Legit Reviews

Finally after 4 or so years, I'm getting a new PC.
Since i still don't have a job, I configured one thats below 900$

Case/PSU Antec TX 1050 - 125$ Saving money by getting a nice case with an even better PSU
CPU AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice - 190$ Best bang for the buck, a 3500 would cost me 77$, crazy...
Video Card HIS x800 xl http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814161132, This one is beautiful, only 300$ but comes with an artic cooler.

Motherboard Still a little undecided, i wish to overclock but i dont want to spend a premium dollar. Saw on a review Epox didnt overclock well and it was my first choice. Might go with the DFI one, but that one has bios issues and is picky about ram Some suggestions welcome ^_^

ram One of the tough ones too, once again i want to overclock but i dont want to go and spend more than 150$, i might go thru and get ocz el rev 2, the one with the tcc5 chip, but if theres a cheaper alternative I wouldnt mind. this looks decent and witin my price range http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820227211


The Mobo+RAm is a real dilema, i don't want to go over 900$, and i dont want to get an DFI if my the ram could do just as well on a different board, so tips and suggestions welocme.

Another thing bothring me, is the Mobo+GFX card, since the HIS x800 xl has an artic cooler there might be issues of the card fitting properly? many cards have the northbridge right next to the pci-e slot, and if the card gets hot it might hurt the motherboard right? So i've spent the whole day looking at card that would have sufficient clearance, and the best one was an asus intel board

Thanks for reading my rant, hopefully i can get some swet suggestions, like previous builders did ^_^ Finally i get a chance to have a GOOD computer and I really want to make sure i get awsome stuff for my money, and i don't want regrets :o

Well it looks like you are definately on the right track. I also have a 3200 Venice and it is a great bang for your buck chip. The X80XL is also a great card for the money. But ATI and nVidia will have their new lineup available by the fall so you might want to wait till then to check out the new stuff and prices will have also dropped by then too.
As far as your other questions are concerned, I will do my best to cover it all.

Motherboard:
Anandtech just finished a very nice NF4 Ultra coundup that you should check out HERE. They declared both the DFI NF4 Ultra-D and the Epox 9NPA+ as thier "Gold Editors Choice" board so either board would be a great choice. Personally, I would go with DFI just because it not only looks cooler, but it has much more community support and most likely has better manufacturer support. I've heard a couple people complaining that Epox customer support is less than satisfactory (but I haven't heard either good or bad about DFI customer support). The DFI board also has a full range of cpu and memory voltage options, a better onboard audio solution, as well as two x16 PCI-Express slots but it does come with the slightly higher price (~$20).

RAM:
If you are looking for 2x512mb modules at the $150 pricepoint that will overclock well, there is a small selection, but the OCZ Platinum rev.2 PC-3200 stuff is a tried and true overclocker, even with the new TCC5 chips and is available for an extra $17 or so over your budget if you can swing it. The Patriot PC-3200 XBL stuff is also not very expensive but has been known to overclock well. I'm not sure what chips that other OCZ Gold PC-3200 with 2-2-2 timings has or what it overclocks to but I bet its decent.
I have to go now but I'll add more later:)

As he said
The epox board would be my bet, dfi if you can
As mentioned, WAIT a month for your GFX card.
Nvidia have their new flagship card, ATI have probs but it's coming
Both will have their mid-range cards out soon.
I heard that Nvidia's next card in their lineup mayby just as fast as the 6800U!!
This will greatly reduce the price of older models (ie. x800xl)

I know when I built mine, I said the same thing to myself, but went ahead anyway. I was lucky as my new card died after 3mths, and instead of replacing I paid a few extra bucks and got an upgrade.. you might not be so lucky ;)
People will say waiting to upgrade is pointless as there is always new things out
BUT THE GFX CARD SECTOR IS ONLY WARMING UP!!!!

And I'm back. Had to go do my 10 mile run:)
ANYWAY! ...back on topic...

As far as chipset overheating issues caused by the video card:
I don't think you have to worry too much as long as you have decent airflow in your case. What case do you have? What kind of cooling? You don't have to worry about the video card heating it up (which won't really happen because the whole video card doesn't heat up, just the GPU where the big heatsink is), but if you put a big cooler on it like the VGA silencer, the fan of it will most likely hang over top of the chipset hs/f and obstruct airflow. But again, this shouldn't be too much of an issue as long as you have decent case airflow to minimize the hotspots (at least as much air being exhausted as being taken in).

Check out THIS THREAD at OCForums.com. Has some nice thermal images of the hotspots on the DFI NF4

Full article available HERE!

As you can see, the area under and next to the video cards and add-on slots is very hot so it is good you are concerned about it!
But I do know that as far as stock chipset coolers go, DFI's implementation is by far the best out there. That company really made sure not to overlook any detail when they made their s939 lineup!

3200 Venice = $199
DFI NF4 Ultra-D = $129
2x512mb Patriot XBL PC-3200 = $165
X800XL = $285
Antec TX 1059 w/ 500w PSU = $125
------------------------------------------
TOTAL = $903

Prices don't include shipping so you might be a little over. Plus I am assuming you don't need hard drives or optical drives or monitor or keyboard or speakers or mouse or any of that other good stuff. That price obviously doesn't include cooling either. You can get hooked up with an XP-90 and a decent fan for like $45 or so. Or you can just get a retail packaged cpu and use the stock HS/F. Or just get a more modest aftermarket cooler that falls somewhere in the middle price and performance wise. Whatever floats your boat

But whatever you decide to do, let us know how it goes!


-Blake

I ordered everything except the gfx card. I got value ram for now and a DFI lanboy so when i get soome money for proper cooling then ill get some good ram.

When are are new card coming out? Cause i'll have a whole system here without a graphics card, and i dont wanna spen 300$ when 'nex-gen' stuff is coming out :o

I think DFI makes the bestmotherboards, hands down. Oskar Wu did wonders at ABIT, and their boards were very highly thought if, then he moved on to DFI, and suddenly their boards just explode.
Oskar is widely regarded as one of the best motherboard/BIOS people in the industry.
When the NF4 first came out, there were some BIOS issues, as there are with every major chipset release. Go look at techpoweup or DFI Street and you will see extensive BIOS list, with almost two BIOS released per week..... by far the most extensive BIOS lists I have ever seen.

nVIDIA just launched the Geforce 7800GTX last month and is for sale now. ATI is going to launch the R520 very soon, but was delayed due to leakage problems of the core...

I hate leakage problems.

wont the new chips be expensive anyway? no point in waiting for like a 20$ price drop right?