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What ram and psu is needed for this rig?

P

PoweredByV8

Member
I will make this short and sweet for you guys because I know you see these threads a lot.

San Diego 3700+
Asus A8N-E
ATI x800xl PCI-E 256mb
2 x 160GB 8mb cache IDE WD hdd's
2 optical drives
GTXP 6.1 Sound card.


What ram would you suggest for this setup to take full potential of the system?

and

What power supply do I need for this setup? I will not be overclocking.

Thanks. Any critique is welcomed of course.
 
Since you are not overclocking, get 1GB-2GB of value RAM from Corsair, Crucial, Kingston, or Mushkin. Latencies will not be a huge deal since you are not overclocking, but I would recommend getting value RAM with at least a CAS 2.5 rating (which most are, nowadays).

You will want to buy your RAM in pairs to run dual-channel mode; you don't necessarily have to buy a "dual channel kit", but sometimes it is cheaper to buy them in a kit and sometimes it is not. So for 1GB, get two 512MB sticks; for 2GB, get either two 1GB sticks or four 512MB sticks (I have heard you can get slightly better RAM timings with two sticks of RAM versus four, but the difference in performance might be negligible).

For the PSU, I would recommend the XClio 450W unit (you can find it, along with the RAM, on Newegg).
 
Originally posted by: PoweredByV8
Very much thanks for the reply. As for the ram, what pcXXXX should I look for?
Click to expand...

The proccessor is clocked at 200MHz, so DDR400 (PC3200).

Oh, just so you know, RAM speed is the DDR number /2.
For example, DDR333 would be 166MHz.
 
Alright, say no more 🙂. Here's the revised list:

San Diego 3700+
Asus A8N-E
XCLIO XClio 450BL ATX 450W Power Supply
CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit Twinx2048-3200c2ptl
ATI x800xl PCI-E 256mb
2 x 160GB 8mb cache IDE WD hdd's
2 optical drives
GTXP 6.1 Sound card.

And just to double check, this PSU will work the the ASUS A8N-E (correct number of pins)?
 
That looks good. Let me add that I have ALMOST exact same pc you have (just MSI motherboard) with Corsair Ram and OCZ Modstream 520W PSU. It is very stable so that is an option as well.
 
RAM: You will want 1GB of PC3200/DDR400 RAM. 2GB may be preferable. Get it as two sticks (ie 2x512MB=1GB or 2x1GB=2GB), not as 4 sticks. If you get 4 sticks (i.e. 4x512MB=2GB) you will only be able to run it at DDR333 (PC2700).

Best option is probably 2x1GB sticks of Corsair Value Select.


PSU: An Antec TruePowerII 380W($56) would be enough for this system, but you may want to get upto a 550W($89), so you can upgrade to whatever you want later, without worrying about your power supply.

Also, why are you buying two HDD's?

RoD
 
Thanks for the replies. I think I'd like to go with 2gb of ram to start off with, and I still want to leave room for upgrading in the future. Hence I would need 2x1gb sticks. The only value select 1gb stick on Corsair's website is the VS1GB400C3, which has a CAS latency of 3. Isn't that a bit slow?

Also, Rod: I already own those HDD's, I just put them in the list to help deciding on a PSU.

Thanks again.
 
Originally posted by: furballi
There's a version of Corsair VS with 2.5 CAS. You can fint it at Monarch, NewEgg, ChiefValue, etc....
Click to expand...


Actually yes, there is a Corsair 1GB stick with 2.5 CAS. But it's $131 ($262 for 2x1GB), newegg has Corsair XMS series 2x1GB for $226.00 with a CAS latency of 2 🙂.
 
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