Athlon64 system build, critique please

[Schadenfroh]

GIGABYTE "GA-K8NS Ultra-939"

AMD Athlon 64 3000+

THERMALRIGHT XP-120

ARCTIC COOLING NV SILENCER 5

Will carry over from current system:
SB Audigy 2 ZS
WD Raptor 10,000 PRM 36gb SATA drive
Antec Sonata
Geforce 6 6800GT 256mb DDR3
1 Gig Corsair XMS PC3200

Coming from:
AMD AThlon XP 2500 @ 3000
A7N8X Deluxe Rev 2.0

Look good for gaming @ 1600X1200 with AF/FSAA?

will be playing DesertCombat and WoW mainly. Upgrading because current system cannot handle High AF/FSAA at 1600X1200 that well, will get better CPU when dual core A64's come out and prices fall, etc.

Wont to overclock a lil, but i doubt i can get very far with current ram.

Also, can i get away with using Artic Silver 5 on the 6800GT (Ram and GPU) with the NV Silincer or is it really dangerous to use the silver instead of the crimaque?

Any conflicts i should be worried about?

thanks.

 

[dguy6789]

I wouldnt get an x120. Those things are so heavy, they could yank the whole cpu socket off the mainboard. Try getting an xp90 or an slk948u. And if your not upgrading video card, getting a new cpu will NOT help you run games better at high res. An AthlonXP3000 with 6800GT will do 1600X1200 with aa/af just as well as an athlon 64. The athlon 64 will only make a game faster if you are cpu limited, but you wont be at that high of a res.

 

[Melchior]

Um... I would say not much difference. Your changing your processor. That doesn't amound to very much in games, especially since your graphics card is already very good.

 

[narcotic]

I just got my A64 3000+ today, from the very little experience I have, I think you'll feel alot of bost - namely your cpu won't be bottlenecking your graphics card. It also depends how far you're going to push it with OC... get it at least to 2.2ghz (3500+ speeds), which should run rock solid.

Edit: about using AS 5, if you know what you're doing, you should be fine (i.e. it's doable), otherwise, I wouldn't experiment, since it could damage exposed chips.

 

[jdogg707]

Originally posted by: dguy6789
I wouldnt get an x120. Those things are so heavy, they could yank the whole cpu socket off the mainboard. Try getting an xp90 or an slk948u. And if your not upgrading video card, getting a new cpu will NOT help you run games better at high res. An AthlonXP3000 with 6800GT will do 1600X1200 with aa/af just as well as an athlon 64. The athlon 64 will only make a game faster if you are cpu limited, but you wont be at that high of a res.

The XP120 is a very light heatsink considering its size and cooling capacity. When I went from a Zalman 7000 HSF, it was like night and day. You should see a nice little performance increase with the new system, but you may want to look at the Zalman VNF700 for your video card, looks like it is quieter than the Arctic Cooling cooler and performs better. You can use AS5 on the core, just make sure you don't get it everywhere. Have fun with the new box!

Off Topic Completely: How do you like WoW? I loved WC3 and Frozen Throne, but have never played a MMORPG before and don't know whether it is worth it or not. I would love to hear some of your opinions.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: jdogg707

Originally posted by: dguy6789
I wouldnt get an x120. Those things are so heavy, they could yank the whole cpu socket off the mainboard. Try getting an xp90 or an slk948u. And if your not upgrading video card, getting a new cpu will NOT help you run games better at high res. An AthlonXP3000 with 6800GT will do 1600X1200 with aa/af just as well as an athlon 64. The athlon 64 will only make a game faster if you are cpu limited, but you wont be at that high of a res.

The XP120 is a very light heatsink considering its size and cooling capacity. When I went from a Zalman 7000 HSF, it was like night and day. You should see a nice little performance increase with the new system, but you may want to look at the Zalman VNF700 for your video card, looks like it is quieter than the Arctic Cooling cooler and performs better. You can use AS5 on the core, just make sure you don't get it everywhere. Have fun with the new box!

Off Topic Completely: How do you like WoW? I loved WC3 and Frozen Throne, but have never played a MMORPG before and don't know whether it is worth it or not. I would love to hear some of your opinions.

Zalman easier to install?

