My First AMD rig

[Beiruty]

Hi all,

First of, this is my first post.
My 3 years old PC died on me and I need a new PC. I did some research and selected the following setup:

Hardware: Recommended Component and Lowest net Price
Processor AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice Integrated into Chip FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor - Retail $146.00
CPU Cooling: Titan CPU Cooler Vanessa L-Type $50.00
Motherboard: DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $125.00
Memory: 2 X OCZ Value Series 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail - Retail $107.00
Video Card: POWERCOLOR R43C-TVD3D Radeon X800XL 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI-Express x16 Video Card - Retail $305.00
Hard Drive Maxtor MaXLine III 7B300S0 300GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM $200.00
Optical Drive (DL D-format 16X DVD Burner) $60.00
Floppy Drive$ 0.00
Case and PSU: Full Tower, tool-less and low noise 3 fans, with 500+W $150.00
Sound: Integrated $0.0
Speakers Logitech Z-5300E SPK 5.1-280W RMS 560W THX Cert $80.00
Keyboard/Mouse Logitech Cordless Desktop LX700 with Mouse $65.00
Display Dell UltraSharp 2405FPW 24-inch Wide $900 ( @HOT DEAL) Bottom Line $2,188.00

What do you think about this rig? Anything to be changed?
Is this a mid range system or budget Hi-End?
Can I expect to OC to 2.7Ghz with the selected CPU cooler?
Any good Full tower Case and a trusted name PSU for less than $150?

Finally, are those prices reasonable?

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[CreativeTom]

Originally posted by: Beiruty
Hi all,

First of, this is my first post.
My 3 years old PC died on me and I need a new PC. I did some research and selected the following setup:

Hardware: Recommended Component and Lowest net Price
Processor AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice Integrated into Chip FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor - Retail $146.00
CPU Cooling: Titan CPU Cooler Vanessa L-Type $50.00
Motherboard: DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $125.00
Memory: 2 X crucial 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 2T (PC 3200) System Memory - Retail $125.00
Video Card: POWERCOLOR R43C-TVD3D Radeon X800XL 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI-Express x16 Video Card - Retail $305.00
Hard Drive Maxtor MaXLine III 7B300S0 300GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM $200.00
Optical Drive (DL D-format 16X DVD Burner) $60.00
Floppy Drive$ 0.00
Case and PSU: Full Tower, tool-less and low noise 3 fans, with 500+W $150.00
Sound: Integrated $0.0
Speakers Logitech Z-5300E SPK 5.1-280W RMS 560W THX Cert $80.00
Keyboard/Mouse Logitech Cordless Desktop LX700 with Mouse $65.00
Display Dell UltraSharp 2405FPW 24-inch Wide $1,000.00
Bottom Line $2,306.00

What do you think about this rig? Anything to be changed?
Is this a mid range system or budget Hi-End?
Can I expect to OC to 2.7Ghz with the selected CPU cooler?
Any good Full tower Case and a trusted name PSU for less than $150?

Finally, are those prices reasonable?

Thanks for the feedback.

Just an idea, everything looks great except maybe the memory, I would go with some OCZ VX if you plan to overclock.

 

[imported_Kensai]

:thumbsup:

You might be able to find a cheaper x800XL.
I would call it an OC'ers favorite system.
You should have a pretty good chance of OCing, but an XP-90 or XP-120 would be better.
Antec has some nice combos.

 

[imported_Pressure]

Originally posted by: CreativeTom

Originally posted by: Beiruty
Hi all,

First of, this is my first post.
My 3 years old PC died on me and I need a new PC. I did some research and selected the following setup:

Hardware: Recommended Component and Lowest net Price
Processor AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice Integrated into Chip FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor - Retail $146.00
CPU Cooling: Titan CPU Cooler Vanessa L-Type $50.00
Motherboard: DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $125.00
Memory: 2 X crucial 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 2T (PC 3200) System Memory - Retail $125.00
Video Card: POWERCOLOR R43C-TVD3D Radeon X800XL 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI-Express x16 Video Card - Retail $305.00
Hard Drive Maxtor MaXLine III 7B300S0 300GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM $200.00
Optical Drive (DL D-format 16X DVD Burner) $60.00
Floppy Drive$ 0.00
Case and PSU: Full Tower, tool-less and low noise 3 fans, with 500+W $150.00
Sound: Integrated $0.0
Speakers Logitech Z-5300E SPK 5.1-280W RMS 560W THX Cert $80.00
Keyboard/Mouse Logitech Cordless Desktop LX700 with Mouse $65.00
Display Dell UltraSharp 2405FPW 24-inch Wide $1,000.00
Bottom Line $2,306.00

What do you think about this rig? Anything to be changed?
Is this a mid range system or budget Hi-End?
Can I expect to OC to 2.7Ghz with the selected CPU cooler?
Any good Full tower Case and a trusted name PSU for less than $150?

Finally, are those prices reasonable?

Thanks for the feedback.

Just an idea, everything looks great except maybe the memory, I would go with some OCZ VX if you plan to overclock.

WOW can you amazing!!!

 

[NiKeFiDO]

WOW can you amazing!!!

my sarcasm meter brokeN?

 

[imported_Pressure]

Read CreativeTom's other thread and all will be understood.

 

[Beiruty]

First suggestions:
1) Replace: from Crucial (Ballastix) to OCZ VX.
2) Find: a lower price X800XL videocard with VIVO (and 2 DVI?)
3) look into Antec Case/PSU combos...

How about the Dell panel? is it an ovekill or good investment?

 

[MobiusPizza]

lol has the cracking effect wore out?

