Good Bundle of Components

[marshahu]

I have decided that I would get an nice package containing an AMD Athlon 64 3200+, a 512mb memory stick and motherboard. Are the following components going to give me optimum performance from my PC that I choose to build and will the PC be reliable:

-MSI K8T NEO-FSR Motherboard
-Corsair Value Ram PC3200 512mb
-AMD Athlon 64 3200+ boxed

The whole lot costs £325.01. Is this worth it?

PC Spec: AMD Athlon XP 2000+ running at 1.25ghz, ECS K7S5A Motherboard, 768MB SDRAM PC133, Sparkle nVidia Riva TNT2 M64 32MB AGP Graphics Card, Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 6.1, Windows Me

 

[etp777]

Make sure there's a good return policy, as AMDs in general have been having memory compatability problems, from vairous articles I"ve read, and the MSI board in review(looks to be same model) here on Toms wouldnt' even boot with Corsair memory

 

[marshahu]

U think thats true? Why would a company put together certain components which dont work and have the cheek to say that they are "guaranteed" to be compatible?

I was going to get some more Corsair memory in addition to the one included so that I could upgrade my memory to 1GB

PC Spec: AMD Athlon XP 2000+ running at 1.25ghz, ECS K7S5A Motherboard, 768MB SDRAM PC133, Sparkle nVidia Riva TNT2 M64 32MB AGP Graphics Card, Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 6.1, Windows Me

 

[pat]

It is not AMD fault, but chipset faults. Newer chipset, from Intel, VIA, nvidia,...has problems with fast memory(ddr400 up) and dual channel mode as they require precise memory timing. If you happen to have good memory, you shouldnt have any problems. If they have checked the memory and found that it works, then go for it. But I would wait for newer board with nforce3 250 chipset to move, cause the chipset in a second generation chipset, with issues found in first generations fixed and with much more feature and performance. New socket (939) for new AMD CPU will be used too, so much more option to choose from. Anandtech has a good preview of nforce3 250, and I would have a look at it before making any move. That will be for sure my next chipset in my next machine!

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[marshahu]

Whats this about a new 939 socket? Isn't that the same socket as AMD Athlon 64?

PC Spec: AMD Athlon XP 2000+ running at 1.25ghz, ECS K7S5A Motherboard, 768MB SDRAM PC133, Sparkle nVidia Riva TNT2 M64 32MB AGP Graphics Card, Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 6.1, Windows Me

 

[pIII_Man]

good point...in fact for a while intel never wanted to release 800mhz fsb cpus on DDR, they originally wanted to wait for the shift to ddr2.

If it isn't a P6 then it isn't a processor
110% BX fanboy

 

[pat]

Socket 939 will not be the same as socket 754, the current A64 socket. It depend how badly you need a new computer. If you need a fast gaming rig right now to play new game that are hot now, I would say go and buy now, because the current A64 options wont be outdated soon. But if you dont need it now, then I would wait a little bit, just to see what will be next.

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[marshahu]

So are AMD playing the same game that Intel played with the earlier Pentium 4s? The slow 1.3ghz - 1.5ghz processors were poor perfromers and they were a different shape to the later 2ghz processors and above. So if you wanted to simply get a faster P4 it meant changing your entire motherboard alltogether! Is this what AMD are now doing? Its absolutely crazy! How long will it be before the AMD Athlon 64s change shape!!!!

PC Spec: AMD Athlon XP 2000+ running at 1.25ghz, ECS K7S5A Motherboard, 768MB SDRAM PC133, Sparkle nVidia Riva TNT2 M64 32MB AGP Graphics Card, Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 6.1, Windows Me

 

[pat]

No, it is not the same. AMD64 now are good performer and can last long enough, so an upgrade wont be necessary for a while.

If you are still running with your crippled cpu/mobo, I bet that even if you upgrade now, you wont need something else for the next 3-4 years.

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[endyen]

You may want to take a look at Crashman's post about Nforce3 250.
My own opinion is that the nforce 3 150 was a great solution, winning at most of the benchmarks. The only place it lost was in the old open gl sectors. I wont be buying a highend rig based on a need to play old games. Not that you cant get 100s fps in quake, but who cares so long as you get the best framerates in directx9 etc. If you cant wait the 2 weeks or so till nf3 250, look at the perf of the nf3 150. Watch out though as most review sites seemed to have caught some via hype about faster HTT.