What do you think?

RWBRWB Icrontian
edited December 2003 in Hardware
I have my itchy finger on the buy button at newegg.com right now with:

x2 120GB SATA WD HDD's and one 2.4GHz P4 "C" all for $369 smacks. I have been desiring to go back to an AMD for a while now, it seems I have been literally STUCK with Pentium 4's for over a year now. Not that I don't like them, but I kinda miss AMD :D

I wanted to include a new Radeon 9800 Pro, however, my debit card only allows for $500 a day in withdrawls total. So I must wait a day on that.

With all that said, I am curious what you all think I should go about doing? I need a machine good enough for all my digital media goodness and gaming desires of Planetside amounst others that I now SHOULD be having more time to play once again.

I don't have a huge budget, but $600 sounds about right for upgrades needed.

What my current PC is ATM is....

Intel P4 2.4GHz "B" with a Switfy MCX4000(or something) running 2.7GHz
ABIT IS7(just the IS7) capable of the 800MHz bus of the P4C's and HT too of course.
ABIT Siluro Ti4600
Kingston PC3200 HyperX DDR (512MB x2) in Dual Channel Mode
Maxtor 40GB ATA133 HDD
TTGI 520W PSU
Lite-On CDRW
Lite-On DVD-ROM
Lian Li PC65 Case

I hope I am not forgetting anything...

So what do you guys think would be the best route for me to go about getting my upgrades?? :D

TIA
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Comments

  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited December 2003
    If you're doing digital media, how about dual Athlons?
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    :eek3: I almost forgot about Dual Athlons, that would be sick :)

    Is there a good solution for a Dual Athlon setup, with perhaps AGP8x and Dual Channel? Would my memory be ok? usually you need ECC memory :(
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    AGP 8x is useless, but there is no athlon dual channel smp platform.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited December 2003
    No AGP8X or dual-channel RAM. However, you have to remember that this is an athlon system. The dual-channel is unnecessary, and AGP8x is a marketing gimmick.

    As for RAM, you need ECC/REG memory only if you want to use more than 2 sticks of RAM. The 1GB you have now will work just fine in slots 1 & 2 of most dual athlon boards.
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    So I suppose the P4C is the way to go then... :hrm:
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited December 2003
    You'll probably need a new case, unless you want to mod the one you have. Dual Athlon systems require more cooling than a stock mid-tower like your PC65 can provide.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited December 2003
    No, the P4 is NOT the way to go. The Athlons would be faster. Maybe you misunderstood... DUAL CHANNEL RAM IS USELESS ON ATHLON SYSTEMS, and agp 8x is worthless period.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    As much as I hate to say it; unless the application being used is specifically tuned to handle SMP.. The single P4 is faster than the dual Athlon.

    The only thing that's faster than the P4 for media work is the new Athlon64s (The 3000, 3200, and FX-51 are all faster).

    Consequently, a good Athlon64 board and an Athlon64 3000+ (Newcastle chip) would probably fit in the budget.

    ~$130 for board, ~$200 for chip.
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    No I got that, however 1GB of RAM is not alot of memory, and to upgrade all this would cost alot more from what I see right now.

    Hyperthreading is nice, it i better than I originally thought too. But I do also know that Dual Athlons would be better. I am reading this and typing and trying to figure out prices all at the same time... so I tend to be a bit slow on my replies :)

    umm, I wanna go Dual Athlon, but the memory thing scares me, I know Dual Channel memory isn't a big deal, however, I don't have the ECC memory needed ight now it seems. Like I said, trying to figureo ut a good price. I don't know all this stuff like I used to, so I am GUESSING you MUST have MP's now and not just normal XP's in a Dual Setup?
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    I tell ya'll what ;) If you guys can help me out, I KNOW the NForce3 is a ****ty Motherboard, or at least I hear lots of BS about them not being up to snuff.

    I'll go _somewhat_ all out and get an Opteron system ;) But Newegg.com is only showing me that they have NForce3's ONLY for the new Athlon64's

    Whata nd Where should I go for an Opteron system?
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited December 2003
    I don't think the newest (that green packaging) XPs can be made into MPs any more, but if you go to a local place, and pick up a pair of Athlon XPs in the older brown package, you can modify them to run as MPs quite easily.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    You don't even need an opteron.

