Building an AMD X2 Multi Tasker PC

[BoycottValvoline]

I'm looking to be able to play 4-8 tables of poker, watch a compressed video file (IE Movie), surf the net, run several download programs and be able to burn a CD/DVD without any lag. I don't really game, so I don't feel the need to overclock anything. Here's what I'm leaning towards so far

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Dual Core Processor
GIGABYTE GA-K8N Pro-SLI AMD Motherboard
2 Sticks Crucial 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400
XFX PVT43GNDF3 Geforce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card
Hitachi Deskstar 7K500 500GB Serial ATA II 7200RPM Hard Drive w/16MB Buffer
Thermaltake SOPRANO VB1000BWS ATX Mid Tower
Rosewill Value RV500S ATX 500W Power Supply

I think the board should be fine, i don't want one that's going to give me a lot of trouble or has any heating issues, plus i want dual PCI-E 16x for the many monitors I run.

I think the ram will work with my board.

The video card got 5 star average reviews on Newegg and I think should be smooth and seemless for running compressed video files.

As far as the Case and Power Supply I'm looking for ample cooling and power to Run all this plus 3 additional Hard Drives a DVD drive and DVD-RW drive.

Any input would be greatly appreciated

Thanks in advance,
Josh

 

[ElTorrente]

Instead of a big fat harddrive- get 2 or more smaller ones, and split things up. Put your paging file on the opposite drive as your OS. Change your environment variables to place your temp files on the other disk also - along with "Mydocuments".

 

[BoycottValvoline]

Well that drive actually is not going to have my OS or anything else on it, I have a 74 gig raptor SATA that I will be running my OS on it, I'm unfamiliar with how to do any of the things you're suggesting, would you mind explaining how to do all that?

 

[ElTorrente]

Originally posted by: BoycottValvoline
Well that drive actually is not going to have my OS or anything else on it, I have a 74 gig raptor SATA that I will be running my OS on it, I'm unfamiliar with how to do any of the things you're suggesting, would you mind explaining how to do all that?

Changing temp file location:
Right click on My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced -> Environment Variables (button toward the bottom of page). There are two sections here, User variables and System variables. The two variables in the User section are TEMP and TMP. Select each one and hit "edit" and change them to the new location. So, on mine it just says "E:\Temp", instead of the default, next to both the TMP and TEMP variables. Scroll down in the "System Varibles" section and change the tmp and temp entries there also.

Changing "MY Documents" location:
Right click on "My Documents" folder -> properties -> Target. Click "Find Target" and navigate to and select your new folder you want it located at. So, on mine next to where it says "Target:" it says E:\MyDocuments. Click O.K., and your good to go.


Changing Paging file location:
Right Click on My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced -> Performance Settings -> Advanced -> Virtual Memory "Change". IMPORTANT: select the disk/partition you will change it to, then select "Custom Size" and make the "Initial Size" and the "Maximum Size" the SAME NUMBER. What this will do is make a permanent paging file, so your computer will have basically a dedicated space to use for virtual memory. If you don't make a permanent one, Windows will have to read/write all over a fragmented page file and thus slow you down- and in fact contribute to further fragmentation. Set up the new paging file, then remove the old one from it's default location.

On my setup, with so many disks, I have a partition on one of my Samsungs that is simply called "Paging Volume"- it's a 4GB partition. ALL I do on this is write to virtual RAM - and even then it gets used only sparingly. Total overkill, but oh well, it's fun. My temp files and mydocuments are on the other samsung with other stuff like download directories and such. My OS is on its own partition of 15GB in size on my RAID. All my programs are on the D drive - which is a 250gb partition also on my RAID.

With everything split up like this, my comp never slows down that I can tell- it's just always fast and I'm never waiting for it.

 

[BoycottValvoline]

Should I use separate partitions for all that or can I just simply put a folder on my existing drives (they're all only 1 partition)

 

[ElTorrente]

You could just put em in different folders if you want.

The reason I like doing seperate partitions, is because stuff like temp files add to the fragmentation of the drive. Even if it is in a different folder, it'll still fragment, and possibly interfere with the other data on your drive.

Oh yeah- I do this with temporary internet files also. Similar way as moving MyDocuments I think - if I remember correctly. All those temp files and stuff are on my E drive. That drive gets all those extra little files that are always getting written in the background.

 

[BoycottValvoline]

Thanks a lot for the info man.

 

[imported_Phil]

Personally, I don't think you're going to need a dual-core processor. A regular 939 Athlon64 would be more than enough for what you want to do; you'd be surprised at how much one CPU can do on its own.

 

[BoycottValvoline]

I currently have a P4 2.4 Ghz FSB 533 (I believe, built it 2 1/2 years ago) with Dual DDR and my system hella lags when I'm running everything. I don't believe stepping it up to a 2.8 or something is going to make that big of a difference.

 

[Auric]

Your needs don't seem particularly demanding and I bet they could be met with a lot less money and perhaps more importantly time -namely by replacing the CPU with an HT model if possible (also implies 800 FSB) in addition to the RAM and HDD upgrades already outlined. Multiple monitors are easily sassified by either a standard dual output AGP as you may already have and additional PCI cards as necessary. If noise is a concern I would consolidate HDD's to as few as possible with the side benefit of lower power requirements. If you do ahead with a new build as planned, my only caveat would be not to skimp on the power supply. Just some thoughts...

