Athlon XP 2700
ASUS A7N8X nForce2 w/ audio (Is there a version without the audio? I can't find any for some reason)
KingMax 256MB PC-2700 DDR333 SDRAM

LiteOn 52x24x52 OEM

MSI GeForce FX5200 128MB DDR
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum

I'm building it for home use, a little gaming, a fair bit of 3D design, . . . and I want a nice sound system. I also want it to last me a year or two without costing a fortune or being outdated tomorrow.

I would very much appreciate your input
Thanks

You'll not find this board in any other config, i.e., without sound onboard. If anyone knows of a way then great, please post the info. It's possible that in some regional markets this will happen so I'm basing this on the fact I live in the US.

As for the memory, you should do the dual channel mode option, get a matched pair of memory sticks and use this option, you'll be thankful you spent the extra and did this, you may also think about two matched pairs of 512MB sticks, RAM is pretty darn cheap, even PC2700

Also I would change my sound card to the Audigy 2 Platinum unless you're getting a killer deal on the Audigy 1 Platinum. Mainly this is due to the fact that the Audigy 2 has, finally, full 24-bit support. This means both for playback and recording

Since you mentioned 3D Design, would this include apps like Maya, Autocad, etc ??? If so you may want to consider one of the Quadro boards or a Fire GL perhaps. Of course the one you chose is no slouch either but with true workstation boards you can also go up to much larger on-board frame buffer capacities.

Otherwise it's a fine workstation you have going there.

The A7N8X deluxe has the soundstorm. The regular model just has the standard onboard sound (which isn't bad). The Deluxe's sound supposedly rivals the audigy2. I don't have the speakers to test it out myself. Whatever way you look at it, the $40 extra that you spend on the deluxe model is a far cry from the $150+ you would have to spend for the audigy2.

Head over to www.nforcershq.com/forum and check out the asus topic for more info then you can ever want to know about the board. It is really great IMO.

I'd go with the Abit IC7 for 150 bucks, and put a P4 2.53 or higher in it. THey are under 200 now.

jmmijo:

> You'll not find this board in any other config, i.e., without sound onboard.
That kinda sux =(

> you should do the dual channel mode option
you're right, I don't know why I didn't at the start

> Also I would change my sound card to the Audigy 2 Platinum unless you're getting a killer deal on the Audigy 1 Platinum. Mainly this is due to the fact that the Audigy 2 has, finally, full 24-bit support. This means both for playback and recording

The Audigy 2 Platinum will cost me $74 CDN extra, and I'm not sure if it's worth it. I'm getting the card mainly for it's playback quality and the fact that it has a remote. Will I ever use the 24-bit recording if I'm not doing any high-end editing?
btw, since you seem to know your sound systems, what do u think of the Creative MegaWorks 510D 5.1 500W?
It's frequency response (32Hz - 18kHz) is a bit worse than the Creative MegaWorks 550 THX 5.1 (25Hz - 20kHz), but I have no idea how my ear will respond to that and the MegaWorks will cost $50 extra.

> If so you may want to consider one of the Quadro boards or a Fire GL perhaps.
From what I've seen getting a mid-range card and upgrading regularly (well, relatively) comes out to be a lot cheaper than buying a high-end card, so . . .

Thanks a lot for the info.

What do I think?
That in this world of war, disease, pestilence and famine that I could not in good conscience bring another helpless computer into the world. What kind of computer will it grow up to be with 24hr media frenzies on everything from stupid criminals to the fact that Larry Flynt has offered $US1million for a video from a "naked Yale" party where Barbara Bush jr has been rumoured to be getting around in the buff.

I have the older Cambridge Soundworks 2200 Series, I think that was the model It's a 5.1 system but the analog version when the SB Live sereis was still out. It sounds great on both a Live and an Audigy 1 card. Havn't upgraded to the Audigy 2 yet however.

I do recommend upgrading if the audio playback is key, since the two speaker setups will most likely sound a little different, you may want to check out a local dealer of CL/CS speakers and listen for yourself. Of course it will not be definitive since your room/environment will make some changes in the sound playback as well.

Another good setup is the Klipsch 5.1, but of course the cost is more so again it comes back to the best sound for the buck

cool,
thanks for the help

You're welcome.

