Building a new PC..... Thoughts please

OK im looking to replace my existing setup with a brand new machine, i've built several PC's before and (only slightly) messed around with overclocking, heres my ideas for a system so far.

AMD Opteron 146 (Prob clocked to 2.5 or somewhere thereabouts)
DFI Lanparty NF4 SLI (not sure which model to go for)
Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX (2x1GB)
Nvidia 256MB 7600GT GDDR3 PCI-E (Updated)
Unknown Case (as of yet)
500-600W PSU


The other components ie monitor and HDD I can port from my old PC so I was just wondering what anyone thinks to this configuation, does anyone have anything similar and what sort of performance they get? The total I have so far for the above components is around £550 - £600 mark

Also if anyone could advise me on the motherboard, I know the DFI LanParty NF4 SLI-DR EXPERT is a great motherboard but not sure If i'd need that many overclocking/ features.

I'd use the PC for playing games (battlefield 2, fear etc), internet browsing, programming and for entertainment (ie intend to install Media Center as I have on my existing PC)


Oh and one more thing lol, I'm gunna take my time with this so instead of buying and building these now would it be advisable to wait till june for AMD's AM2 socket to support DDR2?

Thanks all.

According to most sources the only benefit of AM2 is that you can use DDR2 memory, so the only performance gain you are likely to see is around 5% over what current AMD cpu's can offer, so its not worth waiting unless you are desperate to use DDR2. Anyway from what i've read the opterons are exceptionally good value for money at the moment, because of their capabillity to overclock, from what other people have posted you should be able to reach in excess of 2.5Ghz.

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Originally Posted by kasavien

According to most sources the only benefit of AM2 is that you can use DDR2 memory, so the only performance gain you are likely to see is around 5% over what current AMD cpu's can offer, so its not worth waiting unless you are desperate to use DDR2. Anyway from what i've read the opterons are exceptionally good value for money at the moment, because of their capabillity to overclock, from what other people have posted you should be able to reach in excess of 2.5Ghz.

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Yeah my pals got a 146 and it runs really well without being clocked, from what i've read with adequate cooling it can get to around 2.7Ghz I think. Didnt realise the performance increase was that little from DDR to DDR2 so with that i'll prob stick to the opteron and DDR in terms of value for money.

I may be completely wrong on this, but the only major change on the AM2 processors is the support for DDR2 and the only reason they are waiting till june to release is that DDR2 800 isn't widely available till then. Also i don't think there will be a big performance increase from AMD processors untill the back end of this year.

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Originally Posted by PHTC

AMD Opteron 146 (Prob clocked to 2.5 or somewhere thereabouts)
DFI Lanparty NF4 SLI (not sure which model to go for)
Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX (2x1GB)
Nvidia 256MB 6800GS GDDR3 PCI-E
Antec Sonata II Case

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All seems good - I just wonder whether the time for buying a 6800GS has passed now? The 7600GT has just been released, beats the 6800GS in every benchmark, and costs £128 from Dabs which will be the same price as the cheapest 6800GS.

well, 7600GT will wipe any 6800s floor.. even theh mighty (now not so mighty) 6800Ultra..

The won't be much advantage to socket AM2 at first, but basically it will render socket 939 a dead platform.

If Conroe is as good as the initial hype suggests, then AMD will have to do something about it. That response will be on AM2.

I don't think the new AM2 platform is the response to conroe, as it only has ddr2 support added. I'm sure i read somewhere that AMD will be releasing a new socket possibly with >1000 pins later on, I'm guessing this may be the reply to conroe. But again i may be mistaken :D

How does the 7600GS compare to the 6800GS?

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Originally Posted by kasavien

I don't think the new AM2 platform is the response to conroe, as it only has ddr2 support added. I'm sure i read somewhere that AMD will be releasing a new socket possibly with >1000 pins later on, I'm guessing this may be the reply to conroe. But again i may be mistaken :D

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Socket AM2 is AMDs response to DDR2 memory.
The point is, any new toys will not come out on S939.

The 1209 pin socket is called Socket-F. Possibly for "F thats a lot of pins" :)
It is a server socket for Opterons, hence the socket F roadmap shows quad core next year!

Although the 6800GS was sort of less than a 6800GT, it had far higher core and memory clock speeds that meant it was great.
The 7600GS however has both less pipelines AND a slower clockspeed compared to the 7600GT (although don't take my word for it,

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* 7600GS - 8 пиксельных и 3 вершинных конвейера, частоты 500/1000, шина памяти 128-бит.
* 7600GT - 12 пиксельных и 5 вершинных конвейеров, частоты 500/1000, шина памяти 128-бит.

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:))
They did get the 7600GT speeds wrong there, unless my Russian is poo. GT speeds are 560 / 1400.

Anyway, the point is, the 7600GS will be lucky to be 2/3 as good as the GT. The 6800GS will be (i believe) a little better in outright performance, although the 7600GS will be more power efficient & a smaller card physically.

You are probably going to need a better PSU than the 1 in the Sonatat II if you go with the DFI

Thanks for the replies everyone, i've looked into the 7600GT and although it has the same number of pipes the 7600 has a higher clock speed (if my source is correct lol) so think i'll sub the 7600GT inplace of the 6800GS, (edited original post) thanks for the reply BUFF regarding the PSU, i think you might be right, the one with the Sonata is 450W and looking at reviews I think 500-600W might be better in the long run, so will prob buy a case and a PSU seperately.

Anyone know of the differences between the Lan Party motherboards, i've found a few using the same chipset ranging from £100 - £150 and as far as i can tell the main differences are the CPU voltages the motherboards capable of, so what voltage would be necessary to clock the opteron 146 to say 2.7Ghz?

when it comes to overclocking its all about the luck of the draw. Without a doubt on avg the opt146's are good clockers but the voltage required for each are different. Some users have high speeds such as 2.7ghz with stock and some needed to raise it to about 1.5v

The main difference between the DFI mobos is £100 is the basic ultra 4, then you got SLI, then you got the duluxe which has more features such as more sata connections. Either of these will give you the options to increase the vcore, I personally wouldn't try to push your new opt146 too much, so a safe vcore which peeps have seemed to stuck to is 1.5v

I am in the same boat about to upgrade whole rig, using same mobo and cpu as you, fingers crossed we both get lucky with the opt146 :)

My Opteron is getting 2.65 Ghz (stable) on stock voltage, with a slow spinning (& quiet) Arctic Cooler keeping temps at 34 idle and 40 to 45 under load. Am very happy with that.
As for the PSU, with your currently suggested setup an Antec PSU 450W would be more than enough, espcially with a 7600GT which is (i gather) not a great energy sucker (doesnt even need additional PCI-E connector). That said, if you are resolute that a future setup will be an energy guzzler, you could get more. It just seems a shame to not get such a good case as the Sonata II - my mate has it, and in terms of value for money puts my P180 to shame.

Try and find out the stepping of the 146 before buying; a good one will get you past 2.7. Make sure you get a good cooler such as a Thermalright, Big TT or similar to get the most out of it.

I've just checked with the online PSU checker and from what that says the 450W should be fine (although this is prob not very accurate lol) I might try and find out the rail values for the sonata II because of its value for money, and work it out that way.

Again thanks for the advice with the cooler, can anyone recommend a decent, yet silent socket 939 cooler then?