System Recommendation?

[JncoDragon]

I recently decided it was time to upgrade my machine, and I was looking into the new Athlon 64 line of CPUs. I thought I would come here and ask for some recommendations. I do not plan on overclocking this machine for future reference.

I have been looking at the Antec Sonata case. My current case is an old Inwin full tower, and it is about time to retire this beast and get a smaller, quieter, and more temperature friendly case. Would this case be adequate for an Athlon 64 system? I want it to run fairly cool and quiet, so I also need recommendations on case fans. I know this case will not be half as heavy as my Inwin, but how heavy is this case? Any suggestions for comparable aluminum cases with good PSUs within a $120 price range would be appreciated.

My CPU of choice is going to be the Athlon 64 3000+. From what I have read, it has the best price to performance ratio at this point. I have enjoyed every AMD machine that I have built, and this machine is mainly for gaming and some university work. What type of heatsink and fan combination should I use for this? As previously mentioned, I want to keep it quiet and cool.

The motherboard I have been looking into is the Chaintech VNF3-250. I have never had a problem out of any of my nForce based motherboards, and it is priced reasonably.

[EDIT] I completely forgot to ask about memory! What type of memory would you recommend? I currently use OCZ for my RAM, and it has been very reliable. I would like to have 1GB of RAM at least. [/EDIT]

I am going to bring over the rest of the parts (9800 Pro, Audigy 2 ZS, hard drives, network) from my old machine. Thank you in advance for any help!

 

[akira34]

Go with the MSI K8N Neo Platinum mobo (top rated) and the Athlon 64 3200+... The 3200+ has the best price to performance ratio (cache level is better than the 3000+ unless they've changed them on me). Make sure your memory is DDR400 or you'll be putting a bottleneck where you don't need to. I prefer either Geil or Kingston memory since both have been solid performers in EVERY system I've built (more than just for me, I have customers where I've used both, no issues at all).

 

[magratton]

Are you willing to overclock? If so then:
1) Abit NF7-S mobo
2) AMD Athlon XP Barton Mobile CPU (doesnt matter which one they will all do well)
3) Depends: if you want CAS2 then Mushkin/OCZ will be great, if you don't care so much then Any PC 3200 ram will do (Kingston Value Ram probably be the choice though)
4) Put a decent heatsink on it (Cheap would be the Speeze Falconrock II, runs very quiet, expensive would be a thermalright 947U w/panaflo 92mm M1A on it, slightly noisier but I doubt you will hear it)

This setup should run 200FSBx12@1.675 volts no problem, which is about the speed of an Athlon 3400+

As for the Sonata, if you add a second fan for cooling, I found it a very tight space to work in. Style-wise, it is a very nice looking case with a very good psu. If you want to take a step down, but have a slightly larger case for working in, then the Antec SLK3700BQE is a great alternative. The PSU is only slightly lesser than the Sonata, perfectly fine for what you are doing though.

Michael.

 

[Tostada]

akira34: You need to look at the clockspeed of the Newcastle vs. ClawHammer.

Newcastle 3000+ = $211, 2.0 GHz, 512K cache
ClawHammer 3200+ = $270, 2.0 GHz, 1024K cache
Newcastle 3200+ =$282, 2.2 GHz, 512K cache
ClawHammer 3400+ = $404, 2.2 GHz, 1024K cache

The Newcastle 3200+ is faster than the ClawHammer 3200+, as benchmarks prove that an extra 200MHz is much better than bigger cache. No matter how you look at it, the Newcastle 3000+ has a better price to performance ratio, as it performs almost exactly like the ClawHammer 3200+ for $59 less. The Newcastle 3200+ costs 33% more for 10% more MHz, which you may or may not think is worth the cost, but the fact is that the Newcastle 3000+ has a better price/performance ratio. He said he wants the Newcastle 3000+, and it's a good choice.

magratton: He very specifically said he didn't want to overclock. He also said he wanted an Athlon 64. Why bother replying if you're going to ignore the post and suggest a totally unrelated XP overclocker system? If that's what he wanted, he could look at the other ten million posts that suggest an NF7-S and mobile Barton.

JncoDragon: Like magratton said, you might want to look at the Antec 2700-BQE. It's a better case in general. It doesn't have the cheap-looking 5.25" bays and the ridiculous "ANTEC" holes drilled into the side.

 

[Mik3y]

Originally posted by: magratton
Are you willing to overclock? If so then:
1) Abit NF7-S mobo
2) AMD Athlon XP Barton Mobile CPU (doesnt matter which one they will all do well)
3) Depends: if you want CAS2 then Mushkin/OCZ will be great, if you don't care so much then Any PC 3200 ram will do (Kingston Value Ram probably be the choice though)
4) Put a decent heatsink on it (Cheap would be the Speeze Falconrock II, runs very quiet, expensive would be a thermalright 947U w/panaflo 92mm M1A on it, slightly noisier but I doubt you will hear it)

This setup should run 200FSBx12@1.675 volts no problem, which is about the speed of an Athlon 3400+

As for the Sonata, if you add a second fan for cooling, I found it a very tight space to work in. Style-wise, it is a very nice looking case with a very good psu. If you want to take a step down, but have a slightly larger case for working in, then the Antec SLK3700BQE is a great alternative. The PSU is only slightly lesser than the Sonata, perfectly fine for what you are doing though.

Michael.

note that an athlon 64 3200+ is about equivalent to an athlon xp at 2.4-2.5GHz.

 

[JncoDragon]

Thank you for all of the replies so far! I appreciate it.

Do you think the extra $42 is worth it for the MSI board? I can get the Chaintech for $88, and the MSI is $130. I am not looking for anything special in the features. I want a board that is stable and easy to work with. I have a NF7 right now, and it has this odd quirk, at start-up, with it asking me to pick which hard drive to boot from. It gives me a prompt that says "F1...??? F2....disk2" It is a small annoyance, but I suppose it would be a nice feature for a dual boot setup.

As far as the case goes, I want something that is quiet and not too terrible to move. Will an aluminum case help with the heat issue? If so, I would go that route. Any recommendations on that? Also, what do you recommend for case fans? I have three Smart Fan 2s right now, but I wanted to move to 120mm fans with better CFM ratings and more quiet operation.

I currently have OCZ PC3200 RAM. That would be sufficient for the system I have in mind, right? I am trying to be value minded, but I am also trying to build a machine that will last for a while in the gaming field.

I think that addresses everything that I have had on my mind. Once again, I thank you all for the wonderful recommendations.