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Okay, guys, before I make a mistake, let me run my new comp past you...

Shuttle nForce3 150 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 754 CPU, Model "AN50R "
AMD Athlon 64 3200+, 1MB L2 Cache, The Only 64-bit Windows Compatible Processor
(2) Corsair Value Select 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200
Western Digital 80GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD800JD, OEM Drive Only
Samsung Beige 52X24X52X16 CDR-W/DVD Combo Drive, Model SM-352BEN BEIGE
CHAINTECH nVIDIA GeForce FX5200 Video Card, 256MB DDR, 128-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model "A-FX20"

Honest opinions, here, guys, what do you think?

Johanna

 

Nice selections, should be a screamer but a couple of comments (did you expect anything else?). Christer makes a good point, would suggest a Lite On DVD recorder with 8x DVD Burn - about $110. Would also urge you to look at Epox K8T800 MoBo along with Abit and Asus boards and consider WD Raptor SATA as one of your HDD's - only 36GB, but check out the speed. And, if you must have more capacity, look at Samsung SATA drives - very high quality, very reliable. Memory - Corsair is good stuff but go for the Ultra Low Latency - big difference even though the price is considerably higher. Geil is also top shelf re: performance and I've had good results with OCZ. Video card - go NVidia 5700 - not much price difference, but you'll be happier long term. You didn't mention cases but Chen Ming (tower) or Aspire (mid Tower) all aluminum from Directron can't be beat. SVC has your best prices on PSU's and is good for memory and cables too. Still, Newegg is tough to beat. Good luck and enjoy ------

 

Johanna,

That's a great machine, really cutting edge.

BUT; You'll be so far ahead of anyone here, if you have any problems, where will you go for help? Better stock up on lots of manuals for everything.

If that sounds like sour grapes, it is. I'm jealous.

BTW, don't forget a sound card and floppy disk drive

 

Unless you really need a PC right now, you might want to wait a month or two, AMD is changing the socket style of it's processors. It might be wise to wait a bit if you ever want to change the CPU. I believe I read they will be out in june sometime. I would agree with the others, check newegg for a DVD burner instead of a cd burner, and you might want to look at Antec cases. I have 4 of them, and they are built like a tank. I can sit on my mid towers, and they don't even move. And I am not a small guy, either. I hope this helps.

Craig

 

Johanna: You just saw my post where I said: 'Just as you think you are on the cutting edge, somebody moves it "

Just this morning I was reading an article that was talking about SATA 2 by Intel which will double the read/write speeds of SATA drives. I didn't get whether this was software or hardware related, that is require new drives/mobo or tweak existing?

Then Ruger44 comes along and says that thing about the AMD socket change.

I guess the best strategy is to wait 10 or 15 years before building a new machine.

Did you look at the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro video card that NewEgg is offering for around $200. I got one from them and it benchmarks unbelievable. Boy, we sure know how to spend your money.

Martin

 

Martin,
Here is a link for Tom's hardware web site that has the details of the new socket, which is a 939 pin, and called the socket 939 oddly enough, LOL. The article is about the new nvidia chipset for AMD Athlon's and gives a bit of a roadmap for the next year or so. It has some interesting info, about the upcoming chips and the upgrade path for the three sockets. Hope you enjoy it!

http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20040420/index.html

Craig

P.S. I am looking at the Radeon card as well, My 9700 pro is just not fast enough anymore.

 

Ruger 44: Go to the NewEgg site and look at the Sapphire branded ATI cards. I think they got one on sale for $199. That is the one I got and it smokes.

Martin

 

Go the suggested DVDRW route, and (I'm speaking from recent experience here) make sure you have extra cooling, particularly on the inside of the front of your chosen case. A fan placed here is strongly advisable to blow air past/through the HD(S) towards the back of the case. SATA drives run a lot warmer than the IDE variety.

 

Rehi J,

You might want to look at this while you're shopping?

http://www.dvico.com/products_mul_hd.html

 

Good advice, all but I've been doing some other looking around...can't get Sparrow's words out of my head...

64 is "uncharted territory ", and I told you guys, I'm weak in the hardware stuff. Then again, it is the future, and I might as well learn it now. I can use all that space in my brain that didn't learn DOS!

I'm still shopping. All advice appreciated!!

Johanna

 

Hey Johanna:

Going into uncharted territory?

If Christopher Columbus hadn't, a whole lof of people would still be living in Europe and no one would know his name.

