Building New PC, need help

[Hinchman]

Ok guys here is the plan as it stands.

 

AMD 6400 x2 processor in the GIGABYTE GA-MA790FX-DQ6 AM2+/AM2 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard

 

Now i was thiking about getting the quad core Phenom.

With the same board but i am not sure its the right choice. I will also be playing video games on this computer but that is very much in the background and not my primary concern.

 

I would like to know what people know about memory maxing problems with Gigabyte that are known or not known. can you max it out or do you suffer the problem you have with many boards only recongnizing half of what you put in. I understand i may have to play in the BIOS with the memory timing on any board.

 

Is the quad core trustworthy from AMD and the gigabyte board i have heard of them running very hot. Has anyone heard about this?

 

Can anyone suggest another board and why?

 

I will also be adding either ATI video card or nvidia not sure yet.

I will need at least 4 USB 1 firewire and internal sata hookups

 

I plan on running the OS on a 250gb SATA and 500GB SATA for storage.

what do you all think?

[Phil O'Keefe]

I wish I could help you, but I have hardly any experience with Gigabyte motherboards. I'm running an (old now ) AMD Athlon 4200 X2 on a Nforce4 chipset Asus A8N-SLI Premium, and it's been a great setup for me. I can overclock it to 4800 X2 speeds, and it still runs REALLY cool.

 

I've had good luck with Asus boards and Nforce chipsets.

 

If you're running Windows Vista, you can probably go higher with the amount of RAM, but 2GB seems to be the best amount to stick with on Windows XP based systems.

[soldierblue]

The Phenom doesn't compare particularly well to the 6400+. If you wanted to go quad core I would look at Q6600s. The quad Phenom is "trustworthy", but its just not keeping up with Intel's stuff at the same price point.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017

 

The 6400 is a very fast chip, but bear in mind the K8 architecture is more or less topped at this point, and there wont be much overclocking headroom.

To be honest I would really consider going Intel. Right now the Core 2 is the best chip out there. For 6400 money you could pick up an E6750, which will have some decent headroom for overclocking.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115029

 

As for graphics, the hot commodity is the nVidia 8800GT. They're a bit hard to find right now, but once you find one the 512mb version should run you no more than $280. Another option being the Radeon 3870, that would run you about $230 - $250, but it is slower, you get what you pay for here.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130296

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102713

 

Gigabyte makes good boards, you cant go wrong there. If you go ATI for graphics, get a board with an AMD chipset thats Crossfire capable, if you go nVidia stick with an nVidia chipset on an SLI capable board. I think its a good move to make sure youre Crossfire/SLI capable, just incase you wanted to add a second graphics card down the road you could.

 

General rule of thumb, 2 gigs of ram is enough... for now.

[Alndln2]

The Phenom doesn't compare particularly well to the 6400+. If you wanted to go quad core I would look at Q6600s. The quad Phenom is "trustworthy", but its just not keeping up with Intel's stuff at the same price point.

Thats because the early release Phenoms were crippled. Won't be the case with the impending release of the 3ghz models onward. I'll wait for those and some real tests(including DAW) before passing judgement especially with Penryn being not much of an improvement over the standard C2.

[soldierblue]

True. But if you're building before newer steppings of Phenoms and the Yorkfields come out...

[elsongs]

I wish I could help you, but I have hardly any experience with Gigabyte motherboards. I'm running an (old now ) AMD Athlon 4200 X2 on a Nforce4 chipset Asus A8N-SLI Premium, and it's been a great setup for me. I can overclock it to 4800 X2 speeds, and it still runs REALLY cool. I've had good luck with Asus boards and Nforce chipsets. If you're running Windows Vista, you can probably go higher with the amount of RAM, but 2GB seems to be the best amount to stick with on Windows XP based systems.

 

LOL, I have the exact same MoBo, though with an Athlon X2 3800. Still rockin' after - gasp - TWO years! Runs fine, though the onboard Firewire doesn't work for some reason and one of the LAN interfaces doesn't work properly (though the second one works just fine).

[philbo]

I admit I haven't been keeping up with the latest developments in PC mobos... but I can't imagine the need to over-clock in this day & age, unless you are trying to real-time video processing or something. It seems a needless risk.

[Phil O'Keefe]

I've had no problems with my onboard firewire at all Elson. I also have a PCI firewire card... between the Digi 002, SSL Duende and external firewire drives, I need the extra card. I did have some issues with one of the Ethernet ports too, but I'm actually not using either one at the moment.

 

I built mine right after the SLI Premium was released, and it's been a great setup. I have a ATI X550 for the graphics card - DAW's don't put a lot of stress on the graphics system, and I'm not a gamer. One of the nice things about this board is the heatpipe cooling for the chipset. I have a heatpipe / low RPM CPU fan in there too, and a few quiet varispeed case fans, and the thing is probably the quietest system I've ever owned, and one of the coolest running setups I've ever had - even when overclocking it.

