building a new system from scratch

[oron]

So, it's that about that time again.. time for a new system. My old athlon 600 machine and even my aging p4 1.6 laptop can't keep up with me any more. It's time for something new.
I am an industrial design student and do a *lot* of CAD modeling/rendering, illustrator, photoshop, etc work. I need maximum processing power for the rendering (rhino 3D).

I think I would like to build an Athlon64 system and perhaps get a copy of WinXP64 to run it with. Here's my challenge:
What do I get to build the most screaming machine (within reason)?
what's the best athon64 mobo & cpu combo?

Thanks!

 

[Obtuse]

What does "within reason". I'll assume you mean $1000-1500 budget.

Proc: A64 3200+ ($218)
Mobo: K8N Neo Platinum ($126)
HD: 2x 120gb sata in raid0 ($200)
2 X 512 Corsair xms 2-3-3-6 memory ($234)
Case: Chenbro xpider ($50)
PSU : Fortron Source 350watt ($40)
Video card: x800 pro or 6800gt depending on your fanboyness, personally I'd take a 6800gt ($400)
Lite-On dual layer dvd burner ($90)
whatever else you want.

Now that's on the expensive side. If that's too much, scrap one of the hd's, get the chaintech z-nf3 mobo, lower proc to 2800, get 9800pro 128mb instead for graphics card, any of these depending on what aspect of the machine is most important to you. As for win64, good luck getting hold of it.

"It's too late now anyway. That song is stuck in my head and the only way to get rid of it is to blow it out. With a bullet!! - Carl

 

[oron]

Thanks for the great info. You presume correctly, however I plan to lower my budget even more by leaving out unecessary items for now and cannibalizing my old computer. The case I'll either re-use or build my own (being a design student and all...) I'll probably reuse the power supply and dvd-rom and cd-burner drives (don't need dvd-burner for now..). I'll probably also reuse my 32mb GeForce2 card until I can afford a better card later (hardcore gaming is not high on my list right now, and this card is plenty to handle real-time effects in rhino3D).
Would it be worth it to upgrade to the 64 FX over the regular 64?
Oh, and Microsoft is offering a free 1-year trial of winxp64 for athlon machines.

So my system would be:
Proc: A64 3200+ ($218) (FX??)
Mobo: K8N Neo Platinum ($126) (FX MOBO?)
HD: 2x 120gb sata in raid0 ($200) (probably get 2x 100gb) (-$50)
2 X 512 Corsair xms 2-3-3-6 memory ($234) (good)
Case: Chenbro xpider ($50) (build my own -$50)
PSU : Fortron Source 350watt ($40) (reuse -$40
Video card: x800 pro or 6800gt depending on your fanboyness, personally I'd take a 6800gt ($400) (reuse old -$400)
Lite-On dual layer dvd burner ($90) (get later -$90)
Total: $778

P.S. Will an old AGP4x GeForce2 card even work with this setup?

 

[Cybercraig]

Will an old AGP4x GeForce2 card even work with this setup?
***********************************************************


It depends on two things: is it a 3.3v card or a 1.5v card. Me thinks 3.3v-and, what your definition of "work" is. You would really cripple your A64 with that card.

Abit IS7 - 2.8C @ 3.4 - Mushkin PC4000 (2 X 512) - Sapphire 9800Pro - TT 420 watt Pure Power
Samsung 120gb ATA-100 - Maxtor 40gb ATA - 100
Sony DRU-510A - THAT'S MORE LIKE IT!

 

[Obtuse]

Will your old psu work? New A64 and P4 boards need an additional 4-pin 12v connector due to increased power demands from the proc. Depending on how old your psu is, you may not have one. It looks like the big 20 pin main connector, but just has 4 pins in a box configuration.

"It's too late now anyway. That song is stuck in my head and the only way to get rid of it is to blow it out. With a bullet!! - Carl

 

[oron]

Well, the videocard may be very slow in comparison to the rest of the machine, but right now it's the fastest thing going in comparison to my current machine, so as long as it will work and not fry the mobo, it'll be good enough for a few months. Putting off hardware upgrades or doing so in steps always maxes out the cost-performance ratio.

As far as Windows XP 64 bit edition I did some more research and it apparently doesn't support a whole lot of stuff including windows media player / dvd / cd-burning / etc! Totally useless then (unless it just means that it doesn't come with WMP).

As for the PSU, yes I'll probably have to buy a new one.

Given that I will probably just be running 32-bit windows now, what would be a better performer (given cost): athlon64 or p4?

Also, I looked at the prices for the 64FX - holy crap it's expensive!!!