System upgrade advice

[TMill]

The impending release of a few new games, coupled with the fact that my computer is an aging 700Mhz Athlon T-bird has lead me to upgrade territory again. I'm on a budget, though, so I'm salvaging everything that it makes sense to salvage. So I'm keeping my 30GB Deskstar (I still haven't used more than 12GB of it...), my CD-ROM drive and burner, the case, and my old Soundblaster Live. The sound card is nothing special, but I'm honestly not that picky about sound, and I can't invest in any digital 5.1 speakers right now anyway. So I need a new CPU, motherboard, HSF, memory, and power supply. I want to keep this in the $400-$450 range unless it means making a dire sacrifice.

Here are the posibilities for each part:

For the CPU, I'm being a conformist:
$83 - Athlon XP 2500+ (333MHz FSB)

For the HSF, I'm looking at two posibilities right now (but not excluding others):
$28 Coolermaster HHC-001
$33 Vantec VA4-C7040

Power supply:
$43 - Antec SL350
$47 - Enermax EG365PVE
$50 - Enermax EG365PVEFC
$65 - Antec true380

For the motherboard, I'm looking at two "vanilla" boards, and two "gonzo" boards
$50 - Biostar M7NCD Pro
$58 - Shuttle AN35N Ultra
$69 - Abit NF7
$81 - Asus A7N8X-X

Memory is the most complicated - I'm going to load up with 1GB in a 2x512 configuration:

512MB PC2700 CAS2.5
$77 - Samsung
$80 - GEIL
$80 - Kingston
$82 - Micron
$85 - Crucial
$86 - Corsair

512MB PC2700 CAS2
$96 - Corsair
$97 - Kingston
$109 - GeIL

512MB PC3200 CAS2.5
$84 - Samsung
$87 - Micron
$87 - GeIL
$98 - Kingston
$101 - Corsair

512MB PC3200 CAS2
$108 - GeIL
$113 - Kingston
$115 - Winbond
$118 - Corsair

The cheapest possible system would be $358, and the most expensive would be $498. I'm trying to meet somewhere in the $400-$425 range.
Here's what I'm leaning to the most right now:
Athlon XP 2500+
Vantec VA4-C7040
Shuttle AN35N Ultra
Enermax EG365PVE
2x512 PC3200 CAS 2.5 GeIL
For a total of $395

The critical questions are these:

Power supply sizing -- I've heard 350 is sufficient if it's a properly rated PSU, but I haven't used a 350W supply on a 2500+ or greater system yet. AMD recommends that you size it at the maximum CPU wattage + 80% of the rest of the system's maximum wattage, but I can't find any data about power consumption for the motherboard, sound card, etc., so I'm just having to guess at that part. Also, is there any difference between the Enermax EG365PVE and the Enermax EG365PVEFC? Copper shielding was the only difference I could spot, and I'm not sure that it makes a huge difference. For that matter, is there any compelling reason not to use the Antec SL350 if 350W is sufficient?

HSF -- Hmm, not much to say here. I've used the HHC-001 at work on a 2600+ DC/file server/exchange server/everything else, and even after driving the CPU at 100% for half an hour, I've never driven the temperature above 51C. I suspect that the Vantec will offer at least equal performance and a bit less noise, though. I'm also open to any additional suggestions in the same general price range.

Vanilla vs. chocolate motherboard -- I really couldn't care less about the onboard ethernet controllers as I'm on a wireless network in the first place. Likewise, I've heard the APU on the Abit and Asus boards is great, but I don't plan on getting a speaker setup for dolby 5.1 any time soon, and I haven't been disappointed in my old Soundblaster Live yet, so what exactly would be the point in going that route? I do have some interest in overclocking. Not necessarily to the 3200+ range, but probably some. From what I hear, the Shuttle board has pretty much all of the overclocking features that the Asus and Abit boards have, and is a stable board as well. Also, what about the Biostar board? I have a non-ultra version of that board at one of my machines at work, and I've been very pleased with it's performance and stability thus far. $8 isn't any reason to skimp, but if the boards are of comporable quality, $5 or $10 here and there may make a difference in what memory I can afford to buy.

Memory -- Cripes. Information overload. First of all, is there really any point to putting PC3200 (DDR400) into a system with a 333MHz FSB? I kind of doubt it, but I'm looking at the GeIL CAS2.5 PC3200 primarily because of it's flexibility. In a best-case-scenario, I might be able to time it to CAS2 and get maximum bang for my buck that way, but even if I can't, it still has possibilities. I can leave it at PC3200 CAS2.5, or probably change the clock and timing to PC2700 CAS2 if that would be more advantageous. I think true-blue PC3200 CAS2 would break the bank, sadly. And anything like OCZ or GeIL's Gold Dragon series is *way* out of the question. Any thoughts? This is the one that stumps me the most.

