I need some advice on a mid-range NForce 4 rig I'm planning....

[sxr7171]

This is the first system I will be building and I decided to do so after reading the 90nm Athlon 64 review and seeing how well it overclocks.

One of the things I want to aim for is to take an Athlon 64 3500+ to at least 2.6GHz which seems like it will be no sweat for this awesome processor.

I want a fairly powerful system built with quality part selections at a reasonable price. I'm thinking about keeping it to around $1000.

I have already bought:

Antec Super Lanboy case - $39.99 after rebate courtesy AT Hot Deals.

WDC Raptor 74GB for boot and games - $152 also courtesy AT Hot Deals (I realize the Maxline III or Diamondmax 10 offers very similar performance at a lower $/GB, but the 10K Raptor is something I've always wanted - consider it my splurge if you will).

I am looking at getting one of the NForce 4 motherboards despite the expected high price of around $200 when they are finally available. I really want many of the features of the Nforce 4 boards like SLi, dual gigabit ethernet (to make massively fast transfers to my Gigabit enabled laptop), RAID 1 (to secure my data) so I don't want to save any money there. In fact I think it's a real value to get all those features on the motherboard as it keeps your PCI slots free for other things.

The GeForce 6600GT sounds like the video card to go for as I am just an occasional gamer.

Mostly I want to achieve fast MPEG-4, WMV9 encoding and general fast responsiveness in MS Office, Adobe Acrobat etc. Really I'm doing this as a hobby to see what it feels like to build your own system with the parts you think will make for a very responsive system. My gripes with my current system (P4 1.7GHz Dell 8100, 256 RDRAM, WD 2000jb, 9700pro) are that DScaler hits 100% CPU causing frame drops, WMV HD files stutter on playback, and WMV encoder 9 hits 100% CPU when encoding live TV and drops frames.


My question revolves around how important are parts like the PSU and Memory.

For PSU, do I really need a $100 550w behemoth or can I get by with a more reasonable $60-70 PSU? I might do SLI later if I get an SLI board. So this thing will need to power maybe 2 6600 GT cards, several HDs, the Athlon 64 3500+ and provide the juice to overclock well. I would also like a quiet PC this around as the Dell 8100 feels like it wants to keep me up at night as it is in my dorm room. Any quiet yet robust PSU recommendations?

The second thing is Memory. I felt happy to be moving away from RDRAM until I realized that good memory apparently costs as much $280 for 2 512MB sticks. I want to overclock, but do really need such expensive memory? Is the cost of getting memory with insane timings worth the performance increase it will provide? Is that money better spent elsewhere in my system? Any memory recommendations for my need to overclock but not spend a ridiculous amount of money?

I've noticed that the 512MB RAM in my laptop is almost never fully used in Win XP as I really do get rid of things like useless services that Win XP loads and keep my machine running lean and mean. So I wonder if it really is worth getting 1 GB RAM when my peak commit charge hovers around 330MB usually. Is there really a performance benefit to having 1GB? Maybe 2 ultra fast 256MB sticks are better than 2 512 mediocre 512 sticks?

I'm not sure if anyone has all the answers to these issues, but I will read any reviews and articles you guys can point me to. I have tried to look for information on the actual performance impact of fast memory but the articles I found are older and mostly apply to older types of memory. As for PSU I checked a couple of shootouts, but I'd prefer information from people who have actually used diferent PSUs in overclocking scenarios.


Thanks a lot if you've even read this far!

