New build help

[dawgtuff]

Present system:
Opteron 140@2.6
2gb DDR400 2-3-3-4 1T
ASUS A8N-e
ASUS 8600GTO 512 mb DDR3
WD Caviar sata 500gb
XP Pro

This system 5+ years old, but has served me well. I'm thinking of upgrading. I'm keeping my Antec Sonata case w/new 600 watt PS, I have all kinds of fans/heatsinks for cooling. I'll be using my Sunbeam 120mm fan/4 copper tube CPU heatsink. So, all I need is a new CPU/mobo( SATA 3.0 capable)/and 4gb of DDR3.
I'm looking at Phenom IIx3 940 for the CPU. This will fit my needs as I don't do much multitasking. I have $300-400 to invest.

 

[mfenn]

Two things right off the bat: No such thing as a Phenom II x3 940. Also, make sure that your heatsink will work with the AM2/AM3 mounting mechanism.

For $300, you can get:
Athlon II X4 640 + M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 combo $206
G.Skill DDR3 1333 4GB $83

For an extra ~$22 (well worth in IMHO) you can get this CPU/mobo instead
Phenon II X4 955 + M4A87TD/USB3 combo $228

 

[dawgtuff]

Sorry, I meant the x3 720 CPU. Would your suggestions still be a better option?

 

[mfenn]

For $228, I don't see how you can beat the 955 combo that I linked from a value proposition.

You could certainly sub in the triple core into either of those builds, but I don't think it's worthwhile in the long-run. Even if you don't multi-task much, your individual programs are going to become more and more multi-threaded (especially in the 3-5 year time horizon).

 

[dawgtuff]

mfenn- Thanks for your help. You sold me me on the Phenomx4 955. The ASUS mobo you recommended had some great features at a good price, but after checking some reviews with the CPU it had a major problem.....it wouldn't OC well and there was a mounting problem. Mobo's that would OC were:
MSI ATXM
GIGABITE MA78G-DSHP-F5e bios
" GA-790XTA-UD4
" 870A
I've used ASUS mobo's for most of my builds and am very happy with them. If you have a recommendation of a better ASUS mobo please advise....Thanks again for your input.

 

[Axon]

What review are you referring to? Newegg's reviews?

Firstly, take user reviews with a grain of salt. A lot of people don't know exactly what they're doing. The guy complaining of the overclocking limitation had a defective individual board, which happens all the time. So you RMA it.

I didn't see anything about a mounting issue (nonsensical - all ATX boards are the same form factor; the board would have to warp), but I did see something about someone not knowing why he couldn't get the board in his case and a guy complaining about the backplate, which you don't even need.

Anyway, buy what you want, but that's a good board and a good deal.

 

[mfenn]

What review are you referring to? Newegg's reviews?

Firstly, take user reviews with a grain of salt. A lot of people don't know exactly what they're doing. The guy complaining of the overclocking limitation had a defective individual board, which happens all the time. So you RMA it.

I didn't see anything about a mounting issue (nonsensical - all ATX boards are the same form factor; the board would have to warp), but I did see something about someone not knowing why he couldn't get the board in his case and a guy complaining about the backplate, which you don't even need.

Anyway, buy what you want, but that's a good board and a good deal.

:thumbsup: Couldn't have put it better myself.

 

[dawgtuff]

Yeh, it was Newegg reviews, however, they were posted as "high" technical knowledge. I went to couple of other sites and found the AMD 955/Asus M4A87 combo worked fine.
I looked at the G.Skill Ripjaw 2x2gb DDR3. I'm really interested in that. Should I go with the 2000 or would that be overkill compared to the 1600?

 

[mfenn]

Yeh, it was Newegg reviews, however, they were posted as "high" technical knowledge. I went to couple of other sites and found the AMD 955/Asus M4A87 combo worked fine.
I looked at the G.Skill Ripjaw 2x2gb DDR3. I'm really interested in that. Should I go with the 2000 or would that be overkill compared to the 1600?

DDR3 2000 isn't necessary or worth the price premium.

 

[dawgtuff]

mfenn- Thanks for the input. The reason I asked is I was thinking of underclocking the ram to get faster latentcys. Am I right on this?

 

[mfenn]

mfenn- Thanks for the input. The reason I asked is I was thinking of underclocking the ram to get faster latentcys. Am I right on this?

In theory CAS 9 DDR3 2000 is more likely to run at CAS 8 at DDR3 1600 (or whatever), but personally I wouldn't bother. Latencies don't matter as much as they did in the DDR1 days. Remember that latencies are given in terms of clock cycles, so reducing the speed of the memory and CAS latency of the memory can give you the same actual latency.

For example:
DDR3 2000 CAS 9 = 4.5ns
DDR3 1600 CAS 9 = 5.625ns
DDR3 1600 CAS 8 = 5ns
DDR1 400 CAS 3 = 7.5ns
DDR1 400 CAS 2 = 5ns

So as you can see, the difference between CAS 9 and CAS 8 on DDR3 is much much less than the difference between CAS 3 and CAS 2 on DDR1.

In short, no I wouldn't bother.

 

[dawgtuff]

mfenn-Thanks, I understand. Another question, which brand of DDR3 1600/2000 will run at 1T w/low latency's?

 

[mfenn]

mfenn-Thanks, I understand. Another question, which brand of DDR3 1600/2000 will run at 1T w/low latency's?

You should be able to run pretty much any 2 DIMM configuration at 1T. DDR3 1600 is nice so that you can have some headroom to keep the memory in-spec while raising the CPU frequency, but I wouldn't worry too much about the timings. Here's some CAS 9 G.Skill DDR3 1600. The have CAS 8 and CAS 7 as well, but I probably wouldn't pay the premium.

 

[Axon]

+1 on G.Skill RAM.

 

[dawgtuff]

Here's something I forgot to mention. I have 2-Viewsonic VG2021m 21" FULL screen monitors that run at 1400x1050. For gaming will it still be better to go to a Phenom 955 or would a dual core do as good for these lower resolutions? Also, I plan to go with a single GPU.

 

[mfenn]

Here's something I forgot to mention. I have 2-Viewsonic VG2021m 21" FULL screen monitors that run at 1400x1050. For gaming will it still be better to go to a Phenom 955 or would a dual core do as good for these lower resolutions? Also, I plan to go with a single GPU.

A game's CPU-intensiveness is generally not related to the resolution of your display, so no I would not go down to a dual.