Time for a new motherboard, is it time for 64-bit?

[Felecha]

Yes!

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Felecha

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
There's a Quote button at the bottom right of my post here

And then I edit it down to the part I want to quote?

And a link would be like this. Cool!

:Q I think he's got it.

EDIT: and if you want to change something you wrote, click on "Edit" in the lower right of the post and you can change stuff (like I'm doing now)

 

[sniperruff]

i'd just wait for something major to die then buy everything new. flaky probably means software issues.

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

To the bottom right of each post, there's a Quote button.

 

[Felecha]

I'd be delighted to find it's only a software issue, but when I installed Linux on the second hard drive and found the same freezes there I gave up that hope.

One poster suggested that the caps on the board were getting bad. The symptom is exactly what goes with that, although that's no proof.

Spontaneously stops dead anywhere from a minute or two to a couple of hours at best - the screen freezes with the cursor dead in the water, no response to keyboard or mouse, nothing is available from the other networked computer here at home. The screen stays there, so you can see whatever was there when it froze up, but that's the end of it - nothing I can find to do but hit the reset button.

Often enough the freezes really do amount to a problem other than taking a break for the reset, I lose stuff that I've been doing even though I have AutoSave on every app that I can find it on

 

[Skyhanger]

Looks like it's a 20-pin ATX board. If you buy a new PSU, keep that in mind, you want an older 20-pin ATX Power supply.

Yours should do fine, however i will be wary of running a nice system off of an no-name brand. It's like putting cheap gas in a porsche. It will run but may not be too stable. You will never know what will happen...

 

[Gadzookie]

Antec Solution SLK3000-B Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail 49.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129152

FSP Group (Fortron Source) AX450-PN ATX12V 450W Power Supply - Retail 49.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104954

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA3800BVBOX - Retail 347.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103562

EPoX EP-9NPA+Ultra Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail 105.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813123236

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail 84.50
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145440

Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6B250S0 250GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM 95.50
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144358

NEC Black IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3540A - OEM 38.98
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152047

SAPPHIRE 100121 Radeon X700 128MB DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card - OEM 93.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102537


Total 862.97


if you want to save money you can change the x2 3800 processor for a regular 3200 venice make
sure its socket 939 and its the venice core those cores are the newest and are very easily overclockable

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3200BPBOX - Retail 190.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103535

Total 705.97 if you go with the 3200 venice core


since you dont game i picked out a x700 very good cheap card also its PCI express AGP is dieing out
the new format is pci express

i hope this helped

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Skyhanger
Looks like it's a 20-pin ATX board. If you buy a new PSU, keep that in mind, you want an older 20-pin ATX Power supply.

Yours should do fine, however i will be wary of running a nice system off of an no-name brand. It's like putting cheap gas in a porsche. It will run but may not be too stable. You will never know what will happen...

It needs the 12v P4 connector though right?

Felecha, does yours have that?

Looks like this http://www.modding-factory.net/tests/id46/20.jpg

 

[Gadzookie]

i would get whole new power supply you said your system is 5 years old does that mean the power supply too ?

 

[Felecha]

Originally posted by: Skyhanger
Looks like it's a 20-pin ATX board. If you buy a new PSU, keep that in mind, you want an older 20-pin ATX Power supply.

Yours should do fine, however i will be wary of running a nice system off of an no-name brand. It's like putting cheap gas in a porsche. It will run but may not be too stable. You will never know what will happen...

Reading the manual for the ASRock board, it shows a diagram on p. 8 which has the 20-pin and near it a 4-pin.

My current PSU has a 20-pin plug and a couple of small things that are 4's but not in the 2x2 that the manual shows.

And yes, my current PSU is the original, 5 years old.

But is PowerMan a dud brand? It comes with the InWin, which I thought was an OK brand of tower.

And I can't find anywhere in the manual there, as to the power supply requirement.

