Building a new PC for game and video editing. Please comment

[curiousguy]

I'm going to build a pc with budget and performance in mind, mainly for multitasking, gaming, video and photo editing. The specs are as follow:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Manchester) processor
MSI K8N SLI Series Motherboard
Apacer 1GB DDR 400 PC3200 RAM x2
MSI NX6800GS-TD256E Display Card
250GB Western Digital SATA HDD 16MB x2
Enermax 533Watt Power Supply
Creative X-FI Extreme Music
LiteOn DVD-ROM
LietOn DVD-Writer
ATX Tower Casing

Please give me advice and suggestion for the best performance for money and if can please point out the pros and cons of my system. Thanks a lot..

 

[fluxpunk]

That sounds quite good, I would get 4 x 512mb ram it will work better for your multi tasking with the dual channel support.

 

[rsmart]

Doesn't the A64's memory controller have to drop to DDR333 with 4 memory modules, or has the been fixed? If not, the the 2 x 1Gbyte would be better than 4 x 512Mbyte.

 

[the_guru]

That sounds quite good, I would get 4 x 512mb ram it will work better for your multi tasking with the dual channel support.

No, 2x1GB is always better than 4x512MB.

 

[fluxpunk]

Doesn't the A64's memory controller have to drop to DDR333 with 4 memory modules, or has the been fixed? If not, the the 2 x 1Gbyte would be better than 4 x 512Mbyte.

Yes didnt see it was a Manchester core they dont have the support. Try and get 2x 1gig double sided modules. as for the other guy anyone with education behind them know that (if supported) 4x512 double sided modules on duel channel would be better then 2x1 gig for MULTITASKING

thanks, hope all goes well with your build

 

[rsmart]

As a matter of interest (to me anyway), what sort of performance difference is there between 4 x 512 (SS vs DS) and 2 x 1G (SS? and DS) with the right core/memory controller?

Is it significant, or just something that can be measured in benchmarks only?

I've always gone for the biggest dual channel setup available at the time, more with the option for memory size increase than anything else (like deep insight)

 

[fluxpunk]

there is little diffrerence in speed, but relibility is much better, i built a few servers and loads of machines.

the main benifit woud be heat from all this cos when the ram is broken down into 4*512 (ds) less heat on each module.

but as for building servers i was always tought to fill every ram slot and have even amounts in each slot sa this is better for multitasking which is why i suggested it for this pc.

Of course there is a down side which is power and as already stated support but i wouldnt bother doing it for games, video editing blah blah

Try for yourself if you have an old pc laying around and a lot of old ram do benchmarks on it see the results

 

[mingocr83]

Well man. Check the info of the memory modules on www.msicomputer.com. If you use the 4 dimm slots the A64 will go to 333Mhz. I prefer to use (in this case) the 1GB memory modules, hopefully DDR2.

 

[maxxum]

I’m not sure exactly what fluxpunk is trying to get across, but your system will be more stable, quicker and expandable if you go with two high quality 1GB DIMMs vs 4 Double Sided Modules. And if you went with 4 x 512MB sticks you would have to have 8 memory banks; does that board have that many?

Now, I’m no expert, so if fluxpunk could provide some more details on how this would be faster and more stable I’m willing to listen.

 

[curiousguy]

Thanks everyone for the comments..

"Doesn't the A64's memory controller have to drop to DDR333 with 4 memory modules, or has the been fixed? If not, the the 2 x 1Gbyte would be better than 4 x 512Mbyte."

What does this mean? So should I go for 2x1Gbyte or 4x512MB for better performance? As I know 4x 512MB DDR is cheaper than 2x1Gbyte. So what do you guys think? Which one should I go for? What you guys think about the MSI A8N-SLI motherboard?

Are there any other hardware the I should take note of?

 

[avatar3k]

the guy who said 4x512 was perhaps mistaken. i dont know how he could have mistaken an x2 3800+ for anything that supports 4x512 @ ddr400...

anyway, 2x1gb is the way to go. also, if you're willing to overclock, playing an extra $50 for an opty 165 might work better.

 

[curiousguy]

Thanks avatar3k,

Your recommedations are very nice but the GeForce 7800+ here in my country is very pricy.. so I don't think that I will opt for that although its very powerful.

Thanks.. I'll go for the 2x 1GB DDR.

Are there 1 TR HDD in the market? Must be very pricy o..

Thanks again. :lol:

 

[tomknowsall]

I'm confused about this duel channel thing.

I was going to use 4x256mb of DDR400. You're saying 2x512 is better with a new 939 duel channel mobo?

I assumed that duel channel meant that I could have both 1 & 2, and 3 & 4 slots filled to make a "duel channel" set-up?

This would be good to know. My current 476 (p4p800-e) asus duel channel board just has 2x256mb (crucial DDR266), and it's pretty fast. It can run DDR440, but I didn't have the money to upgrade for not that much performance, I suppose.

What does duel channel mean? You don't need to run all 4 slots for best performance?

