ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe Socket 939 ATI CrossFire Radeon XPRESS 3200 ATX

[DysfunktinaL]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16813131004

A friend told me that I'd need a 550w PSU for this board.

I have a 480 currently, and I was wondering if I'd be okay using that for a month or so till I could upgrade to this sexy beast:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16817101208

I am running:

1xIDE HDD

2xDVD Burner

1xCold Cathode Tube

3xCase fans on a Fan controller

1xFloppy Drive

In the near future I plan to upgrade my Drive to 5xSATA 250g. I should have my new PSU by then though. But will 550w be enough for that though?

That brings me to the next question.

When I upgrade to my SATA Drives, should I go with 8meg or 16meg chach? My rig is used primarily for gaming. The price differance is only about $20 so I am more then willing to drop an extra bill to get better drives if that is the case. On a side note, I do some video editing on the side. Will the cache affect that at all too?

And lastly, I havn't been keeping up on the newest hardware like DDR2. What is the differace, and will a DDR board (like the one I linked at the top of the page) support DDR2 if I upgraded? I currently have 1G DDR400, but as soon as I get my hardware installed and the new PSU, I am going to spring for 4g OCZ. (5x250g SATA and 4g OCZ, I know... Overkill much?). Mainly my question here is will that board support DDR2 if I got it, or am I SoL?

Thanks for the help!

[nitroshift]

480 W should be ok for now. as for the hdd's, go for 16 Mb cache if you're willing to spend a little more. the motherboard you are talking about doesn't support DDR2, and as far as I'm aware nore do AMD processors.

[DysfunktinaL]

Thanks.

So I can get away with the 480w for now, but I should bump it to 550+ before I get my SATA HDDs right?

[nitroshift]

yup!

[ssmokee]

I suggest you read this over before getting that motherboard.

[clavicle]

With AM2 amd processor out, options of asus and other makers to swithc over to better motherboards based on nvidia 590 chipset are already there. This includes AM2 with lower power consumption and DDR2 support for AM2.

I suggest you wait or go in for ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard. This much better.

[DysfunktinaL]

With AM2 amd processor out, options of asus and other makers to swithc over to better motherboards based on nvidia 590 chipset are already there. This includes AM2 with lower power consumption and DDR2 support for AM2.

I suggest you wait or go in for ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard. This much better.

I took a look at that board, along with several other NVidia SLI boards, and every single one reported many Dead On Arivals, and many many problems with the SLI fans dieing every couple of months.

I went with the MVP Deluxe because a good friend of mine's father purchased one, and I have heard nothing but good reviews about it. Granted I am sure his testing of it isn't nearly as comprehensive as HEXUS', but he plays all the games I do, and has said that it runs awsome.

As for the HEXUS reviews, from what I can see, the most recent retail versions of that board should be fine, and any older versions simply need a BIOS update to correct the problems reported. So from what I can tell, and if I am understanding thier review properly, "..., BIOS issues seemingly addressed, the ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe now stands as the mainboard against which all 939 mainboards based on the RADEON XPRESS 3200 will be judged."

Also, I don't have the money to sink into something like that. I am mostly looking for a good cost Vs. preformance system to upgrade from my slowly diminishing Intel 865PERL and Pen. 4 3.0 Prescott. I'd like to be able to convert to liquid cooling sometime this year, rather then waiting a few months to even be able to afford a processor with the speed I want, heh. Maybe sometime down the road when the prices drop.

Next month I should have my new PSU and a few gigs of OCZ to drop into my case, to replace my current parts, and not long after that the SATA's I am looking into getting. Just need a new case and some new DVD Drives, and I'll be able to turn my old system into a decent LAN rig to take out.

On a side note, reffering to my Intel rig I have now, is there anyone who can tell me why I went from a moderatly cool and quite system, to rather loud, and very hot? For some reason my room has been getting very hot latly, and I was just signing it off to the fact that I sleep durring the day, and it gets pretty hot out. No AC in my room, and I have to keep my windows shut due to the freeway 10 feet away from them. However the other day I was watching a movie on my computer laying in bed, and let my arm drift off the edge of my bed behind my desk, and I nearly burned my arm off the exhaust from the PSU. I popped it up immediatly, and my case temp was spiking out at over 60 degrees. Everything was -extreamly- hot inside the case. I have a pretty fat CPU fan and heatsink (AeroCool HT-101 70mm linked here.) and 3 case fans with pretty good ventalation, and it was MUCH hotter then it has been in recent months.

[clavicle]

You mentioned heat a problem.

