Critique My Future Computer :d

xioutlawix

So, I currently have a p4 2.4ghz processor, a gig of pc2700 ram, two 40-gig IDE hard drives, and a 6600gt. If I recall I've got one of those p4 compliant 400watt antec power sources as well.
Friends, it's time for an upgrade!

I plan on transferring over the 6600gt of course, cuz its simply sexy. At first I was thinking of doing a faster pentium 4 system, but after looking at how much better I can do with an amd system both in terms of cost and performance, I thought that was the way to go.

So without further ado:

<a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=22-152-017&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE' target='_blank'>SAMSUNG 120GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model SP1213C, OEM Drive Only</a>

<a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=20-146-299&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE' target='_blank'>Mushkin Dual Pack 184-Pin 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200 - Retail</a>

<a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-498&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE' target='_blank'>ASUS "K8N-E Deluxe" NVIDIA nForce3 Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 754 CPU -RETAIL </a>

<a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-483&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE' target='_blank'>AMD Athlon 64 3200+, 512k L2 Cache, The Only 64-bit Windows Compatible Processor - Retail </a>

BulletHead

MINE

twoflow

You may want to get a Socket 939 Athlon64 (and a compatible motherboard), but I'm not sure if there's much difference between the two.

Zel

make sure the processor is also 754, and that the motherboard supports dual-channel ram. dual-channel is standard on intel boards, but its a feature on amd boards, and theres no sense getting that expensive matched ram pair if your board doesnt support it.

also, why the 120GB harddrive? its a good drive, no doubt, ive got one from the same model family and its quick if a little noisy on access rates. if youre goin for space, its cheaper to buy in bulk, ie get a 200GB or 250GB. if youre going for speed, the only way to go is a western-digital raptor (or a scsi card, but that might be too much work). raptors come in 36gb or 74gb, which is enough for OS and programs, but youve got those two 40's spare for data storage.

another suggestion would be a raid card, thats a device that plugs into a pci slot and has two IDE channels, then you plug both 40 gig drives into the raid card and it can handle them as a single drive, WITH DOUBLE THE ACCESS SPEED. harddrive speed is vital, because if you havent noticed, 99% of the waiting time you do when booting or opening programs is harddrive access crunching.

the retail processor comes with a heatsink, the OEM one doesnt, so if youve got a good heatsink that is compatible with the socket 754 (which many p4 hsf's are already, but youll have to research) you can save yourself 25$ by going for the OEM version of the processor. (unless of course you intend on keeping the p4 system in running condition)


edit in response to flintpaper: a socket 939 is going to be 25% faster than a socket 754, as it has the memory controller built right into the processor, also 754 is going to be phased out in a year or so, meaning you wont see processor upgrades avaliable beyond about a 3600+ (guestimate), therefore the 939 is a better investment in motherboard terms if you wanna keep the system in top form for five or ten years, they are, however, quite a bit more expensive, expect to pay an extra 90$ on the motherboard and an extra 100$ on the processor. but since you are upgrading from an already-decent machine, maybe you want to shell out the big bucks for a hella-top-of-the-line system.

NumbersNotFound

Zel:

I'm pretty sure the 754 also has a bulit-in memory controller, it's just one channel. I've never heard of a dual-channel 754 board. 939s, however, are dual channel.

I wouldn't really worry with RAID. From the little research I've done, to get true RAID instead of just "raid" you have to get a fairly expensive card with built-in RAM and such. Otherwise it's just a hardware interface to "software raid" which drains a bit of CPU. Not only that, but when you stripe two 40GB drives like that you are more prone to failure. If they're older drives then it might not be a good idea unless you can have some data-recovery layers in your RAID. (Raid3, Raid5, etc. These, however, are more expensive yet.)

As for the CPU and heat sink. I have a Athlon64 3000+ and I HIGHLY reccomend the Zalman CNPS7000ALCu. Just MAKE SURE that your mobo/case configuration gives it enough clearance. On some motherboards it's wide enough to overlap the edge of the board, thus causing clearance problems with the PSU in some cramped cases!

elitebear

if you want to be able to upgrade your processor again after, i recommend that you go for 939. 754 is beginning to fade away quickly. 939s have dual channel support and 754s do not. that in itself means like a 5%-10% performance increase by going for 939

xioutlawix

Ok, so I'm definitely sold on the socket 939, as future upgradeability is a big plus in my books.

Someone referred me to this awesome looking bundle:

<a href='http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80701-2-241143' target='_blank'>AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Processor Skt 939 & MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum nForce3 Ultra Athlon 64(FX) Skt939 Motherboard Retail Bundle ***Free 2nd Day*** </a>

Anyone have any experience with MSI boards?

Also, in regards to the drive. 120gigs is a good size for me I think, I heard that SATA is faster than IDE. I'm not really too partial to how long it takes for my games and OS to load up, I'm mostly into performance in-game, and as such I don't think it'd be that noticeable a difference, would it?

elitebear

thats a good deal i guess, however if you want to save money, id get a 3000+ over a 3200+. its MUCH cheaper and the difference in performance is unnoticeable. plus if you want to get it faster, you can always oc it. both the 3200 and the 3000 have a 10x multiplier.

edit: there is no difference in performance between sata and ide. in theory, it would perform better, but the amount of bandwidth that ide has, is already very high.