

ThermalTake Tsunami case instaed of the Lian Li - better cooling

Why 2 x 80gig drives ??? Raiding them ??? If so dont bother save a few bucks & get 1 x 160g drive, I doubt you'd notice the speed difference. You can always get another 160g drive later if you want to try raid or you need it for a specific application.

ho ya. I agree. Much much easier for lots of things

GrayFox

5 Dec 2004, 10:07pm

I try to run at least 2 drives in my systems as well, so I don't have an issue with that, but dude, you've gotta get rid of the LGA775 platform, the gigabyte board, and (unless you go with a PC-7x) the Lian Li case.

GrayFox: The 7000Cu is decent, and for quiet cooling it does an OK job, but the fan isn't going to be easy to replace when it dies, and there are heatsinks out there that are far better performing than the 7000... personally, I'd go with something like a Thermalright XP-90...
I love my 7000cu keeps my 2.4C @ a nice room tempature
once even the 12V+ got caught in the fan and it stoped :eek: but that zalman passively cooler my cpu and it peaked @ 52C acording to logs. I didnt relise the fan had stoped till i checked the temps :rolleyes:

My problem with the thermalright is that most 120mm fans can be very noisy :p. also he said QUIET the zalman is in audiabe in my computer max fan speed too (excuse my spelling) mainly because my videocard cooler is loud :shakehead

AMD 3200+
Gigabyte GA-K8NS PRO
1gig Corsair pc3200 ddr400 (should i get valueram or XMS series)
ATI x800Pro

Hows that sound?

*points to gigabyte
Evil gigabyte
burn the gigabyte before the water in the cheep eletricite in the capasitors
turns into hydrogen and causes the capasitors to explode and cost a board
*points to abit too*
abit also suffers from this problem

I have heard of cheep asus boards doing this but havent seen it :rolleyes:

Geeky1

6 Dec 2004, 8:27am

You know dude, I don't know where in the hell you get some of your info...

The 7000CU is an above average heatsink. It's not outstanding, but it's not bad. The fan is a proprietary unit though, and when it dies, you're gonna be SOL.

And I don't know where the hell you got the idea that "most 120mm fans can be very noisy". A 120mm fan pushing a given amount of air wil be quieter than a 92mm, 80mm, 70mm, 60mm, etc. fan pushing the same volume of air. Period.

Besides, the XP-90 doesn't take a 120mm fan anyhow. It takes a 92mm fan.

Oh, and about the capacitors: they're no longer an issue. It wasn't limited to ABIT and Gigabyte. Just about every manufacturer (including ASUS) had issues, but the problem was solved several years ago.

Reign

13 Dec 2004, 5:17am

Alright here is what I plan on ordering tomorrow...

AMD 64 3400+
ASUS "K8V SE Deluxe" K8T800
ENERMAX Noisetaker Series 470W Power Supply
Corsair XMS 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200
Seagate 120gb and 80gb HDDs
ATI X800 PRO

Input?

Geeky1

13 Dec 2004, 5:25am

my only concern would be that S754 is pretty much a dead end at this point. Also, since you want quiet cooling, I'd suggest getting a Thermalright XP-90 and a Vantec Stealth 92mm fan.

Reign

13 Dec 2004, 5:39am

Whats wrong with the 754?

Geeky1

13 Dec 2004, 5:52am

Nothing is WRONG with it per se, but it's a dead end from an upgrade standpoint. You remember the S423 P4s? That's basically what you've got with a S754 A64. It's a fine CPU... fast, runs cool, etc., but if you want to upgrade it in say, 18 months, you're probably gonna be SOL. S939 is gonna be around for a while... S754 probably isn't. As long as you can live with running a higher risk of having to buy a new motherboard and cpu the next time you upgrade, there's no problem.

Of course, you may have to do that even with S939 now too, because the PCI-Express transition seems to be going in a direction where the only way you'll have a relatively future-proof system right now is to buy a S939 system with the nForce4 chipset... which means buying a new graphics card too... :-/

profdlp

13 Dec 2004, 6:01am

I'm curious as to why you're getting two different size HD's. If you're going for the 8MB cache version there is only $16 difference between the two at newegg. Why not two 120GB drives? An extra 40GB for $16 looks like a deal to me. :)

Reign

13 Dec 2004, 6:16am

I don't plan on upgrading for another 2 years or so after this, and even if I choose to do so before then, I wouldn't mind buying another mobo, so i'll stick with the 754.

I really can't see myself filling up 240GBs... heck I can't see myself filling up 200. ... heh i'll see. Reason i'm getting two is because I had too many problems with my current comp with windows detecting my 200gb WD.. and i had to hook up a IDE2 PCI card for it to recognize it... i'm not gonna deal with that again.