Quite confused about my build

[aoxue]

Hi guys,

Thanks for your help in advance!

Location: Ireland

First time to post here. I've been planning to build a gaming rig for a month. I've been doing some research and finally get the list of my parts as following:

Case: NZXT Nemesis Elite Edition Silver Aluminum Chassi (Without PSU) 150.00 Euro

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+(2.2GHz Socket 939, 2MB, BOXED w/fan) 505.01 Euro

Memory: OCZ Platinum PC3200 2048MB Dual Kit w/two PC3200 1024MB DIMM`s, CL 2-3-2-5 229 Euro

Sound Card: Integrated

Motherboard: Asus A8N-E/Abit KN8-Ultra/MSI K8N NEO4-FI,nForce4 Ultra? 96 Euro

Graphics Card: XFX GeForce 7900GT 256MB GDDR3 XXX, PCI-Express, 560/1650Mhz 377.00 Euro

Power Supply: NorthQ 4775-500S, ATX 500W Silent, 140mm Fan, 12-17dBA, 4xSATA, SLI, 20/24pin 98 Euro

Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM 90.10 Euro

DVD RW: NEC DVD±RW burner, ND-3550A, 16x, Dual, White OEM 39 Euro

Floppy: Sony Floppy Drive, 3,5" 1,44MB Silver Floppy Drive Internal 9.99 Euro

Wireless network card: CNet Wireless-G PCI 54 Mbps 802.11g, WPA/AES/WPA2, RP-SMA connector 29 Euro
Total Cost: 1623.01 Euro excl delivery

I don't want to o'c at all and have no interest in Sli. My Lcd only support 1280*1024, so I don't want to waste money on resolution higher than that. So FPS is the priority.


The only things bother me are the choice of motherboard and memory. I've been reading a lot of reviews and all of the mobos got some problems

My question is: Which mobo is the latest released in the market, which supports the Athlon 64 X2 cpus the best? and not sli?

Another thing is the memory. I'm really not sure which memory is the best choice for which mobo.

It's the first time for me to build a rig my self. I have no experience at all, but I'd like to challenge myself with this tough mission. So please don't mind my stupidity and the mistakes I made.

My Goal is to get a system in which everything runs smoothly at its stock speed without any issues occurred.
Your help is Critical to me and really really appriciated!!

 

[The_Rev]

You picked out some great components. It should be a teriffic system.

A couple things:

For the mobo, I would go with the MSI or the Abit -- Many around here will tell you Asus boards have lots of problems. You may also want to take a look at the DFI nF4 Ultra... It's another great mobo and slightly cheaper than the others.

The memory you picked is great and should work smoothly with any of the above mentioned boards.

Also, I'm not really familiar with NorthQ PSUs, but if they look okay to you, go for it. You may also want to look into the Antec TruePower II series... the 450W TPII would be more than enough to power your system, which I would guess would consume only around 300W.

Everything else looks good. Good luck building!

 

[smedlin]

The only things bother me are the choice of motherboard and memory. I've been reading a lot of reviews and all of the mobos got some problems

My question is: Which mobo is the latest released in the market, which supports the Athlon 64 X2 cpus the best? and not sli?

Another thing is the memory. I'm really not sure which memory is the best choice for which mobo.

that's the same memory I have, it runs like a champ. A lot of people have complained about the A8N-E, have you looked at the A8N32?

 

[shadowduck]

Nice system! You will be very happy with it. If you want to save a little money you can easily get away with a 4200+ instead of a 4400+ and you won't see much difference in peformance.

 

[GherkinPekul]

Looks nice to me. Building your first one is nerve-wracking. The best thing you can do is follow your manuals, and don't stress. If something frustrates you - walk away, do something else for a bit, and try again. If that doesn't fly, I'd ask for some help. You will get it. No worries.

 

[sandmannight]

It looks pretty good. I have heard of ASUS having problems with powersupplies but other than that I heard they are a good brand.

 

[Onus]

I've got two of those Abit boards, and have had no problems so far. The rest looks good. I wouldn't spend as much on a case, but that's just me. Next windfall I get I may blow $150 or so on a premium case just to see if I've been missing something...

 

[aoxue]

Well, thanks for your help. At the least I'm on the right track.

Here goes another question: Personally I would prefer the Abit K8N- Ultra. I think it's the latest single PCI-E board, maybe I am wrong. But some of the review says this mobo only has a +5V Rail, which is out dated.

I have no idea what that means. Will I stick with Abit or DFI?

I first chose Asus AN8-E, and then heard a lot of bad things about this and gave up. Still confused.

Please feed me with more advice so that I can finally make up my mind. Thanks!

