board choice for 3 gaming rigs?

[yonjun]

Hi,

I'm fairly new to 64 platform. I'm using NF2 + AXP2500+ and that's plenty enough for me now.
A friend of mine wants 3 gaming rings built new with budget of $800 apiece (not including monitor).
I've thought 3 options

1. AXP300+, ASUS NF2 board, AGP Radeon9800pro (cheapest solution, no future upgrade in mind)
2. 754 3000+, 754 board, AGP R9800pro
3. 939 3000+, 939 board, pcie GFX6600GT (most expensive solution).

Decision is his to make depending on what his plan and budget are.

which plat form would be better choice given 3 above?
and what chipset (VIA? Nvidia?) should I go for in 754 and 939?

 

[AristoV300]

You should go with #3, the most future proof. No reason not to go PCI-E and 939 is the direction A64 are going for a while.

 

[keeleysam]

No matter what you do:
-Get a 6600GT. Blows away the 9800Pro
-Get Athlon 64

939 or 754 dosen't really matter.

 

[imported_Kensai]

#3. S754 will cut you off pretty soon.

 

[Promethply]

Yeah, definitely the 3rd choice.

 

[yonjun]

thanks for feedbacks.

now, what 64 chipset(s) are most reliable?

 

[IntegraGSR]

nvidia chipset is most recommended.. however i have a VIA K8T800 Pro chipset and have had no problems.. even with moderate overclocking.

 

[keeleysam]

nforce3 is the most reliable.

 

[hchu]

suggesting the via k8t800 or the nforce3 isn't going to help if he's going pci-e. those are agp chipsets. What you want is nforce4 ultra.

 

[osan0001]

Going a bit over $800 would get you this fairly high end gaming system:

DFI Ultra D 128.99 Shipped
http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136152

X800XL 273 Shipped
http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant...ct_Code=190527&Category_Code=ATI-PCI-E

A64 3000+ Venice 156 + ~ 7 = ~ 163 Shipped
http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant...roduct_Code=120211&Category_Code=AMD64

2*512 MB TwinMos PC3200 (UTT) ~ 118 Shipped
http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820218405

80 Gig 8MB Maxtor ~ 55 Shipped
http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=301730&pfp=BROWSE

550 Watt TTGI/Super Flower ~ 55 Shipped (I have this on the same motherboard)
http://www.directron.com/sf550ts.html

NEC DVD Burner 49 shipped
http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152035

Antec Lanboy ~ 60 (After rebate and shipping)
http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=312199&pfp=cat3

~ $890

 

[Appledrop]

Originally posted by: osan0001
Going a bit over $800 would get you this fairly high end gaming system:

DFI Ultra D 128.99 Shipped
http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136152

X800XL 273 Shipped
http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant...ct_Code=190527&Category_Code=ATI-PCI-E

A64 3000+ Venice 156 + ~ 7 = ~ 163 Shipped
http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant...roduct_Code=120211&Category_Code=AMD64

2*512 MB TwinMos PC3200 (UTT) ~ 118 Shipped
http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820218405

80 Gig 8MB Maxtor ~ 55 Shipped
http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=301730&pfp=BROWSE

550 Watt TTGI/Super Flower ~ 55 Shipped (I have this on the same motherboard)
http://www.directron.com/sf550ts.html

NEC DVD Burner 49 shipped
http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152035

Antec Lanboy ~ 60 (After rebate and shipping)
http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=312199&pfp=cat3

~ $890

oui das ist sehr gut but id go for a cheaper board. This one for example..

bringing it down to about $840

 

[Gerbil333]

#3 by far.

Originally posted by: keeleysam
nforce3 is the most reliable.

I don't think so. That was the worst nForce chipset to date, and I've heard of many more nF3 problems than KT800 problems. As hchu suggested, get an nForce 4 Ultra.

 

[keeleysam]

Originally posted by: Gerbil333
#3 by far.

Originally posted by: keeleysam
nforce3 is the most reliable.

I don't think so. That was the worst nForce chipset to date, and I've heard of many more nF3 problems than KT800 problems. As hchu suggested, get an nForce 4 Ultra.

Well lets see...
1. It's been out for a HELL of a lot longer than NF4 so 99.9% of bugs are gone.
2. PCI-E is still not trustworthy and stable on NF4.
3. Try to find somehting "more stable" about NF4.

 

[akugami]

Uhh...PCI-E has been fine for me. I have a NF4 board and a X800 Pro which I modded to X800 XT. The only issues I'm having are heat related due to the crappy heatsink on the video card. I'm ordering an Arctic Cooler ATI Silencer soon though. And yes, I know it's heat related because I had it sitting in the guest room on a really cold winter day and it did 24 hours of 3DMark'05 without crashing. Soon as I moved it to my room which has heating it problems showed up. I recorded 70C with a temperature probe on the video card in my heated room. Soon as I bump the clock speed and memory speed down or moved it back to the unheated room it runs fine. Still primes for 24 hours just fine regardless.

I'd go with option #3 as well. Azzy64 has a great listing of hardware up that would nearly fit your budget at 840 (with the Chaintech mobo). Another thing is you can get the A64 300 with the newer Venice core at zipzoomfly for $155 shipped which knocks another $10 off the tag. An alternative to the Radeon X800XL is a nVidia 6600GT which will run you about $200. That would definitely drop you within the $800 budget limit.

 

[yonjun]

I went with

939 3000+
MSI K8N Neo4-F (NF4 chipset)
MSI GFX6600GT pcie

parts are in order now.

hope it's a good gaming rig.

thanks all for feedback.

YJ

 

[BlingBlingArsch]

good buy, in a year u can upgrade the CPU with an 3800+ for 130,- and a x800xl for 140,- *fingerscrossed*