Sorry Beiruty for contaminating your thread.
If you plan to overclock, get either the 2*512MB OCZ Gold VX for $180 or OCZ Value VX

 

[w00t]

omgee nice monitor did u win the lottery?

 

[MobiusPizza]

Originally posted by: Beiruty
First suggestions:
1) Replace: from Crucial (Ballastix) to OCZ VX.
2) Find: a lower price X800XL videocard with VIVO (and 2 DVI?)
3) look into Antec Case/PSU combos...

How about the Dell panel? is it an ovekill or good investment?

You'd need ultra powerful graphic card to play games on that, since the resolution is so high.
X800XL would handle current games okay. But future games I can't garantee.

The 2405FPW can be bought for $899 I think. Search the "Hot Deals" section.

I don't know. Big minitors are great for movie and games. But because I don't have money for a good enough graphic card I'd buy the 2005FPW instead

 

[Beiruty]

I selected the 2405FPW becasue it support 1920x1200 so it can hand 1920x1080p nicely.

 

[Beiruty]

Originally posted by: w00t
omgee nice monitor did u win the lottery?

no yet... but so nice monitors that cost 76% of the cost of the rig is worth it...

 

[imported_g33k]

First off, do you plan to overclock? If not than get the MSI board and some Corsair Value Select. The DFI is a great overclocker board, just be aware that the board is nit picky when it comes to memory.

Corsair Value Select does not work well on the DFI. Even OCZ VX came up with a ton of memory errors in Memtest. It has so many options that you can tweek that it may be intimidating and time consuming to reach stability with different memory. So if you are not going to overclock, you don't really need the DFI.

 

[Beiruty]

g33k,

I do intend to OC... I selected the lowest venice core, (3000+) since it is the same core all the way to 3800+. This is why I selected the DFI board with this Vanessa CPU cooler. I hope to land on a crippled 3800+ part sold as 3000 part.

I read good reviews also about the P90-c cooler which is also a good choice.

Now, I need to look into a good X800XL board.

 

[imported_Bleh]

Getting to 2.4 ghz on the venice shouldnt be a problem at all. Ive got my 3000+ at 2.4 ghz with 1.42 volts.

 

[LyNX31]

does the dfi have trouble overclocking with value ram?

 

[gplracer]

I would look at some memory with TCCD timings. Also an antec another name brand power supply. Also, how does that hard drive compare to a raptor?

 

[imported_g33k]

Originally posted by: LyNX31
does the dfi have trouble overclocking with value ram?

It has issues with different types of RAM, Corsair Value Select being one to have known issues. I believe by adjusting the various BIOS setting you can acheive 0 errors. I am now attempting to do this on a pair of OCZ PC4000VX, which came up with a slew of errors in memtest.

If anyone has any experience with this board and RAM can you please advise me in a PM? Thanks.

 

[Beiruty]

Update: I selected now the OCZ Value Series 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail for the DFI

And save $18

Any recommendation for an excellent X800XL card? if not I may stick with Powercolor.

Thanks

 

[n yusef]

Originally posted by: g33k

Originally posted by: LyNX31
does the dfi have trouble overclocking with value ram?

It has issues with different types of RAM, Corsair Value Select being one to have known issues. I believe by adjusting the various BIOS setting you can acheive 0 errors. I am now attempting to do this on a pair of OCZ PC4000VX, which came up with a slew of errors in memtest.

If anyone has any experience with this board and RAM can you please advise me in a PM? Thanks.

I would do a PM, but if anyone else wants to know this, then they can read it too. The DFI nF4 boards have some problems with some RAM, but if you shop accordingly, you'll be fine. My current recommendation for RAM for the DFI boards is OCZ Value VX. It has the same chips and PCB as their PC4000 VX, but hasn't been tested at 2-2-2-5. I currently have mine at 217Mhz 2-2-2-7 with 3.2 volts. I can get up to 240MHz 2-2-2 with 3.3, but I can't reach my max CPU speed like that (2.6=289*9 with a 3200+).
When I first got the board, I was having some problems running dual channel with my RAM, but if you set a 2T command rate, and flash to the 5/10-2 BIOS, it's fine. My advice is to run one stick until you install Windows, and then flash your BIOS and set 2T command rate before you add in the second stick. If you are using the Value VX at a high voltage, use DIMMs 1 & 3, instead of the recommended 2 & 4, because they are better suited for high voltage (that's what I heard at DFI-Street.com, at least).
One last thing to remember: RAM speed is much less important than CPU speed for an A64, so if you have to sacrifice memory bandwidth for a higher CPU overclock, do it.

EDIT: Changed "OCX" to "OCZ"

 

[imported_g33k]

Well I didnt want to hijack the OP's thread, but since he is getting the DFI board with VX, I guess he won't mind since he will be in the same boat when he gets his parts.

I've been finding that small bumps in voltage get rid of the mem errors. So everytime I get an error I increase to another .1 volt. Cranking the voltage right away to maximum does not help. You have to increase it little by little. I am running the 310 bios and I have memory settings set 2-2-2-6 1t. So far I've gotten to 230htt with 0 errors. I need to get at least to 250htt, this is the memory's rated speed.

 

[knothead34]

i hope that power supply is a good brand at native 24 pin and 480watts.if wanting to do sli with high end cards get more power

 

[Beiruty]

No SLI for me... cause it does not make sense... an SLI will cost 2 X the cost of the video cards plus the extra cost for an SLI motherboard. Why Bother when G70 or R520 is within the next few months... for less money... better performance less heat!

If you want to upgrade sell your card and buy another PCIe card.

also the heat problem for 2 Hi-end Video card is a PROBLEM


I will be getting a brand name (Antec) PSU with ATX 2.0 connecters for the PCIe.

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

Everything looks great, good luck with your system!