Recommendations

[Nestor]

Very soon now, I'll start work on a 64 bit PC. I know I'll go with a 939 Athlon 64 processor, but that's about as far as I've planned. Lately, with everyone eager to jump on the 64 bit bandwagon, I've been hearing horror stories about incompatible RAM, and boards that are... less than reliable.

To that end, I'm tentatively going with an Asus board (haven't picked one out yet) and I know I want to run upwards of 1GB RAM, likely Mushkin, and a PCI Express Video Card.

I'd like recommendations on MoBos, RAM, Video Cards, and Hard drives. I'll likely order from NewEgg, unless there's a better site that offers components Retail, rather than OEM.

[query]

You can't go wrong with an ASUS board - nVidia or VIA chipset - and buy a good grade of RAM, not a no-name.

Any hard drive except Maxtor is a good choice at this point in time. Maxtor seems to be shipping just about everything it makes, without regard to quality - and it is financially on the rocks -- many experts are warning the company will either be taken over by another manufacturer or go bust in the near future.  The company just wrote off milliions in equipment it put in place to build 2.5" drives - given that it's a growth market, it's a bad omen for the company.

Video card is up to your  uses - there are basically only two choices now, and either has its advantages and disadvantages at any given price point.

[Neon]

I have read that many of the early mobos were finicky about RAM, but that the situation has improved with more recent boards. In any case, you may want to consult the board manufacturer's "recommended" memory list for the board(s) you are interested in.

For PCI-E, you're looking at nForce 4 or K8T890 Pro - there's still only a handful of mobos available.

[Mark H]

I used 2 gigs Crucial PC3200 Ballistix ram with my AMD 64 processor on a MSI Neo2 Platinum motherboard. No problems at all with the RAM. I would recommend getting the Ballistix ram for any motherboard you choose as it seems to run very good.

Mark H

[Nestor]

Now, what would you recommend for DDR2? The specs on that look nice.

[Mark H]

The AMD 64 processors don't use motherboards that use DDR2 or PCI express yet unless you buy the newest motherboards that use and nforce 4 chip. These motherboards are very expensive, so be prepared to pay out some money if you go that route. I went with an nforce 3 board that works great. As for DDR2, I don't believe even the newest AMD motherboards use it, so the Ballistix I recommended should work well. Just make sure to get good RAM.

Mark H

[Neon]

AMD does not plan to begin using DDR2 until 2006. It currently offers no advantage over DDR on systems that run their processors.

[freelance]

im a penniless gamer so have never has particualy blistering performance pcs's... but.. iv never had a problem with my maxtor 80gb hdd, its a couple of years old now. ?40 new.

[Chandler]

I just went for standard Crucial PC3200 CAS3 RAM with my Winchester and haven't had any issues running at the stock timings + 1T command rate.  The Winchester core can't handle 4 sticks of DDR400 (it will run at DDR333) but I believe that Venice fixes this.

I've grown to be a fan of Hitachi hard drives.  The performance is very good and they're pretty cheap.  I've not used them for long enough to know how reliable they are, but after 1 year my two 7K250 drives are still going fine with all SMART attributes still being 100% (touch wood ;)).

[pat]

From what I?ve read the Venice core does indeed address the ram limitation of the Winchester core. I?ve also red the run a little warmer.
I guess I?ll have to get one to be sure, or perhaps a San Diego.  ;)

Haven? tried a Hitachi yet, I?ve bout three of the Seagate 7200.7 series drive in the past 6-8 months, they are nice drives. Quiet, fast and so far reliable.