Well, not an entirely new computer. I just need a new case (which I’ve already decided on), a new motherboard, a new CPU, a new heatsink, and some new RAM. I’m looking at this motherboard, this CPU, this heatsink, and this RAM. Does anyone have experience with any of these, and do I have everything matching properly?
It looks just fine.
Have you built a computer before?
Do you have a video card?
Appropriate power supply?
Thermal paste?
Well, I’ve never built one completely from scratch. I’ve done plenty of upgrades and I’ve stripped my motherboard completely in the past. I’m cannibalizing my old computer for parts. It’s got a video card, 3-4 years old by now, which I’ll replace someday. The case, the Antec Sonata, comes with a 380 W PS, but I’m thinking of upgrading that. Thermal paste is in the NewEgg shopping cart, as is the second fan I want, and a couple other things, (like a firewire card and an adapter card so I can run more than 4 IDE drives.)
I’ve just never gotten used to thinking about things like heat sinks and cooling systems other than basic fans. I’d use the old RAM if I could, but I made the mistake of buying RAMBUS three years ago.
Unsolicited advice…
get a P4 board… they often come with a firewire port. And get one with a genuine Intel chipset, a builtin vid card will most likely beat the old one any time if it’s 3-4 years old… both in quality and capacity. Spend the money saved on some more (dual ch.) ram (can’t get that for AMDs). BTW. - you’re ordering a dual channel ram (‘kit’) but there’s no need for it with the AMD mobo (only 3 ram slots tell the tale).
I built a very similar Athlon system a few months ago and I am very happy with it (it is the one I am typing from now). Everything looks great. However, I am almost sure that my CPU came with a heatsink, fan and paste in the box. I didn’t order it seperately.
Yes some do come with a heat sink… but the link on the processor:
So, if I stick with the AMD (I’ll look at the price differences), I can get away with one 512 mb stick? I’ve never been able to figure out if SDRAM is like RAMBUS in needing two matching sticks of RAM.
No AMD 64 board supports dual channel memory? And if not, will dual channel memory work as normal if not supported?
Oh, the other thing is that I’m trying to stay away from onboard anything. I’m enough of a gamer to want a stand-alone video card. I like my audio card and plan on never using the onboard audio (well, I might plug the satellite radio into the onboard and the TV card audio out into the soundcard, as Y-jacking them together doesn’t work well) and I have an ethernet card. So onboard stuff, to me, is just a waste of money. So far, I can run the games I want with the old card, even with a lower resolution, but I’ve never been able to get games to play right with onboard video, like at my parent’s house. Their onboard audio and video don’t play nicely with DirectX, though I think it supports OpenGL, unless I came up with a workaround to play NWN. I don’t mind buying a firewire card and running a connection to the front if at all possible.
I’ve had Intel in the past and I’ve had AMD in the past. I’ve never seen anything that makes me think Intel is really worth paying the extra money for.
If you’re going AMD, get yourself one of the 64 bit chips.
No sense in me trying to dissuade you. Not would I want to. Just thought I’d throw it out there for you to ponder. 
So you’re rebuilding for the sake of rebuilding? Not to make a better gaming machine?
Oh, and ParentalAdvisory, It’ll work as normal ram - but then it’s a waste of money to do it.
-
-
- Normally if you go to the mobo manufacturer’s website, they will have a chart or other info telling you what combinations of RAM are functional, and what speeds you will get with different combinations. They must have this info somewhere, because different combinations usually allow different speeds and (sometimes) different capacities.
See link below–scroll down to where the grey box says “main memory” in yellow lettering, and click on the note* link.
http://global.aopen.com.tw/products/mb/AK77-600N.htm#
~
- Normally if you go to the mobo manufacturer’s website, they will have a chart or other info telling you what combinations of RAM are functional, and what speeds you will get with different combinations. They must have this info somewhere, because different combinations usually allow different speeds and (sometimes) different capacities.
-
Yeah, I saw that before I posted here. I just wasn’t sure what it actually meant. So, what does it mean?
A bit of each. I don’t play the real cutting-edge games that require the hottest hardware, but I’m at the point where I could really use another quarter-gig of memory and a faster processor. I have one of the earliest 1.3 GHz P4s in there now, and 256 megs of RAMBUS. Plus, I want to get out of the propriety lockdown my computer is in thanks to Dell. And I’m out of room for what I want to add–a third hard drive, for example. Front USB (and firewire if possible.) It only has two USB ports, both in the back, and I don’t think it even has USB1.1 support, much less USB2. One of those 3.5" floppy/memory reader combo drives. More PCI slots. Maybe even go to the 64-bit processor, since I’m running WinXP Pro, though I don’t know what I’d use it for.
Later on, I’ll replace the video card and I’d like a better TV card. One designed for PVR, though I’d probably keep the first TV card in there. Picture in picture and all that.
They do:
DDR2 is not supported.
Sheesh. Thanks so much for catching that one velveeta. I didn’t fully read ParentalAdvisory’s question.
I was still thinking in terms of asterion’s choice in boards.
Thank you again.
An Athlon 64 system isn’ that much more than the system you have, if you go the Socket 754 route, and would provide better performance. Note that Socket 754 systems are only single channel memory, so you only have to buy a single stick of 512MB RAM; the Socket 939 systems are dual-channel, but are more expensive, and dual channel memory only offers a minor speed gain on the Athlon 64 platform.
An Athlon 64 2800+ , an Abit NF8, a Thermaltake Venus 12, and a stick ofCorsair PC3200 512MB RAM would run about the same price as the system you have specced, for much better performance.
If you really want to go the AthlonXP route, I would reccomend the Abit NF7 as the motherboard. It cost a bit more, but it uses the Nforce2 chipset, widely regarded as the best available for the AthlonXP. The Nforce2 chipset does support dual channel memory. Also, Abit has a better reputation for quality than AOpen.
For the processor, I would use the Mobile AthlonXP 2500+ for $85 - the mobile chips are well known as extremely good overclockers; most will OC to 3200 speeds(2.2ghz, just set the FSB to 200mhz) with nary a problem, and many of them will go up to 2.4 or 2.5ghz on air cooling. Your memory is good; Kingston is a good brand.
I tend to build systems I’m going to spend lots of time near to be as quiet as possible. Thus, I would use one of These
instead of the other HSF. If you use one of the large Zalman units, you can take off the annoying little fan on the northbridge, and replace it with a large heatsink.
Not all motherboards will fit the Zalman cooler, but most should.