I decided to start this thread, in a long-running tradition of misters and their new pc's.

Basically, I'll be looking to just get the basis: a case, mobo, CPU, and cooler. Potentially also a DVD RW drive. The idea is that I will recover the HD, drives, RAM (it's 3200) and gfx card from my 'old' pc. Then when christmas gaming madness begins i'll (hopefully) have some dough left to change the gx card when they've become a tad cheaper. Maybe buy some extra ram, who knows.

Anyhoo, first things first: case. This time I won't be saving any money on it, so I can crank my stuff up. Erh, the site i'm looking to get my pc assembled and stuff lists one Antec case, namely a SX1040B...but that has 'file server' in its name. Still, it looks like a 'normal' pc...what gives? Server or pc?

http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=81046

Btw, this would cost around 100€, apparently. And it has 2 fans installed and place for another one or two. (which I'll be getting, I suppose)

this is why it's considered a file server:

[quote]# Removable Drive Cages for 3.5â€

Yeah, I'm gonna buy two HD's and configure them in a RAID 0 stripe mode. (of course I don't really know wtf that is, I copied the term from my gaming mag )

No, but seriously...this would work fine as a gaming solution then, even if it's overkill for what I want to do? Basically I want to run at a frequency of 166-200mhz without having to worry about any heat problems, so I'm looking to get the case cooled as well as I can and to get a super-duper CPU cooler. (this baby for example: http://www.chillblast.com/product.php?p ... bestseller)

Now I'm on it anyway, I'll start with mobo+CPU as well. I'm thinking a Asus K8V SE Deluxe ( http://www.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?m=K8V ... e&langs=01 ) with an Ahtlon 64 3200+ or 3400+. (not sure of that yet)

Any comments are always welcome, and some questions: does it make much of a difference if I go for a socket 745 or 939? Performancewise...what's it about, in short?

Also; a lot of the 939 CPU's have the same specs as the 745 ones but with '/512kb' next to it...enlighten me, oh tech ppl.

I don't like the motherboard. It's got a Via chipset...I personally prefer nvidia. I believe nvidia chipsets have the performance crown right now anyway, so you may want to rethink that portion unless you are in love or something. Other than that it's actually a very decent motherboard, though.

As for the sockets...it does matter. You need to be sure to get a CPU that matches the socket (or vice versa). They are not inter-compatible. From what I can gather, the 939 (and 940) sockets are the AthlonFX cpu sockets, which are the high-end, expensive, server-class CPUs. The 745 sockets are for the AMD64 chips (ie, the consumer, non-server class variety of the 64 bit AMD chips).

At least, that's what I'm gathering. That was a good question.

To answer a previous question, the case will certainly function. Beware, it's probably really big and really heavy, but if you're not carting it around to LAN parties or whatever that doesn't matter too much, I suppose. As for the CPU cooler, just read some reviews on it and make sure it's worth a shit.

Mm, k...I'll keep the case under consideration for now then. I don't mind it being big, nor the lan parties, but if I could get equal cooling performance from a cheaper and smaller case I wouldn't say no, of course.


@ the mobo...point taken, I'm going for the slightly more expensive, nforce AMD asus mobo. http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket7 ... erview.htm is going to be it then. That's even nicer than that other one.


@ CPU sockets. Alright, thanks. So no 939 for me and my wallet, but 745. There it's between the Ahtlon 64 3200+ and 3400+...mm. The difference is 'only' 30€, so I guess I'm going with the latter. That will set me back about 244€. Together with the mobo that's 350€. (424 bucks) I'm willing to spend up to around 500€ to the whole deal, but 150€ for a good case/good cooler should fit just right. (180 bucks)


So, summarized:

mobo: K8N-E Deluxe (see link)
CPU: Ahtlon 64 3400+

Any complaints about that yet? If not I'll move on and focus on case and fans.

Back again...looked around a bit for reviews of the cooler I'm looking to get, the Zalman CNPS7700b-CU. ( http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/vie ... =141&code= ) I found some Tom's hardware reviews and benchmarks and they were all pretty darn positive.

http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20041213/index.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/2005060 ... er-29.html


So that's going onto the lists unless someone has a serious problem with it.

so whas the difference between a8n sli and k8v sli mobo?

Glad to see you've joined the gentlemens club! on a side note, was derf's thread first, or mine?

Anyway, from what my very limited techknowledge tells me, i like the look of the system so far. But that really is just me, and as you can tell by my other thread I don't know jack.

hehe, don't worry, we're all in the same 'let's have the ppl who do this for a living double-check' boat anyway. And I think Derf's thread was first, but I can't be sure!

I've did some more research on the case and well, looks like it's just what you said Satis: a freaking big case. I don't mind, and I don't those 20€ I spend more either. I get a nice and stylish case, a 400w power supply (I'll need it) , a lot of fans (I'll get two more installed I guess) and last but not least: enough space to see wtf I'm doing when installing/taking out hardware. I've seen enough of the horror of bending my hand in inhuman positions to screw loose a HD or something.

So now the case, mobo, CPU and primary CPU cooler are done. Any more criticsm is welcome, tho I feel I've got the primary goods all worked out.

So basically deciding by your mobo in some distant future you are going for two gpu's. Its wise to take into consideration that if it is your plan you really need a psu atleast 500W, and as i remember reading you have extra hdd(s) its worth a thought.

SLI? Nah, I'm not thinking of that or Ati Crossfire. Why would you think that? And ati cards don't suck as much power as nvidia.

Besides, my next pc will probably be an entirely new one...with PCI express and the new CPU sockets I won't be able to salvage my gfx card etc. anyway.

fyi, nvidia does SLI also. But anyway, SLI isn't a requirement. I'm cool with your choices thus far, myself.

And you told this to who?

If anyone noticed i asked somewhere in the middle whas the difference between a8n mobo and k8v mobo but i gather one is pci and the other is agp right?