Time to Upgrade Desktop

[pave_spectre]

Went to start my desktop up the other day and discovered the hard drive has probably killed itself and can''t reinstall Linux, so it's the perfect excuse to upgrade, especially since I already have a pair of 250GB sata2 drives just sitting here waiting to be used.


AMD ATHLON 64 X2 Dual-Core 3800+ (2.0GHz/2x512KB/0.09u) Retail Box $449.00

MSI K8N Neo4-FX Dual Core Ready, Nforce4 4x, Dual DDR400, PCI Express, SATA, ATA133, GBLAN, 7.1 Audio $135.00

Asus EN7600GT-2DHT-256 Geforce 7600GT-256MB, HDTV-OUT, 2XDVI-I, PCIEX $330.00

CORSAIR XMS 2048MB TWINX-3200C2 (400mhz) Cas 2 $349.00

Antec TX1050B Black ATX Tower Case 500W SmartPower 2 PSU $205.00


Already have keyboard mouse monitor, but will probably look at upgrading to an LCD at some stage.

[Deagle]

Look at those prices...http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/eek.gif Then realize that you're in Aus so it's all good.http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif Still a little expensive compare with prices here though. Anyway system looks good to me. 2gb ram rocks espec. with Corsair.http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/wink.gif

[jlreich]

The PSU in that case is modular. Personally I would get a separate Antec TruePower PSU. The Smartpower series is their cheaper older PSU's.

Also you are probably already aware of our recommendations on waiting for the release of the new CPU cores?

That aside it looks good to me.

[pave_spectre]

Personally I would get a separate Antec TruePower PSU

I thought about that and will probably look at the Antec TruePower 550W for $165.00

The new CPU cores will probably be out by the time I start purchasing since I go away for a month after next week, but likely they would cost me an arm or a leg so will end up sticking with something slightly older anyway.

[pave_spectre]

It has also occurred to me that lacking air-con at this time, I may need to take extra/improved cooling in to consideration, so any advice in that regard is particularly welcome.

[paul_]

For the best air cooling, ZALMAN cannot be beat in a million years. My X2 4400+ has been overclocked PAST FX-60 spec, and idle is 27C and games get it to 44C MAX, while with 2 instances of Prime95 it will touch 52, but I am putting on AS5 in a few weeks, sothose temps will go DOWNNNNNN... :D
My cooler, BTW, is a Zalman CNPS 9500LED-CU.

For the GPU, again, Zalman. The new 900 series is slightly better than my 700, but is insanely overpriced. Go for the VF700-CU. LED's are optional, in case your case has a side panel.

Another well-known HSF maker that is very good is Arctic Cooling, but they are not quite as good as the Zalmans IMHO and they are definitely L0UD3R...

Just my $.02

-P

[saphalline]

Dump that mobo! It uses the NForce4 4X chipset, which is limited in many ways: such as having only the 800MHz HT Link (vs the 1000MHz supported by the X2's) and it only has SATA 150 (not SATA 300). For that amount of money, you should be able to afford a mobo using the NForce4 Ultra chipset. I'd recommend something like the Abit KN8 Ultra or the DFI nF4 Ultra-Infinity. Both of these are superior mobo's for (probably) a lower price tag.

I'm also going to put in a vote for a different vid card manufacturer. Asus makes awesome mobo's but their vid cards are overpriced, IMO. Unlike their mobo's, their vid cards offer nothing that you can't get from eVGA or XFX - not to mention that eVGA and XFX have OC'ed versions for more performance (and eVGA was recently pointed out as having a lifetime warranty even against further OC'ing).

You can save a ton of money on the RAM. Unless you know a lot about OC'ing K8 CPU's and are going to be pushing your X2 into the sky, you don't need XMS stuff. Regular Corsair ValueSelect will do the job just fine (even with a tiny bit of OC'ing or latency tweaks).

The Antec TruePower PSU series is nice, but the SmartPower series is good as well. This one is up to you.

