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struggling to decide what hardware for 939

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txheart

Registered
Joined
Jun 3, 2003
Location
central TX
I have always used Intel P4 systems. I'm trying to decide what hardware to use in building an AMD 939 system. Wading through all the new changes in CPU sockets, pci-express, sata I, sataII, etc has been a major headache. Here is what I have so far; raidmax volcano 630 watt psu, AMD Athlon64 Venice 3800+ CPU, Zalman CNPS 9500 led CPU cooler, 1Gb corsair expert XMS(2x512) DDr400 PC3200 w/ led module, Epox EP-9NPA+ ultra mobo, LianLi PC-V1000A plus case. I have a 120GB Seagate Barracuda Sata I drive and a Western Digital 120 Gb 7200 Ide drive. My graphics card is a top of the line AGP card and I have no clue as to what type of PCI-E card to look for. Any help or comments would be appreciated. :rolleyes:
 
Some hints:
-skip the raidmax power supply, they are junk. Pick up a top name brand: antec, fortron, enermax, etx
-are you going to overclock? Opteron's are the hot item for overclocking right now. A 2ghz opteron should hit 2.7-2.8ghz. My 146 is surfing at 2.7ghz without much effort.
-If you aren't going to overclock, don't get the zalman. Stock should do fine, or there are other cheaper quiet coolers.
-If you game or like to future-proof you might look into investing into 2gb of ram. You don't have to get uber-tight timings and high clocks to get a good overclock. Ram is less than 5% of the performance equation usually. Budget $150-200 for a 2gb kit.
-Generally good 939 boards don't come in AGP. Everything is going PCI-e. If you're happy with your top-of-the-line AGP card, just buy it again in PCE-e flavor, there is little performance difference between AGP and PCI-e, and most of the chipsets come in both AGP and PCI-e.
 
I'm not planning on overclocking. Operton's prices are thru the roof. Just to buy the 3800+ is nearly 300.00. The Zalman cooler I already had around ; heat issue with the prescott big time.
 
thanks for the tip. I'll check it out. I can get a Enermax Liberty 620 W PSU for under 175.00. Guess I'll go with that one.
 
Yeah, scrap the vid card (ebay it) and buy a PCI-E.

there is little performance difference between AGP and PCI-e, and most of the chipsets come in both AGP and PCI-e.

What makes you think there's only little performance difference? Sure AGP still has the edge on application software (ie video editing), gaming is in favor of PCI-e, but overall, the PCI-e is just a better design. Which makes it more suitable for the future. When applications/games start opening up to that, then the AGP cards will simply become obsolete.
 
I forgot to doube check to see if that operton 165 dual cpu will work on that epox board. I'm sure it will or else you wouldn't have suggested it. Thanks for the tips.
 
I've decided to go with the Enermax Liberty 620w psu and the AMD Operton 165 dual core cpu. Everyone says to overclock, however, I have always been a little bit hestitant of overclocking and don't really know much about it. I have, hmm, what's the word I'm looking for, destroyed too many mobos, cpu's, pcu's, etc. while learning how to build my own systems. I still have visions of green smoke and blue sparks.
 
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