Putting together a new rig, would like some advice.

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Hey guys im building a new pc id like some feed back i think im a little outta my depth in some places so id like some questions answered ive read through this forum for quite a bit but couldnt find specific answers.

Rig:

AMD64 3700+ SD
Sapphire PURE RD580 CrossFire Advantage (the cheap one thats black)
2x Crucial 1GB (2x512MB) DDR PC4000 Ballistix Dual Channel
X1900 (probably a powercolour unless OCUK keeps running its deal on the C3D)
ThermalRight XP-120
An Armor case from TT (the Jr. if ne one actually stocks it when i build this)
Im gonna use the Akasa Ambers for all the fans on there
Tagan 530W ATX2.01 2Force SLi PSU
Then all the other stuff...i dont think its relivant tho.

Ok firstly i plan to do a decent amount of overclocking, how well does that SD overclock in comparison to other CPUs ive read the Veinice is beter but im not sure if thats true.

The crucial, ive read a lot of posts on here bout ppl who hav it for 3 months and hav to RMA it...general horror stories of it all goin **** up basically. Is this true? Is crucial unreliable, ne one got ne thats still goin strong? Also im only going to be overclocking on air so is the PC4000 a waste? I dont mind spending a little more for PC4000 but only if its actually gonna make a diff.

Do any of the X1900 overclock better then ne of the others i realise they all got the same chips in em (thats ryt isnt it?).

As for the ThermalRight XP-120, ive heard a lot from you guys about the nija and another cooler...i forget its name but how good is the XP-120 ive seen benchmarks and it seems to all give relitivly the same performance. Also looking at the sapphire board it has a really high northbridge cooler, im worried it will conflict with the XP-120 any ideas on that, will i need to buy a smaller northbridge cooler?

Lastly any tweaks that you think would make the rig better are very welcome.

Thnx Guys

iNDEH :D
 
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San Diegos as a general rule will clock well, they are the same as Venice cores except with 1mb L2 cache instead of 512kb.

Don't know too much about Ram so I'll let someone else answer.

It doesn't make much of a difference what brand you pick out of those two, the only usual changes will be to the cooling system but the chips used will be much of a muchness as both are very large partners with ATI(Tier1 if memory serves which basically means first choice as the biggest suppliers).

Don't know about the cooling options beyond saying that the Arctic Freezer 64, the Sycthe and the XP-120 are all pretty highly thought of.

Also have you considered changing the motherboard as some people have previously been having problems with Crossfire motherboards, maybe they are getting sorted out by now though. The RD580 chipset should be great if it works but otherwise I'd consider an Nforce4 based motherboard.
 
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Well I've got 1GB of Crucial DDR2700 RAM and its never failed me. Got another 512MB stick in other pc.

Not sure what the ballistix is like though but I regard Crucial as an extremely reliable firm.
 
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as for the cooler, the best amd cooler is either the gigabyte g-power cooler pro or the freezer 64.

not heard anything bad on the ram but personally i always go with corsair

san diego cores are generally good overlcockers

x1900...personal favourites for ATI... saphire and connect3d....
cant say if any overclock better or not, all based on the same noisy cooler (execpt HIS and 1 saphire) and all use the same chip
 
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Cooler wise..... Scythe Ninja > Arctic Freezer 64 Pro > Zalman 9500

Ram.... Crucial Ballistix = Noooooooooooooooooooo! Get the OCZ PC3200 Platinum if your budget stretches to it if not then the Geil Value.
 
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Monstermunch said:
Cooler wise..... Scythe Ninja > Arctic Freezer 64 Pro > Zalman 9500

Ram.... Crucial Ballistix = Noooooooooooooooooooo! Get the OCZ PC3200 Platinum if your budget stretches to it if not then the Geil Value.

While Monstermunch knows a lot more about RAM than i do, i just wanted to say i've been using Crucial's RAM for like forever now, never tried the Ballistix, but heard its pretty extreme RAM for those looking to get the most from overclocking. I use PC3200 TWINX XMS and it gives me a noticable improvement over cheaper RAM i have had the misfortune of owning in the past. But if your not to fussed about the manufactuer then go with what Monstermunch says.... I unlike him have not tried many types, he has i think.
 
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From experience the Ballistix have been unreliable and there are still olot of people RMAing the stuff. The Gskill HZ also seems to have a lot of RMA's.

As with all pc components it's just a matter of luck. Not all the Ballistix kits are bad obviously otherwise OCUK wouldn't still sell them if they were getting a large percentage returned.

On the RAM front IME and listening to what other people have to say I would say the following are the makes that I would buy.....: Corsair, OCZ, Mushkin & Geil
 
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