Another new computer thread (sorry)

[blackeye]

I have been trying to buy a new computer for the last 6 months. Then something new comes out and I say to myself I will wait a little longer. But im not going to wait any longer because PCI exspress probably wont be much of a performance increase and neither will DDR2 when its first realeased. Im trying to keep it to around 3000-3500 canadian which is about 2200-2600 american. I will just keep everything in american though to keep it simple.

CPU: Athlon 3500 ($499)
Athlon 3800 ($714)
Athlon FX-53 ($821)

The FX-53 and 3800 are fairly expsensive so I dont know if I should get the 3500 and overclock it to about 2.4-2.5 GHZ. I have heard people say they can get the 3500 up to about 2.55 GHZ so I dont think 2.4 should be much of a problem. Something im a little confused on is the Cool&Quiet technology. Some people have told me that all socket 939 CPUs support it and others have told me only the Athlon 64's support it and not the FX series.

Ram: Corsair 3200 (2x512) 2-2-2-5 ($357)
Corsair 3200 (2x512) 2-3-3-6 ($258)
Corsair 3500 (2x512) 2-3-2-6 ($405)

I dont know if I should save $80 dollars and go with the slightly higher latency version of the 3200 of spend a bit more money and get 2-3-2-6 latency on 3500 memory. 2-3-2-6 seems low for 3500 speeds. I think someone said befor that with the Athlon 64 latency doesnt really matter that much. If thats true why dont I just get the 3500 speed version?

Hard drives: WD raptor 36gig ($130)
WD raptor 74gig ($210)

I still dont know if I want to buy two 36gig versions and raid then in zero or just buy one 74 gig version. At one point I thought about buying two 74 gig versions and raiding them in zero but thats a lot of extra money and I dont know if the performance that comes out of it will be worth it. At the moment I have 14 games not including their mods (I got alot of mods for half life and unreal tournament 2003 which takes up alot of space). Does anyone think 148 gigs of storage would be worth it. The only other option I can think of its to buy one 74 and one 36 for 110 gigs. I know that raiding the drives in zero supposably doubles the data transfer rate so im kinda leaning towards two 74 versions.

The cpu ram and harddrives are the only things im having trouble deciding on. Im going to get the X800 XT off gateway for $434 (I still dont believe the price). Its on backorder and may take 2-4 weks but id be saving about 150 dollars so I dont mind waiting 2-4 weeks. Im also going to get the an Antec true 480 watt power supply unless someone can recomend something better. I already got an Audigy2 ZS sound card from my old computer. I also want to buy a new pair of speakers preferably 7.1. I saw the Creative labs inspire 7.1 T7700 and those look nice. All the reviews I have read about them say they are a decent speaker for theire price range.

Any comments?

 

[ShinRa]

Great comp. Just be careful, the noobs might come out and call you a rich spoiled kid who doesn't buy anything for himself *cough*. But your comp looks killer. Definately buy it if you can. And the 74 gig raptor is the better choice. Raid 0 isnt exactly stable anyway, and it won't really improve load times too much. and you can't raid 0 two 74's....at least ive never heard of anyone doing it. You could get a 560 watt thermaltake psu for 99 at newegg, the best rated psu on the market. also. and only go with 148 gigs of hd space if u really think ull use it.

 

[kidrock450]

Looks like a nice comp everything seems top of the line. I dont think any noobs will come out and say your a spoiled little kid. that spot is reserved for people who brag about there mommy and daddy buying them 50,000 dollar cars.

Anyway...nice comp will run HL2 like a dream.

 

[blackeye]

ya I proably wont need 148 gigs of space. I guess I will just get one 74 gig right now and if I need more space I will just buy another hard drive or delete some old games.

 

[ShinRa]

also the corsair 3200 with the 2-2-2-5 timings for $357 is ur best buy. i got that too, those are tight ass timings and a great buy. also for buying ur xt, id go with the asus built ones, they have an optimized core for asus motherboards.

 

[blackeye]

they have an optimized core for asus motherboards.

The only socket 939 motheboard out right now is the ASUS one. I really want an nforce 3 and I believe thats its not. What does that mean thats is optimized for the ASUS boards. Will it run faster on an ASUS motherboard?

