My first AMD system, please give it a look over.

[MobileHulk]

Okay, after 15 years of Intel systems I'm moving to AMD. I can't fight it anymore, the A64s are too fast, Prescott is too hot.

I have decided to go with a socket 754 system for a few reasons:
1. My main application is video editing and pure clockspeed rules for my preferred application (Sony Vegas). I can get a A64 3400+ which runs at 2.4GHz stock for $220.
2. I am NOT going to overclock. This system has to be 100% stable. I also will NOT be playing games on this system.

Please let me know if I'm making any mistakes, or things to look out for. As I said this is my first AMD build and I'm a little nervous about the build since this is new territory for me.

Case: Antec SLK1650B with 350Watt power supply - I don't want a door on the front of the case and I want a quiet case. This one seems to fit the bill.

Video card: AIW 9000 Pro pull from my current system. No gaming on this system!

Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda, probably 160GB with NCQ

Motherboard: Asus K8N nForce 3 - I'm not sure about this but I'm just looking for one that is really stable. I don't need any features outside of LAN. Will this motherboard support NCQ?

Memory: 1GB PC3200 Corsair Value Ram from my current system.

CPU - socket 754 A64 3400+, Should I go retail or OEM? Is the retail fan loud? Can I get something quieter?

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks,

- Mark

 

[Regs]

Why not a winchester? They run even cooler.

 

[amol]

Originally posted by: Regs
Why not a winchester? They run even cooler.

because he's getting socket 754

 

[Amaroque]

Looks good to me.

If you aren't going to OC, and you want the three year warranty, the retail CPU isn't a bad option. By the time you buy an OEM CPU, and HSF, it's almost the same price anyway. I haven't used that board personally, but ASUS makes very stable boards in general.

AFAIK The retail HSF is pretty quiet.

If you need a fast HDD, you might want to also consider a Raptor.

 

[imported_Computer MAn]

Looks great to me. I don't think any of the NF3 boards support NCQ I think it's only the NF4's

 

[Ike0069]

Originally posted by: Computer MAn
Looks great to me. I don't think any of the NF3 boards support NCQ I think it's only the NF4's

Yea, and unfortunately NF4 is only for S939.


Edit: I would suggest the antec Sonata. It comes with a superior PSU, and the top front door is removable.

 

[dguy6789]

You could save ALOT of money just buying a 2800+ or a 3000+ cpu. And except for something like sandra, you will not notice a diff between a 3400+ and a 2800+ in anything.

 

[jose]

Take a look at the Compucase LX6A-19 at Directron for $39 no ps.

Also look at the DFI LanpartyUT $100 , best socket 745 mobo. imho

Regards,
Jose

 

[Chosonman]

Originally posted by: dguy6789
You could save ALOT of money just buying a 2800+ or a 3000+ cpu. And except for something like sandra, you will not notice a diff between a 3400+ and a 2800+ in anything.

He stated he needed as much CPU power as he could afford. Right now for the type of work he's doing the 3400 is a great processor for the money easily beating a Socket 939 3500+ in Audio/Video work and multithreading applications.

Originally posted by: jose
Take a look at the Compucase LX6A-19 at Directron for $39 no ps.
Also look at the DFI LanpartyUT $100 , best socket 745 mobo. imho
Regards,
Jose

Yes the DFI is great for overclockers, but for features alone any number of motherboard would suffice. I own a Soltek K8AN2E-GR which works great for me. And at about $85.00 not a bad deal for a motherboard.


Also, If you want a quiet case I hear the Antec Sonata is as quiet as they come and comes with a very good Power supply. I recomend getting the retail CPU you get a longer warranty and the Fan isn't so loud as long as you have a quiet case.

Everything else looks good. No complaints or mismatched parts. Value RAM is good stuff. Maybe you want 2 gigs for video editing I hear 2 is optimal for that, but I'm not sure. And I hear Video editing takes up tons of HD space. I would get as much HD space as you can afford. But that's up to you how much you plan to use.

 

[Silversierra]

Case: Antec SLK1650B with 350Watt power supply - I don't want a door on the front of the case and I want a quiet case. This one seems to fit the bill.

I have this case. Mine is quiet, although that doesn't matter much with my noisy video card. I agree that not having a door is very nice. My psu came with 21a on 12v rail, (advertised as 16a), so it is better than generic psu. It is a little awkward to mount the floppy drives if you do mount any. It is a good case. I ordered from Newegg.

 

[CalvinHobbs]

eh sorry to barge in your post...just wanna know if mr rig is ok...i built it mainly for video editing...amd64 3500+ newcastle, msi k8n neo2 platinum, i gig ddr400 in dual channel, 450w psu...thanks guys

 

[jterrell]

Originally posted by: MobileHulk
Okay, after 15 years of Intel systems I'm moving to AMD. I can't fight it anymore, the A64s are too fast, Prescott is too hot.

