Opinions on this A64 Configuration

[Citrono]

I'm helping my friend build his new comp and this is what we have right now. We were wondering if there is anything you'd add or change. He may or may not overclock so we also want to make sure it'll be stable if he chooses to oc. It'll also mainly be used for gaming.


AMD Athlon 64 3400+, Clawhammer (1mb cache)
MSI nForce3 250 Chipset K8N Neo Platinum
1GB (2x512)Corsair XMS PC3200XL 2-2-2-5 (Read that the OCZ PC3700 EB is great for A64 but it seems hard to find)
SATA HD
MSI ATI 9800PRO
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS
12X DVD+/-RW Drive
52X CD-ROM
Thermaltake Highest Xaser III Blue Case with 420W Power Supply (link http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=11-133-109&depa=0 he's sold on this case)

 

[sisooktom]

Looks good, but you could probably save some $$$ on the RAM by getting quality value stuff.

 

[Citrono]

It really is expensive but so tempting :laugh:

 

[sisooktom]

Read this article then decide. . .

http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20040119/index.html

 

[EngenZerO]

change the ram to Mushkin 222 Special (works flawless with that mobo, well mine does ).

change your video card to a 6800 Ultra or GT

you will have a nice setup then

 

[Algere]

I'd get rid of the 52X CD-ROM drive.

Only viable reason I see for having a DVD-RW drive & CD-ROM drive would be to do a 1:1 copy of a CD from one optical drive to another without the need to write to a hard drive(with 1 optical drive).

 

[newb54]

Since it is a gaming machine get less expensive value ram and upgrade the video card to a 6800.

 

[Illissius]

As others have said, get PC3200 value RAM. The faster stuff costs twice as much, and has barely any real world performance improvement (consider, for example, that s939 doubles the bandwidth). Also, rather than that 3400+, I'd save a neat $130 and get a 3200+ 2.2GHz 512K instead. The 3400+ is 2.2GHz 1MB, and the extra cache makes very little difference, more than the faster RAM to be sure, but not more than the equivalent of tens of MHz even then. If you're going to overclock, save even more money with a 2800+ or 3000+.
That should be $200-$300 right there, which you can either keep, or spend on the video card. A 6800GT or X800 Pro will double (or more) the performance of the 9800 Pro, and costs, appropriately, twice as much ($420-30), at Newegg anyways (and nice to see they've gotten the price gouging down to $20-30 - and as of right they, they actually have them in stock). Personally I'd get the GT, but the difference is small enough that you won't lose much whichever brand you prefer.

 

[jdogg707]

For the same money you are paying for the 3400+ w/1MB Cache, you could get the new castle version that is 2.4GHZ w/512KBf Cache. The 2.4GZ version should smoke the 1MB cache version, not to mention having the updated Newcastle core. I saw them at Newegg yesterday for $416 Shipped.

 

[Illissius]

Hmm. That wasn't there yesterday, which is the only reason I didn't mention it .

 

[jdogg707]

Originally posted by: Illissius
Hmm. That wasn't there yesterday, which is the only reason I didn't mention it .

Here you go, been there for the past few days from what I can tell.

 

[Citrono]

Thanks for all the replies. We really appreciate it and will definitely take all opinions into consideration .

 

[Digic]

Originally posted by: Illissius
As others have said, get PC3200 value RAM. The faster stuff costs twice as much, and has barely any real world performance improvement (consider, for example, that s939 doubles the bandwidth).

if your going to oc don't skimp on the ram like Illissius says

 

[Illissius]

if your going to oc don't skimp on the ram like Illissius says

Huh? Whether or not he's overclocking has nothing to do with it. The extra bandwidth will not make any difference close to significant enough to justify spending *double* on the same amount of memory. (And you can overclock the processor while keeping the memory at stock speeds, so there isn't any complication with that, either.)

 

[Citrono]

Yeah, well we've lowered the RAM, changed the 3400+ Clawhammer to the 3400+ Newcastle and changed the 9800P to the 6800GT. Almost ready to buy

 

[Citrono]

I found a thread that shows that the stock Clawhammer will bench higher than the Newcastle stock, but the NC will have higher overclock potential. http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=35186

 

[Illissius]

At equivalent clockspeeds the Clawhammer will be somewhat faster, seeing as the only difference then is the cache. It will only very rarely be the equivalent of 200MHz faster, though, usually it's 0-5%. Personally, I'm inclined to believe that rumors of the Newcastle overclocking better are mostly bogus. The logic goes that the extra cache produces extra heat, but if you have any sort of decent cooling I don't think there'd be much of a difference.

If you're overclocking, there's not much point going above a 3200+ - 2GHz 3000+ Newcastles and 3200+ Clawhammers overclock consistently to 2.4-2.5GHz, and having a higher clockspeed by default won't net much additional headroom, if any at all. So basically you just have to decide whether it's worth paying $50-60 for the additional cache.
If you're not overclocking, then eschew cache in favor of clockspeed, and get any model you like up to the 3400+.