Greetings:

1. I am wondering if the following Mobo + CPU + RAM combo is any good. It's a temp in waiting for the 64FX 51 socket 939 when the price is more affordable hopefully sometime in 2005. I don't want to spend more than $500 including the case.

Antec SLK3700BQE + True430 $130
ABIT IS7 $90
P4 2.4GHz 1MB L2 533FSB $125
512MB HYPER X KINGSTON $137

2. Is Kingstion Hyper X any good in comparison to other DDR400 PC3200 CL2 product? If so, what would be its equivalent for the same or cheaper price.

3. What cooling fan (most effective at a reasonable price) would you recommend for this combo?

Is any of the following Cooling fan any good?
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produ...ductCode=370848
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produ...ductCode=370691
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produ...ductCode=370451
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produ...ductCode=370438

4. Is there any huge difference (performance wise) between PC2100, PC2700 & PC3200 DDR400 CL2?

Main application will be DVD authoring about 2H max and 3D Modeling (Solidworks, Pro/E, Solidedge)

Thanks in advance for your suggestion and help.

Go ahead and get a p4 with the 800fsb. Spend the extra money and do it right. You'll also need at least pc3200 ram. I'd get this combo, it'll perform alot better for the app's you're going to use.

Just my opinion of course

Thank you for your advise and help.

Will you get the CL2 or CL2.5 PC3200 DDR400 RAM?

Are you going to OC your Cpu?

Not at this point.
I had an OC Tbird 800 mobo Abit KT7-RAID + 800 cpu and never get a chance to OC them. I do consider this solution as a last resort e.g. in another year or so when I get the 64FX 51 system. This way, I always have a working system

Brand NEW Athlon FX will never be cheap. Because AMD will always sell only 1 FX CPU at a time, so the FX-53 replaced the FX-51 and the FX-55 will replace the FX-53.

Don't expect them to be cheap someday. FX is a more a marketing thing, it's kind of justifying the high price tag. You may find some used FX-51/53 in 2005 for cheap.

The best buy will always be Athlon 64, when Socket939 will come to the market they will have dual-channel memory controller. So the Athlon 64 3500+ will actually be a Athlon FX-51. Both are dual-channel and they run at 2.2GHz stock. The only difference will be the multiplier lock. FX are not locked which is good for a CPU that target CPU-freak and overclockers.

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Lookin' to fill that <font color=blue>GOD</font color=blue> shape hole!

Thanks a lot for the your insight thoughts.

To simplify, 64 & FX is different only by the multiplier lock or unlockable. Performance and speed(same clock speed) wise they are very similar. Am I understand this correctly?

Not really. The FX comes out faster than the A64,usually by 200mhz, and on socket 939, the FX will have more cache.

Actually until Socket939 version of FX chip will be launched. Athlon FX are Opteron that get a different marking, speed and unlocked multiplier.

They are the same CPU they come from the same batch, they are only tested/marked differently.

When Socket939 will be out the Highest speed Athlon 64 will be sold as Athlon FX-55, they will probably keep the unlocked multiplier. So the only difference at equal speed between Athlon FX and Athlon 64 will be multiplier lock.


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Lookin' to fill that <font color=blue>GOD</font color=blue> shape hole!

Thanks for the info.

It will be very helpfull when I purchase the Athlon system.

I am wondering if 200MHz is a noticeable performance in real life.

It's a pleasure to help people better understand PC. You now becoming a smarter PC buyer!

Just another note. Many people may argue that Socket754 is not a good buy. But I don't agree. There is situation where they are good buy.

If you upgrade your system on a 12-18 month cycle or less, Socket754 is a good choice. You can get very fast CPU on it and by the time you will upgrade, PCI-EXPRESS will be on the market for a year, faster chip for Socket939 will be cheap and maybe Intel will kick AMD's butt with desktop Dothan CPU, who knows!

Another good reason to get a Socket754 system is when you don't play much and that your current system can't be upgrade. Example : AMD Athlon will old chipsets or P3 systems. Most of your PC component can be reuse in Socket754 system, and since AGP video card will be widely available on the market for at least 2 year you will have the opportunity to upgrade GPU and even the CPU. AMD will launch Athlon 64 3700+ for Socket754 later this year. And maybe AMD will continue to add higher speed Socket754 to their product catalog, as long as there will be demand for them.

And the most obvious reason you can combine with the one I previously mentionned is the fact that Athlon 64 (even Socket754) are 64 bit ready CPU. This means that when Windows 64bit will be the norm, people who buy AMD systems today, will not necessarly need to change their PC, they will only have to reinstall/upgrade to WinXP 64bit to be able to use 64bit software. This will not be possible to people who buy Intel P4 today, even P4EE that cost 1K$US will have to be replaced to run 64bit apps/games.

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Lookin' to fill that <font color=blue>GOD</font color=blue> shape hole!

The best buy will always be Athlon 64, when Socket939 will come to the market they will have dual-channel memory controller
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Has anyone got a recent scoop on when the socket939 will
first show up? I'm wanting to start a new build using the A64 but will wait for the duel channel.

I'm also curious what OCing results show up with the new Via K8T880 pro and Nforce3 250 boards using the A64's..maybe I won't wait.