    The A64 3x00 chips are withi 2% of the opteron for media work, and several hundred less. $200 for a chip and you'd be set.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited December 2003
    If you're going to do an opteron, you might as well go all the way:
    http://www.msicomputer.com/product/detail_spec/product_detail.asp?model=K8T_Master2-FAR
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    I forgot there is a difference between the Opterons, 51's andwhatever other models they have.

    That Athlon 3000 looks nice, and you say all the chips are not very diffrent in their abilities?

    hehe, you both are on a similar track, but are still confusing me. I guess this is what I get for not paying attention to my tech stuff for almost a year :P
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    As far as media performance is concerned:

    The Athlon64 3000+ performs within 2% of the top AMD chip (Athlon64 FX-51), and in excess of 10% faster than the Pentium4.

    The Fx-51 is $700, the 3.2HT P4 is $370, and the 3000+ is $213.

    You can keep your existing memory too.
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    OK, newegg.com has no motherboard at the moment it seems. I don't ever really buy from other places usually, do you know of another trustworthy area I can buy a good motherboard for the Athlon 3000?
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited December 2003
    They've got all sorts of boards for it... :confused:

    Go specify the socket type as "754"
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    Socket 754 Boards at Newegg

    I would get the <i>MSI K8T Neo FIS2R</i> myself on a budget, or the <i>Abit KV8-MAX3</i> if I was going all out.
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    OHH LOL! I thought the Athlon 64's were al socket 940. I really nee dto start apying attention :P

    OK looking this up now :) I feel like a total noob again... :rockon:
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    OK another question...I have no idea how this hyper transport stuff works.... but on the specs how do I know I have the right one for my needs on the Hypertransport?

    The ABIT one says a FSB of 800MHz, while the MSI says Hypertransport....

    This could be the usual newegg not being very clean in their organization or whatever you may call it, but whats the deal?
  • GnomeWizarddGnomeWizardd Member 4 Life Akron, PA Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    RWB waht you going to do with that ti 4600 after you get a new card?
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    Gonna have to sell it along with lots of other parts I have layinga round. I have to repair my truck also before I go driving it around again

    Damned Vandals, I shall have their balls!
  • GnomeWizarddGnomeWizardd Member 4 Life Akron, PA Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    what price you looking at I might have some friend of mine that will be interested
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    Don't worry about Hypertransport, or 800MHz.

    Just know that any socket 754 board will work with any Athlon64 3x00+, and that both of those will work with any regular non/ecc non-registered DDR400 (Which you have).
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    Looks like I will have to wait till the Abit board is in stock again.

    hopefully not long....

    That board looks SWWEETTT! The Abit KV8 MAX3

    I think the only question I need now is what type of coolings hould I get? Is there a particular HSF I should get?
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    GnomeWizardd wrote:
    what price you looking at I might have some friend of mine that will be interested


    I am not sure at the moment, I will have to gt back to you on that sometime tonight. I am still in Texas so I am away from all my spare parts and current system ATM, I was gonna wait to check everything out first then figureout prices before selling anything.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    I'd actually get the retail 3000+ for 240 from newegg. The stock heatsink is really very good.
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    OK thrax, also, I have been lookinga t anandtech on these boards, and I have seen on there that the Gigabyte K8NNXP-940 board is a VERY nice board, despite being a NForce3 part, I have found on Newegg.com a K8NNXP-754 motherboard for a decent price.

    Is there any problems that you know of with the NForce? From what I read, something about the hypertransport. Yet it overclocks much bettert han the Via chipset due to AGP/PCI locks, plus I have never been a fan of the VIA chipsets.

    What do you think?
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited December 2003
    I haven't seen the retail heatsink, but there aren't many aftermarket 'sinks out yet... I'd get a Zalman 7000A-CU or A-ALCU, but that's just me.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited December 2003
    The nForce 3 doesn't have PCI/AGP locks
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