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Need to move up build date of A64 machine

F

Fun Guy

Golden Member
My present P4 2.8Ghz 533Mhz (non-HT) machine seems to be dying quickly, it is acting weird with data, browser fonts, video, etc, so I need to build my replacement system earlier than I thought....ASAP!

I'm getting an Antec SLK1650 case and will be going AMD on this system. I will need an Athlon64 processor and an ATX motherboard. I've got the RAM I need for now (2 x 512MB of Corsair XMS 3200C2) and will be using the following components for the rest of the machine:

- Seagate 18GB 15K.3 for boot/system/application drive
- Samsung 160GB SpinPoint for data drive
- ATI All in Wonder 9800 Pro for video

So I have four questions I need help with....

(1) Which A64 Processor?
(2) Which A64 ATX MB?
(3) Which interface for the Samsung - SATA or EIDE (or does it even matter)?
(4) Should I replace the stock/retail A64 HSF with something else?

I'm not a gamer, but I want to be able to pull back-up video editing duties from my main machine if I need to, so mainstream (Asus) is usually best for this, though I am willing to look at other MB mfrs. Don't want a lot of heat or noise. As a matter of fact, I don't want any.

Any help is greatly appreciated, as I will likely be ordering everything very soon.
 
Hmm, 45 views and no responses....is it because I should know this stuff already by reading all the posts on the topics? I've done quite a bit of reading, but still looking for input.
 
Are you going to be overclocking?
If you are get the:
Athlon 64 3200+ (939)
If your not get the:
Athlon 64 3500+ (939)

Epox EP-9NDA3J

Doesnt matter

No the stock hsf is fine
 
Look for the System thread, and yes there have been 1,000 other system threads in the last month 🙂
System Thread

Sonata and SLK3700AMB are my favorite cases, for the SLK you might want a quieter PSU but the included one is decent.

Zalman -alcu HSFs are excellent for running cooler and quieter than the retail HSF

Since you don't want PCI-E you don't need nforce4 and can look at the mobos in the System thread.

SATA and PATA/IDE are the same speed so go by price, cache, warranty. Spinpoints are cool, quiet, reliable but just a little slower than WD's hot-n-whiny drives. Seagate are comparable to Samsung but more expensive.
 
How much you wanna spend?
Look below for my specs.
MOBO+CPU = $89.00 + $148.00 = $237.00
It doesn't look like you need anything else.

I have a Sockt 754 Processor and MOBO, You can pay more for a 939 but this will do for the next few years.
 
If you want to spend some cash, I would do:

AMD Athlon 64 3700+
Asus K8N-E Deluxe Motherboard
Zalman CNPS7000B-AlCu

You'll have a quiet, fast machine that will last you until your next update: DDR2, Dual Core, PCI-e, etc.

I would go SATA on the hard drive if you, there isn't really a performance boost, but you will be able to loose the big IDE cable and replace it with a smaller, less restricting, SATA one.
 
I just built an A64 with the MSI Neo2 Platinum and Winchester 3000+ this weekend.

I don't know about Samsung but most SATA drives are only IDE drives with a bridge chip to SATA ports. Not very effective. Seagate is TRUE SATA as are Raptors and the new Maxtor 16gb cache drive.

Stock cooling is fine for the A64. You won't need water cooling like the Prescott.
 
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