Is this system any good to get?

The Dark Elf

The Dark Elf

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Ok pretty sure I'll be ordering these parts sometime this week, so before I do I want to check with you fella's to make sure there's no known problems that might crop up. I know I could get a SATA drive but for now I don't really need one for the sort of work I'll be doing, and I plan on putting more memory in it after christmas when I've time to fiddle around with adding extra's

Casetek 1018 Super Tower Black
Asus A7N8X-D
512Mb DDR (PC3200) 400
80Gb W/Digital
3.5 Black Floppy Drive 1.44Mb
460W Enhance ENS- 0246 PSU
AMD AthlonXP PR2800+ (OEM) Barton
Global Win TAK-68
128MB ATI 3D Prophet All in Wonder 9800SE RTL (Hercules)
oh and either one or two Chassis fan(s) as I'll probably need them when the winter unforunately turns to summer ;(

couple of questions

1) the 9800SE definately has full DX9 support? cause thats the only reason I'm getting one

2) I've heard mixed reports about the Asus Motherboard, should I go for an Epox or MSI instead? Or is this Asus board ok?


Cheers for any help guys n gals!
 
I would just get the 9800 Pro, the 9800SE is about as good as a 9500Pro.
 
1. Definitely skip the 9800SE. It is DX9 support, but what NJD said is true. Get a 9600XT for around the same price. Or if you can, try and get a 9800np or pro.

2. Definitely not. The A7N8X dx and the abit NF7-S are as good as it gets.

BTW, that PSU is overkill. You only need about 400 for that. Get an enermax or a antec.

Global win heatsink? Get a thermaltake volcano 11, vantec aeroflow or a coolermaster aero 7. Or get a SLK-800A/900U/947 w/ a panasonic panaflo fan if you plan on overclocking.

What memory brand are you getting? Make sure its a good brand, and not some un branded stuff.

And finally, where are you ordering from?
 
If you want your Computer to be quiet get the Vantec Airflow, the TTV11 is pretty loud. If you want a good mobo get a Soltek 75-frnl (something like that) good overclocking and very stable.
 
Originally posted by Sgt.Igneri
1. Definitely skip the 9800SE. It is DX9 support, but what NJD said is true. Get a 9600XT for around the same price. Or if you can, try and get a 9800np or pro.
Click to expand...

Might go for a 9600XT then, depends if they've got any in stock, needing the machine in the next couple of weeks tops and being christmas just around the corner money is tight so may have to lump for a 9800SE for now and get an XT next year, though may wait like I originally planned and get one of those in April by then they should be much cheaper

Originally posted by Sgt.Igneri
2. Definitely not. The A7N8X dx and the abit NF7-S are as good as it gets.
Click to expand...

ok cool, wasn't too sure, as I say, heard different things, lots of complaints about flashing the bios causing things to fail. So long as it works out of the box it'll do me :)

Originally posted by Sgt.Igneri
BTW, that PSU is overkill. You only need about 400 for that. Get an enermax or a antec.
Click to expand...

I'll be adding a lot of stuff after christmas, Video Toaster and more drives, stuff like that so will probably need the extra power eventually

Originally posted by Sgt.Igneri
Global win heatsink? Get a thermaltake volcano 11, vantec aeroflow or a coolermaster aero 7. Or get a SLK-800A/900U/947 w/ a panasonic panaflo fan if you plan on overclocking.
Click to expand...

nope no plans to overclock, I worry too much that its too risky and I'll break something so I leave that stuff alone :D

just had a check, they don't have any of those you mentioned :(

Originally posted by Sgt.Igneri
What memory brand are you getting? Make sure its a good brand, and not some un branded stuff.
Click to expand...

yep branded AFAIK

Originally posted by Sgt.Igneri
And finally, where are you ordering from?
Click to expand...

place called CCL computers, I wont order stuff online and this place is just up the road from me and I've bought tons from them before and apart from one slip up with a motherboard being intel instead of AMD (an easy mistake as it was a basic one for a server and both versions looked identical) they've been ok so far (touch wood:))


Edit: cool, Sapphire 9600XT is cheaper, saves me a few quid, isn't like I'll need the TV in stuff on the AiW once I've the Toaster anyways heh great stuff (pretty sure that happened last time I asked here.. this forum is cool for saving me money lol)

oh yeah forgot, I'll be adding DVD-RW n CD ROM n stuff aswell later on aswell (so by the time I'm done I'll probably need that PSU for sure), don't need them right now as I can scavange those and the other bits like keyboard, monitor etc. For the time being anyway.
 
