EggXpert

I just dismantled my old desktop.  Old MSI board, 2.0ghz socket 754 sempron, 1 gig RAM, crappy Nvdia card, lower end sound card.  It was water cooled, and leaked DYE all over the dang place :-) That wasn't fun.  Hard drive fried, thank god I backed up on my external literally 2 days before it died.  There's nothing really salvageable that I want.  It's all low end stuff.  So I'm going to do another build.  I have my heart set on the K9A2 Platinum.  I'm getting conflicting stories about the 6000+ AM2 series not being compatible.  So, I'm looking at the very nice Phenom 9850.  What do you think?  I'm on a somewhat type budget, so the price for the 9850 is my limit.  I'm def. going with the 4gigs memory.  After playing my my fiances laptop with her 4gigs I'm sold on it.  But again, I hear that there's some voltage issues or there may not be voltage issues.  Suggestions?  Thank you in advance!

 

 

Ben

Oh yea, I don't plan to OC right away, it's looking to be a nice system already. 

Hey Ben checked out the web site and they say that both the windsor & brisbane will work with the right BIOS.

http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=prodcpu2&prod_no=1332&maincat_no=1

http://www.corsair.com/configurator/product_results.aspx?id=417856

Wow!  Very helpful and quick response!  I wish I knew how to update a BIOS though ;-)  I'm torn between the Windsor 6000+ 3.0 and the 9850.  I'm liking the speed and the price of the 6000+, plus like I said, I don't really need to OC with that speed plus the 4 gigs.  I can build it, get it running but I've never messed with my bios on the build I just dismantled, so I'm clueless.  I'm sure it's somewhat easy, if I can figure out how to do it, I will def. go with the 6000+ since the bios update for the K9A2 will support it.  Think that the K9A2 will ship out with the 1.6 bios?

You are more than welcome, MSI has an automated update program on their mobo CD called MSI Live Update load that and you can go online and MSI will do the BIOS update just make sure you choose the right 1. If you really want the speed go for the 9850 the Quads will amaze you.

Wow! Thanks again dood!  Now that I have the RAM and the CPU chosen (I think I will go with that 9850), I want to go with SATA instead of IDE.  Minds well go all the way ya know?  How is this going to be possible without a floppy?  I'm assuming the bios will detect it automatically once you tell it too, and then just install XP (Don't want to venture to vista yet, just want to get it built and running) like you would with an IDE drive?

The big problem with no floppy is it will advise you to make a backup copy of the old BIOS so you will have to decide what type media you can copy the backup to and then tell it to copy it there. As for changing to SATA good idea, but you will have to read the manuel very carefully and change items in your BIOS so it will recognize the SATA HDDs and make sure the HDDs are in the primary SATA slots so that they come before the ODDs, meaning that the HDDs are in say slots 1 & 2 and the ODDs are in slots 3 & 4 assuming you have at least 2 of each.

My K9A2 Plat ran my 6000+x2 right out of the box. It OCs the 9950BE really stable as well.

I wouldn't worry about incompat really.

It's a great board, mine rocks. The Crossfire was a little buggy, but still good board. Don't listen to the heat pipe cons, nonesense. Clears it just right.

Penewah!

 

SATA it is then! :-)  It'll be my only and primary drive, hope I don't run into any major problems getting it to recognize and install XP on it.  If I do, just package it up and go back to IDE, since I'm not 100% without a pc, Im using this old laptop for bills and surfing. :-) Thank you so much again for all the useful help! :-)

 

Ben

Well keep us posted on your build and you are more than welcome for the help.

The Case w/ Power Supply

 Front fans Only need one of these, and I have a window kit already, making it look pretty :-)  Good deal for the price, minds well get the bundle in case one goes bad, I'll have some on stock

 The Motherboard 

 Mediocre video card Good enough for now

The CPU Going with the Windsor for budget, love to have Quad, but my wallet says no

 The RAM

The Hard Drive 

The compound and The Heatsink for the CPU

 

Looks like a nice rig to me, I don't do much gaming, I do more photo processing than anything.  And if I do game it's not anything that requires a lot.  Nice little set up :-)

 

Ben

The Phenom will kick the c**p out of the Windsor.  The memory voltage problem can be minimized by going with a 2 x 2G setup, rather than a 4 x 1G.  You can usually get one stick to boot IF there is a problem, and jack the voltage to manufacturer spec.  Then put in the second stick.

There is no practical difference between a PATA or a SATA optical drive.  Save $25 and use an old DVD drive, or use a SATA with a thinner cable.  Speeds are same.  If you do not have an old drive then I would definitely buy a SATA DVD burner, as it makes no sense to spend money on PATA (IDE) technology anymore. I would definitely go new SATA hard drive.

I know it will kick the c**p out of it, but depending on my budget over the new few months, I'm sticking with the cheaper windsor.  If I can afford it, I'll go with the Phenom.  I think I'm going to buy in phases, a part each week or every 2 weeks.  The CPU will be last, I'll be able to determine how I'm looking money wise.

 

Ben