CPU/motherboard recommendations

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wherzwaldo

1,000+ Posts
Last week I bought an old Dell P3 800mhz computer that (miraculously) included an ATI Radeon 9600. My laptop has a 1ghz but the graphics card sucks, so I originally decided to make this other computer my gaming system. But now I'm looking to make this my ongoing upgrade project, and the motherboard and processor are on the top of the list.

I'm not up to speed with current products, nor have I ever actually assembled my own computer, so I'd appreciate some recommendations. Optimally, I'd like an Athlon 64, but I'm open to suggestions if there's a better one out there. Also, the only motherboard brand I'm familiar with is Asus.
 
Asus A7N8X or MSI K7N2 seem pretty popular right now for a regular AMD CPU. You can go to any number of review sites (sharkyextreme.com, anandtech.com, tomshardware.com, etc.) that have monthly low-end and high-end buying guides.
 
I just built a new home gaming system last night.

CPU - AMD Athlon XP 2800+ Barton
MB - MSI K7N2 Delta-L
RAM - Corsair XMS PC3200LL 512-MB (2 for 1GB dual channel total)
HD - Western Digital Caviar SE - 120GB w/8MB cache
Video - Power Color ATI Radeon 9700 Gold
OS - Windows XP Pro

I haven't had time to put it through any serious game stress yet, but it is plenty quick. You can build a much faster system, but this was all I needed, and was the best I could do with the available funds.
 
idig

I built almost the identical system 4 mos ago except for the MB and memory. It only cost about 700 bucks. Cant beat it pricewise.



CPU - AMD Athlon XP 2800+ Barton Core
MB - Asus A7N8X-deluxe
RAM - GEIL PC3200 512-MB X 2 (dual channel)
HD - Western Digital Caviar SE - 120GB w/8MB cache SATA
Video - Power Color ATI Radeon 9700 Gold
 
I have an AMD 64 3200 running and I have been very satisfied with its performance.

Of the top of my head

Amd 64 3200
Gigabyte kln8-pro
1,5 Gigs of Mushkin 3500 level 1 RAM
32 Gig Raptor SATA drive.
Nvidia 5950FX
Thermaltake case and volcano heatsink.
450W PSI great brand but name escapes me.
Pioneer 4or 6X DVD r whatever.

All for 1300$ and that was 3+ months ago.
 
If you're a (relative) cheap ***, like me, then occasional Fry's deal with the 2500+ AMD and DFI NFII 400 motherboard for 99 bucks is by far the best deal. Pair that with PC2700 ram and your vid card and you have a pretty decent system. If your rig is mostly for gaming, net, and e-mail, then this would be a nice match for the 9600.

Course, if you like taking a little risk, you can have a little fun with that combo. I'm using that with a gig of cheap dual channel Corsair Value Select PC3200 DDR. I turned up the bus to 220 mhz (from 166 mhz), giving me 2.4 ghz for an overclock of 32.5%. Runs rock solid at 48C full load on air. Not too bad at all for the price.

Of course, with overclocking, your mileage may vary.

Current system:
Athlon XP Barton 2500+ at 2.42 GHz
DFI NFII 400 Motherboard
1 gig Corsair Value Select PC3200
SB Live Sound Card
BFG GeforceFX 5900
4x DVD-R burner, 52x CD burner
Random HDs adding to 400 gigs
380 Watt Antec PS and far too expensive case

Whole thing ran me about 900 using a constant upgrade process since last summer, and would be somewhat cheaper today due to video card prices (should have waited and gotten a 9800Pro) and hard drive prices.

Whole thing nets 5100 for 3DMark03 on a not so clean install of XP. Yeah, crappy canned benchmark, but helps for testing the stability of my overclocked video card and showing if there's something really screwy with my computer.
 
You are going to need a new case and power supply too. PIII is a different size standard and the new boards will not fit your case. There is also an extra power cable needed for the new boards so the old power supply will not work either.
 
I'm very happy with my FX-51 system but it's pricey (cheaper than the p4 extreme though and faster)

" Optimally, I'd like an Athlon 64, but I'm open to suggestions if there's a better one out there"

Not at present.
 
If you're doing RAID or are going to have lots of power hungry stuff, i.e. lots of drives, any GeforceFX 5700+ card, overclocking, etc, then you're going to need something better than a no name 350 watt power supply. I used one for a few weeks, and my comp kept crashing and producing lots of DVD coasters. Apparently the DVD burner was picky about the quality of the 12V line. Go with a big name one, like Antec or Enermax. More cost, but more power. The ratings for the no names are junk. Course, if you don't do RAID or overclocking, it shouldn't mattter.

The case for the Dell is probably unusable as Dell has funky form factors. The standard is ATX, but Dell uses custom stuff, so unless you're handy with a drill and can rig your own mounting system, I'd buy a new case. The power supply may still be good, but only if the motherboard you're using doesn't need auxilary power connector.

And if you're going AMD64, might as well wait for socket 939 to come out, it'd at least be good for the performance boost or for the price drops on other models.
 
Socket 940 is for Opterons and FX's. Socket 754 is for regular Athlons and the soon to be value segment for AMD. Socket 939 is where mainstream Athlon 64's and FX's will go in order to add dual channel to the 64's and remove the need for registered memory in the FX's. This makes it cheaper to own an FX by removing the registered memory requirement, and allows a die shrink by removing half the cache for the normal 64 without much of a performance penalty due to the dual channel ram setup.
 
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