Custom PC spec

[innodonni]

How's my new Linux computer? I've specced it out before buying:

AMD Athlon 64 FX 3500+ 2.4GHz Socket 939 - £190
ASUS A8V Deluxe Motherboard - £80
Crucial PC2700 DDR RAM 512MB - £50 each, upgradeable
Thermaltake Tsunami PC Case - £70
Antec Truepower 480 Watt PSU - £40 - I think this is adequate
Combo 52/32/52/16 CD-RW/DVD drive - £30
Black 19” CRT Monitor - £125
SATA150 7200RPM 8MB cache 40-80GB HD - £40
Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 256MB - £70

Cool huh? Not perfect, by far, but adequate for Half life 2!

Any ideas for cutting corners? I'm on a tight budget.

[ViperVenoM]

well id say you dont NEED a 3500+ go with a 3000 winchester and overclock it easy past 3500 speeds..or equal to, whatever , that will prob save you..er dunno im guessing they are about £100, so thats saved you £90, slap that £90 on your £70 vid card and dump that crapp £160 there, enough for a 9800pro with still some change :D

a 5200 will play HL2 like crap tbh..well imo

[innodonni]

Yeah, I know. You need an nVidia 6600 Ultra to play it properly.

I don't know how to overclock - is it just a case of flicking switches in the BIOS? How far can you take it before your system falls apart?

Cool system in your sig, btw!

[DT1]

6600 Ultra? HL2 is optimised for ATI cards like Doom3 is optimised for NVidia, so I've read.

[innodonni]

But Linux isn't optimised for ATI cards. I currently have an AIW 8500DV, and it sucks big time. It crashes the computer when you change resolution - 9 times out of 10.
Yeah, I would dual boot with Win98, but I'd still prefer a solid card on Linux too.

Planet Halflife says rumors about NVidia or ATI exclusivity are unfounded. I can't find any official statements about this.

[stdPikachu]

If you want a solid 3D card under Linux, nVidia is your only option. ATI's drivers for Linux are never anything less than awful, and often stray into the "unusable" range as well. But I agree, a 5200 won't get you good performance in HL2 (I wasn't even aware that HL2 was coming out for Linux...?)

But Linux isn't optimised for ATI cards.

You got it the wrong way around, matey. ATI just make really sh**ty Linux drivers.

There's alot of rubbish spouted about card optimisations. I imagine by far the biggest factor is that nVidia cards have always been exceptionally strong performers in OpenGL, whereas ATI have always gone the D3D route. Hence why Doom3 (with a predominantly OGL engine) will performs better on an nVidia, and HL2 will perform better on an ATI, all other things being equal.

Apart from that... don't get PC2700, you'll want to use PC3200 to get the most out of an A64 (and last time I looked at Crucial's website PC3200 and 2700 were the same price). If you're on a tight budget, my advice is to save up and wait until you can afford to get a better base system, otherwise you'll end up throwing away half your components. Also, an A64 3000 or 3200 will be more than adequate for gaming - a 3500 is only going to be of use if you do lots of compiling or video rendering or suchlike. As pointed out above, most A64's are easily overclockable to 3500 speeds anyway, if you ever feel you need more grunt.

[ViperVenoM]

I don't know how to overclock - is it just a case of flicking switches in the BIOS? How far can you take it before your system falls apart?

Cool system in your sig, btw!

thanks btw
:)

but about your overclocking question the new winchesters ..the 3000 is a 1.8ghz i believe and they are supposedly reaching 2.6 on air :eek: ..havent seen many SHOWING this but i know a lot of people are hitting 2.4 or so without breaking a sweat that 3500 is only a 2.2ghz? so the 3000 will do your grand, overclockings a bit harder with the A64 as you have a few more things to take into consideration, such as the HT...but really its just ...up the fsb in the option and thats about it! and it wont do anything dangerous..clever chips these days when im pushing mine too far it restarts the comp and puts himself back to stock speeds so no worries on that front :)

