Switching To AMD. Proposed Setup Inside. Need Suggestions!

[Scroatdog]

Ok, so I've been strictly an Intel guy, but I've gotta tell you, the new X2's from AMD have me really excited. From all of the reviews I have read, it seems to really shine over Intel's offerings, and basically making minced meat of Intel's dual-core solution.

So, I am planning on upgrading my system, which will of course mean new mobo, PSU, video card, CPU, and possibly RAM - certainly not a cheap proposition. My current rig specs are in my rig and, while the 875P chipset and 'C' revision CPU are a little long in the tooth tech-wise, this rig has served me quite well. With the advent of PCI-E, SLI, Crossfire, on-board RAID-5, dual gigabit LAN, and SATA II, my rig is anything but futureproof. I have loved this machine and got a decent overclock out of it, and in my opinion the IC7 MAX3 is probably THE best 875 board out there, aside from it's vDimm and vTT voltage issues.

Alright, here is my plan for upgrading, and I would like some suggestions, comments, personal insults, whichever..., regarding my propsed components. Keep in mind as you read this, I am a complete AMD nOOb.

**EOS (End of Summer) Ground-Up Upgrade**

Storage Options
- WD Raptor 74 Gb SATA (NO RAID 0 for me this time) - *complete*. (bought from dano1122..thanks man!!)
This drive will house the OS and my games partition. Undecided whether to have the page file on there, or on another disk
- Seagate 7200.9 400 or 500 gig (this isn't out yet, but it's SATA II, NCQ, etc. _LINK_ )
or
(2) Western Digital WD2500KS 250 gig SATA II drive with 16 meg buffer, in JBOD config (also not out yet. _LINK_ )
These drives will house everything else, and possibly the page file. I'd make a 1.5 gig partition at the begining of the disk strictly for the page file
*The 160 gig drive in my sig will be taken out, put in a 5 1/4 enclosure I've got lying around, and used for image backups*

CPU
-AMD X2 4400+ - seems to be the best bang for the buck of all the X2's

Motherboard Options
-Abit Fatal1ty AN8
-ASUS A8N-E
-MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum
-ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe
-DFI LANPARTY Ultra-D
I'm not really keen on SLI because I have no intention of buying two video cards.
I've heard that the DFI board is a PITA to get setup and is very tempermental
Listed in order of most appealing to me.

Video Card Options
-ATI R520 - their XT version

Memory
-Use my current OCZ PC3700 GOLD EL ???
I've seen so many people with AMD boards just get PC3200 with low timings. Why not higher speed??? I don't understand that. Is the concensus to run async with the memory on an AMD setup????
-If not my current memory, then please give me some suggestions

PSU Options
-PC Power & Cooling 510 Express
-OCZ Powerstream 520
-OCZ Modstream 520

Well, that about covers it I guess. Aside from the 160 gig drive and maybe the memory, everything else in my sig will be sold (except for the H20 and the Stacker ). So, what do you guys think??? I'm doing it end of summer because, obviously, I need to wait for the R520 and some of those HDD's to be released. (Then again, knowing how ATI messed up the release of my current card, I should call it End of Year!! )

Fire Away!!!

 

[BrutalDrew]

This drive will house the OS and my games partition. Undecided whether to have the page file on there, or on another disk

With 1GB I doubt you even use the pagefile much for placement to make much of a difference. This does entirely depend on your usage patterns though. Putting it on a seperate drive will make a difference, but this is only if you acess the pagefile often. You can measure pagefile usage through perfmon.

Those drives are not out yet so I really cannot comment on them.

If you are overclocking I would suggest the DFI Ultra-D. I qwould alos just stick with your current memory.

All great choices for the PSU, but a little overkill IMO. Something klike this would be great and it is a great price.
http://www.costcentral.com/proddetail/Antec_SmartPower_20_SP_500/SP500/F09966/

 

[SolidxSnake]

you need pagefile, just set it small. Without a pagefile, Windows XP most likely won't operate correctly.

But the setup looks nice!

 

[BrutalDrew]

you need pagefile, just set it small. Without a pagefile, Windows XP most likely won't operate correctly.

He never said anything about disabling the pagefile. I do agree though. Just set it system managed or measure PF usage through perfmon while running some memory intensive applictions like games. Then set the initial size 4x this value. Set the max 2x that value.

 

[ckj]

Originally Posted by ScroatDog:
Use my current OCZ PC3700 GOLD EL ???
I've seen so many people with AMD boards just get PC3200 with low timings. Why not higher speed??? I don't understand that. Is the concensus to run async with the memory on an AMD setup????
-If not my current memory, then please give me some suggestions

The reason people with AMD boards get PC3200 is because that's the fastest speed the motherboard supports. I'm pretty sure your ram will work with it, but PC3700 has no advantage of PC3200 in an AMD system so people go for the lower timings to improve performance.

As for suggestions... your current ram would work, but I'm not entirely sure how well If you do decide to get new ram, ask around the storage area and as you know stick to name brand.

 

[techun]

i tihkn they get the 3200 because that's the ram they want, you can o/c ram then to 3200, 3500 4000..whatever, in some cases ram labeled 3200 can go higher than ram labeled 3500..

 

[Scroatdog]

Yeah, my PC3700 has some headroom, at the expense of timings. Just wondering if I should look to getting something with better timings. Also, I'm not sure if this memory is 1T or 2T. I'm going to be busy over the next few months reading and absorbing the AMD overclocking guides...

Thanks for the replies! Keep 'em coming. I can't wait to see benches on those HDD's when they come out. Though, WD does have the 3200JD which is supposed to be a pretty good performer...but not SATAII, so it's out. Hopefully the new 2500KS will improve upon performance.

 

[BrutalDrew]

Yeah, my PC3700 has some headroom, at the expense of timings. Just wondering if I should look to getting something with better timings. Also, I'm not sure if this memory is 1T or 2T. I'm going to be busy over the next few months reading and absorbing the AMD overclocking guides...

In real world performance there will be little difference between lower timings and say CAS2.5. This is why I generally recommend just gettin Value RAM and using a divider.

Also there is only a 1-3% increase in performance from running 1T over 2T.

 

[honhon]

with all these new dual core setups i see people building it really makes my New Socket A system seem really acient.

but it gets the job done with no lag on cs:s, was cheap and has a good future for me for atleast another year or less when i get enough money to just build a completely new system and not part this rig out because this rig is my actually first rig i actually do love. lol.