How's that for a gamer system?

[ROcHE]

I'd build this for a friend of mine :

CPU - AMD Athlon64 3000+ Socket939
MB - DFI Lanparty Ultra-D Nforce4
RAM - Kingston Valueram 512MB x 3 (1.5GB total)
VIDEO - MSI RX800XL (X800XL 256MB PCI-E)
CASE - Antec Sonata
HD - SEAGATE 7200.7 160GB NCQ
DVDRW - NEC ND-3520A DVD+RW Black
SOUND - CREATIVE SOUND BLASTER AUDIGY 2 ZS 7.1
FLOPPY - 1.44MB BLACK 3.5IN FLOPPY DRIVE
SPEAKERS - LOGITECH X-530 5.1 SPEAKER SYSTEM BLACK
MONITOR - LG Flatron EZ T910B 19" or SAMSUNG DYNAFLAT 997DF 19IN ??

Opinions?

 

[nick1985]

i would suggest against 3 sticks of RAM. to my knowledge, more than 2 sticks on an athlon 64 results in forcing you to run RAM in 2T, which greatly reduces performance. but i could be wrong, i need someone to verify this.


other than that, it looks alright.

 

[KoolDrew]

If he is not overclocking he could go with a cheaper mobo. Also why 1.5GB? I also don't know how much that HDD costs, but NCQ won't be very benefitial for a gaming system.

 

[MaverickBP]

Originally posted by: nick1985
i would suggest against 3 sticks of RAM. to my knowledge, more than 2 sticks on an athlon 64 results in forcing you to run RAM in 2T, which greatly reduces performance. but i could be wrong, i need someone to verify this.


other than that, it looks alright.

CORRECTOMUNDO

 

[ROcHE]

NCQ is the same price (or maybe a couple bucks more) as standard so no big deal.

I'd like to go with a least 1.5GB because it's cheap right now and he wants to play Battlefield 2 and I think the more ram you'll have the better it will run.

So more than 2 sticks = 2T ?

 

[ROcHE]

Concerning overclocking : I'll overclock the cpu to around 2300-2400mhz using a ram ratio.

I heard ratios does not hurt athlons that much. Well they do but considering valueram is ½ the price of performance ram right now.

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: ROcHE
NCQ is the same price (or maybe a couple bucks more) as standard so no big deal.

I'd like to go with a least 1.5GB because it's cheap right now and he wants to play Battlefield 2 and I think the more ram you'll have the better it will run.

So more than 2 sticks = 2T ?

yes, if you need a lot of RAM, get 2 1gig sticks. otherwise, just stick with a gig. but more than 2 sticks = bad on an athlon64

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: ROcHE
Concerning overclocking : I'll overclock the cpu to around 2300-2400mhz using a ram ratio.

I heard ratios does not hurt athlons that much. Well they do but considering valueram is ½ the price of performance ram right now.

Friend or not, I wouldn't OC another persons rig unless they knew exactly what might happen and be ready to take all the responsibility. :shocked:

 

[ROcHE]

Originally posted by: nick1985


yes, if you need a lot of RAM, get 2 1gig sticks. otherwise, just stick with a gig. but more than 2 sticks = bad on an athlon64

Thanks for infos. Considering 2 x 1GB is not exactly cheap.. Is it THAT bad of a performance hit? Any benchs to compare?

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: ROcHE

Originally posted by: nick1985


yes, if you need a lot of RAM, get 2 1gig sticks. otherwise, just stick with a gig. but more than 2 sticks = bad on an athlon64

Thanks for infos. Considering 2 x 1GB is not exactly cheap.. Is it THAT bad of a performance hit? Any benchs to compare?

i dont have any offhand, but its bad enough as to where i would prefer 1gig vs. 1.5 gigs.

 

[ROcHE]

Originally posted by: Blain

Friend or not, I wouldn't OC another persons rig unless they knew exactly what might happen and be ready to take all the responsibility. :shocked:

He'll be at my side when I'll play in the bios

He have an old Celeron 400 oc to 500mhz that I build for him like 5 year ago.

We'll be looking for a stable, default voltage OC, not some hardcore unstable stuffs.

 

[Blain]

Nobody ever offers any benchmarks when I ask about 512mb... 1GB... 1.5GB... 2GB :Q

 

[ROcHE]

I have an Athlon64 3200+ clocked at 2500mhz with 2 x 512MB.

I also have 2 x 512MB in another system. Maybe I should bench by myself. Dunno.

 

[MaverickBP]

ok i tried to be subtle but ...NO MORE THAN 2 STICKS. and you dont need more then 2x 512. its not worth the cost. running at a 2t command rate cripples a64 systems. no benches because im too lazy (or dont care) to look. but its been posted many times..do a search and you'll understand why.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: MaverickBP
ok i tried to be subtle but ...NO MORE THAN 2 STICKS. and you dont need more then 2x 512. its not worth the cost. running at a 2t command rate cripples a64 systems. no benches because im too lazy (or dont care) to look. but its been posted many times..do a search and you'll understand why.

Links to benchmarks for differing amounts of memory, have NOT been posted many times.
People SAYING that 1GB is just right, has indeed been posted to death. But someone SAYING isn't the same as seeing benchmarks that have been run properly.

