Which CPU-AMD64bit 3400 S754,AMD 64 3500 Socket 939, 3.2 Prescott?

[DaKid]

Your GPU might have something to do with it hehe ... I can comfortably run Doom3 in 640x480 @ Medium detail .... and I can *almost* run 800x600 in high detail but the FPS is just below playable.

*waits patiently for his new card to turn up at MicroDirect*

[Pete the Painter]

I was in your position, and went for the 939 socket 3500+. Plenty of grunt, nice price. Runs Doom III very well, although I suspect my GPU has a hand in that as well.

Also got an Asus A8V, quality as always from Asus, plenty of extras with the Deluxe Wireless edition.

Overall, I don't think you can go wrong with either or both.

Doom III is the main reason for upgrade
I didnt want to slow down the GPU with a slow CPU.

Vaul what GFX u using and which mobo would you recomend. I seem to be swaying towards the Msi as it has a guaranteed AGP and PCI lock on the NF3 250GB chipset compared to the unstable lock on the KT800Pro. That wil assist in any overclock.

Ram choice atm is probably between
1 Gb (2 x 512 Mb) Corsair TwinX-XL, DDR, PC3200XLPT, Cas 2 as it extremely low latency
&
1 Gb (2 x 512 Mb) Corsair TwinX, DDR, PC4000PT, Cas 3

Or the 4000 to give me a bit of headroom when overclocking.

Any ideas?

[The Hand]

I was in love with the A64 3500+ and 939 socket until the benchmarks appeared.... then i was going go for 3400+.
...but then reality kicked in with the AMD price drops and I realised I could almost buy 2 A64 3000+'s for the same price as 1 3400+! I simply wouldn't bother with the P4 3.2 unless you are into multimedia/encoding etc.

So i've gone to go for a 3000+...trying to avoid the "wow" factor. I know the seductive power of just buying next cpu up the scale.

I'm sure you will not notice the difference between the 3000+ and 3200+ without looking at the numbers etc.

If you're still in doubt have a look at this anandtech Doom3 cpu benchmarking article.
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...oc.aspx?i=2149

And especially this page....
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...spx?i=2149&p=7
the Athlon 64 3000+ is within 2fps of the P4 3.4 EE and beats the P4 3.2 EE!

The 3000+ is about £110 the P4 3.2 EE is £640!?
Athlon 64 3000+ for me ...
Your 3200+ XP should keep you afloat until A64 4000+ is out this autumn/winter, which should force everything done a bit more.

I rest my case

[iMc]

didnt know u could get A64 S939 3000+. now im tempted...

[The Hand]

didnt know u could get A64 S939 3000+. now im tempted...

Those Anandtech benchies are using a S754 A64 3000+ etc. AFAIK the 3000+ is only socket 754 at the moment.

Give it a couple of months i'd say for lower speed S939 A64s to appear.

[iMc]

ahh i see, well i hope they bring out some cheaper ones.

[Stewart]

Doom III is the main reason for upgrade
I didnt want to slow down the GPU with a slow CPU.

Vaul what GFX u using and which mobo would you recomend. I seem to be swaying towards the Msi as it has a guaranteed AGP and PCI lock on the NF3 250GB chipset compared to the unstable lock on the KT800Pro. That wil assist in any overclock.

Ram choice atm is probably between
1 Gb (2 x 512 Mb) Corsair TwinX-XL, DDR, PC3200XLPT, Cas 2 as it extremely low latency
&
1 Gb (2 x 512 Mb) Corsair TwinX, DDR, PC4000PT, Cas 3

Or the 4000 to give me a bit of headroom when overclocking.

Any ideas?

I'm using an X800XT-PE. Can't really recommend a motherboard as I've only used one, but I've been nothing but pleased with my Asus A8V Deluxe Wireless Edition.

Whe it comes to overclocking, bear in mind, this isn't like, say, an Athlon-M 2500+ and a 9800pro, where you are looking at OCing the CPU to 3200+ at least and flashing the 9800pro to an XT and then OCing it a bit more above XT stock.

There isn't really much headroom in the 64s, you wont be OCing them like you would a 2500+ Baton, and if you want to have minimal CPU limitation, you'll be going for a 6800Ultra \ X800XT-PE, and again, with that much cash invested and little reason to OC, you'll not be needing to focus on overclocking the GPU either.

This leaves the RAM, which isn't going to have a big enough effect on the system to justify spending insane amounts. (In overclocking terms, not general; obviously you'll still want decent RAM, not some generic sludge )

Overclocking is nice, but don't focus on it as much as you would with the classic NF7-S, 2500+, 512mb of DDR400 combo that everyone was using a while back.

In my opinion anyway.

Of course, this is assuming you go for a 939 socket 3500+, X800XT-PE \ 6800Ultra and a 939 board of your choice. If you go down the Pentium route, then all is different.

With a small overclock on my system (In sig) I can pull 14,000 3D Marks in 3D Mark 2003 and play Doom III with everything on high at 1600x1200 smooth as you like (Using the Cat 4.9 betas), if its a gaming rig you want, and you are on a decent but not 'silly money' budget, then you might want to consider getting a similar set-up.