 

[ZOldDude]

Hi guys,

Thanks for your help in advance!

Location: Ireland

First time to post here. I've been planning to build a gaming rig for a month. I've been doing some research and finally get the list of my parts as following:

Case: NZXT Nemesis Elite Edition Silver Aluminum Chassi (Without PSU) 150.00 Euro

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+(2.2GHz Socket 939, 2MB, BOXED w/fan) 505.01 Euro

Memory: OCZ Platinum PC3200 2048MB Dual Kit w/two PC3200 1024MB DIMM`s, CL 2-3-2-5 229 Euro

Sound Card: Integrated

Motherboard: Asus A8N-E/Abit KN8-Ultra/MSI K8N NEO4-FI,nForce4 Ultra? 96 Euro

Graphics Card: XFX GeForce 7900GT 256MB GDDR3 XXX, PCI-Express, 560/1650Mhz 377.00 Euro

Power Supply: NorthQ 4775-500S, ATX 500W Silent, 140mm Fan, 12-17dBA, 4xSATA, SLI, 20/24pin 98 Euro

Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM 90.10 Euro

DVD RW: NEC DVD±RW burner, ND-3550A, 16x, Dual, White OEM 39 Euro

Floppy: Sony Floppy Drive, 3,5" 1,44MB Silver Floppy Drive Internal 9.99 Euro

Wireless network card: CNet Wireless-G PCI 54 Mbps 802.11g, WPA/AES/WPA2, RP-SMA connector 29 Euro
Total Cost: 1623.01 Euro excl delivery

I don't want to o'c at all and have no interest in Sli. My Lcd only support 1280*1024, so I don't want to waste money on resolution higher than that. So FPS is the priority.


The only things bother me are the choice of motherboard and memory. I've been reading a lot of reviews and all of the mobos got some problems

My question is: Which mobo is the latest released in the market, which supports the Athlon 64 X2 cpus the best? and not sli?

Another thing is the memory. I'm really not sure which memory is the best choice for which mobo.

It's the first time for me to build a rig my self. I have no experience at all, but I'd like to challenge myself with this tough mission. So please don't mind my stupidity and the mistakes I made.

My Goal is to get a system in which everything runs smoothly at its stock speed without any issues occurred.
Your help is Critical to me and really really appriciated!!

Overclocking is easy...read up on the DFI forums.
For the same price as that case you could have a CM Stacker and I have yet seen a case that will run whatever system is inside it any cooler.

Forget the Asus boards. I have used them 100% for the past 6-7 years but after haveing a DFI will never go back!

If you have a family member in the USA have them ship you that gfx card as they are $280 USD here.

Get the Optron 170 and it will do over FX-60 speeds and less money than the chip your looking at.

For ram get some G.Skill 4000USU2-2GB-HZ (DDR500) as it will (as the Optron) run cool on stock volts...$160 USD.

The very best thing you could do for yourself is to use all that money you will save is buy a REAL power supply. PC Power and Cooling 510 (up to 38 amps on 12 V and at 50C rather than the 22C others have outputs rated at).
5 year warrenty....but I think it will still be going strong when you pass it onto your grandkids!

I use the same nic on the DFI forums if you have any question.

Z

 

[aoxue]

I'm so excited that u helped me so much!!

I found a good case in a local shop here, which is only 65 Euro. It's not famous, the brand is "I-Cute". It has a huge intake fan in the front (140mm), looks like a jet engine with blue Led. It also has a 120mm rear fan and two fans on the side window( not sure whether 80mm or 120mm)

 

[aoxue]

The review on Newegg said:"IDE connectors are placed wierd."

And this one is holding me more:

"The board I got needed power from the -5V rail -- an older standard not supported by most newer power supplies (as with mine). This incompatibility with my power supply would cause random shutdowns that would occur anytime from within seconds of pushing the power-on button to a couple of hours of uptime. It was frustrating, but eventually I RMA'd the board and got a different brand. I was pretty agitated that ABIT would still require this legacy power rail. So I either had to change my mobo or the power supply. I ditched the mobo, since this issue would arise again if I upgraded my mobo in the future. My advice: don't buy this board unless your power supply has a -5V rail (which is easy to see in the power supply specs).

So any one can help me to understand that?? Thank you so much!!

 

[aoxue]

Here's another review on Newegg about the Abit K8N Ultra:

There aren't many newer power supplies that have power on the -5V rail. I believe this rail became obsolete in the ATX 2.0 revision, so newer boards don't require it, and newer power supplies don't have that rail. What blows my mind is that its impossible to tell if a mobo needs a -5V rail or not, based on product specs. This isn't Newegg's fault -- you can't even get this info from the mobo mfg sites, or even from their manuals! Believe me, I looked. I eventually called (and emailed ABIT) to confirm that they indeed needed this power rail. When picking my new mobo, I first called the mfg's help line and asked the same question. I suggest you do the same if you are unsure."[/quote]

So any one can help me to understand that?? Thank you so much!!

