Building a AMD newbox - help needed!!

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E

er

Broken In
guys,

planning to assemble a AMD box on my own.
Usage would be games,movies, music, photoshop,surfing.In that order.

After seeing the posts in the forum, feel that I am very back in the latest tech...so had been reading a lot in the past few days.(I used to follow up with all hardware stuff during college 2 yrs ago).
So hoping that you guys would help me out.

I am listing the comps waiting for suggestions:

Configuration Planned>
AMD 64 3200+ - 939(winchster or new castle, I have read in the forum that winc is better but tomhardware CPU results shows that newcastle has a edge over winc...is it true or I am reading it wrong)??
Mobo ASUS A8N-E
Ram 2X512Mb (which brand I am not sure,...help required)
HDD - maxtor, WD??? or Hitachi(for SATAII)(2X80 for RAID0)
GPU - XFX 128MB Geforce 6600GT
DVD-Dual - Litenon 1623S
Keybd,mouse - MS or Logi cordless - ?? any value models
sound card - creative audigy 2 zs
speakers - lansing or creative?? 5.1 or 7.1??
17" CRT monitor - brand??
power 450W+ . brand??model?
Cabinet - ATX mid tower apart from that completly lost.need a black one though.
UPS - I am lost here too.

all comps are listed !!?? or have I missed anything...

hope this gives a fair idea where I stand, the compos which I decided I have listed...is it fine? and many I am not sure...inputs please...

I am from Hyderabad...so prices would be great.

Thanks.
 
G

geekysage

Journeyman
don't have time to review and research your full config, nonetheless, here are my suggestions for some of the components:

hdd- get seagate 7200.9 series or western digital WD1600js model...they work like a whor3's pvssy

dvdrw - get Benq DW1640A

keyboard/mouse - get a logitech wireless/wired combo depending on your budget

power supply - i highly recommend antec surepower series, if it's not available in India, get a good brand 400W+ PSU ( remember, getting a good PSU is important )

UPS - def an APC 500/600VA, whatever

RAM - OCZ, Corsair, Kingston, or whatever other good one is available in India

motherboard - If you've done or are interested in overclocking your system then get the DFI nF4 Ultra-D board...muchos better than the Asus and prolly cheaper as well.

sorry, can't help you with the prices...visit www.ebay.in to get an idea.
 
I

indro

In the zone
Hi there ,

I see that you are opting for a AMD 3200+ with a Asus A8N-E mobo and a maxtor HDD,As far as i know the nforce4 chipset in the asus mobo which has the nvidia active armour protection causes data corruption if couple with the maxtor HDD.I am not sure but these discussions are going on at this moment in the nvidia forums.Something with the integrated controllers on the HDD causes the problem.just wanted to let you know !! :)
 
OP
E

er

Broken In
okay

@geekysage: thnx planning for the antec power supply as per your suggestion...thnx for rest of the inputs...

@indro: thnx for the warning..I didn't know maxtor did not go with Asus. Will buy segate or WD..


well about the other compos, everything fine....?

TV tuner card any suggestions?

guys waiting for more inputs....
 
A

ashnik

Ambassador of Buzz
RAM- avoid hynix ne other will do
GPU- try gigabyte for better service.
DVD- Liteon is good, Sony would be better. I have both
Soundcard- AudiG is the best, i would suggest trying onboard first.
UPS- look no further that APC atleast 600-700 VA
 
A

asdf1223

Journeyman
gpu go for leadtek/gainward.gainward allows ocing upto 550/1150.
ur mobo choice is spot on since dfi mobos are not available in india.
a wired kb/mouse is better since at low end they arent gr8.
 
