First Build

[AnotherGuy]

Finally all parts have been ordered... I spent a little over what i thought i would... but im sure it was worth it.

Msi K8n Neo2 Plat - Retail -- $136
Athlon64 3000+ Winchester - OEM -- $150
Thermalright XP-90 + Enermax fan -- $55
Arctic Silver 5 (3.5g) -- $6
Corsair Value Select 1 Gig (2x512) -- $155
Thermaltake VA4000BWS Series Sviking Mid Tower Case (Black) -- $91
Thermaltake Silent Purepower 420W Power Supply -- $40
Seagate SATA 80gig 7200rpm, 8Mb -- $67
LiteOn CDRW/DVD COMBO52X32X52X16 OEM -- $42
NEC Floppy 1.44MB OEM -- $10


TOTAL = $752
Shipping was included on the prices.
For video card ima use my old Radeon 9600XT 128mb.
Any critics? Oh no critics pls.. just compliments after all this money spent critics wont help

Will get back when i install everything and post about OC results.
Thanks for ur opinions and guides that elped me a lot on choosing all parts.

 

[drifter106]

i am trying to put a similiar system together...from what I have read from previous posts a vast majority of users recommend a higher quality of ram if you o/c...say ocz el platinum revison 2 dual channel 3200...will be interested to know how you sata drives will work if you o/c... good luck... looks like your headed in the right direction...

 

[Gioron]

You wasted a whole $3 more than you should've on that floppy drive. That makes it a horrible, horrible choice and you should be shamed of your poor judgement.

Seriously, it looks pretty good. I don't see any major mistakes and should be pretty good. Last I heard, the recent motherboards all had working PCI/AGP locks, so SATA shouldn't be a problem with overclocking.

 

[AnotherGuy]

yeah thnx. eventhough i am not using Sata Raid... im using a single Sata drive as my only and primary drive... I think i won't need to install raid drivers... but will consult the mobo directions about that.

As of the $3 extra for floppy drive... thats what newegg charges for shipping

All prices have shipping included... some of the stuff i got it from ZipZoom and a couple more little parts from other sites when i found a better price... But Newegg is the only one who rocks when it comes to fast shipping and processing time.
The only thing i hate about Newegg... is how they raise the prices immediately on a demanding short supplied product... Check out their XP-90 heatsink price... $45 + $5 or $6 shipping =$51 for that heatsink without a fan or thermal paste... Shame!

 

[Gioron]

Oh, FYI, newegg seems to be having problems ATM with getting parts out. One of their warehouses got flooded and this has delayed some orders. Shouldn't make a huge difference, but allow an extra few days for shipping.

 

[Gothgar]

if you are going to overclock, don't get value ram...

 

[AnotherGuy]

yep Gioron.. thats what i heard ...

Originally posted by: Gothgar
if you are going to overclock, don't get value ram...

I definitly plan to OC.

Ughhh and i asked so much about this... but at the end i figured i will run it on a ratio like 5:4 or 3:2 and it should be fine even Value RAM...

its too damn expensive to get RAM to work 1:1 with a 270mhz FSB... dont u think?
i dont have $270 just for ram, i wish i did.

 

[Gothgar]

Originally posted by: AnotherGuy
yep Gioron.. thats what i heard ...

Originally posted by: Gothgar
if you are going to overclock, don't get value ram...

I definitly plan to OC.

Ughhh and i asked so much about this... but at the end i figured i will run it on a ratio like 5:4 or 3:2 and it should be fine even Value RAM...

its too damn expensive to get RAM to work 1:1 with a 270mhz FSB... dont u think?
i dont have $270 just for ram, i wish i did.

well, I bought the corsair xms @ 220~ for a gig, and ended up with Samsung TCCD...

Looking around it looks like about half of that Corsair RAM is actually the TCCD memory, which is basically the cheapest you can pay for virtually the best RAM out there.

 

[KK]

Originally posted by: Gothgar
if you are going to overclock, don't get value ram...

If you do overclock with the cheaper ram, how much difference would there be?

 

[AnotherGuy]

I dont see many plp complaining about Corsair though...
And if even the XMS is made of the same cheap chips that ur saying... then why even bother to pay extra $$$ for it...

Why no1 has an answer about FSB:RAM ratios though... how much do these ratios affect real performance... in gaming... in general use... etc ? Thats weird! I been asking this question like a hundred times and no answer..

 

[GreatBarracuda]

Originally posted by: AnotherGuy
I dont see many plp complaining about Corsair though...
And if even the XMS is made of the same cheap chips that ur saying... then why even bother to pay extra $$$ for it...

Why no1 has an answer about FSB:RAM ratios though... how much do these ratios affect real performance... in gaming... in general use... etc ? Thats weird! I been asking this question like a hundred times and no answer..

You are missing the whole point. Forget ratios, the important thing is stability. You can overclock almost any cheap RAM, only to have your computer crash 5 minutes after use. Good quality RAM is not just fast, it's stable.

 

[imported_NoGodForMe]

The floppy is important so you can run Memtest, and do bios updates.
The floppy lives.

As to your memory question in games, I find the differance in timings doesn't mean that much. In fact, I think the newer 2225 stuff is over rated, because many people like myself can't get those timings on our Asus A8V with an FX53. Sure, I can set it to 2225 and run, but Prime95 fails. Instead I'm running 2336. I ran benchmarks comparing the timings, and they were about the same. It's all luck of the draw when it comes to memory. If you're looking to OC by 20mz, then the value stuff will probably be great. I think you made a good decision in your picks.

 

[AnotherGuy]

Originally posted by: NoGodForMe
... It's all luck of the draw when it comes to memory. If you're looking to OC by 20mz, then the value stuff will probably be great. I think you made a good decision in your picks.

Thanks for the nice words first of all. I relle needed some of those.

Now i hope u meant to OC by 20mhz the memory and not my fsb...

Aiming to OC my fsb to at least 260 x 9 if all goes right... and memory to 215... that would be pretty cool to start with.. i think that makes a 5:4 or 4:3 which is just great for me. I dont care to OC my memory that much... i just need it to be stable at my high fsb clocks... as someone pointed out previosly.

BTW is that 420W power supply going to be good enough for OC ?

Thanks for ur comments.

 

[Appledrop]

looks good, dont worry about value ram and using dividers, i quite like dividers on my a64 anyway , because my ram is running 30mhz slower than it is rated, i can set it to tight cas2 timings , also because of dual channel you lose barely any performance whatsoever with divider, i have great PCmark, 3dmark etc scores, and CS:S plays real good hehe

 

[Adn4n]

Well with PSUs it also depends on quality, and unfortunately I have never used a Thermaltake, so no help there. But your cheap ram should be fine, just give it more voltage. I don't see why it won't run at 1:1 with enough juice. The timings won't bother you, even if they're high, due to the onboard multiplier of the A64.

 

[cheesehead]

I would reccomend swapping the Thermaltake crap for an Antec Super Lanboy (although almost anything works if you dremel enough holes in in and you do'nt go to a lot of LANparties) and an Antec power supply of your choice. They're not only higher quality, but cheaper, too. CompGeeks has a DL DVD burner for 66$, which would let you do a bit more than the combo drive you intend to use.
Also, consider Komusa.com's DDR466 HyperRAM. It's only 180$ for a gig!. Running at 466, you can run the FSB at a closer speed, reducing latency. Also, swap out the XP-90 for a SLK948u or XP120. It's not worth scrimping on a heatsink.