Building a new PC...group effort! =)

Since I don't plan on overclocking, the Asus A7N8X Deluxe seems to be the best choice. I will most likely go with that motherboard. Will that motherboard allow me to do whatever it is your talking about?


On Monday I will have to make my decision on which motherboard to purchase. I'll be sending in the order on Monday. Please help me to make sure everything is solid. The Asus A7N8X Deluxe motherboard should be the best option for the hardware I've selected. I decided not to go with the PC3500 memory because these posts say that without overclocking no motherboard can run memory at that speed. The posts do say that the fastest any motherboard (including the Asus A7N8X Deluxe) can run memory at is PC3200 or DDR400. I had no idea I was required to do something in the BIOS in order to make this possible. I consider myself fortunate someone decided to mention it to me before it was too late. (I hate surprises.)

Lets double check and make sure everything is solid; fully funtional and compatible. Please make recommendations.



Here is the PC I have planned for purchase on Monday:

CPU:
AMD Athlon 2800+ = $600.00

Motherboard w/integrated soundstorm and nForce2 chipset:
The Asus A7N8X Deluxe = $???.??

Memory:
Two Corsair XMS PC3200 512RAM sticks = $???.??

Hard Drive:
Western Digital 8MB cache 80GB = $139.99

Video Card:
128 GeForce4 Ti 4600 = $0.00

CPU Fans:
Clear Fans/Black Fans (as many possible.) = $65.00

Case:
AT827BKW ATOP = $90.00
( http://www.a-top.com/827/827bkw.jpg )

O/S:
Windows XP = $100.00

Other:
Vantec Nexus Multi-Functional Panel = $38.00

Mouse & Keyboard:
Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard and Mouse = $159.99

Speakers:
?????????????? = $ ???.??
 
from what I understand, there are several types of 512mb pc3200 memory sticks that corsair makes, the best thing for you to do would be to take the number I gave you and ask for this specific type of memory.
btw, here's the link to the table:

http://usa.asus.com/mb/socketa/a7n8x/A7N8Xqvl.htm

for cooling, here's the thing. I bought my mainboard and cpu from the same store, it was not a combo, I bought them separately. However, the guy told me, in order to validate the warranty, he had to put the heatsink and fan on the cpu and clip the cpu to the mainboard himself, if I use another heatsink, the warranty voids, if I wanna use a bigger fan, I have to make sure I switch it back before taking it to the store. my point is, the stock heatsink/fan that comes with the cpu is good enough to handle it, it is not the best, but it is good enough if you don't overclock. The fan that comes from amd has been tested with the cpu you're buying, if something happens, you get it replaced for free(the cpu that is, not just the fan ;) ) so you don't need to buy another heatsink/fan.
your cpu will still last a great deal of time, I have never seen a cpu fry after only a couple of years, unless it wasn'T cooled !
as for water cooling, you need to have a big enough case but I know nothing about that kind of cooling so I cannot answer anything about that.

your mainboard will remain a very good mainboard for a long time in my opinion. As newer cpus come out, asus will provide a bios upgrade for your board allowing you to use them. (I'm talking about thoroughbred cpus running at a fsb of 333mhz)
When those 64bit cpus come out, no game will NEED them to run at a very high graphic level. at a given clockspeed, a 64bit cpu will be twice as fast as what you have now, so it would take one hell of a demanding game to drive that kind of cpu to its limit, plus, it's fair to believe they will be extremely expensive, as well as the mainboards. and will intel beat amd or vice-versa ? I really don't know. I do not recommend you wait for the 64bit cpus, no one really knows when exactly they're coming out. we've been hearing about those for a couple of years !!!
in my opinion, as long as they can sell a good deal of their high-end cpus, they will wait to release it.


for memory performance :

for instance, I have pc2700(which can run at 333mhz) running with a fsb of 266mhz. tests have shown that pc2700 running with that fsb is not considerably faster than pc2100(which can run at 266mhz). I have tried both speeds, and I honestly cannot see the difference, not even in 3dmark !
what that guy probably means is that faster memory than pc2700 is useless for what it costs.
but pc3200 has a potential to be faster than pc2700 that's for sure and will not be slower than pc2700.
 
yes it is clearly written on asus' website that the asus a7n8x deluxe (even the non-deluxe version) has ddr400 capability, if you use the memory they recommend.
and for memory timing , it's easy to set in the bios, you said you have a friend that knows computers, he will know how to do it.
 
If something isn't working with Corsair memory, there's something very screwy. Really, it looks fine. Go for it.:)
 
There's a topic I haven't addressed; which Windows XP do I want? I should know this, but what is the difference betwen Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Pro? I had Windows XP Pro on my old system, but I didn't really pay much attention to the differences. My brother uses Windows XP Home Edition. I've used his computer when visiting his place, but I didn't notice anything different.

PROS and CONS?


Please Confirm:

Corsair memory is among the highest quality memory available.

Which brand of memory would you recommend? If not Cosair.
 
there is absolutely no cons in taking xp pro over xp home.

xp pro is xp home with more features.

samsung makes good memory, it's also a lot less expensive than corsair
 
I was just comparing Samsung memory and Corsair memory. The best comparison I could find is here: (please use link)

http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=article&dId=329&dPage=4

It seems like Samsung blows Corsair out of the water in this review. Is it because the Samsung is PC3200, but the Corsair is only PC3000? (The reviews between Geil memory, Corsair, and Samsung.) The Corsair is the only one that doesn't say "DDR 400."