 

[Vascular]

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Manchester) processor (nice for the money)
MSI K8N SLI Series Motherboard
Apacer 1GB DDR 400 PC3200 RAM x2 (2 x 1GB module is the way to go)
MSI NX6800GS-TD256E Display Card
250GB Western Digital SATA HDD 16MB x2 (make sure sata2 or 3.0Gb/s)
Enermax 533Watt Power Supply (make sure is 24pin power supply)
Creative X-FI Extreme Music (would get the audigy 2zs and buy the 7800)
LiteOn DVD-ROM
LietOn DVD-Writer
ATX Tower Casing

Also I would get the audigy 2zs, save the money and get a 7800gt you wont be sorry.

4 x 512mb sticks is not bad but you will see about a 3% performance penalty by going this route.

2 x 1gb sticks is the way to go.

 

[curiousguy]

250GB Western Digital SATA HDD 16MB x2 (make sure sata2 or 3.0Gb/s)
Enermax 533Watt Power Supply (make sure is 24pin power supply)
Creative X-FI Extreme Music (would get the audigy 2zs and buy the 7800)

Thanks a lot for the recommendation. I'm not very familiar with new technologies so thanks with all your comments..

What's the difference between SATA and SATA2? Which one is more reliable and have longer lifecycle?

What's the difference between 24pin and normal power supply? What are the benefits of 24pin Power supply?

And I'll consider about saving on sound and increase the display power.. Thanks for the tips.. Does Audigy 2 have a lot of quality differences if compared with X-Fi?

Sorry for all the questions.. really curious here.. [/quote]

 

[rsmart]

1. You only need 2 memory modules to make "dual channel" work. All it is is placing the 2 modules in "parallel" to double the data width. That makes access to the memory faster, a bit like RAID0 - I know, I know a bit over simplified.......

2. The difference between SATA and SATA 300 ( incorrectly called SATA 2, IIRC the standards body setting the spec is SATA2.5 or something) is mainly in the theoretical transfer rate. The first is limited to 1.5GBit/s and the second 3GBit/s. No current drive can maintain anywhere near the 1.5GBits/s ,but some can peak above it when (briefly) when transfering out of their caches. This means that there won't be a BIG difference in the performance between the two.

NCQ may be present on some SATA drives. This helps improve access performance by re-ordering access requests. SATA 300 drives always have NCQ (correct me if I'm wrong on this).

The SATA interface standards have nothing to do with drive reliability per se.

 

[fluxpunk]

Doesn't the A64's memory controller have to drop to DDR333 with 4 memory modules, or has the been fixed? If not, the the 2 x 1Gbyte would be better than 4 x 512Mbyte.

Yes didnt see it was a Manchester core they dont have the support. Try and get 2x 1gig

As i stated before i didnt read full specs of machine so as agreed with you for this machine 2 x a gig sorry for confusion :?

 

[FreshMeat]

Not trying to muddy the waters here, but you can fill all four memory slots and still run at DDR400 speeds, you just have to set the Command Rate to 2T. Most motherboards will default to DDR333 with all four slots filled - but can be set to DDR400 manually. The memory controller is on the CPU so your mialage may vary - I have seen some people who have been able to run with tighter memory timings then I can (with the same modle CPU).

That being said - with only 2 gig - you are better off going with 2x1GB modules IMHO.

 

[Vascular]

What's the difference between SATA and SATA2? Which one is more reliable and have longer lifecycle? ( rsmart is correct, but Sata 3.0Gb/s is the newest)

What's the difference between 24pin and normal power supply? What are the benefits of 24pin Power supply? (the extra 4 pins supply the 12v pci-e bus)

And I'll consider about saving on sound and increase the display power.. Thanks for the tips.. Does Audigy 2 have a lot of quality differences if compared with X-Fi? ( audigy 2 not better but about the same)

Sata 3.0Gb/s or Sata 300 or Sata II depends on the site and who you are talking to. However it is the newest standard and rsmart is correct that there is no hard drive that will sustain maximum transfer rate but if you are buying new you should get the most current standards.

I believe the motherboard you spec'd out is a 24pin motherboard. Getting a 24pin power supply will prevent you from having to buy an adapter. The extra 4 pins supply the pci-e bus. Some motherboards will work with just 20 and some wont. Since you are buying new you should get what works directly with out adapters.

As for sound audigy 2 zs is only a my recomendation you should really research a little. Personally I cant hear any difference but I suppose a real music buff could hear the diff like night and day. Here is tomshardware review.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/08/18/creative_x/index.html
Keep in mind the review is using the x-fi model with the x-ram.

 

[WINDSHEAR]

if I were you I'd use a P4 with HT, for multitasking... I'm using a 3Ghz P4, and it's lightning fast running all kinds of things at the same time. 8) And cool... don't believe all the stuff you hear about hot prescotts :roll:

 

[maxxum]

Creative Sound Blasters are low on the list of HTPC sound solutions unless you plan on playing a lot of games. Two better choices would be M-Audio and the Prodigy 7.1 (what I have in my HTPC). SB are not the end all of PC sound solutions by a long shot. I also have an Audigy BTW and though it works fine, it was expensive and doesn’t have support for some things I need (mainly conversion).