Author Topic: Another "How does this sound" computer post (Read 755 times)

Soda · « **on:** January 22, 2005, 03:26:57 PM »

Thinking of the following:
- Athlon 64 3500+ winchester core
- Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
- Kingston HyperX 1GB PC3200
- Thermaltake VA3000SNA case
- Antec TrueBlue 480W PS
- Seagate 160GB HD SATA 8MB Cache
- Sapphire Radeon X800XT 256MB GDDR3 PCI-E

I take the "Skuzzy" approach on computers, buy big every couple of years and few interim upgrades. This should have some upgrade potential in SLI and 939 CPU's though. Went big on the PS, made the mistake of going whimpy once before (never again). Seemed to be a "complete" package as far as having no "Weak" parts to it.

Comments... anything I should be concerned about? I think this machine would destroy AH2 right now, along with most other things, at least for the forseeable future.

-Soda

Octavius · « **Reply #1 on:** January 22, 2005, 03:49:40 PM »

That looks fantastic Soda.

No personal experience with that particular motherboard, but Asus in general has been good to me.

Balsy · « **Reply #2 on:** January 22, 2005, 03:51:25 PM »

That board requires a 24pin ATX connector... I have that board and had ordered the Antec 550 only to find out differently.

Ended up with the Thermaltake 680watt ( has sata power, 24pin power, 2x PCI Express power) pretty much everything you'll need.

If your going for it... get the BIG power

See my thread "first timer building my own".

Hajo · « **Reply #3 on:** January 22, 2005, 04:27:56 PM »

ASUS mobos top of the heap imho

eagl · « **Reply #4 on:** January 22, 2005, 04:53:05 PM »

I'm having great luck with my MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum. Not a single mobo related problem yet.

adios · « **Reply #5 on:** January 22, 2005, 04:57:09 PM »

If you're going to get the SLI board, why not get an nvidia video card so you can use the SLI later??

Kev367th · « **Reply #6 on:** January 22, 2005, 05:26:09 PM »

Ditto what Adios said.
Pointless getting an SLI capable board and an ATI card.
Go for an nVidia card that supports SLI, later on you just add another.
SLI does work in AH2, me and Whels figured out how to do it.

Also assuming your 1Gb Mem is in fact 2x512Mb so you can use dual channel?

Soda · « **Reply #7 on:** January 22, 2005, 05:50:00 PM »

I'll check the powersupply issue to make sure. Sounded like there was an included "adapter". Thanks for that info though. 480W should be enough with the 90nm core, I don't run a lot of drives and it should be enough even if I decided to use the SLI to run a second vid card later.

I considered the MSI board but I negotiated a price dif of about $10 to go to the ASUS SLI.... for that I figued why not. Figured the ASUS board might stay more supportable in the longer term too if more stuff moves to SLI...

The SLI is more of an "insurance policy" for me, honestly. I think SLI may end up as the way to get Max performance but I don't know that it'll ever be financially viable for most people. The 6800GT card was the alternate for me but I couldn't see myself running out to dual it up anytime soon at ~$550 (CDN). The X800XT would give me a window long enough to let the whole SLI thing work itself out and then I could decide later what to do when I run out of graphics power (which should be a while with the X800XT).

Yes, two 512 for dual channel.

-Soda

Kev367th · « **Reply #8 on:** January 22, 2005, 06:00:52 PM »

Wasn't suggesting dualling it up now, but if you get an ATI card now you end up in the future replacing two cards for SLI not one.
Just a thought.

ALF · « **Reply #9 on:** January 22, 2005, 06:28:22 PM »

Doesnt SLI require specific driver support for each game anyway? I was considering an SLI board, but cant justify the additional $100 if SLI isnt going to be a mainstream benefit for another 1-2 years. One 6800 standard is enoght for most mear mortals right now anyway...and they are getting pretty cheap.

Kev367th · « **Reply #10 on:** January 22, 2005, 08:23:42 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by ALF
Doesnt SLI require specific driver support for each game anyway? I was considering an SLI board, but cant justify the additional $100 if SLI isnt going to be a mainstream benefit for another 1-2 years. One 6800 standard is enoght for most mear mortals right now anyway...and they are getting pretty cheap.

Yes but as me and Whels found out -
You can maually edit the nvapps.xml file and add the game in with SLI support.
Agreed 1 6800 is more than enough for now, but thinking maybe a year down the line they will be cheaper and you would get a nice performance increase with a 2nd card.

Soda · « **Reply #11 on:** January 22, 2005, 10:45:13 PM »

Agreed, in a years time the SLI might allow you to add another card. Sounds like you really have to be very careful in adding the exact same card though, if not you don't get any benefit. Hard to say what the future might bring in cards by then though with all the dual-core talk.... absolutely valid points though.

Thanks for all the comments though, gave me items to think about and check.

~~-Soda~~

Kev367th · « **Reply #12 on:** January 23, 2005, 11:25:26 AM »

As long as the card has the same amount of memory and follows nVidia reference design make shouldn't matter by then.

Vipermann · « **Reply #13 on:** January 24, 2005, 03:23:33 PM »

I'm using that same board. Yes it has the pin-out for a 24pin power, but you can run it with a 20 pin as long as it can push enough juice.

I set one up for a customer last week using dual Giga-byte 660GT's and the video cards were no compatable with SLI even though the box said they were. I put in 2 XFX 6600GT's and it worked just fine.

Soda · « **Reply #14 on:** January 31, 2005, 04:57:20 PM »

Just to follow up, ordered a week ago, arrived on Sat. Video card change, I ended up with an ATI X850XT. Strange story but it was a special order (with deposit) that someone bailed on so when it arrived they offered it to me at no extra cost... guy walked away from ~$200 to my benefit (*if you are reading this here and you are the guy who gifted this to me, thank you *). Only other change was to go with the NeoPower 480, that gave me the 24pin connector for the MB.

3DMark score, 5729. (stock, no optimization)

-Soda