[VeedeeBee]

A friend of mine has just built an Intel Q6600 Quad Core machine when his AMD 4000 blew up but had a few problems recovering his RAID disks. To cut a long story short he bought up some kit to resolve this and is now giving me the parts for free.

This includes

MSi K8N Diamond mobo (think it is a nForce 4 chipset) – Socket 939
1 x Athlon 64 Clawhammer 4000+ (not tested, but I think it still works)
1 x Athlon 64 3000+
Stock cooler
2 x 2 x 512 MB Corsair DDR XMS TWINX DIMMS (2-2-2-5) timings (2 matched pairs)

I was going to build an intel Q8400 machine for summer but this is free and appears to suport SATA II and all sorts. It is however the same vintage as my Venice core MSI sourced ATi RS480 chipset computer as below

MSI RS480 MATx Mobo
1.5 GB DDR400 (PC3200) cheapo memory
AMD64 Venice Core 3000+
2 x Hitachi/IBM drives (80 and 120GB - system and data respectively)
on XP Home (Savastore junk implementation of OS)
Replacement Hiper Typr -R 480 PSU (Savastore Hiper 350W one blew up)
Replacement FX7600GT (the above blew up the FX6600GT)

Now with the MSI K8N, I could build it with the given chips but the Clawhammer is an older chip than my 3000+ with a higher TDP, Scan UK do an AMD 64 3800 S939 Venice core for £20.

I know that the K8N also takes Opteron, AMD 64 X2 and FX chips but I cannot find these chips retail in the UK for any reasonable cost.
I also have an old ATX box in the loft (attic) but I'm not sure if I should also shell out for a new (cheapish box).
I also have a kosher copy of XP Pro SP2 though I might go Linux (Ubuntu for fun).
The PSU will probaly be another Hiper Type R but the PC Power and Cooling (sold in the UK under OCZ) PSU looks good.

I know that this is all retro but I intend to make it so that the Disk Drives that I buy will eventually be transferable to a new proper multi core system (2 years from now?)

Do any UK builders have any good advice (aprt from the obvious ,i,e give it up and build a modern spec box)


Regards


Victor