Considering a 2500+ ...Need some advice

lostshoe420 · Dec 22, 2003

I'm new to the whole "building your own computer" thing, and I've been constantly reading and changing what I'm finally going to order.

Here is the tentative list: http://secure.newegg.com/app/WishHistoryReview.asp?position=HISTORY&submit=VIEW&ID=476407

Could any of you out there check that out for compatibility and whatnot...I've heard good things about overclocking the 2500+ barton (which I would like to do I guess).

Also, I was told the mobo and memory arent worth spending the money on unless i go for the processor with a 400 fsb...i was thinking overclocking the barton could solve this, i'm not sure

Thank you in advance.

c627627 · Dec 22, 2003

Barton will most probably be multiplier locked at 11.

This is OK since PC3500 default FSB speed is about 217.

[217] x 11 = 2387 MHz

You may need to increase Vcore voltage to do this.

I would expect [200] x 11 = 2200 MHz should be no problem.

Dual 200 FSB overclock which your RAM can do easily would turn your 2500+ Barton into a 400 FSB 3200+, yes.

Quattro · Dec 23, 2003

The Asus mobo is very good, I have it!

The Coolest · Dec 23, 2003

I'd personally go for the Abit NF7-S, I'm not sure about the ASUS mobo but I think the best FSB overclocks that people have gotten were on the NF7/NF7-S motherboards, it is also cheaper than the ASUS.
One thing about the RAM, you want to run in "Dual Channel" for that you only need 2 sticks using 3 will NOT work. So either go for 512MB (2x256) or increase to 2x512MB.
I'd also recommend getting a good heatsink if you want to overclock the processor. an awesome heatsink for a good price is SK-7. I'm not really into heatsink prices right now, but most newer heatsinks from thermalright are great heatsinks. If you can find one, you can get an ALX-800 its an even better sink than the SK-7 and probably for the same price. for the heatsink you can get any fan you like, although performance does increase when a faster fan is used.
Other than that I have nothing more to add the system looks schweet.

wpmegee · Dec 23, 2003

The Coolest said:
I'd personally go for the Abit NF7-S, I'm not sure about the ASUS mobo but I think the best FSB overclocks that people have gotten were on the NF7/NF7-S motherboards, it is also cheaper than the ASUS.
One thing about the RAM, you want to run in "Dual Channel" for that you only need 2 sticks using 3 will NOT work. So either go for 512MB (2x256) or increase to 2x512MB.
I'd also recommend getting a good heatsink if you want to overclock the processor. an awesome heatsink for a good price is SK-7. I'm not really into heatsink prices right now, but most newer heatsinks from thermalright are great heatsinks. If you can find one, you can get an ALX-800 its an even better sink than the SK-7 and probably for the same price. for the heatsink you can get any fan you like, although performance does increase when a faster fan is used.
Other than that I have nothing more to add the system looks schweet.

Unfortunately the SK-7 is no longer produced by Thermalright I believe. I've got one also, love it. Isn't the ALX-800 aluminum rather than copper?

I would recommend either the SLK-900a or SP-94, depending on budget-the SP-94 has a heat pipe and will perform slightly better. Then put a 92mm Panaflo or a 92mm Tornado (very loud, get a fan controller) on the heatsink and some AS thermal paste and you're set.

The Coolest · Dec 23, 2003

yes actually it is aluminum, and I saw some reviews and comparisons to the SLK-800 and the difference was only appearant when CPU was idle, the SLK had 1-2C lower temp at idle, at full load they were identical

lostshoe420 · Dec 24, 2003

Thanks for the help so far...

What do you mean by doing a dual 200 fsb overclock c627627?

Is 512mb of ram enough...the stuff I'm getting is pretty good quality (from what i read) so should I go for 1 gig or 512?

I only chose the Asus motherboard because it was extremely popular at newegg, and I figured I wouldn't have any problems...

I'm probabaly going to order everything a couple days after christmas, so any more help or advice would be appreciated...

lostshoe420 · Dec 24, 2003

Oh, one other thing I forgot.

Because the ram is pc3500 (ddr 433), will it be compatible with the motherboard? The motherboard specs say: RAM: 3x DIMM support Dual Channel DDR400/333/266(Non-ECC) Max 3GB

A friend told me it will work, but I'm wondering why its not listed as an option on the motherboard specs.

Thanks again.

Gautam · Dec 24, 2003

The motherboard only officially supports DDR400, but that's not really relevant where we come from

.

