lemme know what yall think...

[SniperDude]

K, I'm in the process of re-vamping my system, money is an hinderance, I can only afford about $250 a month right now. What I'm looking to do is:

Asus GeForce4 FX5700:
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=14-121-166&depa=0

Kingston Hyper X PC 3200 (2-4 of these eventually):
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=20-144-160&depa=0

AMD Athlon XP 3200+ Barton:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-390&depa=0

Cooler Master JET 7 heatsink and fan:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-103-152&depa=0

I already have:

Asus A7V880:
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=13-131-501&DEPA=0

RAIDMAX "Silence" w/ 420 watt:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-156-147&depa=0

with pidly Athlon 2700+, 512 kingston PC2700 and GeForce4 FX 5200 Ultra.

Let me know what yall think or if yall have any suggestions.

Late

[Rbstr]

save up a bit and grab a 9800pro, or a X700/6600 when they come out for AGP that extra $50 is gona be worth alot of performance.

use the ram you have currently and buy the 2 sticks of ram together at that same time, the case looks decent enough as well i a have a raidmax, it's decetn especial for the $50 i paid

[snowwolfe]

Question......if it says 4x/8x AGP does that mean it can work in either a 4x or 8x?

[Rbstr]

yes, but without 8x on the mobo and card your relay missing out on performance

[Daleon]

Could save alot on processor here:

XP3200 oem for $107
http://www.smksuperstore.com/catalog/viewitem.asp?ID=7354

Mine shipped last Friday, so hoping to have it soon.

This is a much better deal on ram that zodiac found:

$169 for 2x512 pc3200 with very good timings and reviews
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=20-220-006&depa=0&manufactory=BROWSE

Get a real heatsink and not some flashy gimmick. I wouldn't buy that video card if it was $75. FX series = crap now. Take the money you could save on cpu/memory and buy a 6800GT\X800XT.

[snowwolfe]

Whats a good video card I could get then, my mobo supports 4x AGP. Or am I better off just getting a new mobo, if so which do you reccomend?

Processor: Intel P4 2.4 GHz with 533 FSB

EDIT: This motherboard looks good for 40 bucks. Im pretty sure it would work with my processor, but im not the expert here, which is why im asking you guys. http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=13-139-144&DEPA=0

[Rbstr]

that mobo will work with your CPU, and paired with a new midrange card like a 9600pro will definently help your performance.

But i would save up for a whole new system unless you won't be able to scrape together the cash by next spring.

[snowwolfe]

Yeah im not going to be able to buy a whole new system. How reliable are soyos?

[SniperDude]

I could care less about flashy-ness. The only reason I'm going with that heatsink and fan combo is that a friend recommended it to me. He has the same one and stands by it like there's no tomorrow.

*EDIT Also, I'm rather new to the whole "building and working on my own computer" thing, so a couple questions I have:

Dual Channel...correct me if I'm wrong... with dual channel RAM and Mobo, can double the capasity of the RAM installed, right? i'm guessing that would also make things unstable.

CAS Latency? Talking to people, the lower the better, but how can you monitor things like that and can you "tweak" it in any way and still be stable?

Any suggestions or hits are greatly appreciated.

L8

[SDM]

Taken from Corsair's website:



CAS Latency: What Is It, and How Does It Impact Performance?

This is the question the RAM Guy gets asked more than any other question. So, I figured I'd put together a bulletin containing my $0.02 worth!

First of all, what is CAS?

"CAS" is short for "Column Address Strobe". A DRAM memory can be thought of as a matrix, kind of like a spreadsheet with memory cells instead of numbers and formulas. Like the spreadsheet, each cell has a row address and a column address (like "AA57" or "R23C34" in the spreadsheet). As you might have guessed, there is also a RAS signal, which is shorthand for "Row Address Strobe".

And, what do you mean by "latency"?

Latency refers to the time that you are waiting to get what you need. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as "the interval between stimulus and response".

Now, how does CAS work?

To understand this let's walk through a simplified version of how the memory controller actually reads the memory. First, the chip set accesses the ROW of the memory matrix by putting an address on the memory's address pins and activating the RAS signal. Then, we have to wait a few clock cycles (known as RAS-to-CAS Delay). Then, the column address is put on the address pins, and the CAS signal is activated, to access the correct COLUMN of the memory matrix. Then, we wait a few clock cycles -- THIS IS KNOWN AS CAS LATENCY! -- and then the data appears on the pins of the RAM.

