call me crazy just bought an Opt.165...need all the help now...

[herbeapuce]

Hi Guys.

Call me crazy if you want but I just bought an opteron 165 from NCIX.com
I was going to buy an already built pc from a major store but I changed my mind... why going simple when you can do complicated?

First of I don't know S$!7 about building a PC, so I'm sure I will have a lot of fun and frustration with this project.....

I will need all the help I can have for this and I hope some of you more experienced would help me a bit choosing the rest of the hardware

I intent to use the PC for listening to music, looking at pictures, surfing, DVDs, and playing a few games. I'm not really a hardcore gamer ( 42YOM ) but I wouldn't mind testing my stills every now and then. (I used to be quite good at Quake2 online...)


the cpu is socket 939 and it's Dual.

http://www.amdcompare.com/us-en/opteron/details.aspx?qsearch=true&opn=OSA165CDBOX

- I need a good Mobo with overclockablity
- I need decent memory 1 go
- A big enough HD ( sata & ncq if possible
- a good tower with big enough psu.
-could be integrated Video card but would like pci-e on the mobo, or a good cart for TV and gaming, nothing too fancy or expensive.
-dvd rom & dvd rw
- Floppy

I do NOT need a monitor, nor a mouse/keyboard, I do have window xp pro.


Price price price. I would like to keep the cost for the pc under $1200 including $400 for the cpu, so for all the things above it's $800 or less

I would really appreciate if some of you could point out some good stuff for me. I'm already looking a some suggestions I found on this place and elsewhere, but more suggestions would be nice before buying.


Any suggestions please for a newbie here…. :lol:

TIA

Stef. Montreal

[audit13]

Right now, the king of oc motherboards seems to be anything sli from DFI (hey, I made a rhyme !)

Seriously, the DFI NF4 SLI-DR Expert is loaded with lots of features and accessories. I built a machine for a friend using an NF4 SLI-DR and it's been rock solid.

Good luck in your new venture.

[Sharp]

Right now, the king of oc motherboards seems to be anything sli from DFI (hey, I made a rhyme !)

Seriously, the DFI NF4 SLI-DR Expert is loaded with lots of features and accessories. I built a machine for a friend using an NF4 SLI-DR and it's been rock solid.

Good luck in your new venture.
The Expert is where its at. :D
You need a good video card to go with that CPU, I'm sorry thats the law. :lol:

[xKagex]

Antec Sonata II Case + PSU- $130
DFI LANParty UT NF4 Mobo - $160 (I don't think SLI is worth an extra $100)
1GB PC3200 DDR - $100
DVD-RW - $50
eVGA 6800GS - $280

approx $720 + tax

If you want to overclock, you might want to consider:
OCZ Platinum EL PC3200 1GB 2X512MB for $150

depending on how much you will be gaming, you could probably save $100 or spend $100 more.

*edit* oops, forgot a hard drive.. so depending on your needs you'll probably need to budget around $100 there.

[Oversized Rooster]

The Sonata 2 is a great case, but if you're gonna seriously overclock anything, the SmartPower 2.0 450W PSU might not cut it. I had to replace mine with an OCZ Powerstream 600W cuz the computer started to crash under load...

[goofball]

The SmartPower 2.0 450w is fine for Athlon64 systems but just doesn't have the oomph for Prescott-based systems and overclocking.

The Sapphire X800GTO2 at NCIX is now on sale. Cousin just got one yesterday, and it came with 16 pipes enabled. Very good price for a 16pipe card. I'd recommend this before the 6800GS given the price and performance.

NCIX also has the Crucial Ballistix 1GB Dual Channel kit, and the LG4167 DVD RW on sale.

For hard drive, they have the Samsung 200GB SATA2 8MB cache hard drive for just under $100.

Check out their flyer, it's not a bad sale.

http://www.ncix.com/promo/promosale.php?webid=game2006

For motherboard, the DFI Ultra-D Nforce 4 will do. I doubt you will go SLI so you don't need to buy an SLI board. Approx $160 at NCIX.

[herbeapuce]

to the top please

anybody have other suggestions please?

TIA

stef.

[PennyArcade]

while it is pretty easy to assemble a computer, I would still recommend having someone that has done it be with you when you are installing the components. you CAN break parts if you screw up.

[herbeapuce]

while it is pretty easy to assemble a computer, I would still recommend having someone that has done it be with you when you are installing the components. you CAN break parts if you screw up.

Ya I know that. I will be cafefull.
I will wear a static brace and will follow some guides....
I heard that not much can brake unless you force things or change voltage....
thanks
stef.

[herbeapuce]

I will go with a DFI...

now wich one should I get of these 2? when I entered DFI LANParty UT NF4 in their search box , it came up with 2 very similar Mobo, and only a $4.00 difference

get this one:

http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=007280&cid=MB.693

or that one

http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=006505&cid=MB.693

and why please...

stef.

[Bskll]

the ultra-d can be flashed to turn into a sli board i blieve.

other than that, there's not much difference.

[jiffylube1024]

the ultra-d can be flashed to turn into a sli board i blieve.

other than that, there's not much difference.

No I think it needs to be modded by soldering a resistor/etc. Plus it doesn't come with the SLI bridge.

Still an incredible mobo though (I had an Ultra-D before realizing that dual core X2 was more than I needed and downgrading to my old and unused P4 setup).

[kud0s69]

No I think it needs to be modded by soldering a resistor/etc. Plus it doesn't come with the SLI bridge.

Still an incredible mobo though (I had an Ultra-D before realizing that dual core X2 was more than I needed and downgrading to my old and unused P4 setup).


I heard it just takes a pencil :) Don't know how accurate that is. Never owned the board, don't own a pencil :D

Worth looking into though

[matkun]

I heard it just takes a pencil :) Don't know how accurate that is. Never owned the board, don't own a pencil :D

Worth looking into though

Either way, Nvidia disabled it in their drivers, so you can no longer do SLI on any non-SLI specific motherboard.

[PennyArcade]

yes, you need a pencil and old drivers to do the SLI mod on the DFI. Even then, you need a old revision of the nf4 ultra-d mobo; the new revisions do not allow you to do the mod