Ready to Confirm my order... Final Review please

Vince0000

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Sorry to make another Post... Here is my final conclusion...

I will be doing some Video Editing also so I'm going with 2gig of Ram... Is it considered a waste to be over 1gig?

AMD Athlon64 3200+ CPU w/heatsink & fan, SOCKET 939 ("Venice")
Antec Sonata 17" ATX Tower Case w/420watt power Supply
Asus A8N-E Socket 939 Motherboard
. . . . (Socket 939 / nForce4 Ultra / PCI-E / Dual Channel / ATA133 / SATA 2.0 / Audio / GBL / 8xUSB 2.0)
(4) 512meg PC3200 DDR Memory (OCZ Brand) Total 2 Gig
(2) Seagate 200GB 7200rpm 8MB SATA Hard Drive
Panasonic 1.44MB Floppy Drive
Asus Extreme X800XL/2DT PCI-E 256MB 2xDVI
Samsung 915N II 19in LCD Monitor Black
LG 4163B 16x Dual Layer +/- DVD ReWriter(black)

Logitech MX518 Gaming Grade Optical Mouse
Saitech Gamers keyboard

Maxtor One Touch 200gig External Hard Drive
Canon IP4000 color printer

Final thoughts would be great...
Thanks for all your Help!
Vince


<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by vince0000 on 06/15/05 02:32 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
 
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Looks good but I suggest you go with 1 gig sticks. The reason being 4 stick will have a hard time running at full DDR400 speed unless you get a Venice core. Even with the venice youll probbly have to cut on the timmings.

Bottom line is go with 1 gig sticks or simply with 2X512 of better ram. The later should be OK even if you do moderate video editing.

Again even if Asus is good and you like the brand consider the DFI or even epox MB...

Asus P4P800DX, P4C 2.6ghz@3.25ghz, 2X512 OCZ PC4000 3-4-4-8, Leadtek FX5900 w/ FX5950U bios@500/1000, 2X30gig Raid0
 

apesoccer

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So long as the program and file in question are able/large enough to use that 2gb, it will. However in gaming, you'll see slow downs because the 2gb (edit: 4x512mb unless it's tccd) will be clocked down to 333 from 400. I couldn't tell you if the same would be true on the intel side. With AMD processors however, it'll slow you down to 333. There will be a pretty tangible difference between 1gb and 2gb of ram in video encoding if the file is large enough. To test that, just run a process through once with 1gb, then shut down and do it again with 2gb. I would consider getting 2 1gb sticks of ram too. They run anywhere from $180+ on newegg. Since it's going to downclock anyway, might as well leave room to expand for the same price and the same end amount.

F@H:
AMD: [64 3000+][2500+][2000+ down][1.3x2][366]
Intel: [X 3.0x3][P4 3.0x2][P4 2.4x5 down][P4 1.4]

"...and i'm not gay" RX8 -Greatest Quote of ALL Time<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by apesoccer on 06/15/05 04:23 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
 
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Oh I was under the impression 2X1 gig sticks wouldnt under clock...At least in 2T and with a venice I tought you could run them at 400...

Asus P4P800DX, P4C 2.6ghz@3.25ghz, 2X512 OCZ PC4000 3-4-4-8, Leadtek FX5900 w/ FX5950U bios@500/1000, 2X30gig Raid0
 

sparky853

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With the Venice core, he should be fine running 4x512. The advantage of going to 1GB sticks would be upgrading to 4GB in the future.

Systems Running F@H:
AMD: [A64 3200+] [XP2800+ x2]
Intel: [P4 3.0] [P4 2.8 x4] [P4 2.0] [P4 1.8] [P4 1.7] [P4 1.6 x2] [P4 1.4M] [Xeon 1.0] [Cel 1.0] [P3 ??] [P3 500]
 
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Ok thats what I tought, thansk for clarfying

Asus P4P800DX, P4C 2.6ghz@3.25ghz, 2X512 OCZ PC4000 3-4-4-8, Leadtek FX5900 w/ FX5950U bios@500/1000, 2X30gig Raid0
 

apesoccer

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Sorry i'll edit that.

The way i understand it is this:

4x512 = 333mhz
2x1024 = ?mhz

If the 512 sticks are 1 sided then you can have 4x512 with venice or winchesters. Out on Anantech's they've done 4x512 with TCCD chips on Win's @ 400 2T. I haven't read anywhere where they've said 2x1028 would work at 400. Now i'm definately not the end-all of information...Someone else is going to have to help here, but basically, if you're over a certain number of pieces of ram it clocks you down to 333. So 1x1024 would be basically the same as 2 single sided 512 sticks so far as the board recognizes it. So it would have the max number of pieces of ram per side. So i <i>think</i> it would be over the limit. Maybe P4man or the mem guy could smash this post to pieces; i mean help!

But yea, i didn't say which mem i was talking about in the previous post...i'll fix that!

F@H:
AMD: [64 3000+][2500+][2000+ down][1.3x2][366]
Intel: [X 3.0x3][P4 3.0x2][P4 2.4x5 down][P4 1.4]

"...and i'm not gay" RX8 -Greatest Quote of ALL Time
 

apesoccer

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If you read some of the write-up's about the venice core, it says (4x512 2T) if the ram is "one sided". How much one sided ram is out there at 512mb? Not much. This has been talked about in previous threads.

