My First AMD System

[lightiv]

After serious consideration of the the release of Dual Core, the cost of it, desire to put together or buy a serious Home Theatre/Multimedia/Gaming PC I am thinking of getting the following AMD system. I know AMD has been around forever and these days it generally beats Intel performance wise but I still feel a bit of hessitation about leaving the Intel camp.

In summary I've decide to get a dual Opteron system with 242 or 244 model CPUs with the Tyan K8WE. The Tyan seems to get really good marks and the socket 940 will enable me to upgrade to dual core in the future when prices become reasonable for my budget.

Below is my first thoughts and I am hoping to get some help on filling it in and where to buy.

Part.........................Vendor......................................Price..........Source

Motherboard.............Tyan K8WE (Dual AMD Opteron)

CPU w/Fan.......x2.....AMD Opteron 242 or 244

Memory (1GB)

Hard Drive

Video Card

Sound Card

Case

Power Supply

Or should I just save my self the trouble and go with the following from Alienware for $2,348?

1-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support with Onsite Service

Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional with Service Pack 2

Alienware® Professional Workstation Chassis - Silver/Black

Enermax EG651P-VE 24P 550 Watt Power Supp

Tyan® Thunder K8WE Motherboard w/ SLI Support

Dual Processor
Dual AMD Opteron? 242 1.6 GHz 64-Bit

1GB Alienware® Dual Channel DDR Registered ECC SDRAM at 400MHz

NVIDIA® Quadro? FX 330 PCI Express 64MB DDR w/Digital Out

80GB Serial ATA 7,200 RPM w/8MB Cache

Alienware® Acoustic Dampening - Workstation Chassis

3.5" 1.44 MB Floppy Disk Drive - Black

NEC® ND-3520 16x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Drive

56K V.92 PCI Modem

Integrated High Performance Gigabit Ethernet

Integrated 5.1 Onboard Audio

 

[jdogg707]

If you are gaming, then a single FX55 chip would be around the same price, and would be faster. Get a nForce 4 motherboard, an FX55, 1GB of memory and a high end video card, like a X850XT PE or 6800 Ultra and you'll be good to go, as well as able to accept Dual Core chips if you ever want to go in that direction.

 

[Big Bunny]

I am not sure there would be any reason to go with the nForce Pro motherboard over an nForce4 MB, unless you need to crank on the CPU while multitasking. Or, if you had need of a lot of RAM. The Opteron/nForce Pro combo is costing you a lot of extra money for no other practical reasons than those two things.

 

[lightiv]

The dual processor is personal preference and probably is overkill but I think it will keep me happy longer than a single CPU. It is nice to be able to do what ever I want no matter what is open.

Also this machine will be more Home Theatre and Multimedia than games. I am going to try to get myself to play more games though. Right now I have my TiVo on the home network and now I want to get the my computer online so I can stream mp3s and any other crazy ideas I can come up with.

My two biggest concerns is getting the desktop to look right on my HDTV ready 57" Hitachi TV and being able to pass DTS to my Pioneer Elite 56TXi. Actually I know which sound card to get for this purpose but it is getting the desktop to look normal on the TV.

In a nutshell I want to use my TV as a monitor for my PC whether I am typing a document, surfing the internet or playing a game. I am wondering if a HDTV Video card would do this for me.

Thanks

 

[imported_Kensai]

I'd build my own, but I'd go with a 3000+ S939 and then pop in a dual-core chip when they come out.

 

[lightiv]

I'm going to get the Tyan K8WE dual Opteron mobo. (If I can find it in stock!) What case would you suggest. What case would be the quietest and do the most cooling.

Oh, what about power supplies?

Thanks

 

[Promethply]

Originally posted by: lightiv
I'm going to get the Tyan K8WE dual Opteron mobo. (If I can find it in stock!) What case would you suggest. What case would be the quietest and do the most cooling.

Oh, what about power supplies?

Thanks

The CM Stacker is a very roomy case with excellent airflow, and with the supplied fans, pretty quiet.

For the PSU, if you're using the Tyan K8WE dual Opteron mobo, then either use the:

Antec TRUE550 EPS12V EPS12V 550W, or:

ENERMAX EG851AX-VH(W) FM ATX 660W

 

[lightiv]

Originally posted by: Promethply
The CM Stacker is a very roomy case with excellent airflow, and with the supplied fans, pretty quiet.

For the PSU, if you're using the Tyan K8WE dual Opteron mobo, then either use the:

Antec TRUE550 EPS12V EPS12V 550W, or:

ENERMAX EG851AX-VH(W) FM ATX 660W

I guess I will go with the Antec power supply. Boy $123 buck seems like a lot for a PSU. How long are the warranties for these things?

