AMD X2 4200+ System Opinions

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Weatherton

Member
Jul 24, 2005
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My system as planned will be as follows:

Planned Purchase:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ -- $527.00
CHAINTECH VNF4/Ultra Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX -- $85.00
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA150 (NCQ) -- $126.00
Rosewill 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR 400 (PC 3200) CAS 2.5 -- $188.00
GIGABYTE GV-RX80256D Radeon X800 256MB -- $169

Already Purchased:
Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-480 ATX12V 480W Power Supply -- $70.00
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 400GB (x2) for a RAID 1 mirroring... a safe place to archive -- $186 each (refurb, Newegg)

Keeping From Legacy System:
Cooler Master ATC 200
Wester Digital JB 80GB (x2)
Maxtor 160GB PATA (need a SATA to PATA adapter to fit all these PATA on newer mobos)
Plextor 40x12x40x CD burner
LG IDE 12X multi-format DVD Burner
3.5" flash card reader
SB Audigy Platinum



My main computer intensive programs are 3DS MAX, Adobe Premiere/photoshop/Encore, games...

I definitely want to use NCQ with my SATA drives and want my main system drive to be unraided but spacious and a top-performer... I would like more SATA ports but I don't know if that's available in non-SLI systems (I'd prefer non-SLI)

Any duds in my plan? Any suggestions?

 
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Weatherton

Member
Jul 24, 2005
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SpitFire, that's too much for me on the vid card, I'm trying to stay under $200 on that. As for the RAM and mobo, those are interesting options. Why do you suggest the Abit over the Chaintech? Does anyone have that RAM around here? If that can hit 2-3-2-5-1T on the Abit mobo, I'm definitely up for that at only $50 more than the Rosewill


*edit* I probably should note that I have a Samsung 191T with native res. 1280x1024
 
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shoRunner

Platinum Member
Nov 8, 2004
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Originally posted by: wasserkool
everything looks great except the RAM, get some quality name brand ram like OCZ, crucial etc...
Click to expand...

it just newegg rebadged ram (in the pic it says PQI on the chips), i'd stick with that ram as the next ram thats CAS2.5 is $20 more and not worth the difference IMHO. it has a lifetime warrenty so no worries.
 
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shoRunner

Platinum Member
Nov 8, 2004
2,629
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no really worthwhile IMO, about ~2% depending on app. the money to go from CAS2.5 to CAS2 ram is usually better spend else where.
 
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Weatherton

Member
Jul 24, 2005
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OK, so AFAICT the main concern I have is whether I will be able to run the hard drive configuration I'm hoping to on the ASUS or Chaintech mobos mentioned above.... my configuration will be as follows:

PATA:
2 DVD/CD drives
2 WD 80GB hd's

SATA:
2 Seagate 7200.8 400GB drives in RAID 1, mirroring
Boot drive: 1 Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA150 (NCQ), *note* is this a good choice for my boot drive??
1 160GB Maxtor PATA drive using this adapter: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822998001

OK, so the issue is not only, "does that work" but also... it seems that this configuration leaves me no room to grow... so what mobo would you guys recommend for some growth in the SATA storage area?
 
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pibb

Senior member
Jul 15, 2005
371
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0
Originally posted by: Weatherton
SpitFire, that's too much for me on the vid card, I'm trying to stay under $200 on that. As for the RAM and mobo, those are interesting options. Why do you suggest the Abit over the Chaintech? Does anyone have that RAM around here? If that can hit 2-3-2-5-1T on the Abit mobo, I'm definitely up for that at only $50 more than the Rosewill


*edit* I probably should note that I have a Samsung 191T with native res. 1280x1024
Click to expand...

The Abit has a nice passive-cooling heatpipe, no need to worry about chipset fan dying out
 
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AndrewZorn

Senior member
Jul 22, 2005
384
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without reading too much, let me just say that for an extra $50 you can double the cache on your cpu. 4400+ Toledo.

right now you have 2x512k you could have 2x1mb. even the 4600+ does not have this. the 4800+ does.

i got the 4400+.
 
Hacp

Hacp

Lifer
Jun 8, 2005
13,923
2
81
Right now the 4400+ Retail an OEm is around 600+, so its more like 80 bucks. Def not worth it. Everything looks good from this angle. If you really want 2gb, then go for it.
 
