Building a new gaming rig- help please...

For the last few days I've been toiling over making hardware choices for my new rig. It's going pretty well except when it comes to chosing a motherboard, so I was hoping you guys might give me some feedback and help a poor girl out?

Here's what I'm looking at so far:

Motherboard:
Abit AN8 Fatal1ty SLI -OR- DFI Lanparty nF4 SLI-DR

CPU:
AMD Athlon 3700+ (San Diego core)

RAM:
OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 Dual Channel Gold -OR- Mushkin Blue Line Dual Channel 1024MB PC3200 (Both are supposedly made with the new BH5 chips)

GPU:
eVGA GeForce 6800GT 256Mb PCI-E ($299 Amazon and can be OCed to Ultra speeds)
Also had my eye on a Radeon X850XT PE 256Mb PCI-E ($349 is a good price, but I can't use the SLI function of my boards in the future with this one)

PSU:
Antec TruePower 2.0 550W

HSF:
Zalman CNPS7000B-Cu LED/CNPS7700-Cu, or Thermaltake XP-90/Big Typhoon (or maybe just waiting for the Zalman CPNS9500 LED and using stock cooling for the meantime?)


OK, so I'm sure you'll say they are all fine choices, but what do I want to do with them right? Well, I'm relatively new to OCing, so I'm definitely going to take it slow and like everything I do in life I'll do a TON of research about it before doing something stupid. I don't plan on pushing any of this as far as it can go, but rather would like a modest OC (then again modest to me, may be more than average to some) while running a 100% rock-solid stable system. In a motherboard I want a great bios with great support and updates (doesn't everyone?). I really like the idea of Abit's uGuru, although it may not work well in the real world, where you can preset configurations and change them at will inside of Windows (don't really need to be OC'ing my system when I'm just surfing around)- does the DFI board have anything like this? Or is the uGuru chip/software a POS and just something that sounds neat on paper?

As for CPU, I've heard good things about the San Diego cores, but most people seem to be using the 3000+/3200+ Venice cores- is there any reason for this other than price? I can get a 3700+ SD for less than $300 or a 3000+/3200+ Venice for around $200. For me the price difference is mariginal really, but which performs better (with a halfway decent OC) is the real quesion.

The only other things about my new system I am not 100% sure about is my choice of RAM, GPU and my HSF. I know the new BH5 chips should OC relatively well while keeping their tight timings, so I think they should be a decent choice (while I go want to run them at some faster speeds I still would like to be able to keep 2-2-2-6). Keep in mind I am going to be spending MY money on the RAM (as opposed to my rther large Amazon gift certificate), so I have to be somewhat conservative. The OCZ will end up being about $125 AR +shipping and the Mushkin $108 +shipping (I'm thinking OCZ might be the better choice because of their excellent reputation for support). For an HSF I want something that cools well (DUH!) and looks good at the same time (remember I am a female, lol). The Zalman CNPS7000B-Cu LED really seems to fit that bill, but hey I'm a Texan and if bigger is better, than the CNPS7700-Cu should be my choice (but no cool looking LED fan)? But I have also heard excellent things about the Thermalright XP-90 and Big Typhoon...all things equal (or if they all seem to cool about the same), I'm liking the way the Zalman's look.

As for my video card, the reason I'm looking at the 6800GT is because I can get it for $299 and I've seen alot of people OCing them to Ultra speeds and beyond (with sufficient cooling of course). However that Radeon X850XT PE at $349 ain't bad either. But to be honest, both of those sure are alot of money and I could drop down to a 6600GT for about $175, could buy an identical one later for maybe even less (but then again with SLI you don't get 2x the persormance so maybe just dropping $300 now would be better?).

Well, I'm starting to ramble, so if some of you have some feedback for me I certainly would appreciate it- thanks!

Motherboard: The DFI would help your OC be easier, since it has higher voltages and many people have had great experiences with OCing with it, the only problem is you might have a few bug/error issues with it.

The Abit is also a great choice, it's like top 3 for OCing motherboards, the uGuru thing is pretty good if you dislike having your motherboard pretty hot, and it does look as if it can cool your CPU by maybe 1-2C.

Take a look at the ASUS A8N SLI Preminum motherboard, it's the best SLI motherboard out there, and it even can OC to speeds on par with DFI.