 

[mdd1963]

Newegg reviews are rather meaningless, with many written by confused customers that had problems caused by their own lack of familiarity with any and all products newer than a 440BX mainboard...

 

[aoxue]

You know, I really like to hear that!

But, I have no idea where I can find some reliable and convincing reviews of those boards?

Thank god everything else looks ok.

About the case, is it worth paying over 100 for it? or will I jump to the cheap one with good fans? are there many differences?

 

[Onus]

If it has good cooling, and will fit what you want to put in it, go for the cheaper case (assuming you can at least tolerate how it looks). My cheap case with excellent airflow is running at 31.5c case and 35c CPU right now. I don't think I've seen it over 41c even after gaming for a few hours. With 120mm fans, it is also pretty quiet.

The PSU I got (Aspire "Turbolink") has a 0.5A -5V rail on it; that must be enough for my Abits.

 

[aoxue]

Unfortunately, they don't sell that PSU here in Ireland. Can I just use a regular one? Will that be a critical problem?

 

[aoxue]

Since u've already got two of the Abit KN8 Ultra mobo, do u think it's necessary to change the north bridge fan when I get it just to make sure no noise or falling off happens?

 

[Onus]

Well, my Northbridge fans certainly haven't fallen off, and don't think they really can. As to noise, other fans in my systems are probably louder; I haven't really noticed. I'm also deaf in one ear, so I cannot tell direction of sound. I suspect my GPU fan is the loudest, as I hear it crank up when I start a game.

 

[edwuave]

good for u aoxue, many are willing to help u. so i might as well help a bit.
the socket 939 will be replace by AM2. AMD will make 939 like 754 as it was now. so u dun have any much upgrade option if u get a 939 now, coz the future processor for 939 will be sempron based. the fastest processor for 939 will be the FX-60, and AMD didn plan to do FX-62 or any processor faster than FX-60.
so the point im trying to say is, plan ur upgrade option as well when u wanna build a rig. wait a month or 2 longer for AM2. u may say that AM2 didn provide any significance improvement over 939, but AM2 provide upgrade flexibility.

 

[aoxue]

Yeah, I agree with u.

But I can only wait until the end of June and I don't know whether the new AM2 mobo and CPUs will be out.

besides, what will the price of both be?

 

[smedlin]

Newegg reviews are rather meaningless, with many written by confused customers that had problems caused by their own lack of familiarity

that is SO true. I've also found that many of the reviews are by people who don't even own the product.

Dude! I saw this in the store! It's so freaking rad. You got to get one!

That are they are just repeating something they read somewhere.

 

[shadowduck]

Yeah, I agree with u.

But I can only wait until the end of June and I don't know whether the new AM2 mobo and CPUs will be out.

besides, what will the price of both be?

I believe the official release date is may 23rd for AM2

True, AM2 will be out tomorrow. However, don't expect to be buying anything AM2 before mid-June.

 

[smedlin]

Even then, I bet there will be a very large markup.

Just like when the 7900GTX's came out, they where 200-300 dollars more than they are right now.

Supply and demand!

 

[49ers540]

You should wait for 6 more weeks, you will soon aquired the best cpu, the Conroe, cheaper and way faster then AMD with 64bit. Why build yesterday technology. Be patient and wait. $500 is a lot just for a CPU. Conroe is starting at $200 and benchies has beaten the FX-60 flat out by 20-40% in performance and uses less power. The Real Cool and quite.

 

[Onus]

Pre-release benchmarks are one thing; Real World may be different, distant (in time), and/or temporarily saddled with glitches. Until you can buy one, and know it works, just as you'd buy another CPU today, Conroe and AM2 are vaporware. If you buy a dual-core CPU today, I don't think you'll have reason to be upset with yourself, and you might be quite relieved when you read initial problem reports on the new stuff. Modern games are GPU-bound anyway.
There are faster chips out there today, not to mention overclocking, but my 3800+ has been working perfectly well for me. Some people like to erect a great big epenis, and for them, waiting for Conroe or AM2 might be best so they don't waste money on something interim. If you have apps / games you want to run NOW though, there's no reason to wait.

Alternatively, scale back. Today, spend $400-$500 on a machine you know full well you're going to demote to a "backup" role in six months, plus another $400 for a high-end GPU you'll move (replacing with a $100 GPU for the backup). Then in six months, if they look good, buy the Conroe or AM2 using any lessons learned from building the backup.