I have issues.

Atticus

GAAH! :banghead:

I'm lost in a sea of hardware, hardware reviews and hardware prices..

I want to build a new system. Here is what i have so far and what i'm frustrated about.

CASE: Cooler Master WaveMaster Blue
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 4000+
Memory: **Suggestions?
Video: GeForce 7800 GTX
HDD: **Suggestions?
MoBo: **See above - "GAAH!"

I'm open for suggestions on everything here except that i want to stick with AMD for my processor. SLI and CrossFire i know the bare minimum about so inform me and mold me :P Ummm.. If you feel like responding just know that i have a large budget to work with.

Gobbles

whats your budget? Cuz I came up with this system if I win the lottery...

Mobo ABIT AN8 SLI Socket 939 nForce4 $132.00
Case Lian Li PC-V1100B Black $250.00
DVD PLEXTOR Black PX-716AL/SW $144.99
HSF ZALMAN CNPS9500 $68.99
Raid 3ware 8506-4LP SATA $279.99
HDD 2x WD Raptor 74GB 10,000 raid 1 $326.00
HDD2 2x Seagate Barracuda 500GB $743.00
Memory 2x OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) $505.10
PSU PC Power & Cooling 510W Power Supply $219.99
Sound Creative SB X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS $277.00
Video 2x XFX Geforce 7800GTX 256MB GDDR3 $938.00
Proc AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Toledo $790.00
SubTotal: $4,670.06

JChretien

hmm for the CPU.. the 4000+... is 334$ on newegg... the 3800+ dual core is 322. You might want to consider that.

Gobbles

Ok here a little more budgeted. Dont need the lottery to get this one.


DVD NEC Black 3540A - OEM $38.99
CASE Thermaltake Tsunami VA3000BWA Black Aluminum $115.00
HDD 2x Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 120GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s $178.50
MOBO ASUS A8N-SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI $129.00
GRAPHICS 2x MSI NX7800GTX-VT2D256E Geforce 7800GTX $898.00
PSU Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 ATX12V 550W Power Supply $89.99
MEMORY CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 550 $200.00
CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Dual Core $322.00
Subtotal: $1,971.48

Atticus

I'm in Canada gents. Dealings are done with TigerDirect.ca where 4200+(lowest X2 available) is 580.00 and the 4000+ is 475.00. Prices is tricky..

I really want to stay with the WaveMaster blue cause well, its sexy.

Here is what i have EXACTLY so far. If something could be improved upon, pllleeeaaassseee tell me.

Case: Cooler Master WaveMaster Blue
PSU: Enermax Noisetaker AX 2.0 600W Power Supply(SLI ready)
MoBo: Gigabyte K8N Ultra SLI
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 4000+
Memory: OCZ Premier Series PC-3200 Dual Channel 400MHz / 2x512mb
Video: 2 x eVGA GeForce 7800 GTX 256MB DDR3 / PCI Express / Dual DVI
HDD: 2 x Western Digital Raptor 36GB / 10K / 8MB / SATA-150
Western Digital Caviar SE 120GB / 7200 / 8MB / SATA-150
Optical:Plextor PX-716SA Dual Layer SATA DVD Writer 16x8x16x DVD+RW / 16x4x16x DVD-RW / 48x24x48x CD-RW

Quick question for hard drives: Would it be better if i have the Raptors with seek times almost half that of the Caviars Or the Caviars with double the transfer rates of the Raptors??

muddocktor

I would go with an Asus or DFI SLI board over the Gigabyte myself. A lot of people here at this forum have found that a lot of Gigabyte mobo's tend to be more problematic. For an all around mobo, the Asus A8N SLI has been a pretty solid solution for a lot of folks. Aslo, you might see if Newegg has started their Canada service yet too. I had read that they were supposed to start dealing in Canada sometime in October. That way you might be able to find a X2 3800 for a decent price. Also, you might check out Monarch computers and see if they will ship to Canada. They are selling the Opteron 165, which is a socket 939 1MB L2 cache dual core proc running at 1.8 GHz. If you aren't afraid of doing a little overclocking to get the speed up, that might be your ticket. You can get them from either Monarch for $300-325 US.

tmh88

I wasnt aware that they make an athon xp 4000+ . I dont really pay attention to the xp line, only the 64 bits.

