Building budget Athlon64 (socket 754) system

[sheltem]

Hey, I'm building a new socket 754 system since my current Athlon XP 2500+/Asus A7N8X is having issues and I don't feel like fixing it. All I'm looking for is a new motherboard and CPU. I was looking on newegg and I saw the EPoX "EP-8KDA3J" nForce3-250Gb motherboard. It looks like a good overclocking board and it is cheap. Can anyone comment on this motherboard or is there a better alternative? Now for the processor, should I go with the Athlon 64 2800+ or spend extra on the 3000+. Which one overclocks better? I have two sticks of 512mb Kingston HyperX memory (2-3-2-6 timings). In addition what's a good heatsink to use?

 

[NoRAM4U]

The 8KDA3J's are great boards - I have two v2.2's.

As for which CPU OC's better, I THINK the 3000's OC better - just from what I read here. Im running two A64 3200's and havent messed with OC'n them yet.

I usually use aftermarket fans, but decided to try the ones that come with the retail CPUs for a change. They work great and are not very noisey - w/o OC'n so far. So, for the $10 difference (or so) between the OEM and Retail they are worth it if you dont plan on OC'n TOO hard.

That RAM will work great in the board.

Also, be sure to update the bios with the 11/04 version.

There is a 8KDA3J thread a couple pages down that you might want to check out.

[update]

here's the link to that thread:

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...2453&enterthread=y

 

[ts3433]

The Epox is good; you can also check out the Chaintech VNF3-250 and Soltek SL-K8AN2E-GR. If you do heavy overclocking, the DFI Lanparty carries a slight premium, but it's still well-priced around $110.

I'd choose a 3000+ to OC, if only for the higher multiplier (remember A64s are unlocked downward only).

HSFs for heavy OCing: Look at Thermalright and Zalman.

 

[Chang10is]

Which one is better, the 8KDA3J or the 8KDA3I?

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: Chang10is
Which one is better, the 8KDA3J or the 8KDA3I?

probably just a difference in features, i don't know, does the website show the differences?

 

[Chang10is]

According to the item descriptions, the 8KDA3I has SATA RAID while the 8KDA3J doesn't. And according to Saimus in this post, the 8KDA3I *seems* to have one more set of voltage regulators. He thinks this might mean that the 8KDA3J runs on 2 phase power while the 3I runs on 3 phase power. So I guess there are two main questions here: do the newer revisions of the 3J still have voltage problems? And does the 3I not have that problem if the 3J still does?