Combo question

[jack bauer]

I was thinking of buy my Mobo and CPU together, already tested, maybe from Monarch. A8N32-SLI deluxe and Opteron 170. Couple of questions:

Should I buy this artic silver stuff? They don't have it on the list of things to add. Is this a problem?

Should I buy a cooling fan w/copper coil. They don't offer any good ones with it.

Should I get the warrenty or just stick to the manafacturer's.

Maybe take a look at the site and see what works well. Thanks.

 

[996GT2]

I looked under Thermal Compound and all they offer is Shin-Etsu for $15. If they have Arctic Silver 5 for more than $6, get it from SVC, who has it for $6 shipped. You also get a whole tube instead of just the 1 application that Monarch puts on your CPU

 

[customcoms]

IMO, I would buy the board and the processor seperatly, getting a retail processor is the best imo, at least don't let monarch install it for you (I know optys are impossible to find non oem for the most part). I had them do mine and it was the worst clocking AMD64 I know of, needed 1.63v to break 2.3ghz. My board came out fine, but I would shy away from their pre-built combo deal. And you mention some cooling issues as well. I would get the board, heatsink and paste from newegg and get the opty from monarch unless its cheaper at newegg (monarch usually has about the best otpy prices around).

 

[jack bauer]

Originally posted by: customcoms
IMO, I would buy the board and the processor seperatly, getting a retail processor is the best imo, at least don't let monarch install it for you (I know optys are impossible to find non oem for the most part). I had them do mine and it was the worst clocking AMD64 I know of, needed 1.63v to break 2.3ghz. My board came out fine, but I would shy away from their pre-built combo deal. And you mention some cooling issues as well. I would get the board, heatsink and paste from newegg and get the opty from monarch unless its cheaper at newegg (monarch usually has about the best otpy prices around).

why not let them set it up and test it out first? why would letting them put it together make it run slower?

 

[Zap]

It shouldn't do anything, but I also had an experience like that with an Opteron/LANPARTY combo - the Opteron was the crappiest BY FAR out of three that I have. Dunno. the other thing is that they claim to install latest BIOS and such... I don't think they do because people have gotten combos with older BIOSes. They probably just want to test it to avoid DOA. I'm thinking maybe they started this practice back in the socket A days with a lot of people killing their CPUs due to improper HSF installation.

I do know one thing for sure. If they test the combo, takes them a couple extra days to ship the stuff out.