final i hope

[Destroyer^]

with a roughly 500 pound budget for my gaming machine ive come up with :

Gaming build cost
AMD 64 3200 venice £111.98
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe £99.57
GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 £61.69
PNY Verto GeForce 6 6600GT PCI-E 128MB GDDR3 £100.06
Tagan TG430-U15 430W £55.17
£45.65
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro £17.57
pherifrals £8.31

Total £500

comments would be cool and also what is the best thermal paste to use for a amd 64 proccesor

[sawyen]

Get the 3200+ venice OEM if ur going to use the AC Pro 64.. U cud save like 6 quid on the mem if u get Scan value memories.. they run 3-3-3-8 at 1T, 2.5-3-2-8 1T on higher volts..

U can get away with a cheaper board if u'd drop SLI.. Then add that cash + a little extra to total up for a decent 6800GS..

[skuzgib]

Looks good. I'd have an opteron 146 rather than the venice though

[Destroyer^]

opteron? whats so beneficial over a venice? well tbh i want to get a sli board so i can get another 6600 gt or maybe in a few months sell 6600 gt for like 50-60 quid and put towards buying 2 and will the scan value ram be dual channel checked? and also doesnt the oem just come with the processor and no manual/components

[NightshadowUK]

The difference being the 1MB cache instead of the Venice's 512KB... also, the Opteron's generally overclock like crazy.

If I was you I wouldn't go near Scan's value RAM, go for Corsair's Value Select.

The OEM versions don't come with the stock heat sink & fan, I believe that to be the only difference (correct me if I'm wrong people). They may not come with a manual but why would you need one for a CPU??

[Destroyer^]

opteron is a s940 but i cant find any mobos that are s940 so i think ill stick with the venice but i will see before i buy the venice if some1 is selling a 2nd hand san diego or maybe see how much the prices have gone down for the san diego cpu and so corsair value ram is better then the geil dual channel set?

[NightshadowUK]

No no, S939 chips are available. Two examples here and here.

With regards to the RAM, basic RAM is all the same, the Corsair's just cheaper than your Geil...

[Oakleyb]

The OEM versions don't come with the stock heat sink & fan, I believe that to be the only difference (correct me if I'm wrong people). They may not come with a manual but why would you need one for a CPU??

OEM version comes with 1yr warranty, retail comes with 3yr.

[Dark Horse]

OEM version comes with 1yr warranty, retail comes with 3yr.

Is that for all AMD chips? My housemate bought a 3500+ venice oem from ebuyer about 6 months and it has started playing up but I can't find anything about how much warranty it is...

[project187]

opteron is a s940 but i cant find any mobos that are s940 so i think ill stick with the venice but i will see before i buy the venice if some1 is selling a 2nd hand san diego or maybe see how much the prices have gone down for the san diego cpu and so corsair value ram is better then the geil dual channel set?

yer i was going to build a opteron pc myself till i got some other cheaper parts as u can c in my system bit i got a gd price lol

but yer generally there is no point getting a 3200 venice when u can have the same chip for less scan 100 pounds atm for a 146 opteron 2.0 clock with twice as much cache so tbh u may aswell get one mate,i have heard that samsung value ram is good also??
go corsair though,also there is an asus board below the delux which is the an8-sli and for the system ur building u wont notice any difference between the two its still sli compatible and as the other guy said your way better off with a 6800 series the performance gap from the 6600 is huge.

[Destroyer^]

so if i got AMD 146 Opteron-UP 2.0GHz 64bit 1Mb Cache S939 *OEM it would work in a asus a8n-sli motherboard? and the arctic cooling freezer 64 pro will fit on it aswell right?

btw which thermal paste/pad is best for amd cpu?

[project187]

yes thats correct it will, erm
Akasa ShinEtsu Thermal Interface Pads provide good cooling for ever lol simalar to the amd supplied ones go for these if u plan not to remove cpu in the near future

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound goes hard after a while but provides superior cooling for a time get this if u are changing cpu in the near future or are doing some big time overclocking as you will need all the thermal help u can get otherwise go pads,
hope i have helped

[Destroyer^]

yeah you have man but ur def sure that the opteron will work on the asus a8n sli mobo? i know the mobo says a64/fx compatable but i thought that it wld of said opteron compatable aswell??

also the corsair value ram has a cl 2.5 now isnt it better to be low? im reading up on memory cuz the latency terms r a bit iffy and last but not least will the corsair value ram have been tested dual channel?

[project187]

yes it will have been, and he only reason it doesnt say that opteron compatible is that opteron are server chips and they have been made desktop compatible more recently than the board was made,my has a sticker that they put on that says opteron on it,but it will deffo work yer low the better

[Destroyer^]

k thanks for your help ill be ordering my system over the next few weeks when i get the money for xmas and work as my stsem will cost £527 which for a 18 yr old student is alot of money haha and i hope to get a 6800gs but lets see what happens

[project187]

im 18 also mate it sucks doesnt it, and i think i have been ripped off on parts so i may get me an opteron also lol