CPU/motherboard/chipset advice appreciated

[Harry]

Hi there.

I am just about to build a PC for my brother and would appreciate some
advice about the best way to go. The PC will be used for a combination
of gaming plus digital photography/scanning and video capture.

I already have an HIS Excalibur AIW 9800Pro that I am going to use, so
this restricts me to AGP rather than PCI-Express. I'm also more
familier with AMD than Intel, having built a PC for myself a year ago
based on a, Athlon XP2800+ Barton (everclocked to 3200) on a Gigabyte
GA-7N400Pro2 (Nforce2) motherboard. This PC has been 100% reliable so
I'd like to stick with a combination of an AMD CPU and NForce M/b
chipset unless there are good reasons to change.

The decision I'd like help with is whether it's best to go with a
socket 754 or socket 939 or even stay with Socket A. I suspect my
brother won't be interested in upgrading over the next couple of
years. The coices I've come up with are:

Socket 939: Athlon64 (Winchester) S939 3000+
(overclocked to 3500?)
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (NForce3)

Socket 754: Athlon64 (Newcastle) S754 3000+
(overclocked to 3500?)
Gigabyte GA-K8NS Pro (NForce3)

Socket A: Athlon XP 2800+ (Barton)
(overclocked to 3200)
Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro2 (NForce2)

The difference in cost of these is not huge:

Socket A combo: about 132 UK Pounds
Socket 754 combo: about 166 UK Pounds
Socket 939 Combo: about 188 UK Pounds

I'll be using 1Gb 400DDR RAM in Dual Memory mode (in the case of the
Socket A or socket 939 options).

What would you recommend from the above options or would you go with
something completely different?

Any help appreciated.

 

[Dave C.]

Hi there.

I am just about to build a PC for my brother and would appreciate some
advice about the best way to go. The PC will be used for a combination
of gaming plus digital photography/scanning and video capture.

I already have an HIS Excalibur AIW 9800Pro that I am going to use, so
this restricts me to AGP rather than PCI-Express. I'm also more
familier with AMD than Intel, having built a PC for myself a year ago
based on a, Athlon XP2800+ Barton (everclocked to 3200) on a Gigabyte
GA-7N400Pro2 (Nforce2) motherboard. This PC has been 100% reliable so
I'd like to stick with a combination of an AMD CPU and NForce M/b
chipset unless there are good reasons to change.

The decision I'd like help with is whether it's best to go with a
socket 754 or socket 939 or even stay with Socket A. I suspect my
brother won't be interested in upgrading over the next couple of
years. The coices I've come up with are:

Socket 939: Athlon64 (Winchester) S939 3000+
(overclocked to 3500?)
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (NForce3)

Socket 754: Athlon64 (Newcastle) S754 3000+
(overclocked to 3500?)
Gigabyte GA-K8NS Pro (NForce3)

(snip) Socket A would not be appropriate for a gaming system, unless all
the games he wants to play are really old. Go the socket 754 route, but do
not overclock. Socket 939 is newer, but even that will be hopelessly
obsolete in two years. So there is no point in spending the extra money for
no increase in speed or upgrade-ability. -Dave

 

[Harry]

(snip) Socket A would not be appropriate for a gaming system, unless all
the games he wants to play are really old. Go the socket 754 route, but do
not overclock. Socket 939 is newer, but even that will be hopelessly
obsolete in two years. So there is no point in spending the extra money for
no increase in speed or upgrade-ability. -Dave

Thanks for the reply. A couple of questions though.

1. Does this mean you don't think that dual channel memory is worth
having?
2. Any particular reason why you advise me not to overclock? I've had
stable results overclocking my socket A Athlon. I'd have thought that
the 939 Socket Athlon64 would be pretty good for overclocking.

 

[Dave C.]

1. Does this mean you don't think that dual channel memory is worth
having?
2. Any particular reason why you advise me not to overclock? I've had
stable results overclocking my socket A Athlon. I'd have thought that
the 939 Socket Athlon64 would be pretty good for overclocking.

1) Yes. It's worth having, but not if you have to pay extra to get it.
It's like adding a special high-performance air filter to your car. Will
you notice a difference on your daily commute? No.

2) I'd advise everybody NOT to overclock, though many people will disagree
with me on that. Knowing how to do something successfully does NOT make it
a good idea to do so. Imagine if your car engine always ran at redline.
Yeah, the performance would be awesome, as long as it lasted. The more you
know about hardware, the more you are likely to be able to overclock
successfully and (ironically) the LESS likely you are to try. -Dave