New rig suggestions

[johnjailbait]

Ok so my budget is about $1300 let me know what you think of my system.



Western Digital Caviar RE WD2500YD 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s HDD
DFI LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Mobo
eVGA 256-P2-N567 Geforce 7900GT KO Superclocked 256MB GDDR3 GPU
KINGWIN ABT-600MA1W ATX/BTX 600W Power Supply
CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200)
AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Processor

This total on newegg is $1240. Let me know if there are any suggestions for better products or anything like that.

Thanks

 

[Jinx13]

Buy a dual core proc. the opty 165 is a little cheaper if you are willing to OC it. You certainly picked the mobo to OC with. Or grab the x2 4200 for a little bit more if you dont want to bother with an OC.

 

[johnjailbait]

Why dual core that doesnt really help the speed of things that much. It only helps on stuff that is writen for dual core. I know Quake 4 is. So is an Opteron processor good for gaming? I just thought they were good for servers. I just want a processor that is great for gaming. I know the 4000+ is badass. I am not sure if I will overclock yet and if i do i will only overclock the 4000+ to 2.6.
Let me know what you think is the best processor for gaming for a fair price at max 400.

 

[johnjailbait]

But I cant run PC4000 the board only accepts PC3200 at max. So which opteron should I get and what should I overclock it to. I dont want to Kill the chip and do it to hot. Id have the Zalman 9500 LED to cool it.

 

[johnjailbait]

Wow I wasnt aware of that. Are you 100% sure I can buy PC4000 and it run as 4000 and not 3200? Is this a good board ? I heard it dies alot and overheats is this true ? Should I get the 165 or the 170 ? One is 1.80 and other is 2.00. I mean I could just overclock the 1.8 to 2.0. But is the 170 a better chip ? Im surprised I havent heard more on the opteron for gaming. Let me know if you can find an article on that.

 

[DDay629]

Don't get SLi. Its unneeded, and you can get a better board in the DFI Lanparty Ultra-D. Also, I agree with the other posters, get a Opty 165. You will discover that you can OC that all the way to 2.6 easily with stock cooling. The stock cooling on it is awesome by the way. I personally would get a zalman for the sound, but thats unneccesary. You will also discover that the smaller boosts in speed of the CPU won't help gaming THAT much, really the graphics card has more of a part there.

DDay

 

[johnjailbait]

Yeah I dont need an SLI board since ill just be sticking with 1 graphics card. If you say I can get a better board than that DFI board than post a link so I can check it out. You say the smaller boosts in speed of the CPU wont help gaming that much? Well a stock 165 opteron vs a 4000+ which would be better and then a 165 at 2.6 vs 4000+ would I notice alot of difference with speed ? Is the Opteron stock cooling really that good ? With this system configuration do you think games graphics and rendering will be butter ?

Thanks for all the replys people

 

[Jinx13]

It's true that most programs and such aren't written to take full advantage of dual core, but if you multi task alot like me then it will be a nice help as I have experienced.

Yes the pc4000 ram will run just fine. And an SLI board might prove handy if in a year we find that the nvidia soutions to physics rendering is superior to that of ageia's boards. Of course that assumes you will keep the setup or at least mobo for at least a year plus.

The Opty stock heatsink is pretty darn good, but I went ahead and stuck a zalman 9500 on mine. I have yet to get into playing with OCing yet tho.

 

[shadowduck]

Yeah I dont need an SLI board since ill just be sticking with 1 graphics card. If you say I can get a better board than that DFI board than post a link so I can check it out. You say the smaller boosts in speed of the CPU wont help gaming that much? Well a stock 165 opteron vs a 4000+ which would be better and then a 165 at 2.6 vs 4000+ would I notice alot of difference with speed ? Is the Opteron stock cooling really that good ? With this system configuration do you think games graphics and rendering will be butter ?

Thanks for all the replys people

Board is DFI Lanparty Ultra D:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136152

 

[MU_Engineer]

Your board can surely handle RAM much faster than DDR-400 (PC3200.) Heck, my Abit board is not known for its immense overclocking ability and it can handle an LDT of 450 MHz, which can run RAM at up to DDR-900 speeds (PC7200.) DFI's are KNOWN for being wonderful overclocking boards, so I bet that board you have can do at least that well.

I'd get a dual-core chip before I got a 4000+ San Diego. The 4000+ is about the same price as an X2 4200+, and the 4200+ is only 200 MHz slower at stock. They overclock very well- just for hoots and grins I OC'd mine to 2.45 GHz and I'll be darned if the temps didn't even budge from the stock temps (I didn't go any further as my RAM is 1GB modules of DDR-400 and likely won't OC that great.) Of course, I put it back at stock as I wanted Cool 'n Quiet to work, but the horror stories about people not being able to OC their X2s more than ~200 MHz were only true with some older models. The new ones should hit 2.6-2.8 GHz and not run too hot.

 

[Yellow-Asterisk]

Go dual core, you wount regret it. I personaly own the opteron 165, and the Lanparty Ultra-d. and i will say that they are awesome. i have not yet overclocked the opteron, but i have not been displeased with its stock speeds. I was a little worried about the ultra-d being too "advanced" for my beginers knowledge after some of the horror stories i had read, but it was a smooth build and i have no problems whatsoever, just make sure you do your homework before you buy.

 

[johnjailbait]

Ok so you guys made me change my mind on a few things but not totally sure what to get still. I know everything in my system is good but the only thing I am questioning is the MOBO and CPU. If you guys say the opteron's are beast's specially when overclocked then I will get one. If I get the 1.80 Opteron how high can I clock it without damaging the CPU. Also which DFI motherboard should I get ? Should I get the one I originaly listed or the DFI Ultra-D. I mean what is the difference besides the Ultra-D being cheaper?

THanks

 

[Jinx13]

With the Opteron 165 which runs at 1.8 stock , you should easily get a 2.4 or higher clock out of it safely. Which board goes back to whether you plan on ever goin SLI or CrossFire(I think they released a LAN Party board with the new ATI chipset) or not. If not, a board with only one pcix x16 slot will be cheaper and work fine.