That is the basic reason for suggesting an AM2 processor over all others. The wattage of AM2s comes in two flavours, one with 65w and another with 89w, this is definitely less heat consuming than the cpu that would go into your ASUS A8R32-MVP mobo, ie. , AMD 939 runs at 125w. Think of long hours of PC running on electricity and heating being another.

My suggestion of ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe is just a suggestion. There are mobo of 570 series by MSI selling at $89 and running AM2 processor with DDR2.

Certainly going by the preliminary reports, AM2 does a little difference in benchmarks except being energy efficient. But the things certainly are going to change.

Moreover using AM2 compatible mobo keeps you insured for later upgrades both in terms of memory and CPU, since like Intel, AMD is more likely to focus on DDR2 and AM2 platforms.

I was also in the process of buying Asus A8N series with 939 support. But for the time being I have shelved the plan and would certainly upgrade to AM2 platform, SLI doesn't concern me.

Edited May 27, 2006 by clavicle

[DysfunktinaL]

SLI doesn't much concern me either, as I have decided to back away from the Intel and NVidia hardware for now in favor of AMD and ATI.

In the past I have been an Intel and NVidia fanboi, for no other reason then that I knew what I was doing, and it was tried and true. Intel IMO is extreamly stable, and can take a beating (like I said, 60 degrees, without meling through my case...). I also know there was some compatability issues back in the day with AMD, not to mention them basicly ripping off Intel, and getting away with it, then counter-sueing and using the money they won to develop some original hardware.

However, I decided to make the change for a few reasons:

-Cost

--ATI can provide better preformance for the same price

--AMD is cheaper, and easyer to tweak

-Something new

--I've only tried an AMD/ATI build once on a friend's machine, and was defeated... Turned out to be a bad mobo, but I never got another shot at it.

--All I have really worked with is Intel and NV. I havn't had much of a chance to compare ATI to NV. Granted, I am using the NV 5500 FX right now, and upgrading to a x1600XT, so obviously the ATI will take the cake by far, but I can compare it to the NV 6800 GT's and 7800GT's we are using @ my work.

-Kinda feel let down

--NVidia has done nothing to improve the preformance on thier bargan cards.

---Just because some of us can't afford a better card, does not mean we should be forgoten or neglected. I bet a very large portion of thier sales come from lower end cards, and bargain cards, like my last 2. Yet many of thier bugs go unsolved, and seemingly unnoticed. For example, the 5500 FX I have is AGP 8x, 265Mgb ram, yet in World of Warcraft, the highest I can get my FPS up to with lowest resolution and lowest graphics settings is 30. With settings how I like, I get about 22; and when I am in graphic intensive situations (Player vs. Player combat, or very large groups in a raid setting), I can drop as low as 10 FPS. I call that unacceptable. I can't even play CS: Source on my machine due to the graphics lag.

--Intel just can't pull thier crap together regarding their wasted energy. So much heat coming off the CPU... That means wasted energy, and less preformance. I know I am largly speaking out of ignorance here, but for example. My P4 3.0G Prescott runs around 42 degrees idle, and as high as 55-60 full load, with an after-market heatsink and fan. The CPUs at my work are running AMD Athlon 3000+, with the stock heat, and they run about 20 degrees idle, and about 26 degrees while playing some of the higher end games like BF2, FarCry, and Half-Life 2. The computers at my work are on almost 24/7 (I work @ an Internet Cafe, open 24/7), and are only off for a few hours when the store clears out in the early AM, untill it gets busy again early afternoon around 9 or 10 AM.

Anyways, I agree moving to the AM2 MoBo and CPU would be a good idea, but I havn't heard much about them, and am not very familiar with them. I'd rather stick with what I think I can handle for now, instead of biting off more then I can chew and getting burned by it. Also, it has been my experiance that getting relativly new things like this tends to end poorly. Such as buggy drivers, poor support, defects that were not found in the begining. In the end everything would probably be just fine, but as I am not as hard core of a gamer as I used to be, and just need a system that can get me through WoW, Steam, and WarCraft III, then I'll be a happy camper.

If things are looking good a few months down the road, maybe I'll make the switch to AM2. I'm sure my sister would love to get her hands on the gear I am getting monday. Poor girl is still using my old P4 1.7G on a generic board with a NVidia 5200 FX PCI.......

[clavicle]

That all makes a well balanced choice keeping in all the things available + valuable experience.

btw best overclocked cpu has been d805. This would prove a wise option keeping in intel stability in mind.

And AM2 is not even one week old!