I have never built an Athlon computer, but I am going to build one now. I need help with the CPU and fan. I want something equivalent to a P4 3.4GHz. Here is the motherboard that I am getting: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813131568 Is it a good choice? I have the Corsair Ram picked out for it that matches the motherboard. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Oh, also going with an ATI X1800XT 256MB PCI Express video card. I am not a gamer, so I don't think that I need anything better.
for the price a X2 3800 can't be beaten http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103562 cheaper than a P4 3.0GHz and it performs better than a P4 3.4GHz. great mobo and graphics, though i do think the X1800XT is a bit overkill for a non-gamer.
Thanks for that link! I know Intel chips, but know nothing about the Athlon chips. I see chips with many different names, like the Manchester name on this one. What the heck do they mean? lol BTW, I do a lot of work with AutoCad for my business, and at any time, I can have 5 or 6 instances of the program running and do a lot of switching back and forth between drawings, so a decent video card is a desire.
if you are using an ATI card, you don't need an SLI motherboard. Save $90 dollars and buy this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131530 motherboard (A8N-E) the same board basically but no SLI and northbridge fan instead of heatpipe. The dual-core socket 939 +3800 X2 processor http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103562 is a good choice and overclocks very well if you want to. Dual core also works well in multi-threaded applications like Photoshop.