 

[bigal40]

I am looking at building something almost identical to this but i am having trouble keeping it under 1000. I am looking at getting this RAM. It is 3500 so i think it should overclock pretty good and all people that wrote reviews on it are happy with it. I think you should definitley get 1 gig instead of 512mb. I am ploanning on getting The 6600gt and in about a year getting another and putting them in SLI. I Doubt that you will need a 550w power supply even for two 6600gt's because the 6600gt's don't use nearly as much power as so\mething like a 6800U. The 3500 winchester uses very little power too. I am looking at using an XP-90 heat sink to help with the oc to about 2.6.
Good Luck

 

[gobucks]

if you really want to overclock a lot, why not save some cash and go with a 3000+ or 3200+? they cost a lot less and can also get to 2.6GHz without too much trouble. That extra money could go towards some really sweet memory. I'd recommend going all out with memory if you're gonna overclock, since you don't want your overclocking experience to be curtailed because you can't get your memory to run faster than DDR466, now do you? Crucial ballistix is nice, you can get 2x512MB of PC3200 (don't worry, if you relax timings and up voltage, you can hit DDR550 and higher pretty easily) for around $245, well worth it for the opportunity to basically turn a 3000+ into an FX-55. Another option is to get 1 stick of it for $125, and then another later down the road for a performance boost (extra capacity plus dual channel boost). Getting sticks of 256 is a waste of money, because good ones will still run you $150-160, and when you upgrade to 1GB, you're gonna have to throw them out to get a matched pair of 512MB modules, so your $160 is effectively wasted. Either way, if you skimp out and get memory that can't overclock, you're gonna be pretty pissed off, cause the multiplier is locked, so you have to overclock via the FSB. For the video card, the 6600GT is great, especially for $180. Go with the XFX for the Dual DVI, or if it's in stores by then, go with the BFG - it's got dual DVI and it's overclocked and has a lifetime warranty. For the power supply, don't buy crap, but you don't need to spend $100 either. My recommendation is the Thermaltake 480W silent purepower. It's $55 at newegg, and it's pretty good. Not as good as the $100 ones, but it has plenty of power, an adjustable fan, SATA power connectors, etc. I think I even saw the 420W version for $35. I'd say don't go below 400W, just to be on the safe side.

 

[bigal40]

I am not confident that all 3000 and 3200 chips will be able to get to 2.6 even though they got it that high on the review. I have seen lots of people on this board that can only get 2.2-2.4. I think it would be easier with a 3500 plus i don't want to have toupthe voltage because i want it to last a while. About the Ram you recommend it is PC3200 which runs at 200 mhz. THe Pc 3500 runs at 216mhz. Correct me if i am wroung but the Pc3500 already has a 16 mhz advantage. 16x11 equals 176. So i thought that i would be able to run processor 176mhz faster without oc'ing the ram at all.

 

[bigal40]

bump.
can someone clarify my question about ram

 

[OSUBeaver]

Well i think a lot of your problems with system responsiveness on your old system stem from having only 256 megs of ram. A stock athlon 3500 with a gig of pc3200 value ram will be way more than enough for any of the things you are using your computer for. If you aren't gogin to use the 200 gig from your old comp in your new one, be prepared to fiull up 74 gigs really fast. And raptors arent the quietest thign if you have noise issues.

If you really want to overclock just for the sake of overclocking, go buy an A64 3000+ s939 and overclock the crap out of it. You can buy that chip and good 3500, 3700, 4200 ram with the money you save. Who cares if you hit 2.6 or not if all you want to do is play with overclocking.

Even a stock A64 3000+ sounds more than capable of doing what you require, hell even a stock XP 2500 is about all you need.

I'm a broke college student, you live in a dorm so i assume you are broke too. Think twice aobut dropping so much money on something that you will use for office and playing downloaded movies, and encoding tv. Your old computer is utter crap, don't have a kneejerk reaction and build the fastest thing you can buy, just because of your last system. A laptop almost sounds better for the things you do, and they are perfect for college students, and you can get a good discount form HP for being a student.

I'm a miltimedia minor, so I use Maya, Premiere, photoshop, director, falsh, all that crap, and none of it has ever given my system a problem. Just my opinion from a college senior who has spent tons of money on computer stuff, only to have to wait a year until half life 2 came out to use it, and by then i bought new stuff, and now my system mostly runs IE, AIM, and stores movies and music to be played on my xbox.