Looking for system building suggestions

dbk723 · Post by **dbk723** » Thu May 11, 2006 10:23 am

I am planning to build a new system sometime around the end of the summer and I'm looking for a few suggestions on components. Some of the parts I was considering are:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ CPU - I thought I might as well save up a while longer and buy a higher-end CPU, especially since I have no intention of overclocking it.

Zalman CNPS 9500 heatsink & cooler - seems to be about the quietest and most efficient out there.

ATI All-In-Wonder X1900 Video card with Arctic Cooling X2 VGA cooler - I'm not really big on gaming, but I do some 3D rendering with Bryce and Poser, so I wanted a good display card. Also I edit a lot of video, so the AVIVO chips would be nice to speed up format conversions and improve DVD quality.

Antec P180 case

2 GB Corsair DDR RAM

Some kind of internal hard and optical drives.

This is kind of a hypothetical system at present, I definitely might cutting back on some of these items by the time I actually get around to buying the parts. Also I haven't mentioned the mobo or power supply yet.

Any suggestions on a motherboard? I had been considering an ASUS A8N-SLI Premium board, but I wasn't sure how great an idea this was because (1) I am unlikely to ever need to connect 2 video cards and (2) I'm pretty much committed to the ATI card and I'm not sure if an Nforce 4 chipset is going to be a handicap. I mainly liked the Premium board because of the passive cooling on the southbridge chip and the built-in sound and gigabit LAN. Would I be better off with a non-Crossfire Radeon chipset board?

Also need a little help with a power supply. I was interested in some of the Antec NeoHE series, but a lot of people complained about it not working with ASUS boards. I also looked at the Enermax Liberty series but read the fans were actually pretty loud (although the modular cables would make wiring up the notoriously tricky P180 case a lot easier.) Have also heard a bit about the Seasonic power supplies, but haven't seen any comments regarding anything other than the fact that they're quiet. Any favorites?

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Thu May 11, 2006 1:00 pm

Have also heard a bit about the Seasonic power supplies, but haven't seen any comments regarding anything other than the fact that they're quiet. Any favorites?

Well, Seasonic PSU's have been recommended by SPCR since the earliest days of the site (see the reviews in the Recommended section) so yeah you could say they are SPCR favourites. However with a P180 you might have problems with cable length, so you might have to go for an Enermax Liberty and mod the fan.

Sparkytfl · Post by **Sparkytfl** » Thu May 11, 2006 1:15 pm

I have the AIW 1800. Besides the bit of latency on the tv tuner part, which i guess is common with tuner cards, making it impossible to use it for my super nintendo, I'm happy with it.

As far as chipset handicaps, I used to be suspicious, but just ran benchmarks after replacing my a8r with an a8n, my results were actually a bit higher.

jayb59874 · Post by **jayb59874** » Fri May 12, 2006 2:34 am

I am considering a very similar although toned down version of the comp you are looking to build(San Diego 3700+, X1800XT, P150 case) The main issues I have found while trolling boards concerning the Asus A8N series and particularly the NForce4 chipset is the heat this chipset is reported to produce.

Having passive cooling is a great thing however I do believe the X2 is rumoured to pretty much blast hot air towards the chipset. This will be more relevant to you than me as I assume the X1900 probably produces more heat than the X1800.

Only other thing I would comment on is maybe the Scythe ninja, from what I read here it seems to be a favoured CPU cooler, however again it may be more relevant to me as I believe using a 3700+ that is not overclocked can be cooled completed passively with this ...

I do not know what recommendations I can make as I am researching the solutions myself at the moment but wanted to add my 2 cent and give you stuff to research before placing your order, hope I have helped in some way

dfrost · Post by **dfrost** » Fri May 12, 2006 2:28 pm

dbk723 wrote:Zalman CNPS 9500 heatsink & cooler - seems to be about the quietest and most efficient out there.

Have you read the SPCR review of the CNPS 9500? Not "the quietest ... out there" by SPCR standards. So you'd better also read the follow-up article.

jackylman · Post by **jackylman** » Fri May 12, 2006 4:43 pm

If you're not building the system until the end of summer, you may want to wait and see what Intel's Conroe chips are like. They're most likely going to be faster and cooler, but if Core Duo prices are an indicator, Conroe will be expensive too.

CPU: Assuming you're sticking with AMD, I'd recommend the 4400 over the 4800. OC'ing 200 MHz shouldn't be too hard with CrystalCPUID and it'll save you about $200. Be aware that the Toledo core (4400, 4800) uses more power because of its extra cache when compared to the Manchester core (3800, 4200, 4600).

Mobo: ABIT AT8-32. It uses ATI's new Crossfire chipset, which is easily cooled with a heatsink. ABIT also has great fan control and temp monitoring. The ASUS PSU incompatibility and their subpar fan control have kind of soured me on them even though I've had good success with their Intel boards in the past. Link

Case/PSU: P150 and the included Antec Neo430 PSU. From what I've read on here, the P180 just isn't worth it for the average user.

Video: The AIW series has a built-in TV tuner. If you're not going to use that, you'd be better off with the ASUS X1600XT, which has VIVO (a Rage Theater chip) and a large, passive heatsink. Link