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Think I have it figured out - Take a look

T

TheNewGuy8

Senior member
OK, I think I have this build figured out - with only a few questions.

Opty 165 - Monarch deal has this at around $275 shipped if I get to the deal in time. I dont think its worth the $75 difference to the 170, you?

DFI Lanparty UT NForce4 Ultra-D - I really hate the chipset fan on this but it seems like it will OC better than the other board I was looking at, the Asus A8n-Sli premium. And its alot cheaper. I'm torn here though. B/c I know the R580 stuff is coming out soon. What benefits will this give me? And is it worth stalling the system build for it? Also, since that chipset will be so new - isn't it bad to buy the first gen. of boards for it? I'm thinking driver errors, compatibility issues, etc. etc. Need advice here.

Radeon X1900XT - This part is a bit complicated. My dad was able to finagle a 20% coupon from Dell, and this is being given to me as a gift. I dont' know anything about this packaging. Basically the total after everything comes out to around $450. So is this the best card to get? I know there are other versions that can be had at Newegg for like $475 or so - would one of those be better to get? The card hasn't been ordered yet, but can be at any time, so I'm waiting to decide which is the best card to get.
I don't think I want to wait for the 7900GT since it looks about even with the X1900XT and only has 256mb of Memory. The 7900GTX will probably smoke the x1900XT, but its MSRP is $700, so...ya. Out of my ballpark.

G.Skill 2gb DDR500 - No known compatibility issues with DFI that I can find - anyone know something different?

Enermax Liberty 500w - Has enough 12v amperage for the X1900xt (30a necessary), nice and quiet, is modular which helps with cable clutter (though is the added resistance something I should be very concerned about?) and it will work with my case, which will be....

Antec P180 - Done lots of research here. This case is by far the best out for cooling and sound dampening (very important to me). I love antec quality (I still have scars from old Thermaltake cases, lol). I wish it came in black, but I have no desire to spend an extra $60 to order the SPCR version from endpcnoise.com. So silver it is. Assuming the deal lasts I can get this from Compusa for $120 no MIR, so I think I'll go grab it soon.

Is that it? Oh I still need a DVD burner - there are 10 million out there, so I need to weed through and find one that is cheap and effective. I'm keeping my current SATA HDDs, so no need for those...oh, and I have an XP120 that I'm going to re-use, though I need the K8 retention kit. Thermalright.com has them, but I can't figure out how to order it..lol.

I think that's it. I would love all suggestions you have.

Cheers
 
x1900 is the best single card out there today, CPu and mobo look great. Also you can easily mod the mobo to support nvidia SLI if you want. (or to just see the bios boot screen say SLI) 🙂 The rest looks great.
 
If you want a quiet system then take another look at the A8R MVP a good OC board too.

DVDRW: BenQ 1655 or 1640 are my first choices, alternatives include NEC (with fimware flash from cdfreaks.com)
 
lol - the SLI is not too important to me🙂

any thought on the R580 issue? IC an't find an article here listing its merits.
 
Grr...it looks like that Monarch deal has washed up on the 165. damn, my timing sucks.

If the Opty 165 is back to $330, but I can get the 170 for $360 - is that $30 worth the speed increase?
 
I have the same rig minus the radeon.

You will have to run your ram on a 5:6 divider, which sucks when you're paying that much.

Instead, I HIGHLY recommend you find ram that can run at 280 or so 9:10 (good luck ha) or just get budget ram that can do 260 or so 5:6 at better timings that the 2gbhz's
 
Interesting - I always heard the point of DDR500 in these rigs is so it can run without divider. Wierd. Anyone else confirm this?
 
Originally posted by: TheNewGuy8
Grr...it looks like that Monarch deal has washed up on the 165. damn, my timing sucks.

If the Opty 165 is back to $330, but I can get the 170 for $360 - is that $30 worth the speed increase?
Click to expand...

Well, more important than the minor increase in speed (which you'll never feel, whether the difference is $3 or $30) is the higher multiplier. 10x250/260/270 is going to make it easier to run 1:1 on the RAM and still achieve a high clock speed. Of course, running a divider isn't going to make a significant difference on an A64 system anyway. So heck, flip a coin 😛 Or pickup a X2 3800 for even less money than the Opty. There are plenty of these going around, new and used, that hit the same clockspeeds that the Optys do 😉
 
So the 165 has a 9x multiplier and the 170 and x2 3800+ have a 10x multiplier?

Does that mean I can use value select ram? or would that hurt my ability to overclock (looking to hit at least 2.5)
 
ShellGuy doesn't know what he's talking about. You can use DDR500. Here is what I have to say about your rig.

1. Don't expect to overclock. This is a mistake I made. I got a Opty 165 and expected that I could get it to 2.6 GHz at least. Boy was I wrong. It got up to 2.2GHz before crashing. I just happened to get a dud, and you might too. Theese are rare, but just to let you know, don't be expecting anything.

2. Don't get the DFI Crashparty series. I had one, it corrupted files, crashed randomly, and a whole bunch of other stuff. I RMA'ed it and got my ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe and I couldn't be happier.

3. Man I wish I had enough money for a x1900xt 🙁

4. Sorta loose latencies on that ram, I have DDR500 @ 3-4-3-7 1T. I would get at least that or faster (muskin xtreme or OCZ Platinum. They run at DDR500 with 3-3-2-7 1T).

5. I have that PSU. It's awesome and I highly reccomend it.

6. Nice case :thumbsup:.

EDIT: Oh yeah, the opty multi's.

165 = 9x
170 = 10x
175 = 11x
180 = 12x
185 = 13x (not yet released)
190 = 14x (this is being tested by some companies, how they got it I have no idea, but yeah this is the multi on it.)
 
