Re: Build gamer PC help..

For a gamer, you want Athlon 64, somewhere around the 3700+ mark
(currently), and socket 939. With that and your video card, the EPOX
EP-9NPA+ will work great. You need 1 Gig of DDR400 RAM, preferably in 1
stick. I'm not big on Asus, as I support them, and they have an
extremely high failure rate. (IMHO) But the first board you listed is
an SLI board, so it would be inappropriate for what you are building
anyway. My suggestions would be:

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch.hmx?&scriteria=BA21121
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=BA20668
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=BA21445
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=BA20750

That should be a good start. Just add any decent ATX case and a hard
drive and DVD burner. IMHO -Dave
Wow! Virtually complete system!
I know some about their failure rate; one board i bought failed after
about 1 hour, got a replacement which had the same problem.
Got a replacement and it had another problem; i gave up and live with
the problem.
The only reason i picked ASUS is that they were "recommended" by ATI the
video board maker.
Now some motherboards support what i call dual banking; with a pair of
RAM boards ("sticks"), it accesses one, then the other in a back and forth
manner, which effectively doubling the data rate.
Does the "dual channel" designation for that Epox EP-9NPA+ board mean
what i call dual banking?
If so, i would be better off using two 512Mbyte sticks for speed, if one
limits oneself to 1Gbyte of RAM total.
Also, that lower clock rate useage on each bank or stick keeps it cooler
than whacking away at full bus speed for a "single banking" configuration.

Thanks again!


Dual channel is essentially using two sticks of RAM as one (they are both
accessed at the same time). If you think of RAM organized like an excel
spread***, dual-channel doubles the width of the spread*** so that more
information can be read at once. This doubles the bandwidth and (in theory
at least) allows RAM to be accessed faster. In actual real-world use, you
won't notice the speed difference unless you run some intensive benchmarks
which have no relation at all to the way most people use their computers.
:)

Also, I am not a huge fan of using multiple sticks of RAM when one will do
to start. Increasing the number of RAM sticks increases the chances that
one of them might go bad. It also can make future upgrades a bit harder,
sometimes. It's better to have as many OPEN RAM slots as possible, at all
times. IMHO

However, if you don't plan to upgrade RAM in the future, there is nothing
wrong with running a dual-channel mainboard with 2 sticks of RAM to use the
dual-channel feature. Just be sure that whatever RAM you buy is a good
brand like OCZ or Geil or Kingston. Oh, and don't fall for the dual-channel
kit gimmick when you buy the RAM. You can buy any RAM you like, just order
2 at once (not necessarily 2 in the same package), if you want dual-channel
capability. -Dave



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