Of Motherboard Failures and New Builds

[Zuwxiv]

If you don't want to hear my story and just want to help me with my question, skip below...

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Okay, so several months ago my PC just fried. It would still run, but something was obviously wrong. Weird characters all over the screen, the cursor was all screwed up, even a complete reformatting and installation of Linux didn't change it. So after testing, I discovered that the motherboard failed.

Well, the computer was a couple years old.

512 MB RAM
80 Gig hard drive
2.4 GHz Pentium - single core, 32 bit
128 MB video card - forget what make/model

It was perfectly fine for running Rome comfortably, but I had trouble with BattleField 2, BattleField 2142, and don't even bother with Oblivion.

But since the motherboard failed, I would have to replace it. Well, if I'm replacing the motherboard, I'm probably going to have to replace the case (it was a tight fit from Dell). And if I replace the motherboard and case, I might as well get a better processor so I could run Vista. (Well, run Vista when I want to, a couple months at least down the line.) And to get the good Aero (Aqua, any mac fans?) graphics, I should probably get a better video card.

So basicly, I might as well scrap it and start new.
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My question:

How does this build sound? (I have the optical drives, monitor, and speakers from my old computer.)


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103759
$229 AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ - 2.6GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 90 nm

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820146673
$224.99 Mushkin 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240 pin RAM, DDR2 4-5-4-11

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814143049
$142.99 BFG Tech GeForce 7600GT 256 MB

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817148022
$99.99 Apevia 680W power supply.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148140
$89.99 Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm 320GB 3.5" 3Gb/s

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811144151
$69.99 Apevia Aspire X-Cruiser-BK case. Awesome.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811998101
$5.99 Apevia blue LED computer fan

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813141001
$169.99 XFX MB-N590ASH9 ATX AMD motherboard


Overall, this comes out to about $1000. To those who are familiar with computer builds - is this a good price? Any sugguestions over my parts? Compatability between them? Better buys? Any help is GREATLY APPRECIATED!

And doesn't it look nice?




And just check this out.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16800998005
$15.00 AMD / NEWEGG Money Clip. Worth it for the customer reviews.

[Doono]

swap the AMD processor and motherboard for a core 2 duo setup, they are far superior and around the same price.

E6400
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115004

GIGABYTE GA-965P-DQ6 LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128323

Don't know anythign about the mobo but it looks good.

[Zuwxiv]

Thanks for the advice, Doono. I wasn't sure whether the newer Intel or AMD were better - the most recent in depth comparison I could find was this, from late 2005.

Are there any recent comparisons between them? The one you posted has the 65nm tech, but a much smaller L1 cache without hyper-threading support. It does look like it is more easily overclocked, though, judging by the reviews.

[Incinerate_IV]

Thanks for the advice, Doono. I wasn't sure whether the newer Intel or AMD were better - the most recent in depth comparison I could find was this, from late 2005.

Are there any recent comparisons between them? The one you posted has the 65nm tech, but a much smaller L1 cache without hyper-threading support. It does look like it is more easily overclocked, though, judging by the reviews.

That's 2005, this is 2007... A LOT has changed since then. That comparison was between AMD Athlon X2 and Intel Pentium D. Right now the Pentium is already very outdated, replaced by Core 2, which is much faster than their Athlon counterparts.

I suggest you go for a E6300 or a E6400 Core 2 Duo processor, and Biostar Tforce 965PT or Gigabyte P965-DS3 motherboard.

See the PC Hardware Buyers guide for more info and links:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=52737

Here's the RAM I recommend you getting:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231114

That's what I just bought for my new computer, best bang for the buck right now, DDR2-800 at 4-3-4-5 timings... good stuff.

And btw, Cnet isn't exactly a very useful site for computer hardware, check tomshardware or anandtech.

[Zuwxiv]

That's 2005, this is 2007... A LOT has changed since then. That comparison was between AMD Athlon X2 and Intel Pentium D. Right now the Pentium is already very outdated, replaced by Core 2, which is much faster than their Athlon counterparts.

I knew that review was old, I just didn't know how out of date it was - it's only really been a little over one year. Checking about 100 websites now, I can see that it really has changed. Unfortunately, the more questions I am given answers to, themore questions I have - AMD claims that their new Barcelona chips will be much, much faster - they claim 40%, apparently. And that would make them most likely better than Intel when they are released (a couple months). How much of that is advertising and how much is reality is to be determined, but a true quad-core chip would be nice.

And btw, Cnet isn't exactly a very useful site for computer hardware, check tomshardware or anandtech.

Yeah, generally I try to stay away from Cnet. It always seems odd to me that when there are Sony advertisements all around the website, all the Sony products suddently have massively high ratings... But it was the only in-depth fairly-simple comparison I could find. Until I looked past page one on google.



Thanks for the input though, the RAM seems very nice. I could save 25 bucks on that RAM. Also, I've heard good things about Gigabyte boards.



I'm having a real bad timing problem right now. I'm a high school senior, so that means college by Fall. I'm probably going to get a new laptop for graduation, because I'll need one for college. I can't do much at all on this iBook G4. But if I'm getting a new laptop, then I don't really need a new desktop. And depending on where I go to college, I probably won't need the desktop. And if AMD will update their stuff soon, then it seems like I have two options:

Buy Intel and overclock it. (I've never actually overclocked, so I would want to be very careful here.)

Or wait some months for something where I won't have much guarentee of preformance right now, and won't be able to use the computer.

Most logical seems to be to go with the Intel. Really, if the difference comes down to 90 fps vs. 110 fps, I don't have magic eyes.

Thanks for all the help, everyone.

[spartan_phalanx]

You can see what other TWC'ers have been able to achieve with the E6300/E6400 in the calling all over-clockers thread.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showp...94&postcount=1

[Incinerate_IV]

From what I heard of Barcelona, it's just a quad core version of the current X2s. So it still has the same architecture as current Athlons. Intel Core 2 Quad is already out too, so if you want to go quad core then Core 2 Quad is the way to go. But quad core really don't make any difference at all for a everyday gaming machine. 99% of the game perform better with the X6800 (dual core) than the QX6700 (quad core).

[Zuwxiv]

From what I heard of Barcelona, it's just a quad core version of the current X2s. So it still has the same architecture as current Athlons. Intel Core 2 Quad is already out too, so if you want to go quad core then Core 2 Quad is the way to go. But quad core really don't make any difference at all for a everyday gaming machine. 99% of the game perform better with the X6800 (dual core) than the QX6700 (quad core).

I've read that Intel's Core 2 Quad is really just a combination of two dual cores - two cores each on two chips. Whereas Barcelona is four cores on one chip, which could offer an increased preformance. Other than that, I don't know what the differences will be.

I wasn't sure whether the quad core was faster than the dual core though, thanks for clearing that up.

I suppose it makes sense though: you eventually run into the PS3 effect. The more cores, the more difficult it is to utilize all of them at once. Eventually, it only slows things down in games. Heavy duty multi-tasking or processor intensive actions (math calculations, etc) could benefit, but eventually it just isn't helpful to programmers to have to delegate tasks to so many processors.

Barcelona is supposed to show a sizeable increase in proformance. I read somewhere that it is about halfway between a complete redesign and plopping double the cores down on a chip. How much they deliver on that promise is yet to be seen.