A new Build

[RipperRoo]

Time for me to build a new pc, as sadly my server (1200 athlon) is comming to the end of its life. so, ill be moving my main rig to that role and building another.

already decided on a case

but still unsure of motherboard, goes without saying its got to be an Asus mobo but what to get?


opinions sought, is it worth the jump to 64 bit yet, and if so what chip would be best value for money amongst the AMD 64?

[DreamCaster]

What kind of case is that?
It looks pretty freakin' cool

[RipperRoo]

Originally Posted by DreamCaster

What kind of case is that?
It looks pretty freakin' cool

ASUS VENTO 3600, full spec's HERE

looks like it would be at home landing on the shuttledeck of the enterprise don't it?
anyone in the UK want a peek at these up close and personal they are currently on sale at maplin electronics in your local high street, shame they are about £30 over the odd's and only available in red.
you can get them online for about £100+ delivery and they come in red green and blue, shame theres no black

[greffov]

64 bits and not a single bit less, that's my opinion. Windows might not be able to cope with it yet, but decent OSes do. Windows will support it eventually as well. Besides that, we're nearing the `clock-limit' of the 32-bits platform (the real Y2K problem) so, it's basically phased out. You might want to look for the dual cores, which give you an SMP machine with a single chip. Again, with a decent OS, this is a delight to work with.

[berks]

that case looks awesome I have thought about building a new system maybe i will start to collect thge pieces!

show some more pics as you go along!

[greffov]

ohw berks, if you do, consider taking a RAID-1 (mirror) so you're a little bit secured from running into loss of data again when a disk decides to let you down again.

[RipperRoo]

Originally Posted by greffov

You might want to look for the dual cores, which give you an SMP machine with a single chip. Again, with a decent OS, this is a delight to work with.

I've looked for dual core, this is what i found:

The dual-core Opteron 870 will run $2,149, with the Opteron 875 priced at $2,649.

a little out of my price range im affraid, not planning on spending a months wages just on the chip.

when considering the os, Gento and SuSE are currently front runners, the only problem being finding the time in my already overcrouded schedule to climb the learning curve that is Linux. but one things for certain, its not going to be micro$oft.

[greffov]

wait. you look at the opertons, but those are the 64-bit business class server CPU's. The Athlon64 dual cores are on their ways, just like the Intel P4 dual cores. You just have to wait for them a bit...

[RipperRoo]

I think I've got my specs sorted now, heres the list:

Asus A8V-E Deluxe (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard


4xSamsung 512MB PC3200 (2gb the hard way)



AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 90nm (Socket 939)



2xWestern Digital Caviar Special Edition 250GB 2500JD SATA 8MB Cache

Asus EAX700 Pro/TVD ATI Radeon X700 Pro 256MB DDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express)

Ultra X-Connect 500W ATX Cable Detachable PSU - Blue


and finaly, the ASUS VENTO 3600


Total Build Price £1000, i think I neen to go visit the bank
Im Going to use my existing 16x DVD burner and an 80gb ATA133 drive for the o/s

[FrYGuY]

Erm. One quick note:

Your mobo has the VIA Hyperion chipset.

Those do not play well with ATI graphics cards...

It will likely be a headache.

[RipperRoo]

Originally Posted by FrYGuY

Erm. One quick note:

Your mobo has the VIA Hyperion chipset.

Those do not play well with ATI graphics cards...

It will likely be a headache.

hum, maybe i'll go with an Asus EN6600/TD/256M GeForce 6600 256MB DVI TV Out PCI-E instead




or something along those lines, any suggestions in the £100-£150 price range?

[FrYGuY]

Originally Posted by RipperRoo

hum, maybe i'll go with an Asus EN6600/TD/256M GeForce 6600 256MB DVI TV Out PCI-E instead




or something along those lines, any suggestions in the £100-£150 price range?

Well... I'd love to, but my splurge on a $75 Sapphire ATI 9550 broke my bank (I found out about the ATI/Via Hyperion conflict when the card freaked out for an unrelated reason... Note: ATI cards also don't like Windows to arrange memory for program performance, rather than system cache performance. I learned this the hard way).

I'm not a very good computer geek, hardware wise. I don't have the budget to support it!

[Polariz]

RipperRoo, DabsValue do a 6800 128mb standard for around 160 I beleive, but i'm not sure if it's PCI-E. It will need further investigation

I have the AGP version, it's very very good value for money.

[igalan]

I would get the Asus A8N Sli Deluxe or Premium. Even if you don't use SLI now, you have the doors open to do it in the future. It only has a drawback: the chipset fan is crap, it's a small 40mm fan that spins at over 8000rpm and I bet that in a few months it will start to make noise. I will replace it as soon as I find a suitable heatskink and fan.

About the video card, that really depends on what one needs/wants and budget. I settled for a MSI GeForce 6600 GT with 128 MB DDR3. I can add another one any time to run in SLI, although I haven't found the need now. All games run in high quality 2xAA, 8xAF perfectly.

[RipperRoo]

Originally Posted by igalan

I would get the Asus A8N Sli Deluxe or Premium. Even if you don't use SLI now, you have the doors open to do it in the future. It only has a drawback: the chipset fan is crap, it's a small 40mm fan that spins at over 8000rpm and I bet that in a few months it will start to make noise. I will replace it as soon as I find a suitable heatskink and fan.

About the video card, that really depends on what one needs/wants and budget. I settled for a MSI GeForce 6600 GT with 128 MB DDR3. I can add another one any time to run in SLI, although I haven't found the need now. All games run in high quality 2xAA, 8xAF perfectly.

i think your right, SLI is the way to go for system longevitly, better to spend a few bucks more now and have a system thats still considered respectable in 5 years time. I'll look into the A8N board, if its ASUS is got to be good (apart from the fan)