First build - mobo, cpu & ram questions

[Gameforce]

Hello all,

I finally have the funds to build my new system, but before I spend the money, I want to make sure I'm buying the right components for my needs. The PC will be used primarily for gaming (mostly Everquest 2 if that makes any difference) but will also be used for general purposes such as browsing the web, listening to music and the such. I don't intend to do any overclocking, but thats not to say that I won't down the road when I have a better understanding of it. The following are the components that I already have for the build:

Chuntex 19" Monitor
Mouse
Keyboard
Altec Lansing Speakers
Antec TruePower 2.0 TP2-550 EPS12V ATX12V 550W PSU
Maxtor Ultra Series 100GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive part # L01M100

Here is what I am looking at to complete the build:

Case: Thermaltake SHARK VA7000BWA
Mobo: MSI K8N Diamond Plus Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16 ATX AMD
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Manchester ADA4200BVBOX
RAM: CORSAIR XMS 1GB DDR 400 (PC 3200) CMX1024-3200C2PRO
Video card: eVGA e-GeForce 7900 GT CO

First off, my current PC uses an ASUS board (the A7V8X I believe) and I have to say, that board made an ASUS fan out of me. Now the reason I'm eyeing that MSI board is because the ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe had a couple bitter reviews on Newegg.com. Is there anyone that has either of these boards that can comment on them to help give me further insight?

Also, while I'm talking about motherboards, If I decide against running 2 video cards, am I pissing some of my money away going with a board with the nForce4 SLI X16 chipset? I should also note that upgrade ability is important, that being said, would I be wise to wait for AMD's new socket to come out? (I believe it will be available in the next couple of weeks or so)

Now on to the CPU, Is it really worth the extra cash to go with the Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Toledo over the Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Manchester for the higher L2 cache? (about $100 more on Newegg) Money isn't a major issue here, it's just the 4400 had some so so reviews on Newegg and I don't know if the performance will warrant the extra money spent. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

Next, on to the RAM. I chose Corsair because they have been around awhile and seem to be the "industry leader" when it comes to memory. The particular stick I chose has a CAS latency of 2, now I have a very rough understanding of this, this means something along the lines of it takes 2 clock cycles to do something right? What ram timings should I be looking for in a gaming rig?

Thank you for taking the time to read this and thank you in advance for your reply's, suggestions, and constructive criticism.

Gameforce

[flanzig1]

The 4200+ should be fine. You probably could get by using the Value Select ram and not see any slowness if dollars are a concern.

[blue60007]

Make sure you get a dual channel kit. (2 512 MB sticks) Dual channel should help some.

Timings are going to make very little difference, especially with the way the AMD memory controller works. That shouldn't be a concern unless you are worried about every last 1% of performance. A dual channel kit with CAS latency of 2.5 would be faster than a single CAS 2 stick just from the extra bandwidth.

The ASUS A8N-SLI (and 32 version) are very good boards. If you aren't going to run dual video cards, then yeah, you would be wasting extra money on the x16 board. You could save some money by just getting the regular SLI board. With that extra money you could go with 2 gigs of RAM, which would be more helpful than a board with dual full x16 slots.

Also, while that's a good PSU, you might want to err on the safe side and go with one of the PSUs on the SLI-Certified list for the 7900GTXs since you have the overclocked version of the 7900GT.
http://www.slizone.com/object/slizon..._powersupplies

Now, if you aren't going to go with dual cards then save the money and keep the currently selected PSU.

[freakitchen]

To add to what's already been said, I'd be getting 2GB of memory for a gaming build today. Newer games have started to demand that amount to run on the top graphical settings.

FK

[Gameforce]

Thank you very much for the feedback. A couple more ram questions for you guys. I want to go dual channel as suggested. For gaming purposes, what features should I be looking for in memory? Registered, ECC, Unbuffered? The reason I am asking is because the differences between the 3 kits I'm looking at now are these features. (The last one has different timing as well)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145509

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145503

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145587

What is my best bet here?

I'm not hell bent on Corsair either guys, if someone has a suggestion, lay it on me! And while I'm not really that worried about money, I'd rather not spend more than $400 on 2 gigs of memory.

Thanks again

P.S. What is the difference between DDR 400 (PC3200) and DDR2 400 (PC3200)?

After some web surfing and reading the following article, I have one more question:

http://www.corsairmicro.com/main/trg-reg.html

At the bottom of the page it says "Gaming Systems: Registered memory not needed, may actually degrade performance slightly." Then a little lower it says "DDR Systems: Use registered modules if you will be installing more than two DIMMs."

So if I want to add more ram down the road, I should get registered to start and take the performance hit till I'm ready to upgrade?

[blue60007]

The last one looks like the one you want. You don't want ECC, that's only for servers.

Actually:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145575

Looks like its cheaper than Value Select (after rebate).

What is the difference between DDR 400 (PC3200) and DDR2 400 (PC3200)?

One is DDR1 and the other is DDR2. Performance wise there isn't any difference really (the DDR2 400 might be slightly slower due to higher timings). DDR2 533 is about the equivalant of DDR400 (DDR2 has higher speeds but also higher timings/latencies so it ends up balancing out). Also, DDR2 uses a 240-pin slot design while DDR uses 184 pins, thus the two are not compatible.

Just use Unbuffered...I'm not sure what the compatiblity of Registered RAM is or even what it's function is.