To go ahead.. or wait, the age ole question!

KalGor · 31 Jan 2006 at 18:04

Hi there everyone,
I've decided (and also finally have the money put aside) for a nice new upgrade.

What im currently looking at nabbing is:

AMD 64 X2 4400
Asus A8N32-SLi Deluxe nForce4 SLi X16
BFG GeForce 7800 GTX OC 512MB
Hiper HPU-4K580-MK Type R 580W Modular
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit

The rest is comming from my current setup, except for the soundcard (where im thinking about using the on-board, a question in itself).

Basically I have three questions i'd like your opinions on:

1. 939 is becomming obselete, and apprently quite soon, would you personally think its better to wait for the upgrade and then go for the new chipset? Im not totally sure about this. If decent boards etc dont release for 6months or so ill still be 1/4 way through this systems life so maybe not so bad?

2. Compatability between the parts ive chosen, and any parts where maybe i should nab something else? If ive over looked something point it out.
I know ive chose fairly slow RAM but atm thats where im goin to make a saving at least for a couple months at which time ill change to Crucial Ballistix. Anything else point it out (or if someone knows ill have problems with this RAM on this board please also give a shout)!

3. On-board sound, now I know this obviously isnt going ot be as good as a stand alone, but my question here is: Will I see a dramatic performance decrease ? Sound quality I know I will but that can wait for a few months until I can afford to buy a new sound card. How is the on-board on this board?

Well that covers all my thoughts for now (that i can think of), so as always thanks in advance for any feedback/ your thoughts.

Kal

deadeyedic30 · 31 Jan 2006 at 18:08

939 will be cheaper and better proven than new sockt.
No Reason why the parts shouldn't work.
Depends on what you plan to use the sound for, it will be a good shoirt term fick till you can get an X-Fi or such, what is your current sound card ?

Forbidden · 31 Jan 2006 at 18:19

The new sockets are out in the 3Q mate.

Lewcifer · 31 Jan 2006 at 18:48

I'd say (personal opinion..) switch the PSU for an Enermax/Seasonic/Antec/Tagen. Just personal preference though.
As for S939 becoming obsolete, IMO it's got a good bit of life left in it. Won't be obsolete for a while yet.

deadeyedic30 · 31 Jan 2006 at 18:53

I still thrashes the life of the much faster but much less powerfull P4's so 939 will be useful for a year or so at least. And as you are going pci-e you will be able to upgrade your graphics for more needed grunt when the time arrives.

FrankJH · 31 Jan 2006 at 19:08

Stick with S939 mate, as you suggest no point waiting around for new chipset which wont really bed-in and start performing for 9 months + at a guess.

Compatability isnt a problem but I would go for Tagan myself over Hiper, and depending on what monitor you have ( if its a crt or 20" + TFT then go for GTX otherwise either go for GT or ATI 1900XT(X) and save a little money)

I think you will be ok with the onboard sound myself and as and when you want to upgrade the cheaper variety of X-Fi or somesuch may have come down a bit to make it more palatable

If you can save £20 somewhere then instead of getting Geil ( which are a good make I admit) you can get performance gskill HZ 2Gb set instead - which would be better for OC'ing

The parts you have chosen are great combination, no doubt about it - but with a little tweaking you could get better performance for no extra cost.

KalGor · 31 Jan 2006 at 19:29

FrankJH said:
Compatability isnt a problem but I would go for Tagan myself over Hiper, and depending on what monitor you have ( if its a crt or 20" + TFT then go for GTX otherwise either go for GT or ATI 1900XT(X) and save a little money)

If you can save £20 somewhere then instead of getting Geil ( which are a good make I admit) you can get performance gskill HZ 2Gb set instead - which would be better for OC'ing

Yes, I think I may change the Hiper out, it looks nicer overall imo but thats about all. Only thing that puts me off the Tagen was the fact when I got one in the past it actually blew on me after owning it only a few months which has still left me with a sour taste

.

As for the Geil Value, a friend has basically just done the same as what im planning. And has bought his upgraded RAM so offered me his Value for next to nothing (£50 upfront and then a few pints at out local), so its def going to be the Value (but as i say its only for the short term).

In regards to the GFX card, I was thinking along the lines "Go for this moments Daddy and more chance to last you".
Maybe the 512mb model is over-kill, I love to play games on high settings though it must be said!

I need one that will run 2 x 19" monitors without trouble, one with a game and one with desktop tasks (word, web surfing and Instant Messengers).. but thinking on it im not even sure how I would go about spliting it up like this, or if its even possible in all honesty.

pcoltrane · 31 Jan 2006 at 19:38

If you want the daddy gfx card why not got for the x1900xtx? £80 cheaper and arguably faster?

