Check this spec please

chrismox · 1 Feb 2006 at 14:53

I'm upgrading my old socket-A system, keeping the case, PSU, hard drives etc so thinking of the following:

Asus A8N5X nForce4 (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-120-AS) - £61.04
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3700BNBOX) (CP-121-AM) - £159.74
OcUK Value 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 184pin DDR Memory Dual Channel Kit (MY-006-OK) - £111.57
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR) - £17.57
Leadtek GeForce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-069-LT) - £205.57

Total - £555.49 (all prices incl VAT)

I picked the mobo simply because it's the cheapest nForce4 one I could find.
The CPU is supposed to be a good overclocker - the mobo and RAM suitable?

Cheers.

chrismox · 1 Feb 2006 at 22:01

...and will my current 430w PSU be sufficient?

kbc · 1 Feb 2006 at 22:10

chrismox said:
...and will my current 430w PSU be sufficient?

Depending on the brand and the PSUs voltage rails, it should be sufficient. Though upgrading to a more powerful PSU may well be a consideration.

chrismox · 1 Feb 2006 at 22:12

Thanks, any thoughts on the mobo/ram/cpu combo?

kbc · 1 Feb 2006 at 22:22

chrismox said:
Thanks, any thoughts on the mobo/ram/cpu combo?

Hmm... with regard to the motherboard, you could always go for the next one up, the nForce 4 Ultra by ASUS again, which has added support for SATA-II, if you decide to go for a SATA-II hard disk bearing in mind it says "ATX v2.0 compliant PSU Required for PCI-E Graphics/Motherboard". The CPU does clock well as spoken by many people here at OcUK, but a good clocker goes well with DFI boards, though they might be a bit out of budget. Have an ASUS myself and I'm pretty sure whichever ASUS board you get, it would be pretty reliable.

Regarding the RAM, try to go for the GeIL Value stuff, heard better reviews regarding those than the OcUK stuff. It's more popular too and only an extra £10 if I recall correctly.

chrismox · 1 Feb 2006 at 22:26

So the cheaper Asus board has no SATA support? Didn't realise that.

I have an Epox EP-9NPA+ in another PC which seems to have done me proud (although it is not overclocked). Any significant difference between the 2 brands?

The RAM tip is much appreciated.

kbc · 1 Feb 2006 at 22:37

chrismox said:
So the cheaper Asus board has no SATA support? Didn't realise that.

It does have SATA support, not SATA-II, this may not be an important factor anyway if you don't intend to utilise the SATA-II interface.

chrismox said:
I have an Epox EP-9NPA+ in another PC which seems to have done me proud (although it is not overclocked). Any significant difference between the 2 brands?

Not so sure with Epox motherboards, but I've heard they clock well with a decent CPU operating alongside it. They're second to DFI I believe with less emphasis on bursting the piggy bank.

ASUS are reliable from my experience, they do provide the capabilities for overclocking but perhaps less features as the other 2 boards mentioned. But a bit of research may clarify things further for you.

chrismox · 1 Feb 2006 at 22:39

Blimey, never heard of SATA II

I think the suggestion for a bit more research might be well placed!