My old P4 2.8C AGP platform is getting retired (close to 5 years now!) and I'm making the jump to PCI-e via a used PC I picked up off the HardOCP forum.

The specs are as follows...

Asus A8nSLI Deluxe mobo
2 GB Ram
Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM PATA
2 Liteon 16x DVD burners
AMD 3000+ (1.8GHz)
nVidia 6600GT
2.1 Harmon Kardon Speakers
system comes with XP

Changes I'm considering....

1) Maxtor is getting pitched for a pair of SATA 3.0 Seagates, in striped configuration.

2) The 6600GT. gone.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103050

$200 is the price point I'm looking at, the reviews on the ATI 3870 have been excellent with very low power consumption as a bonus.

Question- The specs state "PCI-e 2.0" will this board work with my new motherboard? Pardon the newbie PCI-e question.

3) AMD 3000+ (1.8GHz)

Ah, another hard question, what cpu to choose? Use to be easy in the old days =)

FX-55? FX-57? X2? Opteron?  And why?

The machine is going to be used for mostly for gaming and ripping DVD's when the main box is occupied or if I have a bunch of DVD's to rip.

I have no plans on installing Vista so the ram size is fine.

Let me know what you think, I grabbed the system with a 19" Viewsonic LCD for $335 shipped which I though was a reasonable price.

Motherboard specs-

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=15&l3=148&l4=0&model=375&modelmenu=2

CPU chart for motherboard-

http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=A8N-SLI%20Deluxe

Seems a X2 is the way to go (compared to the FX)

But use a $65 4200+ or a server class 4800+ with 2mb of cache for $200? what about Opterons?

PCI-e 2.0 is backwards compatible:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pci-e#PCI_Express_2.0

CPU:
The X2 4800+ isn't worth it. If you wanted to, you should be able to overclock the X2 4200+ to 2.6GHz with ease (2.2GHz standard). This will make up for the difference in cache (when it comes to performance that is). Also, forget Opterons, they're more expensive than Athlons at this point.

About the drives:
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3031&p=1

If you want quiet drives get Samsung's Spinpoint T166 series, they come in a variety of sizes.

wrote on 23.11.07 at 14:53:52:

CPU: The X2 4800+ isn't worth it. If you wanted to, you should be able to overclock the X2 4200+ to 2.6GHz with ease (2.2GHz standard). This will make up for the difference in cache (when it comes to performance that is).

Not much inclined for overclocking (getting old I guess) ;-) The 4200+ will do I guess

Doing some research, the 939 platform looks like it is a bit long in the tooth and should have passed on the deal. But on the other hand, the price is low ($275 plus shipping) and includes a 19" Viewsonic.

The way I look at it is like this- My old system still has some value and I have been considering buying ram & dvd-rw drive for my daily use system along with some SATA drives.

I'll take the ram & dvd-rw drive from my old "gaming system" and transfer it to the daily use system. This will give me the dual dvd burner setup and extra ram I desired without "spending" any cash.

Money "saved" $80

The PCI-e 6600GT,  and current 3000+ will be sold on Ebay along with the Gigabyte AGP board with 2.8C and nearly new x850.

If everything goes well I should break even more or less and have lots of goodies to play with.

The X2 and 3870 will come in under $300, and the 3870 can always be used on a later platform (PCI-e 2.0). To future proof things a bit I can always pickup a second 3870.

On hard drives- I'm a big Seagate fan, never let me down and their 5 year coverage is nice.

@Gary - I just upgraded to an Athlon X2 4400+ 939 myself...

Can't say I've had the chance to test it yet, as I'm still re-installing everything!
(two 200GB SATA drives takes AAAAGES to re-install)

(Although my board also has an 'upgrade' slot for a daughterboard that allows socket M2 Athlons)

As for HDD's...

Samsung for quietness and Western Digital for reliability. Thay's my experience at least...

As for the Radeon 3870...I'd wait a bit if I were you...there's going to be DUAL boards on the horizon sometime soon...

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4251&Itemid=1

Radeon HD 3870 X2!!!

wrote on 24.11.07 at 00:13:25:

As for the Radeon 3870...I'd wait a bit if I were you...there's going to be DUAL boards on the horizon sometime soon...

Not at a $200 price point though ;-)

Still worth it in the long run! ;)

I'm saving up for one RIGHT NOW! 8)

Might I ask why AMD CPU? Core 2 Duo might be a much better choice, since it offers better performance/buck ratio. If you really insist on AMD, then wait for Phenom and then take it.

DAAMIT video card is ok... Newer, cheaper and almost as good as GF8800 GTS! It would also be my choice, if I had no 8800 GTS ;)

wrote on 26.11.07 at 04:30:24:

Might I ask why AMD CPU? Core 2 Duo might be a much better choice, since it offers better performance/buck ratio. If you really insist on AMD, then wait for Phenom and then take it.

I'm buying the system used, cheap price.

If I was going new, a Core 2 duo would be the way to go.

Benches on the Phenom are pretty ugly, I'd avoid it unless they get the scaling higher.

Phenom is like ANY new AMD chip.

Initially they are slow - but they improve with newer models.

Someone just shot themselves in the foot- Now the price on the 3870 just went up over $50 overnight!

8800 is now looking attractive.

I'm not too fussed about the price - the reasons I want the DUAL GPU version are that:

1) SLI without all the fiddly extra cables AND the need for a DUAL PCI-X 16X mainboard...

2) Pretty d@mn future proof - should last longer than a single GPU solution.

3) Possibility of upgrading to TWO of these cards (yeah, I can dream) enabling 4X SLI with only 2 cards.

4) And if people STILL moan about the price - go to eBay.