Suggestions of a Custom computer specs.

Corpfox

Corpfox

Active Member
This will be my first time building one, though, I have built some before.

Before I name out my parts and what are better usages, I don't care about any PCI-E video cards and any high techy things that are new and out there now. I'm sticking with these old parts since I only have old parts!

Motherboard
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=16165&vpn=939DUAL-SATA2&manufacture=ASRock

Power Supply
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=17550&vpn=W0101R&manufacture=THERMALTAKE

I'm having trouble picking out a CPU and a fan/heatsink fan (If required) for my parts.

- Socket 939 for AMD Athlon™ 64FX / 64X2 / 64 processors

From those 3, which are best suited for games? Primarily Counter-Strike: Source, Half Life 2, and most Steam related games.

The graphics card, I got that covered, though, I'm sticking with AGP since my $600 CDN AGP card is extremely worth it!

Here is a list, if your patient to look at all of them.

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?minorcatid=106&subminorcatid=24

Anything close to 3 Ghz since that is the maximum requirements for my games, unfortunately.

The fan, however, I'm not sure if I need it or it is required, if so, which, from the manufacturer; Thermaltake, is the best one?

Had a long discussion with Talon and WOW, it was long!
 
AMD 64 3200 or 3500 venice core, or 3700, 4000 san diego core. If you have extra cash you could also look at the X2's and the FX series too.

As for heatsink, any decent product from thermaltake gets the job done. If you have the space you could go for Zalman, but they're pretty bulky.
 
personally i would use newegg or zipzoomfly, never heard of this distributer...

plus that motherboard has a uli chipset, im betting it wont come close to the wonderful nforce4, in terms of performance

if you can give us your current parts, like what video card you currently have, we can better asses what you would want to buy
 
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here is a listing of nforce4 w/ agp if you really want to stick with your vid card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&description=&srchInDesc=&minPrice=&maxPrice=

make sure to look up your card to see if it is compatable, else look at another chipset :(

for power i really like the enermax liberties, i have a 500w powering my dual core, 2gb of ram, 4 hard drives, 2 dvd-burners
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817194002
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817194003
 
Newegg doesnt ship to Canada...

Corp, probably all you need to do is pick up a 3500+ for $140, since AMD slashed thier 939 single core prices. You can go higher of course.

Pick youself up a new Mid size ATX case (10 bay is average) and some case fans. If by chance CPU runs a bit hot, you can pick up a new HS and fan later.
 
if you are going to upgrade cpu/mobo and ram..you relaly should upgrade to a pci-e video card..otherwise you're jsut wasting money.
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Err...:mad:

I'm using my exisiting old cpu's parts into the new one. Even if I wanted to get new parts, I don't want them, I'd rather waste everything up the new board with my old parts.

Old Parts

40X CD-RW Rom
16X DVD-Rom
80 GIG Hard Drive
Disk Drive with expansion slots
ATI Radeon X800 XT PE AGP Video Card
1 x 2 GIG Corsair Memory Ram

With those old parts, and my new parts, which are compatible, will built me up a great PC for me. After all, I always wanted a Athlon 64 or higher due to its nature of high performance gaming.

I even compared to my X800 XT PE from most X850's and up to X1600, the only difference is its PCI-E and 512 MB, the other stats are equal or slightly low/high. I don't care about PCI-E and its video cards.

Besides, since the board comes with both AGP and PCI-E, I can switch them over if I had a PCI-E Video Card. And since the latest and best are higher ones, I can always get it later till the price drops down.

And yes, even with Nvidia has over 1,000 one of two stats, I really don't care.
 
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check to see if your card is compatable with the xgp port on some of the nforce4 boards that have it.. the uli chipset will probably be a sloth.
 
Purchased

Motherboard
CPU
Casing with PSU & Fans
Operating System

Had to order the Case, so I hope I will get it soon.

Overall, its gonna be a awesome PC! :D

Just one thing I'm not certain, what is a Future Port?

Future CPU Port: Supports CPU upgrade from AMD K8 939-Pin CPU to AM2 940-Pin CPU through AM2 CPU Board (Optional)

PS: No congrats required.
 
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Look at the CAS latency and speed(mhz), I have some OCZ Gold in my machine (2x1GB). It overclocks well but wont run at the advertised low latency at 5mhz over stock. I had mine running around 550 once, then i decided that a lower cas was better for my usage and worked my OC and multiplier to bring 400mhz on my ram.


