New Athlon 64 X2 based machine

[PixelJockey]

I been draging my feet on building a new workstation, but that may have paid off with the soon to be released Athlon 64 X2. This is my current list of parts, all from Newegg (except the CPU which they don't have listed yet).

CPU - Aathlon 64 X2 4800+ $1,023.00
MOBO - ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $176.00
RAM - CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail $299.00
HD - 2x Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600JD 160GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM $164.00
Video - PNY Quadro FX1400 128MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI-Express x16 Video Card - Retail $755.00
CD/DVD - NEC Silver IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3520A - OEM $53.00
Floppy - ALPS Silver 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive - OEM $8.00
Case - Lian Li PC-V1000 Silver Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail $199.00
Power - ENERMAX Noisetaker AX Series EG495AX-VE SFMA 2.0 ATX12V 485W Power Supply - Retail $116.00
OS Microsoft Windows XP Professional 64BIT Edition 1 - OEM $155.00
TOTAL: $2,948.00

[percydaman]

looks good to be but dangit 2gb of memory is not enough for that system...man you could be using a crapload of memory with that setup... I frequently run out of memory with my 2gb machine... go for 3gb minimum....scrimp in other areas if you have to...itll be worth it...

[jujubee]

Nice system - ASUS makes great mobos too. Just three suggestions:

1) Check out the prices on pricewatch.com as well. They're often cheaper than newegg.

2) Set up SATA RAID striping if your mobo supports it (probably does.)

3) Scrap the 64 bit OS now unless you're planning on having unsupported hardware lying around. All the reviews keeps on saying that the OS is not worth it at the moment and for everyone to just wait for Longhorn to come out. Weird things like the 'find' feature in outlook doesn't work...

[PixelJockey]

Yeah, I have been waffling over the OS. Odds are I'll end up with XP Pro.

I can certainly add more RAM. Although I have 2GB at work and haven't had any memory problems. I'll see if Corsair has a crapload series available.

And, yes I plan on setting up a RAID.

I did search around for prices other than Newegg, but when you add in the shipping costs from different vendors it's often not worth it to buy from multiple sources. Although I am getting the video card from PCMall for $648, that's definately worth the shipping cost.

[RErender]

If your box is going to be mainly a Max/rendering machine I would go with the 64bit OS, yes it has it's quarks but the available memory usage and ability to run 64bit apps (as they become more available) more than outweighs not being able to search emails imho.

[PixelJockey]

Damn you RErender! Now you've got me swinging back to 64 bit. I'm just going to flip a coin. It's way easier than using my brain and more reliable.

[RErender]

It's easy, have both!

[jujubee]

When's the price of 4 gigs+ going to come down??? Probably well after Longhorn gets released...

[percydaman]

who says its going to go down? supply and demand dictates prices and I wouldn't be surprised if the increased demand didn't lower prices at all...

[RErender]

I remember paying $40 bucks a meg, RAM is cheap!

[jujubee]

$40 a meg... Was this back when Commodore 64 had the tape drive? Geez...

I say you go just skip the OS and RAM and go straight for the Quad mobo then... Whats the big deal since you're already spending a couple grand. Besides, don't you want to be the first kid on the block to own one? I think we're all curious to hear how it runs...

[RErender]

lol

[Da_elf]

look. you guys need to stop these discussions. im drooling all over my keyboard thinking about dual core dual machines. with 64 version of vray on a kick ass rendeer farm with a gazillion megs of ram....ok ok. time to wake up.....