Hey guys,
Some of you might have seen my previous post about system suggestions. In case you missed it, a brief recap: I'm building my bro a new computer and my budget is pretty flexible (within reason). But, he is pretty much a standard user so he doesn't need all the bells and whistles that enthusiasts might crave. So, he doesn't need anything on the bleeding edge, but rather, a good, stable high-end system that won't be obsolete any time soon and that is plenty capable should his usage change. With that in mind, based on your suggestions, i'm looking at either a Socket 754 or 939 board, Athlon 64 3500+, and Radeon 9800Pro.
Based on the mobo specs though, I have a couple questions that I'm hoping you guys can help answer. I'm a little confused regarding, which type of RAM to buy. The 939 Abit AV8 can use up to DDR400 RAM, but as you know, there's higher-spec RAM out there. So, is the mobo's DDR400 spec just the highest 'officially supported' RAM? Does that mean there is a risk when using, say DDR500? Adding to the confusion is that in Anandtech's review of the 939 boards, they used OCZ and Mushkin PC3500 RAM, which is DDR433. Why use that RAM for testing if it's beyond what's officially supported?
My bro's not going to be doing any overclocking or anything, so he doesn't need the best RAM out there. Just 1GB of good, reliable RAM.
Also, I'm not sure which type of hard drive to buy. The mobos have both IDE and RAID capability. From what I've read about RAID, the RAID 0 the parallel drives give you (slightly) better performance, while RAID 1 gives you redundancy. What I'm unclear about is whether or not you MUST use two drives in order to use the RAID interface. For instance, WD has a 250GB drive in both SATA and IDE interface with a negligible price difference. Can I, and is it worthwhile, to get just that one 250GB SATA drive?
Sorry about all the questions--just trying to get up to speed on things. Thanks for all your help.
--Brad
Some of you might have seen my previous post about system suggestions. In case you missed it, a brief recap: I'm building my bro a new computer and my budget is pretty flexible (within reason). But, he is pretty much a standard user so he doesn't need all the bells and whistles that enthusiasts might crave. So, he doesn't need anything on the bleeding edge, but rather, a good, stable high-end system that won't be obsolete any time soon and that is plenty capable should his usage change. With that in mind, based on your suggestions, i'm looking at either a Socket 754 or 939 board, Athlon 64 3500+, and Radeon 9800Pro.
Based on the mobo specs though, I have a couple questions that I'm hoping you guys can help answer. I'm a little confused regarding, which type of RAM to buy. The 939 Abit AV8 can use up to DDR400 RAM, but as you know, there's higher-spec RAM out there. So, is the mobo's DDR400 spec just the highest 'officially supported' RAM? Does that mean there is a risk when using, say DDR500? Adding to the confusion is that in Anandtech's review of the 939 boards, they used OCZ and Mushkin PC3500 RAM, which is DDR433. Why use that RAM for testing if it's beyond what's officially supported?
My bro's not going to be doing any overclocking or anything, so he doesn't need the best RAM out there. Just 1GB of good, reliable RAM.
Also, I'm not sure which type of hard drive to buy. The mobos have both IDE and RAID capability. From what I've read about RAID, the RAID 0 the parallel drives give you (slightly) better performance, while RAID 1 gives you redundancy. What I'm unclear about is whether or not you MUST use two drives in order to use the RAID interface. For instance, WD has a 250GB drive in both SATA and IDE interface with a negligible price difference. Can I, and is it worthwhile, to get just that one 250GB SATA drive?
Sorry about all the questions--just trying to get up to speed on things. Thanks for all your help.
--Brad