My (soon to be) New machine

[Jarred]

ok, heres what I got so far with my new machine, please let me know if I'm paying to much for something, but keep in mind I don't have to pay taxes on any of these items, so... some of it might break even.



Beige Samsung SM-352NENB Combo Drive: 52x32x52x CD-RW & 16X DVD-ROM Combo w/ Software, OEM

Antec P160WF Aluminum Mid-Tower ATX Case w/ Side Window, Front USB, LED Temp. Display

AMD Athlon 64 3400+ 2.2 GHz Microprocessor, Socket 754, 64bit, 1MB L2 Cache, ADA3400BOX = 445.00


Maxtor 7Y250P0 MaXLine Plus II 250GB 8MB Buffer Hard Drive, 7200RPM, ATA 133, OEM = 189.00


Western Digital (WD) Caviar 80GB 7200RPM EIDE Hard Drives, OEM
62.99


Silver Thermaltake XaserIII Office Keyboard & Mouse Combo, P/N: A1806
26.00


Chaintech ZNF3-150 ZENITH Socket 754 ATX Mobo, nForce3, DDR400, AGP8X, SATA RAID, USB2.0, GB LAN, 7.1ch Audio w/SPDIF. = 156.00


2 Samsung DDR 400MHz 1GB (PC 3200) 184Pin Computer System Memory Module, Non-ECC, OEM = 492.00

Subtotal 1598.97


I couldn't find 1gb sticks of DDR433mhz, do thy make them? because the mobo only has 3 slots for ram, seems kinda silly, but doens't the amd64 support like 4gigs of ram? whats the point if they don't make mobo's that can support that? am I missin somethin? !! :P

[Viral]

Opteron supports basically as much ram as you want.. it all depends on how many slots the motherboard manufacturers can fit on the board. This is because of their use of registered memory which allows them to add a heap of RAM without any performance penalties.

S939 A64's shoudl support more RAM and have 4 slots.

Have fun with your rig, it looks great, but one thing.

The nforce3 150 chipset isn't a good performer. If you like what chaintech offers, get the new ZNF3 250 ZENITH.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-152-042&depa=0

It cost's a bit more, but has a locked PCI/AGP bus for better overclocking, Gb LAN and firewall and native SATA. Also full speed HT for better performance.

If you want to save money there is the VNF3 250

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-152-043&depa=0

From what i can see it just doesn't have the same cooling and no gigabit LAN + firewall...

There is also the gigabyte for all that the chaintech offers minus the high price

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-128-241&depa=0

But it's not in stock right now.

[nvnews-reader]

Why not go with the 939pin A64? Its dual channel memory would give you much higher memory bandwidth than 754 even with lower clocked memory. (Which is usually cheaper.)

Also since 754 is single channel you can always add another 512MB chip to your setup without affecting performance. And 1.5 Gigs should hold you over for a couple years.

As for total memory allowed, do regular versions of windows support more than 4 gigs or do you need a server version? I’m not sure.

[Jarred]

Why not go with the 939pin A64? Its dual channel memory would give you much higher memory bandwidth than 754 even with lower clocked memory. (Which is usually cheaper.)

Also since 754 is single channel you can always add another 512MB chip to your setup without affecting performance. And 1.5 Gigs should hold you over for a couple years.

As for total memory allowed, do regular versions of windows support more than 4 gigs or do you need a server version? I’m not sure.

are the 939's out yet?

thanx a bunch Viral!

[nvnews-reader]

are the 939's out yet?

thanx a bunch Viral!


I don't know I thought they were supposed to be out in June. But I haven't been following too closely.

[Jarred]

I don't know I thought they were supposed to be out in June. But I haven't been following too closely.

ok, then maybe it'll work out perfectly thats when I plan to buy the machine

[Viral]

The only problem is with supply of the things (S939 A64's).

Until Late Q3-Q4 they are going to be in fairly low supply. This will mean slightly higher prices.

Also the motherboards may take a while to hit the market.

If you plan on upgrading to a top-end A64 in a month or two, then wait for S939. If you want to upgrade to something slightly cheaper and or sooner, then buy now. With the S939 launch there also should be a price drop amongst the current A64's. That's probably worth waiting for alone.