New mid- range system: AMD or Intel?

[christos]

Based on anandtech's Mid-Range System, I'm trying to decide which one fits the best:

not a gamer, plan to do lot of capture/encoding.
I want very good video quality.

Maybe Intel. it also supports PCIe for future upgrade.
Or maybe, is it worth going for MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum,Nforce4 ultra, socket 939?

Which one for OCing?

Any alternatives for video cards?
Any alternatives for monitor?
Any alternatives for any other component?

Any suggestion would be very helpful.

 

[mrgoblin]

Welcome to AT. Dont buy anything right now. Wait a few months and youll be a lot happier.

 

[gobucks]

i just got an A64 3000+ socket 939 for $154 including shipping, for the retail kit, from newegg. That's substantially cheaper than an Intel equivalent, and performs better. I like PCIe as well, but now AMD has it too. I had the A8N-SLI from Asus, but i'm returning it cause the SATA controller is not working and i don't want to spend 3 weeks waiting for an RMA. Now i just ordered the Chaintech VNF4/Ultra board from newegg today, only $124 including shipping, with SATA-II, hardware firewall, PCIe, etc. Haven't got it yet, but you can't find features like that for the price. As for overclocking, i've heard that 45% overclocks on a 3000+ are not out of the question, even on good air, so that's a hell of a lot better than anything on the Intel front. At 2.6GHz, a 3000+ can give the FX-55, a.k.a. the fastest chip on the planet, a run for its money. Unfortunately i haven't bought my Zalman 7700 HSF, so i can't verify this yet, but i hope to soon. BTW, for video, it's hard to beat the XFX 6600GT. At $180, it's one of the cheapest dual DVI cards you can find, and it packs more horsepower than a 9800XT, last year's $500 card. Before my Asus mobo died, it was chugging through Farcry like a champ. Oh, and it also has a video processor that supports MPEG2/WMV encoding/decoding, so that sounds like it'd be useful for you.

 

[mossad]

Originally posted by: mrgoblin
Welcome to AT. Dont buy anything right now. Wait a few months and youll be a lot happier.

What month and what are you looking forward to.

 

[christos]

Been blowing my mind lately, searching & reading reviews & threads.
I'm very tired to say the least.But I finally came to a decision:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 512K 2.0 GHz 90 nm (939)
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum,Nforce4 ultra, socket 939
OCZ DDR 512MB PC3200 CL2.5 PREMIER SERIES
XFX GeForce 6600 128 MB DDR/PCI-E/TV-Out/DVI
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 160GB Serial ATA 7200RPM 8MB w/NCQ
NEC DVD+/-RW ND-3500A
Antec SLK3700-BQE w/350W PSU
Hauppauge Win TV150 PVR-MCE

PS:
Windows XP HOME or Media Center?
DDR PC3700 for later OCing?

 

[Mik3y]

i say wait a few weeks til more nforce 4 boards come out. they will become cheaper and you'll have a much better sea to fish out of.

 

[edumacated81]

I'd make a couple suggestions to maybe give you some more bang for your buck. Also, the guy that mentioned the dual DVI GT made a great suggestion.

WD 250GB SATA will probably do a lot more for ya:
$130 here

And 1GB of Corsair Value ram will also do more for ya then high priced OCZ:
2x$69 @ Newegg

Sounds like a good system otherwise...waiting for the NForce4 isn't a bad idea either..GL :beer:

 

[Dethfrumbelo]

Don't bother with the vanilla 6600. Get the GT.

Personally, I would also go with the Antec SLK3000-B, which combines the best features from the BQE and AMB, and then choose your own PSU, a high quality 400+ Watter.

 

[DEredita]

Originally posted by: christos
Based on anandtech's Mid-Range System, I'm trying to decide which one fits the best:

MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum,Nforce4 ultra, socket 939?

When are these coming out??? When this board comes out, my credit card will be coming out too.

- Mike

 

[Mrvile]

Hmm are we sure about MSI's first-generation product? MSI isn't famous for stability, and I definately wouldn't trust their first wave of motherboards. Maybe after a few months. Otherwise I'd stick with Asus' SLI.

 

[FlameDeer]

Originally posted by: christos
not a gamer, plan to do lot of capture/encoding.
I want very good video quality.

P4 system more suitable for you. Choose a good PCIe display card, X700 or 6600GT.

 

[pjwinkler]

You sound like you in the same market as me, well what I'm doing is this:

get everything you can on boxing day. i'm getting:

AMD Athlon 3000+ (939)
gig of dual channel RAM DDR 400
seagate barracuda 80 7200 rpm and 8 megs cache
case
Antec true power 430W
cd drive
Windows XP pro OEM

for in between 900-1000 CDN after TAX. Boxing day sales are great. Then i'm gonna wait a bit for something like the ASUS A8N to come out (Socket 939 w/ PCI-Express) and I'm gonna buy an ATI X800 XL sound like a good plan?

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: Mrvile
Hmm are we sure about MSI's first-generation product? MSI isn't famous for stability, and I definately wouldn't trust their first wave of motherboards. Maybe after a few months. Otherwise I'd stick with Asus' SLI.

Somewhat disagree on your opinion of MSI stability. At stock speeds MSI is stable IME. However, even though they overclock well, IME they don't overclock for a long time(usually less than warranty period). For overclocking I'd recommend a different manufacturer, though not being an overclocker I can't suggest who for sure(Abit is traditionally recommended by others).