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Fozzie
05-14-2004, 06:03 AM
If you guys were to be building a system from currently available parts what would you go for as far as

MOBO
Memory
PSU
Heatsink.

I am going to be building one based on the 2800 AMD 64, how much faster would I expect it to be over a Barton 2500

Fritz
05-14-2004, 11:02 AM
Fozzie,

From my experience, a A642800 will be a little faster on some apps and the same on most others, as compared to a Barton 2500. If I were to build this system, I'd go for an ASUS K8V Deluxe or the K8V Deluxe SE and probably 512M of Crucial PC3200. Get the 512 M single stick of RAM...if you want to expand to 1024M later you can add another 512M stick and maintain PC3200 memory speeds. There are limitations on the memory bus speed with certain configurations, but this one will work. If this were a personal use system, you might want to try getting two SATA 80GB WD drives and setting up a RAID 0 array with Windows XP Pro. This will make the system feel really responsive in startup and application switching. If you decide later on you want to dual boot with Windows and some flavor of Linux, I believe you can add another smaller IDE drive and load Linux on that. I believe you can switch the SATA and PATA controllers on and off seperately, so you can create an isolated dual boot system without using a bootloader.

Based on what I have seen of the chips, if I had a choice I'd take the A643200 because of the 1ML2 cache. I believe AMD just cut the prices.

Fritz

Bok
05-14-2004, 11:12 AM
I'd tend to agree with Fritz.

The asus board has been great for me so far with a 3200 in.

Of course I'd disagree with putting Windows XP Amateur on , but that's just me :p ;)

Gentoo runs very sweetly with the AMD64 build.....

A decent Antec 350 PSU works well and you can use the standard heatsink

Bok :D

Fritz
05-14-2004, 11:38 AM
Folks,

Too bad there aren't more popular apps that work easily with Linux...the choice would be easier. As for power supplies...I have had a really good experience with the Antec Sonata case...it has a similar power supply to what Bok mentioned, and a 120mm fan, so its "Cool n Quiet"...just like the AMD64.

Fritz

Bok
05-14-2004, 12:17 PM
Originally posted by Fritz
Folks,

Too bad there aren't more popular apps that work easily with Linux...the choice would be easier.

Fritz

Like what ??:scratch:

Fritz
05-14-2004, 12:21 PM
For one, Photoshop, at least the version I have. For another, all the Microsoft office apps we use at work/home. They aren't what I'd like, but they pay the bills. Many of the kids games aren't compatible either. Point me in the right direction, I'm game to try if the learning curve isn't too steep.

Edit...I have adopted the use of the Mozilla browser and am looking at the different mail clients now because of the exposure I have had with Linux. These work great !

Bok
05-14-2004, 12:24 PM
The Gimp for PhotoShop

OpenOffice

Evolution for Mail

Games, well that's another issue altogether

I use Linux at work :)

nuff said

Scoofy12
05-14-2004, 02:11 PM
second the motion for openoffice and evolution, they are what I use at work too. and if you need MS exchange support, evolution and its addon, Ximian connector, are great. I use evolution with my exchange account without connector (I also have an IMAP box that is synced with my exchange account, not sure if thats a standard thing for exchange or not) and without connector you can still get meetings and such into your calendar that people invite you to, although not everything works. connector is fairly inexpensive I think though.

and on the browser front, i'm too hopelessly addicted to Opera (especially 7.50) on all platforms to go back

vaughan
05-17-2004, 11:53 PM
Is it worth waiting just a little bit longer until nForce3 250 motherboards are more generally available?

Bok
05-17-2004, 11:55 PM
By the reviews I've read, probably not. They are likely to have caught up with the current chipsets, but not really out performing them.

That being said, I'll likely pick one up during the summer and compare.

Bok

rofn
05-19-2004, 02:35 AM
fozz...

if i were you i wouldnt buy a amd64 yet...

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/mainboards/display/20040516144104.html

socket 939 is coming for the amd 64 fx....and my guess is that as soon the new socket is out the "old" 64 will drop in price....

its not a hint to buy a s939 & 64 fx....it won't be that much increase of speed what i read and heard anyway...

but its better to wait and see whats coming up...sure if you wait for long you probably can't buy any new hardware cause there will always be new inventions...

i just think it would be better to wait a few more weeks now and see what the price does as you buy it now and bite your ass later cause of a big price drop...


but back to topic then...

mobo:
i dont like asus...too much problems here on p4 systems...and they are too expensive for my taste
i would take a msi mainboard with a nforce 3 250 chipset...its much faster then a nforce 3 150 chipset....and slightly faster then a via k8t800 chipset...
you can read a good compare test of these 3 chipsets here:
http://www6.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20040420/index.html

memory:
finding a good memory is quite hard these times...since winbond won't produce any memory chips in future and recently supsendend their bh5 chips which are no longer been sold (we've seen them with damn fast latencys)...you would probably only get bh6 chips if you plan to buy a high valued ddr dimm like ocz, mushkin or corsair.
with the bh6 chips & the integrated memory controller on the amd 64 i've seen that the fast latencys aren't that important any more like it was in the past with socket a nforce 2 mobos...the thing which counts is bandwidth....and there are a lot differences between the dimms....
i've read almost any review and studied benchmarks recently cause i planed to buy a new dual ddr kit for my nforce 2 ultra 400 board which i could use later on with a amd 64 / fx....
and all i can say is...buy a ocz eb
they are the best....and do overclock as hell...
i've ordered these as a 1gb (2x512mb) kit:
http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/memory/OCZ_DDR_PC-3500_Platinum_Enhanced_Bandwidth_Dual_Channel
prices are high (thanks winbond) so dont be shocked if dimms cost more than your cpu nowadays...

btw. my ddr kit comes today :|party|: can't wait....i'll post some benches with my nforce2 & p4 platform later on if you want...

psu:
probably any brand psu with +400w should do....i would take one with sata power connectors....the adapters are pissing me off :p

heatsink:
is your choice
http://www.coolermaster.com/index.php?LT=english&Language_s=2&url_place=product&p_serial=KHC-V81&other_title=KHC-V81Hyper%206
http://www.zalman.co.kr/usa/product/view.asp?idx=54&code=005
http://www.thermalright.com/a_page/main_product_slk948u.htm
i'd take the thermalright and buy a noiseless 2500/3000rpm fan...

hope this helps a bit...
greets
rofn