Hey Everyone, I've been reading all of your posts for the past few weeks as I get ready to build my first machine and you have all been extremely helpful. I think I have finally narrowed down the components I plan to go with, but I have a couple of questions I was hoping someone could help me with. (I'm ready to order my stuff!) First off, I have finally decided to go with the AMD Athlon 64 3200+, but I'm am still a little unsure whether to go with the Newcastle (512KB L2 Cache, 2.2Ghz) or the Clawhammer (1MB L2 Cache, 2.0Ghz). I have heard conflicting things here. Some people say that the extra cache makes a huge difference, others say that because of AMD technology its not that important. I don't plan on overclocking (at least not tell I get WAY more comfortable) and I plan on doing some gaming and a lot of everday multitasking use (I'm one of those people that like to have a dozen different applications running...shame on me) I read this post http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/95245 and was wondering what was meant by the Newcastle being "more advanced" I realize there is no "right" answer, I just need someone to push me in one direction so I'll get off my rear and order this stuff! Second, I am looking at the MSI K8N Neo Platinum MOBO based on a friends recommendation. My only concern is that I had heard duel channeling is the way to go with RAM, but this board doesn't support that. My friend says that the duel channeling is overrated, that he has 3 machine (2 of which have duel channeling) and he can't tell a difference. What are everyone's thoughts here on duel channeling. Sorry for being so long winded,I'm just one of those people that will mull a decision like this over for weeks before finally deciding. I appreciate all the guidance and look forward to fully embracing my geekiness!
This dual channel memory thing seems to be very controversial at the moment. I have two identical sticks of 512MB 400DDR ram on my machine which works fine but doesn't run as dual channel as my motherboard doesn't support it. My local computer shop tells me that running dual channel on a Pentium shows a marked improvement, but running dual channel on an Athlon actually slows it down. I haven't tried this myself but they tell me they have the benchmark results to prove it.
Go with the newcastle, you dont really notice a difference between the two. Dual channeling is faster than if you was to use 2 different brands and speeds or 1 stick of ram. As you are going to be playing games i would suggest dual channeling.
Probably better with the Newcastle as it seems that the newer core is a bit more efficient with it. Dunno if I replied there or not but it seems that the Newcastle does not have less performance even with less L2 cache (thank god AMD's gone the route of more efficient caching rather than brute force). Also, the Newcastle is a newer design than the 'hammers - Dual channelling gives about a 30% performance boost - Odds are you WONT notice a difference - You might as well get dual channel - From the name of the mobo is that the nForce3? if so, i'd avoid that like the plague as it's got a crippled Hypertransport at 600 (as opposed to 800 or 1000). I suspect your local dealer is trying to sell Intel? There isnt an earthshattering difference either way really .... there IS a difference and it IS an improvement but it's certainly not earthshattering
Thanks everyone for your advice. I decided to go with the Newcastle core. I got all my components in today and am going to try and put it all together tonight! (Wish me luck, this is my first time) Anyway, thanks again, I really appreciate this board and all the help it provides. You guys do a great job bringing newbies like me up to speed!
Well, I got everything up and running and it all seems to be configured correctly. I have a few little tweaks I still need to make, but in reality, I'm still amazed the thing booted up at all! I ended up with the AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (Newcastle core), MSI K8N Neo Platinum (Unfortunately, I ordered it before I heard your comments, but so far I have been very happy with it), ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, 2x Corsair 512Mb sticks of PC3200 RAM, 2x Samsung 80Gb Serial ATA hard drives configured in Raid 0. I am a little concerned about the temperature of the processor based on what has been written on this board before. My CPU is running at about 54*C when I am doing basic stuff (ie. internet browsing, etc.) Is this too hot? I don't plan on overclocking anytime soon, so is that an okay temperature? I currently have 2 80mm case fans and my PSU has a 120mm and a 80mm fan. I did put thermal grease on the CPU, but unfortunately, the only thermal grease I could find in town late friday evening was some generic packets that my local comp store had. I put this on, but should I get something better and replace it? Basically, I just don't know what kind of temps are acceptable. I am paranoid about damaging something, so I just want to make sure that this kind of temp is not putting too much of a strain on my system. Oh, one other question (sorry for being so long winded again, that's what you guys get for being so helpful ), my case has a firewire connection on the front that I am trying to get working, but there is no manual for the case and the mobo manual doesn't give much detail. I got the front USB connections working, but does anyone know any tricks to the firewire connections? Thanks again for all your help! I think I am officialy hooked!
I'd suggest you look into the cooling on the Processor, especially if it is running near the 60 degC mark. My system is running at 36 Deg at the moment, when it's running flat out it's never gone above 50Deg. The Fan I use is the ThermalTake Silent Viking Fan for P3 up to 3Ghz, it's got a thermal probe to adjust the fan speed and it's nice and quiet. though it's probably a bit old now, there must be better ones on the market. I wouldn't bother with the Water cooling unless you're going to go overclocking the processor. according to some info I saw recently you should be seeing below 50 even flat out, but it could be the temperature reading is being reported incorrectly
Thanks, I'll definitely look into that! As far as the possibility of an incorrect reading, is the BIOS reading more accurate? The reading that I am going on now comes from a software utility that came with the motherboard.