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xTYBALTx

Senior member
May 10, 2005
394
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0
The computer looks rockin'

Like Andrew said, hit up the 4400+ if possible.

I would recommend splitting with the Rosewell RAM, and going for Corsair ValueSelect 2x1GB if possible. Save you a few bucks, and Corsair ValueSelect is a name everyone can trust, right?

With that number of hard drives, you may, theoretically, approach the upper limit of you PSU. You won't get close unless all of your HDD's are running at once, but it's something to keep in mind.
 
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djnsmith7

Platinum Member
Apr 13, 2004
2,612
1
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Even though I've read a lot of good things about Rosewill RAM, I'm just not sure I would go with it in my system. My brother & I use Corsair Value RAM, so that's what I'd recommend. It just works.

The rest of your system looks great! It's too bad SATA drives are still so much more than PATA drives, but that should change soon.

 
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The Pentium Guy

Diamond Member
Jan 15, 2005
4,327
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Originally posted by: keeleysam
get the 4400+. It will help A LOT with 3D stuff.
Click to expand...

I have to agree. The extra cache will certainly help.
Why not get the EPoX 9NPA+Ultra instead? It'll overclock better and it's only $15 more.

Definately get some quality Corsair Value Select RAM as opposed to the Rosewill. As far as value RAM, the latency won't kill you. See Zebo's thread ("A64 Memory Matrix") for proof.

Why DM10? Why not MaxlineIII? Faster. Only other issue is, Maxtor might not be the most reliable.
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2454&p=8

Based on that (real world tests) the harddrive you choose doesn't make THAT much of a difference. So why not something more reliable than the Maxtor? Samsung seems to be an excellent performer.

If you're doing 3DSMax I don't think the X800 will be a good choice. Maybe X800XL, but not X800. How about the 6800 (AFAIK it's $220)? You can overclock that to 6800GT speeds by unlocking pipelines.

Just some food for thought. I really think the 2 GB of ram (whcih you've chosen) will benifit you, as well as a higher end graphics card.

-The Pentium Guy
 
Hacp

Hacp

Lifer
Jun 8, 2005
13,923
2
81
I think he chose the parts he did because he is on a budget. Obviously, if he weren't on a budget, he would get a 4400+, but that being terribly overpriced right now, he chose to get the cheaper 4200+. Also, he chose the cheapest Nforce-4 Ultra Motherboard obviously again because of budget concerns. Finally, Maxtor has a 5 year warrenty. I'm pretty sure that they won't include a 5 year warrenty with a crap HD that will die in a year. Won't be very economical to do so. Also, he wanted a fast hard drive with NCQ and currently the 16 MB cache ones are the fastest with NCQ, although I think Western digital raptor has something similar does it not? Not NCQ but something else that is almost the same? I'm not sure.

Anyways, I've tried a raptor out in real life before, and for me, the only area where it does make a difference is page filing. I have no Idea why, and I might be wrong, but I loaded up prime 95 (the one that uses alot of memory), and had 3gb of pagefile enabled. When I opened a window, it felt a little faster than it did on my regular 80GB 7200 RPM Western Digital on my X2 at home, even though it was slow compared to the acess time that it would take for normal ram to open it. Again I stress that I didn't run actual benchmarks, and am just going by the the feel thing.

Finally Pentium Guy, the PCI-Express 6800 can not be unlocked.
 
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The Pentium Guy

Diamond Member
Jan 15, 2005
4,327
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Finally Pentium Guy, the PCI-Express 6800 can not be unlocked.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that information. I heard about it before but I wasn't sure.

I should have also recomended the Seagate drive (5 year warantee, and will probably be quiet). You're right about the budget concerns for the 4400+ - I was just throwing the suggestion out into the air.

I do have another suggestion though: Are you heavily multitasking? If not, the X2 might not benifit you too much. A 3700+ SanDiego overclocked will be more economical. The SanDiego is certainly not a skimper in the performance department. Just a thought. X2's main benifit is multitasking.

NCQ has no real benifit except in multiuser workstations. If you read Anand's article on NCQ, there's a slight reduction in performance in a normal singleuser desktop setting, and a slight improvement in a multiuser setting.

Hmm. DM10's have a 16MB cache? That'll certainly help. I always thought Maxline III and another Hitachi drive were the only ones with a 16MB cache.

