2 new X2 AM2 systems - eval

[kinghill]

Building two (for gf and me) new PC's for the first time since 1999. Been researching the parts for the past few weeks while waiting for the AMD price drop.

Tried to build best two systems possible while using some parts I already have, for less than $2000. We're both currently using P3-700 systems so I'm hoping this will be a HUGE jump in performance.

Main needs:
Reliable parts + quiet as possible (pc's in bedroom) + good gaming performance

Any comments or suggestions or hate mail?

See below for the parts spreadsheet ->

http://www.webpagedepot.com/jason/newpc.html

$64.98 is total shipping cost for all the newegg parts, I just added it in one place on the spreadsheet.




***** UPDATE 7/27 *****

Finalized decisions and placed order last night. PHEW.

http://www.webpagedepot.com/jason/newpc.html

main changes...

I changed the Zalman CNPS9500 AM2 -->> Scythe Mine to save about $40

And changed the video card to the Gigabyte 7600GT "silentpipe"

 

[acegazda]

how is the newegg shipping $65 for the X2? Everything else looks good except, will you be ocing the video card? The leadtech 7600gt's overclock the best out of all of them but you can get an evga for $140 shipped. 7900gt would be idea however.
Welcome to the forums!

 

[1N0V471V]

Looks pretty good to me. To save some money you could get a 450w Fortron -- they're just as good.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: kinghill
Any comments or suggestions or hate mail?

What about pure apathy at yet another "What do you think of my parts list" thread? :roll:

 

[kinghill]

What about pure apathy at yet another "What do you think of my parts list" thread? :roll:

Yes, that is also accepted and encouraged. Thanks.
:laugh:

 

[kinghill]

Originally posted by: acegazda
how is the newegg shipping $65 for the X2? Everything else looks good except, will you be ocing the video card? The leadtech 7600gt's overclock the best out of all of them but you can get an evga for $140 shipped. 7900gt would be idea however.
Welcome to the forums!

$64.98 is total shipping cost for all the newegg parts, I just added it in one place on the spreadsheet.

Wasn't planning on overclocking. I didn't see an evga for $140. The prices were very close on newegg for the 7600GT cards, with a few lower ones that had MIRs.

 

[River Side]

why get a retail x2 when u're going to use an aftermarket cooler.. get the OEM to save some money.. save some more by getting non-SLI board and put the savings towars the 7900GT.

 

[Ayah]

Personally, I would go with two Antec P150s for silence and they come with a nice 430 Antec HE PSU.

 

[kinghill]

Originally posted by: River Side
why get a retail x2 when u're going to use an aftermarket cooler.. get the OEM to save some money.. save some more by getting non-SLI board and put the savings towars the 7900GT.

I considered getting an OEM version of the 3800+ AM2 X2, but I don't see any 3800's less than about $160 and newegg's is $169 so no big difference


I'm choosing the M2N-SLI for the integrated fireware.

 

[new22003]

Looks good but it seems more expensive than using a company like cyberpower. I configured the same system and the price was $866 after the $200 off on x2 systems they are offering. It also includes windows/warranty/etc. Im all for doing it yourself but dont see spending more to do it.

CASE: HOT NEW! X-Discovery Mid-Tower Case 420W W/ WINDOW & LCD Temperature Display (Black Color)
CPU: (Socket AM2) AMD Athlon64 X2 3800+ Dual-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology
MOTHERBOARD: (Socket AM2)Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe nForce 570 SLI MCP Chipset DDR2/800 MBoard w/ Dual PCI-Express
MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)1GB (2x512MB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Value Select or Major Brand)
VIDEO CARD: SPECIAL!!! NVIDIA Geforce 7600 GT 512MB 16X PCI Express Video Card
VIDEO CARD 2: NONE
LCD Monitor: NONE
HARD DRIVE: 250GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8M Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive -- Recommended
Hard Drive 2: 250GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8M Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive -- Recommended
Optical Drive: PIONEER DVR-111 DUAL FORMAT 16X DVDR/RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (BEIGE COLOR)
Optical Drive 2: NONE
SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO

 

[kinghill]

Originally posted by: Ayah
Personally, I would go with two Antec P150s for silence and they come with a nice 430 Antec HE PSU.

Yeah I like the P150 and I've read great reviews but...

Two Antec P150s would be $80 more and I've heard lots of compatibility problems with the Antec NeoHE 430W PS and the Asus motherboards.

 

[Atheus]

Originally posted by: kinghill
Wasn't planning on overclocking.

Then why buy Corsair XMS, an aftermarket heatsink, and a cutting edge platform/motherboard? It looked like you had built the thing specifically for overclocking. If you're gonna run stock speeds, a 939 system with generic RAM and the stock heatsink will perform _identically_ to your setup.

 

[kinghill]

Originally posted by: new22003
Looks good but it seems more expensive than using a company like cyberpower. I configured the same system and the price was $866 after the $200 off on x2 systems they are offering. It also includes windows/warranty/etc. Im all for doing it yourself but dont see spending more to do it.

Thanks for the suggestion I'll look into it.

 

[kinghill]

Then why buy Corsair XMS, an aftermarket heatsink, and a cutting edge platform/motherboard?

thanks for the suggestions

1) Not sure what you mean... It's the cheapest Corsair DDR2 800 RAM Newegg sells. It's CAS 5.

2) Aftermarket heatsink to reduce noise is main priority, if it keeps the CPU cooler, great.

3) AM2 to allow for future possible upgrade path.

 

[Atheus]

Originally posted by: kinghill
1) Not sure what you mean... It's the cheapest Corsair DDR2 800 RAM Newegg sells. It's CAS 5.

