First, some background info. I'm a technician working at a small white box vendor - we sell 30-40 systems per month, 2-3 servers, do a lot of support.
Until now, we've been selling Intel only - both CPUs and motherboards, reason being that Intel's official importers (I'm in Israel) provide good support and return policy (guaranteed exchange within a few days, even for old stuff such as Pentium IIs). AMD, on the other hand, was represented by Aztech, whose idea of return policy is "IF you bought both CPU and motherboard from us, and IF you are cool with waiting a month or two, and IF you agree to accept a Duron in place of your Athlon, and IF we're in a generous mood today, then you MIGHT get something; otherwise - get lost". This far outweighed any potential cost savings. I myself am an AMD guy - I have 3 computers at home, running Athlon 500, Duron 1200 and AthlonXP 2500+, but in light of the above, I couldn't recommend it to anyone who wouldn't be able to do their own tech support.
A few weeks ago, however, things changed - Aztech is out, and TechData is in. TechData is a large international company, we've bought a lot of hardware from them in the past (Seagate drives, Club3D graphics cards, etc), and their warranty support is nothing short of exemplary. Looking at this, we're starting to build AMD based systems again (we used to sell a lot of them back in K6 days, about 50% of our sales, but then Aztech came...)
Now, with Intel, we had 4 main configurations:
1) Mid-range home PC. D865PERL + Pentium 4 2.8C GHz, 2x256MB DDR400, either Club3D Radeon 9200SE or Club3D Radeon 9600PRO, Western Digital WD800JB or WD1200JD, customer's choice of CD-ROM/DVD-ROM/CD-RW/DVD-RW.
2) High-end office PC. D865GBF + Pentium 4 2.8C GHz, 2x256MB DDR400, using onboard VGA. WD400JB or WD800JB.
3) Less expensive home PC. D845EPI + Pentium 4 2.8GHz/533FSB, 256MB DDR333, Club3D Radeon 9200SE, WD400JB or WD800JB.
4) Budget box. D845GVSR + Celeron 2.4GHz, 256MB DDR333, WD400JB.
For cases, we use cheap (~$25 with "300W" PSU) boxes by Techno, HEC 6K27 ($45 mATX case including 300W PSU) and HEC 6A19 (VERY good case for $70, which, again, includes 300W PSU). Techno PSUs are borderline trash, they usually last their 1-year warranty, but a lot fail past that. HEC-300ER, on the other hand, are excellent - we've been selling them for over 3 years, not a single return so far.
Now, we're looking to expand to AMD. Our preferred motherboard brand is EPoX - reason being, I've gathered a general good opinion about their reliability, and official EPoX importer is Data JCE, who are good folks to deal with. We buy all our RAM (Samsung Original - unbelievable reliability, like 2-3 returns in a year) from them, and we've been satisfied with their warranty support. 3-year warranty is nice too, in a market flooded by ECS.
I've been playing around with the idea of the following configs:
8RGM3I + Duron 1600 + 2x256MB DDR333. Low end home system with the MX440 for basic gaming. AthlonXP 2500+ Barton if the customer is willing to pay a little more.
Questions: does nForce2 IGP do dual channel, and will it help graphics performance? If the customer isn't willing to pay for 512MB RAM, how much is the minimum that can be allocated to IGP?
8RDA3I + AthlonXP 2500+ Barton + 2x256MB DDR400 + Club3D Radeon 9600PRO 128MB. Should cost about as much as the first Intel system before graphics card. Squeeze in 8RDA3+ if customer is interested in the extra features (SATA, RAID, Firewire). 8RDA6 series aren't here yet.
Questions: Will DDR400 make a performance difference over DDR333, considering the FSB bottleneck? Same for dual channel. Single 512MB DDR333 module costs a measurable amount less than 2x256MB DDR400. How good is the SiI3112 on 8RDA3+ compared to ICH5? Does Symantec Ghost work with it?
For those rare types who are willing to hand over the credit card, 8KDA3J or even 8KDA3+ with Athlon64 2800+ or 3000+, Radeon 9600XT or 9800PRO (considering how the price fell). I'm still having a hard time convincing my boss that Athlon64 is good stuff though. What are general impressions with this board? Stability, reliability, etc.
Also, a general question - what is the "optimal" CPU speed for Radeon 9600PRO/XT? Is going above AthlonXP 2500+ practical? I found an set of benchmarks for X800PRO and 6800GT on Pentium 4 1.6GHz, 2.4GHz and 3.2GHz, and difference between 2.4 and 3.2 was minimal in most modern games such as Unreal 2, but I haven't been able to find anything similar for mid-range cards.
Any input, corrections, answers, etc, will be appreciated
Thanks in advance.
P.S.: And please, no Asus. Every single board of theirs we tried to work with, we've had massive returns (including P8P800 and P8C800), and their importers sure take their time to exchange (their FASTEST turnaround is about 2 weeks).