JChretien

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1526470&CatId=1948


AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2.0GHz / 1MB Cache / 2000MHz FSB / Socket 939 / Dual-Core (Manchester) / Processor with Fan

right on tigerdirect.ca ^^

And i'll put in a vote for the Asus A8N-SLi. I've used 4 different variants of the board including the A8N-E, the A8N-Sli, A8N-Sli Deluxe and the A8N-SLi Premium, and i've had wonderful experiences with all 4.

You might also want to consider an aftermarket cpu heatsink as well. I'd recommend the Zalman 9500, Thermalright xp-120, or XP-90c, none of which are avaliable at tigerdirect.ca, but are avaliable at ncix.com

Gobbles

Couple of comments.
1. id shop around. Tiger direct sucks as does their prices.
2. Id go with the asus sli board and then get the 3.0gbs seagates, they will pwn what you have listed now.
3. Id bypass the plextor dvd sata drive and go with the NEC or the regular IDE version. I have seen people having serious issues with the sata dvd drives. I have the IDE version and it roxors, especially after removing the rip speed limit.

DVD Plextor 716a IDE $158.70
HDD 2x Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 120GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s $432
MOBO ASUS A8N-SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI $230
OCZ EL Platinum REV.2 (TCCD) PC3200 1GB 2X512MB $190.30
CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Dual Core $429

All prices in canadian...

http://www.ncix.com/ Their prices smoke TD.ca

Atticus

I've looked into the newegg.ca deal and it was recently registered but no sign of a Canadian Site yet. The only thing about buying from the states and having it shipped over is border fees. Thats another tax in the equation that makes me wanna buy in the country.

Now, about the Asus boards. My supplier, a gentleman from a local company with whom my father is employed thus getting me a discount(products @ cost), says about 75% of the Asus boards he sells come back whereas 10% of the gigabyte boards come back. I dunno, i think the kids he sells to are a touch "hooked on phonics" if you get my drift. They don't really know computers they just have rich parents so they buy alot. I might yet go with the new board Asus just came out with, its got the x16 SLI thing going for it.

Ohh.. atta boy. is the 2ghz 3800+ a better buy then a 2.4ghz 4000+?

muddocktor

Got any good friends on the US side of the border that could sneak it across and mail it to you?

Anandtech has done reviews of both the AMD and Intel versions of the new Asus Nvidia chipset boards, if you want to see what they perform like.

Atticus

I just reviewed the NEW Asus board a few days ago, and i read a few SLI mobo roundups. I really like that new Asus, the A8N32 i believe its called. Its the board that can have both grafix cards runnin on the x16 bus as opposed to the x8 bus. Mind you, the increase in grafix power wasn't huge but i assume it will be worth the money.

haha and no, i dont know anyone willing to smuggle for me. :P

Gobbles

Atticus wrote:

Ohh.. atta boy. is the 2ghz 3800+ a better buy then a 2.4ghz 4000+?

the 3800+ is dual core, it has 2 2.0 cores whereas the 2.4 4000+ is single core.

FormFactor

Gobbles wrote:

3. Id bypass the plextor dvd sata drive and go with the NEC or the regular IDE version. I have seen people having serious issues with the sata dvd drives. I have the IDE version and it roxors, especially after removing the rip speed limit.

OT>

Erm... Rip speed limit? Sounds cool. Will it work on a 3520A?

/OT>

Atticus

Laff. Thanks gobbles. I should have asked if the 3800+ is a better buy for gaming and better speed wise - assuming they aren't overclocked.

muddocktor

Speed-wise at stock clocks, the 4000 San Diego will be faster, with a caveat: when running a single app. Where dual core shines is in mulittasking. If you generally run just 1 main app at a time, the faster clocked single core proc will perform faster but as you do more and more at the same time, the dual core will definitely give faster response due to load sharing across both cores, just like a true dual processor workstation machine. You can game and rip a dvd at the same time with a dual core (assuming you have sufficient memory of course) with little performance penalty on either app.

Gobbles

FormFactor wrote:

OT>

Erm... Rip speed limit? Sounds cool. Will it work on a 3520A?

/OT>

no. its plextor 716a only.

Leonardo

Now, about the Asus boards. My supplier, a gentleman from a local company with whom my father is employed thus getting me a discount(products @ cost), says about 75% of the Asus boards he sells come back

One of the factors is wrong in that equation. Maybe his prices are good, but his statement...? That just doesn't bear up with the experience of nearly the entire enthusiast community that posts on the Internet. I am not calling your friend's father a liar. Just that something is really strange. Perhaps he's only sold four Asus boards, and that it was bad batch, or that three of the four went to home builders who didn't know what they were doing.