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AM2 Motherboard/PC Build, what to buy ?

crockman

crockman

Senior member
I've looked over the Web, including some of the Forums, but can't find any suggestions &/or Owner/User Comments on What is a Good AM2 Motherboard.

This PC is to be built is for Gaming. This PC will NOT be Overclocked.

Im building this PC for my 15 year old Nephew so the main consideration is Stability & Performance "Right-out-of-the Box". I've never done a BIOS Flash so I'd rather not have to do that. Again this PC will Not be Overclocked. Firewire is not a main requirement for the MB to have, in fact Firewire will probably never be used on this PC. Sata 1 & 2 is a must, Sata 1 & 2 Raid options as well are a must.

If any suggestions of SLI MB's, I want the SLI MB's that will run both Cards at 16x, rather than the older 8x MB's. If I choose to not go with SLI-32, then I will spend more on the Lone Video Card with that extra cash from buying a cheaper non-Sli board

This PC will be on a 'Budget', but not to the point of buying inferior parts.

I'm planning to use the X2-3800, mainly because of the very decent $149 Price Tag at Newegg. To go along with that 3800, I will be buying a Sata-150 Western Digital 74GB 10k Rpm Raptor with the 16MB Cache.

At first this PC will Not be in a Raid setup, but i leave that option open for later-down-the-road


I had first planned to build this PC back in January and had planned on Buying an Nvidia 7800 Line of Video Card. I have not done any PC Research since January so i do not know if the 7800 ever turned out to be a Good Card or not.

I'm open to any suggestions on Video Cards. PS, I'd rather not spend over $300 on the Video Card unless I have to.

In Short, I'm looking for a Very Good Performing AM2 Motherboard with Stability/Performance right-out-of-the-Box the most important aspect. (I will spend more for a known better MB). Also, please give suggestions on Video Cards. I want a 7800-Line of Vid. Card or better. The Card Suggestion can be of Ati as well, I've used Ati Cards in the past and was very pleased.

Sorry for the Long Thread & Thanks for any future help
 
I suggest the 320 GB Seagate Barracuda. It is cheaper, has more space, but is negligibly slower than the Raptor. Your 15 year old nephew will not notice the difference, I would think.
 
The words, "budget" and "raptor," should never been in the same sentence. It's the worst bang for your buck, in regards to performance per dollar spent, you'll ever have in a gaming system.

I would take the money you are spending on the raptor, and put it into a better cpu/gpu. I'd go Intel C2D E6300, and either an X1900 GT, or an X1900 XT.

 
This is what I'm planning on,
am2 X2 3800+
MSI k9n platinum
Antec slk3000
Silverstone strider 400w
2x1gb OCZ gold 667mhz
EDIT: Saphire x1800xt 256mb
viewsonic vx2025
logitech g5 laser
250gb seagate 7200.10

you may opt for a 4200+ instead b/c I am ocing... other than that, it's ~$1350.

EDIT #2: If I'm not mistaken the x1900gt has a crippled amount of pixel pipelines, but they can be unlocked. Isn't the x1800xt a better performer though? Bamacre can you suggest a good board to accompay that e6300 other than the gigabyte ds3?
 
Thank you for all the Replies

AMD "What To Buy" Guide 2006
Click to expand...

Nice Guide, Thanks

I suggest the 320 GB Seagate Barracuda. It is cheaper, has more space, but is negligibly slower than the Raptor. Your 15 year old nephew will not notice the difference, I would think.
Click to expand...
Thx savvy. That Seagate is only a 'Tad' slower than the Raptor ? Happen to have any Links to a side-by-side Test ?

The words, "budget" and "raptor," should never been in the same sentence
Click to expand...
That's Very True, but the HardDrive can be a 'Bottle-Neck' in the PC thus wasting all that money spent on the Cpu.

This is what I'm planning on,
Click to expand...
Nice setup. Can I ask why you chose that particular Motherboard (MSI) ?

it's either ATI X1900GT or nVidia 7900GT.
Click to expand...
Thanks. I've definetly been considering the 7900GT; I have not read much about the ATI Card line, but now will.



Thanks again for all the Replies




 
Originally posted by: bamacre
Originally posted by: crockman
The words, "budget" and "raptor," should never been in the same sentence
Click to expand...
That's Very True, but the HardDrive can be a 'Bottle-Neck' in the PC thus wasting all that money spent on the Cpu.
Click to expand...


What the hell? No, man, no.
Click to expand...

Bamacre is right.

Harddrive is ALWAYS the bottleneck in most (if not all...unless its a 386SX paired with a raptor 😉) cases, but it is a different kind of bottleneck. Waiting a total of 2.5 more seconds for a Fry Cry Level to load for the extra money you spend on a rapor for most people is not worth the money they spend. He isn't going to see any statistically signifacant increase in framerates. Maybe if he is a CS:S whore he might be interested since some maps everyone tries to join the same side 😉

 
Originally posted by: magomago
Originally posted by: bamacre
Originally posted by: crockman
The words, "budget" and "raptor," should never been in the same sentence
Click to expand...
That's Very True, but the HardDrive can be a 'Bottle-Neck' in the PC thus wasting all that money spent on the Cpu.
Click to expand...


What the hell? No, man, no.
Click to expand...

Bamacre is right.

Harddrive is ALWAYS the bottleneck in most (if not all...unless its a 386SX paired with a raptor 😉) cases, but it is a different kind of bottleneck. Waiting a total of 2.5 more seconds for a Fry Cry Level to load for the extra money you spend on a rapor for most people is not worth the money they spend. He isn't going to see any statistically signifacant increase in framerates. Maybe if he is a CS:S whore he might be interested since some maps everyone tries to join the same side 😉
Click to expand...
Even in CS there was cs_assault. 🙂
 
Originally posted by: crockman
This is what I'm planning on,
Click to expand...
Nice setup. Can I ask why you chose that particular Motherboard (MSI) ?
Click to expand...

I chose the MSI board b/c it has the least problems among reasonably priced, feature rich boards. I intitially chose the m2n-e, but that idea totally went down the drain with the discovery of some major problems, improper cpu and vdimm ocing intervals, 1.9v max on the RAM, and glitches and random reboots. Don't get the m2n-e. The MSI, though it has the memory problem, is still a good oc'er and I know it works with OCZ gold ddr2-667.
 
For a 15 year old wouldn't gaming performance be top priority - an Athlon 64 3800+ or 4000+ can be had cheaper than the X2 3800+ and is faster in single threaded applications like gaming correct? I guess those are only available in Socket 939 though..?
 
the 4000+ single core is only s939 but the 3800+ is available in am2. Right now, the single core processors are marginably better in games becasue the only multithreaded game is oblivion. In the future, all games will be multithreaded, but I guess by then we'll all have 8core cpus.
 
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