AM2 rig - Am I bad?

Maskirovka

Member
Sep 20, 2003
100
0
0
Been about 3 years since I've upgraded and it's about time. Wanted to post and see what you guys think since I haven't paid 100% attention to the market lately and I might have made a bonehead choice or two.

All prices = Egg
Storage and optical drives are taken care of.



======================================================
COOLER MASTER Centurion 534 RC-534-KKN1-GP Black Aluminum & Mesh bezel / SECC Chassis ATX Mid
$59.99 + 25.00 Mail-in Rebate

MSI K9N Platinum Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 Ultra MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
$108.99

XFX PV-T73G-UDD3 Geforce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
$185.99


Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 ATX12V 550W Power Supply - Retail
$89.99

CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory
$219.00 + $40.00 Mail-in Rebate

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Windsor 2000MHz HT Socket AM2 Dual Core Processor Model ADA4200CUBOX - Retail
$185.00

Total:
~$850

after rebates + shipping:
~$800
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Reasons for some of the choices (i could be retarded...feel free to point out if I am):

AM2 socket/AMD X2:
Really wanted a dual core processor. Tired of slow application switch (photoshop/after effects/WoW in windowed mode). Core 2 Duo is quite new and the price/performance increase doesn't seem worth it at this point in time. I don't really feel like waiting for more variety and if I'm not mistaken, the AM2 socket will have plenty of upgrade options in the future, especially when AMD goes to 65nm.

7600GT:
Don't want to blow the cash for the ATI X1k series when dx10 is coming. Is there a better/cheaper alternative here that will still give me decent eye candy now if I'm planning to upgrade in 6-8 months?

Current system (staying intact except moving my SATA HD to the new box):
ABIT IC-7 P4 2.4c 1gig ram 9800 pro

 

ForumMaster

Diamond Member
Feb 24, 2005
7,792
1
0
change the CPU to a 3800 and OC it bit. goes further.

for the case, how bout the Centurion 5? cheaper at only $50 and it rocks. just got it myself.
 

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
27,730
8
0
Take a good long look at the MSI board before you buy it. I own an MSI K9N SLI Platinum, and its a solid stable board, but the tiny heat sink that MSI puts on the northbridge gets hot enough to take the skin off your fingurs. You might want to take a look at the Asus NF 570 board, the M2N-E, its got a much better cooling system on the chipset.
 

Maskirovka

Member
Sep 20, 2003
100
0
0
Hmm Centurion 5 looks good. The one I listed was cheaper post-rebate but I do like the aluminum bezel.

I wish i could find another of the Antec case I have now:
http://www.overclockers.com/articles447/

Mine's grey instead of beige and is mid-tower intstead of mini, but you get the idea. It has 2 80mm fan slots front/back (one in front is part of the HDD cage). It's incredibly sturdy -- I can stand on top of this thing and I'm 6'4" 240.
Only problem it has is with dust, but that's easily solved. I suppose I could just swap cases if I feel like it =p

Read a bit about the ASUS M2N-E. Seems like a solid board. People say it has some memory voltage issues, but it should work out of the box with the 1.9v Corsair RAM I chose, and it appears there are BIOS updates as well that address the issue. It's also a tad cheaper. Thanks for the tip!

EDIT: If I get the 3800+ to OC, think the memory voltage issue will be a problem? Mobo choices aren't exactly all spectacular while trying to keep it around $800 =p
 

athfbum

Member
Jul 1, 2006
183
0
0
You can get an ASUS M2N-E 570 Ultra for $94 at egg.

A few Chenming cases look like that Antec.