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My New System - Please Advise

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Hey guys,

Long time reader, first time poster. I've been researching cpu's for my next system for awhile now and I think I have made my decision. I am going with an AM2 system, considering that my current system is a socket 754. I know its old, but I definetly got my money's worth out of it. My current system is:

Asus K8V SE Deluxe
AMD Athlon 64 3000+
XFX Geforce 6600 256 MB AGP
SB Live 24 Bit
1 Gig SuperTalent Memory (I know...it was cheap)
2x Maxtor 100Gig SATA 150 Ultra series - Raid 0 Setup
Antec 500W Smart Power Power supply

THe problem with this system is it is becoming extremly unstable with age. It randomly restarts all the time and will not play any new games well. COnsidering how old it is, I figured I'd get a new system and work on this one after to get it running as a multimedia center.

Anyways, this is the setup I decided on:

Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe nForce 570
Corsair XMS2 DDR800 Dual Channel - 2Gig
XFX 7600GT, the one with the medium Clockspeeds
CooleMaster Real Power 550 Watt

Now onto my question, should I go with the 3800+, the 4600+ or the 5000+? RIght now, I am leaning towards the 4600+ because it seems to be right in the sweet spot, but if the difference between them is almost negligible, then I'll go with the cheaper one. Money is definetly an issue here.

So, what do you guys think? Does my setup sound ok or does anything need tweaking/changing? I will be cannibalizing my Maxtor's from my current system as they are less than a year old and I could really use the saved money. The system will be used for gaming and light video editing & compiling. Gaming is the main thing tho. My budget is about 700 dollars


I know conroe is better and I don't care. I don't like Intel, and I can't afford the conroe anyways after the motherboard is included. Even if I could afford it, I would not buy it. Its just a matter of opinion and preference, nothing more. I am well aware the conroe is superior in every way. The system will be used for gaming and light video editing & compiling. Gaming is the main thing tho. My budget is about 700 dollars.

Thanks for reading this post, I didn't realize it got this long. IF anyone has any recommendations or ideas I'm open to them (except the whole "buy a conroe" thing).

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AMD will be fine for what you want it for. As for the processor, I would go with the 4600+. It looks like it does hit that sweet spot for price vs. performance. The components should do nicely for your new system.

yeah thats what I was leaning to thanks man. Anyone else?

Also, can someone explain to me why a ddr2 800 ram setup would be underclocked on a 2.2ghz system? I have read it several times but noone ever explained why. Thanks :twisted:
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Single-core AMD's run RAM at 667 tops, dual-core can do 800. It's just the way AMD set it up.

I would suggest getting an X2 3800 myself, gaming performance will be the same and video editing will only take a little bit longer, but the extra money can be put towards more RAM or a better video card which will be a better performance increase. Just my two cents.

Quote:
I'm pretty sure that the FSB on a 2.2 ghz system will be low enough that the memory can't support it, thus the memory has to underclock to meet the FSB of the processor.


Actually the A64 doesnt have a FSB, (I found this out the hard way, I bought 533 RAM and then ended up replacing it just a couple weeks later with 800). AMD just decided that they would not let single-cores use 800 RAM, probably to push people to dual-core. That being said even if you are buying single-core get 800 RAM, that way if you go dual-core later then you wont feel the need to buy new RAM, besides its only a little more expensive.

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Anyways, this is the setup I decided on:

Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe nForce 570
Corsair XMS2 DDR800 Dual Channel - 2Gig
XFX 7600GT, the one with the medium Clockspeeds
CooleMaster Real Power 550 Watt

Now onto my question, should I go with the 3800+, the 4600+ or the 5000+? RIght now, I am leaning towards the 4600+ because it seems to be right in the sweet spot, but if the difference between them is almost negligible, then I'll go with the cheaper one. Money is definetly an issue here.



To answer your questions:

1) 3800+- drop in an 65nm dual core CPU in December and there is not much performance difference
2) Make sure the RAM is CAS4 not CAS5
3) No reason to buy an SLI board- get the Asus M2N-E instead.

Quote:
I agree with shadowduck (yet again), but I haven't seen a video card mentioned. If you don't have one already, and don't have one picked out, I would go for the eVGA Geforce 7600GT. If you can afford it, move up to an eVGA Geforce 7900GT


Thanks, (again). He says he is getting a 7600GT in his first post. XFX is a good brand, so thats a good choice for him.

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XFX 7600GT, the one with the medium Clockspeeds
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