Athalon 64, X2 or not

That is one heck of a wish list.

Mem- low latency being CAS2? Will the heat spreaders on these be an issue as the slots are adjacent? How important are the timings?? 2-3-2-5 or 2-3-3-6? Or am I correct that whatever I buy, the BIOS can be adjusted to that memory's specs (timing, CAS, voltage)?
The corsair XMS Twinx2048-3200c2pt has a rebate of $50! However one review said this "Went in easy enough, recognized once I put old ram in slot 1... " Trouble??
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145575

Opty 165, it doesn't require registered RAM, does it??

ATI AIW- $310?? We'll have to wait and see on that. $$$$ What about an alternative vid card + a TV card? ATI support is really bad. If TV is not a necessity, will a 7600GT do vid cap but without VGA output?

Case- that is a lot for a case and I don,t care about lights, etc. How about the Thermaltake Soprano 430W? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811133156

Monitor- LCD. How important is a DVI input?

What is SVC and don't cables come with the mobo?

OS and CPU- retail or OEM??

Here's the dollar spread:

Case: $100 430W
CPU: 300
Mobo: 120 MSI
2 HDD: 180 Whatever
VIDEO: 200 ATI AIW
MEM: 200 Whatever
OS: 150 oem
FAN: 30
------
$1,280 + monitor = $1,580

I am kinda there already. It looks to me like the main variables are the Video board and if the OS is to be OEM or not.

What are your thoughts (besides my being a "dumbs**t ")?

 

RAM, I won't say no to Corsair. OCZ is only a familiar name for me.

HDDs, I haven't come across many Samsungs. Seagates are going excellently for me. Hitachi I have found have very good support.

I think the Opteron sounds like a good saving and could be overclocked later if you want more processing power.

Case, I have one with a door on the front. Doesn't matter what colour the drives are then (unless it shocks you when you open the door ).

RAM is interdependent on the motherboard. Look up the type suggested for the motherboard at the RAM manufacturer's website .

Matt

 

Here's the SVC link.
http://www.svcompucycle.com/index.html

 

Thanks for the input!!

I have a request. I am trying to tie up loose brain ends with some questions in my postings that will allow me to know what is going on and make decisions. It would help me A LOT if you could educate me via those questions and through your comments on my choices. Most are short answer questions.

I am ready to buy and proceed, just not blindly. I don't mean to appear grumpy. Your assistance is invaluable and most appreciated. Please see last post from me.

 

I lost track of what this thread is about but it sounds like a hardware-recommendation thread so I'll have to put in my two cents.

My all-time favorite case and the one I'm using now is this one. You attach rails directly to your hard drives and slide them straight on directly into the case - you don't slide them in sideways like most cases. It has a front 120mm, rear 120mm and a 120mm side fan intake. I use all three. It moves a incredible amount of air for an acceptable amount to noise. The larger the fan the more tolerable the noise. The side intake has an adjustable duct so you can "fire" the air directly onto your heatsink. It also has a removable mobo tray.

For optical drives, I mostly have gone with Lite-On but the recent reviews at CDRinfo.com are lukewarm. It seems that you have to judge each model individually. One year the Lite-Ons are great, the next year the NECs are great. This time CDRinfo is recommending a Benq!

With ram, hard drives and processors, there are so many good choices out there I wouldn't even begin to recommend. I guess if you're an overclocker, an Opteron would be nice. When I finally get a SATA board, I'd consider a 10k Raptor unless something else is faster at that time.

From what I've heard, this is the best cooler available in it's price range of ~$30. Its stats can't be beat by coolers costing twice as much.

And if you're looking to cool a video card, supposedly these are the new kings: this for ATI and this for Nvidia. Supposedly, they're both near-silent and will drop your temps by a very large amount. I use this Zalman and found it to be simply amazing.

When it comes to video cards, if both ATI and Nvidia are putting out comparable products, I go with Nvidia. I just do that to avoid some small nigglesome problems which I have no patience for. That said, I used my 9500 Pro longer than any other card I've ever owned - awesome card!

