Planning on getting a new computer, discuss!

[TheUnknownFactor]

Well i'm planning to get myself a nice new rig smile

Here's what i'm currently planning to get:
Coolermaster Cavalier 1 Silver
Price in euro: 75,80

Coolermaster PSU ATX, 450W RS-450-ACLY
Price in euro: 81,00

ASUS A8N SLI AMD K8 Socket 939 Nforce 4
Price in euro: 130.50

AMD Athlon 64 3000+(S939) Boxed Winchester
Price in euro: 138,00

Corsair TWINX1024-3200C2 1024MB Kit(2x512)
Price in euro: 187,00

XFX GeForce FX 6800 LE 128 MB
Price in euro: 218,00

Total:
in euro: 850,-


These are basically all parts ill need new, so go on and tell me what you suggest i'd buy. (i know the prices may seem, either cheap or expensive, but these are simply cheapest available where i live.)

I'm planning to use my pc for well... pretty much everything, sometimes some rendering, some gaming, some programming, maybe as webserver.

Im planning on softmodding the Video card (IE: good value for money that way), and maybe buying an extra video card later on to use up my SLI smile

If you're going to tell me to get a different case, you better have some dang good reasons cause IMHO, that case just looks mighty good!

I do want SLI, i do want an AMD, i do want to go with S939 and i do like my good-brand memory.

I think the videocard, PSU, and CPU are mostly open to debate, though if you think there's any Mobo's out there kicking Asus A8N's butt, be my guest and tell me smile

[Apanthropy]

Everything looks good. I'd reccomend a slightly faster processor though, like the 3200+ or 3400+.. but that's just me.

[Shugojin]

Personally, I'd go for a slightly faster processor... Somewhere around the AMD Athlon 64 3400+.

Also, if you want excellent performance, you could go for another gig of RAM. 2 gigs should keep you in shape for a while to come.

[TheUnknownFactor]

I'd probally give myself exactly that advice too, till i'd look at the price takg, a 3200+ goes for 179 euro, 3500+ goes for 238 euro. And that's just S939, if i take a look at the winchesters heres the price for the 3500+:258 euro. (not to mention the 3800+starts at 599 euro, i'd rather gor for an FX55 at 779 than @ 2.6Ghz)

So yeah, Personally i think a price of 133% versus a speed boost from 3000 to 3200 is not worth it.

[Apanthropy]

TheUnknownFactor

I'd probally give myself exactly that advice too, till i'd look at the price takg, a 3200+ goes for 179 euro, 3500+ goes for 238 euro. And that's just S939, if i take a look at the winchesters heres the price for the 3500+:258 euro. (not to mention the 3800+starts at 599 euro, i'd rather gor for an FX55 at 779 than @ 2.6Ghz)

So yeah, Personally i think a price of 133% versus a speed boost from 3000 to 3200 is not worth it.

Overclock? xd

[TheUnknownFactor]

Apanthropy

TheUnknownFactor

I'd probally give myself exactly that advice too, till i'd look at the price takg, a 3200+ goes for 179 euro, 3500+ goes for 238 euro. And that's just S939, if i take a look at the winchesters heres the price for the 3500+:258 euro. (not to mention the 3800+starts at 599 euro, i'd rather gor for an FX55 at 779 than @ 2.6Ghz)

So yeah, Personally i think a price of 133% versus a speed boost from 3000 to 3200 is not worth it.

Overclock? xd

exactly what i planned to do to my 3000+, though i was planning on getting it as silent as possible, i currently have a thoroughbred 1700+ rev2 (ie: one of the best when it comes to overclocking heart ), but the CPU is always sub-30 degrees(celcius), and the sound is always past 30dB, so that ticks me off, and is something i plan on improving on the next system xD

[Apanthropy]

Well, everything looks perfectly perfect then. Thumbs up from me.

