Need some suggestions/opinions on a New Sys.

maxima

New Member
What do you think of this combo so far, I've been doing a little bit of research and this is what I'm thinking of getting, pretty much set on the CPU, here it goes ...

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103546
MOBO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130037

GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustRatingReview.asp?Item=N82E16814131423 (not into heavy gaming - Geforce or Radeon??)

and more to come ...

Please comment on the above so far, thanks much!!
 
More details would be nice like what your budget and what you intend to use the machine for.

But to start off with, with out knowing the budget am going to say to drop the cpu to a athlon 64 x2 4200+. athlons not that cache bound and the $100 you save can most likly be spent else where better.

Secound that a very nice motherboard but might be a little bit overkill. I preety sure you not even planning on using the fact that it has 2 16X pci-e slots. I would save your money there and get a cheaper motherboard.

video card really depends on what you mean by not alot of gaming. if you dont plan to game then money can be saved here also.

I be able to give more concrete recomendation once I know a budget and intent.
 
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(not into heavy gaming - Geforce or Radeon??)
Then why the X800XL ... granted that's a last generation part but that's a gaming oriented card nonetheless
 
Video/Photo editing

Will likely see a lot of video and photo editing, the main purpose, then of course some games, but games is just an occasional thing for now, that's why I don't want to spend a heck of a lot on a GPU. However I like the option of having the extra PICe x16 slot for the dual video card for future use. I may become more of a gamer, I can't say for sure right now, but perhaps when prices of dual video cards drop.

The budget - would be nice to keep everything including case and PSU under 1600, but it's not set in stone, going over by some is ok. Of course coming way under budget would be awesome too. I have a DVD burner and perhaps some hdd's I can use, so I can spend a little on the CPU and MOBO, and the memory as well. One thing I would like to start doing is OCing, so a friendly mobo for that is nice along w/ the memory chips.

Are you recommending the Manchester core over the Toledo core? Just for cost reasons or something else? Wouldn't the extra cache speed up your aps?

What MOBO would you recommend if I only wanted the one PCIe x16?

Thanks for your help!
 
praetor,
Heavy gaming, meaning constant gamer! I do the occasional game(s) and want a good card for that. I don't need top of the line, is what I'm trying to say!
 
Will likely see a lot of video and photo editing, the main purpose, then of course some games, but games is just an occasional thing for now, that's why I don't want to spend a heck of a lot on a GPU. However I like the option of having the extra PICe x16 slot for the dual video card for future use.
Since you're not heavy into gaming, buying a SLI board is a waste of money for the following reasons
- By the time "the future" comes around, your X800XL will be obsolete as well as the rest of your system components .. SLI/CF will not save you
- If you do intend to go heavy into gaming later on, a single current generation videocard will outperform any SLI/CF rig you make based on what you have now

but perhaps when prices of dual video cards drop.
That wont happen. For the most part, it's meant for people who will pay a premium.

Are you recommending the Manchester core over the Toledo core? Just for cost reasons or something else? Wouldn't the extra cache speed up your aps?
It wont speed anything that you would notice up.

What MOBO would you recommend if I only wanted the one PCIe x16[/quote
Shaving $200 off (and still can do CF)
- AMD Athlon64 X2 4200 [S939, Manchester, ADA4200DAA5BV] ($364.00)
- ASUS A8R-MVP [RX200CF] ($102.99)
- MSI RX800-TD128E X800 128MB PCIE ($134.00)
Subtotal: $600.99]

Or another route (albeit more focused on gaming)
- AMD Athlon64 X2 4200 [S939, Manchester, ADA4200DAA5BV] ($364.00)
- eVGA 7800GT 256Mb + SLI Mobo ($329.00 after $20.00 MIR)
Subtotal: $693.00
 
Ok, let's forget the SLI, now I'm looking at a couple of boards from Abit, DFI, and Asus, I either have to give up the parallel and serial ports or there's no onboard IEEE 1394 firewire. I don't need the serial ports, however I'm still using a parallel printer w/ no usb support. Is there some parallel to usb adapter out there? What's a high end reliable board w/o SLI - OCing friendly is a must. Colorful board would be a bonus, I'm considering a see thru case. Thoughts anyone?
 
Looked at the A8N-E, however the darn thing has no firewire ports onboard.

How about these 3 Asus boards, which would be the best choice:
A8N SLI
A8N SLI Deluxe
A8N SLI Premium

Yeah, they've all got SLI, but what the hell, it's got what I want on board.

I know there are a lot of NVIDIA fans, would you say they have the best chipset? As soon as I get this board thing straightened out, maybe I can hop onto the next thing. :)

Then of course when I'm ready to build hopefully in a few months, everything has changed again.
 
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