Some advice please

[Nomak]

Some good info there guys..... Thx again.

I hate to say this but I cheaped out a bit......

I decided to try to revamp my old box yet again..... So I ended up ordering the AMD 3700 that TC and Roo recommended, I also got the Corsair ram 2x 512 and an Asus MB.

I am reusing my Power Supply, Hard drive, and my (cringe) AGP 6800gt.  I just couldnt get over the fact that 18 months ago that 6800gt cost me 400 bucks.  Dang PCI express......

Because the MB was AGP it was cheap.  Did the whole deal for 425.00.  I paid for Fedex next day (like 20 bucks more) yet here it is the next day and no stuff  

I will let ya know how it turns out

Dave

[DAVENRINO]

Originally posted by Nomak
Some good info there guys..... Thx again.

I hate to say this but I cheaped out a bit......

I decided to try to revamp my old box yet again..... So I ended up ordering the AMD 3700 that TC and Roo recommended, I also got the Corsair ram 2x 512 and an Asus MB.

I am reusing my Power Supply, Hard drive, and my (cringe) AGP 6800gt.  I just couldnt get over the fact that 18 months ago that 6800gt cost me 400 bucks.  Dang PCI express......

Because the MB was AGP it was cheap.  Did the whole deal for 425.00.  I paid for Fedex next day (like 20 bucks more) yet here it is the next day and no stuff  

I will let ya know how it turns out

Dave

 

I would like to hear how that MB works out.  I still have a 6800 GT and good 939 boards with AGP are getting harder to find.

[Brenjen]

Originally posted by Nomak
Some good info there guys..... Thx again.

I hate to say this but I cheaped out a bit......

I decided to try to revamp my old box yet again..... So I ended up ordering the AMD 3700 that TC and Roo recommended, I also got the Corsair ram 2x 512 and an Asus MB.

I am reusing my Power Supply, Hard drive, and my (cringe) AGP 6800gt.  I just couldnt get over the fact that 18 months ago that 6800gt cost me 400 bucks.  Dang PCI express......

Because the MB was AGP it was cheap.  Did the whole deal for 425.00.  I paid for Fedex next day (like 20 bucks more) yet here it is the next day and no stuff  

I will let ya know how it turns out

Dave

 Don't worry about that 6800GT agp...it's a good card & still competitive. I don't know what your previous set-up was...but it's my hunch the better CPU & memory will boost the performance of the 6800GT to levels of performance you didn't think possible.

*edit: By the way, the next time you get parts use Newegg if you can shop there without paying state taxes & use regular ups ground shipping. I always get my stuff in two days.

[Nomak]

Originally posted by DAVENRINO
I would like to hear how that MB works out.  I still have a 6800 GT and good 939 boards with AGP are getting harder to find.

I will definatly let ya know how it goes Bud.

Just FYI..... It was $66.99.  Here is some info

 Model
Brand ASUS
Model A8V
Supported CPU
CPU Socket Type Socket 939
CPU Type Athlon 64 FX/Athlon 64/Athlon X2
FSB 1000MHz Hyper Transport (2000 MT/s)
Chipsets
North Bridge VIA K8T800 Pro
South Bridge VIA VT8237
Memory
Number of DDR Slots 4x 184pin DDR
DDR Standard DDR 400 (PC 3200)
Maximum Memory Supported 4GB
Dual Channel Supported Yes
Expansion Slots
AGP Slots 1x AGP 4X/8X
PCI Express x16 None
PCI Slots 5
Storage Devices
PATA 2 x ATA100 up to 4 Devices
SATA 1.5 Gb/s 2
SATA RAID RAID 0/1/0+1
Onboard Audio
Audio Chipset Realtek ALC850
Audio Channels 8 Channels
Onboard LAN
LAN Chipset Marvell 88E8001
Max LAN Speed 10/100/1000Mbps
Rear Panel Ports
PS/2 2
COM 1
LPT 1
USB 4x USB 2.0
S/PDIF Out 1x Coaxial
Audio Ports 6 Ports
Onboard USB
Onboard USB 4x USB 2.0
Physical Spec
Form Factor ATX
Dimensions 12.0" x 9.6"
Features
Power Pin 20 Pin