OP
E

er

Broken In
got some...some left

thnx guys.. I am getting good inputs so far...this where I stand now

Configuration Planned> (after suggestions so far)
decided:
AMD 64 3200+ - 939 - Venice core
Mobo ASUS A8N-E
Ram 2X512Mb Transcend or Kingston
DVD-Dual - Litenon 1623S /sony (anyone)
sound card - as of now onboard later audigy 2 zs
UPS- APC atleast 600-700 VA
HDD - (2 for RAID0) - SATAII - seagate - ST3808110AS 80GB
Keybd,mouse - Logitech® Cordless Desktop® LX 300 or standard keyboard set(depends on the where does the final budget stand)


Still undecided:
GPU - XFX 128MB Geforce 6600GT or gigabyte or leaktek or gainward ?? (review in digit says XFX is better?? oh dear I am getting lot options for GPU, I thought I have decided this one...guys help)
speakers - Altec Lansing: VS3151R or GT5051R ??
17" CRT monitor - acer or samsung ??
power 450W+ . antec or powersafe . model names?
Cabinet - ATX mid tower apart from that completly lost.need a black one though.
tv tuner? brand?model?

some other important qs:
How can I be sure it is the venice core for the AMD?
I have heard of lot of spurious RAMs in the market, how do I confirm its Transcend or Kingston? any hologram or mark?

How is it so far?? do you think any changes are required.
Please advise me for the rest of the components...thnx
 
G

geekysage

Journeyman
as i suggested before, get BenQ DVDRW DW1640 instead of sony/liteon.

As for the cabinet, unless you have thousands set aside only for the cabinet, don't ask this question, just go for one that suits your eye and has enough room for future upgrades. If you do, go for antec P180 or antec plusview II(the one i have). as for wireless kb/mouse, see if you can find logitech desktop s510, it comes with a remote and has been working great for me.

power supply: antec smartpower 2.0 500W

crt monitor: viewsonic, sony or samsung whichever suits your budget.

Moboard: looks like DFI is not available in India, anyway, asus is always a good choice.

RAM: why are you buying 2 sticks? get one stick of 1GB RAM so you'd have room for upgradation when you need it. unless, ofcourse, you are getting the dual channel 512x2.

Sound card: inbuilt audio will do the job.
 
S

suhas_sm

Journeyman
Re: got some...some left

er said:
thnx guys.. I am getting good inputs so far...this where I stand now

Configuration Planned> (after suggestions so far)
decided:
AMD 64 3200+ - 939 - Venice core
Mobo ASUS A8N-E
Ram 2X512Mb Transcend or Kingston
DVD-Dual - Litenon 1623S /sony (anyone)
sound card - as of now onboard later audigy 2 zs
UPS- APC atleast 600-700 VA
HDD - (2 for RAID0) - SATAII - seagate - ST3808110AS 80GB
Keybd,mouse - Logitech® Cordless Desktop® LX 300 or standard keyboard set(depends on the where does the final budget stand)


Still undecided:
GPU - XFX 128MB Geforce 6600GT or gigabyte or leaktek or gainward ?? (review in digit says XFX is better?? oh dear I am getting lot options for GPU, I thought I have decided this one...guys help)
speakers - Altec Lansing: VS3151R or GT5051R ??
17" CRT monitor - acer or samsung ??
power 450W+ . antec or powersafe . model names?
Cabinet - ATX mid tower apart from that completly lost.need a black one though.
tv tuner? brand?model?

some other important qs:
How can I be sure it is the venice core for the AMD?
I have heard of lot of spurious RAMs in the market, how do I confirm its Transcend or Kingston? any hologram or mark?

How is it so far?? do you think any changes are required.
Please advise me for the rest of the components...thnx
Click to expand...


Even me going for same config :)
but for mobo i m still not sure whether for sli or E
 
Crazy_Eddy

Crazy_Eddy

Broken In
but tomhardware CPU results shows that newcastle has a edge over winc
Click to expand...
Clearing up a small misconception. The Newcastle shown in Toms is a Socket 754 proc , while the Winchester is a Socket 939 proc. As you know Socket 754 is a single-channel memory platform, while Socket 939 is a dual-channel memory platform. To compensate this difference in memory performance, the Socket 754 parts have higher clock speeds than a Socket 939 equivalent part.
Lets take the A64 3000+ on both platforms for example - a Socket 754 A64 3000+ (Newcastle) runs at 2.0Ghz, while a Socket 939 A64 3000+ (Winchester/Venice) runs at 1.8Ghz. Now dual channel memory does give a performance boost, but obviously the higher clock speed of the Socket 754 platforms gives it an advantage !