So, for CAS-2 you wait 2 clock cycles and for CAS-3 you wait 3 clock cycles?

Bingo!

So, CAS-2 is 33% faster than CAS-3?

Whoa, not so fast! There are a LOT of other factors in the memory performance. Here are a few of the main ones:

Sometimes you have to move to a different row in memory. This means activating RAS, waiting RAS-to-CAS delay, then doing the CAS latency thing.
Other times, you do a "burst" read, when you pull in a lot of data in one big block. In that case, CAS is only activated ONCE, at the beginning of the burst.
Also, don't forget the most important thing: processors have big caches! The cache is where the processor stores recently accessed instructions and data. The cache "hit rate", i.e., the percentage of times the processor finds the information it needs in its own cache, is typically greater than 95%!
OK, OK, so what's the bottom line?

So, the bottom line is, moving from CAS-3 to CAS-2 will offer a percentage performance increase in the low single digits for most applications. Programs which are known to be memory intensive (you gamers might know of some...) will see the best improvement.

The other thing to keep in mind is that CAS-2 memory will run FASTER ( some review sites have taken it to 160MHz!) than CAS-3 memory. So, if you're thinking of overclocking your system (now or in the future), CAS-2 is your best bet for speed and stability.

So, the Ram Guy sez...

Buy CAS-2 if [1] you want to wring the last bit of performance out of your system, or [2] you're thinking of overclocking, either now or in the future, or [3] it costs the same as CAS-3, which it sometimes does...

Otherwise, CAS-3 memory should meet your requirements

[Daleon]

Ok, if you wanna go with that HSF its fine. There are defintely better out there for that price range though. But if your not gonna OC its not a big deal at all.

Dual Channel - Does not double your memory. If you got paired or closely matched memory you can do dual channel. It will increase the memory bandwidth giving you about 5-10% memory performance increase on an AMD XP platform, even less on an AMD64. On an intel its much greater. My memory bench's almost double when in dual channel on my intel system. Its still not that big a deal, just nice to have as its usually a "free" performance increase.

Lantency - Cas2 is preferred. The tighter the timings the memory can run, the faster it will perform. Also a bonus to memory that can run at tight timings at DDR400 is that you can usually loosen the timings to increase the speed. So taking 200mhz up to say 250mhz giving you DDR500 at like cas 2.5 or 3. This is mostly useful if your OC'ing your CPU FSB and need to run your memory at a 1:1 or 5:4 ratio, otherwise your limited how far you can OC your CPU by how fast your memory can get up to.

Also a good thing about it is it will last longer. FSB's will continue to go up. Intel will be increasing from 800 to 1066 or something soon. So memory can that run at 533DDR or faster will still be useful for future cpu upgrades. Though with DDR2 slowly improving and other stuff coming its still got a fairly short life span.

[Electrofreak]

My AMD 64 (socket 754) can't even run dual-channel at all :\
However, it is still an amazing CPU for the price I spent on it.

[HunterKiller]

i say don't get 4 stickjs of ram only 2 and use the left over $$ for a better GPU.

[Corrosion]

My AMD 64 (socket 754) can't even run dual-channel at all :\
However, it is still an amazing CPU for the price I spent on it.
Ditto. :(

But my CPU is limited by my crappy graphics card.

[Sentrosi]

Pass through for audio = Sux

That case only has Mic/Phone passthrough, no motheboard headers. Suggest going with a different case.

[Rbstr]

hmm i didn't notice that, that is something that would bug the hell out of me. Mobo headers for the win, speaking of witch, does anyoen know were i can get those seperatly i need two firewires and a mic/headpone set. as my case has openings for those but no plugs in place

[SniperDude]

Already have the case and I like it, not worried about the pass through audio, not really worried about audio at all in fact. The onboard Asus audio works fine for me.

oh, and what is the whole mobo header thing?

[Sentrosi]

Motherboard headers are pins that stick out of the motherboard for things like USB ports, Audio and Firewire ports on the outside of the case. They plug directly into the motherboard.