Author Topic: Some advice please (Read 849 times)

Nomak · « **on:** April 26, 2006, 10:26:57 PM »

Around 3 months ago my box puked and I am ready to buy some new stuff. I have built one puter in the past with help from a friend who is no longer around so I am going to try this on my own this time.

Before I spend the hard earned money I was hoping for some advice......

Here is what I have priced....

Asus A8N-SLI Premium 939 Socket

XFX GeForce 7800GT 256

Asus Atlas 550Watt power supply

AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Dual core

Corsair XMS DDR400 (PC3200) 512mb x2

I will be reusing my case and harddrive (Western 40gig 7200rpm)

I dunno..... This sound decent? I mean does this combo of parts fit each other well? or is anything out of place here?

My budget is around $1000. That is about what all this costs from Newegg.

Any advice/guidence is welcome.

Thx.... Dave

Brenjen · « **Reply #1 on:** April 26, 2006, 10:33:51 PM »

Sounds like if it had wings it could fly

I have the ASUS A8N mobo & I really like it, it has an easy to set-up bios & a default setting that will kick in automatically if you lock it up.

Also I have Patriot dual channel memory & Toms Hardware had nothing but good things to say about it; ( second in their test only to corsair ) I bought it & it lives up to their praise, just a thought since it's cheaper usually than Corsair.

Bronk · « **Reply #2 on:** April 26, 2006, 10:51:27 PM »

Well now long time no see.

Only thing i would mention is the dual core .
To play AH with a dual core and xp you have to disable a core . IIRC
Other than that it should fly.

Get back soon Dave I want to see if I have improved any .

Bronk

TequilaChaser · « **Reply #3 on:** April 26, 2006, 11:06:13 PM »

heya Nomak, drop back to the 3700+ san diego core athlon64 and step up your memory to (2) 1 gig sticks of Corsair XMS 3200 memory

still should save you a few bucks.......for ya budget of 1grand, might even save you enough to purchase a SATA II 3.ogig/sec hard drive which will help overall performance as well

welcome back

Roscoroo · « **Reply #4 on:** April 27, 2006, 01:21:44 AM »

Hey Nomak long time no seeeeeeeeeee ...

TC suggested a great ideeer and I agree

ive got almost the same set up at work at it SCREAMS .

Stone · « **Reply #5 on:** April 27, 2006, 02:53:08 AM »

I think that the AMD64x2 3800+ will give ~ same speed in AH2 as an AMD64 3200+. (single core) (Both has 2.0GHz with 512MB L2)

AMD 3700+ is single core with 1GB L2 @ 2.2GHz.

I have heard that dual core does not give more speed in games today, but I dont know what dual core will give us next year

Then again, a dual core CPU might help now today also, as stuff that hapens in the background while you play, should be using the "free" core.

Personaly, I will buy a dual core, because I belive it has more "potential" than adding 200MHz and 512MB L2. And also because I think it sounds cool and kinda fun to have to CPU

eagl · « **Reply #6 on:** April 27, 2006, 05:33:23 AM »

I agree with TC. Go with a single core cpu because AH doesn't like dual core AMD cpus, and bump the memory to 2 gigs (2x1 gig sticks).

I'd also get a better hard drive. You can get a nice 160 or 200 gig SATA drive with 8 or 16 meg cache for around $100, and the performance increase will be noticeable over an older 40 gig drive. Slap that old drive in an external USB chassis and use it for backups.

Nomak · « **Reply #7 on:** April 27, 2006, 07:27:21 PM »

Thx for the input fellas.

A couple more questions..... Under the "Memory" spec for the mother board it says "DDR400 PC3200" Does that mean that I need to use pc3200 only for my ram? Or can faster stuff be used?

Also, Would it be better to go with say 2 6600gt vid cards in SLI as opposed to one 7800gt? I can do either for about the same price.

