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choose between nforce-3 and nforce-4 for DVI

R

RayGeode

Junior Member
😕

Hi all, I've been reading all I can for the new PC I'm choosing and I'd like to say this site is great! thanks in advance.

I'm finally upgrading from my 1999 PIII 500. I'd like to use my Phillips 30 inch wide screen HDTV which has a DVI input / 1080i. I only surf and would like good performance for Dvd movies. Don't need gaming.

This system, spec'd in the "Hardware Guide For New Users" post would probably suffice

AMD Based Computer $659.00
AMD Athlon 64 2800+, 512KB L2 Cache
GIGABYTE "GA-K8NS" NVIDIA nForce3 250 Chipset Motherboard

But of course shopping around I've found what looks like another choice in a slightly higher price range.

CYBERPOWER $989
nforce-4 PCI Express
PCI Express Nvidia Geforce 6600GT 128MB XFX DVI

I would most appreciate any opinions as to the Manufacturer, bang for buck, and DVI for HDTV in general.

Thanks much! Ray
 
You could subsitute the Nforce3 motherboard for a Nforce4 board.

The Nforce3 chipset is a mature chipset right now. There are a lot of boards out there and the prices are much better.

The Nforce4 boards are really just hitting the market. A lot of manufacturers don't even have a Nforce4 board out yet. They usually sell out fast so the resellers are charging a little more for them because of demand.

The Nforce4 chipset for all intents and purposes is still very new....they are still working out some kinks with BIOS updates and motherboard revisions.

AGP cards will be available for several more years, and there is really not any slower than their PCI Express counterparts.

As far as the quality of the video they would be the same.

The one thing is when you build your own system it is satisfying as you get to configure it how you want it done.

When you buy a pre-made system you are really stuck sometimes on what you can change.

Thank you for reading the guide, and asking some very educated questions 🙂

 
I would recommend getting a socket 939 Nforce3 motherboard. New Athlon64 are socket 939. Socket 754 is going to be on it's way out, so getting a CPU upgrade in the future might be a little hard.

I recommend the Athlon64 3000+ Winchester (90nm) socket 939 CPU. It is the newest revision, runs very cool, and is about the best bang for the buck out there.

 
Ok, thanks. nforce-3 939. I'm going to buy it ready made from a manufacturer. Do you know anything about CyberPower ?
 
Cyberpower seems to have a decent rating at resellerratings.com

Also check out monarchcomputer.com and see what they offer for prebuilt and custom systems.

 
Don't buy from Cyberpower. They have terrible build quality and frustrating support. Two of my friends bought from there and now regret it. It might be okay if you are comfortable with ripping your system apart (since they are so cheap), but otherwise... It took my friend three months to get a hardware issue resolved from them.

Anyway, you won't notice any difference between the two chipsets in performance, the main issue is probably price/availibility and maybe future upgrade-ability. The nForce3 will be the way to go, but then you'll have to decide if you want socket754 or socket939. 754 offers decent performance for a little less money, but 939 will be supported for future upgrades. If you plan on waiting for a couple years before you change anything, I would suggest 754 now. Then later on you can do a complete revamp of your system when you are ready.

I think you would end up happy if you looked into building it yourself. If you aren't sure, you can get some great help around here and other online sources if you want to look into that option. [EDIT] I almost forgot about www.monarchcomputer.com . They'll build you a truly custom system for only a couple bucks.

A 2800+ or 3000+ will do just fine, coupled with a cheap but solid motherboard like this one. If you are interested in building it yourself or looking on monarch, myself and others can help you with deciding what parts to order.
 

Thanks bum and U&T. I re-built a PC once with a Cyrix 80586. It turned out to be underpowered so I switched to the AMD K6. That one ran pretty fast for it's time. There was also a problem with the mobo I bought from a small shop in Long Island.
They shipped me a new one no problem.

Thanks for all the help I'll consider doing it again.

One more thing. Since I want a good experience viewing DVD movies, what would be a good DVD player?

Thanks again
 
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