I have been doing some research on my upgrade and I think most people here have recommended that if I go AMD to go dual core. But being new to AMD tech I want some info on the 'core' status of their chips. I see some 4800+ dual core chips with a 'Manchester' cores and some advertised with the 'Toledo' core. Now am I right in assuming the only difference is the L2 cache on the Toledo is 1m as opposed to 512 for the Manchester core? So one with the Toledo core is the way to go?

Thinking of the Asus A8N premium SLI mobo...your thoughts?

Also what would be the best 2g Ram setup for this config..I am getting confused with Corsair twinx kits, OCZ gold DDR400 series ect..ect..

Also CA it appears your web site has karked itself overnight. :P

any input appreciated.

*p.s is this stuff [Corsair TWINX2048-3200C2PRO 2GB (2x XMS1GB) PC-3200 Dual Channel DDR RAM] the ducks nuts for that gear or what?

I originally bought a ASUS A8N SLI DELUXE.

The NFORCE4 fan on it died. It installs this stupid firewall stuff on the NIC that even when i disable it stopped me viewing a file from over the network after 10-15 minutes (it would drop the network connection when viewing movies on my xbox over the network).

Bought a gigabyte to replace it no nic issues so far (3 weeks) and there isn't a nforce4 fan to die.

hmmm was that on the onbaord NIC or with one you installed to the mobo...thanks for the heads up Ill investigate some more about mobos

Sounds like you are looking at getting a rig pretty similar to mine.
I have a ASUS A8N SLI DELUXE with a 4400+ Toledo and 2 gig ram in it and it works without a hitch.
Have had none of the problems Nats mentioned, though this is only the second week i have had it.

Merlyn, so Toledo is better than Manchester core, also what ram did you go for and also are you running an SLI vid card setup at all with that rig?

there was a weird thging with the a8n sli i built for my friend where it wouldnt allow me to get files off my computer when i hooked my pc to his with a plain network cable when i could do it with many other computers

the nic on my p4p800 detets whether it needs a crossover or normal rj45 and just makes it work but somehow it wouldnt on this a8n sli, other than that not many other complaints i got about it, (i got it finally working by hooking up both the pc's to a router so i could copy files across)

Running a single 7800GTX pcie with 2 gig Diverse 3200 rams (2 x 1 gig sticks)
I can't tell personally if the Toledo is better than the Manchester because i haven't tried a one. I read that the Manchester overclocks better but i do not intend to overclock this (atm) so more cache can only be good.

It installs this stupid firewall stuff on the NIC

You have a choice not to install it. Try not.

I'm thinking..

4400
A8n-Sli
7800gtx

almost 2 grand there. haha

almost 2 grand there. haha

not even close..

:P

Sorry its more :D

I am currently in the upgrade mode.

I have got myself a 550w psu, 2x 36.7gb raptors and a audigy2 zs sound card. Now i'm just waiting for q4 or crossfire to come out to get the rest.

I was looking at getting a amd 64 4000+ cpu as I will mostly be using it for gaming and x2 isn't as fast. If I had the money I would get a fx 57 ><

I think it is money well spent.
I play BF2 with everything on full, 4xAA and it just motors along.
I understand the BF2 is on of the most system taxing games around atm and my rig barely notices it. Your rig will do similar happy things.

If I had the money I would get a fx 57 ><

Yes from every bit of research I have done it is a screamingly fast processor. I have seen it as low as $1514...and yes its still under consideration. Every now and then the wife lets me cut loose and seriously feed my hardware addiction. Apparently this week we r getting a good dividend from our shares and she has given me the nod to go crazy..and crazy I shall go.