Still, 460 is a bit overkill.

I would reccommend you take the 9800SE away, get a 9600pro (youll be replacing in the spring right?) and get a 430W antec or enermax. What brand is the memory?

BTW, if your in the US, consider ordering online. If its scamming that your worrying about, order from newegg. They are by far the most trustworthy place to buy hardware from. They are fairly cheap too. They have an excellent shipping and RMA policy. And, their selection is MASSIVE. They have about any peice of hardware you can think of. Hell, they even have a 9.8 rating on www.resellerratings.com

I've ordered about $3000 worth of stuff from them. I have had to RMA something twice. The first, back when i still had my XMS PC3700 RAM, was like 20 days over the full refund warranty. I gave 'em a ring, and they didnt give me any problem. Then when I got my new RAM, i got a bad stick and had to RMA. I got my replacement DAMN quick.
 
Originally posted by Sgt.Igneri
Still, 460 is a bit overkill.
Click to expand...

Sorry edited my post just when you replied. Will 460 harm the machine if its not used? I mean, if its an issue about noise that honestly doesn't bother me, I sleep next to these things on the rare occassions I sleep and none of them have cases on, i don't hear all the noise anymore, everyone else complains though, kinda funny really, keeps them out of my way anyways :)

Originally posted by Sgt.Igneri
I would reccommend you take the 9800SE away, get a 9600pro (youll be replacing in the spring right?) and get a 430W antec or enermax. What brand is the memory?
Click to expand...

9600XT not a good idea either then?

Originally posted by Sgt.Igneri
BTW, if your in the US, consider ordering online. If its scamming that your worrying about, order from newegg. They are by far the most trustworthy place to buy hardware from. They are fairly cheap too. They have an excellent shipping and RMA policy. And, their selection is MASSIVE. They have about any peice of hardware you can think of. Hell, they even have a 9.8 rating on www.resellerratings.com
Click to expand...

I'm more worried what I'd do, I've managed to avoid getting a credit card all my life, I know full well what would happen if I got access to money like that which I could spend too easily, I simply don't trust myself with them, and of course, no credit card makes buying online difficult, but in the long run I find its safer, if I don't have the cash infront of me I don't get something, if I had a credit card I would max it out in 15 minutes tops. I know what I'm like, I'm the one who bought 10 seats of Softimage after just a couple of weeks looking at the demo version, and that was company money, I'm not the kind of person who should ever be allowed a credit card *grins* course their all tripping over themselves to give me them knowing what I'd be like and how much interest they could make from me haha :)

Originally posted by Sgt.Igneri
I've ordered about $3000 worth of stuff from them. I have had to RMA something twice. The first, back when i still had my XMS PC3700 RAM, was like 20 days over the full refund warranty. I gave 'em a ring, and they didnt give me any problem. Then when I got my new RAM, i got a bad stick and had to RMA. I got my replacement DAMN quick.
Click to expand...

I'm in the UK so would probably be problematic if its a US company, by the time its got here it'll probably cost twice as much, not to mention the mail system over here is terrible, I'd not trust it with anything if I could help it, sucks sometimes being in the UK but im stuck here for the time being.
 
And if you're in Canada, get your computer from www.NCIX.com . And get a 430 Antec, I got a 400 Antec and it is really stable.
 
Thats what im trying to point out with the PSU. Crappy brand PSUs= very unstable no matter what the wattage.

A PSU with much less wattage, but has much more quality will prevail.

Sucks taht your in the UK. Neweggonly ships to the US.

What brand is the RAM?
 
Originally posted by Sgt.Igneri
Thats what im trying to point out with the PSU. Crappy brand PSUs= very unstable no matter what the wattage.

A PSU with much less wattage, but has much more quality will prevail.

Sucks taht your in the UK. Neweggonly ships to the US.

What brand is the RAM?
Click to expand...

hmm ok


dunno, doesn't say


-
edit: only enermax they got is a 350W Enermax Multispeed :\
 
Before you buy, get that RAMbrand. Dont purchase it until you know the exact brand.
 
