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Building a new PC using these components...

StillBallygowan

Hi,

I'm considering building a new PC using the following components:

Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe, nForce4 SLI, Socket-939
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ 2.2GHz
Thermaltake Armor Black, AluminiumSuper tower
Thermaltake Silent Purepower 680W, DualFan, 4xSATA, ATX/EPS, SLI, 20/24pin
Asus Radeon X850PRO 256MB GDDR3
Corsair TWINX2048-3200 DDR-DIMM 2048MBKit
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300GB SATA16MB 7200RPM
BenQ DVD±RW burner, DW1655, 16x, Dual, LightScribe
Plextor DVD±RW burner, PX-750A, 16x,Dual, RAM, Black Oem

Is this a good spec or is there other components I could consider?

Thanks

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Alkers

Are the opterons dual core? I thought only the ones starting with a 2 were dual core and the 165s etc were all single core?

K.O.Kiki

Simona1986 wrote:

Are the opterons dual core? I thought only the ones starting with a 2 were dual core and the 165s etc were all single core?

Strange but true.
Also
Strange and uber-cool!

netman

Simona1986 wrote:

Are the opterons dual core? I thought only the ones starting with a 2 were dual core and the 165s etc were all single core?

The ones starting with 2 are SMP enabled for dual processor operation.
The ones starting with 1 are single processor. Now that's where the confusion starts

At present, the 14x models are single processor, single core, like 144, 146 and 148.
The 165, 170 and 175 models are single processor, dual core.

Hope that makes sense to you... They're similar to the Athlon64 processors, some are single-core, some are dual-core.

netman

DonkeyRhubarb wrote:

As regards to the HD, I have the Samsung P120S. It really is silent and damn fast. If your looking to get a soundcard, the MSI K8N Platinum has Sound Blaster Live 7.1 HD onboard. Sounds brilliand, is fully featured, takes away from processor load and could save u money by combinind motherboard and sound card. Some people are sceptical of onboard sound and up to now I could see why, but I have had nothing but joy from this board.

As far as I can tell MSI K8N Platinum has a Realtek audio codec onboard (ALC850) that provides 7.1 sound, the same onboard audio that the Asus A8N has, and most of the market. (it's not Soundblaster)

It does use more CPU than dedicated sound cards but it's nothing major, and the sound quality is really good. Like I said before, you can always purchase a Soundblaster X-Fi or Audigy later on.

Alkers

netman wrote:

The ones starting with 2 are SMP enabled for dual processor operation.
The ones starting with 1 are single processor. Now that's where the confusion starts

At present, the 14x models are single processor, single core, like 144, 146 and 148.
The 165, 170 and 175 models are single processor, dual core.

Hope that makes sense to you... They're similar to the Athlon64 processors, some are single-core, some are dual-core.

Yeh that's what I thought but from reading this thread I got the impression that someone believed all opterons were dual-core.

StillBallygowan

I've decided on the final spec...

Asus A8N-SLI Premium, nForce4 SLI,Socket-939, Super Cooling pipe, PCI-Ex16
Thermaltake Armor Black, AluminiumSuper tower (Without PSU)
Seasonic S12 Powersupply 500W, 120mmFan, 4xSATA, ATX/EPS, SLI, 20/24pin
NEC DVD±RW burner, ND-4551A, 16x,Dual, Ram, LabelFlash, Black OEM
Gainward GeForce 6800GS 256MB GDDR3 PCI-Express,"Ultra/2300PCX XP",425Mhz * switched to this instead!
Corsair TWINX2048-3200 DDR-DIMM 2048MBKit w/two matched CMX1024-3200 DIMMs
Western Digital Raptor 74GB SATA8MB 10000RPM
Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB SATA216MB 7200RPM
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ 2.2GHz Socket939, 1MB, BOXED w/fan
Plextor DVD±RW burner, PX-750A, 16x,Dual, RAM, Black Oem

Placing the order over the weekend, all items are in stock so I hope to have it built by next weekend. I'll post some pics up when that's done! Final cost including VAT & Delivery came to €1730

K.O.Kiki

*Last minute suggestion*
Asus' 6600GT looks much nicer IMHO; has S-Video out (missing on Gigabyte)AND is €7 cheaper

IIRC, its memory is also better for OC'ing

netman

Actually Gigabyte card comes with a S-video output and RCA component output (HDTV, much better quality). Asus seems to offer the same.

