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A64 3500+, MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum/SLI, Tagan PSU

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iron999mike

Junior Member
I would like to know if anybody can give me thier opinions on my setup. If this is a bad place to post this kind of message, can somebody let me know a forum that gives these types of reviews. I did read the faq about ******Hardware and System Building Guide For New Users******, and I have been using Andandtech (and several others) for reviews of components, but I was hoping to get a better crituque of my setup. This is my first time building a PC from the ground up and I have been planning for several months.

My hopeful setup is:

CPU: AMD 3500+
Mobo: MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum/SLI
PSU: Tagan TG480-U01 PSU
Memory: Crucial DDR400 CL=3 512MB x 2
Harddrives: ? x 2 will figure out later, probably WD SATA
DVDRW: NEC 3250A
DVD: ? will figure out later
Videocard MSI 6600GT
Monitor: LCD ?
OS: Fedora, Gentoo, or Slackware

Most of this stuff is easy to figure out and it is just personal opinion, but there are a few I am not certain on. First of all I know, I don't rally need SLI, but the price of the K8N Platinum boards is so comparable, I don't see why not to get the SLI version. Any reason not to get the SLI? I do not need a super high end machine, and I don't play that many games. My second problem has to do with the power supply. I have been trying to figure out if my power supply is enough, but I am having a hard time tracking down power requirements on the K8N motherboard. My eyes hurt from searching. Anybody have any problems with this power supply, motherboard, a couple of harddrives, GPU, etc.

Like I said, I am a newbie and I am pretty sure this setup will work, but I would like to have other peoples opinions. Thanks.
 
Tagen PSU's are of good build quality with stable rails. They also live up to their promise as quiet running PSU's. So you should be just fine.

As for a SLI motherboard...I don't think you need one. Any reason why you want a Nvidia motherboard? An K8T800Pro seems like it will suite you better. My Asus K8T800 Pro A8V comes with all the goodies like onboard dual sata-raid, 8 channel sound, and firewire for 120 dollars and overclocks my 3200 at tops to 2.6 Ghz.
 
Tagan brand is manufactured by Topower, the same company that makes RaidMax and the new OCZ Powerstream line (not sure if they make the modstreams.) Old company and lately their pumping out liquid gold. Your setup as listed should not stress this power supply at all. The key measurement is not Watts, but Amps for reliability and then Volts for overclocking. If you want a good long read: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=792566 and an example of proper psu benchmarking http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20050228/power_supply-42.html

WD or Seagate SATA is a good choice. Maxtor and SATA don't mix. http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=27&threadid=1563658&enterthread=y

Whatever else, go with your gut feeling and don't let me or anyone else make you double-guess yourself. So what if there's a cheaper part that I would also recommend? If $$ can't buy happiness, what is it good for? Just be sure to google up "part number +fail" before you click "submit order"

 
Have you considered waiting for the Venice core version of the 3500+?
Also, I'd suggest WinXP64 for an O.S. option.
Text
Since you're going SATA, there's also NCQ versions out, if the motherboard supports it.
 
I actually already have the AMD 3500+ and the Tagan power supply. I originally put a list together in october and bought some of the parts. Then I was laid off from my job. So the computer had to wait. Now, I could go with my old list, it would work fine for me, but I decided to upgrade some things on it. I just wanted to make sure if I upgraded one part, it would work with the parts I already have, and see if I overlooked something. I decided to upgrade because of PCIe. I don't even really need PCIe, but I want to keep upgrade options available and from everything I have read PCIe is where everything is headed.

As far mobos, I am pretty sure that I will get an MSI K8N Neo[?]. All the MSI K8Ns have had great reviews everywhere. I just need to figure out which one to get. As far as SLI, I know I don't need it. but having the MSI Neo4 Sli and non-SLI so close in price, I wanted some opinions on getting a SLI. Is there a reason not to get the SLI when the prices are so close together and the only difference is one less PCI slot. Regs -- Why would you recommend something other Nvidia and why do you think that K8T800Pro would be better? I originally picked MSI K8N back in October, because it had high reviews and seemed like the best choice. Everything I have read still points to the MSI K8N. DFI gets high marks too, usually beating MSI, but mostly for overclocking which I will not do. The MSI boards seem more well rounded.

Thanks everybody for confirming my power supply brand is good. It really makes me happy considering I already have it 🙂. I had to order from the UK to get it back in october, because everybody in the US was out of stock. Mage333 -- I know about the railsamps, etc. and actually saw both those articles. I actually was going down the wrong path until I read some articles like that back in October. I haven't been able to find the power requirements for the MSI K8N Neo4 motherboard and my eyes hurt from looking. That was one of my main reasons for coming here. I was hoping somebody knew the power requirements or where to find them. The tagan was easily enough for a K8N Neo2 and agp I had originally planned. I still don't know about the Neo4 and PCIe/SLI.

mage333 -- I actually meant Western Digital. I have both a WD and Seagate PATA in my computer now. They have worked great and that is why I am staying with at least one of them. The hard , DVD, and CD drives are not going to be a problem, and can be decided on later. Thanks for the info though. Pretty scary. I actually would not go with Maxtor just because i have visited their campus on work related business, and I was not impressed on how they ran things there.

vailr -- Since I already have the 3500+, I don't have much of a choice. Sorry, I should have pointed out these facts earlier. I am actually not sure which one i have and I haven't found any definte info on it. The last two letters are AW on the chip, which I would have guessed as Winchester, but the AMD site does not list the AW code anywhere I have found. They mention others. I did find a post somewhere about AW meaning Newcastle, but I haven't been able to verify it yet. As far as windows XP 64, I will have to try it. I am a linux convert though. I switched 7 years ago, and I haven't been impressed with microsoft since. I will have to try and see. My brother is actually going to run it on his machine, so I can try before buying. As far as NCQ, thank you for pointing that out. I haven't really dived into hard drives yet, concentrating on the core of my computer. I will have to research NCQ more, as I didn't know about it. But googling NCQ and SATA and clicking the first link http://www.bytesector.com/data/bs-article.asp?ID=367, it looks promising.
 
Regs -- I also meant to say that nvidia did not have the problems back in October, that many of the other chip manufacturers did with the AMD64. I realize that a lot has probably changed, but it seems the nvidia boards are still top notch. Nvidia video cards are pretty much the only thing you can use with linux, and are high quality. They have also earned my trust with other products, and that is one reason I trust them with my mobo. I would welcome your insight though. If there are better options out there, I would rather find out now then after I put my computer together.
 
Originally posted by: iron999mike
Azzy64 -- Do you know if he has had any issues with it? Is there anything he would do different?
Click to expand...

only with the video card, he had to RMA it. Everything else cool tho.
 
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