Stats wise it looks like: Performance -> Special Ops -> Gold -> Platinum
With the platinum being the best
 
I'm not a genius when it comes to computers, but I do know that if you're going to make an expensive purchase, do NOT cut corners. Make sure you get somewhere near the best. And make sure it'll handle Vista easily if you plan on using it for Windows.
 
I like the gold, the platinum was a bit much for what you get, but having cl2 on your memory is a drastic improvement. If your going to get ocz get gold or platinum, probably gold.
 
vibrokatana said:
check to see if your card is compatable with the xgp port on some of the nforce4 boards that have it.. the uli chipset will probably be a sloth.
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I have the ASROCK 939DUAL-SATA2 as well, and it's not a sloth. I usually perform better than my friend with the Nforce 4 based ASUS A8N-SLI Premium. We both have AMD64 CPUs, well, mine is an Opteron, but same chip basically. It's a great little board, you can find it for a good price, and it has compatability for AM2 chips (try to compete with that!!) so it's good for a while. Great board to hold you over through upgrades and chipset changes.

BTW, I have a hard time finding Ubuntu linux drivers, so if you are using Unix, try a different distro.
 
Taliesin said:
BTW, I have a hard time finding Ubuntu linux drivers, so if you are using Unix, try a different distro.
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Yet another reason I went for the nforce...

I just have qualms about using unknown chipsets, either the company will up and leave you in the gutter, or will be bought out by a bigger company and leave you without support...
 
If your going to get ocz get gold or platinum, probably gold.
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What about Titanium?

Its only a $1 cheaper than the Platinum. :p

I have the ASROCK 939DUAL-SATA2 as well, and it's not a sloth. I usually perform better than my friend with the Nforce 4 based ASUS A8N-SLI Premium. We both have AMD64 CPUs, well, mine is an Opteron, but same chip basically. It's a great little board, you can find it for a good price, and it has compatability for AM2 chips (try to compete with that!!) so it's good for a while. Great board to hold you over through upgrades and chipset changes.

BTW, I have a hard time finding Ubuntu linux drivers, so if you are using Unix, try a different distro.
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Heh, the same huh...Taliesin...

But then your Opteron would primarily be a server-based computer.
The AM2 chip only makes the FSB X2, not really worth it.
I chose the board primarily because I have been looking for one that had AGP and PCI-E slots.
Secondary, I have a X800 XT PE AGP Video Card, which I think no one here has. It has given me over 150 Frames Per Second on CS:S on high settings using a Athlon 64 3800+, cpu, compared to my old Athlon 2800+, that gives me less than 50 Frames Per Second on low settings. Therefore, this is a great motherboard for me.

Though, I'm very disappointed that I can't install Starcraft! It freezes at 95%! Errr....
 
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Corpfox said:
Its only a $1 cheaper than the Platinum. :p
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there practically the same stick, I think they are in the middle of changing some names, i know the ops is new.

Corpfox said:
But then your Opteron would primarily be a server-based computer.
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I have a opteron in my gaming machine, same as the x2s but it has twice the cache for the same price range, and is of higher quality silicon, which allows me to overclock it up to 150% over stock with air cooling.

You cant go wrong with server procs, in general the companies usually will have better quality control and use better materials for their server chips.
 
vibrokatana said:
I have a opteron in my gaming machine, same as the x2s but it has twice the cache for the same price range, and is of higher quality silicon, which allows me to overclock it up to 150% over stock with air cooling.

You cant go wrong with server procs, in general the companies usually will have better quality control and use better materials for their server chips.
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly, Vibro. I run at a steady 3.1 Ghz with the stock AMD64 cooler and have never had overclocking issues with it.

I bought the ASROCK for the same reason, Corpfox. I have an AGP card, couldn't afford a good PCI-E card yet, and wanted something to help me with the crossover to Socket 939 from Socket 462. AM2 doesn't impress me yet, but once DDR2-800 comes down in price, it will.

For the money, why not look at Ballistix DDR from Micron? It's a good company, and good RAM. Plus, you can usually find it on sale somewhere. I bought 1GB (2x512) for $89 on Newegg a while back.
 
lol, that's a good deal but only $10-20 off from the other guys... Corpfox, if you choose to go through Corsair or Crucial performance RAM, let me know and I'll find my employee pricing on them for you.
 
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