Until now, we've been selling Intel only - both CPUs and motherboards, reason being that Intel's official importers (I'm in Israel) provide good support and return policy (guaranteed exchange within a few days, even for old stuff such as Pentium IIs). AMD, on the other hand, was represented by Aztech, whose idea of return policy is "IF you bought both CPU and motherboard from us, and IF you are cool with waiting a month or two, and IF you agree to accept a Duron in place of your Athlon, and IF we're in a generous mood today, then you MIGHT get something; otherwise - get lost". This far outweighed any potential cost savings. I myself am an AMD guy - I have 3 computers at home, running Athlon 500, Duron 1200 and AthlonXP 2500+, but in light of the above, I couldn't recommend it to anyone who wouldn't be able to do their own tech support.
A few weeks ago, however, things changed - Aztech is out, and TechData is in. TechData is a large international company, we've bought a lot of hardware from them in the past (Seagate drives, Club3D graphics cards, etc), and their warranty support is nothing short of exemplary. Looking at this, we're starting to build AMD based systems again (we used to sell a lot of them back in K6 days, about 50% of our sales, but then Aztech came...)
Now, with Intel, we had 4 main configurations:
1) Mid-range home PC. D865PERL + Pentium 4 2.8C GHz, 2x256MB DDR400, either Club3D Radeon 9200SE or Club3D Radeon 9600PRO, Western Digital WD800JB or WD1200JD, customer's choice of CD-ROM/DVD-ROM/CD-RW/DVD-RW.
2) High-end office PC. D865GBF + Pentium 4 2.8C GHz, 2x256MB DDR400, using onboard VGA. WD400JB or WD800JB.
3) Less expensive home PC. D845EPI + Pentium 4 2.8GHz/533FSB, 256MB DDR333, Club3D Radeon 9200SE, WD400JB or WD800JB.
4) Budget box. D845GVSR + Celeron 2.4GHz, 256MB DDR333, WD400JB.
For cases, we use cheap (~$25 with "300W" PSU) boxes by Techno, HEC 6K27 ($45 mATX case including 300W PSU) and HEC 6A19 (VERY good case for $70, which, again, includes 300W PSU). Techno PSUs are borderline trash, they usually last their 1-year warranty, but a lot fail past that. HEC-300ER, on the other hand, are excellent - we've been selling them for over 3 years, not a single return so far.
Now, we're looking to expand to AMD. Our preferred motherboard brand is EPoX - reason being, I've gathered a general good opinion about their reliability, and official EPoX importer is Data JCE, who are good folks to deal with. We buy all our RAM (Samsung Original - unbelievable reliability, like 2-3 returns in a year) from them, and we've been satisfied with their warranty support. 3-year warranty is nice too, in a market flooded by ECS.
I've been playing around with the idea of the following configs:
8RGM3I + Duron 1600 + 2x256MB DDR333. Low end home system with the MX440 for basic gaming. AthlonXP 2500+ Barton if the customer is willing to pay a little more.
Questions: does nForce2 IGP do dual channel, and will it help graphics performance? If the customer isn't willing to pay for 512MB RAM, how much is the minimum that can be allocated to IGP?
8RDA3I + AthlonXP 2500+ Barton + 2x256MB DDR400 + Club3D Radeon 9600PRO 128MB. Should cost about as much as the first Intel system before graphics card. Squeeze in 8RDA3+ if customer is interested in the extra features (SATA, RAID, Firewire). 8RDA6 series aren't here yet.
Questions: Will DDR400 make a performance difference over DDR333, considering the FSB bottleneck? Same for dual channel. Single 512MB DDR333 module costs a measurable amount less than 2x256MB DDR400. How good is the SiI3112 on 8RDA3+ compared to ICH5? Does Symantec Ghost work with it?
For those rare types who are willing to hand over the credit card, 8KDA3J or even 8KDA3+ with Athlon64 2800+ or 3000+, Radeon 9600XT or 9800PRO (considering how the price fell). I'm still having a hard time convincing my boss that Athlon64 is good stuff though. What are general impressions with this board? Stability, reliability, etc.
Also, a general question - what is the "optimal" CPU speed for Radeon 9600PRO/XT? Is going above AthlonXP 2500+ practical? I found an set of benchmarks for X800PRO and 6800GT on Pentium 4 1.6GHz, 2.4GHz and 3.2GHz, and difference between 2.4 and 3.2 was minimal in most modern games such as Unreal 2, but I haven't been able to find anything similar for mid-range cards.
Any input, corrections, answers, etc, will be appreciated
Thanks in advance.P.S.: And please, no Asus. Every single board of theirs we tried to work with, we've had massive returns (including P8P800 and P8C800), and their importers sure take their time to exchange (their FASTEST turnaround is about 2 weeks).
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