My new sytem, right choices??

canton_kid · Post by **canton_kid** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 3:22 am

I just bought this at Newegg tonight.

GIGABYTE GA-MA69VM-S2 AM2 AMD 690V Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
Item #: N82E16813128043 $64.99

Antec earthwatts EA430 ATX12V v2.0 430W Power Supply
Item #: N82E16817371006 $49.99 ea X 2

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Brisbane 2.7GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor Model ADO5200DOBOX $109.99
Item #: N82E16819103210

CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400C4
Item #: N82E16820145034 $74.00 - $5 promo -$40 MIR

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
Item #: N82E16835100007 $5.99

I bought 2 of the Antec 430 watt supplies. Supposed stated rating is 80% so I will replace one of my others and see if it saves me power on my electric bill. I have a Kill-A-Watt meter and it shows my main system normally eats around 150watts from the grid including UPS. This summer I may run off batteries and inverters charged by solar and wind, so power savings would be nice.

So do all the above parts look like they fit together and a good deal?
Corsair ram has a $40 rebate! Also a Newegg promo code for $5 off so it was $69 up front and if I get the rebate then $29

I have extra drives here so plan to install a Sata 300 gig Maxtor or a Sata 250 gig Seagate Hard Drive.

ZYFER · Post by **ZYFER** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 6:14 am

Just a very important hint. If you are asking if something is the right choice, wouldn't it be good to ask before you bought it?

Invisible Evil · Post by **Invisible Evil** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 9:03 am

Looks good, that is a great Mobo.
Why did you elect to go with AMD rather than the more popular Intel choice?

Just curious no disrespect intended by the question at all!

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 10:21 am

Sounds fine to me. Actually, if you aren't overclocking & just going with the stock settings, the AMD chips are very competitive, so there's nothing wrong there. If you game, you depend on the video card more anyhow.

The power supply won't probably make a huge impact on the total energy bill. Might save you a couple dollars a months if the computer stays on 24/7.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 10:06 pm

Just let me warn you that Corsair XMS memory can be VERY fussy. It's not guaranteed to work out of the box at default timing - often you have to fiddle with it. Been there, done that.

I would suggest you Google "GIGABYTE GA-MA69VM-S2 TWIN2X2048-6400C4" and see if anyone's had issues or recommends timing settings.

You can also check Corsair's forums: http://www.houseofhelp.com/forums

I did a quick search on there and found some troubling posts:
http://www.houseofhelp.com/forums/showt ... -MA69VM-S2

http://www.houseofhelp.com/forums/showt ... -MA69VM-S2

If you don't plan on over clocking I would recommend buying Crucial for $90 and being assured your RAM will work with default settings and no voodoo: http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts. ... .%201.0%29

canton_kid · Post by **canton_kid** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 1:27 am

ZYFER wrote:Just a very important hint. If you are asking if something is the right choice, wouldn't it be good to ask before you bought it?

Yes, I guess your right. Mostly I am out of date with hardware now, not built anything for awhile. Wanted to see if there was any, HEY THAT DON"T WORK TOGETHER" type comments. I hope I bought the right CPU for the correct socket board??

canton_kid · Post by **canton_kid** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 1:56 am

Thanks FP,
There was a $40 rebate on the Corsair so if I get it back the Ram was $29.
I bought it though because I thought Corsair was supposed to be the best.
I'll check the Crucial DDR2 also.

This rig will be for allot of 3D animations, I hope. For now I will try the onboard video and see what it does, if it works good great, if not I'll be using a Vid card I already have or buying a new one.

The power supply won't probably make a huge impact on the total energy bill. Might save you a couple dollars a months if the computer stays on 24/7.

I expect one system will stay on almost 24/7. I have one now that pretty much does now.
You know how reviews from buyers go. But I read a couple people claimed they checked their systems power use, one said 180watts with old P/S and changing nothing but P/S to this model they dropped to 100watts. If true 80 watts is allot of savings!
I have a Watt-a-meter, great the have around, so I'll check my Abit system for awhile to see what it uses for power then change the P/s to this energy saver and see what that does.
I know the savings can't be that great, My rack mount UPS uses 30watts with no load, LCD 19" and computer plus Ups runs about 150watts average for me. A UPS probably passes on that 30 watts when in use, wastes it when not being used.

Why did you elect to go with AMD rather than the more popular Intel choice?