[Roscoroo]

i myself perfur the Nforce chipset over the via ...

one thing is i hope your old powersupply is up to it ..  my old antec keeled over and died when i upgraded .... its now buried in my "Closet from Hell"

[Nomak]

Originally posted by Brenjen
Don't worry about that 6800GT agp...it's a good card & still competitive. I don't know what your previous set-up was...but it's my hunch the better CPU & memory will boost the performance of the 6800GT to levels of performance you didn't think possible.

*edit: By the way, the next time you get parts use Newegg if you can shop there without paying state taxes & use regular ups ground shipping. I always get my stuff in two days.

Well the original setup was as follows....

Asus A7V600 400FSB
Athlon XP2500+ Clocked to a 3200+
GeForce FX5600 256 (Leadtek)
512 PC2700 DDR
350 Watt PS
Western 40 Gig 7200 rpm

(All of this was high end stuff at the time)

The Leadtek 5600 turned out to be PooPoo and I had nothing but probs with it.  Newegg ended up giving me a full credit on a return.  I used a GeForce 4 ti4200 (used from a friend) for over a year.  Then I bought a ATI9800 pro and another stick of 512.  That was a real nice video card.  I used that for another year or so.

Upgraded to a PNY GeForce 6800GT 256.  To be honest I really didnt see any improvements over the 9800.  At this point I realized that my cpu was the bottlekneck.  I was running the Video and the processor Overclocked for a long time.  I think that was the ultimate demise of the processor.  After a while the puter would lock up on start up and give me error messages about how the processor was catching on startup.  A week or two later it quit all together......

So the new set up will be....

Asus A8V 1000 FSB
Athlon 64 3700+
1 Gig Corsair PC3200 DDR400
40 Gig Western 7200
PNY GeForce 6800GT
350 Watt PS (I hope its enough )

My old set up was running AH fine 3 months ago before it quit so I am banking on the new set up to be good for a while.

Again thx for the interest and the comments.

Dave

[Nomak]

Originally posted by Roscoroo
i myself perfur the Nforce chipset over the via ...

Talk to me brother...... I dont know/Understand the difference.....

one thing is i hope your old powersupply is up to it ..  my old antec keeled over and died when i upgraded .... its now buried in my "Closet from Hell" [/B]

Yeah I hear ya..... at least Power Supplys aernt to God awful expensive.

Dave

[Roscoroo]

power supply .... Sorry Dave  but your gonna need it ..

Btw Watcha doing with that 2500+ barton outta ur old pc ???

I could use one for Mrs Roo's pc . ( Got a few $$ i could send ya to offset your Power supply purchase)

oh yea

A8N   <--- this third diget the N means its an Nforce chipset

A8V  <-- 3rd didget means its a VIA chipset  

amds love the nforce chipsets

intels like VIA or intel chipsets more

[Nomak]

Originally posted by Roscoroo
power supply .... Sorry Dave  but your gonna need it ..

Btw Watcha doing with that 2500+ barton outta ur old pc ???

I could use one for Mrs Roo's pc . ( Got a few $$ i could send ya to offset your Power supply purchase)

oh yea

A8N   <--- this third diget the N means its an Nforce chipset

A8V  <-- 3rd didget means its a VIA chipset  

amds love the nforce chipsets

intels like VIA or intel chipsets more

Kewl thx for the info.....

Roo , I have always liked you and I think we have always gotten along well.  That being said..... You can have the cpu, heat sink and fan for the cost of shipping alone.  However please be aware that I think the cpu is junk at this point.  I am not doing this because I want better performance..... I am doing it because the puter was literally totally inoperative.  As in not functioning.  I believe that the cpu was the failure.  I dont know that for sure but I am fairly confident.

The call is yours.  PM me if you want it.

