My big question of the day!

[NosBoost300]

okay, i'm getting my paycheck tomorrow.. and first thing in the morning i am going to order my next part.. but, i'm curious as to what i should order... i'm willing to spend up to about 250 dollars.... thats including the tax and shipping so for a processor it looks like the 3700+ is the highest i could pay for...

my choices as i'm seeing now are....

1. Amd opteron 144 socket 939 (considered most) 180 on mwave (200 dollars after tax shipping and as5)
Amd athlon 63 3700+ pretty much 230 everywhere

if not one of those... then i'll get something else.. or a different part i'll say like

2. 1gb g.skill ram 81 dollars on new egg along with a dvd drive... so amounting to around 120 or so....

3. Western Digital 74 gb 10,000 rpm hard drive 150

thats all i need to start up this baby.. and i'm only going to buy one of these on the list.. so don't ask me to get 2 of them or anything... or try to mix and match urself.. unless you find a better suggestion.....

any help would be greatly appreciated

i have work today, so i'm in no big rush for an answer... i may respond while i'm at work... or possibly later tonite when i get home at 10:00 pm... now its 2:30.. so i've got a while

 

[reckliss]

Processor should not be next upgrade I would work on the PSU and RAM get like 2*1gb G.Skill RAM or like a 550 Watt PSU

 

[NosBoost300]

ah.. well for now i already have a 450 watt psu.. this will just be used for the mean time.... my system first started will not be power hungry...

 

[Vybuni]

Im assuming that what you use it the one in your sig, right? The 3700 or opteron wont really be much of an improvement over your 3500, assuming its a AMD 64 venice. Do you know if your motherboard supports dual channel? If it does you may want to buy a 2GB kit (2x1GB) and take out the RAM you have in there, unless you can run dual channel with 4x512MB sticks, which i doubt if its a compaq.

 

[NosBoost300]

okay.. i guess i have not clarified myself well enough... this IS NOT going into the computer in my sig.. that is my piece of crap compaq... this is going into my build that i'm currently making.. so far my build only has an Abit kn8 sli mobo, some coolmax 450 watt psu and that 6800 in my sig is going into it as well.. so what i'm wondering is what i should get for my BUILD first... and keep in mind, i will be overclocking the processor... in hopes of getting fx55 speeds

forgot to mention i already got the case, its an aerocool spiral galaxies.. and every complaint about it was true... the psu cables are not long enough.. but i have already ordered extentions... and this psu is eventually leaving for a 550 watt antec truepower... only when i find the need for it.. because i will eventually use dual 6800 gs's

i would say my main purpose is to smash my friends alienware overtime... while spending a h3ll of alot less.... his specs are....

fx-57
dual nvidia 7800 gtx 512
2gb 4x512"ultra low latency ram" no idea what alienware uses
asus k8n sli deluxe.. or whatever that was
2 7200 rpm 200gb hard drives

of course i'm depending on the g80 to beat his computer....
and the 10,000 rpm's just to out do him in most aspects....
this will obviously take some time....

and just another thing to answer a question... this compaq has the ability to run dual channel.. its not complete crap...

 

[NosBoost300]

okay now that i am home, i found out my check was 386.. so, like i said willing to spend up to 225 after shipping and tax.... i definitely wanna get a processor for my build... so should i get the opteron 144, or the 3700+... keep in mind i'm going to overclock.... and please i'm asking to answer fairly quick... well by tomorrow morning for when i order.. thank you..

 

[PoisonPorkchop]

If you want to get FX57 speeds (which will be really, REALLY hard with air cooling), get the Opteron. If you want to beat him in terms of ram, you HAVE to get 2 sticks of one gig. He has 4 sticks of 512 which is the same amount as you, but you will have 2 sticks which has an advantage over 4. The raptor will help if you really want to rub it in his face. Games will load extremely fast, although it isnt much faster than a 7200 rpm HDD that has a 16mb cache and NCQ.

 

[NosBoost300]

ok thanks.. 1 opinion is all i needed to hear... opteron it is, and ya the ram.. i'm buying one stick for now.. i'll eventually get the second to run dual channel... hopefully the same thing will be for sale still when i get it... definitely the raptor, he really wants one, he already said he'd be jealous. which is a plus in my book

 

[PoisonPorkchop]

Raptors are the way to go if you want the absolute fastest, but consider this. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144235

3x the capacity, barely any slower, fraction of the cost.

 

[Vybuni]

Both the San Diegos cores and opterons are great overclockers. Make sure you get a good HSF for it like the TT bigtyphoon, zalman 9500 or sycthe ninja.