New Rig. Any fixes?

[johnnqq]

i'll be buying this within a month (maybe 2 )

antec sonata II
seagate 7200.7 80gb
asus a8n-e, blue zalman mobo hs
msi x800
zalman 7000b alcu
cheapie keyboard
as5
a64 3000
i'm not sure about memory. it's either 2x 1gb value sticks from crucial, or 2x1gb value kit from ocz...i added the crucial to my cart for now.


i have 2.1 speakers, a mouse, and a dvd rw drive so i didn't add those to my cart (which would have added over $100, which isn't worth it if i already have them).

the whole system comes to $866.60 before shipping/tax.

 

[Sqube]

Corsair makes good value RAM too.
Why not X800GT/6600GT/6800 for the video card? I'm just naming alternatives, not bashing your choice.
Make sure the Zalman can fit in your case with the motherboard and all that.

 

[johnnqq]

i checked, all my coolers work.

i went with the x800 because 1, it's the second cheapest, 2 it's the fastest. it crushes the 6600gt in everything. the few times the 6800 beats the 6600gt, the x800 beats the 6800.
i plan to upgrade my video card in 1 year for somethign around the same price. (it's better than buying an xl now, and having to keep a weak xl for 2 whole years.)

 

[johnnqq]

no suggestions? did i make the perfect computer??

 

[biostud]

Originally posted by: johnnqq
no suggestions? did i make the perfect computer??

no, but there are no major mistakes

 

[raildogg]

its great.

that asus a8n-e is a underrated motherboard and i like the choice. the fan on that is a bit on the noisy side but so are others. have you thought about the epox 9npa ultra?

get the sonata 2, its 450 vs 380 Smartpower makes a difference and it is not that much more expsensive.

 

[johnnqq]

sorry i didn't specify. i'm getting the sonata 2. the blue zalman hs is for the noisy a8n-e's crappy fan.

reasons for a8n-e:
1 asus quality, support
2 the pcie slot is far away from all 3 pci slots

reasons against a8n-e:
1 people have had a few problems overclocking

 

[raildogg]

Originally posted by: johnnqq
sorry i didn't specify. i'm getting the sonata 2. the blue zalman hs is for the noisy a8n-e's crappy fan.

reasons for a8n-e:
1 asus quality, support
2 the pcie slot is far away from all 3 pci slots

reasons against a8n-e:
1 people have had a few problems overclocking

you should be able to overclock decently. there are people getting 2.6 or so from their venice 3000 or 3200. some even higher

yeah, good choice on the replacement fan. the asus's fan is noisy and many people had them fail on them.

 

[johnnqq]

the only thing i'm not sure on is a case fan...if i buy a high cfm fan, then i'll need a fan controller 10+20 = 30... which is 20 more than i wanted to spend. i'll probably end up getting the yate loon. does it flow a good amount of air to be used for an intake?

oh yea...i'm not sure if i want the asrock instead of the asus. the m2 future upgrade seems really enticing.

 

[theMan]

replace the a8n-e with the epox 9npa+

get 2x512 corsair value select

get a thermalright xp90

for a fan controller just use speedfan

 

[Fresh Daemon]

For the fan, get a Cooler Master 120mm. It's like a Yate Loon and priced very cheaply. There was a user review at SilentPCReview here:
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?p=165745#165745

The only thing I'd suggest is that an 80GB drive might seem very small after a while. If you're on a budget I would say get 1GB of RAM now and a bigger hard drive - you can always add to RAM, but you can't add to your hard drive. At least, not without another drive, which is more expensive, hotter and noisier.

 

[johnnqq]

why does everybody suddenly like the epox now?
there's no way i'm getting 2x 512 mb of ram
if i got an xp90, i would need a fan controller for the fan...

what's speedfan?

 

[johnnqq]

yea but if i got 1gb, i would only want 1 stick...so if i got that bigger hard drive, then the second stick (lets pretend same company and model), is there a good chance i'll be able to run dual channel?

 

[johnnqq]

i know there are like 5 "hows my build" questions, but i really need answers to my questions.

 

[johnnqq]

bumpy ride to get a response...

 

[akugami]

Are you doing a serious overclock on your machine or just looking for a moderate overclock? If only moderate, I'd ditch the Zalman's. I'd use the money saved from that and getting a better video card. The stock HSF that comes with the A64's are perfectly fine (unless you live in the desert) for a decent 20% overclock and still be within acceptable temperatures.

 

[Fresh Daemon]

yea but if i got 1gb, i would only want 1 stick...so if i got that bigger hard drive, then the second stick (lets pretend same company and model), is there a good chance i'll be able to run dual channel?

Yes, if it's decent. Value and no-name RAM is generally put together with whatever chips happened to be available, but performance RAM generally sticks to one chip type and should be as identical as a "matched" pair. Even with value RAM, if the model number is the same you should be able to run dual-channel anyway, although your overclock on such memory would obviously be limited to the slower of the two.

why does everybody suddenly like the epox now?

Because it's a high-quality board at a reasonable price, and overclocks almost as well as the DFI.

what's speedfan?

It's a program used to control fan speeds based on temperature. It uses onboard motherboard sensors to read the temp and controls the fans accordingly (faster as it gets hotter) with PWM (pulse width modulation), according to your predefined parameters. It isn't a hardware solution but it works well and is free.

 

[johnnqq]

i'll be doing some overclocking. basically as far as i can go on stock voltages. i don't want to decrease the life of the cpu...plus this is my first time overclocking. and i wanted the zalmans despite the fact that i might not overclock so i can have a quiet computer.

 

[n7]

I'd recommend staying away from Asus.
Their current quality [or lack thereof] & OCing abilities [or lack thereof] don't make them a good choice for A64s.
With Intel motherboards, it appears to be different, but with A64s, there are many better alternatives.

Since it seem IEEE1394 isn't important to you, i'd recommend the MSI Neo4-F, or Epox 9NPA+ Ultra if you want the best value OCing mainboard out there.

 

[akugami]

Nothing wrong with Asus, I have 3 Asus A8N's and nothing wrong wrong with them.

As for going with a non stock HSF, it's simply not needed in the case of the A64's. CPU's if built correctly will last you years with a moderate overclock, especially if you're not overvolting your cpu. If you're doing extreme overclocking, that's another story of course. As for noise, the stock A64 HSF's are pretty quiet (especially compared to some older HSF's I've had, stock or otherwise). I can hear it if I pay attention and listen for it but i don't even notice it most times.

If you're going for quiet, I'd go for water cooling or not at all. Again, my recommendation is to save some money and stick with the stock HSF's.