building custom: AMD experts please ADVISE

[aixenv]

well,

to make a long story short, i screwed up and got an LGA 775 pentium 4 3.4ghz w/ asus p5ad2 board and some 533mhz ddr2 ram, well after doing some more research, in the price range im looking at for a cpu, the amd 64 3500+ seems to blow the intel pentium 4 3.4ghz i was lookin at away.

this is FOR A GAMING system, and that said it seems the amd 64 3500+ wins hands down.

that being said, i will return this cpu and mobo and get a comparable amd 64 3500+ and now need to get a good motherboard, my brand favorites are asus/abit/gigabyte/dfi the 4 big ones mostly.

now here's the caviat here, the video card i got is agp 8x, and sadly i cant get a RMA or return on it so im stuck with it, and that isn't really a bad thing since it's a nvidia 6800GT which can flash to the ultra and oc higher then the ultra stats for less money

so what im looking for is a few good choices for an amd 64 3500+ chipset motherboard that has agp 8x support and preferrably support for 240-Pin 1GB DDR2 PC2-4200 so i dont have to return that also, but if i had to get ddr 400 or something that's ok i can do that, anything is returnable but the video card, so cant go with a pci-x option

overclocking: i think i'll do some of this just to test and benchmark the system to see what it's capable of, but then i would put it back to factory defaults.

i would also humbly request some advice at a nice silent/powerful/good heatsink+fan solution for the amd 64 3500+

thanks in advance for any assistance/advice

WAS proposed system:

cpu: CPU P4/3.4 GHz 800M LGA775 550 RET ( see mobo thoughts )
heatsink/fan: Thermaltake Combo Cool DIY Series TOWER112 4 in 1 CPU Cooler for Intel LGA775. P4 and AMD K8. K7, with Heatpipe Cooling, Model "CL-P0024"
mobo: MB ASUS P5AD2 PREMIUM 925X RET ( no agp, has pci-x, hence prompting change which i think will be good since i can get an amd 64 now)
case: CASE NZXT|NEMESIS BLACK
psu: MGE Vigor500 500W Power Supply with dual LED fans (PSVG-500)
sound card: SOUND BLASTER|AUDIGY 2 ZS PCI
speakers: CREATIVE INSPIRE T7700 7.1 SPEAKERS
memory: 2 gb of CORSAIR VALUESELECT 240-Pin DDR2 PC2-4200 (need to change to match amd mobo i assume)
graphics card: nvidia 6800GT 256mb ddr AGP 8x (NOTE: CANT CHANGE)
harddrives: 2 SATA 7200 RPM drives

POSSIBLE new system:

cpu: amd 64 3500+
mobo: ???
ram: ??? (some decent timing ddr)
case: same
psu: same
soundcard: same
speakers: same
graphics: same

thanks again for any help, feel free to disect the system, the only thing that has to stay is the video card, budget is around 2k

aixenv

 

[aixenv]

update: i also got 2 sata drives so that'd be a requirement also, i see a lot of ppl talking about the

MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum NForce3 Ultra

i see that doesnt support this 533 ram, so i'd need to go with some pc-3200 or ddr 400. any other suggestions/ thoughts ?

thx

aix

 

[imported_whatever]

No a64 boards support DDR2, so you will have to return the memory.
The K8N Neo2 Platinum is a good board, supports everything that you need that can be done on an a64.

 

[flamingspinach]

A quick search of NewEgg finds no socket 939 motherboards supporting DDR 533... sorry.

Otherwise I'd have to agree with the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum. Good board, or so I've heard.

-fs

 

[ts3433]

There are absolutely no boards for AMD that will support DDR2. Frankly, it isn't the best technology to begin with, and it's certainly not worth it right now. To support it, AMD would need to rejigger their on-die processor RAM controllers anyway, IIRC. You'll need some DDR 400.

Virtually all the 939 boards are good, with the MSI, Epox, and any other NF3 boards getting recommendations a bit more often than the rest.

 

[Sonic587]

Originally posted by: aixenv
update: i also got 2 sata drives so that'd be a requirement also, i see a lot of ppl talking about the

MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum NForce3 Ultra

i see that doesnt support this 533 ram, so i'd need to go with some pc-3200 or ddr 400. any other suggestions/ thoughts ?

thx

aix

That board you picked will probably be your best bet until NF4 arrives.