As for the cooling concerns, I don't think it will be a huge issue. The X2's don't get hot unless you OC them, and NVidia's G71 & G73 GPU's are made using a 90nm process. They're probably the coldest higher-end vid cards in existence right now. Much cooler than the 6800's and 6600's.

[pave_spectre]

Ok, can only get 512mb sticks of corsair valueselect (still have a few other places to check ) so how about

GeIL GE2GB3200BDC Value Dual Channel PC3200 400MHz DDR 2 Gig Kit (2 x 1gig memory) $275.00 .

Haven't located an eVGA supplier, but for XFX,

XFX PV-T73G-UDe7 Geforce7600GT Extreme Edition, 256MB, PCI Express, Dual DVI, HDTV, 580/1500mhz $355.00

The reason I am concerned about extra cooling, is the fact that being in Darwin, we get a fairly consisitent high 20's upwards, and during the Wet season consistently high humidity.

[saphalline]

GeIL is OK, but how about Patriot? Can you get Patriot RAM?

That XFX looks good. OC'ed and still only $5 more than the Asus. Plus you saved money on the RAM already, so it should more than balance out.

High 20's, huh? Must be C and not F, huh? :D I wouldn't worry too much about the heat. Get some extra fans if it makes you feel better, but at stock speed your X2 will be fine. The vid card will have the side panel fan to keep it happy. I don't foresee any problems with this set-up.

[pave_spectre]

Cool. Thanks Saph.

Doesn't look like I can find any Patriot, but can get any of the following,

A-Data | Corsair Micro | G.Skill | Geil | Kingmax | Kingston | OCZ Technology | V-Data

3 of which I have never heard of before.

[saphalline]

Hmmm... you can try Kingston, but they're usually more expensive if you want DDR RAM below CAS 3. Corsair would be my preferred choice, but 512MB sticks aren't very extreme for an X2. And OCZ's cheaper stuff tends to be flaky. G.Skill and Kingmax are OK, but I would still prefer GeIL to either of them. Stay away from A-Data and V-Data (I wonder if they're the same company? Hmmm...).

I guess from your list, I would go with that GeIL stuff.

[pave_spectre]

cool. :cool:

[saphalline]

Did you find those mobo's I listed then, or did you pick out a different one?

[pave_spectre]

I knew there was something I was forgetting :rolleyes:

[jlreich]

Good call Saph, my eyes must have just passed over the chipset. It didn't even register for some reason :rolleyes:

[pave_spectre]

I can get either, and the DFI is a buck cheaper, probably go the KN8

[pave_spectre]

Also been looking at cases again and will likely go with one with no PSU so I can pick and choose that.

[saphalline]

This thread (http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=46530) has a nice case (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811146018) listed with no PSU. Perhaps a bit more than you'd want to spend, and maybe you can't even get it, but it shows the type of case that I just love. Side panel fan and everything.

[pave_spectre]

Doesn't look promising for that one.

Antec SLK3000B (http://www.scorptec.com.au/index.php?prdid=13530)
Antec PLUSVIEW-II (http://www.scorptec.com.au/index.php?prdid=16259)
Thermaltake VC2000BNS (http://www.scorptec.com.au/index.php?prdid=17721)

[saphalline]

The Thermaltake is very alluring with that low price and 120mm fans (which would be quieter, too). The Antec PlusVIEW is more expensive, but I do like the side panel fan. I'd say get one of these two.

[pave_spectre]

OK just about to purchase all this stuff and noticed that scorptec have to versions of the same processor for the same price. The only difference I can see is one spec has Stepping=E4 and the other has Stepping=E6.

Is there an actual difference and should I care?

EDIT and what is it?

[saphalline]

E6!! You want E6!

The stepping is a minor update to a core revision. In this case, E4 and E6 differ most notably in an update to the memory controller and the addition of more CPU:RAM ratios. You don't necessarily need to know what this means beyond the fact that you want the newer one: E6. ;)

[pave_spectre]

Just as well I already changed the order to the E6 one then. :D