It's a pretty solid system; I'd suggest the following changes:

Skip the 430W PSU. Its overkill for your needs. This is a lot cheaper, and arguably a better power supply in its own right.

Buy two identical hard drives and run them in a raid 0 array, as opposed to buying one large one. The performance gains are enormous.

Are you sure you need all of that ram? This is a far more economical option.

Use this heatsink or an ALX800 to get an optimal overclock. Good luck!

lugee · Dec 24, 2003

i think that is a great set up. nearly identical to mine. the bartons maybe unlocked like the posts above. but it shouldnt matter. if your planning to overclock, bartons tend to run fine around the 11x multiplier range. good luck on your new system!

lostshoe420 · Dec 24, 2003

Can anyone else tell me what they think of Guatam's comments/suggestions?

I've seen a lot of people with the two hard drives in the Raid 0 array...although I have no idea what it means

I chose the ram just based on websites and reviews...the one you suggested seems pretty basic. I thought I would at least want pc400...but I'm not really sure what it all means to me...I'm trying to take it all in haha.

Josebmw · Dec 25, 2003

I pretty much agree with Gautam. The Fortron PSU is great.
-I would suggest the Geil Golden Dragon found here:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...144-608&catalog=147&manufactory=BROWSE&depa=1

256 MB of DDR400 memory for 39 bucks, quite a deal. Buy two, and you can run DualDDR in an nforce2. These sticks can do 220 MHz @ 2.5 4-4-8 timings with no problem.

DDR400 (running 200 MHz x 2 = 400 MHz effective) has a bandwidth of 3200 MB/s, and in dual ddr mode, adding two sticks of memory, you may get some improvement (like 100 MB/s more).

I also recommend the NF7-S motherboard, if you want Raid0.

lostshoe420 · Dec 25, 2003

Ok guys, I changed my wishlist to reflect some of your advice...
http://secure.newegg.com/app/WishHistoryReview.asp?position=HISTORY&submit=VIEW&ID=476407

Do I need two SATA Power adapter cables since I'm now getting two 80gig hard drives?

Also, you might have noticed I have no memory chosen...

Can you guys recommend some good memory (do you think I need 512mb or 1 gig?)

I was looking at the Geil Golden Dragon (two 512 sticks) but I'm not sure how reliable they are. Once I get the memory finally figured out I'm definitely going to order.

If you don't feel like telling me everything, could you point me to a site that does good reviews for memory so I can research what I need?

Josebmw · Dec 25, 2003

512 MB is good enough for now. 256 MB is too low for recent games. For what applications would you need 1 gig of memory?
You will need two power adapter cables if the HDD does not come with them.

lostshoe420 · Dec 26, 2003

Oh also, how do you put hard drives in a RAID 0 array...while waiting for a response I'll try to figure it out myself using that handy search function...and if I do I'll edit this to ask something else

lostshoe420 · Dec 26, 2003

Well, this seems really complicated...if someone could oversimplify the whole raid 0 thing for me i would appreciate it...I have no idea what you need to do it, how to do it, etc...I read a couple threads but some are locked ( i dont have 250 posts yet)

until then I'm seriously considering just doing IDE...are the benefits of SATA a lot?

Josebmw · Dec 26, 2003

There are no real benefits from Parallel ATA to Serial ATA other than possibly the cables that come with S-ATA increase airflow to the computer. ATA133 has a max of 133 MB/s, most hard drives only transfer at an average of 40-50 MB/s, so S-ATA/150 wont help. You know that with raid0, if one hard drive goes down (hdd corruption, drive fails), the other drive goes with it.

ninety6 · Dec 26, 2003

Josebmw said:
There are no real benefits from Parallel ATA to Serial ATA other than possibly the cables that come with S-ATA increase airflow to the computer. ATA133 has a max of 133 MB/s, most hard drives only transfer at an average of 40-50 MB/s, so S-ATA/150 wont help. You know that with raid0, if one hard drive goes down (hdd corruption, drive fails), the other drive goes with it.

Having a raid0 setup is where the benefits of SATA comes in. In most cases, it is faster by 20MB/sec+ average write speed compared to a raid0 setup with PATA.

96

Josebmw · Dec 26, 2003

But I think he refers he is doing Parallel ATA or Serial ATA without raid0 for now, that is why he is asking if there is any difference between the two.

Considering a 2500+ ...Need some advice

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