I am hoping to place the order in a couple hours here...... Yeah Im getting giddy

Thx again.... Dave

38ruk · « **Reply #8 on:** April 27, 2006, 09:53:00 PM »

The faster spec'd memory is for overclocking , the pc 3500 3700 4000 is memory guaranteed to run at an overclocked speed . While you can run the memory at a higher speed , you have to overclock the cpu to get it there.
Ive seen benchmarks somewhere that had 2 6600GT's VS a 7800gt , and in games the 7800gt beat them , in synthetic benchmarks , im pretty sure the 6600's had higher scores. I would go with the 7800gt if AH is your main priority . 38

EDIT : Here is where i saw the two compared , this link is to a quake bench , but there are more games tested in the article
http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/12/02/vga_charts_viii/page11.html

eagl · « **Reply #9 on:** April 28, 2006, 08:46:30 AM »

There is nothing wrong with faster rated memory. In fact, you may gain a small bit of reliability when using faster rated memory. Just realize that if you aren't overclocking, a typical Athlon 64 system runs the memory at PC3200 speeds, or 200mhz bus speed.

For a vid card, I'd go with a single 7xxx card over any dual 6xxx sli setup any day. The new cards that come out every 8 months or so are so fast that it's rarely worth buying 2 of the last generation cards instead of buying the latest generation. SLI is IMHO only for those who consider price to be of no concern... If you're going to go SLI, you may as well go for two of the fastest cards on the planet, price be damned.

Balsy · « **Reply #10 on:** April 29, 2006, 07:45:44 AM »

Nomak,

Im running A8 SLI Deluxe,
PurePower 550
FX53
Corsair xms super low latencey 2-3-2-6?
Audigy ZS
BFG 6800 GT (256)
2300gig x SATA II RAID 0

Small Pac, 1600x 1200, 512 tex loaded to ram I get

85fps pegged with sliders 95% the way to the left (detail).

Dont bother with SLI, if you get that 7800, and spend the extra money on processor the thing will screw.

Balsy

Brenjen · « **Reply #11 on:** April 29, 2006, 11:05:33 AM »

Quote

If you're going to go SLI, you may as well go for two of the fastest cards on the planet, price be damned.

That would be a waste of money, a single 7900GTX can outperform two 7800GT's in SLI & the 7900GTX is more than any current CPU can fully utilize at the momment so why have two? ( plus the outrageous power requirements )

DAVENRINO · « **Reply #12 on:** April 29, 2006, 11:52:17 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Nomak
A couple more questions..... Under the "Memory" spec for the mother board it says "DDR400 PC3200" Does that mean that I need to use pc3200 only for my ram? Or can faster stuff be used?
.... Dave

I would make sure I got low latency (CAS 2) RAM, as this is more important in memory than the rating of 3200, 3500 .... etc. RAM rated faster than what matches your CPU's bus speed is mostly for overclocking or possible cpu upgrades in the future that may run at higher bus speeds. You can certainly use PC4000 but if it is CAS 3 it may actually not perform as well as PC3200 or 3500 rated at CAS 2.

38ruk · « **Reply #13 on:** April 29, 2006, 01:13:52 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Brenjen
That would be a waste of money, a single 7900GTX can outperform two 7800GT's in SLI & the 7900GTX is more than any current CPU can fully utilize at the momment so why have two? ( plus the outrageous power requirements )

Not to be argumentative , but this isnt good information . Ive only found one test in the article below where 1 7900gtx beat 2X7800GT in SLI and that was in a lower res test of battlefield2 . The rest of the tests show the 7800gts beat a single 7900gtx by as much as 20fps in some areas , and as low a 2 -3 fps in others . I'm just stating this as alot of people are running single 7800gt's , and i wouldnt want them to bypass an SLI option due to the statement above . 38

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2717&p=8

Brenjen · « **Reply #14 on:** April 29, 2006, 02:08:32 PM »

I had two 7800's in SLI. I replaced them with the single 7900GTX. I'm just speaking from my own first hand experience when I say the 7900GTX outperforms the two 7800GT's, they may not on everyones PC or in all the artificial benchies...that's just how it worked for me. I had the same frame rates but with higher detail settings using the 7900GTX.