building a new system

[baz1985]

Gunno start sorting my pc

Gigabyte GA-K8NSPRO
Athlon 64 3400+ Socket 754
3GB DDR 2 PC 3200
Nvidia GE force 6600GT

Any thoughts. I'm not sure about cpu, should I go for dual core 4400+ for an extra £240. I dont want to spend anything on it for 3-4 yrs, just thinking that processor will be really outdated then.

[docevi1]

I'd argue that £240 would be money well spent if you want to future proof your machine, but then I'd also argue that you'd be wasting £240 for at least another 4-6months whilst products that support the dual cores become more prevalent (unless you use stuff like Photoshop which has versions out already).

Don't the motherboards that support the 64bit chips also support the dual core jobies? Might be an idea to simply get the cheaper, slower CPU and upgrade when the price drops.

As for the rest, 3Gb of RAM nice!

[flossythepig]

Dual core are 939 pin so different motherboard required. 754 pin is being relegated to to the budget Sempron chips.

Hugh

[Zod]

I would definitely go for Socket 939.

[robbieduncan]

Socket 939 is the only sensible choice. Also if you are not going to buy new hardware for 3-4 years you might want to consider getting a 7800 based GeForce card to give you that extra bit of go...

[docevi1]

my 3500+ is on socket 939 - weren't they getting rid of 754 in favour of 939 across the board?

[baz1985]

many thanks for the comments.

Cant quite stretch to dual core. So going for 3700+ (939)at £80 more and MSI motherboard. I would have gone for Powercolor X850XT platinum but at £370 that would take up 50% of my budget, anyhowz it should take FM05 to a new level in terms of speed.

[[k]ar|]

I notice that this is going to be a games machine, but you seem to have skimped in the wrong areas (graphics), and massively over-specced others (memory). As mentioned above, buying socket 939 is the way to go, but also note that DDR2 memory is not compatible with the Athlon platform. So far as dual-core is concerned, this is only of benefit when extensively multi-tasking - for games, single-core is in the lead at the moment in terms of pure horsepower. Note that the flagship AMD gaming chip, the FX57, is single-core.

Assuming that you have a £750 budget for the mobo, cpu, RAM and graphics card, may I suggest this...

Asus A8n-E nForce4 Ultra mobo - £76
Athlon64 4000(socket 939) - £260
2 x Crucial 1Gb dual-channel RAM kit - £140
Leadtek GeForce 7800GT graphics - £288

That's only £14 over budget - although you could lose 1Gb of the ram to bring it in under target and with a bit of cash to spare for new drives or something. The prices are only approximate, but can be found on www.scan.co.uk and www.overclockers.co.uk
Hope this helps!

[k]

>> Edited by [k]ar| on Monday 5th September 20:50

[robdickinson]

1GB mem is fine for 99% of games, so is an AMD A64 3000 or up.

socket 939 is the way to go, and 2*512mb mem will do, dont be fooled with the super duper quick low latency mega fast ram unless you plan to overclock.

Do get a decent heatsink and cooler, the stock retail ones are ok but noisy.

[baz1985]

Thanks for all the advice.

Will have a think bout graphics, but I only play Champ Man type stuff, perhaps I should grow up!

Baz

[rsvmilly]

baz1985 said:

Thanks for all the advice. Will have a think bout graphics, but I only play Champ Man type stuff, perhaps I should grow up! Baz

In which case, save your money for cars and buy a 486