Motherboards

Motherboard

Alexis: The debate continues over the Via KT800 vs the nVidia nForce3 150 chipset. Benchmarks have both chipsets running neck and neck, so it really comes down to which motherboard has the features that you want. It's disappointing that Soundstorm hasn't made its way to the nForce3, and it seems like motherboard manufacturers aren't interested in getting Soundstorm support either. In the end, we just have to hope for a good software-based real-time Dolby Digital ICE to be possible.

The Asus K8V Deluxe motherboard that we chose uses the VIA K8T800 chipset and has an adequate inventory of features with USB 2.0, firewire, Serial and parallel ATA raid, and on-board 3Com gigabit LAN. Just as important is that the Asus is priced among the less expensive Athlon 64 boards. It doesn't have a fan on the chipset heatsink or any other fancy leds on the motherboard, but like we said above, it doesn't skimp on any features. Asus provides a slot for their wi-fi solution, which supports 802.11g. The advantage of this is that it can turn your system into a wireless access point. One nice feature is the SPDIF output on the back which facilitates connection to a digital receiver.

The Asus K8V

Memory

You can't do much without enough memory, we used to think that you can never have too much memory, but we'll get to that a little later. Memory needs to be fast and stable. RAM that can be overclocked to crazy speeds but which gives you occasional errors will be useless in a workstation environment. The hardcore IT guys shoot for "five nines" reliability, or 99.999% uptime, makes sense since their job is on the line if stuff fails. Experience has shown that Corsair's reputation for making fast, reliable RAM has been well earned. They are not the lowest price memory, but they always perform as advertised and sometimes a little more. If you are pushing your system to the limit you need to minimize the variables limiting your overclock, one way to do this is to get the fastest ram possible.

Today we are using the next generation of Corsair RAM, their XMS Pro 3200-LL ram. The Pro designation refers to the LEDs on the RAM module that indicates ram usage. Unfortunately we made a decision to go with a windowless case so we really can't take advantage of this, but it is rather nifty. The 18 LEDs show the activity of each bank on a module. In the corporate world though, I would have probably gotten the equivalent Corsair ram without the LEDs to save costs, especially if you are building multiple systems. Corsair does say that this new DIMM design has a larger heatsink, but we've already got two 120mm fans in our case. :) Although we're not using the LEDs, the bonded heatsinks give the modules a hefty and sturdy feel; this inspires confidence when installing them as there is no flex of the module. These modules are taller than standard XMS modules which could become a factor in smaller cases.

Corsair XMS Pro 3200-LL