Thanks! + questions

[4hours]

Let me start off by saying that the 45 mintues i have spent so far on this board have been very enlightening. I am trying to put together pieces to do my first home built computer. i had it all worked out ecept the video card i was going to be using. i read that, right now, SLI isnt all its cracked up to be and that i might get better performance for games and such with a non-sli setup. this would save me money, which is nice. the setup i had planned was as follows:

-AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Winchester Integrated into Chip FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3200BIBOX $190.00
-ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard @ $175.00
-CORSAIR XMS 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) System Memory @ $68.00x2
-Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA NCQ ST380017AS 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive @ $65.50 - I have a 200gb LaCie external firewire 400/800/usb2.0 drive so I don’t need a big internal hard drive as only programs will be kept on it.
-COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum/Steel --ATX Mid Tower Computer Case @ $50.00
-MGE PSVG-450 ATX 450W Power Supply @$51.00
-SONY Black 16X DVD+R 4X DVD+RW 4X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE DVD Burner @ $48.00
-SONY MPF920 Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive @ $10.00


however, like i said above, my choices have been altered. now i have no idea what board/memory/graphics card to look at seeing as the consensus amungst most seems to be that SLI isnt worth the money. i dont know anything about overclocking, but i am willing to learn, just not initially. i want to stick with the AMD 64 processor, unless there is another one similar to the winchester core that is better/faster. the computer will be used mostly for:

Gaming (once i get it i will be able to play HL2/ Doom3, etc. my current setup isnt able to handle newer games)
Heavy image editing in photoshop CS2
internet surfing.

what/where should i start looking!?

 

[4hours]

i got the price from newegg. be advised, it is $65.50 per stick, not for two. so its $131 for a set of two.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by 4hours on 05/25/05 05:50 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[dunklegend]

If you decide on not going SLI, check <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?MinPrice=&MaxPrice=&OEMMark=-1&Manufactory=1283&Manufactory=1307&Manufactory=1318&Manufactory=1315&Manufactory=1314&PropertyCodeValue=709:7495&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=719:11282&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&Submit=Property&SubCategory=22" target="_new">these </A> and decide which board has the features/price combination you want.
For the CPU you should get a Venice core if the price is similar to the Winchester (Venice is a newer revision)and get the retail version if you don't want to buy an extra heatsink and fan for that CPU

Nothing is as easy as it looks

 

[4hours]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145416

for the ram

 

[4hours]

well, i hadn't decided on a video card for the ASUS board yet, i logged onto the forums in hopes of getting some suggestions on the card, and happened upon the motherboard forum first.

i was leaning towards a geforce card compatable with that price in the $300 range. i hadn't decided yet.

 

[okietex]

wusy, even if non-overclocking - would you not go with the DFI board?

Seems it(DFI), Epox & maybe Asus are the 939 favorites...

I was thinking the DFI for myself but I'm not OC'ing at all. Just want something quiet, stable, less heat...

curious as to what you think on doing the DFI or going with another one off the list Dunkle posted.

i'm similar to what he's doing too in terms of apps. i've gotten so many systems built virtually on newegg and read and re-read ... so many times - total confusion on what to do!! LOL

 

[4hours]

i have been reading up on this at work for 6ish hours a day since last saturday. i still dont know what to do!

i'll probably end up going with one off of the list that was posted, either the DFI or the ASUS. i like the ASUS because it has integrated sound and three PCI expansion slots. what i dont like is the lack of onboard firewire that would require me to use one of those pci slots.

i like that the dfi board has the onboard firewire, but it is listed on newegg as having six audio jacks. i dont see those anywhere on the board in pictures(does this mean that it in fact does not have integrated audio? just the means to add it?). also, it only has two pci expansion slots, one of which would have to be taken up by a sound card. a number of reviews also stated that this board is not for "newbs". well, let me tell you. i am not even at the newb stage, i am as green as the grass in camden yards. several reviewers also stated difficulty with RAM.


hard choice indeed.

 

[4hours]

well, i was hoping to get the system built for about $800. looks like i might be able to get a good setup for that much now that i have taken sli out of the picture!

 

[4hours]

you know, i totally overlooked that particular board because i havent seen its name many places. i see asus, msi, etc... all over the place, but hardly ever EPoX. This board looks like it has allof the features i am looking for, including a few more like the onboard troubleshooting lcd thing, which should help me in the build. hell, maybe i'll be able to build this system real soon if i keep cutting costs!

 

[dunklegend]

Well, I bought the EPoX 9NPA+ Ultra based on recommendations from the forum (I liked ASUS) and I'm extremely satisfied with it. I'm even starting to think about overclocking and that wasn't on my plans to start. Wusy noted that even if I didn't overclock the EPOX was good, because if it can handle OCing it should have great stability running stock.

Nothing is as easy as it looks