Help with AMD / Motherboard options

[flinxz]

I need help choosing a new Motherboard, Processor, and RAM.

I am building two PCs right now. I currently have a P4 2.6 HT with a Ti 4600 (mine) and the other is an AMD 1800 with a 4800 (the Mrs.). These computers have done well for me up to this point.

My problem is the dated video cards. I primarily do gaming on my PC and need an upgrade. I have gone back and forth on just updating my AGP to starting over with a PCI-e. It would seem that PCI-e is just the best option right now (I think my processors would bottleneck a 7800 GS anyway).

I have always built my own PCs and up until the P4 2.6 it was not a problem for me. Now it is three years or so later and I have no idea what the hell any of the newer stuff is. In addition I have never gone AMD before (the one above was not built by me) and I need some advice.

Here is what I want from the educated masses of these boards:

- AMD processor suggestions
I like the newest technologies but not the newest models (price reasons)
Nvidia vs. ATI can be argued all day long but it seems that AMD vs. Intel hasn’t been an argument for some time now with AMD the clear better.

- Mother board suggestions
I have always used Abit and Asus, but any suggestion is good
Obviously I want PCIe on it
I do not care about SLI and do not plan on ever putting two cards into one comp (having the option won’t kill the deal though)
SATA (I assume that is the standard now anyway, I have one of the first SATA drives and would like to keep it as a secondary.

- RAM
I had dual channel on my P4 and that technology helped me with my adobe products, but it seems unnecessary for gaming, so any suggestions will be appreciated.

I am NOT looking to build a budget PC, but I don’t buy the most expensive stuff. If product 'A' is great at 200 bucks and product 'A.1' is better at 700 bucks. I am going to pick product 'A' every time.

I will choose the video cards, PSU, and drives.

OH and I don’t care that windows vista will be out in October, we all know that means July of the next year and months after that before SP 1 and DX 10 cards that are reasonable. I’ll just upgrade everything again in a few years when it’s set in.

 

[shadowduck]

I need help choosing a new Motherboard, Processor, and RAM.

I am building two PCs right now. I currently have a P4 2.6 HT with a Ti 4600 (mine) and the other is an AMD 1800 with a 4800 (the Mrs.). These computers have done well for me up to this point.

My problem is the dated video cards. I primarily do gaming on my PC and need an upgrade. I have gone back and forth on just updating my AGP to starting over with a PCI-e. It would seem that PCI-e is just the best option right now (I think my processors would bottleneck a 7800 GS anyway).

I have always built my own PCs and up until the P4 2.6 it was not a problem for me. Now it is three years or so later and I have no idea what the hell any of the newer stuff is. In addition I have never gone AMD before (the one above was not built by me) and I need some advice.

Here is what I want from the educated masses of these boards:

- AMD processor suggestions
I like the newest technologies but not the newest models (price reasons)
Nvidia vs. ATI can be argued all day long but it seems that AMD vs. Intel hasn’t been an argument for some time now with AMD the clear better.

- Mother board suggestions
I have always used Abit and Asus, but any suggestion is good
Obviously I want PCIe on it
I do not care about SLI and do not plan on ever putting two cards into one comp (having the option won’t kill the deal though)
SATA (I assume that is the standard now anyway, I have one of the first SATA drives and would like to keep it as a secondary.

- RAM
I had dual channel on my P4 and that technology helped me with my adobe products, but it seems unnecessary for gaming, so any suggestions will be appreciated.

I am NOT looking to build a budget PC, but I don’t buy the most expensive stuff. If product 'A' is great at 200 bucks and product 'A.1' is better at 700 bucks. I am going to pick product 'A' every time.

I will choose the video cards, PSU, and drives.

OH and I don’t care that windows vista will be out in October, we all know that means July of the next year and months after that before SP 1 and DX 10 cards that are reasonable. I’ll just upgrade everything again in a few years when it’s set in.

Ok lets see-

For a CPU something like an Opteron 165 would do just fine. The Opterons as you probably know are server grade CPUs so they are build to a higher standard, but will work just fine in a home system.
Opteron 165 $328.00 (Dual Core, 1MB L2 cache per core, 1.8GHz)

I really like Asus motherboard, and the A8N-SLI series are great boards. Per Asus support they are certified to work with Opteron CPUs and offer a ton of features.
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe $150.99

As for RAM, I an a new fan of OCX RAM. The speeds on it are good, it gets glowing reviews, and overclocks really well.
OCX Gold GX 2GB (2x 1GB) $221.98

Hope this helps you!
--Duck

 

[flinxz]

I like the idea, anyone think the Opteron is a bad idea?

 

[apache_lives]

opteron - few $$$ more for a colder chip with more ocing headroom - why the hell not

 

[flinxz]

Okay, I am sold on the "AMD Opteron 165 Denmark 1GHz HT 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939 Dual Core Processor"

Now I need a motheboard, as I said no big deal if it does not have SLi.

My only other thing is that personaly I would like to avoid DFI (PSU reasons) and MSI (too much hate for them on every single forum it would seem)

So I need a non DFI/MSI motherboard for the Opteron 165 that will work with a 7800 or 7900 what are some suggestions.

*** I think I will go with the A8N-SLI Premium as it seems to be a good balance of some overclocking and non overkill.