Thank you all for your previous advice but I need more...

I'm persuaded to discard the idea of upgrading this computer at any
time. I'm pretty much settled on the cpu I think. I hope to
overclock it from 1.8GHz to 2.5GHz Total cost is ~$740.00 Canadian.

This is the set up I'm thinking about:

Mobo: $126.00USD newegg
EPoX "EP-9NDA3+" NVIDIA nForce3 ULTRA Chipset Motherboard For AMD
Socket 939 CPU -RETAIL
nForce3 Ultra chipset, ATX size 2.0 GTs HT FSB / DDR 400 / AGP-8X /
8ch audio/ 8 USB2.0 GbE LAN / 4 SATA-RAID / 1394
Support Socket-939 based AMD Athlon-64/ Athlon-64 FX up to 3600+ with
2.0GTs Hyper Transport
Support System Memory:
Four 184-pin DDR SDRAM DIMM sockets
Support single-sided or double-sided 2.5v DDR-333/400 DIMMs with dual
channel architecture in 128/256/512Mb technologies
Support Asynchronous clocking mode between FSB and DIMM
Support up to 4GB system memory
Expansion Slots:
Five PCI connectors compliant with PCI v2.2
One 1.5v AGP- 8X/4X connector compliant with AGP v3.0
PowerBIOS for excellent over clocking features:
Support Asynchronous FSB/DIMM timing mode and 1MHz fine tuning on AGP
clock
Support BIOS adjustable CPU clock and voltage, AGP voltage, DIMM
frequency and voltage settings.
more- http://www.epox.com.tw/eng/products_content.php?ps=322

CPU:$185.00CD
Athlon64 3000+ S939 512K Athlon64 3000+ (1.8GHz) S939 512K 800FSB HS &
FAN (hope to oc to 2.5GHz) (need to get wenchester core)
dual channel mem controller.

Video Card:$240.00CD
N368 6600GT 128M PCX eVGA 6600GT 128M DDR TV-o, DVi-i PCI-Express

Ram:$135.00USD newegg
Corsair Value Select (Dual Pack) 184 Pin 512MBx2 DDR PC-3200 - OEM

1) Since the mobo doesn't seem to have pci-e should I change the video
card and save some money instead of getting a useless feature?
Suggestions?

2) Does anything look totally out of whack? Is the video card too
much for the cpu? Am I wasting money on a component?

3) Is it worth the money to get high end ram at twice the cost? Like,
G.skill (Samsung TCCD) Dual Channel Kit 184-Pin 1GB(512MB x 2) DDR
PC-4400, Model F1-3200DSU2-1GBLE - Retail $275.00 USD.

Thanks again for your help
Eric

On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 17:13:35 GMT, Eric wrote:

I'm persuaded to discard the idea of upgrading this computer at any
time. I'm pretty much settled on the cpu I think. I hope to
overclock it from 1.8GHz to 2.5GHz Total cost is ~$740.00 Canadian.


Ram:$135.00USD newegg
Corsair Value Select (Dual Pack) 184 Pin 512MBx2 DDR PC-3200 - OEM

1) Since the mobo doesn't seem to have pci-e should I change the video
card and save some money instead of getting a useless feature?
Suggestions?

Yeah if you dont have a PCI express board it is kind of wacky to get a
PCI express video card. However , Newegg lists the new Nforce4 Pci
express boards as coming soon so why not wait a few weeks and get one
of those? They do seem to have some fairly inexpensive boards slated
for release.

$129
ETA 12/30
http://www.newegg.com/app/SearchProd...bmit=Go&DEPA=0


2) Does anything look totally out of whack? Is the video card too
much for the cpu? Am I wasting money on a component?


3) Is it worth the money to get high end ram at twice the cost? Like,
G.skill (Samsung TCCD) Dual Channel Kit 184-Pin 1GB(512MB x 2) DDR
PC-4400, Model F1-3200DSU2-1GBLE - Retail $275.00 USD.

I would only get that if you are really dead set on overclocking a lot
and you can afford the extra $$. Personally unless I wanted to do
some OCing right away - Id get the cheaper stuff. At Compusa and CC
and Buy.com and maybe FRYs I think there are deals on cheaper ram
right now in the $59 per 512 DDR 400 range. Thats like almost 1/3 the
cost ! Im going to carry over my DDR 400 Kingston and PNY when I get
my system. You could get the cheaper stuff and then when mem prices
come down sell your 400 sticks and upgrade later when you get a faster
CPU or decide to OC. Hopefully though you wont have to upgrade the CPU
cause everyone says you massively OC the CPU so just buy cheaper
higher end ram later hopefully.

However dont blame me if there are problems. When new boards come out
there seems to be a lot more compatiblity problems with memory so
people generally give the advice about buying 'good" memory. However
DDR 400 has been out a looooong time now and I remember reading
whining posts about the nforce2, nforce3 etc and there didnt seem to
be a clearcut pattern of top brand mem = no problems and cheaper ram
like Kingston = lots of problems. In fact I saw some weird posts where
corsair had problems with some posters and they had no problems with
Kingston. It was mixed up like that though there seemed to be some
correlation obviously with top brands and less problems. The mainthing
seemed more to do with the motherboard makers getting their act
together eventually.

On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 17:13:35 GMT, Eric wrote:


1) Since the mobo doesn't seem to have pci-e should I change the video
card and save some money instead of getting a useless feature?
Suggestions?

AGP based motherboard uses AGP video card.


2) Does anything look totally out of whack? Is the video card too
much for the cpu? Am I wasting money on a component?

No the video card is appropriate if you'll be gaming. If
not gaming you can save a few $$ with a lesser card.


3) Is it worth the money to get high end ram at twice the cost? Like,
G.skill (Samsung TCCD) Dual Channel Kit 184-Pin 1GB(512MB x 2) DDR
PC-4400, Model F1-3200DSU2-1GBLE - Retail $275.00 USD.

Generally no, for twice the cost you'd be better off buying
a faster CPU and another 512MB of memory, though I don't
know the particulars of overclocking on that motherboard,
how far you'd be able to push the Corsair memory. If I were
starting out with 1GB of memory on a new system build, I'd
consider buying a single 1GB DIMM instead of 2 x 512MB.
Often when one fills more memory slots there is a lower bus
limit for stability at any given memory timings. In other
words if you might benefit from 1.5GB of memory, you should
consider buying 1 x 1GB and 1 x 512MB in same order such
that you can test that config to be stable rather than
waiting later to see if adding memory will be an issue.

If you want to try to overclock to 2.5 you'll need that fast DDR ram. It's not
a given that you can reach that 2.5 either.

3) Is it worth the money to get high end ram at twice the cost? Like,
G.skill (Samsung TCCD) Dual Channel Kit 184-Pin 1GB(512MB x 2) DDR
PC-4400, Model F1-3200DSU2-1GBLE - Retail $275.00 USD.