Low end Athlon64 cpu/mobo combo

[skar]

Hi,

I'm upgrading my system, as the current P III 600 is way too slow for my Java, Websphere work.

Here in India, the best deals I could find are:

Athlon XP 2600 (333 FSB)(approx USD $90)
Gigabyte GA-7N400V Pro2 (approx USD $104)
512 MB Samsung DDR400 RAM (approx USD $82)
New Case (approx USD $25)
Total Price is USD $276

(or)

Athlon 64 2800+ (approx USD $144)
Gigabyte GA-K8VM800M (approx USD $111)
512 MB Samsung DDR400 RAM (approx USD $82)
New Case (approx USD $25)
Total Price is USD $337

Note: INR 50 ~ USD $1

I've got new HDDs, DVD-CDRW, etc already.

I know integrated graphics is very poor in performance, but I'm going to use only development tools on this machine, particularly Java/DB2/Websphere etc. So, which one is better ? Athlon XP or the Athlon 64 for my kind of usage.

Also note that only Asus, Gigabyte and MSI are the MB brands available. DFI, Abit, Chaintech are not available here

Also, the Athlon-XP MB has Geforece4-MX IGP, while the A64 MB has only S3 Unichrome. Are they Ok for my kind of usage?

 

[SickBeast]

The integrated graphics should be fine for you unless you want DVI. You can always upgrade later.

 

[skar]

What about the AXP Vs A64 choice?

Also, if I get the A64 combo, can I oveclock the processor by increasing the FSB without increasing the RAM clock ie asynchronously with this Gigabyte board?

Damn, no Nforce3 chipset boards available in India yet. Also, decent 2D AGP cards like ATI 9200 or FX 5200 are priced like USD $ 45 here. Thats why I'm going the IGP route.

 

[SickBeast]

The price difference is pretty negligable. Get the A64.

Read a review of that board to get a glimpse of its overclocking prowess.

Many boards do not have a working AGP lock, so be careful.

 

[Zebo]

Hi the mobo you want is the GA-K8S760M. It's most excellent and one of the fastest skt 754 out. It has the fastest video out period for on board.

Here is a review of it, speaks for itself IMO. Massive OC options too for a "budget board"

http://ocworkbench.com/2004/gi.../K8S760M/K8S760M-1.htm


The A64 2800 is a great choice..

 

[Zebo]

Case? Dynapower make the best superbudget cases and has decent PSU's in them $20-$30
http://www.newegg.com/app/View...;sortby=14&order=1

Memory should be Corsair Value Select 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200 - $80 Highly compatable and from a company that will be around forever to honor it's lifetime warranty.
http://www.newegg.com/app/view...amp;manufactory=BROWSE


Motherboard: See review above GIGABYTE "GA-K8S760M" for $100
http://www.newegg.com/app/view...amp;manufactory=BROWSE

Processor Retail box 2800AX from newegg $141

total= $340ish

 

[Zebo]

A second, and maybe better, option is to get a mobo combo from Mwave.com for $202 which includes
-FArcry game
-Chaintech VNF3-250 motherboard
-And retail boxed A64 2800

Then add a ATI 9600 SE for $66 which you can actually play even farcry on and has far superior graphics
http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=14-164-023&depa=0

Add Mem, case, from above

Totaling around $366ish

 

[skar]

I'm sure the sis760 gigabyte board will be avialable here. But, I dunno about getting the cases the RAM. Does newegg ship outside the US? Also, I've got to ask around whether Corsair is avaialable in India. AFAIK, Hynix, Samsung, Kingston, Transcend are the brands here on display

No OCZ, Corsair or for that matter, no DFI, ABIT too in the MB segment.

About the MB/CPU bundle with Chaintech and the 9600SE, do these guys ship outside US?

 

[Zebo]

NO USA only


As far as ram just look for Crucial, Corsair even the Samsung is fine. All very reputable. Look for PC3200 cheapest you can find from those brands.

Definity get the A64 though. In benchmarking the 2800 A64 is faster than even the top Athlon XP 3200!! Plus you have 64 bit future which is important if you like to keep computers along time.

 

[skar]

Anybody know of an online store that ship outside the US, particularly to India?

Read in this forum that AXP and A64 are very strong in compiling software. So, how would this A64 2800+ compare with a P4 2.8G HT in say software development, say a Linux kernel compilation, Java etc which are the most used tasks on my computer?

 

[Losty]

Originally posted by: Zebo
A second, and maybe better, option is to get a mobo combo from Mwave.com for $202 which includes
-FArcry game
-Chaintech VNF3-250 motherboard
-And retail boxed A64 2800

OMG thanks for the combo info ... i was going to order from newegg for 220
This looks like a good combo to me and i think a lot of people have it ... for a budget system

edit: oh .... there's a shipping charge for mwave ... and no mention of farcry
oh ... he also said chaintech was not available in india ...
-losty

 

[Vee]

Get a cheaper, simpler 754 board without integrated video and with AGP instead. A decent board shouldn't cost more than $70-$80. Then buy a dirtcheap, but still blistering fast - on GDI and DX7 - videocard like GF4 MX. Won't cost more.
Integrated video will cost you overall system performance, not just video performance. And my feelings are to expect more trouble from boards with integrated video.

 

[cbehnken]

GF4 MX has blistering fast GDI performance? When I had that in my machine the entire computer was sluggish. You can see windows draw. I know I went from the MX to a 6800, but I still would never call a GF4 MX blistering in anything. My brother's GF3 Ti200 destroyed it in GDI drawing.

 

[skar]

The price of GF4-MX with 128 MB RAM is USD $72, while a ATI Radeon 9200 SE 128MB is USD $70 over here. I don't know, whether the extra $70 is worth for a development workstation and if so, which of the above cards is the better deal?

Or should I get a A64 3000 which is just $28 costlier than the USD $144 A64 2800.

The total budget is USD $400. The only video card related thing I would be using is MPEG/DVD playback, though I don't run any background tasks or DivX encoding while watching the movies, so the P4-HT option is certainly out.

But, does the extra $28 for the A64 3000 really improves the price/performance ratio?

 

[Vee]

Originally posted by: skar
The price of GF4-MX with 128 MB RAM is USD $72, while a ATI Radeon 9200 SE 128MB is USD $70 over here. I

Ouch! That's expensive. Not quite the advice I had in mind. :Q

 

[skar]

Just got the system up and running.

My final configuration was:

A64 2800+
Gigabyte K8V800M (the sis760 chipset one wasn't available zebo )
Plain Hynix 512 MB DDR 400

In memtest86+, which I used to check RAM, I got a bandwidth of 1233 MB/s

I remember my friend's AXP 2100 with 2 X 256 MB DDR 266 on his nf2 MB (Biostar M7NCG) showing 517 MB/s in memtest86+.

Can on-die memory controller really improve bandwidth?

I thought only latency can be reduced with that?

Or is that because memtest86+ is wrong? (though I doubt this one, as it's open source and some one would have found out such a basic problem very early)

Hope some of you can give your memtest86+ figures too to compare the difference between this plain old RAM and some branded RAM like Corsair, OCZ, Geil etc