NationStates Jolt Archive

I will be building a new PC today. I would like some advice from everyone UpwardThrust. Here is what I have so far.

Antec Sonata II with a 450W SmartPower PSU
AMD Opteron 165
ASUS A8R-MVP Crossfire mobo
Sapphire Radion X1800 XL
OCZ Platinum Rev2 PC3200 2x512MB (2-2-2-5)
Seagate Barracuda 80GB.

Any suggestions?

I will be building a new PC today. I would like some advice from everyone UpwardThrust. Here is what I have so far.

Antec Sonata II with a 450W SmartPower PSU
AMD Opteron 165
ASUS A8R-MVP Crossfire mobo
Sapphire Radion X1800 XL
OCZ Platinum Rev2 PC3200 2x512MB (2-2-2-5)
Seagate Barracuda 80GB.

Any suggestions?
You got most of what I would choose ...

The ram I would look at ... have had some friends have issues with that brand

Muskin or Corsair for performance

As for the HDD I assume SATA
But are you going SATAII?

Anyways looks solid across over all ... personaly I could choose a SATAII drive and look in a larger size

I just hand build GoodThoughts one this weekend newegg had a good price on a WD 250 GB SATA drive

You got most of what I would choose ...

The ram I would look at ... have had some friends have issues with that brand

Muskin or Corsair for performance

As for the HDD I assume SATA
But are you going SATAII?

Anyways looks solid across over all ... personaly I could choose a SATAII drive and look in a larger size

I just hand build GoodThoughts one this weekend newegg had a good price on a WD 250 GB SATA drive
I went with the SATA, the HDD isn't theoretically able to saturate the SATA connection so SATA2 would be a bit pointless. I have yet to ever fill my current 40GB HDD, and basically just chose the smallest SATA available. But, Corsair you say, I was thinking either Corsair or OCZ.

EDIT: Do you know if Ubuntu comes with the madwifi drivers come on the Ubuntu Install CD?

I went with the SATA, the HDD isn't theoretically able to saturate the SATA connection so SATA2 would be a bit pointless. I have yet to ever fill my current 40GB HDD, and basically just chose the smallest SATA available. But, Corsair you say, I was thinking either Corsair or OCZ.
Alrighty ... well it is all cross compatible as long as your MOBO supports it for the future that is the important part

And yeah I tend to live Corsair XMS (that or Crucial)
Muskin is spendy but absolute top of the line

Otherwise you got my thumbs up

One question though why go to the single opteron? Just curious

I mean why did you choose to go single opteron instead of AMD64's or FX's?

I went opterons because 1) they ARE high quality 2) I wanted to dual , but personally I might have went with an FX if I was going single

Alrighty ... well it is all cross compatible as long as your MOBO supports it for the future that is the important part

And yeah I tend to live Corsair XMS (that or Crucial)
Muskin is spendy but absolute top of the line

Otherwise you got my thumbs up

One question though why go to the single opteron? Just curious

I mean why did you choose to go single opteron instead of AMD64's or FX's?

I went opterons because 1) they ARE high quality 2) I wanted to dual , but personally I might have went with an FX if I was going single
I chose opty's them because of the quality (re: lifespan). A dual opty machine, while cool, would be WAY out of my budget.

Unless I spend double on the RAM I cannot get the same timings with the Corsair XMS. I can get Mushkin Redlines for the same price for the same price. People who have reviewed the Redlines say it is much better than the OCZ's too.

My mobo can support SATA2. When there is a HDD that can accually put it to use (like a Hybrid) I might get a SATA2 HDD.

I chose opty's them because of the quality (re: lifespan). A dual opty machine, while cool, would be WAY out of my budget.

Unless I spend double on the RAM I cannot get the same timings with the Corsair XMS. I can get Mushkin Redlines for the same price for the same price. People who have reviewed the Redlines say it is much better than the OCZ's too.

My mobo can support SATA2 when there is a HDD that can accually put it to use (like a Raptor or Hybrid).
Cool beans ... I love my opty's

I would like to take this moment to thank UpwardThrust and give him the GoodThoughts Hero of the Month Award for building a great machine for me. He drove all the way up here from St. Cloud to Bemidji on a Saturday with his friend Phil, which is a trip of about three hours.
Thanks again.

I would like to take this moment to thank UpwardThrust and give him the GoodThoughts Hero of the Month Award for building a great machine for me. He drove all the way up here from St. Cloud to Bemidji on a Saturday with his friend Phil, which is a trip of about three hours.
Thanks again.
Why thank you :) hehehe

And we made it in 2 :) But I am speedy with that wee car I borrowed lol

We went through brainerd on the way back ... fast driving now that they got all that road work done (We wanted a change in scenery)

I usually do it in about 2.5. Thanks again. Bedtime for me now.:) :) :)

80GB is fairly small (now a days) and internal drives arn't exactly expensive, at least double HD size.

