Any obvious problems with this setup? (semi-final spec now)

Werewolf · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:25

My brother is looking at a new PC setup, and this is the spec i've thrown up (almost) at random

CPU
CP-126-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA4200BVBOX) (CP-126-AM)
£219.95 £219.95

Motherboard
MB-118-AS Asus A8N32-SLi Deluxe nForce4 SLi X16 (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-118-AS)
£124.95 £124.95

Cooler
HS-021-CM Coolermaster Hyper6+ RR-UNH-P0U1 Cooler (Socket 754/939/478/LGA775) (HS-021-CM)
£24.95 £24.95

Case
CA-012-TT Thermaltake VA3000BNA Tsunami Dream SuperMidi Aluminium Tower - Black (CA-012-TT)
£61.95 £61.95

PSU
CA-005-HP Hiper HPU-4K580-MK Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU - Black UV (CA-005-HP)
£49.95 £49.95

Video
GX-010-BG BFG GeForce 7800 GT OC 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-010-BG)

Total ~£800

RAM
2x 1gb Crucial 3200 modules

How does that look?
He doesn't need any drives, just pretty much everything else

iamgud · 2 Feb 2006 at 23:47

Looks good but I would get a 4400 for the 1mb cache.

Werewolf · 2 Feb 2006 at 23:52

Thanks, i'll suggest that to him, but is it really worth the extra £60-80?

Werewolf · 3 Feb 2006 at 14:13

lee87 · 3 Feb 2006 at 14:30

If he's into overclocking i'd get the X2 3800+, it can clock to 4800+ speeds. I wouldn't get the X2 4200+ as there is hardly any difference between this and a 3800+.

The X2 3800+ will clock to 4400+ speeds very easily.
If he won't be overclocking then i'd get the X2 4400+ as it is worth the extra money.

maddad68 · 3 Feb 2006 at 14:55

lee87 said:
If he's into overclocking i'd get the X2 3800+, it can clock to 4800+ speeds. I wouldn't get the X2 4200+ as there is hardly any difference between this and a 3800+.

The X2 3800+ will clock to 4400+ speeds very easily.
If he won't be overclocking then i'd get the X2 4400+ as it is worth the extra money.

Hi ,

You can still overclock the 4400+ thogh right ?

maddad

Raikiri · 3 Feb 2006 at 14:59

I would swap the ram for Geil value and get something like the arctic freezer 64 pro or the gigabyte G-Power. The CM isnt bad, but because the fins are so close together it needs a fast (and loud) fan to work well, plus it uses a 100mm fan so a quieter replacement would be near impossible to find.

lee87 · 3 Feb 2006 at 15:02

maddad68 said:
Hi ,

You can still overclock the 4400+ thogh right ?

maddad

This will still overclock, the X2 3800+ is better value for money if your overclocking though.

kbc · 3 Feb 2006 at 15:07

Have a 4400+ myself, will operate at 2.6GHz... has the benefit of the 1MB cache, though as suggested, the 3800+ could possibly hit those speeds as well but with 512KB cache...

In my opinion, the 4400+ is worth it over the 4200+. If budget is a concern, go with the 3800+ as opposed to the 4200+.

Hope all those numbers made sense.

Werewolf · 3 Feb 2006 at 15:44

re the CPU, we don't want to overclock it (far too much potential hassle for me

), so i'll suggest the 4400 to him and see what he says about it.

I'll also look into the cooler and ram, although with regards to the ram i must admit I tend to stick to crucial as i've never had a problem with it.

