About to order - indecisiveness sets in!

kcer

kcer

kcer

Associate
Joined
10 Aug 2006
Posts
122
I hate for this to be my first post, but I'm a long-time lurker anyway.

I've been putting a spec together for the past few weeks now, going on a bit of advice from a friend and reading a lot of reviews. I think I've given myself a nice little set up, but just before hitting that order key the alarms went off for another check. That little feeling I've overlooked a compatibility issue, or something like that.

So, Here we go...

Mobo: Asus M2N32 WS Pro nForce 590 SLi
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5000+
RAM: Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX
Gfx: EVGA GeForce 7950 GX2 1024MB
Storage: Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 NCQ 250GB SATA-II 16MB
Case: Thermaltake VD1000SNA Aguila SuperMidi Tower
PSU: Seasonic S12 600W Silent ATX2.0

Now, I've checked and checked again, but I have this feeling I've missed something. All in I set a budget of about £1,500 (I'll also be ordering new peripherals, Monitor, Optical Drives etc) and I'm at £1,533 - a price I'm happy to pay based on what I've read. However, for this price I want to double, nay, triple check what I've chosen. Intel isn't an option for me, I've always had AMD and intend to stay that way <3

Thanks in advance for any tips and advice you can give.

P.S. I plan to build this myself, but having only previous experience of switching out PCI cards and RAM, would this be unwise? Learn by doing, right?
 
Looks ok, BUT for that money you really are throwing away cash if you go AMD. I HIGHLY recommend you read some reviews on conroe, and ask people here. Whats your reason for being AMD only ? best to be 'who offers most performance / stability for your money' rarther than stick with one brand

Oh and id change the maxtor drive to a seagate
 
Combat squirrel said:
Whats your reason for being AMD only?
Click to expand...

While Intel have the upper hand atm, I've always had AMD and found them very reliable. It may not be so true right now, but for multimedia performance AMD have generally been the better performers. I guess I'm just not convinced by Conroe yet.

I'll look into the HD advice :)
 
kcer said:
While Intel have the upper hand atm, I've always had AMD and found them very reliable. It may not be so true right now, but for multimedia performance AMD have generally been the better performers. I guess I'm just not convinced by Conroe yet.

I'll look into the HD advice :)
Click to expand...

:confused: Well, how you figure better multimedia performance ? in what respect? encoding/video stuff even the P4 was marginally better and general windows stuff as it had HT (before A64 x2 came out), now for games it got trounced by A64, so hence im a little confused. I beg of you to read some reviews of conroe you will see it absoloutly annilates A64/AMD in everything, including multimedia. Also Intel have traditionally been better in regards to reliablility, but to be fair AMD have always been stable since the 1st athlon days, so there both 50/50 as far as stability goes. Im using a Athlon 64 x2 4200+ myself at the moment and am sticking with it for the forseable future, I rarly play games now I have a 360 and its awesome for windows, 2 AMD cores with the A64 omph. But I know for a fact its hugely slow compared to intels latest offereings and if was wacking down 1.5k there aint a heard of wild horses that could pull me towards AMD !

Its swings and roundabouts, the next thing AMD bring out will no doubt beat conroe, but today, this moment, Intels offering is awesome

Why by a 'last generation' tech cpu when intel have the new generation stuff out
 
I agree with CS. Conroe is a MUCH better option. It overclocks very well and with that bydget you would get a E6600 and clock it to over 3ghz which will smash any AMD.

Stability, well they are exactly the same as each other IMO. Although the nForce 4 939 was pretty carp :(

Get Conroe IMO :)
 
would have to agree with combat on this one. I have been AMD for a fair while now, but if I was upgrading (which I will be when the better mobos come out) I would def be going Conroe
 
From someone who has also always used AMD in the past, I have been convinced in the last few days that Conroe really is the way forward at the moment. For the power and price of the AMD rig you are looking at, you could afford a high level Conroe setup providing better performance than the 5000+. I'll see if I can find the link of benchmarks someone supplied me with the other day - it's quite eye opening.

Also, I've always found AMD to be fine for gaming, but awful for multitasking and media performance. Stable, yes very much so - but certainly not the best performer outside of the gaming arena.

My current AMD was a self build. Having never done it before, I was a little worried but bit the bullet anyway. Found it to actually be a lot easier than I'd imagined - and with a bit of background reading once the basic system is put togetheer, you can fine tune it as you require.

edit: Here's the link for the Intel Core 2 Duo Allendale & Conroe vs. AMD Athlon X2 & FX-62 benchmarks. The article makes for a very interesting read too - learnt loads about the architecture of the C2D chips and how they differ from Intel's previous chips.
 
Last edited:
Hi,

That all looks compatible so no probs there. Just some personal observations from me is all:

1) I don't know too much about the AM2 CPU's but if you wanted to save a little you can always overclock the cpu to 5000 speeds.

2) If you want silent HDD go Samsung but if you want a good warranty (5 years) on the HDD go Seagate, also peeps have had bad experiances with Maxtors. Personally I go for Seagates for the warranty.

3) I would personally choose a different case as Thermaltake are not know for there quality of cases.

4) I'll second Combat squirrel comments it is worth considering conroe as it does seem to be a good amount faster than AM2 and if you want this computer to last without upgrading in the next 2-3 years conroe is probably the better option.
 
Ok, I'll go have a read about Conroe. It seems the E6600 is a good deal. I'll to find a similar performing mobo, so this may take a while. Lucky it's almost lunch ;)

Will there be an obvious difference in performance here?

e: Those benchmarks would be great if you find em :D
 
Last edited:
Benchmarks added to my edited post above. Don't know why I didn't just stick them in here really?! :rolleyes:

Also, I couldn't comment on Thermaltake cases in general, but the Full Tower Aluminium Shark case I have from them is lovely - galvanised aluminium case with matt black finish. Front door is kept closed by a couple of small magnets. Nice blue front door LED to match my blue cold cathode strips inside the case. Nice mesh grill on side with easily removable side panel.

