new system plans
 

Hey all,
been away from the whole modding scene for nearly a year since I bought a laptop but I'm so bored with it I'm selling it and building another computer. Going with Athlons still for the next year or 2 until the 64bit AMD cpu's get a bit cheaper. Was going to OC the XFX card and try and unlock the extra locked pipelines to boost the performance. The RAM is just cheap stuff as I'm not going to be pushing the CPU and RAM to the edge. Anyone know if DFI still make the amazing Skt A Infinity board as I can't find it anywhere? Any opinions and recommendations are really appreciated.

The Basic Specs:

CPU: AMD Athlon 3000+ 333mhz Barton
Mobo: MSI K7n2 Delta2 Platinum SKT A Nforce2, FSB 400 DDR, 6ch Sound, Gigbit LAN, SATA, Firewire
RAM: Corsair (VS1GBKIT400) 1024MB (2 x 512MB Matched Pair), DDR400 / PC3200, non-ECC, Unbuffered, CL2.5
GFX: XFX GeForce 6800LE 128MB DDR TV DVI Retail AGPx8
Harddrive: Western Digital WD1200JD 120GB SATA150 7200rpm 8mb Cache

+ generic DVD Writer, Antec case and 400w PSU, etc

I would not invest in NEW Athlon XP gear; please consider a S939 A64 motherboard; and get the cheapest S939 CPU.

on the motherboard get a PCIe graphics port.

it would not be wise now to invest in yesterday's hardware as your upgrade paths will be none-existant.



Epox S462 $44
Epox S939 $88

AMD XP 3000+ $107
AMD 64 3000+ $146

nvidia 6800 agp $180
nvidia 6800 PCIe $220

$331 vs $454

that $120 difference buys you a platform which, in 2 years, you EASILY upgrade with better GFX/CPU

the AXP platform is dead, everything will be more expensive in 2 years; you can no longer upgrade GFX with new stuff; nor the CPU.

the A64 solution will be more cost effective in the end:)


and let us not forget that the A64 will be 10-30% faster then the AXP system; at default speeds.

if you decided to OC the CPU (the 3000+ craves for it) then you have a PC which will near twice as speedy as the XP system, for just $120 more

i do agree with you completely but the main reservation I had was with regard to the changes to the 64bit platform, to do with skt types and any more future changes. I know the skt939 has taken over from the skt734 but was unsure if it was going to change again and be left having to buy a new mobo and processor.

I was wondering what PSU would be needed to power a Athlon 64 3200+ with a OC'ed GeForce 6800 card, would a good 400w be enough? Also I've read you need a special type of PSU, which one would you recommend as I couldn't find which one you used in the article: http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&articID=230

Many Thanks