 

[Gadzookie]

powerman is not a good brand some good power supply brands are

Antec
Forton Power Source
OCZ

i dont think that powersupply will power anything current i highly recomend buying a new PSU
the psu i listed above is 20 and 24 pins so it fits any motherboard

 

[Doug117]

Definately will need a new PSU (i'm in the same boat as you Felecha). The old 300W wont cut it with a new A64 system. The new setups need (they say) 26A on the +12V line (look on your PSU for amps per voltage "rail"). I'm guessing you dont have much more than 14A. Most of the amps are going to the +5 /me guesses

And if you really want to go cheap you can go the socket 754 way. Some good chips out for that now "value" socket

 

[manly]

What kind of programming do you do anyway?

 

[Felecha]

I work for a company that makes alerting systems for first responders at airports, military bases, power plants etc. I write the software for the admin station in our system, which monitors the main system activity, handles the configuration, generates reports, sends email alerts to the maintenance folks when something is wrong on the system. It's all written in VB.Net. I also do Java stuff on the side, web apps etc.

 

[Felecha]

Might as well get to the final question - RAM. I see lots of choices for 512's. I figured I would start with 2x512 and add 2 more later if I want. I run 768 now and don't feel it suffers.

But I see tons of offerings for 512's. Where to start? Gadzookie gave me one suggestion, but I don't know much about the different RAM types and what matters

Let me say at this point, all of you - THANKS!

 

[Skyhanger]

Just get a single stick of 1GB, that way you can get another GB later. RAM performance takes a hit once you install more than two sticks. (aka 4 sticks of 512)
1GB of RAM costs ~$100, while two sticks of 512 average ~$90, so you aren't saving that much by going cheaper anyways.

 

[manly]

Originally posted by: Skyhanger
Just get a single stick of 1GB, that way you can get another GB later. RAM performance takes a hit once you install more than two sticks. (aka 4 sticks of 512)
1GB of RAM costs ~$100, while two sticks of 512 average ~$90, so you aren't saving that much by going cheaper anyways.

I'm pretty sure Athlon 64 Socket 939 is dual-channel DDR.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: manly

Originally posted by: Skyhanger
Just get a single stick of 1GB, that way you can get another GB later. RAM performance takes a hit once you install more than two sticks. (aka 4 sticks of 512)
1GB of RAM costs ~$100, while two sticks of 512 average ~$90, so you aren't saving that much by going cheaper anyways.

I'm pretty sure Athlon 64 Socket 939 is dual-channel DDR.

It supports dual channel, but you don't need to install ram in pairs.

 

[Felecha]

Um, are we clear that a single 1GB stick will work?

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: Felecha
Um, are we clear that a single 1GB stick will work?

Yes, just in single-channel mode.

 

[Felecha]

Is that a BIOS setting?

 

[Felecha]

And I have been reading about dual-channel and getting lost in the explanations, but I think I'm reading folks saying that dual channel mode is faster. If so I would do better with 2x512, nespah?

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

Try to go for 2x1GB Dual channel doesn't offer that much of a performance boost though, so if you decide to get 1x1GB, that's fine too. If you don't game, you don't even need an X700. A 6200 or X300 will do just fine.

 

[Phy]

Unless you're using some sort of benchmarking software, The performance boost of dual-channel memory will be practically impercievable. Since you stated that longevity is more of a concern than wringing the last bit of performance out of your new system, I'd recommend going with OCZ brand. They were the first to offer a lifetime warranty, even allowing consumers to increase default VDIMM voltages in their gold and platinum series sticks without voiding the warranty.
Their Powerstream line of PSUs are also a quality product.

Lastly, since I haven't seen anyone offer the link... Pricewatch is a great resource for finding the best price, once you've decided on hardware.

 

[Felecha]

OK, I'm about ready to plunk for the ASRock board, new PSU, I'm going to stick with the Matrox for now, and do 1GB of RAM. I am reasonably confident that will do for now, I've been living quite well on 768. And I think I will go for the X2, thinking that's the piece that should be given the 5-year view.

So if I go for 1 stick of RAM, is that a BIOS setting or how do I tell it to do single-channel? Will it recognize that there is just one stick and deal with it?

And I will noodle around for price. I have occasionally looked at PriceWatch, and always wondered about the cheapest vendors - are they reliable? Does PriceWatch only list dependable sellers?