Building a fast pc

[Byatt]

personally I'd suggest you wait for socket 939...if you don't want to however, and you still stick with fx-51 - I'd recommend the sk8v over the sk8n.

[IBM]

Byatt --
Can't....wait.....Need....computer...NOW!!!....Crush....Smash....

As I was saying before, I've already waited over a month, and then I'll wait another month, and there'll be some problem with release and it'll be March before I get it. By which time I'll be wearing potato sacks over my head and saying 'wibble' a lot...

Do you know if the SK8N is limited to 2700 ECC ram? Is the SK8V the same?

I see that no-one has suggest the 3.2 P4 Extremely Expensive edition, any particular reason, apart from the whole 'sell your first child to pay for it thing'?

[Byatt]

both the sk8n and the sk8v can handle pc3200.

A few other considerations:

1. What case is this going in?
2. Soundcard?
3. Is that 400W PSU going to be enough? Usually I'd be damn certain but this is a beast of a system - the fx-51 eats a lot of juice, as does a 9800XT, and if you get some audigy 2 platinum style soundcard you might be pushing it.

[unrealrocks]

OK - I would recommend the ASUS K8V-Deluxe for stability although RAW performance you'll get the best out of the top MSI K8 board! 400Watt is plenty - you'd be suprised!

If your doing CAD etc. is a really good soundcard really worth it, lol!

[unrealrocks]

The Athlon64 will be keeping the same socket for at least 4000XP. Not so sure about the FX series, TBH I think there not worth the price as the Athlon64s are beasts and like 1/4 of the price!

RAM - If you went Athlon64 you got a massive choice, personally I'd get something like PC3500 Corsair XMS LL ... no point going higher as the Athlon64s just don't allow for FSB rasing, you overclock 100Mhz and you have an FX51!

[dgr]

IMO - unless you need a pc that powerful (and very fe people do), then i think its overkill.

you'll have more heat, more noise and less stability than a slower 'puter.

and don't think its an investment or that "it will last."

If you have enough cash to burn then be my guest. but IMO i would spend the money on something better (e.g. a couple of big LCDs or my girlfriend...)

dgr

[payniel]

First thing i would say is DAMN. THat entire setup is going to cost your somewhere around 2.5-3k($). Like alot of the people were sayin, i would wait for the next socket for the FX, so you could upgrade it. THe 9800XT, is an awsome card and will run all games pretty much at max, and hey, you get a free game(not really free) so you could kinda take $50 off the price cause it comes with HL2. Also if you wait till spring you may be able to spend your money on ATI's and Nvidia's next series of cards, which will probably be much more DX9 compatible and will be the same price as the expensive ones now, but wiht much better performance(hopefully they can make the same kind of jump as from the 8500 to the 9700). The RAM, i would go with Corsair either way, if you go wiht the next socket get some 3500LL or possibly some 4000(it may be alot more mature by the time the next socket launches). For the motherboard, i favor anything wiht the Nforce3 onboard.

[fondie]

my personal recommendation would be :-

Socket 754 Athlon64 3000xp @ £175
MSI K8T Neo @ £110
Mushkin lvl2 pc3200 @ £250

that's approx £550 less than your suggested spec, and will be only very marginally slower, if for some reason that's not fast enough for you, and if you really want to make that £550 work it's hardest then invest it in a Mach2 Prometia http://www.cpucitystore.co.uk/catalo...products_id=38 along with some faster memory, you'll defintely get a whole lot more performance out of that than you will do investing into the extra inflated cost of server based technology and of a top of the line cpu.

[IBM]

dgr -- Quite right, I DON'T need a computer this powerful, and you're right, it will indeed be hotter, noisier and less stable than a slower system, but that's not really the point. Hasn't everyone in this forum spent a lot of time thinking about an ultimate system? And it's not an investment....since when was anything to do with computers ever going to last more than 12-24 months?

