New Athlon 64 System Recommendations

Overall, the A64 3200+ is about 6% faster than the 3000+.

You can find Radeon 9600XT or GeForce FX5700 around 150$. And under 100$ you can buy GeForce TI 4200, but you will not get DX9 hardware support for upcoming games (HL2/Doom3). Radeon 9500 (non-pro, around 130$) support DX9 (not the fastest card on the market) but they are not as fast in DX8 games.

My conclusion : you can't find a good performer in DX8 and DX9 under 150$. I strongly recommend you Radon 9600XT, GeForce FX5700 are not bad at all too, but the card will run HOT and have n clear advantage over the Radeon. They battle with each other in most games.

--
Would you buy a GPS enabled soap bar?<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by TheRod on 02/13/04 01:46 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

Corrected, thanks!

--
Would you buy a GPS enabled soap bar?

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewprod [...] 268&DEPA=0

wow this r9800 pro is cheap

Athlon 2700xp+ (oc: 3200xp+ with 200fsb) , Radeon 9800pro (oc: 410/370) , 512mb pc3200 (3-3-3-2), Asus A7N8X-X

" MSI K8T800 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 754 CPU, Model "K8T NEO-FSR" -RETAIL


- Specifications -

Supported CPU: Socket 754 AMD Athlon 64 Processors
Chipset: VIA K8T800 + VT8237
RAM: 3x DIMM for DDR400/333/266 Max 2GB
IDE: 2x UltraDMA 66/100/133 up to 4 Devices
Slots: 1x AGP 8X/4X, 5x PCI 2.2(32-bit,3.3V/5V)
Ports: 2xPS2,1xLPT,1xCOM,1xLAN,8xUSB2.0(Rear 4),RCA SPDIF Out,Audio Ports
Onboard Audio: Realtek ALC655 6-Channel Codec
Onboard LAN: Realtek 8110S Gigabit Ethernet
Onboard SATA/RAID: 2x Serial ATA, RAID 0/1
Form Factor: ATX

Model#: K8T NEO-FSR
Item#: N82E16813130449

Rating: Vote(s): 4 Review(s): 2
Free FedEx Saver Shipping




Yes $95.00"-newegg a cut down version of the more popular msi mobo,crucial ram for both is around $87 at newegg and $99 from crucial-lol,last week crucial was selling for $85...ram prices are going up fast 8(...

drr400 is about 6% better overall to ddr333...so you should notice the difference,even more than that between the 3200 and 3000.

Consider the ECS 755-A2, it's the newer version that Anantech recommends, supporting DDR400 RAM during their complete test, and doing so even at the fastest timings.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

Therein lies the problem, use a board from a questionable maker, or use a junk chipset from a company that makes good boards.

The best answer I can come up with concerning ECS is...they K7S5A was better than ALL KT266 chipset boards...when you actually got one that worked!

The key thing to remember is you can RMA a defective board and expect to get a better replacement, you can't RMA a board for a poorly designed chipset and expect to get a better replacement.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

LOL, I don't know what ECS lied and cheated about, but VIA has a long history of lying and cheating about everything, they lied about AGP issues with the MVP3 and KT133, PCI bus issues all the way up to the KT266A, and that's when I quit keeping track. Almost 100% of their technology is stolen (and later settled) or free, and don't forget that they bullied the top board manufacturers into not supporting the SiS 735 when VIA couldn't produce anything to match it.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

Sorry, "Good enough" doesn't cut it at the top end of the price range.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

According to OCWorkbench, ther is a better solution, the Soyo K8USA.

But this is a stupid stupid stupid, completely pointlessly stupid arguement you make, because a high quality chipset is already available in the 755, blame your board makers for dragging their feet.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

I agree with a lot of what you said. But the thing is, the K8USA uses an ALi, not SiS, chipset. And the ALi I believe has fewer features than the SiS. Not only that, but because ALi's recent efforts have been so problematic, and SiS's have been so nearly perfect, I have more faith in SiS to produce a quality chipset.

That being the case, I appreciate what ALi is doing and hope them the best. But I'm still cautious and will wait until this board is well established before making a firmer recommendation. Hopefully I'll already be following other boards by then, because Soyo really screwed me hard before.



<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>