Isn't stock speed DDR667 on AM2? Running anything faster would be considered overclocking... I might be wrong...

 

[kinghill]

Isn't stock speed DDR667 on AM2? Running anything faster would be considered overclocking... I might be wrong...

Ohhhhh. Well damn I don't know then. I was just going by Asus's motherboard specs and assumed DDR2-800 was the way to go. If it's actually just going to run at DDR2-667 then yeah I should get 667 instead, maybe even bump up to 2GB.

http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=1160&l1=3&l2=101&l3=0
"Dual channel memory architecture
4 x 240-pin DIMM, support max. 8GB DDR2 800/667/533 ECC and non-ECC, un-buffered memory"

 

[Atheus]

Originally posted by: kinghill

Isn't stock speed DDR667 on AM2? Running anything faster would be considered overclocking... I might be wrong...

Ohhhhh. Well damn I don't know then. I was just going by Asus's motherboard specs and assumed DDR2-800 was the way to go. If it's actually just going to run at DDR2-667 then yeah I should get 667 instead, maybe even bump up to 2GB.

http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=1160&l1=3&l2=101&l3=0
"Dual channel memory architecture
4 x 240-pin DIMM, support max. 8GB DDR2 800/667/533 ECC and non-ECC, un-buffered memory"

Well it does look like it's officially supported... if that stuff is 800 on the SPD and the board will allow this, then I guess it will run at 800... it's just I had heard the standard speed is 667. This is where my knowlege of AM2 ends, I have never actually used one of these systems, hopefully someone who has will jump in.

 

[acegazda]

Originally posted by: Atheus

Originally posted by: kinghill

Isn't stock speed DDR667 on AM2? Running anything faster would be considered overclocking... I might be wrong...

Ohhhhh. Well damn I don't know then. I was just going by Asus's motherboard specs and assumed DDR2-800 was the way to go. If it's actually just going to run at DDR2-667 then yeah I should get 667 instead, maybe even bump up to 2GB.

http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=1160&l1=3&l2=101&l3=0
"Dual channel memory architecture
4 x 240-pin DIMM, support max. 8GB DDR2 800/667/533 ECC and non-ECC, un-buffered memory"

Well it does look like it's officially supported... if that stuff is 800 on the SPD and the board will allow this, then I guess it will run at 800... it's just I had heard the standard speed is 667. This is where my knowlege of AM2 ends, I have never actually used one of these systems, hopefully someone who has will jump in.

well if you buy ddr2 RAM rated @ 800mhz, then it will run @ 800mhz! Actually ddr2 is quad pumped, so for overclocking purposes, ddr2-800 runs @ 200mhz effectively but you need not worry about this since you won't be altering any of the stock speeds. All am2 nv500 chipsets support at least ddr2-800.

 

[MDE]

I'd drop the aftermarket cooler, Cool and Quiet will take care of any noise from the CPU fan while you're not using the systems. Corsair XMS is kind of a waste, I'd get 2GB of cheaper RAM.

 

[Atheus]

Originally posted by: acegazda
well if you buy ddr2 RAM rated @ 800mhz, then it will run @ 800mhz!

Yea, well, I thought 800 was an unsupported speed, like 533 on socket 939/A64. If you put DDR1 rated at 533Mhz in a 939 box it will run at 400Mhz.

 

[acegazda]

Originally posted by: Atheus

Originally posted by: acegazda
well if you buy ddr2 RAM rated @ 800mhz, then it will run @ 800mhz!

Yea, well, I thought 800 was an unsupported speed, like 533 on socket 939/A64. If you put DDR1 rated at 533Mhz in a 939 box it will run at 400Mhz.

no... a64s will run anything up to 600mhz. Those g.skill extremes... That doesn't make any sense considering it runs ddr500 fine as well, why wouldn't it downgrade to that? It depends on the MoBo, for some MoBos, the max fsb is 300 for s939. In that case it would run ddr600 fine. For the Mobos that the max fsb is less, you'd have to go to the Bios and reduce the speed of the RAM to the max fsb. Then again you wouldn't buy a low end board to go with ddr600 in the first place.

 

[kinghill]

Originally posted by: MDE
I'd drop the aftermarket cooler, Cool and Quiet will take care of any noise from the CPU fan while you're not using the systems. Corsair XMS is kind of a waste, I'd get 2GB of cheaper RAM.

I hadn't read much about that "Cool and Quiet" feature. I went with a Scythe Mine for $35 each. Maybe a wasted $70? Oh well, maybe if I do decide to test out the overclocking settings on my system, it'll come in handy.


I stuck with the 1gb of Corsair. When I see a benchmark that shows 2gb will help *MY* system performance, I'll slap another gig in there. If such a benchmark exists please clue me in

 

[bobt1978]

Building similar system for my wife. Mine is listed under Newegg Public Wish list -amd 2x 3800 first build & amd 3500+ econ wireless....

Thought of using aftermarket heat sink/cooler but heard warrenty is voided if you use a cooling device other than stock! Any truth to that?

 

[John]

Originally posted by: bobt1978
Thought of using aftermarket heat sink/cooler but heard warrenty is voided if you use a cooling device other than stock! Any truth to that?

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/Tec...alResources/0,,30_182_867_2139,00.html

This Limited Warranty shall be null and void if the AMD microprocessor which is the subject of this Limited Warranty is used with any heatsink/fan other than the one provided herewith.

 

[bobt1978]

Thanks! Appreciate the link....glad to know so I'll stick w/the stock option