[derthballs]

ive just ordered from cpucity - Neo2 Platinum (939) A64 3500, (£357 delivered) and from aria, you can get 1gb of Kingmax PC4000 (same chips as the top end ocz stuff) for £150 - near enough your budget, and should fly Ive had my ram at 270 before my current cpu crapped out, so im hoping to squeeze out more on the new setup

[DaKid]

... if its a gaming rig you want, and you are on a decent but not 'silly money' budget, then you might want to consider getting a similar set-up.

All the advice I got in this forum (and from friends) pointed my system at something very similar to Vaul's. I get very nice CPU benchmarks in 3DMark and, although not silent, it's very quiet ... especially when compared to my old pc

Listen to the Vaul .... he's bound to know what he's talking about, he's got a funny coloured name and everything!

[Pete the Painter]

I have made my mind, MSI939 NF3GB Ultra it is
If I can wingle it I may even go for a 3800 but it will prob be a 3500 with the corsair 3200 XL. Found out that the chips on the corsair 3200 are samsung and are actually rated at 500 but corsair like to keep the settings tight at 400.

Corsair TwinX1024-3200XLPRO
Rated: 400MHz 2.0-2-2-5 2.75v

Speed Memory Timings Voltage Sandra Unbuffered (Mb/s) SuperPI 4m(seconds) UT2003 Fly By (fps)

DDR400 2.0-2-2-6 2.55v 2943 Int 2935 Float 275 200.9
DDR434 2.0-2-2-6 2.75v 3155 Int 3211 Float 254 218.7
DDR466 2.0-3-3-7 2.85v 3211 Int 3222 Float 241 227.8
DDR500 3.0-3-3-7 2.85v 3239 Int 3318 Float 226 243.7
DDR504 3.0-3-3-7 2.85v 3394 Int 3380 Float 224 246.7

From a review over at bit-tech http://bit-tech.net/review/339/3

[oralpain]

My 3000+ AX is stable at 2.5GHz with the retail HSF, lapped though. Don't thing there is a better ang for the buck atm.

[Pete the Painter]

Feel a little odd asking this but I suppose this is what forums are for ehh

I have always installed windows on a basic IDE setup and never this way so I thought I'd ask for a few tips.

Just purchased the following components.

939 - 3500 AMD
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum WI FI Board
1 Gb (2 x 512 Mb) Corsair TwinX PC3200XLPT
2 x 74Gb Western Digital Raptor Enterprise Sata Drives.
Gainward 6800 Ultra

I would like to install XP on a raid config without having to install it on an Ide drive.

Can anyone give me any tips on how and what steps I should take or point me in the right direction of a good tutorial. Just don't want to get it wrong.

Cheers

[DaKid]

Yeah, I had to do that.

With my motherboard, I had to use the CD-Rom on another computer to make a floppy disc which had the raid drivers on. I needed this for the windows installation, however ...

Your board has native SATA support iirc, so you may just be able to go straight for it. I'd suggest plugging it all together and then just booting off the windows CD-Rom and see if it works and if not, find an old PC with CD-Rom drive and floppy drive and make a RAID/SATA driver disc which you can then insert after pressing F6 at the beginning of the Windows Install.

[bouncin]

u will always need a raid floppy disk just to let windows know whats going.

1>Make ur raid floppy

2>set up ur raid array if raid0 32 or 64 mb stripe should be a good all round size for fast performance

3>boot from win cd then when prompted press f6 to install raid drivers. (the prompt is on the bottom of the first blue screen u will see but keep ur eyes open and be quick)

4> when asked press S to specify a raid controller

5> when prompted insert the floppy and press enter

6> select the raid drivers to use depending which controller u have ur array on and press enter

continue ur install as you normally would

hope this helps u out

p.s
u will not be able to use a usb keyboard to do this.

if u need help on any part of this dont hesitate to ask

oh and by the way nice setup u have there m8y

[Pete the Painter]

u will always need a raid floppy disk just to let windows know whats going.

1>Make ur raid floppy

2>set up ur raid array if raid0 32 or 64 mb stripe should be a good all round size for fast performance

3>boot from win cd then when prompted press f6 to install raid drivers. (the prompt is on the bottom of the first blue screen u will see but keep ur eyes open and be quick)

4> when asked press S to specify a raid controller

5> when prompted insert the floppy and press enter

6> select the raid drivers to use depending which controller u have ur array on and press enter

continue ur install as you normally would

hope this helps u out

p.s
u will not be able to use a usb keyboard to do this.

if u need help on any part of this dont hesitate to ask

oh and by the way nice setup u have there m8y

Thx for the help. One thing I have been told is that 1. set up raid (mobo/controller dependant) Read the Manual!
2. press f6 during the winblows installation
3. insert disk with raid drivers
4. continue winblows setup after raid drivers have copied
5. install as normal....

side note: i hope youre not planning on running raid 0 on those raptors as you will loose those beautiful low seek times!

Whats your opinion on setting a Raid 0 on Raptors?

Thx

[bouncin]

i love mine in raid they are gr8 bit squeeky but still good