Building a New Computer...need opinions

[Dragon_Cooler]

in my years of computers, i have learned you will regret not spending that extra few bucks! [/2cents]

[killswitch83]

granted, but when you're talking about two processors with the same cores and cache amount with just a slight OC for a bit more, you tend to want to go with the lower model and OC it to or over that difference. Now, concerning mobo's, I fully agree with you. That's the reason why I will never again buy a low-end MSI mobo, because they're not manufactured well. Now, their upper tier boards like the Diamond or Neo series I would go for, but nothing lower. I went with the Ultra Infinity from DFI because right now I just wanted to get something going, and for my application (moderate gaming, streaming photos and perhaps video later on, and schoolwork) it works well. But yeah, I agree with you on that one for sure.

[FZ1]

If you are considering OC headroom, look at the dual core Opteron processors instead

[nForcer227]

actually, I think you meant the 3800+, not 3700+....anyways, all the 4200 is, is a 3800+ with a slightly higher clock.....you can easily get a 200 MHz OC on a 3800+ chip for less than you would pay for a 4200+.....in a word, get the 3800+, it's a great chip IMO

Well i was actually talking about the athlon 64 3700 90nm rev....but im guessing the dual core is very important for application use...and ill prolly stick with the AMD 4200 X2...

the DFI mobo's (at least the Infinity and UT lines) have one of two chipsets, depending on whether you have the Ultra or SLI in either of those sets: NForce4 Ultra or NForce4 SLI.

Well everyone keeps talkin bout DFI...and i never heard of it (please excuse me )... When i put my computer together the big dogs were ASUS/ ABIT / MSI...iunno how good they are now...but my dad has a MSI bored and is running find for him....Anyways, I am trying to research into the DFI boards but DFI's site seem to be down or something ... Ill look more into it, Ill prolly go for the nforce4 Ultra ;D Would u suggest a LANParty board?

It's a great chipset, and I can tell you're an Nvidia fan (aww I wonder what gave it away, lol ).

lol Actually nForcer is one i have been using for years...i used "Enforcer" but everyone called me nFo for short so i dropped the E and called myself nForcer....it was then about a year or 2 after when nVidia first released their nForce chipset...which i thought was pretty cool, and i always fooled ppl saying i worked for nVidia

[killswitch83]

haha, that's funny.....

as far as recommending the Lanparty board goes, it really depends on how much gaming you plan on doing. If you plan on doing a lot, and want a lot (and I do mean A LOT) of adjustable BIOS settings and an overall kick-ass board, then yes I would recommend the hell out of it!!!! lol

However, if you're going to be doing a moderate amount of gaming and looking for slightly higher than the middle of the road, then the Ultra Infinity would be excellent. The memory voltage goes all the way up to 3.2v, which is plenty for pretty decent memory modules like OCZ Platinum and Crucial Ballistix DDR series. The chip FSB goes up to 400MHz in 1 MHz increments, so it makes OC'ing a breeze.....hold on, as a matter of fact, I have a link for you.....it has a review Capper wrote on both the DFI Ultra Infinity and SLI Infinity:

right here

trust me, I think you'll find this board to be exceptional and it will provide a good measure of performance. Really, the Lanparty boards are for OC'ing experts who are looking to squeeze every last MHz out of their CPU and memory IMO. hope this helps buddy.