80GB is fairly small (now a days) and internal drives arn't exactly expensive, at least double HD size.
He did not want it

Oh well HDD space will only get cheeper
He can add later NP

Personaly I shoot for a 120 or 160 for a base now ... just so that they have the space in case they want it
WIth like a 10 dollar difference in price ... not an issue lol

He did not want it

Oh well HDD space will only get cheeper
He can add later NP

Personaly I shoot for a 120 or 160 for a base now ... just so that they have the space in case they want it
WIth like a 10 dollar difference in price ... not an issue lol
But it is ten dollars that could stay in my (figrative) pocket. Besides my mom wasn't too impressed when she saw the $1800 price tax (as I had to use her visa to pay for it [w00t being too young for a credit card]). I think that extra ten dollars would have been too much for her.

But it is ten dollars that could stay in my (figrative) pocket. Besides my mom wasn't too impressed when she saw the $1800 price tax (as I had to use her visa to pay for it [w00t being too young for a credit card]). I think that extra ten dollars would have been too much for her.
Lol well thats what going for opterons and that graphics card get ya lol

Nice rig ya lucky b*******!

Wait a few months and get another HDD if you can, that $10 goes a long way. and they fill up faster than you'd think. My 40 gig (laptop) is full (OK so I've got about 60 episodes of Bleach on it that I haven't archived to DVD yet but it's fairly full without that).

just 80 gig HD? SATA or not thats petty small - you might regret it

i got an 80gb drive with this laptop and its so not enough... i don't know how much you use/space you fill but these days you can never have enough HDD space

that said, i can fill anything - got 400gb+ on this desktop here and an extra 410gb of external drives filled, too... and i'm not even a big-time downloader (hardly at all)... its just filled with... crap! :headbang:
a lot of it is work though... bah

just 80 gig HD? SATA or not thats petty small - you might regret it

i got an 80gb drive with this laptop and its so not enough... i don't know how much you use/space you fill but these days you can never have enough HDD spaceSpare a thought for me...I have only 40gb on this laptop! Complete crap, considering I have about 16 gigs of music plus about 1,000 photos I want to put on it...but they have to stay on my desktop :( For a desktop, where you want to keep all your music, digital photos, videos et al, I'd have thought 160gb minimum was preferable, but of course it depends what you keep and what you do with your computer.

Other than that, sounds like a good set.

Spare a thought for me...I have only 40gb on this laptop! Complete crap, considering I have about 16 gigs of music plus about 1,000 photos I want to put on it...but they have to stay on my desktop :( For a desktop, where you want to keep all your music, digital photos, videos et al, I'd have thought 160gb minimum was preferable, but of course it depends what you keep and what you do with your computer.

Other than that, sounds like a good set.
40? poor you :S
i mean, HDDs are easy enough to upgrade/replace, physically, but its the massive pain in the arse of moving all your files about and making sure you haven't left anything important thats the problem. that, and reinstalling programs, many of which may need to be activated (fucking dreamweaver!!) and that just adds to the problem. i've been "transferring" my stuff from the desktop to this laptop for months now, seriously :headbang:

of course, in a desktop, you can just add more...


my only other advice is to not get a Maxtor HDD cos they blow

40? poor you :S
i mean, HDDs are easy enough to upgrade/replace, physically, but its the massive pain in the arse of moving all your files about and making sure you haven't left anything important thats the problem. that, and reinstalling programs, many of which may need to be activated (fucking dreamweaver!!) and that just adds to the problem. i've been "transferring" my stuff from the desktop to this laptop for months now, seriously :headbang:

of course, in a desktop, you can just add more...


my only other advice is to not get a Maxtor HDD cos they blow
which is why I do roaming profiles at home ... my files are backed up to my san now (which has grown MASSIVLY) I won an auction on ebay for 15 brand new Hitachi SATA 160 gb HDD's

Now I have 2.5 terabites total on my SAN :)

Lol well thats what going for opterons and that graphics card get ya lol
Well the dual core Opty _was_ cheaper than a dual Athlon. I say was because AMD made them raise the prices today.