I get some cool hardware, she gets a ten day cruise at xmas time. :P

Here is a config I am thinking of-

FX57 cpu OR 4800+ dual core..(maybe even an FX55 as I have found a good price)
A8n SLI premium mobo by Asus
2 gig of really good ram..Thats why I asked you guys you seem to know a lot.
WD 74 gig raptor HDD (my old seagate barracuda iv as second HDD)
2x 7800GTX cards in SLI
Phillips 202P Professional digital 22"CRT monitor (this baby does 1600x1200@104hz)

All this chucked back into my Lian Li PC60 case with my DVD drives, Audigy2 zs s/card, Enermax 550w psu ect ect..

Now that 'upgrade' is going to cost a bunch but I also intend to buy a comp for my sister in law, say arround the $1500 mark. Do many of the retailers give you a good discount if you are going to spend this much with them? Like who is the best retailer to 'haggle' with in this respect at the moment?

I can get the cost down by buying all the stuff separately from different vendors but I am a complete tool in putting it all together. I would rather cut a good deal and get it all put together by the one retailer. That way if anything new s***s itself, I deal with the one company. If I buy all the bits separately I would have to pay one of you tech gurus (Koopz!) to come to my place and put it together for me. (free beer supplied):P

At the moment Surpass at Taringa is looking good, if they can price match on some of the items. Plus they are like ten minutes drive from me if I do have to go back and forth. Umart are a close second at the moment if they can do likewise.

To help fund this venture I would be getting rid of the following...soon to appear on SOLD I'd say.

Intel P4 3.06 ghz cpu
Asus P4t533-c mobo
1 gig of Kingmax 1066 Rdram (4x512m matched pairs)
Asus 6800 Ultra deluxe vid card
Dell p990 (rebadged 19" Sony Trinitron monitor)

[Give me an idea what you reckon a good price for this gear is to if you like.]

Now this isnt a 'hey look at my e-penis' thread so those that know me know I am not blowing my hardware horn here. They know I am a upgrade addict and many have benefitted by getting my excellent 'old' stuff at a fair price. :P Seeing as this is the biggest upgrade I have done for say 5yrs, I am aiming for a rig to do me for quite a few years and still be able to handle anything thrown at it in the future.

I just value people's input from here before I go and do this thing, as I know many here have industry/hardware experience.

I have to spend the doe anyways so I might as well spend it on something I love. Plus its a tax deduction for the wife to-boot.

last edited by Psycho! at 01:10:03 18/Sep/05

Psycho, read this months issue of the APC mag, it has a 5 page Intel vs AMD article wich is pritty good.

in it it shows,among other things , AMD 4800+ duel core beet everything on the market.

Edit: its accually 5 pages not 3

last edited by Irhabi at 01:15:42 18/Sep/05

Irhabi, will do. I get that mag for free, the wife's company prints it, I havent got round to reading it yet but will for sure now. cheers

^^cool, i buy it every month problly cheaper for me to get a subscription but i never seem to get arround to it lol

I'll see if she can swing a subscription cheaper for you..no promises but I can ask.

Failing that you can have my old ones, i generally get them a few days before they go to the shops, read them overnight and then chuck them in the bin.

sweet..either way im happy

my email is danybash at nospamplz gmail dawt com

feel free to email me psycho thx.

If you're upgrading and hoping it to last a few years, I would say go the x2 4800+

I've done nothing but read reviews ocau and hardocp for the last 2 weeks deciding on what to get on an upgrade myself.

The ram I was looking at getting was either the OCZ 2GB 2-3-2-5 kit or the Patriot 2GB 2-3-2-5 kit.

But then again I don't know cause i'm a hardware newb these days =(

The difference between the two cores is that the “Toledo” has two L2 caches each being 1 Mb in size and the “Manchester” has two L2 caches each being 512k in size. The x2 4800+ is an excellent CPU especially if you do a million things at once like I do but they are bloody expensive.

I personally wouldn’t buy an Asus MB. I find them unstable, a little bit slower compared to some of the other brands and the warranty on them is ridiculous. I put Gigabyte as number one and I like Abit for its value for money.
I recommend the Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI. I have used plenty of these and they are fast and perfectly stable.
Regardless of which one you chose, remember to update you bios straight away as I don’t think there are any Athlon boards available today that will support multithreading without the most recent bios version. If you don’t update it then it will be running as a single core.

