Computer setup. Need feedback

[Stacocakes]

Hey guys. After some searching this is the system I have come up with.Feel free to mention any possible modifications that could be made to make this system better. I am from Canada so all prices are in canadian dollars.

AMD Athlon64 3500+ Socket 939 Processor $480
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum Motherboard $200
1GB Corsair TwinX1024-3200XL Memory $467
XFX GeForce FX 5900 XT/128MB DDR/AGP 8X/VGA/DVI/TV Out/
Video Card $280
Creative labs soundblaster audigy 2 $96
Western Digital 120GB / 7200 RPM / 8MB / ATA-100 / EIDE Hard Drive $107
NEC ND-2510A Dual Layer DVD Writer $90
Artec Xion Silver ATX Mid-tower case with clear side, front USB and 450 Watt power supply $110

Grand total approximately $2000. I chose the 939 processor because I heard that Athalon will be moving towards the 939 socket in the future which would mean that it would be easier to upgrade this system in the future.Would you recommend any changes in this system?Is it better to go with a pentium instead?The system will be used for gaming and the internet. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.Thank you for your time

 

[Mr5oh]

Well, you are right AMD, is moving away from Socket 754. However, with all the new board hardware/features coming out, the next time you upgrade again, you may be buying a new motherboard anyways. So honestly it may end up saving you some money to go the Socket 754 route, you may lose some performance (if any), but would save a fair amount of money, the extra money could be spent a better video card.

Of course your 939 setup you already chose, is also a good choice, just wanted to give you something else to think about.

And right now for gaming you should stick to a AMD 64-bit chip of some flavor, over the P4.

Also keep in mind that low latency memory isn't really necessary for the newer AMD chips, and not really necessary for any newer machine, really.

This article, points out how little memory timings matter today:
<A HREF="http://www20.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20040119/index.html" target="_new">http://www20.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20040119/index.html</A>

Yes the RAM timings, do make a <b>little</b> difference, but there is a big jump in price for the low-latency RAM, and the extra money could be spent elsewhere to see bigger performance gains. So that may be something else to think about, on your RAM you could get by with a little cheaper RAM, but, stick to a brand name, no generic chips!

Don't get me wrong, your selections all look pretty good, but, I think I would try and save some money somewhere, or round up a little more to upgrade the video card a little further, either a 6800, or 6800GT. Either of the 6800s would give you a bigger performance boost in games and such, than say low latency memory.

Just my two cents, but hopefully something more for you to think about.


My Desktop: <A HREF="http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc.html" target="_new">http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc.html</A>