Gary

 

It should be no trouble at all. It is recommended for that motherboard and is the most popular choice..

The All In Wonder sounds like it would be good choice. If you don't like ATI, see if one of the other manufacturers make it, especially MSI. An MSI graphics card will be the best possible choice for compatability with the motherboard. I don't think you need a specialized graphics card unless you want to put high level graphics onto the screen. Video editing...you don't need a high end card. Going along with my "upgrade later" suggestions, you could get (decent) tv/capture card and a base model graphics card, then research and purchase a specialized graphics card later.
If you want the graphics card now, I personally, think the AIW would cover everything you want or a Matrox card is more specialized for a video editing requirement, but will probably require a separate TV/capture card (I would have to research to give you a specific answer). In the end the graphics card just puts the pictures on the screen. Also, recheck that comparitor for the video editing, there is a range there that will give you some basic ideas.
Standard graphics cards only do "output ". You need a card with "video in ", this is termed VIVO (video in video out). A capture card will do video in separately to the graphics card.
**See if MSI make a decent graphics card with VIVO**
You may need to research the graphics question further. None of us want to make your mind up for you.

The Soprano would be a good choice for me. Edit: Overclocking (or future overclocking) will mean more heat will be generated, I suggest you review the suggestions for cooling and if the Soprano has good reviews and the ability to remove additional amounts of heated air. From the information at the beginning of this thread, you would only need modest overclocking to match a 4200+ or 4400+ anyway.

DVI input is not important as far as I know.

Rockster is a master chef and has given you/us a great basic recipe. Adding or subtracting ingredients will mean the perfect brew for your "personal taste ".

Sounds like you are close, just need to decide on the best graphics for your requirements and budget.

Matt

 

Checked, lowest priced MSI card with VIVO at Newegg $330:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814127180

Matt

 

Larry:

I appreciate where you are coming from and all questions are always welcomed. Please note : I don't have a monoploy on brains and you are getting some great input from several very qualified individuals. Call it group therapy or whatever, but collectively we'll try to clear up anything that needs clarification or further explanation.

I've looked in a couple of times today but haven't had the time to put together a more detailed response until now. As to your questions - re: memory - edit: low latency being Cas2? Yes, exactly but you will also see designations such as extreme low latency for the really good stuff. I just wanted you to stay away from all the "value" stuff. You're not going to notice much difference between 2-2-2-5 and 2-3-2-6 or 2-3-3-6. Some, but not significant enough to talk about. If you want to read up on memory and timings, Adrian's Rojakpot is the website that can really scramble the grey matter for you. I recommended Corsair XMS and OCZ because I consider them to be among the best and thats what I have had the best experience with. I also like Samsung for plain vanilla builds, but I've seen a lot of other supposedly great brands that won't even run on a jacked up system so I avoid them like the plague. Thus my recommendation to you - stick with a known entity. This is not where you want to shave a few bucks off your total cost and memory is currently priced quite low.

You are most correct that you can adjust memory timings (and all kinds of other goodies) in the BIOS but that doesn't mean you want to buy brand SuperX. I consider memory to be a very critical component and don't like to compromise. I know what kind of a performance hit cheap memory can cause. No, the 939 pin Opteron 165 doesn't require registered memory - 940 pin Opterons and 940 pin FX processors do.

Video cards. You've gotten some good alternatives and should read some reviews. I focused on the high end AIW because ATI owns the market for TV cards. And, I picked this card because it was their top of the line PCIe with excellent speed,16 pipes and all the bells and whistles. This would permit you to plug in a VCR or an older analog camcorder along with any of the newer video sources utilizing todays and hopefully, tomorrows technology. It even has outputs and inputs right into your sound card for capturing audio from older stuff that you might want to convert to a newer format. Regardless, you have a pretty good list of other options that should be considered and you're the guy who gets to make the final choice.

