New DIY Workstation

[amdnVuser]

I'm going to use this for work (mainly MS Office, a little Visual Studio, Oracle client DB stuff). My main concern is the Antec TX640B's included power supply (400W Smart Power 2.0. It has dual 12V rails, but with only 10A on 12V1 and 15A on 12V2. Is this okay for a single core Athlon64?

AMD Athlon64 3000+ (s939, Venice core): $154, ZZF
BFG BFGRNF4U (nForce4 Ultra): $129.99, ZZF
1GB Corsair Value Select CAS 2.5 DDR400: $83, ZZF
Asus EN6200GE 128MB PCIe Geforce 6200: $95.99, ZZF
single WD 36.7GB Raptor: $111, ZZF
Sony CRX320E (black) DVD/CDRW combo drive, $37, ZZF
Sony MPF920 3.5" FDD: $15, ZZF
Antec TX640B case w/ 400W SmartPower 2.0: $101.02, TechOnWeb
Belkin F8E208-BLK ergonomic keyboard: $31.73, TechOnWeb
Belkin F8E814-BLK-OPT optical USB mouse: $19.69, TechOnWeb

Total: $775.88

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Looks good, I disagree on the motherboard though. I'd recommend the ASUS A8N-E or the DFI LAnParty for that price.
$15 for a floppy???????????????

Other than that, not too bad.

-TPG

 

[amdnVuser]

Thanks. I should give a little background info. I work for a public university, and my boss is letting me build my own machine vs. ordering from Dell (i.e. the equivalent would be an Optiplex GX620 MT for $1011.50 right now), with whom we're under contract. So, since we're tax exempt, I'm trying to buy from etailers who don't charge tax for our state so we don't have to deal with having to fax over proof of our tax exempt status and so forth (thus, the $15 FDD at ZZF, the same drive is $13 w/ tax at Newegg BTW).

Anyway, as far as the motherboard is concerned, again, since it's being paid for with university funds, I'd prefer a vendor with easy to contact tech support (thus, toll free 24hr tech support w/BFG vs. long distance support w/ Asus or god only knows w/ DFI since their US site is down right now) just in case something happens with the motherboard. If it were for myself, that would be a different story.

Lastly, any opinions on the PSU's amperage on the 12V rails?

 

[The Pentium Guy]

I think your PSU is more than enough =).
I understand your reasoning with the tech support....etc, it's all cool .

But I'm still wondering.... what's with the $15 floppy?
-TPG

 

[Oyeve]

Looks good. I would dump the sony dvd/cdrw combo and for about 15 bucks more get an NEC 3250 DVD burner (they burn cdrs also).

 

[Chode Messiah]

Dell rips off schools all the time with generic crap parts and stripped down computers.

 

[amdnVuser]

Originally posted by: Oyeve
Looks good. I would dump the sony dvd/cdrw combo and for about 15 bucks more get an NEC 3250 DVD burner (they burn cdrs also).

Our dept. is about to purchase an external dual layer DVD+/-RW for everyone to use (we probably won't use it that much, just for the occasional backup), and I was actually getting the Sony DVD/CDRW to try to match the TX640B's color a little better. I figured that since Liteon makes most Sony OEM optical drives (I think) and since I've had great experiences with Liteon drives, why not? Any thoughts?

 

[Oyeve]

Originally posted by: amdnVuser

Originally posted by: Oyeve
Looks good. I would dump the sony dvd/cdrw combo and for about 15 bucks more get an NEC 3250 DVD burner (they burn cdrs also).

Our dept. is about to purchase an external dual layer DVD+/-RW for everyone to use (we probably won't use it that much, just for the occasional backup), and I was actually getting the Sony DVD/CDRW to try to match the TX640B's color a little better. I figured that since Liteon makes most Sony OEM optical drives (I think) and since I've had great experiences with Liteon drives, why not? Any thoughts?

IMO, Lite-On aint what it used to be.

 

[amdnVuser]

Does anyone know of an optical drive that's not grayish/matte black this? This is some forum member's TX640B, and I'd like to try to avoid this (I know it's petty, but it annoys the hell out of me). The Sony looked closest to the TX640B's case color based on Newegg's photo (I thought).

 

[amdnVuser]

Okay, here's my dilemma...I just read that the Asus A8N-E now has a BIOS that supports dual core (from www.amdzone.com). I contacted BFG, and they said:

"At this time, our motherboard does not support the dual core processors, mainly
since noe exist yet. IF, when they are released, they use the same socket type
and the nForce4 chipset can suppoer them, then we will do all we can to make our
board and its BIOS support them.

At this time, though, we have to say "no" simply becuase there's no way to tell
until AMD ships out some product."

Thus, would you get the A8N-E or risk BFG not releasing a dual core BIOS?

 

[DerwenArtos12]

I would have suggested getting the asus or the dfi before your dual-core post anyway because both maufactureres are known to make good boards. After reading what they said about dual cores, i will now know to tell people to avoid BFG motherboards at all costs. that is not the right way to design motherboards.

 

[jose]

Like others recomemded, I'd get either the Asus A8N-E or the DFI Ultra-D... Also the NEC3520a is only $40 and a better choice...

 

[amdnVuser]

Thanks. Well, I just found out that we have a little more left in our budget, so I convinced my boss that we should probably get a more powerful workstation (we're transitioning over to a new ERP system, and we're not entirely sure what kind of client software will be involved since it's about a 3 yr. implementation). Thus, I thought we should go Opteron 2xx since 1) we'll have 2 physical processors (not to mention at least 2GB RAM) that should be able to handle any software that we'd run (including some complex Excel macros and VLOOKUP's, reporting tools, etc.) and 2) even if we run into some performance issues, we can always go dual core in a year or so since it looks as though socket 940 will be around for at least a little more than another year. Thus, opinions on the following new specs?

2x AMD Opteron 244's
Asus K8N-DL (I'd prefer the K8WE, but I just can't seem to fit it into our budget)
2GB Corsair Value Select ECC DDR400 (4x512MB)
single WD 36.7GB Raptor (or 80GB SATA or SATA II) HDD?
Liteon SOHW-1673s DVD/CDRW (or maybe the NEC3520a)
Asus EN6200GE (PCIe Geforce 6200 non-TC)
Lian-Li PC-V1200 EATX case
Antec TruePower 2.0 EPS12V 550W PSU
Belkin ergo keyboard
Belkin optical mouse

Total: $1677.34