G-WizZ — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 02:07:52 +0000

In my opinion, the Athlon64 isn't a waste of money. Compared to the Athlon XP, the level 2 cache and CPU bus frequency of the 64 is far superior. I recently built a machine with said motherboard and processor, and it runs like a charm. I highly recommend that board with the Athlon64 3200+. Plenty of features and a great price. Asus is a well known board manufacturer as well. As for RAM, I recommend Corsair. PC-3200 is the highest speed of RAM that the K8V SE will handle, but 2 512MB sticks in dual channel mode make any machine fabulous.

P.S. I know this thread was last replied to in April, but I joined TWF yesterday and felt like adding my opinion to this matter.

mairving — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 12:07:09 +0000

Actually the opposite is true. The Athlon-64 can't use ECC RAM as well as most desktop boards. Most server boards require ECC. You would have to get the 64-FX or the Opteron for that. Currently getting a A64 is a waste of money if you are running Windows. When the 64-bit version of Windows (currently in Beta) comes out, it might change things though. I spend a lot of time over at PCMech myself.

teammatt3 — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 02:33:55 +0000

Don't quote me on this but I think you will need to buy different memory for your PC. I think the 64 bit only supports ECC memory, it costs about 20 bucks more but your computer will never crash, according to PCWorld If you need anymore help with your pc a good place to get some info is pcmech.com. Their message board is great, everyone gives advice!! Oh yeah, I am thinking about getting a 64bitter for my PC, tell me how it works out for you!!!!

Ken Elliott — Tue, 20 Apr 2004 18:57:38 +0000

looks good, got good reviews and you linked me right where I planned to buy it newegg is the shiznitoblamblam. Thanks again mairving.

Also ordered my case while I was at it. I don't plan on using any external drives. I have a firewire iomega 80gig external but I don't use it..lol. I've already got a seagate 80gig which came with my ebay disaster system so I'll be using that unless it doesn't work..I'm sure I've got some other drives around here somewhere.

mairving — Tue, 20 Apr 2004 15:38:08 +0000

If it is a Athlon-64 3200+, then it only supports a single processor. You would have to go with an Opteron to use dual processors. You can run a dual processor motherboard with only one processor as long as you install it in the correct slot.

A decent motherboard for the Athlon-64 is the Asus K8V SE Deluxe. I wouldn't run external hard drives except maybe as a backup. Performance would be quite bad. You would be much better off if performance is an issue running SCSI, which can be quite expensive or SATA, which is cheaper but doesn't perform as well.