Originally posted by Sgt.Igneri
Before you buy, get that RAMbrand. Dont purchase it until you know the exact brand.
Click to expand...

what brand should i be looking for?
 
Oh also, don't get PC3200 Ram which is DDR400, your 2800+ Barton runs at FSB 333, get PC2700 RAM which is DDR333, you'll get better performance because they match.
 
Originally posted by NJD2003
Oh also, don't get PC3200 Ram which is DDR400, your 2800+ Barton runs at FSB 333, get PC2700 RAM which is DDR333, you'll get better performance because they match.
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lol i was just this minute reading something about that.. You compressed those paragraphs of confusing technobabble into two lines of understandable info. Thank-you :)

Edit: so even though the MB is DDR400 it'll still support DDR333? cool cheers :)
 
fenric, i recommend getting your hardware from dabs.com if ur in the uk, i get my stuff from there with no fuss. :)
 
Originally posted by Fenric1138
Edit: so even though the MB is DDR400 it'll still support DDR333? cool cheers :)
Click to expand...

Yep, I have DDR400 and XP2700 333FSB, I adjusted the Ram in bios so that it would run equal to the FSB. Oh, and in the A7n8x watch how you place the RAM in the slots so they run on dual mode
There is this nasty switch on the mobo to disable the SATA if you don't plan to use it, makes the startup process a lot faster.
 
Originally posted by DeusEx2
Yep, I have DDR400 and XP2700 333FSB, I adjusted the Ram in bios so that it would run equal to the FSB. Oh, and in the A7n8x watch how you place the RAM in the slots so they run on dual mode
There is this nasty switch on the mobo to disable the SATA if you don't plan to use it, makes the startup process a lot faster.
Click to expand...

ahh cool, thanks for that.

I've read something about the placement of the RAM, slot 1 and 3 or 2 and 4 isn't it?

What happens with just the one stick of ram, I'm just getting a single 512mb stick for now with plans to fill up the other slots with 512 sticks later.

Is there a special slot a single stick should go in or doesn't it matter so much when there's just the one to begin with?

Handy info about the switch on the board for turning off SATA, that'll be handy to begin with, later I'll probably fit a SATA drive but until then it will be useful cheers :)

-

Sgt: you mentioned a different PSU, would a 425W HEC PSU be ok? They've a limited collection above 400W, there's the HEC one, the 460 Enhance ENS one, and a Morex+ 550w one. The rest are all below 400W. There is a 350 Enermax PSU, is 350W enough though for all the extra stuff later?
 
also coolers, the ones there are limited for use with XP2800+ or atleast don't say they work with it, and since it can get pretty hot here with the machines all running would I be able to use a Akasa - AK 795 Socket A Cooler which while doesn't mention working on a 2800+ says it will work with a 3200+ so is that _just_ for an AthlonXP 3200, or will it do nicely cooling a 2800+ more than a normal cooler would?
 
Right then, taking into account everything you guys have told me and your suggestions. I've made a few changes to the components, let me know if this is any better or if I've slipped up somewhere, it seems ok to me but you guys know your hardware more than I do :) its also about £20 cheaper, which is nice so I'll probably throw in a keyboard aswell when I order.

PS. I don't currently know the type of cooler that comes with that cpu, but I'm going to assume its ok if its supplied with it as retail, or am I wrong to think that? Let me know, cheers.


Casetek 1018 Super Tower Black (NO PSU)

Asus A7N8X-D (DDR M/Board) Nforce2 / DUAL LAN / 1394 / SATA

80Gb W/Digital WD800JB (8MB Cache)

3.5 Black Floppy Drive 1.44Mb

Case Chassis Fan 4pin/3pin (PSU/MB)

128Mb ATI Radeon 9600XT (Sapphire)

512Mb DDR (PC2700) 333

AMD AthlonXP PR3000+ (RTL) Barton (with cooler)

350W Enermax Multispeed PSU (EG365P)
 
Originally posted by NJD2003
Oh also, don't get PC3200 Ram which is DDR400, your 2800+ Barton runs at FSB 333, get PC2700 RAM which is DDR333, you'll get better performance because they match.
Click to expand...

