Heeeeeeeelp!

[AntonioBanderas]

My Shuttle XPC SN85G4 is a piece of crap. The BIOS/Mobo have gone dead about 10 times and needed to be returned/exchanged. I am finally getting rid of it. I think it's also the best since the PSU is so low for the new graphics cards and it has very limited upgradability.

I will have an Athlon 64 3200+, 1 GB PC-3200 GEIL RAM, and a Geforce 6800 GT in the system. Is the Asus AV8 K8T800 Pro worth getting for a mobo? Or should I wait for a PCI Express mobo and get a PCI Express card? I didn't buy the Geforce 6800 GT yet and I currently have a Geforce FX 5600 Ultra.

I also need to know the best case to buy with a good power supply that is good for overclocking but not ridicuously expensive.

This computer is going to be for pure gaming.

 

[Goldstandard]

I would get an nf3 250 based board if you want to overclock, if you are set on getting an a8v, wait until the new revision comes out, since the agp lock isn't working on all units being sold at the moment. Mine seems to work fine with the beta bios, but only extended use will tell me if my board works well or not. As for ram, you better get good ram. (Don't make my mistake!) If you want to overclock I would get slightly higher rated ram than 3200, like maybe 3700 or 4000. It is a &!*#$ trying to get my old 3200 corsair cas 2's to even get over 210 fsb, and I am NOT loosening the timings anymore. I have noticed that tight timings seem to be better than more bandwidth, keep that in mind.

 

[AntonioBanderas]

Thing is, the mobo that was in the Shuttle XPC was an Nforce 150 version 1 so it is kind of hard for me to trust another Nforce mobo. I am not going to spend the money on more RAM any time soon, so should I just get the Asus mobo or a different one? The RAM I currently have is PC-3200 GEIL heatsink RAM.

On the AGP lock, I can live without it for a while. If it works in a future BIOS, that will be fine with me. I am not set on getting the Asus Av8, I just thought that would be the best one. What should I do?

Also, what about the case?

 

[Goldstandard]

Well, my a8v works just fine at stock speeds, if you ever do decide to overclock though, make sure you switch all settings to manual otherwise changing one thing can make all the other settings go screwy. Case in point, I was raising my bus speed, and I had left the vcore on auto. So, my mobo booted with vcore at 1.8 on a stock hsf! Luckily I caught it and shut it off before any damage occured, at least from what I can tell. With the beta 1005.20 bios I can lock the agp/pci just fine, though you might have to mess around with either 66/33 or 75/37 because I noticed that with the former my video card would crash at 275 fsb but would work fine at 75/37. Go figure...

I think the geil ram is good, if you aren't going to oc at this point. Just remember that the A8V is socket 939 so you would have to get an athlon 64 3500 minimum if you want that board. If you want to keep your 3200 you will be stuck with socket 754, which is much cheaper to be honest, and probably almost as good. I have no experinece with that since I went straight to 939 from my old athlon xp computer.

Oh, I forgot about the case. I have an Antec P160 which is quite nice, though a bit pricey. I don't think they come with powersupply's either, mine didn't.

 

[AntonioBanderas]

The mobo I have for my Athlon XP machine is an Asus A7v266-E which I doubt will work with my 3200+. What is the best socket 754 mobo to get for my Athlon XP 3200+? I will probably want to OC my graphics card as well but it is not a necessity. Would I still be able to OC my RAM on a socket 754 if it is PC-3200?

Also based on my machine, X800Pro or Geforce GT. You do the thinking for me, I am lazy and stupid. I heard the Geforce GT was the best bet for the $400 cards and the X800 XT was the best bet for the $500 cards. These things are always changing so I really don't know. Should I stick with my Geforce FX 5600 Ultra and OC it for a while so I can buy a PCI Express card when I have a PCI Express mobo? If I upgrade, I don't want to have to upgrade again for at least a year. Is PCI Express going to be useful anytime soon? HELP. I want to order whatever I need tonight so I can get my PC up and running again.

I see that you posted Nforce 3 250 before, but do you think I should really trust Nforce 3 again after the incident with my Nforce 3 150 v1 in my SFF?

 

[Goldstandard]

First off, don't rely only on others to make decisions for you. For all you know I could be some total noob who doesn't know squat about computers. If you aren't willing to put some thought into what you want for your computer, go buy a dell and be done with it. If you are building it yourself you need to know what you are doing, and there is no substitute for learning about the stuff yourself.

All I can do is give advice, and my knowledge is limited so you would do well to see what others have to say. I have heard some good things about the nf3 250 but haven't seen for myself. Search the forums and look for reviews online to see if they appeal to you. Your ram should be fine for now, but as for pci express I cannot decide for you. Here are the facts about PCI express: The x800pro and geforce 6800 gt do not support pci express natively, the pci express types use a bridge to talk to the pci slot. Most programs don't even fill up the agp 8x bandwidth yet. If you want a motherboard now, I think you are pretty much stuck with AGP 8x, which I consider adequate for my current gaming needs. Whether it is adequate for you, is for you to decide.

As for the cards themselves, my radeon 9800 pro 128mb works fine for me, and the prices dropped a lot since x800 cards came out. If you got that, you could use the money saved to buy a better monitor or ram, or whatever else you want.

 

[AntonioBanderas]

Your not the only person I am looking for advice from. I have several posts and many forums and I do know what I am doing. I have been custom building computers for years, I just have not been paying attention to what parts are the best for gaming recently.

My last purchase of the Shuttle XPC SN85G4 has lowered my confidence a great deal. It is still recieving great reviews but with my experience with it, I would rather use an etch-a-sketch for a computer.

I am looking for advice from a wide range of people, you just happen to be the only one to respond. Also, you seem to know what you are talking about. I am pretty good at detecting dumbasses that make up bull**** just to make themselves look like they know something. All I can say about those types of people is that they are nerds who need to slit their wrists in a bath tub because nobody likes them.

Also, can you softmod the 128MB Radeon 9800 Pro's to Radeon 9800 XTs? Or does it have to be a 256 MB Radeon 9800 Pro DDR2? I have heard several things from other people saying you had to have a 256 and some saying you could do it with a 128. Thanks.

 

[Goldstandard]

Here is a link for softmoding a radeon 9800 pro
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=270479&highlight=radeon+9800

if you look at post #4 there is a link saying where to get the bios to mod the 128 mb ones. I haven't tried it so I do not know if it will work.

Sorry if I jumped to conclusions in my last post. You gave me the impression that you just wanted me to do the thinking for you and that pushes my buttons.

It seems you actually have more experince building then I do. My athlon 64 system is my first build totally from scratch. I started out just modding computers from the OEM's. Now that I think about it I wish I had done a few things differently, like buy faster ram, but for now I will just leave my computer the way it is.