 

[fireontheway]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
GIGABYTE "GA-K8NS Ultra-939"

AMD Athlon 64 3000+

THERMALRIGHT XP-120

ARCTIC COOLING NV SILENCER 5

Will carry over from current system:
SB Audigy 2 ZS
WD Raptor 10,000 PRM 36gb SATA drive
Antec Sonata
Geforce 6 6800GT 256mb DDR3
1 Gig Corsair XMS PC3200

Coming from:
AMD AThlon XP 2500 @ 3000
A7N8X Deluxe Rev 2.0

Look good for gaming @ 1600X1200 with AF/FSAA?

will be playing DesertCombat and WoW mainly. Upgrading because current system cannot handle High AF/FSAA at 1600X1200 that well, will get better CPU when dual core A64's come out and prices fall, etc.

Wont to overclock a lil, but i doubt i can get very far with current ram.

Also, can i get away with using Artic Silver 5 on the 6800GT (Ram and GPU) with the NV Silincer or is it really dangerous to use the silver instead of the crimaque?

Any conflicts i should be worried about?

thanks.

You can still get a big overclock with your RAM.

 

[jdogg707]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh

Originally posted by: jdogg707

Originally posted by: dguy6789
I wouldnt get an x120. Those things are so heavy, they could yank the whole cpu socket off the mainboard. Try getting an xp90 or an slk948u. And if your not upgrading video card, getting a new cpu will NOT help you run games better at high res. An AthlonXP3000 with 6800GT will do 1600X1200 with aa/af just as well as an athlon 64. The athlon 64 will only make a game faster if you are cpu limited, but you wont be at that high of a res.

The XP120 is a very light heatsink considering its size and cooling capacity. When I went from a Zalman 7000 HSF, it was like night and day. You should see a nice little performance increase with the new system, but you may want to look at the Zalman VNF700 for your video card, looks like it is quieter than the Arctic Cooling cooler and performs better. You can use AS5 on the core, just make sure you don't get it everywhere. Have fun with the new box!

Off Topic Completely: How do you like WoW? I loved WC3 and Frozen Throne, but have never played a MMORPG before and don't know whether it is worth it or not. I would love to hear some of your opinions.

Zalman easier to install?

I am not sure about that, I should have my pair of VF700's here by Friday, so I can let you know then. It doesn't look difficult at all. I would go to Zalman's website and look at the instructions and see what you think.

BTW, thanks for the info on WoW, I will have to check it out!

 

[fireontheway]

Originally posted by: dguy6789
I wouldnt get an x120. Those things are so heavy, they could yank the whole cpu socket off the mainboard. Try getting an xp90 or an slk948u. And if your not upgrading video card, getting a new cpu will NOT help you run games better at high res. An AthlonXP3000 with 6800GT will do 1600X1200 with aa/af just as well as an athlon 64. The athlon 64 will only make a game faster if you are cpu limited, but you wont be at that high of a res.

The XP-120 is not as haevy as you think it is and also it is not retained by the cpu socket.

 

[dguy6789]

Originally posted by: fireontheway

Originally posted by: dguy6789
I wouldnt get an x120. Those things are so heavy, they could yank the whole cpu socket off the mainboard. Try getting an xp90 or an slk948u. And if your not upgrading video card, getting a new cpu will NOT help you run games better at high res. An AthlonXP3000 with 6800GT will do 1600X1200 with aa/af just as well as an athlon 64. The athlon 64 will only make a game faster if you are cpu limited, but you wont be at that high of a res.

The XP-120 is not as haevy as you think it is and also it is not retained by the cpu socket.

Well I have heard some pretty bad horror stories about it, so I dont trust it.


Quote: I just got my A64 3000+ today, from the very little experience I have, I think you'll feel alot of bost - namely your cpu won't be bottlenecking your graphics card. It also depends how far you're going to push it with OC... get it at least to 2.2ghz (3500+ speeds), which should run rock solid.

Edit: about using AS 5, if you know what you're doing, you should be fine (i.e. it's doable), otherwise, I wouldn't experiment, since it could damage exposed chips.



If he was getting slowdown and running at 1600X1200 with AA/AF, then his cpu was most definately not a bottleneck.

 

[nick1985]

i hear mixed reviews about that gigabyte board

 

[thehype2049]

GET RID OF THE 36GB RAPTOR, WASTE OF MONEY, WILL FILL UP TOO QUICKLY,,, GOT 160 S-ATA

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: thehype2049
GET RID OF THE 36GB RAPTOR, WASTE OF MONEY, WILL FILL UP TOO QUICKLY,,, GOT 160 S-ATA

Have not yet and have been running it since the raptor came out. Still have 25GB free