First time builder, Athlon 64 Rig

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anthony88guy

Senior member
Feb 3, 2005
220
0
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After months deciding and finding out what?s best for me, I came up with this:

Motherboard: CHAINTECH VNF4/Ultra
CPU:AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Video Card: eVGA Geforce 6600GT 128MB PCI-Express x16
RAM: CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB
HDD: Western Digital Caviar SE Serial ATA150
DVD Drive: NEC - ND-3520A BK
Power Supply: OCZ ModStream 450W
Case: THERMALTAKE Tsunami
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional (I believe Microsoft lets you trade in for 64bit version.)

This is a budget build trying to keep under 1 grand. If all goes well I should be ordering at the end of the month.
 
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Kenazo

Lifer
Sep 15, 2000
10,429
1
81
Originally posted by: anthony88guy
After months deciding and finding out what?s best for me, I came up with this:

Motherboard: CHAINTECH VNF4/Ultra
CPU:AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Video Card: eVGA Geforce 6600GT 128MB PCI-Express x16
RAM: CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB
HDD: Western Digital Caviar SE Serial ATA150
DVD Drive: NEC - ND-3520A BK
Power Supply: OCZ ModStream 450W
Case: THERMALTAKE Tsunami
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional (I believe Microsoft lets you trade in for 64bit version.)

This is a budget build trying to keep under 1 grand. If all goes well I should be ordering at the end of the money.
Click to expand...


?? :)


The system should be fine. If you want Win64, just buy it now. I have it and works great so far, some of the drivers are a little hard to find, but with that set up you should be good. The trade in thing isn't free and as I understand it is only for a limited time only. Go 64bit right away.
 
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MobiusPizza

Platinum Member
Apr 23, 2004
2,001
0
0
Originally posted by: Continuity27
The core you linked to is Winchester, the Venice replaced it as a 90nm part. It will overclock better and run a wee bit faster at stock speeds due to SSE3.
Click to expand...

Also better RAM compatibility and bug fixes
 
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anthony88guy

Senior member
Feb 3, 2005
220
0
0
I have extra floppy drives laying around.

Do you think the combo:

DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard
&
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice Integrated into Chip FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor

is worth the extra $30~?
Compared to the Chaintech VNF4
 
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ChiBOY83

Senior member
Dec 28, 2004
517
0
0
yes, defenitly have the floppy drives, especially if you are installing SATA hard drives.

ALSO, get the venice core, it is actually than some other cores (for the 3000+) on newegg

Case- I could recommend better cases (for cooling, for quietness) that are MUCH cheaper, but if you like the asthetics of that case, then its a no brainer.
 
K

KoolDrew

Lifer
Jun 30, 2004
10,226
7
81
Originally posted by: anthony88guy
I have extra floppy drives laying around.

Do you think the combo:

DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard
&
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice Integrated into Chip FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor

is worth the extra $30~?
Compared to the Chaintech VNF4
Click to expand...


If your not overclocking it wouldn't make much of a difference so I would go with the Chaintech.
 
C

Continuity27

Senior member
May 26, 2005
516
0
0
Originally posted by: anthony88guy
I have extra floppy drives laying around.

Do you think the combo:

DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard
&
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice Integrated into Chip FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor

is worth the extra $30~?
Compared to the Chaintech VNF4
Click to expand...

I've never used the Chaintech, you'll need to ask someone that has.. but I have made people systems based on the DFI Lanparty UT nF4 Ultra-D, and they are ROCK SOLID, very high quality. I myself have the UT nF4 SLI-DR, which is also a ROCK SOLID board. :thumbsup: from me. But most likely the Chaintech is just as good if you're not overclocking.
 
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anthony88guy

Senior member
Feb 3, 2005
220
0
0
Yeh, I found the Venice core $1.99 cheaper than the Winny.
Since this is my first system, I think I will hold off on the overclocking for now. So everything looks good.
 
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NeonFlak

Senior member
Sep 27, 2000
550
7
81
Keep in mind the 64bit trade in from microsoft is only for OEM machines that come with XP Pro installed.
 
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t3h l337 n3wb

Platinum Member
Apr 22, 2005
2,698
0
76
Yeah, that looks like a great setup to me. However, I would recommend the DFI Lanparty Ultra-D for overclocking. Overclocking is a great way to save money.
 