 

If I had to build a system today, I'd be strongly tempted by the Intel Core Duos. They're very good chips. Actually, I'd probably lean towards a quad core... if I'm gonna build a new system, I might as well go all out.

 

No Vista for me though - not yet anyway.

[Philter]

I just built a quad core system but with a Gigabyte Pentium board... the GA-X38-DQ6. I have a Q6600 overclocked to 3.2 ghz with only the stock CPU fan that came with it, and the thing stays cool. That is a pretty significant speed boost on that processor. I put 4 gigs of 1000 DDR2 and overclocked it to 1066 without any trouble. It recognizes all the memory in XP. Looking forward to adding memory if Vista is ever fixed. The price of the board I used is the same on Newegg. From that limited experience, I would recommend that brand motherboard.

 

My only complaint about that board (and also from looking at yours I see a similar issue) is that there is a second power supply port way up by the CPU... if you have your power supply at the bottom of the case, that is a very long run across the guts of the system. I overlooked this port for a while and had a scare at first when the system would not post because of it.

 

Personally I would recommend building around a Q6600 as I think it's a great bargain, especially for how crazy of an overclocker it is. It's like a $40 difference and I would say it's worth it. The reviews on the Q6600 are uniformly great.

 

I looked up the board you mentioned on Newegg and noticed that the PCI-E slots are listed as 8x as opposed to 16x on the one I built... I thought that was a little weird, a lot of the new video cards are x16. There might be an explanation for that, I don't know.

 

Last night I did a string arrangement using this PC as the sampler/synth workhorse... I ran 5 instances of Atmosphere and 10 different string patches in GPO/kontact player... maxed around 35% CPU usage with every instrument playing. I am content.

 

By the way with either board I would recommend going with ATI because of the Crossfire compatibility of the boards. FWIW I got a Sapphire HD 3850 and I'm very pleased with it.

[Rabid]

I'm really happy with the combination of the Q6600 and an Intel D975XBX2 motherboard. Make sure you put such a machine in a case with good cooling. The Q6600 is at a real good price point right now and it makes me regret buying a couple Core2Duo processors a while back. The quad was like $50 more and well worth it.

 

I have one for home that I need to finish. The last thing I need is a good ATI video board. I refuse to buy nVedia board after their "bubble spam" drivers that they refuse to edit.

 

(If you are wondering what the bubble spam driver is. The drivers for some SLI boards cause a bubble to pop up every time you start your system telling you that SLI has been disabled and you need to buy a second card. There is no way to turn it off unless you turn all bubbles off. After MUCH complaining on the web and on their forums they released an updated driver and left the bubble spam in.)

[spokenward]

I built a Q6600 machine last month and I am pleased. It seems kind of solid and effortless.

 

GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3P Rev 2.0 LGA 775 Intel P35

ZEROtherm Nirvana NV120 120mm

I always go for a downmarket fanless video card. I am not sure if that's a great idea. It's my habit. (this one is a GIGABYTE GV-NX72G512P2 GeForce 7200GS 256MB)

 

In the last two months I have built 2 Gigabyte boards. They were just fine. The Nirvana cooler is big. Bigger than I expected. I wasted time because I realized that I could have oriented the CPU cooler more effectively given the case that I used. Remove, clean, regrease, etc. I think that there is a lot of headroom in the build. I haven't really pushed it yet. I am digging the eSATA.

[Philter]

 

I have one for home that I need to finish. The last thing I need is a good ATI video board. I refuse to buy nVedia board after their "bubble spam" drivers that they refuse to edit.

 

 

 

I don't know what your price range is but check out the HD 3850... right now it has the same kind of bang-for-the-buck going for it that the Q6600

does, IMHO. I was psyched by the level of performance compared to the low power draw and heat.

[alphajerk]

 

(If you are wondering what the bubble spam driver is. The drivers for some SLI boards cause a bubble to pop up every time you start your system telling you that SLI has been disabled and you need to buy a second card. There is no way to turn it off unless you turn all bubbles off. After MUCH complaining on the web and on their forums they released an updated driver and left the bubble spam in.)

 

 

not true. the OG drivers that shipped with the cards did this but the drivers from a year ago and since do not do this... i have put together many systems and none after updating the driver do this, although i know exactly what you are talking about. i dont bother loading in the CD drivers with the cards anymore. i just use the latest from the site.

 

although my fav looking card is the HIS HD2600XT.... those pipes are sweet looking. shame you cant see in computers racked up. ATI doesnt play as well with games. could be a point of frustration for him.

[alphajerk]

if you are going to go with intel, look at hte x38 chipset and not the p35. p35 is from the 965 series and buggy just like the 965 were and not tolerant of RAM like the 975 [and x38] series is. the x38 sets you up for 45nm chips and 1333FSB where the 975 is stuck at 65/1066. you also can go with DDR3 RAM later on with the X38.

[alphajerk]

also, with the video card... if you are even thinking of moving ot vista, get a directX10 compatible card. also make sure it will display the resolution you want to be at.