 

[fstime]

1 GB is more then enough, you can even get away with 512 still.

 

[ROcHE]

I know that 1GB is enough right now. That's what I have and I can play all the latest games without any problem.

However, RAM is dirt cheap these days and the guy wants to be future proof for as long as possible.

He also wants to play Battlefield 2 without any slowdown. Have you seen videos of that game? I bet it'll eat RAM alive.

 

[MaverickBP]

Originally posted by: Blain

Originally posted by: MaverickBP
ok i tried to be subtle but ...NO MORE THAN 2 STICKS. and you dont need more then 2x 512. its not worth the cost. running at a 2t command rate cripples a64 systems. no benches because im too lazy (or dont care) to look. but its been posted many times..do a search and you'll understand why.

Links to benchmarks for differing amounts of memory, have NOT been posted many times.
we must be surfing different forums because it has been beaten to death. and for the sake of arguing benchmarks = sh!t. real world experience is what matters.

as far as ram being cheap and u wanting to be future proof theres nothin wrong with that. but if ur on a a64 system ur forced to use 2 sticks which become expensive.

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: Blain
People SAYING that 1GB is just right, has indeed been posted to death. But someone SAYING isn't the same as seeing benchmarks that have been run properly.

This is all I can find. Hardly conclusive, but at least it's something. I too have never seen any good 1T vs 2T benchmarks.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42

Originally posted by: Blain
People SAYING that 1GB is just right, has indeed been posted to death. But someone SAYING isn't the same as seeing benchmarks that have been run properly.

This is all I can find. Hardly conclusive, but at least it's something. I too have never seen any good 1T vs 2T benchmarks.

Where have you been... MaverickBP says this forum is thick with benchmarks comparing memory.

D.O.E.
Windows XP Pro SP2, 74GB Raptor, Sandra Pro 2005 & PCMark 04...

AMD64 testbed
1st run - 2 x 256mb CAS2.5 = ?
2nd run - 2 x 512mb CAS2.5 = ?
3rd run - 2 x 1gb CAS2.5 = ?
4th run - 1 x 512mb CAS2.5 = ?
5th run - 1 x 1gb CAS2.5 = ?

Intel P4 testbed
1st run - 2 x 256mb CAS2.5 = ?
2nd run - 2 x512mb CAS2.5 = ?
3rd run - 2 x 1gb CAS2.5 = ?
4th run - 1 x 512mb CAS2.5 = ?
5th run - 1 x 1gb CAS2.5 = ?

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: Blain
Where have you been... MaverickBP says this forum is thick with benchmarks comparing memory.

Well, I haven't been exactly looking for them. I tend not to keep up with the details of new hardware unless I'm about to buy.

 

[ROcHE]

I'm currently doing my own benchs comparing 2 x 512 at 1T and 3 x 512 at 2T.

I'm using Sandra, 3dmark01, 3dmark03, doom3 and HL2.

I'll come back with results later.

 

[ROcHE]

So I'm done with the benchs.

I've used this system :

First setup :

Athlon 3200+ 90nm clocked to 2400Mhz (10 x 240)
MSI Neo2 Platinum
2 x 512MB Samsung PC3200
ATi Radeon 9500 Pro 128MB
etc.

Second setup:
Athlon 3200+ 90nm clocked to 2400Mhz (10 x 240)
MSI Neo2 Platinum
2 x 512MB Samsung PC3200 + 2 x 512 MB Kingston Valueram PC3200
ATi Radeon 9500 Pro 128MB
etc.

10 x 240FSB
HTT 4x
Tcl 2.5
Trcd 3
Tras 7
Trp 3
In both cases


T1 with 1GB (2 x 512) / T2 with 2GB (4 x 512)

Sisoft Sandra 2005 :

Cpu Arithmetics :
11114 / 11099 MIPS
4912 / 4870 MFLOPS

Multimedia :
22915 / 22913 it/s
24647 / 24634 it/s

Memory Bandwidth :
6064 / 4853 MB/s

3DMark01SE :

14801 / 15056

3DMark03 :

3911 / 3901

Doom3 (timedemo demo1) (FPS) :

640 x 480 low : 66.9 / 66.6
640 x 480 med : 66.6 / 65.9
800 x 600 med : 47.4 / 47.2
1024 x 768 med : 30.7 / 32.5

Halflife2 (everything at high) (FPS) :

640 x 480 : 144 / 143.78
800 x 600 : 105.83 / 105.91
1024 x 768 : 70.39 / 70.30
1600 x 1200 : 33.89 / 33.55

I'm not exactly a "pro" at benchmarking but I have yet to find the BIG performance hit. There is NO improvement that's for sure tough.

Dunno if it will be the same with future game. Maybe not in FPS but in hd trashing.

 

[MaverickBP]

lol funny guys here. good job roche... but as i said benchmarks dont really matter. if u have access to another pair of 512's and want ur friend to see if he notices anything while messing around id try that...if he notices nothing then there shouldnt be a problem unless the nothing is no speed increase.

running 2t will hurt performance but for the few programs that can actually use more then 1gb...it may actually help

 

[aatf510]

A 3x512mb setup would probably returns worse results. As you won't be able to run memory in dual channel as 2x1GB.