Dave

[Roscoroo]

pm sent Sir

[DAVENRINO]

Originally posted by Roscoroo
i myself perfur the Nforce chipset over the via ...  

I also prefer the Nforce boards and haven't had a Via for a long time.  A search on Newegg only finds one Gigabyte, one Epox and one ECS with AGP and Nforce3 for 939 and none of them get rave reviews from those who bought them.  I may try the same route if this setup works for Dave.

Originally posted by Nomak
 Then I bought a ATI9800 pro and another stick of 512.  That was a real nice video card.  I used that for another year or so.

Upgraded to a PNY GeForce 6800GT 256.  To be honest I really didnt see any improvements over the 9800.  At this point I realized that my cpu was the bottlekneck.  I was running the Video and the processor Overclocked for a long time.  I think that was the ultimate demise of the processor.  After a while the puter would lock up on start up and give me error messages about how the processor was catching on startup.  A week or two later it quit all together......

My old set up was running AH fine 3 months ago before it quit so I am banking on the new set up to be good for a while.

Again thx for the interest and the comments.
Dave

My old Barton has been running great for bout 3 years at 3200+ speed.  I originally built it with an ATI 9800XT which I still use in my Guam machine so I don't really want to take the 6800GT to Guam and buy a PCI Exp card for Hawaii.  I hope it all works for you but I think you will be lucky if the Power Supply is going to work.

[eagl]

If it's a *GOOD* 350w power supply it may still be fine.  If not, it should be obvious because your new parts won't work right.  If anything fails to function, video problems, instability, etc., then you may be better off going for a new PS instead of trying to troubleshoot very much.

Of course, it may work just fine.  You'll have to see.

I'd still consider a better hard drive if I were you.  That 40 gig drive is a bottleneck now.

[TequilaChaser]

Originally posted by eagl
If it's a *GOOD* 350w power supply it may still be fine.  If not, it should be obvious because your new parts won't work right.  If anything fails to function, video problems, instability, etc., then you may be better off going for a new PS instead of trying to troubleshoot very much.

Of course, it may work just fine.  You'll have to see.

I'd still consider a better hard drive if I were you.  That 40 gig drive is a bottleneck now.

agreed,  save up and get you a SATA hard drive 7200 rpm or 10,000 rpm with the biggest cache size on the HD you can afford.if you just building this as a gaming PC, don't go to extreme on HD size, keeping it say 80gig  should be good enough, only bigger if you are needing storage space. On the Power Supply, cough up the doe and by a respectable PS, I prefer Antec, a good 500/550 watt PS will run ya 60 to 100 bucks.......but is well worth the cost......

I truely have learned alot from people posting in this forum, and I myself stay with Nvidia Nforce chip AMD boards, the old Via chipset boards I have had in the past always seemed to have problems even if it was just on occassion.....

but we all experience different things, Dave, you might not have 1 single problem and everything work just fine for you, so don't worry about anything UNTIL something does happen

[shiningpathb4me]

I finished my build yesterday. The A8N family of boards has an ac'97 block for your front panel audio. It should have 2 jumpers installed on it. W/out the jumpers, your rear panel speaker jacks WONT work. If you want to plu your FP audio jack into that board you'll have to give up your rear speakers.
This is an annoyance because I use the front panel for my headset & dont want to get behind the case swapping jacks to listen to my speakers.

If youve already ordered the board, search for a website called "the home for the asus A8N family" or look in the official asus forum for the link. It's some guys in UK who setup a forum just for that mobo and they've already helped me w/ some overclocking crash recovery (heheh).

On the bright side - my A8N5X w/ 3000+ is unbelievable. Its incredible. I'm in awe of the performance increase and the video quality from my X800GTO is amazing.  I still have a lot of kinks to work out . . .

[Roscoroo]

for quick going from headsets to speakers in ac97 type sound or other onboard

i just put a Y lead in  and either turn off the amp in the speakers  or zero the volumn on the speakers .. use the pc's software volumn controls for the headset volumn.