 

[tcsenter]

The Antec True Power 2.0 TP2-550 EPS12V 550W is a few bucks cheaper.

 

[imported_Kensai]

Get a Lian-Li V2000B, very nice case. Slightly expensive though.

 

[lightiv]

Originally posted by: Kensai
Get a Lian-Li V2000B, very nice case. Slightly expensive though.

Thanks for the suggestion but I can not bring myself to pay that much.

 

[lightiv]

Here is what I have come up with so far for my system. Please give your thoughts. Most everything here is suggestion from you all here and at AVSForum. Is the Corsair a good choice in memory?

Motherboard..................Tyan K8WE S2895UA2NRF (SCSI) (Dual AMD Opteron)

CPU w/Fan.........x2........AMD Opteron 244

Memory (1GB)...512x2...Corsair CM72SD512RLP-3200 512MB DDR400 PC3200

Hard Drive.........x2........HITACHI Deskstar 7K80 HDS728080PLA380 - SATA II

Video Card....................XFX GeFORCE 6800 GT 256MB DDR PCI EXPRESS W/ TVO & DVI - RETAIL BOX

Sound Card...................CHAINTECH AV-710 8 (7.1) Channels

Case.............................UNDECIDED

Power Supply.................Antec TRUE550 EPS12V EPS12V 550W Power Supply

 

[lightiv]

Originally posted by: tcsenter
The Antec True Power 2.0 TP2-550 EPS12V 550W is a few bucks cheaper.

What is the difference between this one and the one above besides price?

 

[ts3433]

Originally posted by: lightiv

Originally posted by: tcsenter
The Antec True Power 2.0 TP2-550 EPS12V 550W is a few bucks cheaper.

What is the difference between this one and the one above besides price?

The TruePower 2.0 is newer and has dual 12V rails... part of the ATX12V v2.0 spec IIRC, but whether or not dual rails are a good thing right now is debatable. You'll have to ask others' opinions on that issue; I haven't kept up enough lately with that.

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: lightiv

Originally posted by: tcsenter
The Antec True Power 2.0 TP2-550 EPS12V 550W is a few bucks cheaper.

What is the difference between this one and the one above besides price?

2.0 is the newest edition to the True Power line.

The Antec True Power 2.0 gives you dedicated 19A on +12V2 exclusive for processor power and another dedicated 19A on +12V1 for I/O + peripheral power. Opteron 242 and 244 require not more than 8.4A current from +12V, so 8.4A x 2 = 16.8A MAX for dual Opteron 244.

Opteron 248 and 250 require not more than 8.83A MAX.

 

[keeleysam]

Originally posted by: lightiv
Video Card....................XFX GeFORCE 6800 GT 256MB DDR PCI EXPRESS W/ TVO & DVI - RETAIL BOX

Sound Card...................CHAINTECH AV-710 8 (7.1) Channels

For the video card, I DO NOT reccomend XFX, as they generally suck. Try this:
http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814122209

Sound card...it seems that you want to put this in a home theatre, so get an Audigy 2 ZS

 

[Bonesdad]

Coolermaster case is a good suggestion for decent cooling and reasonable prices...also look at Coolermaster Centurion and Praetorian

agreed, stay away from XFX

 

[lightiv]

Thanks for all of the advice. Here is the final system configuration to include cost and sources. I'm one of the original "Wounded Monitor Children" so I was concerned about ordering from Buy.com but that concern proved unnecessary as the motherboard is already in the mail and I have my tracking number. Way to go Buy.com. This motherboard was difficult to find in stock.

Motherboard.............$594.15.....Tyan - 8131 DP PGA940 MAX-16GB DDR SSI 2PCIE 3PCIX PCI GBE2 U320 SATA - S2895UA2NRF

CPU w/Fan.......x2......$499.64.....AMD Opteron 244 SledgeHammer 400MHz FSB 1MB L2 Cache Socket 940 Processor

Memory (1GB)....512x2...$174.56.....Corsair CM72SD512RLP-3200 512MB DDR400 PC3200

Hard Drive......x2......$130.38.....HITACHI Deskstar 7K80 HDS728080PLA380 - SATA II

Video Card..............$409.....Leadtek PX6800 GT TDH 256MB DDR3/PCI-E/HDTV-Out/DVI

Sound Card..............$28.81.....CHAINTECH AV-710 8 (7.1) Channels

Case....................$275.....Lian-Li PC-V2000B Aluminum

Power Supply............$135.25.....SEASONIC S12-500 ULTRAQUIE_T 500W PSU

Total Cost: $2246.79

 

[frx218]

The dual core is really costing you a a lot of money.. for that price you get a lot more performence spent elsewhere

 

[lightiv]

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