if your wanting an nvidia then maybe you can look at the 6800 or 6800le aswell seen benches of the 6800le just about on par with my card but they overclock a lot better..again nice and simple

but if you are going for HL2 and thats your reason for buying this id def stick with ATi a 9800pro or a 9800xt (second hand new is prob a bit out of your range) will do you fine, im running this cs:s video stress thing at 1280x1024 with no AA or AF (i always play like this) and im getting 90-100fps, ok its not accurate to say im gonna get 90-100fps in HL2 but im really expecting 50+ which will be grand! :D

and yep you want some pc3200 for that A64 chip of yours, crucial or maybe some Geil or Corsair value range, all round the £100-£110 mark for 1gb :)

[innodonni]

Thanks for your help:

Believe it or not I started out wanting 4 Opteron 2.4GHzs, then two, and then two 1.4Ghzs! I've been persuaded an Athlon64 is the way to go.

I'll get some Crucial PC3200, and I'll get the 3000+ Newcastle. That way, I don't need extra-expensive registered memory. And £90 extra might go to a better Graphics card.

And when I said that Linux wasn't optimised for ATI, I meant the DRI project (http://dri.sourceforge.net) drivers weren't. I'm pretty sure they aren't much better than the fgrlx ones, though.

If I don't like a company, I won't give them my money. That's why I'll be running Half life 2 on a spare old copy of Win98.

And Half-life 2 will not be on Linux since Valve is not Id, but it's hardly surprising. Linux's market share is probably 0.1% on gaming computers.

I'll also need the K8V Deluxe instead, but they're similar prices.

[stdPikachu]

The DRI project was originally kickstarted by ATI themselves. Up until (I think) the 8500 series, they released the specs of their cards to the open source crew, hence people at DRI were able to make fully accelerated open-source drivers. However, once they got into the 3D war with nVidia, they resorted to producing the aforementioned rubbish binary drivers. nVidia on the other hand have always released closed source stuff only, but theirs have the advantage of actually working.

[BUFF]

I'll get some Crucial PC3200, and I'll get the 3000+ Newcastle. That way, I don't need extra-expensive registered memory.

You won't find a socket 939 3000+ Newcastle - they are Winchesters.
Only problem with the 3000+ is the 9x multi - even getting 2.4GHz means running HTT @267. Imho the 3200+ is the better buy.

[innodonni]

I believe this is correct:

Maxtor DiamondMax Plus9 80GB SATA150
259XT5 - £42.99
Crucial Technology 512MB 184Pin PC3200 DDRRAM ECC Unbuffered CL3
2NYST5 - £74.98
Sony CD-RW/DVD Combo 52x32x52x16x Internal OEM Black
33K8T5 - £29.99
Asus K8V Deluxe S754 VIA K8T800 AGP DDR ATX Audio, LAN, RAID
35B4T5 - £74.98
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ S754 512Kb Box
36T1T5 - £102.98
Thermaltake Tsunami Aluminium Black Case with Window - No PSU
3FCHT5 - £79.99
Thermaltake Silent Purepower 480W PSU
2N1LT5 - £51.99
GeForce FX5700 256MB DDR AGP DVI VO
30N5ZD - £80.99

Just looking at the prices, I think I agree - a S939 with a 3200+ would be best. And S939 does support unbuffered memory, according to the mobo description on Dabs.
Better?

[ViperVenoM]

why do you want/need ECC i thought that was meant for s940 boards :confused:

surely some non ecc stuff is cheaper i know geil value sticks are about £60...and tbh that vid card is better but its still not great, i would REALLY suggest stretchin to a 6600gt or 9800pro otherwise your gonna be updating that card again..in probably a few months where either of the other 2 will last you easy this year ...(i meant 2005..forgot it was nov :rolleyes: )

..er think thats it :) ,

[innodonni]

why do you want/need ECC i thought that was meant for s940 boards :confused:

surely some non ecc stuff is cheaper i know geil value sticks are about £60...and tbh that vid card is better but its still not great, i would REALLY suggest stretchin to a 6600gt or 9800pro otherwise your gonna be updating that card again..in probably a few months where either of the other 2 will last you easy this year ...(i meant 2005..forgot it was nov :rolleyes: )

..er think thats it :) ,

Arrgh...can't..stretch..any..furthur! *snap*.
I honestly don't think I have the confidence to get a 6800. They're all £200!
They do a 6600 128MB AGP for £132.98, but no 256MB versions. Should I get that, or not bother?