So if you aren't multitasking heavily and if you do choose to downgrade to the 3700+ SanDiego, then can I suggest a better graphics card? It'll certianly improve your performance in games. Because Hacp confirmed that the PCIe 6800 can't be unlocked, I'll suggest the X800XL for $250.

Edit: Oh yeah, the Chaintech is by no means a skimper as well. If you want to do some overclocking then I'd suggest the EPoX for $15-20 more. For mild overclocking, the Chaintech is a fine board. Just make sure you have enough SATA ports for all your harddrives.

Waiting to hear your opinion,
-The Pentium Guy
 
ElFenix

ElFenix

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Mar 20, 2000
102,402
8,574
126
Originally posted by: xTYBALTx

With that number of hard drives, you may, theoretically, approach the upper limit of you PSU. You won't get close unless all of your HDD's are running at once, but it's something to keep in mind.
Click to expand...

25 watts for a drive? my seagate's label claims 7.8 watts. 7200.7.
 
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Weatherton

Member
Jul 24, 2005
99
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0
Yeah, 25 watts per drive seems high... who knows. I don't plan to use all drives at once ever though, at most 4 at any one time.

Sorry for the delay in this response, I don't have internet access at the house I'm staying at at the moment so I can only respond during the day.

I just bought the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814125171">GIGABYTE GV-RX80256D Radeon X800 256MB</a> because at $169 it was definitely the best bang for the buck for my needs (I'm upgrading from a GF4 Ti-4600 and plan to do only mild gaming, mainly sticking with older generation games other than HL2 and Far Cry.

Speaking of which, does anyone know where I can buy (or get for free) a DVD copy of Far Cry for cheap? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a...Software+PC+Games&CMP=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r">New Egg is selling it for $40!</a> But it used to have an offer to get it for free... no longer it seems. Right now I'm considering configuring A combo at Monarch Computer because they give a free copy out... They also would make sure that my BIOS version is able to support Dual core procs.... what happens if I order from New Egg, how do I make sure the mobo BIOS are updated? If they end up not being when I get the mobo, what do I do? Since I don't have another socket 939 proc lying around...

As for that Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-SLI, the only complaint I see is it seems a little sparce on the regular PCI card slots with only 2... especially if one turns out to be unstable with my configuration (I had that problem on my last comp, an A7V333 with an Athlon XP 2100+)... What do you guys suggest from that list on the combo site of Monarch Computer? Do you guys think I should buy from them? (they have the best price on the 4200+ and the free Far Cry and that Patriot 2GB, 2.0CAS RAM kit for $232 looks mighty tempting).

As far as 4200+ vs. 4400+, I guess I should have bought the 4400+ when I saw it for only $550 at Monarch a month or so ago.... I thought the prices would fall but they haven't. (I definitely want a dual core proc, I multitask a lot and am forced to wait on my system... hence the 2GB of RAM and dual core.... 2GB now also helps me avoid scrapping my RAM to upgrade later in order to avoid moving to 2T timing).

I'm actually considering buying a cheap 939 proc as a temporary placeholder for a dual-core proc later on (maybe January of next year).... how good is the 3000+? How easy/ safe is it to overclock (link to walkthrough maybe??).
 
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CreativeTom

Banned
May 10, 2005
1,092
0
0
Originally posted by: Hacp
Right now the 4400+ Retail an OEm is around 600+, so its more like 80 bucks. Def not worth it. Everything looks good from this angle. If you really want 2gb, then go for it.
Click to expand...


The way I see it out there it's like $60, and it's worth it for that much trust me. I think it will help quite a bit on 3D rendering apps.
 
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CraigRT

Lifer
Jun 16, 2000
31,440
5
0
I'd shell a bit more and go for at least an X800XL if not even just a 6800NU or GT if you can. the regular X800 isn't all that hot. I'd also not go with Maxtor hard drives, IMO they are utter garbage, but that's your choice, just adding my .02.
 
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Weatherton

Member
Jul 24, 2005
99
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0
According to Pricewatch pricing is:

$615 - Athlon 64 X2 4400 Dual Core
$526 - Athlon 64 X2 4200 Dual Core

That's a large discrepancy.... and $526 already seems like a heck of a lot for a processor.... What would be better, 2GB CAS 2.5 RAM with the 4400+ or 2GB CAS 2.0 RAM with the 4200+? I thought the cache on the X2 hadn't been making a huge difference.
 
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