Skt 939 Upgrade advice/opinions

aaf

I’m trying to put together an upgrade kit and need a little help with the following choices. I’ll be mainly using this for Photoshop, encoding, little bit of web design and a little bit of gaming. Want to keep it as quiet as possible.

Motherboards (Socket 939):
1. DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D
2. MSI K8N NEO4 Plat NF4 Ultra

CPU:
AMD A64 3500+ Winchester skt 939 (gonna wait 2 or 3 weeks to see if price falls when Venice and San Diego chips are released)

RAM:
Haven’t a clue really. Not gonna be overclocking but would want some decent performing memory. Was thinking maybe Corsair or Geil? PC3200 or higher?

Graphics:
Club3D GeForce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 PCI Express, DVI, Retail
Gainward GeForce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 2ns PCI Express,"Ultra/1960PCX GS"ViVo/2xDVI
Gainward GeForce 6600GT 128MB 1,6ns PCI-E,"Golden S., Goes Like Hell"(GLH)
XFX GeForce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 PCI-Express,Tv-Out, Dual-DVI, Retail
XFX GeForce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 PCI-Express, Extreme Gamers Ed., Retail

CPU Cooling (if needed):
ThermalRight XP-120

Fans:
3 x Akasa Ultra Quiet 120mm Fans

PSU:
1. Antec NeoPower 480W ATX 2.0 (I’m pretty sure ATX rev 2.0 is needed for DFI mobo although I know you can get connectors)
2. Enermax Noisetaker 485W ATX 2.0
3. Tagan TG480W ATX 2.0

I’m gonna be keeping the following:
Antec Sonata Case
2 x Samsung Spinspoint 160GB SATA hd’s
1 x Seagate Barracuda 250GB SATA
NEC ND-3520A DVDRW
Floppy
M-Audio Revolution 7.1 sound card

Any advice?

WizZard

Get the DFI board if you want to overclock, but if you don't then get the cheapest

Get Geil or OCZ memory, Corsair is good too but at stock speeds it's not as fast as some others. Get extra cooling, check out the Zalman 7700AlCu (I think that's the model number)
Any of those PSU's should do. I have a Coolermaster Realpower 450w for sale that I have used (for 3 weeks)with a DFI Sli-D board. (It needs to be 24pin). PM me if you're interested.

neokenzo

Mobo: DFI definitely if you are overclocking.

CPU: At the moment you can get 3500 Clawhammer, which rumour has it that its a failed FX chip. Will do to 2.6G on air no problems. If you want to save money, go with the 3000+ or 3200+. They will overclock the same as 3500+.

RAM: Get OCZ VX or Plat Rev 2, if you wait longer, get the PC3200 Gold. OCZ has the best customer service and they'll even help you overclocking your ram to the max. OCZ rams are good for tight timings but if you want higher Mhz overclock, get GSkill LE. They can go up to DDR550 or even DDR600 if you are lucky.

Fan: Get the new Thermalright XP-90C. The XP-120 are big and only cools 1-3C cooler than its brother.

BabyEater

He did say he wasnt going to be overclocking so I wouldn't bother spending much on RAM just get some TwinMoss as is a lot cheaper than the other brand memories and you wont notice any performance difference.
I looked on shop 4 memory and 1 gig of OCz Plat Rev2 is €294 compared with the TwinMoss which was €119 on Komplett. It would be a much better option to buy 2 gigs of TwinMoss and still have money left over.

aaf

Ok, another question. Currently I have:
2 x Mushkin DDR400 512mb CL2 Level 1

I can get the following 2nd hand here on boards for €45 cheaper than retail value:
Corsair TWINX1024-3200XLPRO DDR 1024MB Kit w/two matched 512MB 3200XL PRO's DIM

Or should I go for the following:
GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5

Not going to be overclocking but I would like some decent, fast performing ram that'll cope with alot of digital imaging and encoding loads. Also, don't want to spend more than €250 on it. I think I might go for the DFI motherboard as above. Cheers

uberpixie

aaf wrote:

Ok, another question. Currently I have:
2 x Mushkin DDR400 512mb CL2 Level 1

I can get the following 2nd hand here on boards for €45 cheaper than retail value:
Corsair TWINX1024-3200XLPRO DDR 1024MB Kit w/two matched 512MB 3200XL PRO's DIM

Or should I go for the following:
GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5

Not going to be overclocking but I would like some decent, fast performing ram that'll cope with alot of digital imaging and encoding loads. Also, don't want to spend more than €250 on it. I think I might go for the DFI motherboard as above. Cheers

Why do you need to buy slower ram than you already have?

2 x Mushkin DDR400 512mb CL2 Level 1 is faster than the stuff you are looking at(cas 2.5) or am i missing something?

The only other thing I might suggest to add to your list is:
a western dig 10,000 rpm raptor sata hard drive.

Would be nice if you really need fast access time for photoshop. Also you could put a small partition on it and run your main os from it, giving yourself a nice speed boost.

aaf

uberpixie wrote:

Why do you need to buy slower ram than you already have?

2 x Mushkin DDR400 512mb CL2 Level 1 is faster than the stuff you are looking at(cas 2.5) or am i missing something?

The only other thing I might suggest to add to your list is:
a western dig 10,000 rpm raptor sata hard drive.

Would be nice if you really need fast access time for photoshop. Also you could put a small partition on it and run your main os from it, giving yourself a nice speed boost.

Ok, my mushkin is faster than the Geil but is it faster than the Corsair. I've tried to find the specs of my mushkin online but can't really track it down. I ran SiSoftware Sandra and it gave me the timings for my ram: 2.0-3-2-6, Winbond 6. Should I upgrade to the Corsiar or not? Gonna hold out on the Raptor for a month or so until I can afford another upgrade. I have a Seagate Barracuda 200GB SATA on the way.

BabyEater

Stick with your muschin you will notice no difference going to Corsair The only point to expenxive RAM is that it will overclock better or has better timings and your timings are good. The difference between RAM at the same speeds would not exceed 5% so it is not worth changing.

aaf

I bought the following upgrades in the early hours of this morning:

Motherboard: DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D skt 939
CPU: AMD A64 3500+ Winchester skt 939
CPU Cooling: Thermalright XP-90
CPU Cooling Fan: Zalman ZMF2 92mm Silent
Graphics Card: Leadtek WinFast PCX6600GT Extreme
VGA Cooler: Artic Cooling Rev.2 nVidia 6 VGA Silencer
PSU: Antec NeoPower 480W ATX 2.0
Case Fans: 2 x Akasa Ultra Quiet 120mm

I'm keeping the following from my old system:
Antec Sonata Case
2 x Mushkin DDR400 512mb CL2 Level 1 (2-3-2-6)
2 x Samsung Spinspoint 160GB SATA
1 x Seagate Barracuda 250GB SATA
NEC ND-3520A DVDRW
Floppy
M-Audio Revolution 7.1 sound card

Apparently, the best 2 6600GT's are Leadtek and Gainward. The cooling on the Leadtek is supposed to be excellent but I couldn't find any info on it so I went for the Artic Cooling as I want to make this system as quiet as possible. I'm not going to be overclocking but if I do decide to dabble, I'm all set to go. Thanks for all the help.