Amd

[snowman]

i am getting:

AMD Athlon XP-3200+ 400mhz FSB

Asus A7N8X-DX (Deluxe) nForce-2 Chipset Motherboard

Gainward GeForce-FX 5600 ULTRA 128 mb

1gb corsair 400mhz DDR

80gb Seagate S-ATA HD 7200rpm

in your opinion. how long will this stay current and good for gaming? i dont know if i should wait for the AMD 64 or not. or if this will beat out the 64 for gaming.

 

[Corbalin]

maby i´m tired but..

getting?!? after what?!
what do you mean?

 

[Steg]

that machine will stay ahead/or with the game for a good 2 years - especially if in a year or so you upgrade the graphics card - it wont fall along behind for a good 3 years atleast

Athlon 64s and there mobos will be VERY expensive to start off with and we dont no jow well they will perform - until we see some benchmarks - but that might be a while

Steg

 

[snowman]

cool. thanks steg. it is either that machine or one with a 3ghz pentium 4 800fsb and a gigabyte GA-8IK1100 motherboard. i have not truly decided yet.

 

[Phantasm66]

the specs you have picked are fine. that's a nice machine, and I hope you enjoy using it.

 

[Nic]

Your specs are already obsolete since the Nvidia FX5600 cannot run DX9 games at acceptable frame rates. Get yourself a Radeon 9600 Pro for about the same price, then that'll be ok for about a year. A Radeon 9800 Pro should be good for about a couple of years if you're lucky. It all depends on what type of games you play, as these are getting more demanding on hardware all the time. The rest of your PC spec should last a couple of years.

 

[Phantasm66]

Nic, your machine is obsolete from the moment you buy it. Its obsolete from the moment that the components finish rolling off the assembly line. No matter what its specs.

That is, however, a good point about the graphics card. If this young chap is going to lay out a wad of cash, he needs to know things like that.

Aside from that refinement, its a good machine that snowman has there.

Are you building it yourself, snowman, or are you buying it whole?

(OH, but the way, NO NEED TO WAIT FOR AMD 64 - just yet yourself the best CPU and graphics card you can, plenty of RAM and a fast HDD, that's all...)

 

[StormBringer]

must every thread here be turned in to nVidia vs Ati?

 

[poertner_1274]

Originally posted by StormBringer
must every thread here be turned in to nVidia vs Ati?

Unfortunately it appears so. Quite a few have turned that way anyhow.

 

[Nic]

Originally posted by StormBringer
must every thread here be turned in to nVidia vs Ati?

Just pointing out some factual info. There's no flaming happening in this thread.

 

[snowman]

ok. i already have the card and i was going to switch it from the old pc to the new one. and i am building this on my own. (its so i can graduate high school.) i like nvidia cards so would their FX5900 work? i found its about the same price as the ati 9800.

 

[XtR-X]

Unless you've got the cash, I wouldn't pay ~$250 dollars more for that little gain on the processor. You're talkin about paying $250 dollars just to have the second zero in 3000+ to be changed to 3200+. Not worth it. Bartons are easily overclockable, just get a 3000+ with 400MHz FSB.

 

[snowman]

good idea. i could get more and better ram. i just need to learn how to oc better. the pc you have xtr is like what i want. i play 1st person shooters like the delta force series and BF 1942. they are not too demanding cause i can play them on the pc i have now.

 

[Phantasm66]

Again, another interesting comment. Often, you will find that CPUs have prices like this:

1.33 GHz $45
1.50 GHz $55
1.66 GHz $65
1.80 GHz $75
2.00 GHz $85
2.10 GHz $95
2.20 GHz $150
2.40 GHz $180
3.00 GHz $ask

What you see then, in this totally fictious example, is that you are best off, if on a budget, going for the 2.10 GHz chip. Its just below the big price hike. There's no point in getting the 2.00 GHz if you are just saving $10, say, but do you really want to spend $55 extra just to get 2.20 GHz?

Anyway, you will see that there's usually some kind of price pattern a bit like that. Try to choose wisely, remembering that you can only spend the money once, and that clock speed, whilst pretty important, is not THE ONLY important thing. You can speed a machine up greatly by getting it a faster HDD or more RAM. And a graphics card choice is particularly important for gamers these days, since its almost like a co-processor of sorts when it comes to games.

 

[Nic]

Most current AMD Athlons are already unlocked for overclocking. This situation is about to change ...

