Please critique the comp. my friend asked me to build

[FreshPrince]

ok, final specs posted...

I had to change a lot of hardware out to fit his budget and have maximum crossfire compatibility.

this system kicks ass now and will be able to add a crossfire edition x1900xt card later on with no problems.

thx for the help everyone :beer:

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: Valrandir
Instead of the 3800+ get an Opteron 165.
For about the same price you get 3 HyperTransport lane instead of one, twice more L2 Cache and you can overclock it to 2.4Ghz without a sweat.

3 HT lanes - doesn't change performance
Twice the L2 cache - increases performance by a slight amount
OC to 2.4GHz - the 3800+ does this also

Really, I don't recommend going with multiple video cards. You spend twice as much on graphics for maybe a 50% increase.

 

[FreshPrince]

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: Valrandir
Instead of the 3800+ get an Opteron 165.
For about the same price you get 3 HyperTransport lane instead of one, twice more L2 Cache and you can overclock it to 2.4Ghz without a sweat.

3 HT lanes - doesn't change performance
Twice the L2 cache - increases performance by a slight amount
OC to 2.4GHz - the 3800+ does this also

Really, I don't recommend going with multiple video cards. You spend twice as much on graphics for maybe a 50% increase.

I feel the same, but this is his system so I build it the way he wants it 🙂

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: FreshPrince

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: Valrandir
Instead of the 3800+ get an Opteron 165.
For about the same price you get 3 HyperTransport lane instead of one, twice more L2 Cache and you can overclock it to 2.4Ghz without a sweat.

3 HT lanes - doesn't change performance
Twice the L2 cache - increases performance by a slight amount
OC to 2.4GHz - the 3800+ does this also

Really, I don't recommend going with multiple video cards. You spend twice as much on graphics for maybe a 50% increase.

I feel the same, but this is his system so I build it the way he wants it 🙂

Yes, stay with the 3800+.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

HD?

Hitachi's T7K250 is the BEST SATA 250gb drive there is right now. WD is a #2, but I recommend Hitachi more. 3 year warranty. If you buy WD retail its 1yr warranty 😕. Do they suck or what that they only give 1yr. OEM gives 3 yr though. Wait, maybe Hitachi is giving 5 yr for T7K250? I forgot. I know Seagate gives 5 yr, but the 7200.8's unreliability detracts me from buying a 7200.9 or recommending one.

#2 I recommend a 7900GT. You're spending way too much money on a graphics card that will go down the drain in 2 years. Watch. Today you can gloat about your 65 fps vs a 7900GT's 50 fps, but in 2 years, both the X1900XT and 7900GT user will be crying about 18 and 15 fps respectively in Quake 5. So it doesn't matter. Save your money today.

X2 3800? I recommend the Opterons. They OC better and use less voltage.

Motherboard, I still stick with DFI. If you know what you're doing, they are damn good. If you are impatient and possibly newbie, I say avoid them and stick with Asus.

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: DLeRium
X2 3800? I recommend the Opterons. They OC better and use less voltage.

They may not enjoy the higher OCs now. I hear the newer 3800+ can hit the same speeds as the 165/170.

 

[FreshPrince]

fellas, not OC'ing this system at all...it's not mine and I don't feel like getting a call every night.

 

[Valrandir]

The Opteron is also built with higher quality materials since it is geared for the server market.

Sure you can overclock the 3800 to 2.4 as well, but you will never get twice the L2 cache, and I am not ready to say that it only makes a small difference.

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: Valrandir
The Opteron is also built with higher quality materials since it is geared for the server market.

Sure you can overclock the 3800 to 2.4 as well, but you will never get twice the L2 cache, and I am not ready to say that it only makes a small difference.

Please provide benches that show a performance increase of >5% (an increase that may or may not even be noticeable) when going from 512KBx2 L2 cache to 1MBx2 L2 cache at the same clock speed.

 

[Bobthelost]

Originally posted by: Valrandir

Sure you can overclock the 3800 to 2.4 as well, but you will never get twice the L2 cache, and I am not ready to say that it only makes a small difference.

That's alright, everyone else is.

 

[InlineFour]

this is what i would choose:

pentium d 940
intel 945 motherboard
corsair value
x1900xt
seasonic 430W
antec slk3000b

 

[kalrith]

I'm surprised with all of the responses that no one mentioned getting 2GB of RAM. I would definitely recommend that. Even with my old p4, 1GB of RAM was not enough. It would definitely be the bottleneck of a system like this. Here's some Patriot RAM for $135 after shipping and MIR.

Also, I second the recommendation of the 7900GT. While it's not quite as fast as the x1900xt, you can get it for $150 less. I don't think anyone would say that the x1900xt is 50% faster, so why pay 50% more for it?

Since everyone is bickering and arguing over which overclocks better the x2 or opteron 165, no one's paid attention to you saying that your friend will not overclock at all. In that case the x2 3800 will definitely be faster, since it will be running at 200 MHz faster at stock. Now, it would probably take about 15 minutes to overclock the opteron 165 to 2.25GHz. You could bump the HTT to 250 and use a 5:4 RAM ratio to keep it at 200. But it's up to you if you want to do that or not.