Sorry for the lengthy post, and thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[jd103]

Get your stuff at Newegg.com, heres what I configured for $368 shipped:

2 x CORSAIR 512MB PC3200 VALUE SELECT. VS512MB400 DDR RAM - OEM 184-Pin. CL=2.5-Unbuffered 2.5V. 64x64 Requires DDR 400 supported Motherboard - Lifetime Warranty ($90.50) $181

Biostar Motherboard for AMD Athlon/Athlon XP/ Duron Processor, Model# M7NCD-$51

SPARKLE 350 WATTS ATX UL APPROVED POWER SUPPLY MODEL # FSP350-60BT - OEM-$38

AMD ATHLON XP 2500+ "Barton" 333 FSB PROCESSOR CPU- RETAIL-$92

The retail XP2500 comes with a heatsink & fan that works pretty good from what people are reporting, I would try it out first before buying another one because the retail pack is only a couple dollars more than the OEM

 

[Bonesdad]

Honestly, all of your choices will work fine. You can sell the soundblaster, use the onboard sound on the NForce2 motherboards. I think they all have soundstorm sound, which will be better than your soundblaster, even without the fancy speakers. Dump the Soundblaster, it'll save draw on the PSU.

Are you planning to OC this system? You can save $$ by just getting the retail Athlon 2500+. The HSF is good and pretty dang quiet and will even allow a pretty good OC (3200+ speeds).

Consider the following substitutions to save $$$:

Power Supply:

Fortron FSP350-60PN 350W = $42 shipped (Newegg.com)
I actually use and Antec TruePower 330W and it is MORE than enough for 2HDD, 2 optical drives a GF4 4200 and 2 PCI cards. If I had to choose now, I would get the Fortron PSU.

Memory:

Buffalo RAM PC3200 512 MB = $83 (be sure the get the sticks with Winbond chips).

 

[TMill]

Thanks for the advice, I think I have a little better idea of what I want to do, now.

For starters, the last time that I was ordering computer parts (I'm the sole tech guy and admin at work, so I build all our computers), New Egg had the best prices on several components, but they fell a little behind for some things. Just enough that you could save some money by buying a few components elsewhere. But from playing around on their site today, they seem to come pretty darn close to beating everyone on virtually every component I could come up with. Or if they couldn't beat it, they were within $5. Color me impressed. If they keep this up, they're going to be seeing a lot of business from me in the future.

So, with the shipping savings from ordering everything through them, I think I can pull together something slightly better than what I originally aimed for:

Athlon XP 2500+ Barton
Vantec VA4-C7040
Asus A7N8X-X
Fortron FSP350-60PN (I had read about, but totally forgotten this PS)
2x512 Corsair PC3200 CAS2.5

All of which runs $412, shipped.

If I drop the fan and swap the OEM CPU for retail box, I can get the same setup for $389.

I'm still pondering on this one. I read a few threads about the retail box HSF, and I'm tempted to go this route if I can keep the CPU in the 55C ballpark. Does anyone have any thermal resistance or noise level data on it? Tom's and Anandtech don't seem to have any information on it, but they do have data on the HSF that comes with the 3200+ and the 2700+ (Thoroughbred B). I think the HSF that ships with the 3200+ Barton is the one that ships with the 2500+ Barton. Is this an aluminum heatsink with a cylindrical copper core, or is it aluminum with a nickle-plated copper plate screwed to the bottom?

My concern here is that the HSF included with the 3200+ Barton (and I think all of the other Barton cores) appears to have a thermal resistance of 0.54C/W. The 2500+ has a max thermal power of 68.3W, which means that in a 24C room, the CPU could get up to 60.8C, which certainly doesn't exceed max, but it's still higher than I really like. The supply air in the case could easily add another 5 degrees to that. The noise level is moderate, but not totally unacceptable to me. Still, to it's credit, it cooled a full-throttle 3200+ Barton down to 55C, which is 10C less than you would expect for that thermal resistance.

 

[jd103]

Your setup looks pretty good to me. If you really don't want to go with the retail H/S & fan then you should check this one out:
Text
Click on the product link for more info, I have one of these on an overclocked XP1700 @fsb of 166 for 1.83 GHz. My temps at full load have never gone higher than 47C, its pretty quiet to.

Also, just to make you aware that MB's APG slot will only accept 1.5 volt videocards. So if your going to be using an older one make sure its not 3.3 volt.

 

[JimRaynor]

Not all nforce2 mobos have soundstorm... In fact, most of them don't.

 

[TMill]

Bleh, you're right. I accidentally listed the AC'97 version.

Make that $404 with the retail HSF, or $428 with the Vantec HSF.

I have a Geforce4 Ti4200 (128MB) which, as far as I know, is compatible with anything that meets AGP2X/4X spec. IIRC, it's an Abit Siluro, but I pretty sure it's not the AGP8X version (it was a gift - I can't quite remember which Siluro model it was). I can't find any whitepapers on Abit's site about the voltage requirements for the board.