Unlocking and Overclocking the Athlon XP

AMD are starting to implement new chip packaging to permanently lock down their CPUs and prevent overclocking. You have to be pretty unlucky to get one of these, though they will become the norm shortly.

Here's the story over here ...

New Style AMD CPU Packaging

AMD has historically been very enthusiast friendly when it comes to unlocking and overclocking their chips. However, I recently purchased a couple of XP2600s, hoping to unlock them for a bit of dual processor overclocked action. This entails joining the right-hand most L5 bridge, then remapping the L3 bridges to the desired multiplier. Upon opening the processor up, I was horrified to find that AMD have a new packaging technique which involves laminating over the top of ALL of the bridges. You will also notice that it is now possible to see all of the traces and paths through this semi-translucent layer.

Undeterred I tried to use a sharp fine hobby knife to carefully scratch away the lamination over the top of the two L5 bridges (very fiddly work). I was unsuccessful. Examination of the chip underneath a microscope revealed that all I had succeeded in “unlocking” was my chips inability to post – I had severed one of the traces clustered all around the L5 bridge in question. Somewhat disappointed I RMA’ed the working 2600 to my supplier for a replacement with two XP2500s, and also bought a couple of XP2400s just in case these were the same. Both of these sets of chips also had the new style packaging making them near impossible to use in a dual setup.

Enthusiasts are already leaving the AMD camp in droves thanks to the new 800MHz FSB wonder chips from Intel, and it’s this kind of petty mindedness which will cause AMD to bomb out of the enthusiast market all together. Basically, unless you know a supplier that has older chips in stock, you can now forget the joys of fast, inexpensive dual processing – or unlocked multipliers on your KT333 / KT400 or earlier.

 

[snowman]

well that just sucks.

 

[XtR-X]

Overclocking the 3000+ "Barton" chips is extremely easy. All you need is to know a little basic manuevering arround in the BIOS and being very carefull and patient and change multipliers. That's it.

Barton's aren't like other cores where you have to "bridge" or make a few connections on the processor or whatever. It's fairly easy.

If you'd like, and you decide to go with the 3000+ 400MHz FSB, then I'll give you some steps.

Also, with all that equipment you're getting, I would highly recommend an nForce 2 motherboard. It's truly the best, overall, from all recent experiences I've had.

You will need a good motherboard, I would highly recommend the Asus A7N8X Deluxe 2.0 (nForce 2). Note: it may not say 2.0 but just get the version that supports 400Mhz FSB, since you should get the 3000+ that has 400MHz FSB.

Also, the 3000+ w/ 400MHz FSB is not standard for the 3000+. Standard is 333MHz FSB. Make sure you get the 3000+ w/ 400MHz FSB. Also, the 3000+ w/ 400MHz FSB is OEM mostly, and you will need a good heatsink and fan or a combo.

My favorite combo is the Vantec AeroFlow... looks like an AC unit too.

Edit: Also, if you haven't found any cool case yet, check out http://www.xpcases.com they have great prices and nice cases. You might wanna get the X-Superalien... cuz that thing is smokin'.

 

[snowman]

awesome thanks. do you have yahoo messenger or something? so you can help me when i get the pc? i am getting a new truck so when i take the loan out for that im going to take about an extra $1000 out.

 

[XtR-X]

With what you mentioned earlier, I think you will be paying just a little over $1,000 dollars. Maybe 300 give or take 150.

Also, online retailers can be very inexpensive. I always buy my computer parts from newegg.com . You can trust them, they are safe.

AOL Messenger: xevolutionz
MSN Messenger: starcraftnexus@hotmail.com

Yahoo messenger... I don't use it but I should...

For yahoo messenger you just use your yahoo email right? Well if that's the case, I'll download it...

mattmcdannel@yahoo.com

Be glad to help ya... I've made a number of PCs for friends arround my neighborhood just for side cash... so I know my stuff... :grinthumb

Also, I will be available tomorrow in the evening (that is from about 7-9PM Pacific Standard Time). I don't think I will be available Friday but I should be available over the weekend.

 

[PureLuck]

If ure Computer wont last long, what bout mine? ive just bought it, but i see many thing i would buy differently, for example another 3d card +++++

 

[Justin]

I know this thread is a bit old, but I wonder if anyone knows if pin modding overrides "locked" athlon XP cpus? I have pin modded a few boards before because the board itself didn't support multiplier altering, I wonder if it works the same way?