Looking to make an AMD system

[Oboy]

Well I hope Intel stock goes up B4 mid November, if so I can dump all my options and use the profits to build an AMD system! So my question is what CPU, MB, video card Etc...
Give me all the good stuff. I wont to have a KICK A** system. Its time to go back and try AMD.

Thanks Oboy

[Marshmallowman]

If you can stretch it , dual opterons (especially with one with memory banks for each cpu).

Failing that kt800 pro 939 boards seem to be the flaour of the month.

Personally I am waiting for a dual opteron board with PCI-express...It'll be a lttle while yet.

[Paddy]

Cutting all ties Oboy?

[Beezer]

Well it would be pretty easy to just suggest Athlon 64 3800+, but at a price of about $650 it's really not realistic. An Athlon 64 3200+ still will give you a pretty good pop and at only 1/3 the cost. Of course, I do not personally have one of these babies - my latest rig went the Intel route because my good friends worked there .
I've been really happy with the quality and reliability of my Asus motherboards. Their Athlon 64 mobo is "K8N-E Deluxe". It uses the nForce3 chipset. I would check out that one for starters.

[J1NG]

Wanna go dual core Opteron is my question. Otherwise, what Mmm suggests ins't bad.

J1NG

[Helevitia]

You plan on overclocking?

[ZokesPro]

Well well well, the minute you quit Intel and your already on the AMD bandwagon, welcome aboard.

[rylan]

Maybe he heard the silly AMD radio ad that is running

[Oboy]

Been an AMD user in the past. The best system I had was the 486-133. It took a licken and keep on booten.

Type of system I won't a KICK A** Gaming box. Then I will get Comcast over and then be kicken ass in UT,, Well maybe

Oboy

[Beezer]

Glad to hear 'broadband' is finally getting to your neighborhood.

[Kurt]

The A64 3200+ is a bit too low for new games, look at the 3400+ and up.

NV has a dual x16 PCI-E chipset coming for the A64 (they're actually 2* x8 with x16 slots AFAIK).

So... dual NV VGA cards in SLI...(get the 256MB models if you want to play Doom3 at highest settings - 2*256=512MB...)

RAM: 1 or 2GB. Read the manual for supported configs by the
Athlon memory controller. It will either not run at all, or not at full speed if you don't respect them. Stick to 2 sticks max to be sure. Best compatible mobos for that are usually Asus. Dual sided sticks are aslo slightly faster than single sided ones but you risk to reach the limit of the memory controller if you put too many (again best to stick to 2 of them). Also, stick to big brands. The most sompatible one is Crucial/Micron, and it is one of the fastest as well, especially if you OC. Look for the "other" usual suspects too: Corsair, Geil, Mushkin, etc. Stay away fro mel cheapo RAM as it has weird ways to cr*p out sometimes as well as compatibility problems...

HDD: single Raptor 74GB. Forget about RAID0, it's useless. You won't see a difference in performance for a single user workstation, but you WILL see more filexxxx.chk files being created by chkdsk...Add a nice Hitachi 7K400 400GB for storage and pagefile.

DVDRW: Pioneer A08/108 (retail/oem or vice versa) 16x DVDRW drive Dual Layer

Case: doesn't really matter as long as you have excellent power supply. Don't believe the numbers rated on 90% of them. Stick with big brands like Fortron Source, Zalman, Antec (the TruPower ones), Aopen (the 350W + ones are made by Fortron, the lower end models not always), Power&Cooling, etc.

Soundcard: if there were a Soundstorm soundcard out there, I'd tell you to get it, otherwise get a Creative one or a Terratec 7.1

Speakers: don't get any Creative speakers. Altec is a good start, they have a THX model...or get a good headset...Teac makes a 5.1 headset (don't ask me HOW )

[Byock]

I agree with you Kurt, but I would add Logitech to the speakers. I have the Z680's, and love them to death.

[Kurt]

Originally posted by Byock
I agree with you Kurt, but I would add Logitech to the speakers. I have the Z680's, and love them to death.

