Nf4 on AM2 instead of Nf5 ... am I giving up anything?

[Hanafuda]

I'm building my first box in 5 years, so I've spent the last few weeks trying to catch up on what's a good budget box these days. Stepping up from an Athlon 1700 on KT266a board, so almost anything's an upgrade. I've got three kids so I'm on a tight budget - it looks like my best bang for the buck right now is an X2 3800 on an AM2 board. I'm not an OC'er, and the mobo short list is basically the Abit KN9 NF4 Ultra, or possibly the DFI Infinity NF UltraII-M2. Both of these are NF4 boards, however there are a couple 570 Ultra boards in my range such as the Asus M2N-E and Abit KN9 Ultra.

Would either of these 570 Ultra mobos show me a noticeable performance increase over the NF4 boards I mentioned? I know one thing is I'll lose one IDE slot with the NF5. That kinda sucks cuz I'd like to recycle my current IDE hdd but keep it on a separate line from the optical drive(s).


Here's the rest of the build FYI:

X2 3800+ Windsor
(mobo)
1GB (2x512) Corsair XMS2 DDR3-675 (PC5400)
EVGA 7600GT
Seagate Barracuda 320GB SATA 3.0Gb/s
Lite-On 20X LH-20A1H-186
FSP 400W PSU

I'm recycling the monitor, floppy, IDE hard drive, and case. There's a couple other things on the list such as case fans and a generic USB cable for a Canon S600 printer we got free from a friend. But right now the total w/o shipping is $562, and I want to keep it close to that so no point in telling me about major upgrades.

This is my first post here. I'm a family guy with not a lot of time on my hands to stay on top of this stuff, so I appreciate any help/advice you've got for me. Thanks.

 

[NaDa]

You can get whatever mobo you want. They dont differ in performance only in overclocking.

The NF4 mobos will be just fine.

I know it's a tight budget but I think the 7600GT is an overpriced card now and you should consider the x1950pro for gaming.
Maybe a single core Athlon64 would be better with a faster graphic card. Future games will use dual core but your 7600gt will be slow anyway for those games. A single core A64 3800-4000 would be a better buy at this moment then the x2 3800.
If you want to give overclocking a try then go with the x2 and oc it to 2.4Ghz. Thats really not a problem.

If you dont game much then go with the x2.

 

[Hanafuda]

Hey thanks for the reply. Was starting to think it wouldn't happen.

The 7600GT will end up costing $90 ($109 and a $20 mail-in), which I actually thought was a pretty good deal. I don't do a lot of PC gaming, although I will give your suggestions some thought. I am looking forward to the new Colin Mcrae game later this year. I'd LIKE TO jump to something as nice as the X1950Pro, but I don't know that I'd use it enough to justify the downgrade of other stuff on my list. Cheapest 1950Pro at newegg is $150 after rebate, so its a big jump. With the lineup I posted, my biggest concern besides the mobo issue was whether the memory would be sufficient. The video card part hadn't concerned me all that much ... I'm hitting 40 this year, and spare time for games is scarce. It isn't that I don't enjoy them anymore, its just that PC games usually involve a significant time investment. I prefer the Nintendo DS.


Thanks again for addressing my question. ANy other help from other members would be appreciated too.

 

[Hanafuda]

well, i'm actually already slightly over budget. My wife wanted me to keep it @ $500 and I told her the first day it was gonna be more like $550-600. It's not that we're poor, but when the tax return arrives (hopefully this week) the bulk of it is going to pay off the last of our credit card debt. We've been on an aggressive debt paydown regimen the last three years, and its finally gonna be over. About three years ago we had five cards with balances totalling about $18000. Anyway, she estimates there'll be $500 left over after the payoff ... that's where the number comes from.