[ChouchoCelia]

Excellent choices. I'm particularly fond of the corsair memory. That mobo has 4 DIMM slots, right? Don't worry about going for 2 GB now unless you really want to. 1 GB will surely give decent performance, and it's always an easy thing to drop in another matched pair later if you want. It's also probably a good thing to save on the CPU itself, but to go for socket 939 on your mobo. With dual core CPUs on the way, only socket 940 and socket 939 based chips will be dual core from AMD, so you can upgrade to that, and not worry about your gamine taking a hit from your web server or anything else you might be doing. The CPU is typically not the bottleneck anymore. Only thing I could think of to really help performance is going for TwinX 3200XL instead of the stuff you picked. The 2-2-2-5 timings will certainly help. What monitor are you thinking of?

[TheUnknownFactor]

I'm not too sure on the monitor end right now, it's probally something ill change later on, stick to my 17" CRT for now, what did bother me when i came to think about it was the video card, cause now that i think about it, i don't think it has native SLI support (not sure, gotta check that out, if its not there, see if it can be tweaked onto the card)
If SLI with the 6800LE is a no-go than ill progrally go to either the Gigabyte 3D1 (dual 6600) or the 6800GT. Don't tell me to go with ATi because i like my shader model 3 features and i do use OpenGl applications on a regular basis plus might rig it up with Linux at some point in time. smile

[Twistex]

I tend to avid the LE videocards.. I'd save some cash and go with a 6600 right now, and if you need a boost, pick up another one on the cheap and SLI.

[TheUnknownFactor]

Twistex

I tend to avid the LE videocards.. I'd save some cash and go with a 6600 right now, and if you need a boost, pick up another one on the cheap and SLI.

yeah i generally HATE, LE cards, definitly right. HOWEVER, you can boost it up, opening shader pipelines through either softmods or bios (permanent), and get some crazy performance in comparishment to what you paid for. You can open upto 12 pipelines, and get the performance a 450 euro card would give you at best.

[Twistex]

TheUnknownFactor

Twistex

I tend to avid the LE videocards.. I'd save some cash and go with a 6600 right now, and if you need a boost, pick up another one on the cheap and SLI.

yeah i generally HATE, LE cards, definitly right. HOWEVER, you can boost it up, opening shader pipelines through either softmods or bios (permanent), and get some crazy performance in comparishment to what you paid for. You can open upto 12 pipelines, and get the performance a 450 euro card would give you at best.

Aye, that's one way. I just don't have the money or the patience to screw up and have to buy a new one.

[TheUnknownFactor]

Twistex

TheUnknownFactor

Twistex

I tend to avid the LE videocards.. I'd save some cash and go with a 6600 right now, and if you need a boost, pick up another one on the cheap and SLI.

yeah i generally HATE, LE cards, definitly right. HOWEVER, you can boost it up, opening shader pipelines through either softmods or bios (permanent), and get some crazy performance in comparishment to what you paid for. You can open upto 12 pipelines, and get the performance a 450 euro card would give you at best.

Aye, that's one way. I just don't have the money or the patience to screw up and have to buy a new one.

Hehe, it's not likely that that would happen though, it's pretty much softmod level, you change a setting in some software, gets stored in your registry, and you're done. screw the card out of your computer and no one will ever notice (or be abled to), that this ever happened. If it does work and you're certain that it works, just patch up the bios and you won't have to redo the work on every windows reinstall or similar smile

It's a quite safe procedure.

[TheUnknownFactor]

just checked it out, and the 6800LE DOES support SLI surprised

[Apanthropy]

ChouchoCelia

Excellent choices. I'm particularly fond of the corsair memory. That mobo has 4 DIMM slots, right? Don't worry about going for 2 GB now unless you really want to. 1 GB will surely give decent performance, and it's always an easy thing to drop in another matched pair later if you want. It's also probably a good thing to save on the CPU itself, but to go for socket 939 on your mobo. With dual core CPUs on the way, only socket 940 and socket 939 based chips will be dual core from AMD, so you can upgrade to that, and not worry about your gamine taking a hit from your web server or anything else you might be doing. The CPU is typically not the bottleneck anymore. Only thing I could think of to really help performance is going for TwinX 3200XL instead of the stuff you picked. The 2-2-2-5 timings will certainly help. What monitor are you thinking of?

The TWINX1024-3200C2 has 2-3-3-6 timings, it's the TWINX1024-3200XL that has 2-2-2-5. But either way, still good.