My upgrade

[The Hand]

What do you guys think of my proposed system... I'm not bothered about upgrading on the same mobo so i've gone for S754.. I'm worried about simple errors i might have made...

Athlon 64 3000+
Asus K8N-E Deluxe, nForce3 250Gb
512mb/1Gb(512mb x 2) DDR400 Corsair xms *
My old Radeon 8500 64mb- waiting for gfx card price drop or 6600 GT/X700 to emerge.
Coolermaster Praetorian Case (perhaps the only part i'm 100% on)
Sony DRU700A Dual layer DVD writer

* I'm unsure about S754... but i've rumours that if you have two memory modules in a S754 mobo the speed will fall to DDR333 and 3 modules means a drop to DDR266? Is this the case or have i got my wires horribly crossed?

I already have Doom3 sitting next me now and hope to play on low or medium settings in the near future i'll probably buy this proposed system within a week.

thx for your feed back

[-mb-]

You could get better components and settle for the slightly inferior (but much cheaper: £40 rather than £70) Coolermaster Centurion; look:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...Cases_126.html

Unless you really want the larger Sony software package, you'll do just as well with an excellent value LiteON drive, such as the SOHW-832S. It's pretty much the same drive, but can be got for just £50:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...RW_Drives.html

Corsair memory is overpriced, I have found my GeiL Golden Dragon to be great, 2x 512Mb DDR400 can be had for £180.
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/product...spx?GroupID=57

Just my thoughts...

[Aaron]

Going Socket 939 will be a lot more expensive. A 3500+ plus nForce3 board will set you back around £350. If you don't fancy spending that amount of money, then Socket 754 is your only option but remember that it doesn't socket dual channel memory.

Also, avoid Sony drives if you can. They're very picky about the media you put in them and you can get a superior drive (i.e. the LiteOn) for cheaper.

[VashUK]

Socket 754 will support 2 DDR400 running at full speed but not 3 if they are double sided, then it will drop to DDR333.

Have to agree with -mb-, why get such expensive memory when you can buy two Kingmax PC4000 Gold HardCore 500Mhz 512Mb DDR Modules for £84.68 each (169.36 for two). I cannot see the point in getting a socket 939, you will pay the extra and end up getting a new motherboard once nforce 4 gets released anyway. Dual channel only gives you a 5-10% performance increase.

If you can afford it and have the space get an aerocool HT-101 it looks like the best CPU cooler you can get, unless you want to risk the weight of the coolermaster hyper 6.

[The Hand]

Thx everyone for the feedback..
heres the link to the sony dual layer dvd writer(part silver) where i might be buying from..
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=116217
That liteon drive does look good. I'll try and do more research on that.

Also i found i could get Corsair XMS 512mb XL for £93 at Komplett here.
http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=300701&cks=PRL
thats £186 for 2 *if* i felt like going mad ... I would get very good ram and about the same price as the Geil Golden dragon. I think i prefer low latency to higher DDR speeds.
Geil and Corsair are neck a neck performance wise i've heard?
Thx for clearing up the confusion about the ram Vash.. I was concerned about that.

I might try dabbling in overclocking the 3000+ so i figured I wanted a good case such as the praetorian for good cooling. Plus i'm love with it! With a decent heat sink, such as the hyper 6. A quiet pc hopefully.

I'm open minded on this and can take advice.. so thx for any furhter feedback.

[Byatt]

Going to have to disagree with a few points made already - Stick with the praetorian (and get a black one ), it's aluminium, rather than the steel of the centurion, which I think makes it worth the extra (having carried numerous steel/alu cases around). Also, the lite-on drives comment - I'd say is only applicable for cd-rw/dvd-rom drives, the NEC drives are a much better choice when talking about dvd-rw. Look into the 3500A - there's likely a black/silver version at microdirect or ebuyer, if not, there's bezels to fit on to the front instead.

One other thing would be to look into the Patriot RAM from tekheads, rather than throwing away money on Corsair stuff, can do similar speeds for about £60 less total

as for heatsink...I'd avoid the hyper-6, it's far, far too heavy - the 7000 series from Zalman would be a better choice, they are very, very good coolers, just check compatibility on the site first.

If you're looking for quiet you might also look into replacing or 7-volting the fans that come with the praetorian...

[VashUK]

The aerocool HT-101 is quiter and lighter than the zalman, weight is only 490g without a fan, I think 80mm fans weight around 80g and you can mount two . The performace is pretty close to the hyper 6 and beats the zalman, the only problem seems to be the height. Also if you are using socket 754/939 you have to get the 2nd revision.

I belive if you get faster memory and slow it down you can get better timings (I could be wrong, but I'm sure I read it somewhere) and atleast its more future proof.

[BUFF]

Also, avoid Sony drives if you can. They're very picky about the media you put in them and you can get a superior drive (i.e. the LiteOn) for cheaper.

The Sony drive is a Liteon - just rebadged.
I would go wth the NEC 3500 £60 at Komplett.

The Praetorian is a better case than the Centurion - it's got a slideout mobo tray for 1.

[Aaron]

The Sony drive is a Liteon - just rebadged.

That's interesting. The older Sony DVD-RW drives certainly weren't. I stand corrected.

[Snow-Munki]

consider getting the Epox 8kda3j instead..

i'm getting same chip as you tomorrow but with the epox board as i've heard only good things about it ...

[VashUK]

There is a small problem with Epox motherboards in the UK, you get no support or warranty from Epox. Safe bet appears to be the Asus K8N-E Deluxe (not the best overclocker due to low Vdimm options but could be solved by a bios update) either that or wait for the new DFI to get released.

I'm still trying to find a new motherboard after the MSI K8N Platinum I bought was useless.

[Agent]

I would go wth the NEC 3500 £60 at Komplett.

Totaly agree.
It really has the best compatibility with most writing programs, and has excellent media support.