What's the best 64-bit setup to go with for a new system?

[TitanDiddly]

Hello guys, I built my computer a few years ago and I've been upgrading consistently since then. Until recently, it was a 2100+ Palomino on an NF7-S v2.0 with 512MB 2700DDR and a nVidia 5600 Ultra by BFG. However, I was unfortunate enough to have it damaged by FedEx and after 2 months of phone calls, I have $500 on spend on a new build. Here's the status of my machine now:

Case is technically usable, but broken and beaten enough that I want a new one.
Motherboard is dead.
CPU is... old.
RAM is fine.
Video card is fine.
PSU is fried.
Drives are fine.

So, now that I'm doing a new build, I'd like to venture into the world of 64bit. I don't know much about 64bit since all my building experience has been with Athlons. I know that there are many different AMD 64bit core types, sockets, architechures, and so forth. I don't know what people are using or generally accepting to be the leader, or if there is one. I'm sure there's debate. I'm not looking for anything special, just a 3200+ or greater 64 bit CPU and a motherboard that it can work well with. Are there any good matches, like the NF7-S V2.0 and the 2500+ were a few years back? One of my top priorities is reliability. After that, I'm just going to be gaming (HL2) and doing college work. Also, video card reccomendations would be appreciated.

Also, I will be watercooling.

 

[Unkno]

having a 64-bit cpu is nothing if you don't have a 64-bit OS. Btw, do not get the 64-bit OS unless you are sure there are drivers for ALL of your devices and that your games work on it. If your only on a $500 budget, i would recommend in getting an AMD 3000+ Venice core, Some brand name PSU, and if you want a new HD, get seagate for reliability. Sell your old vid card and depending on the amount of money left over, get a X800GT/6600GT (low midrange) or X800XL/6800GT (high midrange). Since your getting water cooling, you would be overclocking then...


EDIT: hmmm, it looks like your going to need to get a mobo and better ram too...might be wise to stick with your old vid card until you get more cash to upgrade. Hope you like playing in directX 8 instead of 9 since your card won't be able to handle directX9 in HL2.

 

[TitanDiddly]

Originally posted by: Unkno
having a 64-bit cpu is nothing if you don't have a 64-bit OS. Btw, do not get the 64-bit OS unless you are sure there are drivers for ALL of your devices and that your games work on it. If your only on a $500 budget, i would recommend in getting an AMD 3000+ Venice core, Some brand name PSU, and if you want a new HD, get seagate for reliability. Sell your old vid card and depending on the amount of money left over, get a X800GT/6600GT (low midrange) or X800XL/6800GT (high midrange). AND, if your planning on overclocking (you should oc, you could get the venice core to like 2.7Ghz), get a GOOD aftermarket heatsink like the Thermalright XP-90 or the Zalman CNPS9500 (when released)

I know 64 is rather useless until the 64 apps become available, but 32 is tapering off as far as development goes. Plus, I'll be ready when the 64 apps do arrive. That's why I want a 64. The prices for these processors has always been kind of a shock- I got my Pally 2100 for $45 when it was still pretty good. I'll check out used prices, I guess. Any motherboard reccomendations?

 

[uOpt]

My recommended list if you overclock is a 3000+ Venice or 3800+ X2. If you don't overclock the 3800+ venice or the X2 4600+.

Mainboard-wise I don't like the NVidia chipsets, I want ECC RAM and I don't want pointless special chips that won't work without special drivers. The boards providing that are Asus K8V-X and A8V. Be careful that the PCIe K8V-E needs to be the SE version to support dual-core.

RAM doesn't matter much and with ECC there's not much choice. The OCZ "performance" series is nice for non-ECC.

 

[silentvois]

Get a 3000+ venice with a Chaintech Nforce 4 Ultra motherboard or Epox 9npa+ ultra whichever's cheaper. For a PSU a real good and fairly cheap one would be Enermax EG565 535Watt. With your budget you should be able to cover this real easy and have a lot left.

 

[silentvois]

If you gonna stick with that AGP card then you could get the MSI K8N Neo2 Nforce 3 ultra. That board only takes AGP card while the two I listed above take pci-e.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: silentvois
If you gonna stick with that AGP card then you could get the MSI K8N Neo2 Nforce 3 ultra. That board only takes AGP card while the two I listed above take pci-e.

I have a K8N Neo2 Platinum and I don't recommend it.

First, SATA ports 1&2 are not locked, so you can only use two SATA devices if you're overclocking.

Second, it has a really annoying bug where if you set Tras manually the RAM voltage drops to 2.6 volts no matter what you set it at. The only way to get around that and set RAM timings to something other than SPD is to leave Tras alone and adjust the others, or set the RAM timings in Windows with something like A64 Tweaker.

It's not worth the money IMHO... I'd look for a cheaper board that supports higher RAM voltages than 2.85 as well since OCZ warranties a lot of their RAM up to 3.2 volts.