Hello, thanks, and help please

[BlootenShlooder]

Hey now! First of all, I just wanted to thank all of the very knowledgeable people that take the time to respond to questions to people like me who aren?t so knowledgeable about computers. Though this is my first post, I have been reading this forum faithfully since Christmas to educate myself for when I build my new system. It?s very cool that people offer their knowledge and experience to strangers for free!

Just a few comments on my experience so far. I really wanted an Athlon64 3000+, but I?m just a little nervous about stability. Although I have read a few testimonies from people that are very satisfied with their systems (ie. Markfw900), I kept reading about little problems with motherboards, having to adjust memory voltages etc. (There have been many AMD64 motherboard threads!!) I don?t really have skills to diagnose problems, so I think I will sacrifice performance for stability. Perhaps reading forums has jaded my thinking a wee bit because most people post regarding problems they?re having rather than success stories.

Ok, enough blabbing, here?s what I have pencilled in right now (with the assistance of a friend). This is a gaming rig. I don?t overclock and I plan to buy this within the next week:

CPU AMD Athlon XP 2800+
MOBO A7N8X-DX AMD 3DDR400 nVIDIA 8XAGP AUD/DUAL-LAN/FIREWIR
RAM Kingston HyperX PC2700(DDR333) 1024MB CL2 Matched Pair Memory Retail
HDD Samsung 80G 2M 7200RPM ATA100
VIDEO ATI (Sapphire) Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB DDR w/DVI, TV out OEM
PSU SEASONIC SUPER SILENCER 350W ACTIVE PFC SILENT P. S
Case Evercase Midtower Solid Cool Case

Any comments would be greatly appreciated. Couple of questions:
1. Should I get pc 3200 ram?
2. Heard the Samsung hard drive is very quiet, but only a 2 meg cache. Is there anything like this that is quiet and better performing? Is there a big difference between 2 meg cache and 8 meg cache?
3. Is a 350 watt power supply enough?
4. How would this system compare to say a p4 2.8 system with same components for game performance?

Thank you!!

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: BlootenShlooder
Any comments would be greatly appreciated. Couple of questions:
1. Should I get pc 3200 ram?

If you're not overclocking, it shouldn't matter. PC2700 does DDR333 just as well at PC3200 does.

2. Heard the Samsung hard drive is very quiet, but only a 2 meg cache. Is there anything like this that is quiet and better performing? Is there a big difference between 2 meg cache and 8 meg cache?

I would go for an 8MB drive; they seem to perform better all around. How about this samsung drive ? It's in the same line of quiet FDB drives, but has an 8MB cache.

3. Is a 350 watt power supply enough?

Yes, as long as it's a name-brand one. I have a Seasonic "Super Tornado", and it's great (and nearly silent). The "Super Silencer" line is also supposed to be good, although they're not quite as quiet. If you're interested in a quiet system, you might want to check out www.silentpcreview.com.

4. How would this system compare to say a p4 2.8 system with same components for game performance?

Probably a bit faster than a P4 2.8B (533Mhz FSB), and a bit slower than a P4 2.8C (800Mhz FSB). But noticeably cheaper than either. Plus, for a lot of new games, your video card is really the limiting factor, and that 9800Pro is a very good one.

 

[Alex]

regardless of what anyone says i would not use a 350W PSU with that rig... theyre not that expensive

 

[Matthias99]

Why not? He's got a 2800+, a video card, *ONE* 80GB hard drive, and presumably a burner of some sort. There's no way he needs a 400-500W PSU in this system; even 300W would be plenty as long as the 12V rail had enough juice. I mean, you can put that much stuff in a SFF box, and those only have 200W power supplies...

 

[lenjack]

Any quality 350 watter will be more than enough in this case.

 

[BlootenShlooder]

Thank you very much for all of the replies. Specially to you Matthias for not only the suggestions, but the links too!! That was VERY helpful!!
You are correct about the burner as well. I will either buy a DVD writer

OR

recycle my Creative CD 52x drive AND/OR my JustLink CD writer from my present system. Most likely both will go in the new system.

Many thanks again!!

 

[Regs]

Mat did a great job all ready giving you advice on your new reg. Nothing much more I can add but to say that will make a great gaming rig. And he is right that you only need a quality 300 watt PSU with that machine. People everywhere here seems to over exaggerate on how much wattage you need. They see one guy with a burned out PSU and everybody freaks. It's like the telephone affect, one person starts it, the rest all misconstrue it as it travels down hill.

Could I persuade you to get a A64 rig?

 

[BlootenShlooder]

"Could I persuade you to get a A64 rig?"


Believe me Regs, I have struggled with this one. I have looked at a setup similar to yours (chip and mobo), but I'm just a little nervous with it. I've heard quite a few issues (mainly minor ones), even in the reviews I've read the reviewers have some issues with these motherboards. Don't know if that is common or not. That being said, it is tempting just to grab that ASUS board and get myself an AMD64 3000+. It would be about $200.00 difference, which is quite minimal. I suppose the AMD64 3000+ set up would kick the snot out of the Barton 2800+.?.

Sure is hard to buy a system these days!! So many choices!!