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General discussion

A New Computer Build

Jun 17, 2005 9:04AM PDT

My friend is building a new rig, and he wanted me to check it for compatability issues. Me, having the limited knowledge that I do, can't find any, can someone review this PC please.

www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813135177
ECS NFORCE4-A939 (1.0) Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard

www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144136
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 6Y120L0 120GB 7200 RPM 2MB Cache IDE Ultra ATA133 Hard Drive

www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817153006
THERMALTAKE Silent PurePower TT-420AD(DUAL FAN) ATX 420W Power Supply 115/230

www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102465
SAPPHIRE 100600-Red Radeon X800PRO 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI-Express x16 Video Card

www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820144113
Kingston HyperX 512MB (2 x 256MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory

www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152035
NEC Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 4X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE DVD Burner

www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824001171
SAMSUNG 710N-BK Black 17'' 12ms LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 600:1 0.264mm Pixel Pitch

www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16836121118
Logitech X-530 70 Watts 5.1 Speaker

www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811133132
Thermaltake Tsunami VA3000BWA Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103535
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice Integrated into Chip FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor

Of course, it's all newegg because newegg rocks. All of that will cost (with shipping) $1201. Thanks.

Discussion is locked

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thumbs up :)
Jun 17, 2005 9:55AM PDT

looks like a solid build, what would he be using this pc for btw to make sure.

konny

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stuff
Jun 17, 2005 10:05AM PDT

3d graphics design, games, homework/research programming and other stuff. also, if anyone would suggest a better and cheaper part that i missed, please post it.

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good except for hard drive
Jun 17, 2005 10:33AM PDT

why ide??? 2mb cache aint good. ur mobo supports sata. find a nice hard drive that supports that
otherwis perfecto build Happy

konny

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is that the same as serial ata II?
Jun 17, 2005 11:03AM PDT

newegg has serial ata II and serial ata 150, no 133 so i was confused.

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about sata II
Jun 18, 2005 2:07AM PDT

yes serial ata II is new. but it DOESNT offer much performance boost over sata 150. our hard drives, any, cannot transfer data at even 133mbs. the only reason to upgrade to sata is the nice small thin cables, and the fact at having the fastest hard drive technology. esp in RAID 0. i would say go SATA II. why? because any new technology is usually better than old. except p3 vs. p4.

i mean it really doesnt matter but its the burst time that is the main thing. nothing is going to transfer at speeds of 300mbs. thats insane.

either way you go, you will have fast transfer times.

hope this helps,
konny

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is 150 backwards compatable with 133
Jun 18, 2005 3:02AM PDT

there arn't any 133 hard drives on newegg. only ide ultra 133.

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find a hard drive with sata
Jun 18, 2005 3:44AM PDT

no sata and ide are not backwards compatable! you can tell by the ide ribbon cables. just buy a sata drive.

konny

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RE: New Computer Build
Jun 17, 2005 10:30AM PDT

I just read an article about the new Venice core, and it was not favorable. It seems that AMD was to make some improvements on the old Winchester cores, regarding the onboard memory controller and it's inability to provide a true 400MHZ speed to the FSB. The new chip does have SSE3 which was previously Intel only, but the memory controller issue was not really fixed and by the benchmarks I saw at DevHardware.com, it may actually be worse. The good news is that it can be safely overclocked with the proper cooling and the price should be significantly lower than a 64-bit Intel-based machine.

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Which core?
Jun 17, 2005 11:35AM PDT

the venice seemed very overclockable on stock hs and fan. The only other choice is winchester...which, according to the reviews, looks better, thanks.

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go venice
Jun 18, 2005 2:09AM PDT

venice is one of the best o/c.
search around anandtech's forums and you will find this to be true.

konny

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Now Is The Time
Jun 17, 2005 9:58PM PDT

Serial ATA would be a better choice...the time spent waiting on HD is the choke point in most systems.

Also, NOW is the time to really , really , consider going to the full 1 gig of memory. Windows XP can use it, and if you end up doing home video movies, or digital camera stuff, you will be glad you did. It won't use the whole 1 gig, all the time, but on really tough projects, it will save the time that would normally be spent cashing to the HD.

Just my thoughts.....enjoy your system,and have a nice day.