- Jun 15, 2005
- 2
- 0
- 0
this is my first post here, so i thought i'd just take the opportunity and say that this is an awesome and extremely helpful site.
now, onto my topic. i'm looking to build my first computer ever, so i'm really new to all these things (so, sorry if i make any seemingly stupid mistakes at this point, i can't help it, lol)
anyways, i want to make the shift over to AMD Athlon for a processor, because i hear they're quite well-suited to gaming, which will surely be an important factor in any computer i buy/build. i was looking at the Athlon 64 3800+ Venice core at 2.4Ghz, but i don't know what would be the best performance--this, the 3700+ San Diego core at 2.2Ghz (cheaper, 2x the L2 cache) or a 3500+, because someone had mentioned i might not see much of a significant performance difference, though i'm not sure if that's true or not...
as for the motherboard, i'm kind of lost, i just sort of picked out a generic PCI-Express, AMD 64-compatible motherboard. the only question i have about this choice is whether i should get a motherboard compatible w/ the Athlon 64 X2 cpu? (someone told me the one i had originally picked, an ASUS K8T890, if i recall correctly, was not compatible with the X2) technically that's not the only question about the mobo, but the other one i'll explain when i get to the other areas of my post...
as for the GPU, the 2 i was trying to decide between are ATI's X800XL and nVidia's 6800GT. either way, i'd be getting the PCI-e version, which means the 6800GT would be slightly more expensive (about $30-50, i think) BUT, the 6800GT also has the option of using SLI in the future, if i wanted to upgrade. i'm not sure what kind of advantage i'd get from getting a second 6800GT to put in, but it seems like it could be a decent option. which is why my motherboard question comes into play: i'm not sure if i should get a single PCI-e x16 slot, or a double, because i haven't decided on SLI or not yet. if anyone has any thoughts about this, it'd be VERY helpful.
my next question would be regarding memory. i'd probably be going for OCZ PC3200 RAM, but i was just wondering if Athlon 64 supports DDR2 at all yet. i was browsing newegg and i didn't see any athlon mobo's that use DDR2 at all, so i didn't know if their support had gone there yet. if not, would i be smart to wait until they start to support DDR2? (i was reading up on how the memory speeds would be one of the limiting factors of the dual-core processors for AMD, so i don't know if it's a stupid question or not, because i don't know when DDR2 support will be coming from them, if it hasn't yet...)
and as for the PSU...i'm completely lost, as well. as bad as the motherboard, if not worse, lol. i don't know what exactly i'll need to plug into the PSU, so i don't know much about which PSU to buy; right now i was looking at a Thermaltake case with a built-in 400W PSU, but i don't know if i'd need something different, or anything like that. (all i know is both GPU's i listed above noted it should be above 350W...)
i'd like to just say thank you for reading this somewhat long post, and helping out a newbie with his computer troubles. as of right now i had made a cart on newegg, and it came out to about $1,900 (including monitor, windows XP pro, norton internet security, mouse, keyboard, speakers, etc.) and i was shooting for anything under $2,000. if it'd help i'll post the cart, but most of the other stuff is kind of generic (WD 160GB hard drive, soundblaster audio, logitech mouse, sony monitor, etc. etc.)
now, onto my topic. i'm looking to build my first computer ever, so i'm really new to all these things (so, sorry if i make any seemingly stupid mistakes at this point, i can't help it, lol)
anyways, i want to make the shift over to AMD Athlon for a processor, because i hear they're quite well-suited to gaming, which will surely be an important factor in any computer i buy/build. i was looking at the Athlon 64 3800+ Venice core at 2.4Ghz, but i don't know what would be the best performance--this, the 3700+ San Diego core at 2.2Ghz (cheaper, 2x the L2 cache) or a 3500+, because someone had mentioned i might not see much of a significant performance difference, though i'm not sure if that's true or not...
as for the motherboard, i'm kind of lost, i just sort of picked out a generic PCI-Express, AMD 64-compatible motherboard. the only question i have about this choice is whether i should get a motherboard compatible w/ the Athlon 64 X2 cpu? (someone told me the one i had originally picked, an ASUS K8T890, if i recall correctly, was not compatible with the X2) technically that's not the only question about the mobo, but the other one i'll explain when i get to the other areas of my post...
as for the GPU, the 2 i was trying to decide between are ATI's X800XL and nVidia's 6800GT. either way, i'd be getting the PCI-e version, which means the 6800GT would be slightly more expensive (about $30-50, i think) BUT, the 6800GT also has the option of using SLI in the future, if i wanted to upgrade. i'm not sure what kind of advantage i'd get from getting a second 6800GT to put in, but it seems like it could be a decent option. which is why my motherboard question comes into play: i'm not sure if i should get a single PCI-e x16 slot, or a double, because i haven't decided on SLI or not yet. if anyone has any thoughts about this, it'd be VERY helpful.
my next question would be regarding memory. i'd probably be going for OCZ PC3200 RAM, but i was just wondering if Athlon 64 supports DDR2 at all yet. i was browsing newegg and i didn't see any athlon mobo's that use DDR2 at all, so i didn't know if their support had gone there yet. if not, would i be smart to wait until they start to support DDR2? (i was reading up on how the memory speeds would be one of the limiting factors of the dual-core processors for AMD, so i don't know if it's a stupid question or not, because i don't know when DDR2 support will be coming from them, if it hasn't yet...)
and as for the PSU...i'm completely lost, as well. as bad as the motherboard, if not worse, lol. i don't know what exactly i'll need to plug into the PSU, so i don't know much about which PSU to buy; right now i was looking at a Thermaltake case with a built-in 400W PSU, but i don't know if i'd need something different, or anything like that. (all i know is both GPU's i listed above noted it should be above 350W...)
i'd like to just say thank you for reading this somewhat long post, and helping out a newbie with his computer troubles. as of right now i had made a cart on newegg, and it came out to about $1,900 (including monitor, windows XP pro, norton internet security, mouse, keyboard, speakers, etc.) and i was shooting for anything under $2,000. if it'd help i'll post the cart, but most of the other stuff is kind of generic (WD 160GB hard drive, soundblaster audio, logitech mouse, sony monitor, etc. etc.)