They're the same if I'm not mistaken, one bought the other or sth.

[Jammrock]

NV has a dual x16 PCI-E chipset coming for the A64 (they're actually 2* x8 with x16 slots AFAIK).

So... dual NV VGA cards in SLI...(get the 256MB models if you want to play Doom3 at highest settings - 2*256=512MB...)

RAM: 1 or 2GB. Read the manual for supported configs by the
Athlon memory controller. It will either not run at all, or not at full speed if you don't respect them. Stick to 2 sticks max to be sure. Best compatible mobos for that are usually Asus. Dual sided sticks are aslo slightly faster than single sided ones but you risk to reach the limit of the memory controller if you put too many (again best to stick to 2 of them). Also, stick to big brands. The most sompatible one is Crucial/Micron, and it is one of the fastest as well, especially if you OC. Look for the "other" usual suspects too: Corsair, Geil, Mushkin, etc. Stay away fro mel cheapo RAM as it has weird ways to cr*p out sometimes as well as compatibility problems...

HDD: single Raptor 74GB. Forget about RAID0, it's useless. You won't see a difference in performance for a single user workstation, but you WILL see more filexxxx.chk files being created by chkdsk...Add a nice Hitachi 7K400 400GB for storage and pagefile.

DVDRW: Pioneer A08/108 (retail/oem or vice versa) 16x DVDRW drive Dual Layer

Case: doesn't really matter as long as you have excellent power supply. Don't believe the numbers rated on 90% of them. Stick with big brands like Fortron Source, Zalman, Antec (the TruPower ones), Aopen (the 350W + ones are made by Fortron, the lower end models not always), Power&Cooling, etc.

Soundcard: if there were a Soundstorm soundcard out there, I'd tell you to get it, otherwise get a Creative one or a Terratec 7.1

Speakers: don't get any Creative speakers. Altec is a good start, they have a THX model...or get a good headset...Teac makes a 5.1 headset (don't ask me HOW ) [/B][/QUOTE]

Here are my general comments...

CPU:

The AMD CPU of choice for hardcore gamers with a big budget is the Athlon 64 FX-53. Reasons are simple: 1) Cheaper than a top of the line 200 series Opertron, 2) Dual CPU's don't make a huge difference in gaming. So why blow all the cash on a second CPU. There will be a slight performance increase over 1-CPU, but it's not worth the cash unless you plan to run server processes in the background on CPU #2 and don't want to build a scond box. So in my opinion, I would go with a single CPU Athlon FX-53.

If you don't want to drop the case for an FX, pick up whatever the sweetspot Athlon 64 is ... though I agree that you'll want a 3400+ or better.

RAM:

You have a lot of options for RAM. If you want to go with hardcore timings you'll want to get the premium RAMs, like Crucial Ballistix, Corsair XMS PRO, OCZ Platinum, etc. AnandTech has a decent article comparing all the 2-2-2 DDR400 RAMs.

Beyond that, rule of thumb in RAM is: Crucial for the most stable, Corsair and OCZ for the fast stuff, Samsung for a good compromise. There are plenty of other RAM makers, but if you stick with those 4 you are pretty much guaranteed some good stuff.

I would also say 1 GB, in 2 x 512 MB modules, would be the way to go. 1 GB sticks are WAY to expensive and usually not available in the higher CAS timings.

Mobo:

Asus is the good old standby. Still makes the most reliable gamer boards. May not be the fastest, or the best features, but they are easy to work with, have plenty of features, and are typically rocks solid (not perfect, but better than just about everyone else).

I've been really impressed with GigaByte as of late. They make, imo, the perfectionists mobo. Their IEEE chipsets are all TI. They don't settle for RealTek anything on their high-end boards. Dual power regulation for CPU and video card. They are the finest built board, imo.

The comprimise would be MSI, Epox, Soyo, Shuttle and the like. I would avoid Biostar and DFI, though. Never been impressed with their stuff.

