Building an AMD gaming rig

[autoboy]

My old gaming rig, an Athlon64 3400+ 2.4Ghz S754 AGP X850XT rig is getting a little long in the tooth. In fact, this was my first ever silent PC many many years ago and it is still going strong. It was a water cooled rig once, but I pulled it all when the pump died. Anyways...

I'm sticking to AMD because I'm a bit of a fanboy, all my other machines are AMD, and it makes it easy to switch around components when I retire them from their initial role.

I'll reuse my case, Seasonic 430W super tornado PSU, DVD drive, Actic Cooling Alpine 64, Raptor, and Creative xfi music. I use a 21" CRT monitor at 1600x1200 resolution for gaming. My primary interest is first person shooters. Noise is not my primary concern for this machine. It is only on for gaming, but naturally it should be fairly quiet.

I need a motherboard, CPU, ram, and video card. Any suggestions are welcome. I'm all about bang for my buck, no overclocking. i'm willing to spend what it takes to get a good system that can last me as long as my good old S754 system. I'm ok with upgrading along the way so I want a system that can handle upgrades like Phenom quad core chips when they are needed. Thanks in advance.

[Max Slowik]

Well, your heatsink, unless it has AM2 hooks, won't be compatible with a new AM2 motherboard.

And while all AM2 boards will eventually get Phenom support, they will not be fully-featured with the new Hypertransport or split power plane. Also, AM2+ will have PCI-Express 2.0a...Unfortunately, when Phenom will be released in Novetober, or whenever, it will only be Socket F/1207. The mainstream socket support will follow later, possibly in 2008.

I say don't worry about building for the future. Pick up a 690V/G or 7025/50 board, an Athlon X2 5200+, and an 8800GTS.

AMD is going to have a bumpy six months ahead of them, so you should either buy budget now or wait.

[autoboy]

The Arctic Cooling Alpine 64 supports 754, 939, and AM2 because it is so light that it can use only the middle hooks on the bracket.

What are the advantages of Hypertransport 2 and PCI-e 2.0? Are we even maxing these current interfaces out? I mean, I'm still using AGP with good results. I was under the impression that this would not matter much. Future graphics cards in PCI-e 2.0 are going to be backwards compatible right?

A $100 motherboard is not a huge investment so that is not really a problem if I have to replace it at some point. What is worse is having to reinstall windows when you upgrade.

Is there any significant differnce between the 65nm chips and the 90nm chips? I was thinking I would go with a 2.8Ghz 5600+ 90nm chip (or 5200+) and undervolt it a little bit, or would a Brisbane 2.5Ghz processor be better? Less cache, more L2 latency, but less heat. $50 here and there does't bother me too much and heat is not a big deal for this computer.

Then again, I could just wait some more...but it seems like all I do is just wait... My 2.4ghz machine is pretty much the same as the 5200+ in frequency so on single threaded games I'm pretty much not going to see any difference. The major difference here is that I will move away from AGP and it allows a major graphics card update. Still, a $40 S754 motherboard will get me to the same point. I was planning on just building this for the new generation of games that use dual core but if new tech is just around the corner it may be worth waiting some more.

[Max Slowik]

The Arctic Cooling Alpine 64 supports 754, 939, and AM2

Cool.

What are the advantages of Hypertransport 2 and PCI-e 2.0?

Mostly it's better power management. Yes, they're both backwards-compatible with their precursors.

Is there any significant differnce between the 65nm chips and the 90nm chips?

Just that none of the 65nm chips are available with 2x1MB cache, they all have 2x512MB. 24 more watts of heat isn't, I think, a big deal for a gaming computer, but the extra cache can improve CPU-limited games by as much as 10%. Anti-aliasing will narrow that gap.

Then again, I could just wait some more...but it seems like all I do is just wait... Confused My 2.4ghz machine is pretty much the same as the 5200+...Still, a $40 S754 motherboard will get me to the same point.

Well, you'll notice an improvement over 754 with AM2, just because the chipsets are blazing fast, the HTT runs a little faster...better memory bandwidth, and all the other little tweaks add up. But mostly, it's the video card that makes a difference.

The problem for AGP is that even the placeholder cards cost so much. I mean, I'd throw a 7950 GT 512MB into a budget gaming computer no problem, but at $275 for AGP and $200 for PCI-Express, it's still cheaper to replace the motherboard and buy newer. Plus, when you do a complete overhaul, you'll be able to use that card, if briefly.

I think my regular building rules still apply:

Don't build for future upgrades (unless there is a plan and money in place)
Don't ever try to future-proof.

You've already pointed out a pretty good option, which is to buy a PCI-Express motherboard and a new card. If you're interested in new games, I have to assume Vista factors in, now or soon. So it has to be temporary, with plans to replace, since companies aren't getting the lead out writing Vista drivers for aging or legacy hardware.

But no matter what route you go down, spend as much as you can on the best video card you find. It's the one great performance dictator. I guarantee you that an S754 Athlon 64 machine with an HD 2900 or 8800 GTS will game better than any computer, AMD or Intel, with a lesser card.

That said, it's worth it to go dual-core, even if you don't get much or any of a frequency boost. Gamers should go for the big cache. But who knows, by the time you really need to put down for a new processor, Barcelona might be rocking faces.

[thejamppa]

8800-GTS would be excellent choice for the gaming rig, but if you want to go full AMD/ATI:

AMD X2 4600+ - AMD X2 5400+ ( regular 89W or EE 65W but if you want to re-use Alpine 64, then I advice 65W EE ) AMD 690G board. And with Sapphire's ATi Radeon HD 2600XT Ultimate ( stock passive cooled )

[dangman4ever]

What's your budget?