Had to decide, but was I correct?

[Agrocr0c]

Hi everybody. This is my first post on here and it regards motherboards and cpus and their subsequent compatibility.

Before I continue, I need to explain that I already chose a motherboard and cpu by myself. This was because it took 2 days to activate my overclockers forum account. During that time I had to make a decision without consulting you guys. I could only read the forums. Therefore, I need to know whether my choice was stupid or not too bad...

I have an Intel p4 3.0E cpu and an Asus p4p800s-e motherboard. I have a Hercules AGP (yes, AGP!) 256mb ATi Radeon x850xtpe gfx card. I use 1.5gb corsair ddr400 xms3200 400mhz cl2 ram (I own 2gb, 1x1gb and 2x512mb, but the motherboard only accepts 2 sticks, cos they are all double-sided).

I bought a Gigabyte K8NS Ultra S939 4D AGP 5P SND LAN SATAR ATX motherboard, and a AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail cpu.

As far as I could work out: my ram is suitable and I can use all 3 sticks (4 slots, 4 GB max, hopefully all supporting double sided ram), the cpu is compatible with the motherboard (socket 939) and most importantly, my gfx card is compatible with the motherboard (AGP x8 slot).

Have I made any glaring oversights that I am going bitterly to regret? Thanks for reding if you made it this far! I am relying on the collective genius out there to put my mind at rest before these objects arrive at my door!

Paul

 

[vanandjuanunited]

If using all 3 sticks it wont run dual channel. Other than that it looks ok to me. Be interested what it overclocks like.

 

[Agrocr0c]

Firstly, what a fantastically quick response. Thank you. Secondly, do you suggest I sell my two sticks of 512mb ram and buy one 1gb stick for 2x1gb, or is it merely the fact i have an odd number of sticks that precludes me from utilising dual channel? I.e. if I buy another 1GB stick, could I use 2x1gb and 2x512mb in the four available slots with dual channel?

Thanks again in advance.

 

[Jokester]

Yeah, you could either buy another 1GB to give you 3GB (overkill to be honest) or sell the 2x512MB and get another 1GB to give you 2GB. If you do go for 4 sticks the same sized pairs need to be in the paired slots to get dual channel. With 4 sticks though the memory will running slightly slower than it would otherwise.

Jokester

 

[Street]

I personally would sell the 2 512 sticks and buy another 1gig stick to match the one you already have. Shouldn't really need more than 2gigs at the moment and with 2 sticks you'll be able to run at 1T with dual channel

The 3700s seem to be quite good chips as well Mine has never let me down, can clock it to around 2.8GHz and they generally seem to clock ok

 

[juno_first]

I think some people have problems running 4 sticks of RAM, something about using 37 registers (over my head).
I would say 2GB RAM is a nice amount atm and you could get bye with 1GB but have more swapfile in big games.
I'd guess a P4 3Ghz would slow down a x850xtpe a bit & going AMD will speed games up, although games are now being patched to use multi threads, so your P4 with HT may not be so bad now.
Maybe getting a PCI express mobo & better graphics card would have been better for games; but would have cost more, dunno if your P4 was PCI E ok.
Theoretical 3dmk05 scores:
AMD 3700 + x850xtpe = 6200
P4 3Ghz + 7800GTX = 7500
I would not bother with 3dmk06 unless yo have dualcore/HT, plus games are not at this level yet (thank god).

 

[Street]

Theoretical 3dmk05 scores:
AMD 3700 + x850xtpe = 6200

I can get just over 7100 with my 3700 and X850XT...

My setup doesn't really struggle to run any games yet...

 

[juno_first]

I can get just over 7100 with my 3700 and X850XT...

Thats cracking, I was going off my old Barton @ 2.3, x800pro 16p 500/560 = 5700 or @ 580/580 = 6500, but you would be missing out on the extra effects produced by a current gen graphics card, such as HDR.

Just shows how much faster Athlon64 is compared to previous generation.

I used to have PD 3Ghz + 2x7800GTX & only got 7700 or 7500 with 1x7800GTX, lol.

 

[Digital Punk]

Personally, I would have gone for the Asrock Dual Sata2 for the obvious AGP 8x and PCI-E 16x on the same board.

Great board and good upgrade path for us AGP users who don't want to replace our 'high end' graphics cards for PCI-E just yet.

OCUK won't stock them though, so you'd have to buy elsewhere unfortunately.