FrankJH · 31 Jan 2006 at 20:18

I bought a tagan about the same time as you did originally and mine is still going ( sorry no boasting intended , just confirming their quality) I can understand your sour taste though - they are a lot better now, but every mnufacturer gets faulty batches etc just the luck or not of the draw i am afraid

that geil looks like a steal then, definitely worth getting.

I would agree with marc - get the XTX then ( or even an XT and oc it to nigh on XTX levels)

You can definitely run two monitors off any of the cards mentioned ( you didnt say whether they were tft or not but I am guessing they are) this means that your highest res will be 1280*1024 and seriously its not worth paying the premium for a GTX or XTX in my opinion, a GT but definitely an 1900XT will easily cope with the high settings of all games at this res without breaking sweat - but I can understand you wanting a better card if you foresee yourself getting a higher res tft in the near future..

I love having two monitors, but I have to say its impossible using both when yur mid game - yeah if you have a auto update webpage ie during a footy game and yur playing a game thats really useful, or using mltiple IE / Firefox windows etc and MSN blah blah blah again very useful or photo editing, but not mid game

Anyway each to their own - and once you go multi monitor its impossible to go back

BigDom · 31 Jan 2006 at 20:50

marc mercer said:
If you want the daddy gfx card why not got for the x1900xtx? £80 cheaper and arguably faster?

un arguably faster.. the X1900XTX walks all over the 7800GTX512.

Monstermunch · 31 Jan 2006 at 21:00

The so-called new socket "AM2" is a crock of +@#! really! The only difference between AM2 and skt 939 will be DDR2 ram support. No new chipset features just another way to get people to waste money upgrading when there is no real need.

The best think about the AM2's is the fact that when they are released the skt 939's will come down in price so I can buy an OPTI 170

KalGor · 31 Jan 2006 at 21:25

Hummmm to be honest, I'd only thought about soley Nvid for GFX, I've always been a bit of a ATI fanboi and wanted to see how the other side lived, but I never realised the top end ATIs were cheaper!

Im still a bit confused about how the whole GFX stands atm thou, I know ATI jus launched cross-fire similiar to Nvids sli.
Will that board i've chosen run a ATI card ok, so long as its ran stand alone?
There's so much confusion surrounding GFX cards for me in all honesty.
Going the route with the Nvid I could later choose to sli it up if needed (although I have the feeling gettin another 512 be a little difficult with how few seem to be around).
Had my eye on this particular MB for ages now also, jus looks to incorporate everything I need/ want in a MB and very well!

Temped by the Asus ATI Radeon EAX-X1900 XT-X 512MB card now.

Rhys · 31 Jan 2006 at 22:07

Go go go. If you wait there will be new tech around the corner when youve got to where you thought you'd wait too.

FrankJH · 31 Jan 2006 at 22:14

I can understand your confusion but any single ATI card will work in any PCIE mobo without a problem. That mobo is meant to be a good choice - I have no personal experience of it but read the thread in the mobo section of this forum - and you will have a kick ass system with that and the XTX you mentioned.

To be honest you will not need SLI with your monitors - it will be complete overkill. The resolution isnt high enough to even stress one top end card let alone two ( of either ATI or nV)

A few months ago I bought an 7800GT with the same theory ( albeit with a non sli mobo) and to be honest I dont know whether SLI is actually the bees knees it seems unless you go that route straight away because:

£200 + for one 7800 card ( or a lot more if you go GTX's)
£100+ SLI compatible mobo
in a few months time even more ££££ on another GT (X)

.....remember as far as i understand it, you cant use multi monitor when you are in game on a SLI rig ( if you have two crt/ tft's connected - primary stays live and 2nd monitor gets "no signal" until you quit the game and disable sli) and you also only get the speeed of the slowest card and 1/2 the onboard graphics memory - ie the whole of one cards GDDR and none of the other cards!!!

Whereas with a single card you can easily power two monitors which will work all the time and you have the most powerful single card available which should last a good year without much strain

Just my 2p's worth

KalGor · 31 Jan 2006 at 22:53

Alright, thats made up my mind, cheers for all your help mate!

Alexrose1uk · 1 Feb 2006 at 10:16

Yeah, a good x1900 will do the job... or, if you want to save a little cash, and dont mind not QUITE so top, you can choose last weeks top ATI card- x1800xt 512MB...retailing at £300... not the top dog any more, but sod sake, its still a brilliant card.