Sadly, you are out of luck on the RAM. DDR2 is not compatible with any AMD64 motherboard. This is because there is no advantage to it as of now. Pick up some value DDR1 PC3200/3500/whatever( I.E. Mushkin, Crucial, Kingston, ect.)

BTW, what will be the rest of your setup?

 

[aixenv]

thx for all the advice, ok so ddr 400 it is, and ill do some research but the front runner is that msi board, any other suggested changes on my components?

im thinking OCZ ram that's normally good stuff

update: i posted the rest of my proposed system in the first msg, i didnt think of doing that at first but since i can return anything but the video card or the arctic silver 5 i figured i'd see what ppl think of my setup

thanks!

 

[Mik3y]

your first few words are, "to make a long story short," is quite...false. lol. u mind cliff-noting all that?

 

[aixenv]

upon more research im thinking

GIGABYTE "GA-K8NSNXP-939" nForce3 Ultra Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 939 CPU

reviews:

http://secure.newegg.com/app/C...=1&item=13-128-254

with 2 gb of OCZ Enhanced Latency Series Platinum Edition

and changing the harddrives to

Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive x2 for raid 0

any thoughts/agrees/disagrees?

thx!

aix

 

[aixenv]

lol sorry about the long message , i type 155wpm, so i sometimes get carried away with long posts..

 

[DrCool]

the setup you already ordered is perfectly capable of accomplishing the tasks your after.. why go through all the headaches of returns/rmas when you have a sweet setup?

 

[aixenv]

because in the rush of trying to get this ordered by our purchasing guy (work is paying 1/2 of the cost), the video card i wanted was not available, and i didnt wanna wait so i select an agp 8x card, which that motherboard will NOT work with (no agp slot) , and then well newegg has the video card i got set to no return unless for exact component.

and i cant find any pci-x nvidia 6800 GT or ultra card avail, and from what i've read they probably wont be around until christmas time

i talked to some friends after spec'n it out and a few of them said i should have gone amd 64 since my whole reason was gaming i use my laptop for business stuff. so i think this will work out for the best and since it's a company cc ill just reorder the new components while i wait for the RMA

 

[Mrvile]

I didn't really read the last few posts (I read 36 wpm) so here are my thoughts:

Motherboard:

MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
Asus K8T Deluxe (I think it's called that, its the K8T800 chipset)
Abit AV8
Gigabyte
Soltek
Etc

Basically anything that supports 939 socket and is based off either the K8T800 Pro chipset or the nForce3 Ultra chipset.

As for RAM, unless you're doing some major workstation work, graphics processing, or video editing, you really don't need 2gb ram. 1gb Corsair XMS, Crucial Ballistix, or OCZ EL Platinum Rev2 works just as well. DDR400. If you're going to be OCing, maybe something higher, say DDR466 or 500.

And for power supply. You really want, I mean REALLY want a good quality power supply. I'm not too sure how good MGE's PSUs are, but for the prices they sell em at I really don't have much confidence in em. I recommend Antec, Enermax, Tagan, OCZ, PCPower & Cooling, or Fortron. Anything 400w and up will do fine for your system. They tend to cost a bit more (70+ bucks) but it's definately worth it. I got an Enermax 460w for 75 bucks from Newegg.

First, there's a difference between PCI-X and PCI-Express. You want PCI-Express. And there are PCI-Express versions of the 6800GT out, just not at very sane prices (around 500 bucks). But the 6800GT is the best bang for your buck you can get now, so you made a good choice in picking that and you won't be dissappointed. Don't worry about nForce4, the only big advantages it has over the current generation chipsets is SLI and PCI-Express. If these aren't problems or viable options for you, stick with nForce3 or the K8T800.

 

[aixenv]

thank you very much for the advice

 

[stratman]

Get that gigabyte NForce3 board you mentioned up there, the MSI Neo2 platinum some have been having problems with it not working properly -- and the GIGABYTE GA-K8NSNXP-939 looks to be a sweet board.

Your machine sounds so freaking hawt; Raptors, 2 gig ram, A64 3500+, 6800GT....

One of the sweetest builds I've seen proposed.

 

[w00t]

Return the DDR2 anyways DDR is better.