Please Help with my First Build. How's this look?

[Sinnerx96]

Hey Guys,

This is my first Build. I'm fairly confident that I won't have any trouble. Just want some advice about my Choices. The main part I'm not sure of, is the Cpu. Mainly, Weather or not a Dual Core would make much difference for me. I want a decent step up from my Current system(which will be going to an Office for business use). I will be taking the Sound Card, TV Tuner, Ram, & 80gb HD over to new system.

Here's my current system;

-P4 2.4C
-Asus P4P800 Deluxe
-1gb(2X512) Kingston Value DDR400
-Ati Radeon 9800 Pro Agp
-Seagate Barracuda ATA100 80gb 8mb cache
-Seagate Barracuda ATA100 40gb 2mb cache
-ATI Tv Wonder Pro PCI
-M-Audio Delta 1010 Sound Card for Audio Recording
-Uneec 330w PSU
-Generic Case


I do some Video Editing with Adobe Premiere Pro, and After Effects. And I'm getting into Photoshop as well. And I also do Audio Recording/Editing with Cubase SX3. Other than that, it's mostly Casual PC Use, with Some Gaming(Not Too important). I Will be doing some Mild Over-Clocking.

Here's what I'm concidering from Newegg;

CPU
-AMD 64 3700+ or X2 3800+ Dual Core

RAM
-1gb More of Kingston Value for Dual Channel(4X512 Total)

MOTHERBOARD
-Epox 9NPA+Ultra

VIDEO CARD
-Sapphire GTO2 or EVG 6800gs N389

CDR/DVDR
-NEC 3550a Dual Layer

HARD DRIVE
-WD 160gb Sata2 Caviar SE

PSU
-FSP Fortron AX400

MONITOR
-Vision V1721b 17" LCD

CASE
-RaidMax X1 Case

Comes to about $1,100 total. I live in NJ, so Tax from Newegg applies.

How does everything look? Should I go Dual Core X2 3800 for what I want to do? Or just stay with a 64 3700?

Thanks guys. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Ricemarine]

I say do dual core. But there would be some performance deficit by running your ram at 2T by filling all 4 slots... Also, get a forton 450w

 

[Bobthelost]

The 400W will be enough, but for $10 more you might as well. *shrug*

The dual core will speed up some of the apps, photoshop for example would benifit from it. If you can afford it then the dual core is excellent.

4 sticks of RAM is suboptimal, but if you've already got 1gb then it's not worth the increased cost for to go with 2x1gb ($70 for 5%? We advise against high end RAM for just the same price/performance reasons).

 

[Sinnerx96]

Thanks Guys!

I have 1gb of ram now. But I can always just use it in my current pc, since it's going to business use anyway. So I can get some Corsair Value Ram for my new system.

Should I get 2x1gb of Corsair? Or can I do with 2x512 for now? Then I can always invest in 2x1gb stick later on down the road. But money's tight for now.

I'm assuming that 2x512 would be better that 4x512? That's why I was gonna get another 2x512 of Kingston. Because I already have 2x512 of Kingston, and I wanted to match it for Dual Channel. But if 4x512 is less than optimal,...I'll just stick with 2x512 for now.

By the way,...You say Dual Core would be better fo Photoshop. What about Premiere? That's what I'm mostly concerned with. Ohter than Premiere,..I'm not sure what else I do that would benefit much from Dual Core. That's why I'm trying to decide to go with a Faster Single core, or a Slower Dual. IE: 3700/Opteron 148 vs X2 3800.

Thanks guys. Much appreciated.

 

[Bobthelost]

2x1gb is the sweet spot, this is because when you have 4 sticks of RAM it drops the timings down to 2T resulting in around 5% performance hit. If you need more than 1gb then the speed increase you'd get from not needing to access the swap file on the HD would be more than enough to counter that. If you don't use more than 1gb then it's a waste of money and it'd slow you down going to 4x512. Check in taskmanager to see what your peak memory useage is (bottom right corner in performance).

I'd stick with the current 1gb (2x512) for now, you can always just upgrade later.

Premiere should be dual core capable as well, so the performance gain should still be notable going for dual core. If you want to check then it might be worth checking out the adobe website or a techie site for adobe users (there has to be one, google is our friend).

I'd go dual core if you can afford it.

 

[biostud]

also o/c with 4 sticks of memory can be more troublesome than with two sticks.

 

[TheNewGuy8]

Definitely go Dual Core, it doesn't make sense not to at this point considering how future-proof it will make your rig. There's no guarentee of course, but I'm pretty confident that the future will be dual core (or more) so programs will continue to be programmed for it.

Premiere will DEFINITELY get a bonus from dual core - especially when you render effects.

 

[TriggerHappy101]

The dual core will be better for multitasking like you are. However, if this is for gaming rig the 3700+ will own the dual core 3800.

Originally posted by: Sinnerx96
Hey Guys,

This is my first Build. I'm fairly confident that I won't have any trouble. Just want some advice about my Choices. The main part I'm not sure of, is the Cpu. Mainly, Weather or not a Dual Core would make much difference for me. I want a decent step up from my Current system(which will be going to an Office for business use). I will be taking the Sound Card, TV Tuner, Ram, & 80gb HD over to new system.

Here's my current system;

-P4 2.4C
-Asus P4P800 Deluxe
-1gb(2X512) Kingston Value DDR400
-Ati Radeon 9800 Pro Agp
-Seagate Barracuda ATA100 80gb 8mb cache
-Seagate Barracuda ATA100 40gb 2mb cache
-ATI Tv Wonder Pro PCI
-M-Audio Delta 1010 Sound Card for Audio Recording
-Uneec 330w PSU
-Generic Case


I do some Video Editing with Adobe Premiere Pro, and After Effects. And I'm getting into Photoshop as well. And I also do Audio Recording/Editing with Cubase SX3. Other than that, it's mostly Casual PC Use, with Some Gaming(Not Too important). I Will be doing some Mild Over-Clocking.

Here's what I'm concidering from Newegg;

CPU
-AMD 64 3700+ or X2 3800+ Dual Core

RAM
-1gb More of Kingston Value for Dual Channel(4X512 Total)

MOTHERBOARD
-Epox 9NPA+Ultra

VIDEO CARD
-Sapphire GTO2 or EVG 6800gs N389

CDR/DVDR
-NEC 3550a Dual Layer

HARD DRIVE
-WD 160gb Sata2 Caviar SE

PSU
-FSP Fortron AX400

MONITOR
-Vision V1721b 17" LCD

CASE
-RaidMax X1 Case

Comes to about $1,100 total. I live in NJ, so Tax from Newegg applies.

How does everything look? Should I go Dual Core X2 3800 for what I want to do? Or just stay with a 64 3700?

Thanks guys. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Sinnerx96]

Thanks Guys.

I've decided to go Dual Core. Thanks for the Help with that. Now I'm trying to decide to go with a Opteron 165 or a X2 3800. I know the 165 is 200mhz slower, but has more cache. But I don't know what that means in Real World use. Any suggestions or Tips? Is it worth almost $40 more to go with the 165? And why?

Thanks guys. I appreciate your help.

 

[drum]

the increase in cache isn't going to be noticeable. the 165 may overclock better than the 3800 but you really win eith either one