[spudZ]

Hi all. I'm building a new computer and i want to know your opinions on these parts:

Motherboard: Asus A8V-E Deluxe, SATA, LAN
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3200+
RAM: Either 1X 512mb or 2X 256mb DDR400 (need advice)
Video Card: GeForce 6200 128mb DDR PCI-E
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar 200GB

As for a case, im not quite sure about what kind of power supply I will be needing. Will 350W be sufficiant? Post your thoughts.

-spudZ

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if that mobo supports dual channel ram (I think it does), do dual channel. get a matched set of ram (often called a dual channel kit), and for best performance get a brand listed as compatible with the mobo. 512 is good, if you want to do much gaming or heavy A/V work, go with 1024.

read some reviews on that board- the ones I skimmed real quick had mixed reactions.

look at SATA drives, no more expensive, much better performance.

video card should be fine, though I see many recomendations for 6600gt. depends on what you want to do.

[audioboy]

if that mobo supports dual channel ram (I think it does), do dual channel. get a matched set of ram (often called a dual channel kit), and for best performance get a brand listed as compatible with the mobo. 512 is good, if you want to do much gaming or heavy A/V work, go with 1024.

read some reviews on that board- the ones I skimmed real quick had mixed reactions.

look at SATA drives, no more expensive, much better performance.

video card should be fine, though I see many recomendations for 6600gt. depends on what you want to do.

[cm60854]

Whats this computer going to be used for, I don't know where you are but I'm in Australia and those seem fairly low end specs to me.

[spudZ]

I'm just using the computer for light gaming (like, no Doom3 or other hardware hungry apps), and for some school work. Audioboy, what do you mean by "no more expensive, better performance", as in, what kind of brand do you suggest. Thanks

-spudZ

PS. So will 350W be sufficiant or should i go to 400 just to be safe?

[audioboy]

IDE hard drives have data transfer rates of 100 (typical) or 133 Mb/s. SATA came long and gives us 150 right out of the box. the newest, SATA2, is out now, offering 300Mb/s transfer rates.
sata doesnt cost anymore than the IDE drives, as its the new standard, as we are moving away from IDE hard drives. the usual good brands of hard drives still apply- maxtor, seagate, etc.
sata2 is still pretty new, so there is not wide support for it yet, but that will change soon. I know some asus mobos already support it, and I have seen hitachi hard drives at the sata2 standard on newegg. even the sata2 drives are about the same cost!

one thing, you may need a floppy drive to install the SATA drivers for the windows install. just a heads up.

doby is the real master of psu, so check some power question threads he was in. I think its mostly about the number of amps on the 12v rails, especially for a higher end AMD. if you can spring for the better psu now, might as well, then you wont need to upgrade later! make sure to get a good brand, like antec, thermaltake, enermax.

[spudZ]

Hey. I made a few changes because now I'm planning to spend more. Here are the specs now:

Motherboard: Asus A8N-SLI nForce4
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.0GHz
RAM: Samsung 512mb (PC3200) DDR400 with Heatspreader
Video Card: Asus Extreme GeForce 6600GT 128mb GDDR3
Case: Antec Performance TX1050B 21" Black SOHO Tower

As for the hard-drive, i haven't quite decided yet. One quick question: Are SATA150 hard-drives compatible with SATA300 slots? I was just wondering because I might just go with a SATA150 for now. Regards,

-spudZ

[Rockster2U]

Before you make the plunge .........

You might want to look at that DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 SLI-DR, hopefully 2x256 re: the Samsung but not a single 512 and, lastly - the SanDiego 3700+ with the 1MB cache.

You can buy four 256MB Samsung PC3200 chips right now for less than $100. You definately want to run the ASUS or this DFI in dual channel so that means either 2 sticks or 4 sticks.

[audioboy]

all the boards I have seen that support SATA2 (300) have been backward compatible with sata1 (150), so yes, you would be fine. double check the features of whatever board you look at, it should tell you.

I fully agree with rockster on the ram, use the dual channel config, it doubles your FSB speed. everything runs through that, so the higher the bandwidth there, the better!

Edited by audioboy, 30 May 2005 - 09:33 PM.

[jrm20]

I have to say one thing, DFI motherboards OWN!!! On both intel and amd boards!!!!