Case - take a look at em all - you've gotten another group of very good ideas and I think they are all excellent choices, including the Soprano and that beauty thats Chiles4 introduced us to.

Monitor - for the money, I'll stick with my earlier recommendation. DVI is going to be a bit better but I can't discern much difference.

SVC - already answered that one.

OS & CPU - personally I'd go OEM but that requires a seperate heatsink/fan purchase (and I like that zalman for the money) and you're not going to get the same warranty as you would by buying retail. As for XP - buy the cheapest legit copy of Pro or MCE (your call) that you find. I think NewEgg had a couple of combo purchase deals on your components that included a discounted XP package.

Lastly - you sound dumb like a fox Larry - definately no DS! Keep those cards and letters coming. Somebody here can answer about anything you want to throw out.

Regards,

 

You guys are great.

Here is the new synopsis (I like synopses.. a lot) N= Newegg

Case- ThermalLake Soprano 430W- $100 N

Mobo- MSI Neo 4 Platinum- $120 N

CPU- Opteron 165- $330 N

CPU Fan- Zalman blue- $32 N

Memory- Corsair XSM 2x1Gb- $139 N

Video- eVGA 256-P2-N553-AX Geforce 7600GT- $164 N

TV/Capture- AVerMedia MULTRA1500- $68 Newegg

Audio- Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS SB0350- $75 N

2 HDDs- Either WD, Hitachi or Seagate 300Gb -320Gb at Frys/sale appx $180

Floppy Drive- $8 N

Card Reader- $15 N

appx $1,300 + monitor

How we lookin'? Lar

 

Lookin' good - beats the shirt out of that Costco HP

If $ are starting to get tight and I see you have no OS or opticals in there yet, you might want to defer the audigy until fathers day or start leaving teeth under your pillow.

 

A very powerful system. Can you just add another hard disk (maybe 80 GB or lower) to install ONLY OS on it? Keeps your data separate & safe.

 

The motherboard has built-in Creative 7.1 sound. Better than the Audigy I would guess.
Built-in audio is very good now compared to the "old days ".

Save your $ until you hear it.

Matt

 

Great Gatsby... excellent points!!

The mobo has "7.1 channel audio codec RealTek ALC850 ". Is that from Creative?? Tre' cool...$75 saved.

I had specified 2 300-350Gb HDDs but if an 80 and 300 will do, then so be it.
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ST3808110AS 80GB- $50 saved.

I still would like some ideas on an OEM OS. It is 1/2 the price. What is the downside? I thought that OEMs are not mfg supported. If so, why is Newegg saying in product descriptions for OEM boards that they are ONLY mfg supported? OEM XP Pro w/SP2- $145

Opticals:
BenQ Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW - $36
DVD-Rom- $20

Lastly, monitors. So, DVI input is not important (yet)? Any brands to stay away from and what about those dead pixels and store/mfg return policies??

Before I do a new, updated and totally supercillious synopsis. Your thoughts, please. I am getting pretty excited.

 

An OEM OS is exactly the same OS that retails in shops. The only difference is that OEM is supposed to be supplied with new hardware (new computer, hard disk , even a mouse) whereas retail version can be purchased & installed by the customer himself. Microsoft is only interested in seeing the Windows XP certificate, I doubt if they would ask for the purchase invoice of the product along with which the OEM was bundled.

 

Thought I had read Creative. RealTek is a different company. It should be high quality sound in any case.

Try searching the XP forum for "license ", it may give you some extra info.

Matt

 

Larry:
Guess you missed it a couple of pages ago. http://www.directron.com/al1916w.html Look no further - for the $, this is untouchable. I've bought 5 of these and everyone loves em'. You won't find anything comparable in this price range - then again, if there's something better for $239, let us all in on it.

 

R2U- I don't want a widescreen. What do you think about this deal?

Acer AL1916AB

Free shipping, too.

 

There may be some others who know a lot more about monitors and want to share their thoughts - but, it looks good to me and that is the best price on the web for that particular monitor.