 

[ShinRa]

precisely. the xt800 from asus has an optimized running core for asus motherboards or so i read. that the normal core speed, whatever it is, runs more efficiently on an asus motherboard.

 

[blackeye]

I was just wondering also what you guys think about getting a athlon 3500 appossed to a FX-53. I can spend $500 right now on that or $821 on an FX. If I got the 3500 I would have saved $321 dollars that I can spend on a better processor when the speeds go into the 4000.

I still dont know if i should go with the corsair 3500 memory. The timings look fairly good but i dont know if that matters so much with tha athlons.

 

[blahblahblah]

Get the 3500 (the memory) if you plan on overclocking, otherwise it will serve you no purpose at all.

As for the processor, its your call. I would get the 3500+ and then get a new processor a year later when the speeds are much faster than the FX-53.

 

[blackeye]

Get the 3500 (the memory) if you plan on overclocking, otherwise it will serve you no purpose at all.

well im going to everclock it about 300 mhz (not much but thats about as much as im willing to do with Athlon 3500) I dont know if the extra 40 or so MHZ in the memory will make much of a difference. But the timings are fairly good. 2-3-2-6. Not as good as the 2-2-2-5 stuff. How much performance loss might I see with slightly higher timings though? Should the extra MHZ compensate for that though?

 

[dream431ca]

About the hard drives...you can get a 200GB hard drive for about $270 CANADIAN...that's CANADIAN money. That pretty cheap. :E

 

[blahblahblah]

well im going to everclock it about 300 mhz (not much but thats about as much as im willing to do with Athlon 3500) I dont know if the extra 40 or so MHZ in the memory will make much of a difference. But the timings are fairly good. 2-3-2-6. Not as good as the 2-2-2-5 stuff. How much performance loss might I see with slightly higher timings though? Should the extra MHZ compensate for that though?

When you overclock, ideally you want your memory to match your FSB. Having the memory that is guarenteed to work at a higher speed could be a plus in overclocking. Because there is no guarrantee how much your memory will overclock. Spending the money on a guaranteed cushion is something I would seriously consider.

As for the timings, the 2-3-2-6 is really good. Don't worry about the 2-2-2-5 as it won't give you much better performance. Right now my Ram defaults to a 3-3-3-8 even though it is capable of 2-3-3-6. When I tighten up my RAM timings, I notice maybe a tenth of a FPS improvement in games. Latency plays a bigger role on Intel platforms.

 

[Asus]

I would either get the 3500+ or the FX53. No reason for the 3800+ IMO. If you are almost at the ceiling then why not meet it for that kind of money.

If you are going to run at stock speeds I would save your cash and get the Corsair PC3200 2-3-3-6. There is no noticeable performance difference with those timings on the A64. Actually if the last number is an 8-10 it has run faster in some benchmarks on the A64. Not sure why. hehe

PC3500 if you plan to OC. The A64 doesn't care if the memory is in sync like the AXP or P4 as much at all. The Onboard memory controller really solves a lot of issues and helps performance there. You would want the PC3500 because you want memory that will run faster than 200MHz with good timings.

blahblahblah is right. Latency (timings) really plays a big role only on Intel platforms. Save you rmoney or spend it else where.

I would go for the 74GB no matter what you do. Yes you can RAID those drives. hehe
You can RAID-0 or 1 any drive...
The reason some go with 2 36GB's is because they are wanting to save money and get good performance. The 36GB Raptors are a bit louder and not as fast as the 74GB Raptors.

Stick with that PSU. Antec/Entermax/Fortron are the only brands I usually buy PSUs from.

 

[Johan_Tayn]

you can raid two 74GB Raptors, but 4 of the 32GB Raptors would be faster. Like, around 150Mbs fast.

The PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 510 Deluxe ATX Power Supply is the best PS in the world.

"If there's one underappreciated system component,
it's the power supply."

— Maximum PC


"If you're building a machine you need to trust,
go with PC Power & Cooling products. Get its case,
power supply (the best, period), and CPU fan."

— John Dvorak

 

[blackeye]

The PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 510 Deluxe ATX Power Supply is the best PS in the world.

Ya i have head good things about it but its way to expsensive.