ECC is not that expensive and if I have upwards of 1GB of memory, I'm gonna want it if I don't want to get crashes every month. That's what I heard - I don't think I mind the small slow down.

[BUFF]

Interesting article on how the various AMD64s perform at stock settings - seems the lower 939 PR ratings are a bit optimistic compared to 754.
http://www.behardware.com/articles/531/page1.htmo

Of course once you overclock it is a moot point :)

[stdPikachu]

ECC is not that expensive and if I have upwards of 1GB of memory, I'm gonna want it if I don't want to get crashes every month. That's what I heard - I don't think I mind the small slow down.

Your mobo won't support the ECC features. Only workstation/server class boards support it.

[innodonni]

Yes, I see you're right, as usual. At least the A8V Deluxe doesn't. So you think:

Maxtor DiamondMax Plus9 80GB SATA150
259XT5 - £42.99
Crucial 512MB 184Pin PC3200 DDRRAM Non-parity Unbuffered CL3
2LGMT5 - £60.99
Sony CD-RW/DVD Combo 52x32x52x16x Internal OEM Black
33K8T5 - £29.99
Asustek A8V Deluxe S939 K8T800PR ATX Audio LAN RAID
3GNPT5 - £79.99
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ S939 512Kb Box Inc. Fan
3J33T5 - £131.98
Thermaltake Tsunami Aluminium Black Case with Window - No PSU
3FCHT5 - £79.99
Thermaltake Silent Purepower 480W PSU
2N1LT5 - £51.99
GeForce 6600GT 128MB AGP DVI-I
3K55T5 - £132.98
Relisys Black 19" CRT Monitor
34TQZD - £125.99

You might have guessed, what I want is powerful, black and upgradeable.
I've searched for a full layout black wireless keyboard and mouse, but I can't find them anywhere - I'm gonna check my local computer fair for this. And is there a better deal than a 19" Black CRT for £125.99 anywhere?

I'm not going to get a floppy drive. I do however wonder if USB boot is possible with this mobo. Can't find out anywhere.

Thank you for all your help. Buff, that article really helped me understand the technology better.

Costs £746.30 with monitor, without peripherals.

Would it be benificial to get Ballistix PC4000 CL2.5 at £88.99 instead? If I'm going all out, I might as well get the best for gaming, eh?
I really want a raptor 10k rpm drive, but the cheapest is £70. Is it worth it? They are the bottle-necks, after all.

[ViperVenoM]

i dont think pc4000 is really needed for A64...unless you will really overclock it!

otherwise id try and save up for 1GB that WILL help you in gaming :D ..vid card looks sweet now

think your about getting there! sweet set up :)

[innodonni]

I'm glad you agree, since I've already ordered that stuff now. I can't wait! I'm 16, and it's my first own PC.

The only things I'm missing now are:

Thermal paste
VGA-DVI adapter
Speakers/Microphone
Keyboard and mouse

I do have my own keyboard and mouse, but they're old and not black.
But this is standard fare I can get at the computer fair.

Thank you for your advice! :D

And I'm going to do a lot more research before I start overclocking my already super fast processor!

[ViperVenoM]

good luck!

started building my own when i was ..prob 16ish too didnt realise back then it would consume alll of my money now im 18 :eek:

/me thanks the student loan company :D


thermal paste - get yourself some Artic Silver 5 about £5 for a little tube and will last you..probably every cpu you will ever own unless u get through them weekly :)

dont skimp on speakers too!

playing the likes of CoD with 5.1 speakers the planes bombing flying overhead is a great experience! you almost feel like ducking! :D