Spare a thought for me...I have only 40gb on this laptop! Complete crap, considering I have about 16 gigs of music plus about 1,000 photos I want to put on it...but they have to stay on my desktop For a desktop, where you want to keep all your music, digital photos, videos et al, I'd have thought 160gb minimum was preferable, but of course it depends what you keep and what you do with your computer.
Wow I could never get 16 GB of music on my disc. Even on my old computer with ME were I never deleated anything I only managed to build up about 3 GB, and that took about four years. As for photos, they get hosted on the web right away. However I do have a few movies on here, but it I am still have about 67% of this 40GB free.

Well the dual core Opty _was_ cheaper than a dual Athlon. I say was because AMD made them raise the prices today.


Opty's still probably the better deal. I'm waiting to build my next rig when M2 comes in and all the Skt 939 stuff drops in price so I can get an X2 4400+ on the cheap (probably try and nab a Crossfire mainboard too).

Opty's still probably the better deal. I'm waiting to build my next rig when M2 comes in and all the Skt 939 stuff drops in price so I can get an X2 4400+ on the cheap (probably try and nab a Crossfire mainboard too).
I ordered (YAY) the opty last night when they were still cheaper. I grabbed a crossfire board (ASUS A8R-MVP), in a couple reviews I read on the net the MVP outperforms DFI's Crossfie board but is about $80 (CAD) cheaper. Although I have heard that ASUS is planning to make a dual x16 mobo (right now they only operate at x8 with two cards).

EDIT: Do you know if Ubuntu comes with the madwifi drivers come on the Ubuntu Install CD?
I looked into it, and the Ubuntu install cd does have the madwifi driver. I, unfortunately, have to use wireless with my new PC. My mom won't let me just run a bunch of wires through the house. But, I'm gonna be able to dualboot ubuntu!

They say it is going to be read to pick up on Friday. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.

PS- UT, what is a SAN.

i mean, HDDs are easy enough to upgrade/replace, physically, but its the massive pain in the arse of moving all your files about and making sure you haven't left anything important thats the problem. that, and reinstalling programs, many of which may need to be activated (fucking dreamweaver!!) and that just adds to the problem. i've been "transferring" my stuff from the desktop to this laptop for months now, seriously :headbang:God, yeah, I know the feeling. When I upgraded my desktop PC, it took me months to transfer all the shit. I'm going to get a new hard disc for the laptop eventually (when I can afford it and when I can actually be arsed!), but my main concern at the moment is memory - it's only got 256MBs so runs quite slowly at times.

On that point, actually, I'm not entirely sure which memory would be compatible. It's DDR 333 memory, but there seem to be versions with different numbers of pins. This (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=15561957060&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=82242) is closest looking to what I have, but that doesn't necessarily mean much. This (http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1373852373.1138237906@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccckaddgldkejdjcflgceggdhhmdgml.0&page=Product&sku=155367&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&tabIndex=1) is the laptop I have (not the best ever, but suits my needs for the most part). Could any one please clarify?

As for photos, they get hosted on the web right away.That's actually quite a good idea. It would take me forever to put up all the ones I already have on my system, but I'll keep it in mind for newer ones.

God, yeah, I know the feeling. When I upgraded my desktop PC, it took me months to transfer all the shit. I'm going to get a new hard disc for the laptop eventually (when I can afford it and when I can actually be arsed!), but my main concern at the moment is memory - it's only got 256MBs so runs quite slowly at times.

On that point, actually, I'm not entirely sure which memory would be compatible. It's DDR 333 memory, but there seem to be versions with different numbers of pins. This (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=15561957060&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=82242) is closest looking to what I have, but that doesn't necessarily mean much. This (http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1373852373.1138237906@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccckaddgldkejdjcflgceggdhhmdgml.0&page=Product&sku=155367&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&tabIndex=1) is the laptop I have (not the best ever, but suits my needs for the most part). Could any one please clarify?

That's actually quite a good idea. It would take me forever to put up all the ones I already have on my system, but I'll keep it in mind for newer ones.
Well, the main reason we do upload pictures is for email or for profiles on sites like nexopia. BTW, I only have 96-128MB of RAM. I don't know which is the real amount as BIOS, Windows and, CPU-Z all say different amounts. I guess I should run memtest.

80Gb is too small if you're intending to be gamer.
I've got a 160Gb and adding Rome Total War, Doom 3, Doom 3 RoE, Constantine, LoTR I game and my normal office and Internet stuff, I've used up 40 - 50Gb.

80Gb is too small if you're intending to be gamer.
I've got a 160Gb and adding Rome Total War, Doom 3, Doom 3 RoE, Constantine, LoTR I game and my normal office and Internet stuff, I've used up 40 - 50Gb.
What is your normal office and internet stuff?