A64 costs

[blockers]

Hi.

I fear that my N7F-S may have gone bang (http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=52881) so i wondering how much it will cost me to get an A64, HSF, motherboard?

I have been out of the loop on mobo's/A64, so dont really know to much, just venice, san diego, winchester, newcastle (socket 754) are words that relate to chips but have no idea what motherboards are good or anything.

The computer is used for a little bit of overclocking, gaming, basic computer stuff; internet, music, burning cd's, DVD's.

Im not getting a new graphics card, so i would need an AGP slot; is it possible to get to a PCI express slot as well? so it is slightly future proofed?

Thanks
Will.

[just_laze]

You could pick up a 3000+ (venice) with a HSF for £100 and for your board i would recommend this but i am not sure who stocks it but would imagine it would float around the £65 mark.

I think this would be a perfect combination for what you require, the processor is powerful enough to do everything you mention at a respectable speed, the board supports both AGP and PCI-E without an impact on performance and it also has support for AMD's future socket.

[Supershanks]

just_laze,
good recomendation
But am unsure how

it also has support for AMD's future socket.

can apply.
Re M2 Q3'05 AMD Roadmap; DDR2 and New Sockets for AMD which sees the adoption of DDR incorporating a move to 940 pin CPU from 939

luck

[Shinobi]

I don't think your NF7 has gone bang. Sounds like a possible corrupt bios to me, its an easy fix.

[BUFF]

That Asrock ULi 1695 board is £50 at Microdirect.

[Shinobi]

If you go Socket 754 then it can be very cheap. You can get a DFI Lanparty NF3 250 GB for around £60 now(best NF3 board out there ) and can get a Socket 754 Sempron cheap(some of those overclock like crazy).

Do you want it for overclocking? If so, the DFI would definitely be the perfect choice.

[FatBoab]

I just upgraded myself (well, my PC obviously). I managed to get a new A64 3000+ for 70 notes on ebay and paired this with an MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum (Skt 939) from Lowest-On-Web for 80 quid. So 150 quid delivered all in.

Just built the system yesterday, and am about to play HL2 on it for the first time (got a Connect3D X800XL as well). All seems to be going well so far. (Can't say I'm too happy with L.O.W though -- motherboard arrived bare, no manual, or cables. They've said they'll send me them separately, and I was able to get the system up and running by downloading drivers from msi.com.tw, but that's not the point...)

fb

[plesuvius]

For what its worth Fatboab you got a graded MSI product there, maybe an RMA replacement which has been resold. These are working tested but not necessarily new.....

MSI UK may be able to help you with cables and accessories and it shouldnt cost too much. Drop their UK support an email you should be hearing from them. Nice prices btw!!

[FatBoab]

For what its worth Fatboab you got a graded MSI product there, maybe an RMA replacement which has been resold. These are working tested but not necessarily new.....

Yeah, I figured as much. I've had an email from L.O.W support saying they'll send me on all the other bits and pieces, so I'll give it a couple of days and see what happens.

fb

[just_laze]

I believe an add-in card featuring the M2 socket plugs into one of the boards PCI-E x1 slots Supershanks.

laze.

[pengellyd]

When upgrading to Athlon 64 i went with the ASRock 939Dual-SATA2. It's a very good board for the price and allowed me to continue using my ATi 9800 Pro. Overall it cost me £120 (Athlon 64 3000 OEM £70 from one of the scan todayonly offers and the board for £50 from tekheads).

You can now get the board from Scan for £42.59. And for a cpu you could get one of the Athlon 64 from £99 or one of the OEM opterons from £93. Can you use your current heatsink and fan on socket 939?

[aidanjt]

All this socket changing is exactly what is discouraging me from AMD, and I'm sure it must be annoying motherboard manufacturers something awful.

[kalniel]

Socket 939 is actually part of AMD's program that guarentees component availablity, so it's going to be around a while. Socket is perhaps less important than chipset regarding compatability - just look at intel - the last few chips sets have only been good for one or two generations of CPU, depsite the socket being the same.

By the time AM2 processors come out, most of the components you would put in a 939 motherboard would be out of date anyway - DDR ram, gfx card etc.

But yes, the asrock dual sata2 board is great, about 45 quid, and has a special slot for M2 socket expansion - this will work through a seperate plugin card and does not take up any PCI or PCIe slots (there's a dedicated M2 slot for it). How this will work with DDR2 ram and what not I've no idea, or whether it will produce any performance set backs. But it's certainly more forward looking than anything else.

[dannyboy83]

I recommend the A8N-SLI mobo, it comes in three flavours:

Bog-Standard - What I have
Deluxe, with more bits to it
Premium, with heatsinks/heatpipes instead of fans on northbridge.

I got me a A64 3200 for a little over £100