AMD Help pls

Magyk · Rated PG Joined: 27 Mar 2006 Posts: 20

I am in the process of stepping up my PC to a brand new build. I am looking to switch over to an AMD chip over intel because of the price and performance differences, but would like some input into what i should get. right now i have it specced like this:

ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX1517

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 1GHz HT Socket 939

CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200)

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s

and finally 2 of these in SLI: XFX PV-T73G-UDD3 GeForce 7600 GT XXX (590MHz) 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card

Now, my questions are:
1. Will this be a worthwile upgrade from a P4 2.4ghz PC running 1gb or pc3200 corsair ram and a 6600GT?
2. Should i go with an Athlon 64 FX2 for the multitasking?
3. Will this be able to handle large photo editing/video conversions, but not neccesarily while doing anything else that is major like gaming....just simple browsing while i work?
4. Is this the best bang for the buck?

Hellfire · Rated XXX Joined: 05 Aug 2003 Posts: 3473

Looks like a good build to me.

Good rated MB, CPU, Ram.

I personally prefer Seagate hard drives to WD, a "tad" faster and better warranty. Plus less issues IMHO...

Vid Cards are good, again, I prefer EVGA or BFG. Nothing against XFX (friend has their cards).

My only recommendation on the cards is to go with a more powerful 7900 instead of the SLI set-up. Games have to have profiles to take advantage of the SLI, not every game has one. You could build your own profile. Or get a more powerful card for the price of the 2 7600 (not familiar with the 7600) and THEN in 6-8 months buy a second 7900 cheaper for the SLI.

Should be much better than the Intel rig, especially since you're going to a better vid, and 64bit cpu (won't use it to the full potential unless you have a 64bit os though).

If you can afford it, go for the FX2, little pricey though, not sure if it's worth the bucks...

Will be fine to handle large photo's/video conversions. I have a secondary system that's less than that and never have an issue with video/graphics, even when playing light duty games.

Magyk · Rated PG Joined: 27 Mar 2006 Posts: 20

Right now with my existing system i am working on Scanning in Pictures and printing them out for my wife's scrapbooking projects. I run into problems with the size of the files because the scanner is top quality and same with the photo printer. so i run into a huge hit on CPU and RAM when i am trying to print these files or edit them in PS.

Noob question here: how much more of a difference will the 64 bit Win XP be in terms of performance?

Hellfire · Rated XXX Joined: 05 Aug 2003 Posts: 3473

Well, other than the 64bit OS, you would really need the software to be 64bit. Not sure if PS would take advantage of 64bit though...

In general operations, and even non-64bit programs I saw a good increase in performance. Even in game playing I could see a big difference, especially in load times.

werty316 · Rated NC-17 Joined: 15 Jun 2004 Posts: 187

64-bit XP won't give you any performance boost. Don't get 64-bit just get 32-bit. Give this a read:

http://www.thinkcomputers.org/index.php?x=articles&id=37

XFX is a good choice as they have a double lifetime warranty. I would either choose XFX or BFG. Everything else is good.

Magyk · Rated PG Joined: 27 Mar 2006 Posts: 20

What do you mean about the profiles? do you mean that each game has to be coded for a SLI setup inside the game, or that you need profiles for the card to use SLI in the game?

If the case is that you need to get profiles from nvidia, is there a list of games that take advantage of it somewhere?

Thanks for the info on 64bit XP also, that link was very informative.

Magyk · Rated PG Joined: 27 Mar 2006 Posts: 20

Did some looking into of the profiles bit, and all the games that I play are covered under the SLI.

Now the question is whether to go with 2 7600GT or 1 7900GT. Any performance differences that i might notice with that?

Kilamon · Rated XXX Joined: 22 Mar 2005 Posts: 811

DFI Motherboard!!!!!!!!!

get the SLI-DR. It's raid5 capable. Grin

Hellfire · Rated XXX Joined: 05 Aug 2003 Posts: 3473

From what I understand a 7900GT is better (slightly) than a 7800GTX. So I would imagine a 7900GT would be significantly better than a single 7600. However, putting it into SLI, would probably make it comparable to a 7900GT (would have to look up benchs to be certain).

Personally, I'd go with a 7900GT then down the road pick up another 7900 when they're pretty cheap....

When the 6600's and 6800's just came out, I could afford either the 6600 SLI or 6800. I went with the 6600SLI. I outperformed a 6800 only by about 5%....AND the game had to have a profile to take advantage of it....I should've bought the 6800 instead of the 6600SLI...

This time, I bought a 7800GT from eVGA, and with their "Step-Up" program, within 90 days I can get a 100% refund on the price I paid for the 7800GT and step-up to any other model. So now that the 7900's are out, I can go up to a 7900GT for about $50 more than I bought my 7800GT...

I would agree to go with a DFI board, gives you many more options...however, unless you are able to deal with issues, incompatibilities, and really picky settings, don't get the Expert...has issues that even drives me up the wall...

BeerCheeze · Posted: Mon, 27 Mar 2006 16:24:19 Post Subject:

Personally I'm a big fan of Dual Core/CPU setups. They really are much better. If you can afford it, go for an X2.

Also for the 64 bit OS, XP x64 is more of a pain that it's worth. I'm running it and not overly happy. I even spoke with AMD about it and they said they are very disappointed with MS's over all support for XP x64. Basically the pushed MS to release it because Vista was so far away.

Wait for Vista (if it ever comes out).