newbie/new system AMD64 suggestions?

[Keith]

I'll be buying/building a new system within the next 45 days or so. I'm
planning on going with AMD again, and looking at 939 motherboards from ASUS
and others. I've been out of the loop for a while, so looking for
recommendations, since there are a variety of manufacurers I've never even
heard of before that make 939 boards.

Definitely want PCI express and SATA, will probably get a lower speed AMD
for now (cheaper) but will eventually upgrade. Will probably start with 1-2
Gig memory, but may buy more if my apps require it (video editing, etc.)

I don't know anything about the current MB chipset options (nForce, etc.)
so any explanations of the pros/cons of different sets would be great.

I won't be overclocking, I just want a stable system at a decent price.
Suggestions on which AMD64 to get would also be appreciated (price vs
performance, etc.)

Thanks,
Keith

 

[General Schvantzkoph]

I'll be buying/building a new system within the next 45 days or so. I'm
planning on going with AMD again, and looking at 939 motherboards from ASUS
and others. I've been out of the loop for a while, so looking for
recommendations, since there are a variety of manufacurers I've never even
heard of before that make 939 boards.

Definitely want PCI express and SATA, will probably get a lower speed AMD
for now (cheaper) but will eventually upgrade. Will probably start with 1-2
Gig memory, but may buy more if my apps require it (video editing, etc.)

I don't know anything about the current MB chipset options (nForce, etc.)
so any explanations of the pros/cons of different sets would be great.

I won't be overclocking, I just want a stable system at a decent price.
Suggestions on which AMD64 to get would also be appreciated (price vs
performance, etc.)

Thanks,
Keith

Something to keep in mind, if you want to run the memory system at 200MHz
and you are planning on putting in four DIMMs then you'll need single
sided DIMMs. If you use two pairs of double sided DIMMs the maximum speed
is 167MHz. I have a new MSI K8N Neo4 with an Athlon 64 X2 4400+ and it
won't boot at 200MHz. I'm currently running my memory system at 150MHz
because I've had a couple of kernels oops at 167MHz. Also the MSI K8N
boards, I have both the Neo2 and the Neo4, can't see 4G of memory unless
you turn on memory hole remapping in the BIOS. The trouble with that is
that Linux only sees 3G when you do that, I have no idea if XP can see 4G
on these systems. Also don't know how ASUS boards map memory, it's
probably the same Award BIOS so chances are it has the same issue but
someone with an ASUS system will have to give you the answer to that.

 

[KnightCrawler]

My recommendations:


1. Asus A8N-E <--- solid board from a top rated company and well tested

and reviewed
1. Nforce 4 chipset <--- stay away from via and SIS chipset
2. Corsair or OCZ DDR memory that is "tested compatible" with the
motherboard <--- important
3. Athlon X2 now if you have that kind of money or wait til the prices
fall some more and slap in a 3200
4. Antec or Enermax PSU.....Starts about $60 for a decent PSU with
plenty of amps on the 12v rail
5. Good 7200 hard drive maybe a seagate with a 5 year warranty.


Stability = It runs all day and sometimes all night, burns cd's and
dvd's and what else you want to do.


I recommend Newegg.com for most of your purchases.

 

[Steve]

Something to keep in mind, if you want to run the memory system at 200MHz
and you are planning on putting in four DIMMs then you'll need single
sided DIMMs. If you use two pairs of double sided DIMMs the maximum speed
is 167MHz.

That is wrong. You can run 200mhz with four double sided DDR modules
on the new E stepping CPU's. You must however set the command rate to
2T.

Steve

 

[General Schvantzkoph]

That is wrong. You can run 200mhz with four double sided DDR modules
on the new E stepping CPU's. You must however set the command rate to
2T.

Steve

Simple not true. The command rate is at 2T and the CAS Latency is 3, won't
boot at 200MHz works fine at 167MHz.