I've seen the Gigabyte 6600 Silent Pipe and it's an excellent card. I've also seen plenty other Asus cards and they have a fantastic reputation and superior quality. Both of these seem to offer the same, so you could look at the software bundle and then decide.

And yes, Asus does look cooler! Make sure you have room for it tho.

StillBallygowan

Arghhhh.... motherboard is faulty

All the parts arrived yesterday, built it with a friend last nite and just not working... power going to motherboard, fans spinning, DVD writers powering up, graphics card works, processor seems to be working - so either processor or motherboard!?
The BIOS screen came on 3 times, after adjusting a few things, got to the OS setup screen, tried installing that, when I restarted I got the same error... No input signal!

DemonOfTheFall

Possibly an issue with the Motherboard needing an updated BIOS before it can run properly with an X2 ?

StillBallygowan

DemonOfTheFall wrote:

Possibly an issue with the Motherboard needing an updated BIOS before it can run properly with an X2 ?

I can't even get to see the BIOS screen - no signal from the graphics card. I got to the BIOS screen and OS setup screen last night but after it restarted same error message "No input signal"!
I turned off the PC, unplugged the power cord, unplugged all cables.
The CPU and RAM is inserted properly.
I cleared the CMOS.
Insterted the graphics card back in and turned back on the PC (CPU, power supply and fans are all functioning!)

conzy

If you can get as far as the bios its OK, you need to update the bios to a newer bios that supports X2 processers......Mkay;)

netman

A stupid question - did you connect the PCI-express power cable to the graphics card?

If it's the motherboard it would beep if there were errors, unless it wasn't working at all - which isn't the case.

Most likely it just needs a BIOS update to support the newer revisions of Athlon 64 processors.

Also, have you connected the CPU fan to the correct header on the motherboard? I'm not sure what the Asus mobo you bought does, but my P4 motherboard went into immediate shutdown if there was no reading on the CPU fan header. The cable was long enough to reach two other headers and it's real easy to plug it into the wrong one.

DemonOfTheFall

What I meant was that you might need to get a loan of a single core S939 processor off someone, put it in and check if the PC runs. If it does, then you'll need to update the BIOS befroe you can use your X2. A lot of motherboards floating around were shipped before the X2 came out, so they don't know how to talk to it.

StillBallygowan

netman wrote:

A stupid question - did you connect the PCI-express power cable to the graphics card?.

Yep, I had the power cable connected to the graphics card. I've also checked it's connected correctly and in the right slot

netman wrote:

Most likely it just needs a BIOS update to support the newer revisions of Athlon 64 processors.

I cant see BIOS screen, there is no output on the screen.

netman wrote:

Also, have you connected the CPU fan to the correct header on the motherboard? .

Yep, I've all the right connections set up. All the fans are spinning too.

StillBallygowan

DemonOfTheFall wrote:

What I meant was that you might need to get a loan of a single core S939 processor off someone, put it in and check if the PC runs. If it does, then you'll need to update the BIOS befroe you can use your X2. A lot of motherboards floating around were shipped before the X2 came out, so they don't know how to talk to it.

Unfortunately I don't have a single core processor to test with.
I might ask a friend who works in a computer shop if they have any to test it with.

Alkers

Have you tested the GFX in another machine?

StillBallygowan

Simona1986 wrote:

Have you tested the GFX in another machine?

Yeh my friend and a technician in a computer shop tested the GFX card in another PC and it worked.
It has worked on my machine but it hasn't worked since i.e. I did get to the BIOS screen twice and I was setting up the OS on the harddrive but when it restarted, same issue "No input signal"

netman

StillBallygowan wrote:

I cant see BIOS screen, there is no output on the screen.

You don't need to see the BIOS screen to update it, in fact you don't even need a graphics card to update it.

Just make a bootable floppy with the new BIOS image, make sure it has all the switches for starting up automatically in autoexec.bat and boot off it. Most likely ASUS supply this in a form of a downloadable self-install package.

I do think it's strange that you got into BIOS and then it just loses video.
Crashing in the middle of a BIOS update would be disasterous for the motherboard.
If I were you I'd make sure machine actually works, even though you can't see anything, maybe by getting a DOS bootable floppy that just plays a midi file on the PC speaker. You'd know if there's no sound that the whole machine crashed, not just the video.