One last note ... chipset. If you want to go PCIe with an Athlon 64, you'll need to wait until later this year. There are no production PCIe Athlon 64 boards yet (that I know of) but it's been floating around they should start hitting later this year. A good Socket 939 board to go with your Athlon FX-53 would be the ideal kick @$$ board combo, imo.

Hard drive:

If you want the fastest without breaking the bank for SCSI, get a WD Raptor. Period. I'm a multiple drive freak, so I'm going to go a step further. Grab 1 x 74 GB Raptors and 3 x 160 GB Seagate/Samsung hard drives. Here's the reasoning. You load your OS, and games on the Raptor. That gives you maximum performance. The 3 drive array is for a RAID 5 array, not for speed, but for what RAID was built for, redundancy. That way you can store your important stuff on a pretty much fail safe drive. Going Seagate or Samsung will get you quiet drives. Going only 160 GB gives you more reliablity vs. 200+ GB drives, but you can certainly go higher if you like.

Of course, if this box is only for gaming, stick with a 74 GB Raptor and call it a day. Or get a 36 GB raptor for OS and apps, and a 74 GB raptor for games, data and pagefile (not that it would be used much with 1 GB RAM).

Optical:

Plextor gives you all the bells and whistles, with damn good reliability, and top-tier speed and compatibility. Pioneer is also very good, and very fast. For a good drive that costs a bit less, go NuTech or LG. Anything else you're paying too much for name, or getting ripped off, imo.

Power:

I've become a big fan of CoolerMaster's Real Power 450. Looks nice, getting rave reviews, seems very well designed, runs quiet, and only runs $100, which for a good 450 W p/s is pretty good.

With the type of system you're looking at building, I wouldn't go less than 450 W. Especially if you end up going dual video cards. Others to look at: Antec, Enermax and PC Power & Cooling.

Case:

The only deciding factors with cases these days are, 1) can it hold all my stuff, and 2) does it look cool. CoolerMaster, Lian Li, ThermalTake, Enermax ... whatever. My only suggestion for the case is getting some silencing stuff for it, like SilenX fans. You can hit www.SilentPCReview.com for some good tips and products.

Video:

I suppose it depends on which gaes you play, which manufacture you like, and whether you want dual cards for PCIe and whether it's an option. I'm more of an ATi guy myself, but whatever.

Sound:

Creative Audigy 2 ZS would be the best in overall features. It supports all the sound standards that people write code for. The only drawback, as many MURCers will say, is somewhat shoddy drivers (though they have gotten much better in the Audigy line) and you can't use digital surround out in DOom3. I personally like them. If you don't plan on surround gaming, the M-Audio Revolution is a fantastic card as well. It does surround gaming in software, so it's not that good for surround gaming. Have no experience with Terrac.

Mouse:

Logitech MX1000. Have one on order. Should be here next week

Keyboard:

Microsoft man here when it comes to keyboards. They just fell and work better. My only grip with MS keyboards is that I can't get a good wireless keyboard without buying a stinking mouse, too. Damn bundles.

Monitor:

If you want the best color, resolution, speed ... nothing beats a CRT. There are some nice LCDs out now, but they are very expensive and still don't have the brightness and color of a good CRT. Desk space permitting, CRT, otherwise, a good Samsung display should work well without seriously breaking the bank.

Speakers:

The Klipsch are nice, imo. So are the Altecs. Go to Best Buy and listen to them, they have all the popular models out. You just need to find the set that suits your ears the best. From what I've heard, Klipsch have good mids and decent highs, but their subs are always muddy and bleh. Altecs have pretty good mids, good bass, and okay highs. But that's just my opnion.

Headphones:

For when you have to play in the dark and not wake up people ... accept nothing less than Sennheiser http://www.sennheisercommunications.com/pr-pc155.html

Well ... I'm sick of typing, so I'll stop now.

Jammrock

[Kurt]

Originally posted by Kurt
They're the same if I'm not mistaken, one bought the other or sth.

or make it Labtec...