You could become famous, at least on this board, then be the resident expert on 64 bit computing and SATA drives.

Like Rudolph, your name will go down in history.

Don't let Sparrow's words scare you, we'll all be here to hold your hand.

Martin

 

Johanna,

Trust me. You have plenty of space in your brain for DOS and 64 bit computing and more. Told you I was just jealous.

"it is the future "

Not really. It's been around for 30+ years. It's what I learned assembler on at the U. But you don't need to know anything about it to use it.

 

Sparrow:

You date yourself with language like that, but a KT7 MoBo?
Hehehe ....... KT7 & KT7a are two of my all time favorite boards and I still have a V1.2 KT7a running a 1900+ Agoga core Palamino - Abit said it couldn't be done ..... hehehe.

Nope, haven't done an Athlon 64 yet, but will be there within the next month for sure.

And Martin, I'm about to pull my Barton 2500+ 333 off my Soyo 400 to put a 266 2600 MP with a 512 mb L2 cache on there - I'll salvage a couple of real good 512mb sticks of Corsair XMS 3200 memory and that very over-clockable Barton that are going to waste on that board. Dropping back down to 512 mb CAS 2-2-2 OCZ 2700 and I'll let you know if there's any difference - That box is about to become a "for sale" item unless the MP does what I think it might.

Ain't it fun though?

 

Rockster2U,

"You date yourself" and "Ain't it fun though? "

Keeps the brain making new nerve cells, and that's great at my age. ;-)

"KT7 & KT7a are two of my all time favorite boards "
You do have good taste!

 

Hey Rockster: I more than understand. I was very dissapointed when I discovered that my KT400 board from Soyo would only run a 333Mhz FSB. Ever since, the thoughts of canibalizing this machine have been floating in my brain.

Now that 400Mhz FSB is old and obsolete, well, other more expensive thoughts have been bouncing around in my skull. Something along the lines of what Johanna has been preparing for.

But every time I think I got it, something new comes up. It just seems that you cannot be on the cutting edge for more than a few minutes.

New 64 sockets coming, new SATA 2 drives coming with seek times at half or less than current, new MOBO to accomodate it all. It never ends. So for now, I'll just sit on the sidelines and be a spectator for a while.

This machine is as fast as I will ever need, except for quickly encoding AVI to MPEG and burning to DVD. That is slower than molasses. The only reason for me to change hardware.

So, how fast is fast? Everything else is there when I click the mouse. No wait, instant.

She has been behaving like the lady she is. I never thought I would get to the point of saying that this machine is rock solid, but I can now. No problems, boot time in under 60 seconds, and she does everything I ask of her. (knock on wood)

How much is encoding and burning faster worth? I see the New DVD-/+R/RW are at 8X, twice as fast as my relatively new Pioneer. (I don't see any 8X media though) I have CD write speeds of 48X, Can DVD be far behind?

In the meantime, keep me posted on the changes you are making, I'll be watching with great interest.


Good Luck,

Martin

 

Nice machine, nice processor, shame about the graphic card and quality of RAM though!! Overall a fast machine, but what do you want to use it for, home entertainment, buisness or games??

First of the FX5200 gpu is a cheap budget end graphics card that is ok if you are using it for internet, email and business appz, but come on, Athlon 64 and you have this graphics card in there, should have a Radeon 9800PRO or at least the Radeon 9600 XT card, or in NVidia the FX5900 series as a minimum.

Secondly your RAM choice is again ok for internet, email and business appz but could be better. The timings are pretty high which means that your access speed to the RAM is going to slow your PC down, visit http://www.corsairmicro.com/corsair/products.html for a rundown on how better quality RAM will drastically improve PC performance.

Looks like you bought a good base system but have skimped a bit on the extras, and if you upgraded your gpu and RAM, well your system would be like a greyhound!!!

Also you could upgrade to a DVDRW as there now very little price difference between a CDRW and a DVDRW,but just depends if you are going to need to use 4.7gb on a DVDr disc?!

 

Johanna:
Couple of few new MoBo's and Via's newest dual channel chipset, KT880 being introduced next week which warrant consideration - I'd slow down a couple of days until the latest round of boards hits the US market - (1-3 weeks). Chaintech, DFI, Abit and MSI all reporting new products with GeForce 3 or KT800 dual channel for Athlon 64's.

 

Interesting report?

Johanna,

I thought you might like to read this.
A Water-Cooled Athlon 64

 

Also this.

From ExtremeTech