Buy an Abit bh7 - get a p4 2.4b costa rica chip, not sure what week... and overclock it to 3.1 with stock voltage and a decent fan as i did - i also put in pc3200

That would be kind of difficult consdiering nForce2 boards typically only have 3 RAM slots and only 2 can be used if you want to get full performance from dual-channel mode.

As for sound, don't by a sound card until you've at least heard the nVidia SoundStorm on the A7N8X Deluxe (which, unless you really need SATA, isn't really worth the money).

Hmm, I thought they were going to go to 4 DIMM slots on these boards. Now I should have guessed having bulit a few using this same ASUS board. I now remember it having only 3 DIMM slots so a matched pair is the best you can do

The may be planning on adding a 4th DIMM slot to future revisions of the chipset such the upcoming nForce3 for Athlon 64/Opteron or maybe even future versions of nForce2 but to my knowledge, the current crop of nForce2 boards, including the A7N8X Deluxe and my EPoX 8RDA+, only have 3 DIMM slots.

Can I suggest one thing, replace that 5200 fx it's garbage. I've brought 5600 and trade it for 9700 pro, I became very happy.

Should get ATI 9500 pro or 9700 pro, it's better.

Other thing I agree with Hawkboy for Quadro or FireGl, because you said you're interesting in 3d design. they're professional video card for designing 3D.

by the way good luck on your new computer

i have an OEM Audigy2 card and it was only $90 CND. It is not too bad. Still saving money for THX certified speakers. right now with my 4.1 speakers i don't see any difference between Audigy2 and the old SB Live! Value.

Can i show this to my brother?!! as much as i'm fan of ATI, my brother is a fan of nVidia. it's like his religion or something and he gets offended if anyone said ATI is better!!

I'm an All-in-Wonder fan!

The new ATI 9200 Cards are out and the 128MB versions are around 70 bucks US.


The reviews say they are the best for the money

i don't trust the reviews, i test them myself.

they are good, but i don't think AGP 8x is doing anything for it. (this is the standard VGA card that they sell with our systems. on 865 chipset it doesn't seem to run any faster, because 3dmarks and pc-marks don't run on this chipset, or it crashes on start up)

but running games, we have no problems what so ever. it runs Unreal II, GTA Vice city and Willrock properly.

Willrock is a drag, it lags on my R.9700 pro, so a little shakey is ok on 9200.

for a low cost and high performence i would recommend R. 9200 128MB.

i really HATE people who can not admit one product is better then another when simple plain facts and numbers are shown (if u can find fair ones)

Nvidia had it's day, now it is ati's turn.

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. The FX5200 ultra can beat the 9200, 9100, 9000, 8500 Pro. The FX5600U can beat the R9600Pro. Hell even a ti4200 can beat the R9600pro in some tests. A AUD$400 card being beaten by a AUD$150 card, how funny.

ATI fanboys can believe whatever they want but the cold hard fact is in the Radeon range the only cards that I'd look at are the 9700 and 9800 series.

You guys are taking it too seriously. Come on, just have fun. buy what you need and that's it.

For me i really like my all-in-wonder card. for my brother, he never uses the stuff that i use. he does different things. Just get what's best for you.

I'm just fed up with seeing "FX5200 is crap, avoid" all the time on gamer forums with absolutely no reasoning behind it. The remarks are usually aimed at people building PCs on the cheap and these dickhead gamers are saying buy Radeon 9600Pros which usually equate to half of their PC budget leaving no money for other parts and shafting the poor guy asking for advice. This is all just to feed their fanboy obsession while some poor person building a budget PC will suffer from ill informed advice.

P.S. The all in wonder cards are a good option for saving PCI slots on video input cards. I haven't actually had the chance to test one out tho.

the A-i-w is great. the capture quality is quite good. i have tested some cheap PCI Tuners/Capture cards, they are not worth the price. the quality on TV-Tuner is clearly crap!
capturing is a drag on thoes PCI cards also. If you want a PCI capture card that works you have to pull your credits together and buy a Matrox or other proffessional card that will cost more than just buying the a-w-i. (you have to pay for a good video card on top of that too).

I just LOVE my ATI all-in-wonder. i have had them since a-i-w 128 pro 32MB (that didn't work that good for capturing. i recommend anything like a-i-w r. 7500 or higher for capturing)