 

[JLGatsby]

I'd have a hard time believing he can do all he wanted to do with only a mid level single core processor without lag. As cheap as the X2 3800 is, I'd say go with that.

 

[Auric]

Originally posted by: JLGatsby
I'd have a hard time believing he can do all he wanted to do with only a mid level single core processor without lag. As cheap as the X2 3800 is, I'd say go with that.

One way to find out... and with the only real drawback being reselling the CPU if it were not up to the task. Worth the gamble versus all the time messin' with a new build, unless it's partly just for giggles, if you axe me.

 

[designit]

A64 3800x2 is a good idea specially not that expensive.
I would suggest 2x1gig or even 4x1g since you use 4-6 monitors(tables) and doing other things. 4x1 gig will not reduce performance that much running in 2T
As was suggested, partion your drives and have one just for page and temp files, and zero page file on OS drive. This is not necessary but increeses performance little bit.
Also make sure your ram is tight timing.

 

[BoycottValvoline]

Originally posted by: Auric
Your needs don't seem particularly demanding and I bet they could be met with a lot less money and perhaps more importantly time -namely by replacing the CPU with an HT model if possible (also implies 800 FSB) in addition to the RAM and HDD upgrades already outlined. Multiple monitors are easily sassified by either a standard dual output AGP as you may already have and additional PCI cards as necessary. If noise is a concern I would consolidate HDD's to as few as possible with the side benefit of lower power requirements. If you do ahead with a new build as planned, my only caveat would be not to skimp on the power supply. Just some thoughts...

My current P4 does have HT, I'm pretty sure it 533 FSB, but it could be 800, i dunno built it a while back. Also my current board doesn't support SATA II and only has two SATA ports. I currently have 4 HDD's 120, 74, 200, 300 GB's respectfully and they are all full (less than 10GB's free amongst them) so I want the biggest drive out there to hold all my massive storage. I currently run 3 monitors I have two additional PCI video cards, but my current AGP is choppy in rendering the video for playback. As far as the power supply is concerned it's 500W and got a 5 star average review at newegg http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817182013. If you guys don't think that'll be able to handle all the stuff I'm running then let me know, and maybe reccomend a better one.

 

[BoycottValvoline]

Originally posted by: designit
A64 3800x2 is a good idea specially not that expensive.
I would suggest 2x1gig or even 4x1g since you use 4-6 monitors(tables) and doing other things. 4x1 gig will not reduce performance that much running in 2T
As was suggested, partion your drives and have one just for page and temp files, and zero page file on OS drive. This is not necessary but increeses performance little bit.
Also make sure your ram is tight timing.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "make sure your ram has tight timing." I usely don't mess much around with BIOS as I've never gotten into overclocking. I am going 2x1 gig for ram right now (as planned that is) but would 4x1 really be necessary? How much of an extra boost in performance could I expect?

Thanks in advance,
Josh

 

[ElTorrente]

People make a big deal out of HT, but it doesn't compare at all to dual core. My other system is a P4 HT 800fsb 3.06ghz, and there is simply no comparison. It's kinda funny, but I built that system 2 1/2 years ago, and it's still pretty much the same thing as Pentium is putting out nowadays. My work computer is a 3.6ghz P4 with HT and that thing chugs and stutters, too - HT just don't cut it.

The only people that say to not get dual core, are people who don't have it.

Those of us who have both always recommend getting dual core.

That X2 3800 is a really nice chip, and you won't regret it. I can't imagine spending money on a "new" Pentium with HT... virtual processers just aren't as good as real ones.

 

[designit]

Originally posted by: BoycottValvoline
I'm not quite sure what you mean by "make sure your ram has tight timing." I usely don't mess much around with BIOS as I've never gotten into overclocking. I am going 2x1 gig for ram right now (as planned that is) but would 4x1 really be necessary? How much of an extra boost in performance could I expect?

Thanks in advance,
Josh

Well tighter timing =better performance. w/ or without overclocking.
4x1 gig will give you more random acces memory(less Usage of HDD page files), but in 2T command. 2T reduction in performance is not much and compensated by tighter timing rams and 4gig Random acces.
If all your openned files and programs are in Ram and zero usage of HDD page files,
Accesing the files/programs are much faster=much better performance.
But 2x1 gig would be suficient. Check your Ram usage and if you see you are prety close to 2 gig usage, then yes 4x1g will help a lot.

 

[BoycottValvoline]

Right now under task manager it says

Physical Memory
Total .............. 1048048
Available ............85624
System Cache.. 506904

My interpretation of this is I have two sticks of 512 MB running under Dual DDR therefore they really act as one faster 512 stick (kinda like raid0 right?) So I am using almost all of my current RAM but I'll be doubling it on my new build. If I'm again using a high percentage of that I can invest in a couple more 1GB sticks later if I deem it necessary.

Also I have no idea what you mean by 2T command, and 2T reduction...would you mind explaining that to me? Sorry I'm a n00b to any real advance computer modding.