I have decided to go with a socket 754 system for a few reasons:
1. My main application is video editing and pure clockspeed rules for my preferred application (Sony Vegas). I can get a A64 3400+ which runs at 2.4GHz stock for $220.
2. I am NOT going to overclock. This system has to be 100% stable. I also will NOT be playing games on this system.

Please let me know if I'm making any mistakes, or things to look out for. As I said this is my first AMD build and I'm a little nervous about the build since this is new territory for me.

Case: Antec SLK1650B with 350Watt power supply - I don't want a door on the front of the case and I want a quiet case. This one seems to fit the bill.

Video card: AIW 9000 Pro pull from my current system. No gaming on this system!

Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda, probably 160GB with NCQ

Motherboard: Asus K8N nForce 3 - I'm not sure about this but I'm just looking for one that is really stable. I don't need any features outside of LAN. Will this motherboard support NCQ?

Memory: 1GB PC3200 Corsair Value Ram from my current system.

CPU - socket 754 A64 3400+, Should I go retail or OEM? Is the retail fan loud? Can I get something quieter?

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks,

- Mark

I'd certianly go s939 for video editing or stick with the Intel platform.

939-Nf4 can get you NCQ, SATAII(i.e. the new Seagate Barracudas), PCI-Express vid cards which offer faster throughout(though unused for now), and dual channel memory(you have that now) which I think will be your bottleneck in a s754 doing video editing.

s754 is actually a better solution for a budget gaming box if in fact it is a good solution at all right now given the price points on everything.

A s939 system with a mild overclock is totally safe, painfully easy and runs ten times cooler than Intel at stock and at least as cool as a s754 at stock.

If you are wed to that aiw9000 then go s939 nforce3.

 

[Hilandertheone]

If i was you i would get a better ps 350 is the min. 450 or 500+ is probably a much better solution.
Also great idea changing to AMD!!!

 

[MobileHulk]

Thanks for all the helpful comments.

If I did decide to go with a nForce 4 motherboard and just get a socket 939 cpu and new PCI-E vid card what motherboard would you suggest? Stability being my #1 criteria, performance being #2.

You guys have got me wondering if I shouldn't just make the move to nForce 4. Better upgrade path for CPUs and video cards plus NCQ.

How long has nForce 4 been out? Are all the issues normally associated with new chipsets worked out?

 

[montag451]

NCQ wouldn't give you any benefits.
I can't understand why ppl think it does.
It is for servers and the like where large amounts of files need to be accessed at the same time.

All the reviews i have seen seem to point to NCQ slowing a standalone system down!!

 

[Amaroque]

Originally posted by: montag451
NCQ wouldn't give you any benefits.
I can't understand why ppl think it does.
It is for servers and the like where large amounts of files need to be accessed at the same time.

All the reviews i have seen seem to point to NCQ slowing a standalone system down!!

If you need fast storage, like I said above, I'd recommend the 10,000 RPM 74 GB Raptor(s). That will give you a lot more performance then NCQ.

 

[montag451]

 

[SunSamurai]

"My main application is video editing and pure clockspeed rules"

if that were true, why are you going for AMD?

 

[montag451]

Dont turn this into an AMD v Pentium.

The guy has done his research and has come up with his conclusions - which, by the sounds of it are different from yours.

so be it.

Everyone's research will turn up different things. - the only real answer is to use both computers side by side for a week to see which would suit the punter, but, that is gonna be unlikely.
Don't go for a certain cpu or mobo or ram just cos it gets another 36 points on some spurious calculation that has nothing to do with realtime.
So what if it takes an extra 0.0000345 seconds to calculate the first 100000000 digits of pi?

 

[SunSamurai]

He said "My main application is video editing and pure clockspeed rules", is false, AMD or intel

 

[MobileHulk]

Originally posted by: aeternitas
"My main application is video editing and pure clockspeed rules"

if that were true, why are you going for AMD?

Okay, let me clarify.

Whether it be an AMD or Intel system, the clockspeed of the system is more important than the FSB speed or L2 cache amount.

For Sony Vegas, per MHz A64's are much more efficient than P4s. In addition, for the money AMD is the "faster" system. Finally, I want a quiet system, which is harder to accomplish with Prescott.

So, forget about Intel, AMD is faster for my application.

NOW, the difference between 512kb L2 and 1MB L2 is NOT as important as the difference between 200MHz in an A64.

The decision to go with AMD was already made. The clockspeed line was stated in regard to WHICH AMD processor to buy.

Thanks again for all the help.

I run a benchmark site for Sony Vegas. L2 does matter for audio performance, but not so much for video. Yes, a o/c P4EE is on top, but overclocking a 939 AMD to 2.55GHz would equal that score, and it wouldn't cost $1000. You can't buy a P4EE for less than $800 or so anywhere. I was hoping not to get into all this as I'm quite familiar with which processor to get, I just needed help making sure I was putting together a good set of components!

I DID NOT make any false statements but I may not have explained fully. Sorry for the confusion.

Benchmarks

 

[MobileHulk]

I know lots of people have really fast AMD systems. If anyone uses Sony Vegas please run my test and knock that P4 system out of the top spot.