I like AMD. Also I try to only spend $100 for a CPU, or any 1 item. Got tired of buying a $200 item and price drops to $110 in 5 months. It used to be AMD was the most bang for the buck in the lower prices ranges, don't know if they still are.
I still support the under dogs a bit too at times. I did not like the old days of 386 and 486 when Intel was the only choice. If we don't buy AMD we might fall back to those days again sometime. That would be horrible to give total market back to Intel to let them run wild again.

Executioner · Post by **Executioner** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 7:08 pm

I bought Corsair for my new rig, with a speed rating of 1066, but it would not run with my Asus P5K-E/WiFi at the rated speed of 1066. After checking out Corsair's site, you have to manually enter in the parameters, which essentially are over-clocked values to make it run at that speed. The big one was voltage. I originally had my bios values set at auto. I never noticed a problem until I ran Acronis validation, that verifies the integrity of the backup. Mine failed. After running MemTest, sure enough, it reported errors. To fix it, I manually set the speed to 800 and now it works just fine.

I wish I would have known this before I spent the extra money on the 1066 speed, when in reality it was a over clock. So Corsair must have pulled some really good 800MHz chips that would pass at 1066 @2.1v and sell them as such. I had no idea that they don't even have a standard at 1066 yet.

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 5:45 pm

Yeah, most of the DDR2 needs to be overvolted. Usually, 1.9-2.1 is the norm. Not much that I've seen that runs at 1.8v. Kinda stinks, because sometimes you can't even get to the BIOS to change it without a low voltage stick.

canton_kid · Post by **canton_kid** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 12:38 am

Well this was too easy so far.
Opened the boxes and started building today.
P/S, Board, DDR2, Cpu, mouse, keyboard, WOW it powered right up and I went right to Bios fine when I hit the delete key.
Put it all in the case and it still works :lol

Now waiting for a blank drive, trying to copy some backup files from a 80gig IDE to my 250gig Sata, then the 80gig will be installed for a boot drive. I expect to use the 250gig or a 300gig Sata for the storage drive and 3D programs/content stuff.

Newegg is still great, but spreading out a bit! All these parts came from Memphis, TN not CA. and the next day after ordering these parts I ordered an Acer 19" LCD and it's being shipped from NJ.
All that's fine, but I ordered parts one day and got them Thursday. Next day I order monitor and will be getting it Monday.
What happened to Friday???
No complaint, free shipping, as long as it's not broke when it gets here!! Just I expected it to be Friday so the weekend is one monitor short and it's a pain to keep moving my LCD around for building.
Even worse is my main system only has DVI output and the new one only has VGA out, so each time I move the monitor I have to change the cable from VGA to DVI or from DVI to VGA. OH WELL...

If this were for a main for me I'd go all Sata drives I think, 4 supported, but this won't be mine, goes to wife, but of course I'll be using it also.
MINE will be soon seeing how this one works first

Unless she decides she wants my main system I use now, I hope :lol

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 2:50 am

Good to hear, I almost always have something go wrong at first power-up for some reason. No need to hate on the IDE drives. They're plenty fast too. Though I do admit the SATA cables are a big step up. I hear you on Newegg, they shipped my last shipment from 3 different places & the case (pretty important to get things together) took over a week to arrive. So, I had a bunch of parts just sitting there.

Invisible Evil · Post by **Invisible Evil** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:43 am

Selection wize newegg kills em. But I try to buy from zipzoomfly as much as possible due to the fantastic and quick shipping. I have yet to order from them and not have it 2 days later.

canton_kid · Post by **canton_kid** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:28 am

I'm about mid USA here. I think about everything from Newegg has arrived in 3 days or less over the years. They messed up once right before a Christmas, garraunteed by 12/24 and I got it next working day after 25th.

Well the system is up and running still, shut it down and back on a few times, all is well right now.
As for that ram, I guess I lucked out, it shows as DDR2 800 durring boot and I never had to change anything in Bios for it.

As for the Power Supply. I can't compare the systems as equal since they are not built the same nor use the same type parts.
The Abit I think is a 3200 739 CPU 1gig DDR and idles at 90watts
Gigabyte is a 5200 AM2 CPU 2gig DDR2 and idles at 79watts
So the newer faster bigger system is using less power at idle

Later I will check power use on the Abit system, then change to the new P/s and test again, see if there is any real savings from the P/S. I have not been able to do that yet do to time and use. At least I know if I need to leave one on allot as a server the new one is using less power for now Idle, and a server would be mostly idle. There is about 8Kw difference a month between the 2 systems it looks like as it stands right now.