I am trying to create a rig but i am kind of stuck. I dont wish to spend more than £500 pounds but i already have a case psu and dvd drives just want to get motherboard processor HD memory and graphics card. I dont really play games(ocassionaly wolfenstein) but i still want to be able to play some recent game if i wish. I will mostly use it for programming and general development. Also the usual movies and music. Also I would like it to be somewhat future proof.

The two system are

AMD (Venice) Athlon 64 3500+ (ADA3500DAA4BW) OEM Skt 939
Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-9 SKT939 NFORCE4 PCI-E DDR400 RETAIL BOX
Gainward 6600GT 128mb Powerpack! Ultra/1960PCX TV-DVI PCI-E
Western Digital WD2500KS Caviar SE 250GB 7200RPM SATA2/300 16MB Cache - OEM
Corsair (VS1GBKIT400C3) 1024MB (2 x 512MB Matched Pair), DDR400 / PC3200, non-ECC, Unbuffered, CL3, Memory
Modules With Lifetime Warranty
Zalman fan

Total £428 excluding delivery

Intel Pentium D 930 (BX80553930) Dual Core 3.00GHz FSB 800 2 X 2Mb Cache 775
Gigabyte GA-8I945P Pro SKT775 1066FSB DDRll PCI-E SATA
Gainward 6600GT 128mb Powerpack! Ultra/1960PCX TV-DVI PCI-E
Western Digital WD2500KS Caviar SE 250GB 7200RPM SATA2/300 16MB Cache - OEM
Corsair 1GB (2 x 512MB) DDR2 667MHz 2x64Mx64 non-ECC 2x240 DIMM Unbuffered CL5 Lifetime Warranty

Total £444 excluding delivery

I am also tempted by the D 805 and overclocking it to hell but the price of water cooling plus latest mobo and some good ram not to mention a very good psu would make it more expensive than the above options. I will be looking to overclock the above systems so would also like to have that option open too me when i get tired of its performance.

Want to buy my system?

For Sale
Duel Opteron System
2 single core 248 Opterons
Copper heat sinks
Asus K8N-DL board
2 GB DDR 400 duel channel ram
LightScribe 16x DVD Burner
2 120 GB hard drives raid 0 for 240 GB
6800oc graphics card
108g D-link extreme Wireless card
And Floppy in a mid tower case
$1700
If you are interested PM me, feel free to post your questions. I can take PayPal (I don’t have a business account, so you will have to have an account) Check, money order, cashiers check or cash at your own risk. If you have any questions feel free to ask, once again I must sell, $1700 and all accept the HDs are less than 6 months old.

1. Get the 1st system spec you said

2. Why would he buy your system for nearly twice the amount he wants to spend :S

No man sorry!

Any more advice anyone?

It’s ok, since you can’t buy my system, I would go with the first one, though I would recommend going with a duel core processor, it will be a little more expensive that way, but the price/performance is well worth it.

Yes, get system 2. You want it to be future proof, dual-core will help with that

alot. Also, the RAM you've picked for the AMD setup, isn't so good, whereas

the RAM for Intel should be better for it. CAS3 RAM on A64 just doesn't cut

it. Just hope that your current PSU, is up to the task of the new setup.

GL

this is what i made for £514.30

XFX GeForce 7600 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (PVT73G-UDL3) (GX-078-XF)
£114.95

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-150-AM)
£109.95

Corsair 1GB DDR XMS3200C2 Pro TwinX (2x512MB) CAS2 (MY-026-CS)
£69.95

Abit KN8 Ultra nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-087-AB)
£49.95

Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 300GB ST3300622AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-066-SE)
£64.95

Zalman CNPS9500-LED Aero Flower (Socket 939/754/478/775) CPU Cooler (HS-015-ZA)
£27.95

plus VAT £76.60

better graphics, a faster cpu and a bigger hard drive, and only £14.30 over

Where did you get the AMD athlon 3700 for that price?
Also where did you get the mobo from? Plus i think my choice of mobo is lightly better but then you can tell me otherwise.
The hd i chose seems better than the one you recommend see here http://tomshardware.co.uk/storage/charts.html
Where did you get the zalman from for 27.95?

