- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
1. 6600GT by far
2. A8N SLI allows dual PCI-e graphics card, A8V are AGP. A8N SLI is pretty much the A8N SLI Deluxe. Not much different, but go for PCI-e.
3. Not much. Trust me...I have 2x256MB of high quality, low latency, overclockable RAM, and it runs better than the gig I have in my server. 512MB is enough for 1-2 more years, then when dual cores hit and game physics and such get really demanding - then it's on! You will need a gig then, but that's a ways away. Best, at least in my opinion, to get lower latency and a little less of it now.
4. Depends. If you want to overclock, 512MB may be more than a gig of crap RAM. But if you don't care....at any rate, buying more ram is cheaper per MB than buying less.
5. Low latency RAM...latency is how many clock cycles per second the RAM waits to do something and holds it in its banks. Example: 2 clock cycles to move froms CAS to RAS block banks. Lower latency on an AMD is a lot better than low latency on Intel - AMD seems to rely heavier on it for some reason. 2-2-2-5 is the best out there (PQI makes the cheapest low latency, and really it's better than most of the others), but 2.5-3-3-7 is cool. After that it gets sketchy...
6. For me, I overclock and yes it is worth it. However, if you just want it to run at 200MHz, then get normal latency, CL 2.5 or CL 3 is fine then.
7. There is no dual channel ram, per say, it is the placement. Dual channel means running two identical sticks of memory in dual channel slots (DIMM's 1 and 2 on my board). This doubles the bandwidth of the memory, widening the data transfer, and is really the biggest gain to using socket 939. Companies sell two sticks of identical ram for the most part. For example, I have 2x256 in one pc and 2x512 in another.
8. Yes. There is hardly a point to socket 939 without dual channel ram. Might as well go 754 then, if you don't have it.
9. Since there is no 'dual channel' ram, it's the same as any other DDR...so yes, low latency dual channel setups are possible, in fact they're the norm these days.
10. Ye if you want good ram and like to overclock or have a bit more speed, no if you don't give a crap.
11. Corsair [XMS series], PQI [Turbo series], Crucial [Ballistix series], Patriot, Kingston [Hyper-X], OCZ [VX series]. Which one is the best price to performance ratio? PQI's Turbo series. Which is the best overall? Surprisingly, PQI's Turbo and Crucial Ballistix. PQI Turbo outperforms almost all other brands in benchmarks and is the best overclocker besides OCZ VX, which requires 50% more voltage.
12. Well, 3400 is extremely rare in socket 939, you probably won't find it, and if you do, probably mismarked. 3200 is the best price to performance there and usually overclocks well. Mine has a 25% overclock right now.
13. Depends what you have now, I suppose. I see my 3200 lasting two years before it needs to be replaced by an FX (prices should drop over the years, and also drop a lot when dual cores come out...)
14. Depends. If you're into gaming and normal work, AMD. If you do a lot of audio/video editing and recording, and you are hardcore about it (we're talking encoding dvd-length movies), then Intel is better. However, AMD is much cheaper. I mean, in benchmarks my 179 dollar CPU performs better than an 800 dollar Intel in the gaming department, and performs a lot better, but at the same time gets served in encoding and such. If you can't spend more than 400 for a CPU, AMD is where it's at.
And another note on RAM: The best is Samsung TCCD...OCZ VX and PQI Turbo use that, alnog with a Brainpower-PCB. PCB is the green board stuff on all of your components - Brainpower PCB is faster and runs cooler. The same goes for Samsung TCCD - best overclocker right there.