And although the cash isn't quite ready to burn, I've got a lovely LCD and Plasma, and the wife is quite capable of spending far too much money on her own LOL

Payniel - Only 2.5-3K in US dollars? Where do you shop? It's almost going to cost that in GBP, and given the crappy US economy at the moment, that's a lot more in $.

I have to say that everyone saying I should wait for the next socket FX is starting to make me lean that way, but it's going to cost a whole lot more I'm thinking - or should that be thunking to be truly 64bit? I don't suppose you've got a link or two to news on the upcoming GFX cards from ATI and Nvidia? Much appreciation if you do...

Fondie -- Cheers, I'll look into that spec....

[IBM]

Payniel -- Sorry if you're an American and that economy comment seemed a bit harsh...I imagine there's enough UK/US feuds going on in these forums without me starting any more....

[fondie]

just as a sidenote, if you did go for some serious cooling and overclocking action, the MSI Neo might not be the best board available, it could be, i just haven't really looked into it.

and my rambling thoughts :-

i really think just a standard system (no prometia) with the componenets i suggested would be more than adequate though, if you relly do have money burning a hole in your pocket then another monitor for dual display? nice sound card for hooking up to your audio kit? or a whole host of other things you could have that at least for me would add much more to my pc experience (what a sickening phrase) than the slight increase in speed of what will already be a very fast pc.

obviously everyone gets their kicks from different things, and i've got my very own desire for the fastest components you can buy, but after the inital couple of weeks of you having the top of the line cpu, and the feeling you get from that, that 5% (completely made up figure btw) extra speed you get is barely noticable in real world applications and prehaps some (possibly) slightly less exciting, yet more pratical things become increasingly more desirable.

and no i'm not a sensible old grandad, i just like to get the most kicks from my £s, and of course you're not me, so there

[Byatt]

If we're seriously looking at overclocking for any fx-51 or athlon 64...is there actually a board yet that locks agp and pci frequencies?

[Howard]

I'll just add that I'm glad you're keeping your nice Iiyama 22" CRT instead of buying an inferior TFT

And that's a hell of a system!
Sod it, why wait?! The rate the computer industry moves, no one is ever content. It's a case of "wait till next month". Then another month, and so it goes on.

[SilentDeath]

my opinion:
gfx cards make lot more difference than cpu in games - as they do nearly everything. gemertry, textures rendering etc..
currently im runnign the spec in my sig. considering the total cost of that, and the total cost of your spec you want, yours will be several times higher £££ for not THAT much more improvement.
also i agree with fondie - with good cooling instead of top of the line chips you can get better performace, though i disagree about cpu - promietas aint THAT good. for my cpu i got alomst same clocks with an slk800 as i do with water cooling, temps are lot lower though. better cooling doesnt allow you to clock further (unless your chip is overheating). all it gives you is ability to run stuff at higher voltage - which will give better stability at higher clocks - though too high and you risk electromigration and killing the chip.

for gfx card i would go for the 9800xt (whats price differnce between the pro?). the core on each card will be just as capable - but the 9800xt has the better mem and you will be able to clock a lot further with it. i wish i spent £20 more on a 9700pro now, as they all had samsung ram mostly capable of 350-380mhz with vmods.

what games do you intend to play? all the games ive tryed, doom3 alpha inc, i get avout 50fps all the time, mostly about 70fps with all options maxed (doom3 about 50fps). max payne2 and il2fb (forgot when that was released) are the only 2 recent games ive played both run fine at max. in 3dm2k1 i get 17.5k, 2k3 i get 6.2k. so whats the point in having anything faster at the moment?

[Byatt]

Originally posted by |SilentDeath|
so whats the point in having anything faster at the moment?

I think I've got the idea if I say:

--for the sake of having them.

[fondie]

i agree with Silentdeath ^

i suggested a prometia because for the money (which you seem keen to spend) i'm sure you could squeeze more performance using it than you could with an FX-51 over an A64, not that it was going to give great performance/£.

if i had to spend the extra money on your pc i'd spend it on such things as, a second display, nice case, sound card, keyboard/mouse, nice zalman cooler or something ok that ilk.

and i agree about gfx cards ^^