Best Motherboard/Memory combo for AM2 Athlon64 3800+ @2.4GHz

A friend of mine is currently in the middle of buying all the kit he requires for a brand new AM2 based Rig. Below is what he has purchased so far;

Case: Antech P180 Silver ATX
PSU: Enermax Noisetaker 600W
GPU: XFX 7900GTX 512MB Extreme (675MHz Core/1700MHz Mem)
CPU: AMD Athlon64 3800+ @2.4GHz AM2 (Single Core)
HS/F: Zalman CNPS9500 AM2
HDD: Western Digital 250GB SATA2 with 16MB cache
Mouse: Razor Copperhead 2000DPI Laser

Now we are stuck as to what the best motherboard/memory combo to buy, mainly because there just isn't much choice around.

He requires a motherboard based on the nVidia 590 SLI chipset.

We have completely discounted the ASUS 32x Deluxe solution due to the many problems associated with this board.

Our strongest candidate so far is the aBit AN9 32x Fatal1ty (He really likes this board) as it will allow better cooling of the north/south bridges with it's OTES GT system (His room doubles as an oven, even in winter ;-) ) and it supports 32X SLI without having to forefit the use of the onboard SATA2 support (like the ASUS 32x due to the dodgy positioning of the SATA2 ports)

Due to the fact that we cannot yet locate this board in the retail channel I have found it very difficult to find out what memory will run at DDR2 6400 (800MHz) on this board. The current favourite is the Patriot kit containing 2x1024MB DDR2 6400 (800MHz) CL4 DIMMS with 4-4-4-12 timings or their 2x1024MB DDR2 6400 (800MHz) CL5 5-5-5-12 timings as recommended by Patriot, although they do not guarantee compatibility, they simply advise us to 'TRY' them on the board.

The model number of the Patriot memory he likes is PDC22G6400LLK, Patriot Dual Channel DDR2 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400 Low Latency Kit with 4-4-4-12 timings @ 2.2Volts. He is of course desperate to buy them (he can't help himself ;-) ) But I advise him to wait for advice.

This brings me here, a source of knowledge and experience I trust.

So I would really appreciate any helpfull information you all can provide.

I would also really appreciate if you could restrain from any Intel v's AMD Flamewars, the hardware has been decided and all but bought, only the Mobo and memory to buy, so saying that Conroe can or will kick ass bears no relevance to this thread.

My friend has a budget of 150 GBP (Roughly $210 USD) for the mobo (including Postage) and about 210 GBP (Roughly $290 USD) for the memory.

He is not interested in Overclocking in the slightest, the GPU is factory overclocked and so is covered by the warranty and should run fine as is.

He runs Games, Games and more Games on this machine, with the occasional movie for good measure. He doesn't run office apps or any other similar software.

Thanks in advance for the assistance.

JKay6969

Yeah Buff I'm in the UK, I e-mailed Abit to request availability info and below is my response.

Dear Jason,
thx for your conutinue support to Abit product,
Fatality AN9 32x will ship out from Asia next Friday, from 24-28th,you can get it in UK,retailer or e tailer, like overclockers,aria,e buyer,scan,yoyoytech....


thx,Jason

I also received an e-mail from Corsair advising me that their DDR2-6400C4 Kit is compatible with the Abit motherboard and as a bonus also supports EPP SPD Profiles, the kit costs 202 GBP from www.overclock.co.uk

This now seems the most likely choice of memory for the system my friend is building.

Thanks for the input.

JKay6969