80mm fan mounted at the low down at the front to suck cool air in. 120mm fan high up at the rear to exhaust warm air out. Provides excellent air circulation with a Thermaltake cpu cooler and also the Radeon 9800XT fan helping lower down in the case as well. Temps are always very cool and stable.

Also, the internal layout is fantastic. All components are mounted in their own removable racks (so one for HDD, one for 5.25" bays, one for PSU and removable tray for mounting the mobo to). The removable tray means that you can fit the mobo on the tray whilst working on a desk, and then lower the tray in to the case using the handles for a nice easy fit. Makes builing a system much easier.

But it's a personal preference and I couldn't comment on Thermaltake as a whole.
 
I wouldn't say he's wasting his money - it's a perfectly good setup and would provide a nice stable and well performing rig. However, as we've all said, there is better value for money out there at the moment. But it's an entirely personal choice and if he's happy with his purchase then that's all that matters. Trolling doesn't help anyone. :D ;)
 
trojan698 said:
If you post your budget, someone here would be happy to spec up a conroe system
Click to expand...
As in the OP, I have a loose budget of £1,500. £100 over wouldn't be a big deal, but I'm aiming for £1,500

Thats everything though, inclusive of new monitor, peripherals and software (not including Win XP).

e:
sajtion said:
you could get better system for same money but in total honesty your wasting your money on that machine but its your choice
Click to expand...
Care to elaborate? Or are you just going with the crowd? As far as I can tell the only dubious choice right now is the CPU and therefore the Mobo, too.
 
For the warranty I've gone and switched out the HD for a Seagate Barracuda (7200 250gb 16mb cache).

The case, I figured, was fairly cosmetic. Am I likely to run into any major problems using this case? I cant see that a case would present any problems at all, but do we have any first hand experience of Thermaltake?

I'm still extremely unsure of Conroe. I intend to make full use of the SLi support (a little further down the line) and the current set up seems to support it quite well. I think I'm being a bit naive and narrow-minded.
 
Admittedly, from what I've seen the Conroe mobo's lean more toward the Xfire setup rather than the SLi. However, there are a couple of SLi boards out there - check the Intel Core 2 Duo Asus motherboards on OcUK. From memory the third one up from the bottom is SLi - it says it in the name.

But then, the x1800XT being so cheap at the moment would be an ideal first card with decent performance and would also allow you to upgrade to a Xfire system at a later date.

Ok, so I am trying to convince you here - but as I said earlier, it's only because I think there's better value for the money (and I only know that from my research along exactly the same lines as yours over the last 2 weeks). Ultimately it's whatever you're happiest using.

btw, what monitor are you opting for? I'm looking at the Dell 2007WFP 20.1" TFT - seems like a very nice monitor from all accounts and the banding issues have all but been resolved.

edit: Sorry, can't offer any more advice on the case. Can only go on the experience I had with mine, which was a full tower tather than a midi. More space = better airflow and lower temps. Can you not find any reviews on it? Google the name and see what you get.
 
I hate to say this but I think I'm going to stick with the AMD. You're probably going to hammer me for it, but I'm massively unsure about Conroe. I've read so much about the Athlon X2's and I feel confident in buying one - and hey, its not like its ****.

I was looking at the Viewsonic VG2021m 20" LCD Monitor. Its response time is fairly good and I'm not too keen on widescreens.

Here is what I'm going to order.

Mobo: Asus M2N32 WS Pro nForce 590 SLi: £182.07

PSU: Seasonic S12 600W Silent ATX2.0 Power Supply: £98.64

Graphics: EVGA GeForce 7950 GX2 1024MB: £393.57

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5000+ 2.60GHz: £223.19

Memory: Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) (MY-108-CS): £187.94

Storage:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB ST3250620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache: £61.75

Monitor: Viewsonic VG2021m 20" LCD Monitor: £230.24

Keyboard + Mouse: Logitech G5 Gaming-Grade Laser Mouse: £39.89
Saitek PZ08AU Gamers LED Backlit Keyboard: £29.32
Thermaltake VD1000SNA Aguila SuperMidi Tower - Black: £70.03

Optical Drives: OcUK Value Floppy Drive - Black: £6.99
Sony CRX320EE CDRW/DVD Combi Drive (Black): £18.74

Total Price (inc. VAT): £1542.37

The next adventure will be setting it up, but I'm actually looking forward to that.
 
no no no dont get the GX2

X1900Xt-X HIS IMO or wait for the X1950 which will be £295 + VAT on the 23rd August. and the X1950 will spank the GX2.

2ndly, I really think you should go Conroe, as for the long term it will clock better :)
 
Fool! Why don't you listen to us. We've told you you're wrong.....

/rant
/rant
/rant

Only kidding. :D As I said, it's a personal choice and if you're happy with it, that's all that matters. And yes, either way it does sound like a nice system.

As a little tip - when it comes to setting it all up, whatever time you're thinking it will take, add several hours on top if it's your first build! When I built my system for the first time, I thought I'd get it done in a couple of hours. 7 hours later and I powered up for the first time. I was stopping for tea and smoke breaks though and I was also trying to achieve the best cable management I could, so re-routed wiring and stuff several times. Also, didn't know about this site back then, so had difficulty finding any help when I needed it (not that I needed much as the mobo manual was quite helpful - especially the board map showing where all the connections/jumpers are). Rule of thumb, if you don't know what it does, don't touch it - at least until everything is up and running smoothly. Good luck and hope you enjoy it! :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom