Thoroughbred-B, Barton or Athlon 64?

[illroot]

Would you get a Athlon with the Barton core or just wait for a Athlon64? Considering you had money limitations and had to get one? or would you just get a Thoroughbred-B? since prices on them are bound to drop?

I'm going to be putting together a new box soon. These are some of the questions I'm wrestling with. I think i'm going to go for an nForce2 based board(any suggestions on what make/model?) and either splurge on a GeForceFX or cut back and go for a Geforce 4 ti 4200(suggestions here also?).

I'm trying to put together a fast machine to handle mainly 3D and AfterFX. Do you guys have suggestions on what kind of rig i should put together? I'm either going to splurge if the rig is worth it, or count my pennies. Questions, questions, you guys got any answers?

[Disk11]

For the video card, get a ati 9500 non-pro for $150, a little more than a 128 mb ti4200, and attempt to mod it into a 9700.

[NDD]

Athlon 64 based systems won't be cheap. And you won't be able to get one soon, too, at least not till Q3.
I'd wait for Barton, 3000+/3200+ with 512kb L2 seem quite nice

[BiG MiKeY]

eh fx is a disappointment... maybe if nvidia releases some new drivers well thats a diffrent story... not to much of a performance gain over the 9700 pro and those cards r a hell of alot cheaper now.... anyway non pro r u nutz... go 9500 pro and soft9700 it... the none pro suks and is easily beet by the ti4200..... i say get the asus board (a7n8x) buy some cheap xp1800 for lyke 60$ get some high quality ram pc3500 (2 sticks of any size) and this rig will run any game u threw at it.... then when the bartons come out u can upgrade to those afta all the kinks r out and the price drop significantly.... btw id recommend the deluxe board its integrated sound is as good as any sound card on the market.. i duno if thats tru for the none deluxe version.....

[BiG MiKeY]

yes that asus board is compatible wit barton


any word on jedec releasing their stadards for DDR400 yet?

[_Mystical_Night]

CPU:I'd wait until the Athlon 64 but it could be a looongg wait its sceduled to release near the middle/end of 2003 so I would just go for a cheap cpu that would do for now (maybe an Athlon 2400?) that would be more then enough for now and overclock it a little bit (its base mhz = 2.0ghz) you can possibly overclock it up to 2.3-2.4mhz depending on cooling solution

Mobo: get the Epox EP-8RDA+ $122.00 available at newegg now (in stock)

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...tion=Epox+8RDA

Edit: Newegg lowered the price on that mobo by $10 , also people have been saying its better then the Asus Board and is more overclockable


Video Card: If your ganna get a Geforce FX I hope you know those go for $400 and up , if you have that kind of cash to spend get an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro which should be more then enough for quite some time , or an ATI Radeon 9500 Pro (Faster then Geforce 4 TI 4200 & 4400 .... if you know how get an ATI Radeon 9500 (non-pro) and overclock it up to Radeon 9700 if you know how to do the BIOS hack

[Bigjakkstaffa]

The opterons are a long way off and are gonna be Xenon type server jobbies and as such will be rather hefty on the wallet. Id wait for the barton's if i were you, personally im holding out for the first three bartons and seeing what to purchase then

--Jakk

[BiG MiKeY]

Originally posted by _Mystical_Night

Mobo: get the Epox EP-8RDA+ $122.00 available at newegg now

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...tion=Epox+8RDA

Edit: Newegg lowered the price on that mobo by $10 , also people have been saying its better then the Asus Board and is more overclockable


Video Card: If your ganna get a Geforce FX I hope you know those go for $400 and up , if you have that kind of cash to spend get an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro which should be more then enough for quite some time , or an ATI Radeon 9500 Pro (Faster then Geforce 4 TI 4200 & 4400 .... if you know how get an ATI Radeon 9500 (non-pro) and overclock it up to Radeon 9700 if you know how to do the BIOS hack

for starters where did u hear the epox board was a better overclocker......

and ive seen ppl wit the 2400+ getting betta than 2.5ghz on hardocp.com


correct me if im wrong (and a link to prove it) the 9500 non pro cant be a oc to a 9700 level even wit a bois hack or a mod.... that the point of getting a 9500pro..... not to mention is a wut 50$ cheaper than the 4600ti.... and acording to tom its almost at the 4600ti level in some area..... here ..... and the raedon 9500pro bios hack is here o and a betta oc at here

[AllGamer]

actually it's true the 9500 non pro can really be OC to 9700

and it works just as good as the real 9700

[RamonGTP]

EPoX is definatly one of the best overclocking boards IMO... As far as which processor to get... Well, that really depends. As everyone said, the Athlon 64 won't be cheap and is still a ways away. If you need a new machine pretty soon, then i'd say go for the barton, if what you have is decent enough and you don't mind waiting... Then wait it out.

[NDD]

For the starters, BiG MiKeY, Asus A7N8X that you suggested and EPoX 8RDA+ _Mystical_Night is talking about are built around same the chipset, nForce2. So they o/c more or less the same. Asus A7N8X Deluxe indeed has the original nForce2's Dolby Digital sound. Of coz I still like EPoX better

And that just for the starters ...

And the whole new trend of ATI R300 "hacks" ... in at least 30% of cases (for now), you'll get artifacts coz of malfunctional Hyper Z unit and the four pipelines.
Plus you can do it only with the Radeon 9500 cards which WERE using Radeon 9700 PCB. Since not long ago they have their own PCB, now with 128bit memory bus "as it should be" ...

So it WON'T work "as the real 9700", AllGamer.

[OpK Chowdy]

Originally posted by AllGamer
actually it's true the 9500 non pro can really be OC to 9700

and it works just as good as the real 9700

Actually, if you have some unlucky 9500, the bios hack can cause some nasty visual anomalies. Oh well...if it works you get a really good card for practically nothing!

[totof]

illroot,

I have been asking myself the same question.
after reading around on forums and PC related sites here are my conclusions (for what it is worth).

in terms of perfs I will assume you want to be able to enjoy the latest games at a resolution of 1024x768 and intend to do so for the next year or two execptfor the odd super demanding one.

guess what
you don't need the barton for that nor the NV FX.

regarding the CPU

now, XP2100 thoroughbred that you can easily overclock to an XP2600 and even more if you get a good chip
and i mean real easy if you pick the right component (see below)

in 2 months, xp2600 333fsb thorughbred
will probably run quite easily at 2.4 GHz

regarding the GPU:

now, R9500 pro and R9700 if it fits your budget

in 2 months, R9700 and R9700 pro if you can afford it


it's true that you can buy a R9500 (non-pro) and modify it by software to run like a R9700
yes that right you can get the perfs of second fastest GPU of today for half it's price.
the problem is that you're not guaranted to do it and it gets less likely as time goes due to change in PCB/memory
after all they need to sell their R9700.


to be a bit more specific in terms of hardware i'd say':

get a spacious case with at least a couple of fans
if you're rich get one in alu/steel rather than plastic.

now, to get these free "easy to get" extra 200-300 MHz (and i am pesimistic) one and only choice at the moment.
thermalright SLK800 heatsink and thermaltake smart fan 2

get a good PSU (that's going to decide how much "easy MHz" you can get and most of all if your game will crash or not)
2 choices really antec true power 430W or Thermaltake 420W with PFC.

a good option here might be to get the 1080 case as it has the antec psu in it and it well suited to such a setup

get a good board:
2 choices really at the moment
Epox 8RDA+
Asus A7N8X

now the memory:
i'd say
for 266fsb CPU get DDR266
for 333fsb CPU get DDR333
corsair or crucial will do the job

don't waste your money on DDR400.
it won't bring anything in perfs unless you want to do some serious overclocking

for the HDD.
if 60GB is enough don't compromise and go for the best.
that is Maxtor Diamond Max9 (UDMA133 and 8 mbcache)

hope it helps.

i am going to wait 1-2 months and do just what i described above.

any comments based on perfs/cost considerations are welcome
if it's to say you don't like that brand or the other frankly don't bother

[BiG MiKeY]

Originally posted by ND
[B]For the starters, BiG MiKeY, Asus A7N8X that you suggested and EPoX 8RDA+ _Mystical_Night is talking about are built around same the chipset, nForce2. So they o/c more or less the same. Asus A7N8X Deluxe indeed has the original nForce2's Dolby Digital sound. Of coz I still like EPoX better

yes indeed same chipset but im aruguing the asus deluxe board so he can save the extra cash on gettin a good sound card... plus all the other features that the epox dosent have...

[_Mystical_Night]

If you read some reviews about both boards and do a little research you will see that most people who own both boards prefer the epox model however , and if you look at the benchmarks you will also notice the Epox board is slightly (only by a little) faster then the Asus board .... also the Asus board does not take full advantage of dual channel ram like people have said in many many reviews (it shows no improvement in performance therefor it doesnt take advantage of it) ... the Epox board does

on top of all those reasons why the epox board is better its also cheaper then the Asus board.