ok so lots of ppl post here to get advice on if there planned system will be compatible and any good... so heres another 1 lol im looking at spending £1,700 and the setup ive gone with costs £1696 inc VAT i just need to know if the setup is all going to work??? anyway here it is: Motherboard MSI K8N Neo 2 Platinum S939 Hard Drive 200Gb Seagate Barracuda (7200rpm,8MB) Processor AMD *Retail* Athlon 64 3800 64Bit (32 Bit compatible) CPU Socket 939 Graphics Card 256MB GALAXY GF 6800GT DDR 256BIT TV/DVI Ram 1 Gb (2 x 512 Mb) Corsair TwinX-XL, DDR, PC3200XLPT Case SavRow SR-71 Peacemaker Power Tagan TG480-U01 480W Silent PSU Monitor Benq FP783 17" TFT Extras/Cooling YS-TECH FD1238 120mm Fan - 4 Pin X2
Hi Lucy, Id go for a LG1710b or 1720b but that's just me being an LG fanboy (im sure others will arrive too soon ) Other then that, looks good - check what voltage the corsair ram needs, ive heard some 939 mobos having probs with ram cause they dont supply enough voltage. If you can put up with the noise and dont need 200gig id recommend a 74gig western digital raptor, but im sure you've chosen 200gig for a reason.
Looks very nice indeed Maybe an LG TFT as Bindi has said or a Samsung 172X as alternatives, but the BenQ does look very tasty Nothing else to say, it all looks like a flyer
Hi Bindibadgi, thanks for the quick reply have you got any links to reviews of those LCD monitors? i did have a look at the raptors but i keep a lot of mp3's on my computer and i currently have a 110Gig HDD and its nearly full, so i looked at the best HDD around the 200Gig range and i thought the samsung was it but im open to suggestions as long as you can provide me with a review hmmm voltages... says HERE its 2.75V what the hell does this mean??? Supports 2.5v DDR SDRAM DIMM Due to the High Performance Memory design, motherboards or system configurations may or may not operate smoothly at the JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council) standard settings (BIOS Default on the motherboard) such as DDR voltage, memory speeds and memory timing. Please confirm and adjust your memory setting in the BIOS accordingly for better system stability. Example: Kingston HyperX DDR500 PC4000 operates at 2.65V, 3-4-4-8, CL=3. For more information about specification of high performance memory modules, please check with your Memory Manufactures for more details. Motherboard page
The K8N neo2 has up to 2.8 i think without checking. Ill check it next time i reboot. Although the corsair stuff is rated for 2.75 id be surprised if it didnt run on lower volts. (1.6v) If you plan on overclocking in the future i wouldnt get the Corsair stuff though, doesnt like it on a64's. Also, make sure your PSU puts out enough amps on the 12v rail. Apparently these setups need about 12-14amps to run stable, plus all your other devices. I think the Tagans are pretty good though, but check to make sure. 25amps or more should do it i reckon. If you want to nock off about £200+ to your total cost, overclocking a 3500+ to 3800+ speeds is easy with the right RAM. (Something like OCZ 3700 Gold rev2) Dont know if this is your thing, but food for thought none the less.
Hi DanMcr, thanks for the reply i honestly have no clue when it comes to overclocking so i dont really want to do that.... do you think i should get some different ram then? i can spend £220 max, so if you can find any that will be better please tell me and try to provide a link to a review thanks anyway This review of the Tagen power supply says this: Tagan state that the maximum current for the PSU is as follows: * +3.3V at 28A * +5V at 48A * +12V at 28A * -12V at 1A * -5V at 0.8A These values resemble those of similar PSU's in the same high-end class, and should be enough to power any consumer system to a high degree of reliability. so that should be ok?? anyway thanks to everyone and i look forward to your replys Lucy
If it needs 2.75V and you can get up to 2.8 from the mobo then youll be fine with that ram. As for the Tagan PSU - looks beeft enough.
PSU is more than good enough. If you dont want to overclock, then the RAM you have already picked should be great. Any low latency pc3200 / DDR400 ram would be the best choice, and the corsair rates among the best. Also, i havent read any problems on the MSI forum regarding the corsair ram at standard settings, only problems when it comes to overclocking it. Make sure you put the RAM in slots 1&2 though (the 2 slots nearest the CPU) as using slots 3&4 have been the cause of a few problems. The MSI support forum is quite handy. Especially if you decide to make any changes to your setup. They have a couple of sticky threads of do's and donts for memory compatability etc.
thanks for the tips dan will come in handy, well i think im sorted now thanks to you lot hopefully ill have all these parts within the next few months
Crucial Ballistix 3200 RAM is also very good at stock settings, and it is slightly cheaper than the Corsair RAM. Around £180 direct from Crucial with free shipping in UK. This is rated at 2.8v, which is fine on the neo2, but most people have got it to work at much lower voltage. 2.8v is normally used for overclocking it. (Which is also not very good on a64 setups, but better than the corsair, so i suppose there is room for maybe a little play in the future if you fancy it)
my general rule for monitors is 'if you want the 15" go for the 17", if you want the 17" go for the 19"' why do i say this? because the monitor is the most important part of a PC IMO, you have some pretty cool hardware so you might as well be able to see what it does!
that's one of the most illogical reasonings i've ever hear. If you're are not planning on getting all this stuff for a couple of months then i'd urge you to reconsider motherboard and graphics board choice. Both Via and Nvidia are scheduled to release their PCI-Express chipsets before christmas. Whilst the initial performance difference will be minimal, future proofing your upgrade path and the possibility of SLI make it well worth it imo.
Hi Lucy, Wlcome to BitTech I have to agree with OlV... I am stuck in limbo waiting for the new 64 PCI-X stuff too.. Interesting choice of case http://www.savrow.com/shop/index.php?page=category&id=19 - have you looked at the Sonata or PC160? Do you really need an LCD? If it's a gaming rig go for a Good Quality CRT monitor..(You can get brill black CRT's) Harddrive - has to be 1xRaptor(OS) with a 250GB Hitachi Deskstar http://storagereview.com/php/tiki/tiki-index.php?page=LeaderBoard PSU - A good quality Enermax or Antec would be a good chioce (the Neopower is a bit more money but worth the silence and neater setup in my op.. Matt
If you want a super monitor and feel like splurging a bit on it, you cant go wrong with a viewsonic VP201b
