Hoping for advice on Athlon 64

mavitymavity
edited April 2004 in Hardware
I want to build the best machine I can for around 5-600 pounds, i was hoping for recommendations. I am a little confused about what will work with what when building this pc, was hoping you could give me advice.

My reason for buying this is for playing games and watching dvd though tv output graphics card. I was also considering buiying the Radeon 9800 256mb pro AGP?

Also the Athlon 64 but not sure what I woul need with this?

Not sure abot the best ram to connect to the Athlon, or whic type is best?

Thanks for any assistance :)

Comments

  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited April 2004
    Several guys around here will suggest the MSI board with VIA chipsets from personal experience. If you can wait, the prices of video cards will go down when the new cards come out.
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    Hi Mavity :)

    Quuck question about your budget of 5-600 quid (yeah, Im UK as well :D) ... what does that have to cover parts wise??

    Why do I ask?? Well the board + CPU + memory alone is gonna set you back around £400, which does not leave alot left for hard drive, video card (especially with your requirement for a high end card), case, PSU and so on.

    Im running an Athlon 64 system and you are right regarding memory. They are very fussy about which memory you use, so that's why it's worth buying the best (recommended) memory. However, that does nay come cheap. :bawling:

    :)
  • mavitymavity
    edited April 2004
    >>Quuck question about your budget of 5-600 quid (yeah, Im UK as well ) ... what does that have to cover parts wise?? >>

    Why do I ask?? Well the board + CPU + memory alone is gonna set you back around £400, which does not leave alot left for hard drive, video card (especially with your requirement for a high end card), case, PSU and so on.>>

    Well I suppose i could go a little bit more, make it 800 quid. Im thinking about the athlon 64 3200 + processor. Or the Athlon 64 FX-51, not really sure which is best. ?

    I am also unsure as to which motherboard would be best along either of these. I basically what a complete setup, which i can go out and purchase then build.

    Im looking at Athlon 64 3200 + with 512 ram, 60 gig harddrive, radeon 9800 agp graphics card, im unsure as to which motherboard, and also what type of ram, depending on board?

    If you had 800 quid, and wanted a top notch system, what would you buy?

    Thanks :)
  • GnomeWizarddGnomeWizardd Member 4 Life Akron, PA Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    I am using the MSi board its awesome. My suggestion For video with tv out that will rock is the eVGA fx5900se. Its a good card. and its only 180 USD Even tho its going against all the ATI fan boys here . I am using a 5950 and couldnt be any happier. The TV out works well compared to my old 9700 pro
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    It's gonna kick ass regardless :D

    Here's my personal suggestions ;)

    Motherboard:

    K8T Neo-FIS2R which is the most stable Athlon 64 motherboard (I've tried three other manufacturers boards before I got this one). Im not the only one on these forums who has one, we all agree they are kickass! :)

    CPU

    • Supports 64-bit AMD® Athlon™ 64 processor (Socket 754)
    • Supports up to 3200+, 3400+, or higher CPU

    Chipset

    • VIA® K8T800 Chipset
    - HyperTransport™ connection to AMD® Athlon™ 64 processor
    - 8 or 16 bit control/address/data transfer both directions
    - 800/600/400/200MHz "Double Data Rate" operation both direction
    - AGP v3.0 compliant with 8x transfer mode

    • VIA® VT8237 Chipset
    - Integrated Faster Ethernet LPC
    - Integrated Hardware Sound Blaster/Direct Sound AC97 audio
    - Ultra DMA 66/100/133 master mode PCI EIDE controller
    - Intergrated dual channel native Serial ATA/RAID controller supplying 150MB/s supporting for
    RAID 0 and RAID 1
    - Supports 8 USB2.0 ports
    - ACPI

    Main Memory

    • Supports DDR266/333/400 DDR SDRAM for three 184-pin DDR DIMMs
    • Supports a maximum memory size of 2GB

    Slots

    • One AGP 8x slot
    - AGP 3.0 specification compliant
    • Five 32-bit v2.3 Master PCI bus slots (support 3.3v/5v PCI bus interface).

