Need a bit of help on new creation

Gilgamesh

Hi guys,

I started ordering the first of the Parts for my new Monster Rig, and need a bit of advise, to be more specific on the memory, as I have never built a Rig with DDR2 memory.

first of all, here are the specs of when finished, excluding the memory as I am not sure what to get at this point, normally tend to lean to Corsair in the past though, but which speeds.

Specs

Thermaltake Armor Silver VA8000
Gigabyte GA-8I955X Royal Mainboard
Intel Pentium D 830 3.0GHz
Sapphire Radeon X800XL 512MB ViVo PCI-E
2x Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 250GB SATA 8MB 7200RPM NCQ (storage)
1x Western Digital Raptor 36.7GB SATA 8MB 10000RPM
Creative Audigy 4 Pro (in the close future)
Pioneer A109 DVD writer.
Antec Phantom 350 power supply (have this at home but will prolly have to upgrade, so the Phantom 500 would be ordered if required)

and then there is the memory,

I want at least 2 GB of memory, but I don't know if I would be able to put PC5400 DDR2s into the machine, as I will not be OCing at the beginning (don't think it will be neccessary tbh)

so if anybody could give me some tips on this oh so important important part, I would be very grateful.

Cheers

Gilga.

WizZard

I'd imagine the PSU will need to be upgraded to be honest.
As for the RAM, I'm not an Intel guy but I can't see why you couldn't put 2 1GB sticks into that machine.

Gilgamesh

Hi Wiz,

thanks for the info,
it isn't really an issue of how much memory I can put in, as the mainboard support up to 8GB
the question is more, that the default memory on DDR2 for that processor is placed at PC4300.
Now would I be able to use PC5400 memory, from Corsair, and run them either underclocked or on their normal spec without having to OC the CPU?

WizZard

Yeah, that would be no problem at all!

Gilgamesh

cool, thanks for that, just don't want to go spending a fortune, and time building it, just so that I fry my board cause of the memory, LOL

Inquitus

Gilgamesh,

The rated speed of a memory module is the maximum it can run at, it will always run at all speeds up to it's rated speed.

Inqui

Gilgamesh

thanks for that Inqui, I just wanted to confirm what I knew from memory in general.
cheers

and..... whatcha think of the new rig?

po0k

Get the fastest memory with the tightest timings you can afford.
Then run t he machine at stock speeds (not overclocked) and tighten up the timings.
They have less effect on a P4 compared to an A64, but it would probably be worth a few extra FPS.
When you're ready to overclock you can loosen the timings and open the throttle on the clock speeds.

po0k

Actually, why are you going for an Audigy 4 pro? It's exactly the same as the Audigy2 ZS except that the DACs are better quality and are in a different arrangement to give slightly better (107dB vs 103dB or something similar, basicly sfa) Signal-to-Noise Ratio.

If it's just the break-out box, I'm pretty sure you can pick one up on eBay for pennies and connect it to an OEM Audigy2 ZS.

And get either a nVidia 6800/7800 or an ATi x800XL 256meg. Don't waste a pile of cash on an x850 board (speeds easily attainable with a decent x800xl) with double the memory for about 5-8% performance increase. You'll only be sorry in a month. Either get an x800XL now and upgrade when the R5xx series have stabilised in price or splash out on a 7800 now and get a second in a few months, but don't spend money on silly card like the 850 with 512mg ram. It does't support Shader Model 3.0, it has twice the ram it can make good use of, its clockspeeds are only marginally faster than a decent x800XL and depending on what type of 850 it might only have 12 pipelines instead of 16.

Also, the "next-gen" Creative card is coming out, they're finally moving on from the venerable EMU10K family.

Gilgamesh

it was actually a Typo, it is a Sapphire X800XL, my bad, will change that.

the Audigy 4 as in the brackets isn't going to go in at first as I am already drooling over the specs of the next gen Soundcards from Creative, have good connections there. for the time, the Onboard sound is quite enough,

thanks for the advise though Syx, I am going for the PC5400 XMS2A memory from Corsair, would say they are fast enough.

cheers

Jammer

this months CustomPC mag says that board doesnt overclock, and has compatibility issues with ONE chip (weeird!), so check it out. Can't remember which one it is.

I have some OCZ Performence PC5400 DDR2 RAM which i'm not using, if your not dead set on corsair. I have 2 x 512mb sticks.

po0k

Get a DFI NF4 SLI Intel Edition.

Gilgamesh

well I am not really interested in overclocking, and when I will be, I think I would have a new board anyway.
thanks for the offer Jammer but I have hd bad experience with the OCZ memory in the past and have stuck to Corsair now.

Syxpak, thanks for the info but I will definetly not get an SLI board, the power requirement for this machine will be more than enough, and I would probably be getting a new single card before I SLI something, it was cute in the Voodoo days, but I think not a requirement these days.

cheers anyway for the info