If you have 3200 ram, it doesen't automatically run at ddr400 with that cpu, you have to change the FSB in the bios to get it to run at ddr400. It defaults to the FSB speed the cpu has. You won't get any performance increase if the memory and cpu FSB "matches". Take this from the guy who built 3 comps, watercooled and overclocked one of them.
I DO know what im talking about.
 
I've got an A7N8X-D in my other comp, and it diddn't like my 9700 very much, so i had to switch mobos with my machine. Also i think getting the ABIT NF7-S would be better then the Asus.
 
Originally posted by MaxiKana
I've got an A7N8X-D in my other comp, and it diddn't like my 9700 very much, so i had to switch mobos with my machine. Also i think getting the ABIT NF7-S would be better then the Asus.
Click to expand...

They've no Abit's:(

What about the above setup though? minus the PR3000+ I've decided to go back to a PR2800+ as I don't see a mention of that Asus board being able to use one higher than that. I wont be overclocking anything and the card will be a 9600XT


oh and I'm thinking later on (sometime next year maybe) of getting a 22" Iiyama Vision Master Pro 514. Any thoughts on that model?
 
oh :( I've never heard about that montior, ive got myself a samsung 1100P 21' wich i love
 
Originally posted by MaxiKana
oh :( I've never heard about that montior, ive got myself a samsung 1100P 21' wich i love
Click to expand...

has a resolution of 2048 x 1536 which seems rather nice (my max right now is 1280x1024). I'd probably get it sometime January or shortly before April in time for HL2, could look pretty swish playing that game on it I think, throw in a nice fast machine, a DX9 card. Yup so long as it plays well and looks good I'm happy heh, oh yeah and I'd be working on it too, 'onest guv :)


Any thoughts on the other stuff?
 
i have an 1100DF 21" (step up from the 1100p)


it supports 2048 x 1536 @75hz (not that i have any reason to use such a rediculous res.


i got a pretty good deal on it to.....only 399(us$)
 
looking at that iiyama


it is a diamondtron....witch means it has those lines in the screen....

i cant stand those things......thats the reason i bought a conventional CRT...those apeture grill things look nice...BUT I CANT STAND THE LINES:flame: :P


seems a little expensive for me personaly....but if you do 3d gfx and stuff alot....it looks nice.


supposedly excellent image quality....
 
Originally posted by crabcakes66
looking at that iiyama


it is a diamondtron....witch means it has those lines in the screen....

i cant stand those things......thats the reason i bought a conventional CRT...those apeture grill things look nice...BUT I CANT STAND THE LINES:flame: :P


seems a little expensive for me personaly....but if you do 3d gfx and stuff alot....it looks nice.


supposedly excellent image quality....
Click to expand...

excellent.. yeah its a CRT, I'm not a fan of the LCD stuff, and yeah I do a lot of 3D work aswell as photoshop a lot so the size of it will help greatly especially the increased resolution cause I'm forever running out of space now, even when I had dual monitors setup which began to get really annoying heh

I'm gonna assume then that nobody commenting on the other parts means their all fine. which is cool, now to order them and find out they wont be in stock till January haha
 
Originally posted by crabcakes66
everything looks good to me.
Click to expand...

coolies :):)

was gonna get a router aswell but decided that machine is going to keep off the net completely, atleast for the time being, just for safety.
 
Fenric, it seems you are a bit confused, hehe.

The A7N8X can handle up to a 3200+ which is AMDs last 32 bit CPU. It uses the same socket- socket A. IMO, anything above a 2800+ is a waste of moola since it doesnt even offer that big of a performance difference. I would even reccommend a 2500+ if they have it.

The PSU- 350W is a bit too low, I must say that. If they dont have any antecs or enermax in the 400 range, go with the 460W.

And yes, if the processor is boxed retail, it comes with a HSF. Just use that.

And dd you get the RAM brand yet? :p
 
Originally posted by Sgt.Igneri
Fenric, it seems you are a bit confused, hehe.

The A7N8X can handle up to a 3200+ which is AMDs last 32 bit CPU. It uses the same socket- socket A. IMO, anything above a 2800+ is a waste of moola since it doesnt even offer that big of a performance difference. I would even reccommend a 2500+ if they have it.

