Seeking advice on a new rig...

[Scrap]

I'm trying to build a new PC and have been running in circles trying to come up with a solid box for AH at a decent price.  So far I have decided on these components:

Video:
Radeon X800GTO 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16

Sound:
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS

RAM:
CORSAIR 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel

MB:
GIGABYTE GA-K8N Pro-SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard
(QUESTION:  Does the fact that it is advertised for an Nvidia SLI compatability mean that an ATI knockoff would not function well on the board???)
-All I really need is a couple of PCIx16 slots and an extra PCI slot for the SBlaster card.

CPU:
Open to suggestions... leaning toward AMD (hence the 939 MB) but have not owned one yet so I have no idea what I'm really looking for.




Any pointers are much appreciated.

[38ruk]

I'm pretty sure you have to buy an ati crossfire (SLI counterpart ) board  to run dual ati cards . That ati card looks like the best bang for the buck right now , but i might change the sound card to the X-FI series , im running one and noticed a nice bump in audio performance over my audigy 2. The 939 64's run AH very nice . ive owned 3 a64's (2 754's 1 939 ) and they all ran well with no trouble on nvidia chipsets .     38

[eagl]

You'll be able to run a single ATI card on that mobo just fine, but for dual vid cards you either need a crossfire capable mobo for 2 ATI cards, or 2 nvidia cards for SLI.

As for the cpu, right now I think the good price/performance spot is the A64 3700 "San Diego" cpu.  It runs about $230-$240.  There is an equivalent socket 939 opteron that is essentially the same cpu at the same price but has gone through server-grade quality control, but those are selling out fast and AMD has discontinued them because they're a better deal than the other A64s right now.

Also, consider 2x1gig memory instead of 2x512meg, especially if you can find quality stuff on sale.  Not many games need 2 meg yet, but it's commonly reported on gaming review sites that BF2 will stutter on any rig with less than 2 gig memory.

I'd probably go with the x-fi soundcard as well.

As for mobo, I'd personally get an asus A8N SLI deluxe based on various reviews, plus a few overclocker websites use ASUS A8N mobos as their test bench boards which tells me that they're reliable and consistent.  But YMMV.

[Scrap]

Thanks eagl!  Looking at the 3700+ and the Opteron 148 Venus the price is only about $10 different.  Which is the better buy in terms of performance/reliability and ease of installation?

[eagl]

Some overclockers are saying that the opteron will make a better and more stable cpu because it's passed more rigorous testing before sale.  I do not know if there are any other cpu architectural differences but I haven't heard of any except for vague rumors about the opteron having a better optimized memory controller.  But that's just rumor.

If anything, I'd guess that the opteron would be more stable but no faster than the equivalent A64.

Remember if you get an OEM opteron, you'll need to get an aftermarket heatsink and that will cost anywhere from $10 to $70 depending on how crazy you get.  If you get a nonstandard heatsink, just make sure it's compatible with your mobo since some of the more aggressive heatpipe designs don't quite fit on every mobo out there since sometimes a heatpipe will touch a capacitor or something.

[Scrap]

Good advice.  Since we are on the topic of Mo-Bos... anyone know a good ASUS board (don't think I'm gonna go the dual PCIx16 Crossfire route since there aren't many options).  I've been looking at the following:


ASUS A8N-VM Socket 939
ASUS A8N-E Socket 939
ASUS A8N-VM CSM Socket 939
(looks like the only difference is what onboard stuff is included.. none of which i need.  also seems that the A8N-VM CSM uses a different chipset than the rest... any idea if this would benefit me to spend the extra 10-15 bucks for the CSM???)




ps:  looking to use the following on this mo-bo:

Opteron 148 Venus
Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS
CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400
Knockoff (POWERCOLOR) Radeon X800GTO 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16