Yes the Corsair TWINX2048-3200C2PRO is definitely one of the best choices for DDR400 memory but with the price tag to match. I personally haven’t found much difference between the generic lifetime warranty brands and the high end stuff but if you have the money why settle for generic.
Also not that it really matters much but the heatsinks on this ram makes it a very tight squeeze in some of the motherboards especially the Gigabyte one that I recommended because the dim slots are so close together but they do fit.

Irhabi, the wife said she can get you 25% discount on the APC subscription if you like. (Staff discount apparently) email me with your address and contact details.

She'll put it on our visa when you are ready to start and you can direct deposit us back.

last edited by Psycho! at 09:22:40 18/Sep/05

zectbumo thanks for the input. As for the Asus mobo I have only ever had Asus mobo's in all my machines and never a prob. As for Warranty? isnt Asus warranty 3yrs?

Anyway one of the biggest reasons I am considering the Asus mobo is that it is the ONLY mobo that has 5.3 cm distance between the pci/e slots that can accomodate the Asus 'extreme' 7800 TOP cards. These are the factory overclocked 7800's with the arctic cooling on them. Read a very interestign review of the card where the cooling is keeping the gpu 14degrees coooler than any other 7800 card on the market at the moment. Check out Firingsquad's write up

But I do take your info to heart because the funds might mean i get two standard vid cards and they can fit in any board. [H]ardOCP also did a very good write up on the Abit Fatality SLI mobo and its a strong contender as well in the mobo stakes.

last edited by Psycho! at 09:38:08 18/Sep/05

ocz ram ftw > corsair! Gold isn't the best ocz ram though, look into better models.

I own Asus deluxe. The board is fine, and yes my fan also died, but a $11 zalman hs fixed the problem and is better and quieter then the fan anyway.

You are looking at the priemium which is mean't to be far better then the deluxe, so I wouldn't compare the too. Only thing with the deluxe is I couldn't overclock my ocz ram to stupid levels :) But I heard the priemium is mean't to be far more overclockable. But from memory I didn't think you did much overclocking from your previous posts....

Dont get that abit board. Buy the asus premium or dfi board.

Asus deluxe shouldn't be used to compare what the premium will be like, as it was like the first ever nf4 sli that came out and a lot has changed since then.

Psycho, i dont have your email, mine is danybash at gmail daw comNOSPAM

mate just click on the 'mail' tab in the bottom of my post. :P

I have returned plenty of Asus mb's and have found that they basically only replace the ones that are dead without any visual signs of damage. If the board is burnt or melted etc. they will just refuse to replace it. I have returned a few that had melted north bridge chips and they didn't replace them.

Read the "Non - Repair Grounds" link on this page to get an idea as to what I mean -
http://support.asus.com/repair/repair.aspx?no=201&SLanguage=en-us

Not that they are prone to damage like that but I just don't agree with that sort of policy. I can understand that they need to protect themselves from the customers who damage the board simply through their own actions but sometimes these things happen even with a perfectly set up system like the ones I returned.
Anyhow it's just something to think about.

CA it appears your web site has karked itself overnight.

'major upgrade at the datacentre I hear.

Thinking of the Asus A8N premium SLI mobo...your thoughts?

Windows XP 32 - great performing board after some minor tweaking. heatpipes pwn fans.. 'nuff said.

Windows XP 64 - still a pain in the ass, as are intel offerings currently. x64 reminds me of Windows Millenium with all it's limited hardware and software support - someone just make it go away so we can move onto the next OS already.

That'll be the time to buy 64-bit. sif be a beta-tester

last edited by koopz at 13:53:47 18/Sep/05

Upgrade mode slips into second gear. :P

Stuff over at SOLD for your perusal.