The Processor
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The first thing to be decided was the processor. I knew I wanted to go dual core, but which one? AMD, or Intel? I did, to be fair, look at both. One difference was the fact that all communication between the dual cores of the AMD chip, took place inside the processor. Sounds like a small thing,but look at it this way: If you were an Intel Dual core and you were sitting in the front of your house and had to go to the bathroom in the BACK of the house, you would have to go out the front door, around the house, down the driveway, and back into the house through the back door to get to the bathroom! All the walls are doorless! With the AMD dual core, the two cores communicate differently...there is a door! You would just get up and walk a few feet to the bathroom instead of leaving the house! Ok, I know, NOT the most technical way of describing this! But I am writing this for my my non-tech friends as well! Here is a diagram that explains it: 
I bought the AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 dual core. This processor came with a dang nice heatsink and fan assembly already! So I did not need to replace it. Just a dab of Artic Silver and that was in a second! I could have chosen the new AMD pin set but I chose to stick with the best of the 939 socket chips as, well, it was a better processor! 
The Motherboard Once I chose the processor that narrowed down the Motherboard choices to the ones that would mate with the 939 socket config. I also wanted a particular Northbridge/Chipset,"NVIDIA nForce 4 SLI. My research showed me this was the best chipset for my needs. ..So I went with Asus' A8N-SLI Deluxe . This thing is a dream! Read those specs! It has EVERYTHING! I could not be happier with this MOB! It has just oodles of USB (10!)and firewire plugs, a nice copper cooling system on the northbridge already,3pci slots, TWO PCI Express x16 slots, and even a PCI Express x4 slot! It will support the future 64 bit computing. 2000 mt front sidebus! Yeah baby!!! 
The Graphic Cards I went with the best baby!!! BFG GeForce 7950 GX2 Dual GPU!!! One GB of onboard memory on these beast! It just ZOOOOOMS! 
Memory Four Big ones!! Four TWINX 2048-3500LLPRO's!!! These spuds even have LED lites on them that go up and down with the activity..like an equalzer! 
Power Supply OCZ PowerStream Power Supply Hard Drives I decided not to go with a RAID setup, unless you count JBOD as one! The main drive I installed just for Windows and important programs is, Western Digital Raptor Model WD740ADFD Interface Serial ATA150 74GB RPM 10,000 RPM Cache 16MB Average Seek Time 4.6ms, Average Write Time 5.2ms, Average Latency 2.99ms > Hard drives #2 and #3 These are for file storage. I am a 3D artist so I collect a LOT of texture files and photos, etc. I went with two Western Digital 250GB Serial ATA / 150 8MB Hard Drives. They only spin at 7500 RPMs but what the heck, it is just file storage, my programs are going on the fast one anyways! When the 10,000 RPM SATA drives get bigger in size, then I will upgrade. The biggest they come in now is the 74 GBs. I mounted all of these in three of my front bays. They sit behind a, Scythe Kama Bay 5.25" System Cooler  More to come later! |