New Computer!!!

[kyleman999]

AMD Athlon64 X2 3800+ (2.0 GHz) Dual-Core Socket AM2 Processor : $345.95
http://anitec.ca/product/006155/amd_athlon64_x2_3800+_2.0_ghz_dual_core_socket_am2_processor/


MSI K9N SLI Platinum - nForce 570 SLI (Athlon64/X2/FX) PCI-E Socket AM2 Motherboard :$169.95
http://anitec.ca/product/006266/msi...thlon64orx2orfx_pci_e_socket_am2_motherboard/


OCZ OCZ25331024ELDCGE-K Gold 1.0GB PC2-4200 Kit : $135.95
http://anitec.ca/product/004519/ocz_ocz25331024eldcge_k_gold_1.0gb_pc2_4200_kit/

--------Regarding DDR 2 ram, could somebody tell me which numbers correspond to which. Like with DDR PC3200 = DDR 400Mhz or PC2700 = DDR 333Mhz..... so on. As you can see in my sig, I'm not to familiar with DDR2 and what advantages would I get is say I would get faster ram than what I have down now.

Western Digital Raptor 36GB - SATA150 Hard Drive - OEM :$124.95
http://anitec.ca/product/000761/western_digital_raptor_36gb_sata150_hard_drive_oem/

///EVGA e-GeForce 7600GT KO 256MB PCI-Express : $195.95
http://www.anitec.ca/product/6420/evga_e_geforce_7600gt_ko_256mb_pi_express/

////////////////////////////// OR

EVGA e-GeForce 7600GS 256MB PCI-Express : $159.95
http://www.anitec.ca/product/5895/evga_e_geforce_7600gs_256mb_pci_express/

I'm not sure which is better GS or GT KO??? I'm so lost when it comes to thew 7000 series. Which one of the two would be better?


TOTAL = ~992.96$ CND including the tax.

Yes I know, in a few weeks AMD will be doing their price cuts, and I'm definatly waiting for that so I hope to knock off about ~120$ from that. I just want to make sure everything looks good. I'll be purchasing a case and powersupply locally, and vouala! New comp.

Any suggestions or comments would be appreaciated.

Thanks

 

[Kage]

Yeah, that looks very good from what I can see

RAM:

I don't know much about DDR2 RAM, but this link explains about the battle:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/display/ddr2.html

GRAPHICS CARD:

On the video card front however, the GT I believe will be a better and more powerful buy based on clock speeds:

"The GeForce 7600 GS shares all of the key architectural features found in the GeForce 7600 GT, including its 12 pixel shaders and five vertex shaders. Like the GeForce 7600 GT, the 7600 GS utilizes two 64-bit memory controllers, for a 128-bit (total) memory interface. The only difference between the 7600 GT and 7600 GS lies in clock speeds. Whereas the GeForce 7600 GT runs at 560MHz, the GeForce 7600 GS runs at 400MHz. On the memory side, the GeForce 7600 GS ships with 256MB of DDR2 memory running at 400MHz. In comparison, the GeForce 7600 GT's reference specifications call for 256MB of GDDR3 memory running at 700MHz.

Because of the card's slower speeds, you'll never confuse a stock GeForce 7600 GS board for a 7600 GT, but the lower clocks allow NVIDIA's board partners to cool the card passively"

Taken from http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/geforce_7600_gs_comparison/

This is going to be one powerful computer you'll have

RAPTOR

I really don't see the interest in the Raptor though. For the same price, you could get a 7200RPM drive, with alot more capacity than you get with that Raptor, as 36GB is not a very large amount to be honest.

SOUNDBOARD:

With the extra money, you could for instance buy a dedicated PCI sound board.

That would offer superior quality of sound compared to onboard, and won't use as much CPU for processing, speeding up games that use a wide range of effects/sound sources as a result.

After trying dedicated, you won't go back to onboard...

A cheap but effective soloution:

http://anitec.ca/product/5246/creative_labs_audigy_se_7.1_channel,_24_bit_oem/

Or a bit more features for a slightly higher price:

http://anitec.ca/product/5886/creative_labs_audigy_4_se_7.1_channel,_24_bit_oem/

There are much higher end options on the audio front, but I'm guessing you won't be too bothered about all that, so a cheap sound card will do you well, and it'll definietly sound better than an onboard one, and won't use up the processor while playing music, etc.

I hope this helps

 

[kyleman999]

I should of mentioned that I'm going to bring over my 200 GB 7200 RPM HD and my Audigy 2 ZS to the new system so I won't be needing to buy a few things.
Thanks for the help.


I read the article on the DDR2 Ram and it helps but I'd like also some suggestions on what speed I should get. Is it as big as a difference as DDR 266,333,400 had. Or is it minimal?

 

[Kage]

Ah kewl. Thats okay then

As for the DDR specs, I'd imagine so yes. But DDR2 follows further up the scale, where DDR left off.

Heres some more from Wikipedia. Don't worry if you don't understand some of it, because I don't either, but I get the basic premise :

"The advantage of DDR2 over DDR SDRAM is the ability for much higher clock speeds, due to design improvements. With a clock frequency of 100 MHz, "SDR-SDRAM" transfers data on every rising edge of the clock pulse, thus achieving an effective 100 MHz data transfer rate. Unlike SDR, both DDR and DDR2 are double pumped; they transfer data on the rising and falling edges of the clock, at points of 0.0 V and 2.5 V (1.8 V for DDR2), achieving an effective rate of 200 MHz (and a theoretical bandwidth of 1.6 GB/s) with the same clock frequency. DDR2's clock frequency is further boosted by electrical interface improvements, on-die termination, prefetch buffers and off-chip drivers. However, latency is greatly increased as a trade-off. The DDR2 prefetch buffer is 4 bits wide, whereas it's 2 bits wide for DDR and 8 bits wide for DDR3.

Power savings are achieved primarily due to an improved manufacturing process, resulting in a drop in operating voltage (1.8 V compared to DDR's 2.5 V). The lower memory clock frequency could also help — DDR2 can use a real clock frequency 1/2 that of SDRAM whilst maintaining the same bandwidth.

A lower operating voltage is necessary with each rise in clock speed because it takes less time to propagate a lower voltage.This is the same reason why CPU operating voltages have become lower with increasing clock speeds."

Taken from here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR2

 

[kyleman999]

So I'm guessing if i went with the PC2-5400 It would give me a performance boost?
Cause right now I've selection the 4200 sticks because I figured, hey its cheaper loll.
I guess I'll go for the 5400, pay the extra 40-50 bucks.

 

[Kage]

Hmm, you will get an improvement yes, and I'm guessing if you wanted to overclock, the process would be made a whole lot easier, getting faster memory.

It probably is worth the extra amount of $40-$50 anyway, so its up to you entirely.

When aiming for memory, I do tend to get the fastest my computer can have. Otherwise, your thinking to yourself "hmm...whats this computer capable of, that I'm not tapping into?)

 

[kyleman999]

Yea lol, funny thing is, the 5400 memory is 10 dollars cheaper than the 4200. It probably has to do because, the faster the memory - the slower the timmings. So the 5400 is 4-4-4-8 and the 4200 is 3-3-3-8.

I still find it weird that faster ram is cheaper than the slower lol.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Kage]

Yeah, that is very weird...

I wonder what is the best to go for then...