CPU: The 3000+, 3200+, and 3700+ can OC to about 2.7ghz on air cooling, that's why everyone gets the 3200+ or so, it has a better price to performance ratio.

BUT, the 3700+ has more "potential" then the 3200+, for example, if you use extreme phase change cooling, you can get the 3700+ to speeds much higher then the 3200+.

If your only doing moderate OCing, then I guess the 3700+ is good if you have enough money for it.

RAM: Most Mushkin sticks require active cooling, since they tend to get pretty hot. Most people have better experiences with OCZ ram, if needed, get 2x1GB sticks.

GPU: I'd stick with the 6800GT over the ATI. I highly recommend you DON'T go for SLI, because by the time you get your second 6800GT, the 7800GTs will be almost in the same price range.

If you have enough money, get the 7800GTX, it's a much better card, even better then two 6800GTs in SLI. If you think the 7800GTX is a tad too expensive, look at the new 7800GTs, one 7800GT might be on par with two 6800GTs.

PSU: Highly don't recommend Antecs. They were good in the past and reliable, but nowadays they've sorta died out. Some people may have good experiences with it, but I personally don't recommend it. If you have a tight budget, get something like the Forton 550W with passive PFC. If you have a decent budget, get the OCZ Powerstream 520W at about $105, it's a great deal for great stability.

HSF: Most people get the XP-90C or XP-120 because it has great reviews for temperatures under OCing. I personally would get the Thermaltake Sonic Tower, or the best choice is a Scythe Ninja or Shogun if you can find those.

I'm seconding what Darksparkz said, a DFI Lanparty is good in so many ways, for OC'ing even if you are not oc'ing its good for gaming. what I would reccomend though is putting a new heatsink on your Northbridge.
might I reccomend you this one from FrozenCPU.com, its a Zalman northbridge heatsink, it does help when you're OC'ing, I know because I use it.>
http://www.frozencpu.com/vid-17.html
DFI sound like the best board right now.

you PSU choice again, I go with darksparkz, the Forton 550W, or a PC Power & Cooling 510, if you are wanting to go big on the power, then the 850 from PCPPC is good.

i have aan a8n sli-deluxe mobo and an athlon 3700+ sd core and i,m really pleased with it theres not much that slows it down better than the 3200 coz of the 1mb L2 cache and as far as the hsf go for the new xp-120 with 120mm uv fan looks great and can cope with high temperatures.Save your pennies and go for 7800gtx graphics card and not really expensive memory.
Oh and get a 600watt psu ........ugh......ugh....more power..

darksparkz said:

RAM: Most Mushkin sticks require active cooling, since they tend to get pretty hot. Most people have better experiences with OCZ ram, if needed, get 2x1GB sticks.

Click to expand...

Only the Mushkin Redline memory require active cooling.

Leadtek PX6800GT TDH Geforce 6800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail $299.00 newegg -

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814122209

i would trust them over amazon.

reason - warrenty - you need to return it, is amazon going to do it, or u have to go to eVGA - with newegg you can send it right back to them if you like.

we'll i thought it might be pertinant to mention that the +3400 processor and any other processor on a 754 motherboard does not support dual channel memory.

the +3500 does, as well as any others on a 939 motherboard. here is a link to that information.
http://www.techreport.com/reviews/2004q3/athlon64-3500/index.x?pg=1


and both the 3400 and 3500 processors have thier merits which is summed up in the conclusion here

http://www.techreport.com/reviews/2004q3/athlon64-3500/index.x?pg=16


it is best to get just 2 ram chips in order to run 1T instead of 2T (which is required in order to run 4 chips) as its a signifigant performance increase as shown here.


http://www.techreport.com/reviews/2004q3/athlon64-3500/index.x?pg=15




the hyper transport for a +3500 (something like the total system FSB on intel) is 1000 when running at normal speeds. mine caps out at 1100 before auto-dropping the hyper transport multi for me in order to preserve system stability. this lets your memory run at up to DDR550 while keeping the bandwidth of the HT and the memory the same! (you change the ratio for faster memory)


the hyper transport of the +3400 is 800, so the bandwidth of the +3400 processor is 80% of the +3500, and the memory bandwidth is 50% of the +3500


the hypertransports are shown here.
http://www.techreport.com/reviews/2004q3/athlon64-3500/index.x?pg=2

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here is another enthusiastic review of overclocking a +3500 that you should find helpful should you decide on the +3500
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1758