Another Comp Build Post

[Sean D]

Well, I'm gonna buy myself a new computer for Christmas this year, and have tried doing research on everything before I buy. I have never built an entire computer before, just the basics; video card, cd burner, hard drive, etc. But I don't foresee that being too much of a problem. I am on somewhat of a budget, but I already have monitors, and a couple other things I can use from my current computer. I'd like to keep it below $1000. I play games occasionally, not enough to need a $350 card. I mostly just play poker, download music, etc. So here are my current components, I'd like feedback on how it looks. Thanks



Thermaltake Soprano VB1000SWS Silver Chassis: Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

SOLTEK SL-K890Pro-939 Socket 939 VIA K8T890 ATX AMD Motherboard

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor

MSI NX6600GT-TD128E Geforce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card

ASPIRE ATX-AS520W BLACK ATX 520W Power Supply

Kingston ValueRAM 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory

Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3250823AS 250GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive

LITE-ON Black IDE DVD Burner Model SOHW-1693S Black

Microsoft Windows XP HOME Edition With Service Pack 2

[MikeTexas]

Looks pretty good. The only thing I would change are perhaps the power supply and the motherboard.

More wattage isnt necessarily better then stability and although the Aspire PSU's tend to give you a lot of wattage for the buck they tend to fail more then some other brands. Look into an Antec, Seasonic or OCZ for PSUs.

I frequent an overclocking forum and Aspire PSU's are generally frowned upon quality wise. They look nice and all, but appearances can be deceiving.

And as far as your mobo, Soltek makes great ones. I've owned one and it was very nice. However, from what I understand Soltek is no longer manufacturing mobos so it may be difficult to get driver/bios support for their mobos in the future. Thats the only reason I suggest you may want to look at other manufacturers.

I would definitely ditch the Aspire PSU though.

-Mike

[Terry]

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The only thing I would change are perhaps the power supply and the motherboard.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree.

My personal choices are Antec for power supply and Asus for motherboard ... but there are other good ones.

[Sean D]

Thanks for the resposes. I've changed it to an Antec SmartPower 2.0 500W PSU. As far as the motherboard, that is the one thing I wanted to keep. From a lot of the reviews I've read, it is one of the more stable, and easy to set up boards. I don't plan on OC'ing, and I think I'll be fine with the Soltek board. Unless someone can truly convince me otherwise. Thanks again.

Also, what about the RAM, I can get Corsair ValueSelect and Geil Value RAM for roughly the same price. Reviews for all three were very good. Any preferences?

[Nomad84]

[ QUOTE ]
Also, what about the RAM, I can get Corsair ValueSelect and Geil Value RAM for roughly the same price. Reviews for all three were very good. Any preferences?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'd recommend reading the motherboard manual to see if any particular brand is prefered by the mobo manufacturer. In my case, I use an Asus A8N-SLI Premium. I'd read about a few issues with RAM incompatabilities. I had planned to buy the Corsair ValueSelect RAM. I downloaded a copy of the Asus manual and the Corsair RAM was not listed in their approved vendor list. It may have worked fine, but I went with the Kingston cheap stuff instead since it was specifically listed as compatible in the motherboard manual. Also, as you mentioned, the price was about the same.

[Sean D]

Well, I've done some more research on the board, and a few people have been using the Corsair Value Ram with no problems. The Kingston would probably work too, but I'll be on the safe side. Also, are there any advantages/disadvantages with going with a single 1G stick, rather than 2x512mb sticks? The price is the same, actually a couple bucks cheaper for the single stick. Plus that would leave 3 empty slots for future upgrades. The only noticeable difference is the CAS latency for the 1g is 3, while the 2x512 is 2.5. Thanks again.


Edit: Also, is there a big advantage in getting the AMD 3700+ San Diego processor over the 3200+ Venice? The only noticeable differences to me are the operating frequency runs at 2.2ghz rather than 2.0, and the L2 cache is 1mb rather than 512kb. Would it be worth the $75 to me?

[Nomad84]

I don't really know enough to give you any meaningful feedback regarding which processor will suit you best, but I think that 2x512MB of RAM will be better than 1x1GB. The reason is that the AMD processors benefit a lot from using dual channel memory, from what I've read.* I doubt you'll ever need more than 2 gigs of RAM anyway. If you did decide to upgrade, though, you could still add 2x1GB for 3 gigs total.

*I recommend researching this more...because I didn't research it much myself. I had no good reason not to do 2x512 since I know I won't be upgrading to more than 2 gigs total any time soon.

[MikeTexas]

Sean, Soltek makes great motherboards. Theyre very user friendly, especially if you'e never built a system before. The only reason I suggested looking at some others is because it may be difficult to get support for those mobos since Soltek has stopped making them. Then again, they may provide great future support. Soltek is a great company and their mobo bundles are great, so unless youre worried about support issues I say go for it.

As far as the difference between the San Diego and the Venice processors I doubt that the average user would notice much of a difference. Some people will say that they noticed a big difference with the extra cache, some will say they didnt notice any difference at all. As far as the ghz is concerned its not that much of a difference. In fact you could easily overlock the 3200 Venice with stock heat sink and fan to 3700 speeds. In fact, thats what most computer geeks do. They save some extra dough by purchasing the cheaper 3200 and overclock it to San Diego speeds.

The Antec is a great PSU. Good choice. Aspire is not a brand renowned for its reliability, but Antec is.

-Mike

[MikeTexas]

Oh, and I have 1GB of Corsair XMS ram in my computer right now. Its a very trusted brand. Their value Ram is some of the best on the market.

And what Nomad said is right....two 512 sticks in dual channel memory mode will be better then one single Gig in single channel mode.

[Sean D]

Thanks a lot for the advice guys. Mike, while researching mobos and processors, I got more interested into the OC'ing process. I think it is probably something I would do, although I probably would not try to push the limits. So the 3200+ would probably be a better choice. That is likely what I will go with, although I was reading about the new Opteron processors, and they sound like they perform better. There are quite a bit of threads about it at the anandtech forums. link to thread (http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=28&threadid=1743479&enterth read=y) I won't be ordering until the end of the week, so I still have a few more days of research ahead of me. Thanks again for the advice.

Also, any preferences between the Seagate Barracuda 250gb SATA150 and the Western Digital Caviar 250gb SATA150?

[Terry]

If you’re getting interested in overclocking don’t skimp on the RAM. Once you’ve decided on a motherboard and processor check out the OC forums to see what they’re using for good results.

Once you start overclocking heat becomes an issue. I can’t recommend anything more strongly than a Thermalright (http://www.thermalright.com/) heatsink ... even if you don’t OC the temperature drop over the stock cooler is dramatic.

This could just be a fluke but I have had three Western Digital drives; two of them didn’t last out the warranty and the third made it by about a month. I have never had a Seagate fail.

[Sean D]

Ah the stupid overclocking forums have corrupted my brain. I have decided to go with an Opteron 144 processor instead of the 3200+. It has 1MB of L2 cache opposed to the 512kb of the 3200+. I guess it is more of a server processor, the quality control is better, and it responds to OC'ing very well. There are rumors of AMD stopping the selling of the Opteron to retailers, so I decided to jump on it now while I can. I also am going with a DFI Lanparty UT nf4 Ultra-D mobo and some 2x512mb Corsair XMS. It looks like this is gonna be some fun. Thanks for all the help.