New A64 Build, need advice.

Guys,

I'm normally a guru at my boards that I frequent, but I haven't built a computer in 18months, so I'm way behind lol.

I want to build a new system for myself and put the old Athlon 2.2Ghz (32bit) system in the shop, she works good overclocked, but I want more RAM, more speed and 64bit setup for Wind64. I don't game, I just serf and leave about 20+ apps open at a time, I really need RAM.

Cost is a object here.... but I don't upgrade the computers. It's been 18months and the last one I built was $400 for the case, mobo, fans, CPU, RAM etc...

What I'd like:

2.5Ghz
1 Gig of Ram at least
1MB L2 Cache
Mobo with Cards!

I like overclocking and tweaking things (thats why I build drag race engines)

I can see the plus sides of the 939 vs the 754 but then again I build it, put some BIG, QUIET fans on it and call it a day. NO UPGRADES! by the time I get around to that it's time for a new case anyways. So a cheap 754 system looks good to me right now.

I've looked at the Mobile Athlon 64 (754) Clawhammer stuff and notice anything above that starts going nuts in price. I know they are limited to a 800Mhz FSB (so 400 in my 32 bit brain)

The Opteron 940 Sledgehammer stuff looks good as well, but got me on the 940 Socket stuff.

If I drop down to 512Kb of L2 Cache I can go to a Newcastle and get 2.4Ghz stock or step up to a Venice 1GHz of FSB..... choices choices.

Basically I will go for $100-$175 for a CPU but then again the cost of the bad *** RAM to go with it and WORK along with the mobo all add up.

Whatcha think? What would you do?

Bret

Did you want 2.5GHZ before or after the overclock?

2.5Ghz after.... before would pretty much push my budget out the door.

Right now my Athlon runs at 40°C pretty much all the time air cooled on 1.7v.

Bret

My advice:
Asrock S939 mobo
Cheapest opteron you can get your hands on, 144,146
Some value ram, I reccomend OCZ
Good PSU
some cheap video card

The Asrock will OC with the big boys and the Opterons have more cache then the A64's, make sure you get a decent PSU.
You want me to hand pick you stuff?

Biostar Tforce 6100 board Skt 754
Skt 754 Venice 3000+ ( 2.0 ghz stock speed )
Buffalo PC3200 1gb stick ( You can get two , they are cheap and seem to use micron ICs that oc pretty nicely. )
Links :
Buffalo Ram --- 75 USD
Biostar Mobo --- 68 USD
3000+ Venice skt 754 --- 126 USD

If you want a good video card for gaming then try this one
Sapphire X800GTO2 which comes unlocked with 16 pipelines and can be oced to X850XT speeds

Doesn't the GTO2 come with 16 out of the box now?

I got my ASRock for ~72 shipped from the egg. My 144 155 shipped from tankguys. I'm just shy of 2.5ghz as of yet, and I have barely even began to use dividers.

That 3000+ 754 Venice looks like a nice piece... wish they had it in a 1MB L2, but other than that it looks like it would fit the bill. Newer 90nm process type and I can get 2.5Ghz out of it or more.

Going to the 939 Chip is $40 more.... is the mobo and RAM going to cost more as well?

Bret

Mobo and ram wont cost you more for a 939. Value ram figure with shipping $80 for 2x512. As for motherboard, ASRock Dual Sata goes for $72 at the egg last time I checked.

The same you will spend on a 754. Processors are more expensive for 939, but you will get a lot out of them, performance and overclockability.

Flip-Mode said:

My advice:
Asrock S939 mobo
Cheapest opteron you can get your hands on, 144,146
Some value ram, I reccomend OCZ
Good PSU
some cheap video card

The Asrock will OC with the big boys and the Opterons have more cache then the A64's, make sure you get a decent PSU.
You want me to hand pick you stuff?

Click to expand...

Only Opterons I can find on the egg are the 244, 242 stuff. $160+

Hand picking some stuff would be nice....

Now I know how the guys who ask me about camshafts and cylinder heads feel. I can tell you the diff between a Dart Little Chief and a AFR 195, which my guess would be to you guys the difference between a Opteron 280 Italy and a old Barton Core. Big diff in performance and price.... but I only know why with the engine parts.

Bret

Nice prices on opterons http://www.flickerdown.com/pricing.html

Old Prices look good there, bout 4 days to late.

Alright, I see Opteron are not a good deal anymore...
So here is what I think:

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor - Retail $164.00
Mobo: ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $70.99
Memory: OCZ Gold Edition 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail $97.44
HD: Maxtor DiamondMax 10 160GB 3.5" Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM $79.50
PSU: Blue Fortron 500W Storm Power Supply $82.99
Video: AOpen Geforce 6200TC 6200TC DV128 Video Card - Retail $53.00

Pick your drives and a case and you are set
Also you might want to upgrade the cooling if you want a good OC

I'm a big fan of high CFM low RPM fans with a quality heatsink on them. I have a pretty inexpensive Speeze unit on the current model and you cant hear the thing at all.

I'd love to build a water or prop glycol based setup since machining is my forte and I could make a killer system, since cooling is a big part of what I do day to day, but the time factor is part of it.

I also have a big fast storage HD now, I'd probably just get a small inexpensive FAST HD to run my OS now and move my storage drive over. 160Gb are probablly the smallest ones you can get now though lol.

Bret

BTW.... I'm nuts to think you can do 1Mb of L2 for cheap right?

Boxed 144 Opterons aren't a whole lot more expensive, what $10?

So what can I do with that 144 Opteron? It has low wattage, 939 pin and 1Mb of L2.... can that thing be made to kick *** or am I going to have to screw around with different types of RAM and such? I can now run DDR500 with it? or no? Whats the process type and FSB?

Bret

I didn't see an Opteron under 200$ after the price push up.
Stroker, 1mb cache will not help as much as you think and as for an HD just pick something you like and you can still find 80gb SATA II hd's.

Ok so the choice is between a 800Mhz FSB (HTT) or 1Ghz FSB.

The DDR 400 is a bunch cheaper than the DDR 500.

2x512 DDR 400 $75ish
2x512 DDR 500 $120ish
2x1024 DDR 400 $165ish

For me and leaving a billion things open at once the extra RAM would help more than the extra FSB/HTT i'm guessing. So if I can do a 800 system for less I can throw more RAM at it.

That sound right?

The 3 sticks of DDR 400 512 is still iffy right? You don't get as much gain that way correct?

Again I'm rusty on this..

Bret

Get the 2X1024 kit, on A64 platform you don't loose much performance when running on dividers so DDR500 is not needed but you will gain by going dual channel and not 2x512mb.

Yeah I'm really liking the Venice 754 deal.
Going to team it up with the Biostar TForce 6100 like |3ourne suggested.

I'm looking at 2x1Gb ram now and don't know if I want to pony up for the 2 Cas stuff.

There is some G.Skill that looks good in 2 cas.... spending more on the freaking RAM than the mobo and CPU. I just dont want to be RAM limited on this build like my present Barton (1833, 166FSB, running 2.26Ghz now with Kingston 2x256 3-3-3 RAM)

Also this gigaram doesn't look bad either.

I'd like to see how far this Venice can go on air cool with a on board video card sucking RAM from me. It hurt my FSB on the last one 4Mhz, so that kept me out of the 2.3Ghz territory. I'd like to see 2.7Ghz on the new one, but I'll probably be in the 2.6 something range with this on board deal.

Any suggestions?

Thanks for the help so far too!