New pc.....

[liscoe]

Hello, just in process of buying myself a new pc as my current one is 4 years old. I wondered if anyone had any thoughts on my choice of hardware.
PC will be used predominantly for gaming and therefore I have tried to get the best spec I can without spending silly money (except on the graphics card!)
Here we go:
Athlon 3500 processor
Gigabyte nForce3 Ultra (Socket 939) Motherboard
1GB Corsair PC3200 RAM (2x512MB) low latency (2-5-2-2)
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive
GeForce 6800 Ultra

Not sure whether I should get the low latency RAM or PC4000 RAM? Which is better?
Not a bad spec, would have gone for PCIe but can't be bothered to wait until it makes any difference. Let me know if there is anything that you would change...

 

[Prof133]

- If not going to do high FSBRAM (1:1) overclocking, i'd suggest PDP Systems PC3200 1GB Kit 2-3-2 (Model#: PDC1G3200LLK, $169.00 at NewEgg).

- I've seen the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum board recommeded quite a few times.

 

[liscoe]

Thanks for info.
Have searched for PDP RAM but it doesn't seem to be sold in the uk which is annoying. Bit backward over here you know!

MSI motherboard looks good too- the motherboards are all pretty similar, I just chose Gigabyte as it has the most extras. Will consider.

 

[Prof133]

That seems the be the problem with the lesser known companies offering fast PC3200 parts for a good price - not widely available. Good luck with your build, though!

 

[Prof133]

From <A HREF="http://www.gurureview.co.uk/content/view/264/0/1/0/" target="_new">this review</A>, seems that the memory is available at <A HREF="http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/product?product=603313" target="_new">Tekheads</A>. Able to shop there? <b>Edit: Doesn't appear to be in stock.</b>

 

[El_Jefe_77]

eh, I would ditch corsair for 939. its like for xp and pentium systems.

Try crucial ballistix and go MSI 1000 FSB board.

All the chatter about intel's 1066 new bus comming out and, bam, a64 already has it since June.

pc4000 crucial ballistix and shove the times way down. best possible memory solution and isnt that much money actually.

 

[Prof133]

Agreed, crucial ballistix continues to get great reviews!

 

[Mephistopheles]

All the chatter about intel's 1066 new bus comming out and, bam, a64 already has it since June.

Hey, wait a minute, that's not right. AMD does not have anything that resembles Intel's 1066Mhz FSB at the moment. AMD has 1Ghz hypertransport, but that is not what connects memory to CPU, and is therefore slightly less vital for performance.

AMD has currently (and has no intention of changing that) an on-die memory controller (that's not a HT connection) capable of 6.4GB/s bandwidth with extraordinarily low latencies towards DDR400.

Intel has currently the same 6.4GB/s bandwidth with DDR400 (dual-channel), but with higher latencies. What Intel will implement is 1066Mhz FSB possibly running synchronously with DDR2-533, which will increase memory bandwidth to 8.5GB/s, which is <i>not</i> something AMD curently has in terms of bandwidth. Now the trick is that Intel will have much more bandwidth, but DDR2 will also have higher latencies.... We'll be seeing just how much this new mix of bandwidth and latencies will help Prescott out (or not).

Be careful, don't compare Intel's FSB to AMD's Hypertransport links. There's no need to add to the confusion that is marketing...

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Mephistopheles on 09/13/04 09:57 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[liscoe]

Thanks for help guys.
Tekheads RAM is out of stock but I don't mind waiting for a couple of weeks. It's half the price of the corsair too which is nice. Will also check out crucial.

I was considering intel with DDR2 but it just seems like a lot of money for something that's not going to be up to scratch for another 6 months. Too impatient!

Looking forward to Doom 3 on my new pc!

 

[jammydodger]

An athlon setup with DDR1 will be faster than a Intel setup with DDR2 in most cases anyway.
Crucial Ballistix memory can be found here:
<A HREF="http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Memory_8.html" target="_new">http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Memory_8.html</A>

 

[blackphoenix77]

Yeah, that computer sucks.

<font color=blue>AthlonXP-M 2500+(12x200)</font color=blue><font color=green>Abit NF7-S</font color=green><font color=red>Kingston DDR400 2x256Mb</font color=red><font color=orange>NEC Accucync 19" CRT</font color=orange><font color=black>Sapphire 9600XT</font color=black>

 

[Crashman]

Why would anyone search all over samhell for Ballistix when it's always been available at the MANUFACTURER'S store? <A HREF="http://www.crucial.com/ballistix" target="_new">http://www.crucial.com/ballistix</A>

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>