Newbie moving from Intel to AMD.. Advice Pls

[BlueMagician]

Hello to all!

I'm thinking of building a new AMD system, primarily for Gaming, but some Audio & Photographic work. Would like to have a bit of fun with overclocking, but stability and reliability is of far greater concern to me than benchmark scores..

I had this rough spec in mind, but I'm a bit green on what is advisable/recommended on the S939 platform:

Asus A8N-SLi Deluxe Mobo
AMD Athlon64 3500+ Winchester S939 CPU
1GB of appropriate Corsair (or whatever make) RAM
Western Digital Raptor10k 74GB HDD
PCI-E GF6800GT DDR3 (one or two depending on finance)
Antec NeoPower 480 ATX2 PSU

I'd love to go for 3 Raptors and Raid5 it, but unsure of the quality of the controller on the Asus board, and can't really afford 3 of those 10k beasts anyway!


Please feel free to suggest changes etc, but I'm assuming this sort of setup will cane an Intel S775, of similar cost, to death in almost everything..

Many thanks in advance,
Simon.

[MD]

Well having just got back from the store with a shiny new MSI K8N-54G Neo2 and 2GB of ram I am eagerly awaiting me finding a retailer with the 3500+ in stock so I can try it out, I myself am moving over from Intel with this updgrade.

I will let you know my thoughts when its built, and if I do encounter any problems. Your specification looks fine and your reasonings for upgrade are the same as mine, if not back to front

i am still not convinced on the length of life in SLi, I would love to be proved wrong having seen it at Bloodline, I hate the fact i have the feeling it will go the same as 3Dfx did back in the days, It all comes down to gaming support, once that starts then it will be great, but the lead time on that will be long, very long in game development terms.

I went with 2 x serials 160Gb a throw, will upgrade to Raptors when the finances allow and use the serials for external storage devices.

Good luck with what ever you choose to do, the next week for me will be about telling experiences and see if you can learn anything from me lol

m@

[Taz]

Hi Simon, i'm in the same boat and have used this site extensively over the last week or so. I'm currently speccing the following system if it helps:

- ThermalTake Tsunami Silver Aluminum (VA3000SNA)
- 480W Tagan Whisper quiet 21db
- Asus A8N-SLi Deluxe
- AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Winchester 90nm (939 Pin) - Retail
- Asus Extreme GeForce PCX6600 GT 128MB DDR3 TV-OUT-DVI (PCI-E) - Retail
- 74 GB Western Digital Raptor
- Maxtor DiamondMax +10 160GB
- Part No. BL6464Z505 512MB, Ballistix 184-pin DIMM (x 2)
- MX5020 2-piece wall-mountable speaker system
- Pavilion F1904 19" TFT
- Thermalright XP-90
- Panaflo 92L1BX 92mm
- Asus WL-138G Wireless LAN PCI adapter Retail Boxed

This is working out at around £1400 at the moment (well over my initial £1K budget!). It's similar to the system you're looking at apart from the graphics card. The 6800GT will have to wait until later in the year and i'm only speccing the 6600GT at the moment. I'm reusing a few bits and pieces that I already have and that do not affect raw performance (eg. mouse, keyboard, DVD writer, etc.)

You may run into the same problem, but I cannot find any suppliers for most of this kit at the moment (apart from those selling at ridiculous prices).

Taz

[Steve]

Reading the spec sheet in the manual, it is the SiImage chip that supports RAID5. That'll be entirely software based and so use the CPU for parity calculations. This isn't good for performance.

I have a Promise RAID 5 card that takes some (but admittedly not all) of the processing away from the main CPU. A lot more expensive than that SiI chip, but still cheaper than other RAID 5 solutions.

[BlueMagician]

You may run into the same problem, but I cannot find any suppliers for most of this kit at the moment (apart from those selling at ridiculous prices).

Yeah, I'd noticed the dreaded "OUT OF STOCK" symbols next to all the good stuff, on most sites!

I will let you know my thoughts when its built, and if I do encounter any problems. Your specification looks fine and your reasonings for upgrade are the same as mine, if not back to front

I will watch and listen with baited breath..

Reading the spec sheet in the manual, it is the SiImage chip that supports RAID5. That'll be entirely software based and so use the CPU for parity calculations.

Ahh.. Software based RAID.. Hmm.. I was looking at the Adaptec solution a while back (then for a P4 system), but that was £230 just for the controller. I don't think the performance gain or peace of mind is worth 3 HDD's + extra controller. I'll buy me a DL-DVDR drive and backup my system partion to that!


Thanks to all so far.. What about O/C'ing.. What's a sensible memory make to go for - what spec? Non-stock HSF? Do the 64's respond well to brutal poking about in this department?

S.

[JimmyBoy]

why not get a 3200+ winchester?
it would easily reach 3500+ speeds, ok the multi is a tad lower but if ur lucky u could end up with a better clocker than a typical 3500+ anyway

[BlueMagician]

why not get a 3200+ winchester?
it would easily reach 3500+ speeds, ok the multi is a tad lower but if ur lucky u could end up with a better clocker than a typical 3500+ anyway

See, I really am green when it comes to AMD. I have no idea what chips have greater potential for O/C'ing, or what memory is best for this platform. I need educating. Someone please drag me away from IntHell..

S.

[MD]

I am the same I need educating, the worst part for me though is I have a mobo in the case tray sitting next to me with 2gb of nicely blue coloured ram and its just sitting there, staring at me saying use me and abuse me

m'

[BlueMagician]

I have a mobo in the case tray sitting next to me with 2gb of nicely blue coloured ram and its just sitting there, staring at me saying use me and abuse me

That IS harsh.. lol.

Next question is, if I had an extra £300 lying around (which I don't at the moment ), what would be the best bet: move up to FX55 CPU, or a second 6800GT? I'm assuming and hoping that the general concensus will go for the second 6800GT.. At least, I hope that's the way to go, seeing as I'm looking at this SLI mobo!

TIA,
S.

[StormPC]

I just built that exact system. I would suggest a non-SLI board if you will only buy 1 GFX card. Why pay for something you are not using.

That's a killer system. If you can't afford 2 6800GTs get 2 6600GTs. It will beat 1 6800 and you'll be using the SLI. Oh, and SLI ROCKS!!!

[BlueMagician]

That's a killer system. If you can't afford 2 6800GTs get 2 6600GTs.

I will ultimately, if not straight away, get 2 x 6800GT's. It's just that with that GFX SLI setup, I was worried about the CPU becoming the bottleneck, hence my questioning what would be more valuable - the CPU upgrade or the SLI.


On a side, but serious note.. Without opening a nasty can of worms here, does anyone have any opinions on how smooth the WindowsXP environment is to work with under AMD64?

I've worked with, and built Intel systems all my life - never used an AMD system for serious work - which I intend to, such as Logic Audio & Photoshop.. I've heard many people say that XP feels sluggish under AMD64, especially when multitasking, due to lack of HyperThreading etc.. is there any truth in this?


Many thanks to all,
S.

[MD]

Apparently theres going to be a AMD price drop on Monday, hence low stocks, I am trying to find out just how true this is though....

m@