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Twsmit

Senior member
Nov 30, 2003
925
0
76
Floppy isnt needed at all, except for flashing bios (if the mobo does not come with a windows flasher)

Outside of the bios updates no reason to have one. SATA only required floppy drivers on motherboards and chipsets that lacked native SATA compatibility. We are talking almost 2 years ago... or so. Now adays the only SATA controllers than need floppy drivers are RAID controllers and 3rd party SATA controllers that are not part of the southbridge. (which is the same thing we delt with with IDE for many years)

Hell now adays you can probably update the bios off a thumb drive. There is truely very few uses for a floppy. Dont get me wrong, I still have one, but its never used. If this is a new build you wont need one, but it doesnt hurt if you can get one for free or an older computer.
 
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anthony88guy

Senior member
Feb 3, 2005
220
0
0
Yeh, I dont plan on buying a floppy drive or even having one in my computer. If I need one for some odd reason it doesnt take more than 5 minutes to hook one up.

^^ Points up 2 posts. What do you think about the LCD Moniter?
 
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Boa Constrictor

Member
Jun 3, 2005
93
0
0
Crappy video, get somethin else. Trust me, if you play games, you will need a better card especilly with stuff like Battlefield 2. It will all be wasted if you don't get at least a 6800. Try to get a GT.

I made the mistake of getting a cheaper card...
 
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Ike0069

Diamond Member
Apr 28, 2003
4,276
2
76
Having a floppy drive to install the SATA drivers will make your life much easier.

The system looks very nice. I wouldn't change anything.
If you do decide to go with the DFI board, you will also need to upgrade your RAM.
 
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eXx08

Banned
May 28, 2005
2,363
0
0
Go with the Antec Case it's great I own it myself and love it. It's great for cooling with 5 spots for fans and very qiuet. Trust me you will like it very much.
 
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Some1ne

Senior member
Apr 21, 2005
862
0
0
That setup looks mostly good. Personally, I would opt for a MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum mainboard myself (because I have one and it has been excellent with my 3000+ Winchester chip, overclocked to 2.46 GHz from 1.8 GHz, stable), but that's mostly personal preference. I also don't really like TT cases (or other products), and would recommend the Antec Sonata instead...it's a bit heavy, but it looks very pretty and helps to keep things quiet. If you got the Sonata you could also use the included PSU instead of the OCZ one you list (the included one will be adequate for that setup, though if you plan on going to dual-core in the future, you might as well get the OCZ PSU now). Also, on the RAM, I'd say try to find some decent CL2 DDR400 RAM. Geil makes some decent stuff: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820144513

The clear up some stuff on Venice vs. Winchester, they are *both* 90nm parts. The main difference between the two (other than that the Venice is the newer part) is that with Venice you get SSE3 support and a revised integrated memory controller. That's about it, unless you plan on overclocking, in which case you will likely get an extra ~200 MHz by using a Venice instead of a Winchester (which also translates into slightly cooler running/less voltage required at stock speeds for the Venice chip, if you don't mind experimenting with undervolting the chip). Generally speaking, if you overclock, you can expect a Winchester chip to hit around 2.4 to 2.5 GHz (for models 3000+, 3200+, and 3500+...higher models will overclock slightly better in general), while equivalent Venice based chips are generally reported to top out around 2.7 to 2.8 GHz.
 
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joejccva

Senior member
Jun 16, 2005
347
0
0
I am getting the Thermaltake Soprano case just because it was a little cheaper and has the same airflow as a Tsunami. The only real differences in the Tsunami is the vent on front door and the blue led stock fans, however I am replacing my side intake fan and rear exhaust fans with high powered panaflo's. I am also getting the A64 3200+ Venice cpu and I've ordered a Thermalright XP-90C with a 92mm panaflo to slap ontop of it. Should be nice and cool. :)

I was going to buy a Tornado instead of a panaflo for my cpu fan however I've heard from numerous people that its WAY TOO LOUD. Sickening loud. Like a jet engine is in your comp.

 
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anthony88guy

Senior member
Feb 3, 2005
220
0
0
Should I go with the SATA II or with the SATA 150 for my HDD? I think I read somewhere that it?s a waste of money. Also should I wait any longer to see if my 6600GT would drop in price? I haven?t seen a price drop. Has anyone?
 
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