The PSU- 350W is a bit too low, I must say that. If they dont have any antecs or enermax in the 400 range, go with the 460W.

And yes, if the processor is boxed retail, it comes with a HSF. Just use that.

And dd you get the RAM brand yet? :p
Click to expand...

CAS0015 Casetek 1018 Super Tower Black (NO PSU)

Asus A7N8X-D (DDR M/Board) Nforce2 / DUAL LAN / 1394 / SATA

80Gb W/Digital WD800JB (8MB Cache)

3.5 Black Floppy Drive 1.44Mb

Case Chassis Fan 4pin/3pin (PSU/MB)

128Mb ATI Radeon 9600XT (Sapphire)

512Mb DDR (PC2700) 333

Genius Comfy KB-21e Internet - Multimedia & Scroll Wheel

Genius Wireless Optical USB + PS/2

2.0m RJ45/Cat5 Patch lead

Hard Drive Cooler

AMD AthlonXP PR3000+ (RTL) Barton (with cooler)

425W HEC PSU


what about the above?

don't know the brand yet, not worrying about that until I've settled on a working setup
 
Sounds good, thou i like logitechs keyboards and mice the best :P
 
Ok, thats perfect.

Just take away the 3000+ as it doesnt even offer that much of a difference from a 2500+ but costs nearly 3x as much. Eiter get a 2500+ or go back to the 2800+
 
If you have the cash to spend go with the 3000+
 
Originally posted by Sgt.Igneri
Ok, thats perfect.
Click to expand...

do you mean that? hehe ;)

Just take away the 3000+ as it doesnt even offer that much of a difference from a 2500+ but costs nearly 3x as much. Eiter get a 2500+ or go back to the 2800+
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ok.. I reckon I'll only go as low as 2800+ any lower and it wouldn't feel much different from a 1gig machine I'd imagine. Say whats the general speed of these? I always assumed they were just 2800+ = 2.8ghz and so on but on looking through googlegroups I'm beginning to wonder now argh lol :D

I know, im annoying, but hopefully I don't have to do this again for a few years, longer if I can help it, atleast thats the plan :)


oh if it makes a difference I'm getting the above for approximately £512 which I don't think is too bad, I know you can get even cheaper online from US companies but throwing in the CC charges the P&P and so on and it soon seems to go up. Also because of past dealing with CCL they don't charge VAT with me, and looking at prices like in PC World (I know, not a fair comparison really considering PC World seems to add £200 to everything heh) it does seem to be much cheaper than it normally would. and with VAT its about £89 more. Which wouldn't have mattered but I did have to go buy those DVD's and Morrowind the other week didn't I *grumbles* I'll never learn to save money, I always leave it to the last minute :)
 
Here's what each XP is in mhz:

2500+ = 1.83ghz(barton)

2600+ = 1.92ghz(barton)

2700+ = 2.17ghz

2800+ = 2.08ghz(barton)

3000+ = 2.167ghz(barton)

3200+ = 2.2ghz(barton)

The barton cpu has 512kb of L2 Cache, while the normal one only has 256kb.
 
Originally posted by MaxiKana
Here's what each XP is in mhz:

2500+ = 1.83ghz(barton)

2600+ = 1.92ghz(barton)

2700+ = 2.17ghz

2800+ = 2.08ghz(barton)

3000+ = 2.167ghz(barton)

3200+ = 2.2ghz(barton)

The barton cpu has 512kb of L2 Cache, while the normal one only has 256kb.
Click to expand...

woah those are lower than I thought.. I'll certainly not go below 2800+ then ;( think I'll just stick with the 3000+ Barton, seems like it should be ok, and I should notice a big enough difference since I'm going from a lowly 1gig with a Geforce4MX (don't laugh lol) to what looks to be a decent ATI card and 2.1ghz.

should add that info to one of the sticky's on here, I'm sure I can't be the only one who isn't too sure about those things, atleast I hope I'm not :)

Very useful info, thank you.

Originally posted by MaxiKana
Sounds good, thou i like logitechs keyboards and mice the best :P
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I haven't really got a preference with keyboards. I like the mouse I've got but haven't seen one around recently, I smoke a lot and mice with balls seem not to last long around me heh so gonna try an optical one this time, see how it works out, never used an optical one before that I remember anyway.
 
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