Thanks for the advice Crescent! Thats what I love about these forums - generally helpful and constructive people.

Ya, its always possible to get a dud, that is certainly true. i'm questioning what to do now that the Monarch sale is out. I was going to buy a 165 1 hour after the coupon expired. I emailed them, we'll see what they say. If I can't get that 165 deal I may just spring for the 170...or should I just opt for the X2 3800+? I like the Opty cache..but is $50 worth it? hrm....

Noooooo, you're shaking my motherboard resolve AGAIN! GAH! That ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe is certainly an amazing mobo - but is it REALLY worth the extra $100? I won't be using SLI obviously, so it seems silly to pay for that. GAHH!! Can someone PLEASE help me here - I'm going crazy (in a good way...this is still fun, dont worry).

I think I'll stay with the G.Skill, since its cheapest DDR500 I've seen, but still gets great reviews.

Ya, I love the case. I picked that up already from Compusa right before their deal ended ($120) and have been oggling it. I can't WAIT until I can get a system into it! And if a better price comes up, I've got 3 weeks to return it for full money back.
 
Originally posted by: TheNewGuy8
Thanks for the advice Crescent! Thats what I love about these forums - generally helpful and constructive people.

Ya, its always possible to get a dud, that is certainly true. i'm questioning what to do now that the Monarch sale is out. I was going to buy a 165 1 hour after the coupon expired. I emailed them, we'll see what they say. If I can't get that 165 deal I may just spring for the 170...or should I just opt for the X2 3800+? I like the Opty cache..but is $50 worth it? hrm....

Noooooo, you're shaking my motherboard resolve AGAIN! GAH! That ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe is certainly an amazing mobo - but is it REALLY worth the extra $100? I won't be using SLI obviously, so it seems silly to pay for that. GAHH!! Can someone PLEASE help me here - I'm going crazy (in a good way...this is still fun, dont worry).

I think I'll stay with the G.Skill, since its cheapest DDR500 I've seen, but still gets great reviews.

Ya, I love the case. I picked that up already from Compusa right before their deal ended ($120) and have been oggling it. I can't WAIT until I can get a system into it! And if a better price comes up, I've got 3 weeks to return it for full money back.
Click to expand...


About the mobo issue, In my opinion, the Asus A8N32-SLI is well worth the extra money. Even if you don't use SLI. I'm not using SLI, but i'm still glad I chose this motherboard. Another thing you might want to consider (since you have an ATI card) is the ASUS A8R32-MVP? Can't remember the name excactly. I'll have it in a minute.

EDIT: Yeah I got the name right. There was an anandtech review up a minute ago, for some reason I can't find it now. Anyway, this motherboard uses an ATI chipset so if you decide to get another x1900 and crossfire them in the future, you would be good to go.

EDIT2: Found the article.

EDIT3: wow i'm making alot of edits. Anyway, for some reason they deleted the article. I don't know why though.

EDIT4: Oh yeah, you will need a divider with DDR500 if you raise your FSB above 250MHz. (for a CPU with a 9x multi, if you overclock past 2250 MHz, for a CPU with a 10x multi, if you overclock past 2500 MHz.)
 
ohh, so if I have the 170 that has a 10x multi, I can set the HTT to 250 and the RAM will run stock right? Assuming of course the chip can DO 250, heh.

Thanks for the article - unfortuantely there's no telling when this board will be released and what the cost will be. Maybe I can dig up some dates online, I'll go look.
 
the only rumors I could find is that the A8R32-MVP won't be released until mid-late march. Can't wait that long. I think I may go for the A8n32-SLI for the increased stability and lack of USB 2.0 issues compared to the DFI. The passive cooling is also a major bonus, as are many of the other features. I found it for $200 from Pagecomputer.com. Not a bad price.
 
Originally posted by: TheNewGuy8
the only rumors I could find is that the A8R32-MVP won't be released until mid-late march. Can't wait that long. I think I may go for the A8n32-SLI for the increased stability and lack of USB 2.0 issues compared to the DFI. The passive cooling is also a major bonus, as are many of the other features. I found it for $200 from Pagecomputer.com. Not a bad price.
Click to expand...


yeah I think you should just get the A8N32-SLI then. It's also a good overclocker. I got my Opteron 144 to 2.8GHz (312FSB, 9x multi, haha can't remember the divider but it works out so the ram runs at 255MHz.)
 
Ok - ya, I've decided to just spend the extra money and get the A8n32-SLI. The reviews are just stellar all across the board.

Only thing I want to make sure of at this point is the RAM - can someone link an article or something that will actually explain X2 performance gains with DDR500 vs. DDR400 VS ram? Is the G.Skill DDR500 really worth the $50?

Once I figure that out I think I'll be all set!
 
Yes the GSKILL is worth it. My 2GB pair of HZ's are running @ 278 1:1 with my 165, 3-4-4-8 @ 2.7v. They'll definitely do 250 at least. No guarantee of that with ddr400.

Also, boo @ dissing the Ultra-D. You may end up being sorry.
 
oh don't you dare....!

I have to wait a few days for the confirmation on the video card order to go through anyway, so i have a bit more time to decide...if you can convince me by then...
 
Le Grand Sigh!

It certainly would be nice to save $100 over the the A8N32SLI deluxe...but to give up the passive cooling...has anyone successfully passively cooled the DFI? or is it just too hot?
 
You could passively cool it...but the cooler will block a large PCI-E card in the first slot. However, you could install the card in PCI-E slot #2, and lose nothing, as nothing saturares even 8x PCI-E right now. Other than that, live with the noisy chipset fan, and enjoy your OC'ing experience.
 
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