advice on amd64/mobo purchase

  • Thread starter Thread starter shodedo
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shodedo

Hello all, I am looking to spend around $400 on a cpu/motherboard
bundle. I will be running gentoo linux with an nvidia card so I am
assuming a motherboard with an nforce3 250 chipset is preferrable... Are
there any good reasons for spending the extra $50 or so for the 3200+
over the 3000+ (besides just speed)? I would prefer the 3200+ but I
think the extra money I'd save from buying the 3000+ I could use to buy
more ram. any constructive comments are appreciated, thanks
 
shodedo said:
Hello all, I am looking to spend around $400 on a cpu/motherboard
bundle. I will be running gentoo linux with an nvidia card so I am
assuming a motherboard with an nforce3 250 chipset is preferrable... Are
there any good reasons for spending the extra $50 or so for the 3200+
over the 3000+ (besides just speed)? I would prefer the 3200+ but I
think the extra money I'd save from buying the 3000+ I could use to buy
more ram. any constructive comments are appreciated, thanks
Click to expand...

I'm currently running Gentoo 64bit on an Nforce 3 150 chipset and a 3200
with a meg of cache. I've seen it repeatedly claimed that the meg of
cache should considerably improve compile times, but I've seen no real
results anywhere to prove that. If you do go for the 3200 make sure it's
the 2GHz version with a meg of cache rather than the 2.2GHz and 512Kb.
 
Go to newegg.com

CHAINTECH "VNF3-250" nForce3 250 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 754
CPU - RETAIL
Item# N82E16813152043 $88.00

AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 512KB L2 Cache 64-bit Processor - Retail
Item# N82E16819103424 $223.00

Total $311.00
 
shodedo's last words before the Sword of Azrial plunged through his body
were:
Hello all, I am looking to spend around $400 on a cpu/motherboard
bundle. I will be running gentoo linux with an nvidia card so I am
assuming a motherboard with an nforce3 250 chipset is preferrable... Are
there any good reasons for spending the extra $50 or so for the 3200+
over the 3000+ (besides just speed)? I would prefer the 3200+ but I
think the extra money I'd save from buying the 3000+ I could use to buy
more ram. any constructive comments are appreciated, thanks
Click to expand...

well, Speed is about the only reason why one would go with a faster CPU.

Personally, I'd get the faster CPU now, and get more ram later. Thats what
I am doing.
 
shodedo said:
Hello all, I am looking to spend around $400 on a cpu/motherboard
bundle. I will be running gentoo linux with an nvidia card so I am
assuming a motherboard with an nforce3 250 chipset is preferrable... Are
Click to expand...

Linux support for nForce platform is much better than it used to be, but I
think it's advisable to add:
apic=off noacpi (or should that be noapic acpi=off?).
there any good reasons for spending the extra $50 or so for the 3200+
over the 3000+ (besides just speed)? I would prefer the 3200+ but I
think the extra money I'd save from buying the 3000+ I could use to buy
more ram. any constructive comments are appreciated, thanks
Click to expand...


Depends how much RAM you have, how much you're gonna need (based on what you
do with the machine) and how much the components are gonna cost you, I
suppose.

I would recommend a 1GB of RAM for Windows gaming machines, and any
development machine.

Ben
 
Hello all, I am looking to spend around $400 on a cpu/motherboard
bundle. I will be running gentoo linux with an nvidia card so I am
assuming a motherboard with an nforce3 250 chipset is preferrable... Are
there any good reasons for spending the extra $50 or so for the 3200+
over the 3000+ (besides just speed)? I would prefer the 3200+ but I
think the extra money I'd save from buying the 3000+ I could use to buy
more ram. any constructive comments are appreciated, thanks
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what the speeds are for the 3000 and the 3200, but
sometimes AMD calls the same speed cpu a higher level due to a larger
cache size. I think I'd pass on the 3200 if it's only a 3000 with a
larger cache.

They say you can overclock the nforce3 250 boards really high, so pick
up the fastest memory you can get, eg PC4000 or higher.

I think MSI has a nice nforce3 250Gb motherboard out.
 
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