It's nearing the time for me to buy a new PC. I am looking into some stuff, and I wanted to pass it all by you guys before I did anything.

Here's the stuff I was thinking of getting:

Athlon 64 FX-53 Socket 939
Asus SK8V
1.5 or 2 gigs of PC3200 ram. (Haven't decided, but definately more than a gig. My video editing stuff is burning through my ram)
200gb SATA Seagate Hard Drive with 8MB Cache
ATi Radeon X800 Pro

Basically, I have these questions:
Can you use an SATA and regular IDE devices at the same time?
Does the via chipset feature similar features to the "Dual Channel" ram that the nforce chipsets have had?
Is there a better mobo I should be made aware of?

Any info would be great.

Suggestions:

Graphics Card - ATi
Processor - AMD

Do as you will with the rest of it, I don't give a crap.

FX-53? Dear God, how much money do you have? I mean, I have an FX-51, but I got a hell of a deal on it...

Nix the 53, get a 51, get an X800 XT, or keep the FX-53, get a 6800GT.

The X800 pros are crap (comparably)--I seriously wouldn't buy them unless you're a fanboy.

Some of the new VIAs have dual-channeling built-in, but it's not very popular in their chipsets yet.

I'd suggest you get a motherboard with PCI-Express and get a PCI-E card, so that upgrading will be easier in the future. All card companies are porting to it en masse (The entire new nVidia line is being recreated on there)

Good god man, how much money do you have to spend on this thing

How do you convince a parent to get you a GForce4? (Im not kidding!)

Why the hell do you want an old card such as that? They cost like what, 60-70 dollars?

The irony in that statement is astounding.

HOly crap. thats a lot of stuff. what DJ Yoshi said. if you are goin to get a 53 get a new 6800GT, not the x800 or whatever.

im more of a nVidia fan than ATI. but if i got a better deal on the ATI than the nVidia, id pick the ATI.

Pfft, don't even think about getting an ATI card. We all know you're leet enough to use GNU / Linux.

ahahaha, Mystic0's right. hahahaha no ATI

I'm also the only on (it seems) on these forums that had no problems installing his ATi drivers for Linux :p

Meh, I guess I'll go with nvidia, but I have heard horror stories from their windows drivers as of late. Anything of the stories?

Also, due to the fact that nVidia doesn't make their own video cards, can anyone recommend a respectable video card manufacturer for the 6800GT?

And as for the PCI express, I consider the technology a bit too new. I don't think I'll be using it anytime in the near future, so I will save it for my next computer. I don't really upgrade anymore, I just redo the core components of my system. In the past 4 upgrades, I've needed new mobos, so I don't really see the need for PCI express at the moment if I don't have a card currently using PCI-E. I'll just get one when I need one, and by then the technology will be mainstream, and any bugs should be worked out, if any.

Anyway, in terms of Mobo's, I've been trying to find one that has an Nforce chipset, since I despise VIA after earlier horrid problems with them. I'd like to avoid them if possible, but it seems that the SK8N, an obvious choice, seems to be lacking in performance and features. (Only supports DDR333... whats up with that?!) Any ideas?

No you're not :p I've got my 9600XT running in Gentoo (previously in Fedora also) and I get well over 3000 fps in glxgears. Also got my mobility Radeon 9200 working with hardware acceleration on my laptop, also in Gentoo.

No fuss at all

****!! */me hides in corner and cries because his computer is not leet enough anymore*

I can overclock my Radeon 9700 to 380 MHz from 278 MHz. And that only starts to get it warm.

Still only has 8 pipelines. No amount of OCing is going to change that :p

Phoenix--I'm not a fanboy, in fact far from it. I prefer ATi to nVidia as far as company-wise, and their second-gen cards are second to NONE.

CM--trust me, when SLI becomes popular you'll WANT PCI-Express, very, very badly.

As for card manufacturers--BFG, Chaintek, eVGA

All amazingly good, BFG comes overclocked AND with lifetime warranty, but mostly look at the game bundles, the software bundles, and the default clockspeed.

Can you use an SATA and regular IDE devices at the same time?
Sure.

Does the via chipset feature similar features to the "Dual Channel" ram that the nforce chipsets have had?
Problably, but I couldnt give you names or links offhand.

Is there a better mobo I should be made aware of?
Always, but it depends on the application.

It used to have four, but I unlocked it into a pro and now I have eight.

Why? Not all of us are hardcore gamers...some of us actually use our computers for productive activities...

If he's not a hardcore gamer, why would he be spending 1000+ dollars on his system?

Ive got over 2 grand sunk in my system and I havent done a lick of gaming on it in over a year.

What did you spend it on though?

Why would you buy a new graphics card? The RAM and Proc I can sorta understand, but the new graphics card? 400 bucks, at the least? C'mon.

Edit: Post 4096 baby, I officially hit 4 hex digits.

WOOT

Actually, you don't seem to understand the situation with the PCI-E and me. See, by the time I would need or get a PCI-E board, it would be time for me to upgrade everything in my PC, including a new mobo, at which time I would get one with PCI-E slots. As for right now, it's pointless.

And as for hardcore gaming: No, not really. Sure, I play somewhat, but I am no "hardcore" gamer. The video card is more or less for Adobe Premiere's real-time previewing system, which requires a beast of a video card. But I didn't want to get some commercial card for this system, as it wouldn't be as compatible with the games I still enjoy. The fastest cards out there provide a good mix of both worlds.

gbk: enlighten me. I'd like something in the nforce chipset for sure, but if it doesn't have dual-channel, or DDR400, or some other key features (decent audio onboard, at least 1 nic, SATA, and support for the 939 AMD64 FX-53), then I'll deal with the VIA chipset.

I was looking at this MSI board as a possible alternative option, anyone hear anything about it? It has good reviews on newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-130-468&depa=1

CM--Maybe not hardcore, but still, you're definitely not buying this just to run *nix faster, I'll guarantee.

Yeah, trust me, your specs here will last you quite a few years, with a tweak or two maybe.