Thanks for the recommendation 1Tanker I am kind of swayed by the drop in price for intel dual cores and that is what causes the dilema.

Also try to leave Intel V AMD ideas at the door

its all from www.overclockers.co.uk

i made some changes and got it down to £499.03

XFX GeForce 7600 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (PVT73G-UDL3) (GX-078-XF)
£114.95
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-150-AM)
£109.95
Corsair 1GB DDR XMS3200C2 Pro TwinX (2x512MB) CAS2 (MY-026-CS)
£69.95
Zalman CNPS9500-LED Aero Flower (Socket 939/754/478/775) CPU Cooler (HS-015-ZA)
£27.95
Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-046-WD)
£51.95
Gigabyte K8N SLi nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-040-GI)
£49.95

plus vat £74.33

you now have SLi should you want it, and a faster hard drive, i couldn't see the motherboard you wanted, i chose abit before cos they are good overclockers

Huh?

What AMD v Intel ideas?

I thought you asked, for advice...well known that A64 like low latency RAM.

That's called advice. If you don't want to hear something like that, then

don't post two different brand setups, and ask for opinions....Jeeshhhhh

Some people only want to hear, what they want to hear.

Sorry man it was a general comment not a comment directed at you I just placed it in your post. Your opinion is highly valued. I just want to make sure i dont end up with people feverantly supporting one setup to another due to the brand. I dont care what my pc has under the hood(AMD or Intel) just that i am happy with it.

Is that motherboard good enough?

whats the difference between
AMD Athlon 64 (ADA3700DKA5CF) 3700 CPU Skt 939 San Diego *OEM* Found in: Processors»AMD Athlon 64 / Sempron (Socket 939)
QuickFind Code: 109092 | Mfr part #: ADA3700DKA5CF

and

AMD Athlon 64 (ADA3700DAA5BN) 3700 CPU Skt 939 San Diego *OEM* Found in: Processors»AMD Athlon 64 / Sempron (Socket 939)
QuickFind Code: 100945 | Mfr part #: ADA3700DAA5BN

Thanks for the advice you have been a great help.

On a further note could you list the importance of components in order of where the money is best spent.

CPU
Motherboard
RAM
GCard

it would have been useful to say the website, i worked out it must be ebuyer
looks like a ebuyer crazyness! they are the same, just for some unknown reason the price is different.

i think the motherboard would be cool, but its up to you, do you want SLi if not then go for the one you picked

and its important to remember that you don't want to spend a lot of money on one part of the computer and not much on another cos that willl course a "bottleneck" i.e. the cheap part will slow down the expensive part

I'm not sure about the SKU . May be different steppings, but i don't think

you need to worry about that. Since you're not heavily into games, than

that 6600GT should serve you well. As far as breakdown for parts:

M/B And CPU -no sense good cpu/bad Mobo or vice versa.

Graphics Card

RAM

This is only for your situation, as RAM plays a more important role,

depending on your use.

what got me is the manufacturer number one is ADA3700DKA5CF the other
ADA3700DAA5BN is there any way i can find out the difference? Yea it is ebuyer. I like the sound of this motherboard http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/87026 but what do you guys think of it? Plus although having a kick ass GCard (XFX GeForce 7600 GT) is cool and all i dont know if i want to be paying the most money for my GCard.

i think its over priced and you can't get it anymore. the Abit that i suggested uses the same chip set and has giga lan
more info here:

http://www.abit-usa.com/products/m [...] &model=285

here is a link to the numbers explained:

http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/co [...] /30430.pdf

its under the AMD Athon 64 part of the pdf.

I thought it was overpriced just liked the sound of 8 sata connectors and dual gigabit lan. The processors just have some minor differences one has a steady voltage the other a variable voltage plus the casing is slightly different. Will either of those effect the performance and overclocking potential of the processors?

i think the one with cf at the end would be better for overclocking as it is rev. E6

do you really need 6 sata connectors? and dual giga lan? if not then its not worth the extra money.