[Chris]

Ahh,

I've been out of the hardware scene too long. Dual/single cores? Do you want 3 or 4 video cards along with your 1000w PSU? Ahh, too much new stuff.

Anyway, this is what I'm planning on getting so far:

CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
Vid. - ATi Radeon x1800xt 512MB
RAM - Atleast a gig (PC-xxxx?) Advice needed.

I'm not 100% on the motherboard yet, but I'm leaning toward the Asus A8N-SLI. I'm not running SLI so it seems pointless, but the reviews on the board are pretty good.

Anyway, anyone got any advice on whats good, whats not, etcetc.

Thanks,
Chris

P.S. I know that Pentium D that overclocks from 2.8 to 4.1 seems good, but I want something that'll last longer than 6 months. Thx

[mistawiskas]

I'm in the same pickle. I plan the new build for this fall, so I have plenty of time to do my research. There seems to be new tech coming into the market on the pents that needs to be studied. i was leaning towards AMD until I started reading a little on the new Intel cores. I may wait until the real world proof is out on the new cores and push the build off until the winter. I've pretty much resigned myself to knowing that whatever I choose, it'll be obsolete or , at least, 'old' technology, by the time it's 6 months old. The innovation is traveling too fast for me to keep up with it.
I have decided on some of the specs i need:
SATA
PCIe-SLI
7900GT (at least) in SLI
2gigs minimum pc3200 dual channel
dual core, 64 bit
550w PSU (min.)
MOBO w/ minimum 5 pci slots

[Lord Kain]

with that kind of machine, I suggest 2gb of RAM. Makes the alt-tabbing faster and will satisfy the most voracious games

And about the board, I have a A8N-E. If you don't need SLI, why not get that?

[Chris]

The only thing that's a turnoff from me getting the X2 3800+ is that AMD won't support DDR2 until the NEXT socket. Boooooooo

Yeah, Wiskas, you're probably playing it smart by waiting 'til Fall. I think Conroe is being released in July along with AM2 (AMD) in September.. Maybe I should just wait, lol.

Thanks for the advice,
Chris

[WoodButcher]

I don't know why, don't believe all you read. I've got a new pentD 840 (not hyper) I like the fact that it's dual core, I can run the virus scans and almost any other program no problem. It's a good multitasker. Out of the box it's at 2.8. My asus mobo overclocks set at 10% so 3080. It won't boot at 15%. I have another pc with pent4 3.4 hyperthreaded running 5% over at 3500 on an MSI mobo which is really fast but can be frozen with fewer tasks. I like the asus bios better as it comes with pc probe a windows utility for temps, usage and memory monitoring. When I find a grand or so laying around I'll get the best of both worlds, Dual core, Hyperthreading enabled Unlocked multiplers!!!! I've read about alot of wild overclock but from the little bit I've done I don't see how.

[ivanolo]

Wait until early next year! Microsoft will have launched Vista, AMD's and Intel's new architectures will have gone through at least a couple of revisions, and prices for each platform will have gone down. Not only that, but you'll have saved more money, too.