I chose Corsair because I felt it was the highest quality memory. I read it was also highly rated for overclocking. I don't plan on overclocking now, but since memory usually lasts longer than the motherboard, I'd like to keep that as an option for whenever I need to buy a new motherboard/processor.

I'd like to hear some more opinions from you, regarding Samsung Memory VS Corsair Memory.

P.S. Don't forget the above post too =)
 
Comparing PC3000 RAM with PC3200: there is gonna be a difference, and comparing them side by side will have the fastest stuff in a better light. Samsung is good, and it will serve you very well. However, if you want the Corsair, I can't say anything bad about them, since I've not used them personally, and I have yet to see anything bad mentioned about their quality.
 
It's possible that I misread the review and actually the Corsair is also PC3200. I'm not sure. Did you check out the link or just base your response on my post?

P.S. The post before that post is important. I'm waiting for responses before I make my final decisions tomorrow morning.

(I plan on presenting those quotes and requesting a lower price from my source. If the quotes are based on the wrong hardware, I could be screwed.)
 
1. you've got the right board
2. you've got the right price
3 and 4. I don'T know if you checked it but there is a motherboard compatibility list concerning this memory, and the asus a7n8x deluxe is not on the list.
this is not the memory included in the asus' memory compatibility list (which I told you about in a previous post)
I do not know if it will work with this board, but according to asus' website, this memory is NOT supported.
one of the differences is the cas latency time which is 2 (the one you'Re looking at), and the one on the compatibility list is 2.5 (which is slower).
the model number is not the same either, confirming it is not the same memory.
 
TweakTown's site has been having some trouble en route to my PC, and I cannot read the stuff yet. I will as soon as I can, however. I was making a guess since I'm having trouble accessing their website.
 
They took a true ddr-400 dimm for the samsung and a pc3000 for the corsair. So right off the bat you know the samsung has better capability.

after the tests, they took off the heatspreaders on the corsair, only to find out it was a ddr266 overclocked to its limit. that is why it performed less.
at ddr400 speed(normal rated speed) both perform pretty equally (a difference of 5 in 3d mark is nothing)
what they discovered is that they could drive the samsung at 450mhz, while the other 2 were unstable at this speed.

you cannot really take this as a reliable test in my opinion because they did not compare two true ddr400 sticks. But, if that'S the way things are gonna be for corsair (overclocking slower memory to 400mhz and sell them the same price as if it was a true 400mhz stick), I do not think it's a good thing to buy from this company, considering it'S a lot more expensive !
 
Samsung has my vote from first hand experience. I hadn't heard of this regarding Corsair before, so it's quite shocking considering their stuff is known for overclocking quite high.
 
it shocks me as well, although I have never used either of the two, knowing that the company considered the best uses old memory and sells it for more isn't an honnest way to do business in my opinion.

No wonder the memory couldn't overclock, it's already overclocked !
it also uses very slow 7ns modules compared to 4ns modules for the samsung(the same speed that the GF4 ti4200s use)

There is something odd about this test though, they're saying they're testing two sticks, one from samsung, one from geil. But there are 3 different sticks in the benchmark results (samsung, geil and corsair(the pc3000 announced as geil in the intro)).
They did say they tested the stick with the heat spreaders first, then they took them off, then they tested it again.

it's ok for the samsung, but would corsair be the geil without the heat spreaders, or vice versa (geil would be corsair without the heat spreaders) ?
or is geil the brand of the modules used on corsair memory ?
 
I'm not sure. I think that TweakTown probably got a mislabled stick somehow (it happens). Geil RAM is known to have problems with AMD setups, and is probably not well tested for compatibility.

I'll read it when I can, and get back to you on it.
 
I'm pretty sure you misread. My understanding of the review was that Geil ram was the already overclocked stuff. The Corsair was really good, the only negative thing I got out of it, was that it was only PC3000 instead of PC3200 like the other two brands. When they were talking about it being already overclocked and w/heatsink, they were talking about the Geil. There wasn't really much discussion about the Corsair ram, since the review was based on Geil VS Samsung. I think the only real review based information given about the Corsair was the actual comparitive charts which included Corsair's PC3000.

Correct me if I'm wrong. I'll have to re-read it. I'm pretty sure that Corsair is the best quality ram...

If Corsair ram really isn't as good as I have been lead to believe, or just isn't compatible with this motherboard, then what ram would you recommend?? I guess I am back to square one as far as the ram goes....

I was planning on ordering the stuff today, but since it was just brought to my attention that the Corsair memory I've been talking about for the last week or two isn't even supported by this motherboard, I'll have to decide all over again which ram to get. Recommendations and especially PROS and CONS are welcome. Overall quality is essential for ram. I'd like to have the option open to me for overclocking the ram in the distant future. I don't want ram that only good for overclocking though. A list of PROS and CONS would be great. For now, though, I guess I'll go read some more reviews.


I read that the new AMD Athlon 3000+ is shipping out on Thursday, a comp store says they'll have the processors available next week. I'm strongly considering waiting and getting the AMD 3000+ instead of the 2800+. Please let me know what you think. What would you do? Money isn't a factor, I am below budget. The estimated price of the processor upon arival is only $675.00. I was planning on paying $600.00 just for the 2800+, if I can get away with the 3000+ processor for only around $100 dollars more, I'd be insane not to.

Share your thoughts and recommendations. ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top