Computer geekery

[plonq]

Here is my current shopping list (subject to tweaking here and there prior to purchase).


Sorry guys, no Mac for me this time around.  I'm open to ideas and suggestions if you've had good/bad experience with any of these, or think I'm setting off in the wrong direction.

Motherboard:
ASUS -- (A8V-E-DELUXE) (VIA K8T890) AMD SOCKET 939 / 8 CHANNEL AUDIO / DUAL CAHNNEL MEMORY / 10-1000MBPS GIGA LAN / 8X USB 2.0 / SATA / RAID 0,1 / IEEE 1394 / (3 PCI / 2 PCI-EX1 / 1 PCI-EX16 / 4 DDR 400 / MAX 4.0GB MEMORY)
CPU
AMD --  ATHLON 64 (3200+) SOCKET 939 (64 BIT) (RETAIL W/ COOLER) (3 YEARS MFG WARRANTY)
Memory
2 x Generic --  PC-3200 DDR (400MHZ) 512MB W/O ECC
Video
Sapphire --  (RADEON X800 PRO-VIVO) (RETAIL) 256MB DDR / PCI-Ex16 / TV-OUT / VIDEO-IN / DVI
Hard Drive
Seagate --  (BARRACUDA SERIAL ATA V) 200GB (8MB) / 7200 RPM (SATA) (5 YEARS MFG WARRANTY)

The two components I'm wavering on the most are the CPU (I'd save $60 going with the 3000+) and the video card (because there's a question of availability).  I'd love to go with an X850, but I'm not eager to part with big dollars when I'm pretty sure an X800 will meet my needs for a few years.

Comments

[plonq.livejournal.com]

What advantage does the nForce4 offer over the K8T chipset?

[tamarik.livejournal.com]

They don't suck.

Seriously, VIA chipsets are nothing but trouble. I've never had one that didn't require some kind of voodoo to get running stable. Meanwhile the nForce chipset systems I've built have been the closest damn thing to plug-and-play for PC systems I've ever seen.

[plonq.livejournal.com]

I've never encountered any stability problems with the VIA chipset. I've done some more reading since last night, and it appears that the nVidia chipset motherboard outperforms the VIA one on most fronts - though the authors of the report were quick to point out that this was only at maximum stress levels on both chipsets. In RL performance there is very little difference.

My main reason for going with the nVidia-based one would be for the SLI feature - though that would be a matter of future expansion. I'm not about to plug in dual 6800 cards just now. The nVidia board also costs 30% more, so I have to weigh whether it's worth paying 30% more to get a feature that I may never use.

[anthony-lion.livejournal.com]

What's an SLI feature?
(I'm a bit out of it when it comes to what's the latest and greatest buzzword... )

[plonq.livejournal.com]

The short answer is that it supports dual GPUs.

[anthony-lion.livejournal.com]

GPU?

Not CPU?

You mean that they support two graphics cards?

Well, the Desktop PC I use at the office recently got a ATI Sapphire PCI card with dual connectors.(One 'VGA' and one of those newfangled 'loads of tiny pins' connectors)
At the same time the 19" Sony Trinitron monitor was swapped for two 19" Sony TFT monitors...
I disabled the built-in card, though, but a colleague says it can use that, too, but it will slow the system down a bit...
(He tried)

[tamarik.livejournal.com]

Most all systems support two video cards, however newer nForce4 systems support dual 16x PCI-Express GPU's that work in tandem for 3d acceleration and such. Kinda like the old Voodoo2 SLI...

Addendum

[plonq.livejournal.com]

... though I admit that I'm definitely leaning toward the nForce one just now in spite of the price difference.