Werewolf · 4 Feb 2006 at 22:19

Right semi final spec if anyone can offer advice

Motherboard Asus A8N32-SLi Deluxe nForce4 SLi X16 (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-118-AS)
£124.95 £124.95

Case Thermaltake VA7000BWA Shark Aluminium Full Tower - Black (CA-008-TT)
£69.50 £69.50

PSU CA-005-HP Hiper HPU-4K580-MK Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU - Black UV (CA-005-HP)
£49.95 £49.95

Videocard GX-032-OK OcUK GeForce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) & Call of Duty 2 Bundle - Retail (GX-032-OK)
£179.95 £179.95

Cooler FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£14.95 £14.95

CPU CP-127-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA4400CDBOX) (CP-127-AM)
£284.95 £284.95

Total £851 (inc vat) + shipping.

RAM[]/b]
2x 1gb PC4000 Crucial modules.
Drives/keyboard/mouse/monitor/soundcard etc - already got

Can anyone see anything obviously wrong?
And can the motherboard take 2x videocards and a normal PCI card? (SB Audigy 4)

Thanks

kbc · 4 Feb 2006 at 22:26

Looks fine to me!

It's an SLi board so will be able to take 2 graphics card for SLi mode. It will also have PCI slots for a PCI card like the soundcard you've mentioned.

Werewolf · 4 Feb 2006 at 22:32

thanks i'm just a tad worried as it doesn't look like there is much room for PCI cards if you fit 2x PCI-express video cards that have the large coolers.

Raikiri · 4 Feb 2006 at 22:35

Doesnt look like it will fit with dual slot coolers. Maybe the Asus A8N-SLi Premium nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-111-AS)
would be a better choice as there is much more room

kbc · 4 Feb 2006 at 22:40

Raikiri said:
Doesnt look like it will fit with dual slot coolers. Maybe the Asus A8N-SLi Premium nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-111-AS)
would be a better choice as there is much more room

I've read somewhere that the ASUS A8N-SLi Premium and the new model as stated above are basically the same and both have adequate room for the dual-slot coolers.

Raikiri · 4 Feb 2006 at 22:43

For the dual slot coolers they do, but not with a pci card in the bottom as well. Have a look at the pics. The slots start lower leaving much less space on the new model due to the fact it has a southbridge, leaving less space

I'll have a lookf or some pics/reviews see whatt he clearence is like

Bit-Tech said:
This motherboard is another great board from ASUS in many respects, but there are some short falls that really need mentioning. Many enthusiasts will not like the layout. If you're looking to use the PCI slots and SLI - the primary reason why we'd expect you to consider this board - at the same time, you might find that the board comes unstuck.

There might not be a problem if you've got two GeForce 7800 GTX 256s or GeForce 7800 GTs, as both use single slot cooling solutions. Air flow maybe hindered slightly, but it's physically possible to run two single slot video cards and three PCI cards at the same time. Those looking to watercool two video cards in SLI, or even run two GeForce 7800 GTX 512s will be severely limited in their add-in card options.

kbc · 4 Feb 2006 at 22:44

Raikiri said:
For the dual slot coolers they do, but not with a pci card in the bottom as well. Have a look at the pics. The slots start lower leaving much less space on the new model due to the fact it has a southbridge, leaving less space

I'll have a lookf or some pics/reviews see whatt he clearence is like

No you're correct, the last PCI slot is in fact rendered useless if you have a second PCI-X graphics card with a dual-slot cooler onboard.

From my understanding of the reviews read you will have only a single PCI slot available between the graphics card if you were to SLi cards with dual-slot coolers.

Hmm after looking at pictures of the motherboard, it looks like they've shifted the slots down by one in comparison to the Premium.

Werewolf · 4 Feb 2006 at 23:03

that shouldn't be a problem

As brother only has a single PCI card he'd need to use in it

Webzta · 4 Feb 2006 at 23:14

Look into a 170 opteron instead of the 4400+ , it's cheaper other places, and it clocks better. It also has the 1meg cache, even the 165 does.

Werewolf · 9 Feb 2006 at 23:32

thanks to everyone for their advice

the bits arrived this morning, and i've set it up (it's currently running tests in my room), very nice, pretty quiet and getting a fairly good 3dmark2006 score at stock speeds (about 3780)