These days pretty much all of the new stock of Socket 939 3000+/3200+'s are Venice cores, unless your dealer has old stock. If you want to be absolutely sure, a simple way is to look at the metallic heatspreader of the A64. The heatspreader is very clearly visible through a small plastic window on the processor's retail box. Look for a P/N ending in "DAA4BP". I've attached a pic for you to get an idea of what i'm referring to:
*img9.imageshack.us/img9/7977/venice3gk.th.jpg


DFI isnt available in India. However, Antec India has taken up distribution for DFI and a first shipment is expected in Chennai sometime around 20th Nov. But, unless you are a die-hard overclocker, I would not recommend this board - as the average user would face quite a bit of trouble configuring this for stability even at stock speeds. Most users would testify that Asus would be your best bet for a good/stable PC.

As per RAM, Transcend and TwinMos are 2 good choices. Both come in sealed box packs thwarting any chance of spurious stuff, and come with a 3yr warranty. Would be best to opt for either of them. TwinMos is generally more preferable, since it has a slight bit of headroom for overclocking while the Transcend isnt all that great.

Your gfx card is a good choice, cant go wrong with a 6600GT! BIG is another brand to consider, since apparently they share the same OEM as BFG Tech.

The Benq DW1640 is ondoubtedly *the* DVD-writer to own. So go for it with your eyes closed. If locating a Benq is a problem in your area, the other option would be a Sony DRU-810a, which is nothing but a Benq OEM drive.

HDD's - Hitachi are the rage these days, so i would recommend the hitachi SATA drives as well. The T7K250 series is pretty good - SATAII drives. Wouldn't be a bad idea to forego the RAID option and pick up one of these.

And great that you're going with a quality PSU. If budget is a concern, I would recommend the Powersafe at the very least ! Else if you can spend more, nothing like the Antecs. However it is ideal to get the 2.0 version of the Antec PSU's - i.e. TruePower 2.0 or SmartPower 2.0.
Just wanted to mention, the SmartPower 2.0 450W according to sources is around about Rs. 4.1k
 
OP
E

er

Broken In
thnx all so far...you guys rock.

@Crazy_Eddy: thnx for the detail explanation of the proc stuff.

and geekysage forgive my ignorance....but I was in the under assumption that if I buy same brand,capacity,speed ram memory sticks I can connect them in dual channel am I right? or do I need to get ones which support dual channel.(my requirement is for 1gb ram, so I thought will go for 2 sticks of 512 so can have the dual channel option.)

I really want to go for a good PSU and would also like to have dual HDD for raid0...so I have to compromise on the cabinet and cordless desktop or wait till december....lets see...will keep updates posted.

I think I fairly have an idea of the prices(I have been searching the forum..) let me visit some dealers around next week....and post back.

any reliable dealers that guys in hyderabad know??
 
Crazy_Eddy

Crazy_Eddy

Broken In
^ You're absolutely right, if 1GB is all you're looking for then 2 x 512MB would be your best bet to enable dual-channel memory access.
Only a couple of the latest games like Battlefield 2 seem to be pushing the memory limits, and these games seem to prefer 2GB for perfectly smooth gaming.

And good that you're going in for a good PSU - i can never stress enough how important a good PSU is ! Like I mentioned earlier, the Antec version 2.0 PSU's are the latest revision, they conform to the latest ATX PSU spec, so please go for those and not the version 1.0 PSU's.
RAID while great on performance doubles the chances of hard-disks failing, hence consider that before you go for it, especially if you have critical data you would not like to lose.
 
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