By all means correct me if i'm smok'n crack here!!! =D

F@H:
AMD: [64 3000+][2500+][2000+ down][1.3x2][366]
Intel: [X 3.0x3][P4 3.0x2][P4 2.4x5 down][P4 1.4]

"...and i'm not gay" RX8 -Greatest Quote of ALL Time
 

Vince0000

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I noticed on there site they only show 512 sticks... I will request 2 - 1gig sticks instead...
If they only have 512 sticks maybe I will stick with 1 gig for now.

Yes this is a Venice chipset also, edited above...

One more thing, Is there any advantage to having a motherboard with FIREWIRE built in or is it just as fast with a firewire addon card? I notice with this A8N board it does not have firewire and I need that for my digital camcorder for sure.

I'll check out the DFI board just to be sure.

Thanks again guys!
Vince
 
2*1024 won't down clock.
4*512 won't down clock but you will have to set to command rate to T2.

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<font color=green>NED AND MOZZARTUSM - REAL (P)RESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES</font color=green>
 

Starfishy

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Check out the DFI board for sure. I have recently built two systems with the Ultra D. I have had no problems (although if this is your first build the manual is very limited). It is an easy overclocker which is nice... even if you aren't an overclocker now, you might decide to be one in the future when your rig starts to lag behind all your buddies new rigs.
 

dunklegend

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<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813123236" target="_new">This</A> is a great mobo and it includes 2 firewire.

<font color=blue>If everything seems to be going well, you obviously don't know what the hell is going on</font color=blue>
 

dunklegend

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<A HREF="http://www.dfi.com.tw/Product/xx_product_spec_details_r_us.jsp?PRODUCT_ID=3471&CATEGORY_TYPE=LP&SITE=US" target="_new">clicky</A>

<font color=blue>If everything seems to be going well, you obviously don't know what the hell is going on</font color=blue>
 

dunklegend

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When I was building my rig I didn't decide for the DFI because it only has 2 PCI slots, and the Epox has 3. Plus the Epox was cheaper.

Any of those 2 boards are good just decide based on the features you want, the features you really need and the price.

<font color=blue>If everything seems to be going well, you obviously don't know what the hell is going on</font color=blue>
 

Starfishy

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Yep, that is the board I was referring to. It's a great board. I have not tried the Epox board yet, but I probably will now that someone here has given it a good review.
 

Starfishy

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<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136152#DetailSpecs" target="_new">DFI details</A>

<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813123236#DetailSpecs" target="_new">Epox details</A>
 

apesoccer

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That's cool. Where did you get that info? I've had my ears to the ground on that kinda info, and hadn't heard anything.

What i had heard was that the win's didn't support 4x512 at all [@400] (but tccd's would do it on 2T timings). And the only write up i had seen, said that venice would do 4x512 with 1 sided chips at 2T. Which really didn't mean a thing to me, since there aren't any 512 1 sided chips for sale anywhere. (i think i just pretty much quoted myself heh; oh well). And i hadn't heard anything at all on 1024's, so i'd love to read some about that.

F@H:
AMD: [64 3000+][2500+][2000+ down][1.3x2][366]
Intel: [X 3.0x3][P4 3.0x2][P4 2.4x5 down][P4 1.4]

"...and i'm not gay" RX8 -Greatest Quote of ALL Time
 

okietex

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Vince,

Maybe I missed someone elses post - but I just built an AMD64 rig and used 2 WD Raptors (74gb/10Krpm) -- and I have to say, they are impressive.

You might consider using 1 WD Raptor and getting that 2nd 200 Gig as your secondary. These raptors seem to be performing well for me in just my daily activities so far. Haven't stressed etc -- but seem faster than my previous setup.

hth some.
 

Yohoho

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> SOCKET 939 ("Venice")

The best choice at the moment. Cool quiet and ready for a major upgrade in 12 or 18 month (Athlon X2)

> Asus A8N-E

Like others have said, no on-board FW.

> (4) 512meg PC3200

Personally I would go for 2x1024 ECC.

There is a reason non-ECC memory is sometimes sold in pairs. Sometimes 2 sticks simply do not cooperate nicely. Putting in 4 512MB sticks is simply asking for trouble.

ECC memory is (FAFAIK) neever sold in pairs, because it just works as it should.

> (2) Seagate 200GB 7200rpm 8MB SATA Hard Drive

Make sure the drives you buy support NCQ (Native Command Queing). Not sure if windows already supports NCQ, or if that's even needed. NCQ can make a big difference in certains situations, the price is virtually the same.

> 2xDVI

2xDVI, the way to go.
 
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Labby will comment...
NCQ has nothing to do witht he OS, only the Motherboard and the drive needs to support it.

No need of ECC only if you want more than 4 gig of ram, it will only be slower and more expensive. And why not buy two dual pack, as long as the match paired are in the same channel wont be a problem. The problem might come form AMD's intergated memory controller, not the ram if you buy good quality.

Asus P4P800DX, P4C 2.6ghz@3.25ghz, 2X512 OCZ PC4000 3-4-4-8, Leadtek FX5900 w/ FX5950U bios@500/1000, 2X30gig Raid0
 

apesoccer

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Labby will comment double he must...

;D

text smilies are way sexier

F@H:
AMD: [64 3000+][2500+][2000+ down][1.3x2][366]
Intel: [X 3.0x3][P4 3.0x2][P4 2.4x5 down][P4 1.4]

"...and i'm not gay" RX8 -Greatest Quote of ALL Time
 
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Oooppsy...
I apologize thanks for pointing it out Yoda. Now its 3 post for the rpice of one =)

Asus P4P800DX, P4C 2.6ghz@3.25ghz, 2X512 OCZ PC4000 3-4-4-8, Leadtek FX5900 w/ FX5950U bios@500/1000, 2X30gig Raid0