    On-Board IDE/SATA

    • An IDE controller on the VIA® VT8237 chipset provides IDE HDD/CDROM with PIO, Bus
    Master and Ultra DMA 66/100/133 operation modes
    - Can connect up to 4 IDE devices

    • Serial ATA/150 controller integrated by VT8237
    - Up ot 150MB/s transfer rate
    - Can connect up to 2 serial ATA devices
    - Supports RAID 0 or RAID 1

    Serial ATA RAID

    • Promise 20378 On-Board
    • Supports 2 serial ATA plus 1 ATA133
    - RAID 0, RAID 1 or RAID 0+1 is supported
    - RAID function work w/ATA133+SATA H/D or 2SATA H/D
    • Connect up to 2 SATA device and 2 ATA133 devices

    Audio

    • 6 channels software audio codec RealTek ALC655
    - Compliance with AC97 v2.3 Spec.
    - Meet PC2001 audio performance requirement.

    LAN

    • Realtek® 8110S Dual layout
    - Integrated Fast Ethernet MAC and PHY in one chip.
    - Supports 10, 100Mb/s and Gb/s

    IEEE1394

    • Supports up to 2 x 1394 ports.
    - Transfer rate is up to 400Mbps
    - Controlled by VIA 6307 chipset

    On-Board Peripherals

    On-Board Peripherals include:
    - 1 floppy port supports 2 FDDs with 360K, 720K, 1.2M, 1.44M and 2.88Mbytes
    - 1 serial port COM1
    - 1 parallel port supports SPP/EPP/ECP mode
    - 1 IrDA connector for SIR/ASKIR/HPSIR
    - 1 audio port
    - 8 USB 2.0 ports (Rear x 4 / Front x 4)
    - 1 RJ45 LAN jack

    LOTS of onboard stuff.. it's mint :)

    £90

    CPU:

    3200+ Athlon 64 :cool:

    £213

    Memory:

    Kingston HyperX 512mb (single stick) which works smoothly with the fussy A64 memory controller :)

    £70

    Graphics card:

    ATI Radeon 9800 128mb

    £130

    Hard Drive:

    Western Digital 200gb Serial ATA with 8mb cache

    £109

    Total of: £612.

    Now add a case and whatever else you need :)

    Of course, these prices vary a few quid depending on who you shop with.. and so on. Also, if you do have want 256mb on your 9800pro.. add another £40/£50 to it's price :)
  • mavitymavity
    edited April 2004
    >>Of course, these prices vary a few quid depending on who you shop with.. and so on. Also, if you do have want 256mb on your 9800pro.. add another £40/£50 to it's price
    >>

    Sounds awsome, many thanks for constructing a through list, im going to go with your recommendation, thanks again :)
  • mavitymavity
    edited April 2004
    >>>>>>Motherboard:

    K8T Neo-FIS2R which is the most stable Athlon 64 motherboard (I've tried three other manufacturers boards before I got this one). Im not the only one on these forums who has one, we all agree they are kickass!

    CPU:

    3200+ Athlon 64 >>>>>

    I was also wondering if this comes with a built in cooler, so the system, wont overheat, should i add an extra coller fan, if so which make?

    I also looked over the links you left, would you happen to know of a site that sells the athlon 64 3200+ and the K8T NEO- FIS2R, iv looked but the quote you gave me is still the cheapest. They were asking 400 pounds up. I really don't want to get ripped off. Thanks again.
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    That's a retail processor.. so comes with the mounting brackets, heatsink and fan :)

    I can take a look about.. the prices are changing.. I've always found Scan to be good with price :)

    LN5770 MSI K8T Neo FIS2R (Athlon64) S754 VIA 3 DDR400+6CH Audio S/PDIF+1394+2xSATA+Raid+USB2+Gbit Lan £76.00 Ex VAT

    £89.30 Inc VAT

    LN5855 AMD *Retail* Athlon 64bit 3200 32/64Bit CPU S754 £178.32 Ex VAT

    £209.53 Inc VAT

    So you are looking at £300 there :)

    Even if you save £10 be buying the processor elsewhere, you lose out on having to pay whoever the other seller is.. the £8-£10 delivery charge :rolleyes: that all these retailers charge (but its still cheaper than PC world!).

    Any problems... let us know :):thumbsup:
    mavity wrote:
    >>>>>>Motherboard:

    K8T Neo-FIS2R which is the most stable Athlon 64 motherboard (I've tried three other manufacturers boards before I got this one). Im not the only one on these forums who has one, we all agree they are kickass!

    CPU:

    3200+ Athlon 64 >>>>>

    I was also wondering if this comes with a built in cooler, so the system, wont overheat, should i add an extra coller fan, if so which make?

    I also looked over the links you left, would you happen to know of a site that sells the athlon 64 3200+ and the K8T NEO- FIS2R, iv looked but the quote you gave me is still the cheapest. They were asking 400 pounds up. I really don't want to get ripped off. Thanks again.
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