Pick it apart before I order

[Milner]

https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersio...stNumber=4781271&WishListTitle=The+final+deal

So, tell me what you think, what you'd do different, etc.
This is for Photo processing/editing and general home use....No Gaming

 

[Spork]

So... No RED case? :greg:

Was the 3GB of RAM on purpose or did you just want 2GB and forgot to delete the 1gb?

 

[78mitsu]

Looks good but...
I'd go with a different case, something that's more expandable, like this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119047 (unless of course you're after the firewire and usb on the side)

and your board supports a quad core chip, I'd skip the dual core and jump right to the quad.

You have 3 memory chips, DDR memory should always be installed in pairs, either scale back to 2 or up to 4.

Little more video memory where you're doing video and graphics.

The two disk's I'd imagine one is for os/scratch one is for storage? if it were me, I'd use a raid 1 configuration with two 500g drives means the data is in two places and your board already supports it then partition off a section for the OS, the 7200 rpm drives are pretty quick the scratch should be okay on the same drive.

Other then the memory, it should work as is.

 

[Rusted]

Looks good to me.

 

[projektdotnet]

$1k I hope you're a gamer or a designer cause that is way more expensive than what I would pay for a desktop machine

 

[JoeT]

No pink case or Crucial Memory?

 

[Meat_]

The Nvidia chipsets out perform the Intel chipsets.

There are only about 3 programs that will make use of the quad cores right now and the quad cores aren't cheap, besides if you want quad core you should wait until they are all on one die instead of 2 stacked core 2 duo's.

Installing DDR (and DDR2) ram in pairs only does you any good if the cpu or chipset has dual memory controllers.... you just as well put in 4GB

 

[Rusted]

4 GB is not supported on 32 bit systems. What OS are you planning on installing?

 

[Meat_]

4 GB is not supported on 32 bit systems. What OS are you planning on installing?

XP pro 32 bit does.

Here's a list of how much RAM the various Windows versions and editions support (as of Nov 2004):

Windows NT 4.0: 4 GB
Windows 2000 Professional: 4 GB
Windows 2000 Standard Server: 4 GB
Windows 2000 Advanced Server: 8GB
Windows 2000 Datacenter Server: 32GB
Windows XP Professional: 4 GB
Windows Server 2003 Web Edition: 2 GB
Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition: 4 GB
Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition: 32 GB
Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition: 64 GB

 

[Caleb]

XP pro 32 bit does.

you have to change the boot.ini file and pass it the /3GB flag, this will give 1 GB to the OS and 3GB to the applications. It also displays incorrectly as 3.5GB in the system info window. Yes, it's supported, but only with some work.

 

[Caleb]

you have to change the boot.ini file and pass it the /3GB flag, this will give 1 GB to the OS and 3GB to the applications. It also displays incorrectly as 3.5GB in the system info window. Yes, it's supported, but only with some work.

oh, and Marc, do you REALLY want to know what I'd do differently

Looks good, the difference in running dual channel and not with memory isn't super noticeable, if you want the benefit of it, buy two 512s instead of a single 1Gb...personally I'd stick to what you got. (If I were in your shoes )

 

[Meat_]

you have to change the boot.ini file and pass it the /3GB flag, this will give 1 GB to the OS and 3GB to the applications. It also displays incorrectly as 3.5GB in the system info window. Yes, it's supported, but only with some work.

Yup

 

[78mitsu]

The Nvidia chipsets out perform the Intel chipsets.

There are only about 3 programs that will make use of the quad cores right now and the quad cores aren't cheap, besides if you want quad core you should wait until they are all on one die instead of 2 stacked core 2 duo's.

Installing DDR (and DDR2) ram in pairs only does you any good if the cpu or chipset has dual memory controllers.... you just as well put in 4GB

Nope,

With dual-channel memory, the memory controller is able to move double the peak amount of data that it could normally move with single-channel memory. That’s because it is sending or receiving data from two memory module pairs at the same time. Memory pairs are denoted with different colored sockets in the motherboard, you should fill like colored sockets at the same time, with identical memory..

In either case if you put 4G of memory into any 32 bit system, you have to use Physical memory address extension, which wastes quite a bit of memory in the lower addressed memory to map a virtual memory address to a physical address above 3G. Some OS'ses do it transparently (win2k3 server, centos/redhat) others don't like FreeBSD and XP, which have to be told to do it.

 

[Milner]

Cooool, Thanks.
I will go ahead and bump to 4gigs, I guess, and use XP pro....I am too used to XP and use it on the laptop and at work, so just easier to not jump back and forth....

No video work, just stills, so I think the vid card is fine?

I choose the MB for the # of Sata ports and the eSata on the board.

Case....Most are butt ugly and I do like the placement of the usb ports, I use a lot of usb crap....I do not want doors and stuff to deal with, just basic with some style. I wish the case had more 3.5 internal bays, but there are ways around that.

I really see no need for quad at this point, but I wanted a MB that does support it if I find a need later....Quads are too$$$$ anyway!

At some point I will add another 500gb or 750 to back up in the machine and hopefully a 750 or tera to backup via eSata.

On board sound should be ok. If I send music to my ht from the computer I will use the DACs in the reciever, not the computer....

 

[Meat_]

Nope,

With dual-channel memory, the memory controller is able to move double the peak amount of data that it could normally move with single-channel memory. That’s because it is sending or receiving data from two memory module pairs at the same time...

blah blah blah
Tell that to board manufacturers who only put 3 sockets in
If you have a single memory controller pairs do you no good.

Memory pairs are denoted with different colored sockets in the motherboard, you should fill like colored sockets at the same time, with identical memory...

Yeah, and each color corresponds to a memory controller. If there is only a single memory controller they are not color coded.

 

[Milner]

Ok so, should I go with 2x1g and 2x512g, or just go 4x1g.
Since your telling me i can make use of 4gigs with XP I would think it best to just do 4 for the extra $....

And DAMM all of you, I used to ignore these threads, they made my head hurt....now you have turned me into a starter of such threads!!

 

[Caleb]

Ok so, should I go with 2x1g and 2x512g, or just go 4x1g.
Since your telling me i can make use of 4gigs with XP I would think it best to just do 4 for the extra $....

And DAMM all of you, I used to ignore these threads, they made my head hurt....now you have turned me into a starter of such threads!!

More memory is always better, and the cost is only about $60 more. If you want to spend the little extra money then it definitely won't hurt anything.

 

[78mitsu]

blah blah blah
Tell that to board manufacturers who only put 3 sockets in
If you have a single memory controller pairs do you no good.


Yeah, and each color corresponds to a memory controller. If there is only a single memory controller they are not color coded.

2 channels same controller. Dual memory controllers, what do they do put one against the north chips and one against the south? if the board only has 3 slots, it is probabbly a hybrid board DDR & DDR2, but only supports DDR2 in the first two slots, or one is for video on board. Even SMP boards only have one memory "controller"

 

[Milner]

More memory is always better, and the cost is only about $60 more. If you want to spend the little extra money then it definitely won't hurt anything.

Yep. Done....