First Time Builder (Comments greatly appreciated)

[anomie]

Seems like this is a good time to put together a new computer. I've done various upgrades before, but never put it all together myself, but I'm interested in the challenge.

I'd like to consider myself a gamer but I've been struggling to enjoy myself with the lowest settings on this p4 2.4.

The AMD price drop has me inspired, but so does the hype around the performance of this Core Duo processor. I constructed two parts lists based on Amd and Core Duo that I believe are around the same price range, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are massive compatibility mistakes with my configurations. I'll only be keeping the monitor (Dell 24" Widescreen), keyboard, mouse, speakers, one other 300 gb hard drive, and floppy drive from the old system. I'll also be picking up Windows XP Home Edition unless anyone knows any great benefit with the media center edition.

Amd $1095

Motherboard

ASUS A8N-E Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $87.98

Processor
AMD ATHLON 64 X2 4600+ (ADA4600BVBOX) DUAL CORE W/512KB X 2 CACHE 90NM (MANCHESTER) 64-BIT SOCKET 939 RETAIL BOXED W/COOLING FAN $242

Ram
CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail $207

Hard Drive
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM $99

Video Card
eVGA 256-P2-N563-AX Geforce 7900GT CO 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail$240

Power Supply
Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 ATX12V 550W Power Supply 115/230 V UL, TUV, CB, FCC CLASS B, CUL - Retail $80

Optical
LITE-ON Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 5X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache ATAPI/E-IDE 16X DVD±R DVD Burner W/ LightScribe and 5X DVD-RAM Write - OEM $33

Case
Thermaltake Tsunami VA3000SWA Silver All aluminum made Modern Dream Tower Chassis Computer Case - Retail $106


Intel Core 2 Duo $1225-1345

Motherboard

ASUS P5W DH DELUXE/WIFI-AP Socket T (LGA 775) Intel 975X ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $270

OR
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $150

Processor

Intel® Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe Processor 2.4GHz, 1066FSB, LGA775, 4MB Cache Retail $340

Ram

CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Unbuffered DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail $177

Hard Drive, Video Card, Power Supply, Optical, Case
Same as AMD setup

Thank you for anyone that does help me out, I greatly appreciate it. Oh, and if you believe there is any way to save money with either of these configurations without greatly reducing performance, my wife would be a lot less angry with me if she found out the cost, thanks.

[Kov-Ice]

Welcome to PCMech! Just glancing at your parts, it appears you've done your homework in choosing good quality manufacturers. I'm not sure the best way to go, but I've heard alot of noise about the Conroe being the way to go in processors.

[glc]

You should wait a few weeks before pulling the trigger on a Core 2 Duo build. The 965 chipset has no native IDE support, and the 3rd party controller on the P5B and other 965 boards is having problems getting an IDE optical drive to boot. You are better off with a 975X board, and it's gonna take a little time for those to catch up. Right now I understand the Gigabyte is the best bet, which I don't totally trust.

If you want SATA II support on that AMD but don't need SLI, get the A8N-E. You aren't going to get 1.5gb transfer in the real world, much less 3.0, by the way. Those are maximum instantaneous burst speed ratings.

[Mr.Ferrari]

Some people have been experiancing issues with the ide controller and some have been doing great with it.

But if you are going to go 965, skip the p5b and get the even cheaper gigabyte ds3.
It has been beating the currently best boards asus p5wdh ~270 in every single benchmark clock for clock, and has been showing to be the best overclocker on the market right now. Best part is its 144-150 bucks. In the past I wouldve never recommended a gigabyte board. It seems as though they might be changing.

Once again, Ich8 is a brand new chipset, its always gonna be trouble when you start playing with something brand new. Unlike ICH7/R which has had a pretty long while to mature. So its your call here. Depends on what you are willling to sacrifice and how much you are willing to sacrifice for.

If you need a dual card crossfire configuration. And want a 975 chipset, go for the current best in this class, asus p5wdh.

It seems as though right now, the thing to do best with conroe is the thing that everyone would hate to do. And that is wait. Were still not sure how any of the boards will perform when put through some longer term testing. Im not saying you should cancel the build. Just wait until a few normal people get a hold of retail chips.

And everything else looks great.
I know you said your not going sli. But jsut a word to caution, intel's chipset currently dont support sli, only crossfire.

[anomie]

it says the a8n-e only supports the athlon 64 fx and athlon 64 processor but I am looking at the amd athlon 64 x2 4600+. Is that motherboard compatible, or is my concern about the Gb/s unimportant and I could just go with any regular non-SLI motherboard that supports this processor?

Also, I agree that it's risky to jump on a new product, but do you think that the potential of this new product is worth the wait? I'm under the impression that given my five plus year system I'm using now, I'm going to notice a drastic difference either way, but I'd hate to spend nearly the same amount of money for less computing power.

[Mr.Ferrari]

Im not sure on proc compatibilty as im a intel guy. Dont wanna give a answer then regret it .

In my opinon conroe is totally worth it. It has been pushed back to august 7th due to *what some think* to be Apple's pushing intel to shove the date so it wont hurt their Powermac G5 core 2 duo release. A 186-220 dollar e6300 will beat many of the x2's at stock 1.86ghz speeds. With a mild overclock of 2.4ghz it will beat amd's top of the line fx-62. Which is i think around 800-1000?

Youve waited 5 years, no hurt in waiting half a month or so.

But its totally your call dude. Your money, and you should decide on how to spend it.

On the sata I cant really say. Wait for a second opinion onthat.

[anomie]

thanks for the tip on that about crossfire, didn't realize.

I haven't ordered anything yet, doesn't even look very possible to order the core 2 duos, all out of stock as far as I can see.

I guess the one thing at this point that would steer me towards AMD is not having to worry about bug issues, especially since I'm a first time builder.

[anomie]

yeah you're definitely right about the wait also, it surprises me that amd hasn't cut their prices even more, given the relative price vs performance ratio

[Mr.Ferrari]

If you dont want any bugs I would go asus p5wdh. And if you really cant wait until release date of conroe, I would get a cheap cpu to hold me over. But thats a lil extreme lol.
A lil expensive too as newegg and others are price gouging on the motherboards. I emphasize newegg. I know one or 2 place where you can get it for 244.

Gigabyte ds3. As far as whoever has it. Has been doing great. As long as you get a sata hard drive. I really dont think you should be having *TOO* many problems. Once again your choice.

[glc]

The A8N-E supports all the X2 processors.

Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 3800+ revE4(Socket939) ALL
1007

Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 3800+ revE6(Socket939) ALL
1007

Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4200+ revE4(Socket939) ALL
1004

Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4200+ revE6(Socket939) ALL
1006

Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4400+ revE6(110W Socket939) ALL
1004

Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4400+ revE6(89W Socket939) ALL
1010

Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4600+ revE4(Socket939) ALL
1004

Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4600+ revE6(Socket939) ALL
1006

Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4800+ (Socket939) ALL
1004

[anomie]

thank you GLC

[anomie]

am I correct in thinking that if I choose intel and the p5w dh motherboard, I should get an ati card instead since I could use crossfire if I wanted down the road?

something like this ?

Connect3D 3056 Radeon X1900XT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 Video Card - OEM $290 after rebate

[chuck4456]

Buy an AMD CPU/mobo combo deal drom Newegg and let that hold you over until you find what you want. Most of that stuff can be reused if you AMD upgrade.
Like PLC said: "Wait and see on Conroe................."