Amd 64 Mobo Combo

[Disvengeance]

What would be the best AMD 64 and MOBO combo, for price and performance. And are the AMD 64's good overclockers?

[keto]

Not typically good overclockers - 2-300MHz seems to be the normal max. Unsure of best combo - some like the Leadtek NF3, some the Gigabyte (ugh) NF3, others the Asus or Abit. VIA chipset moderately faster but no PCI lock. The 3400+ seems to be getting raves, tho bang for buck is prolly the 3000+.

[Enverex]

DONT GO WITH THE VIA BOARDS IF YOU HAVE A RADEON 9700! <img src="http://atomnet.co.uk/ss/smilies/14.gif">

[Disvengeance]

What about a radeon 9800xt, that wont have a problem will it?

I was originally going to look at getting an opteron and dual channel, but the registered ram scared me off due to the high price.

[Disvengeance]

I was looking to get ABIT's kv8-max3, but its a little expensive compared to the rest, is there a board out there thats better and maybe cheaper?

[Geeky1]

The nForce 3 boards don't have a PCI lock either, Keto.

[TheLostSwede]

The nForce 3 boards don't have a PCI lock either, Keto.
They actually do if you want. I have a hard time seing 250 fsb+ on non-locked pci m8.

[Geeky1]

Hmm. That's not what I've heard... I'll see if I can find the news article.

[Disvengeance]

What would in your guyses opinions be the best motherboard for a 3200+ 64bit

And would you guys say it would be worth paying 60 bucks more for a 3200+ 64bit, cause i saw the differences between the 3000 and 3200 and there wasnt that much at all.

[Omega65]

IMO Wait for Socket 939 (Dual Channel Memory), .09 Athlon 64s, and the NF3-250 and K8T800 Pro.

1St gen Hardware and CPU never OC well and have compatibilty problems. Shorty's HPT370A Raid card wont work in either a NF3 or K8T800 mobo.

Wait for the better, 2nd generation stuff!

[Enverex]

IMO Wait for Socket 939 (Dual Channel Memory), .09 Athlon 64s, and the NF3-250 and K8T800 Pro.

1St gen Hardware and CPU never OC well and have compatibilty problems. Shorty's HPT370A Raid card wont work in either a NF3 or K8T800 mobo.

Wait for the better, 2nd generation stuff!

How do you know the card will work in the second generation stuff?

[Disvengeance]

I was just wondering which would be better, nforce3 or k8t800. And is it really worth 60 dollars more for a 3200 64 rather than a 3000 64, will the extra cache make that much of a difference?

[Enverex]

I was just wondering which would be better, nforce3 or k8t800. And is it really worth 60 dollars more for a 3200 64 rather than a 3000 64, will the extra cache make that much of a difference?

Think of the extra cache as 150mhz, that should make the decision easier to make. nForce gives you a locked AGP bus, thats the only real difference.

[Disvengeance]

Enverex, I noticed that you have the motherboard i plan on getting if i get a 3200+. But on New egg it doesnt show it coming with the stuff needed to mount the heatsink, does it come with heatsink mounting tools and stuff, or do you have to buy seperatly?

[shwaip]

The retail processor comes with the mounting hardware.

[Enverex]

Despite all the reviews, the motherboard DOES actually come with all the mounting equiptment.

[Disvengeance]

ok thats cool... i havnt made up my mind whether to get an opteron or amd 64..i just need to find some good ecc ram that has a cas latency of 2 and isnt wicked expensive

[GnomeWizardd]

I just bought a 3000+ Athlon 64 and the Asus board. I would have got the abit but it wasnt going to be back instock for a bit at newegg. So i went with the asus which is a great board too. only diff between the 3000 and the 3200 is the L2 cache and in my eyes it wasnt worth it

[Disvengeance]

Does anyone know of where i can get some decently priced dualchannel paired 2x256 pc3200 cas 2 ram? so far the best ive found was some ocz pc3200 2,3,2,6 2x256 at newegg for 156 dollars

[EyesOnly]

You wont need it. socket 754 is single channel.

[croc_]

ECS board with the SiS chipset is supposed to be pretty fast, has an agp/pci lock also *I THINK*. But I hear they o/c for crap, so *shrug* IDK.

[Disvengeance]

The ram is for incase i decided to go opteron instead of socket 754, because ive seen that the opterons have really high memory bandwidth.

Anyone know of a good opteron board? one that is hopefully not too expensive

[Geeky1]

Why waste your money on a paired set? Just get 2 256MB sticks of the same brand, speed and model, if it's cheaper. AFAIK, there's no real benefit to these "matched pairs". Also, I'd go with 1GB instead of 512MB.

[Disvengeance]

I would go with unpaired, but im having trouble enough as it is even finding cas 2 pc3200 ecc ram. Only ones i found just happened to be paired. Do you happen to know any good sites where i can purchase some ram?

[Thrax]

The ram is for incase i decided to go opteron instead of socket 754, because ive seen that the opterons have really high memory bandwidth.

Anyone know of a good opteron board? one that is hopefully not too expensive

That's nice, but you'd need two sticks of registered memory which won't work in your socket 754 board. Or you'd need to buy two sticks of normal memory for your socket 754 board that won't work in your socket 940.

[Disvengeance]

Thrax, im looking at ecc ram incase i decide to get an opteron (940) rather than a socket 754. I already have ram that would work with a socket 754. But im talking IF i went opteron.

[crleap]

3 days ago I upgraded the system in my sig with a Retail 3200+ Athlon64, a Chaintech ZNF3-150, and changed out the Corsair XMS4000pro for some Mushkin PC3500 level 2. While it is not dual channel, as the blinking lights on the Corsair pro ram showed quite vividly, I went with a matched pair anyway since good ram will likely be the most expensive part of a system (except maybe a good monitor or video card), that way when dual channel chipsets come out for the a64 I'll already have good ram for it. Like many sites recommended, I chose the motherboard based on the features, and this chaintech board has hella bundles with it. No problems with anything so far, except not been able to run the ram at 2-2-2-5 (2-2-2-6 is no problem, probably just need to hit it with another .1 volts to get that 5). I don't see any reason to wait until next generation, as I always sell the stuff I have to upgrade anyhow, while it still has resale value. In all, this jump to athlon 64 only cost me about $100 when selling the p4 guts I had before. Just keep upgrading here and there and don't wait till you have a valueless gem of obscelescence and you'll be fine with whatever you do. $100 every 4 months to keep cutting edge is fine with me, rather than $2000 when I have to totally replace last year's silicon.

[drasnor]

DONT GO WITH THE VIA BOARDS IF YOU HAVE A RADEON 9700! <img src="http://atomnet.co.uk/ss/smilies/14.gif">

Why? I haven't heard anything about this.

-drasnor :fold:

[EyesOnly]

Enverex had some bad experience with that combo. I haven't head any other cases though.