I say win98se/win2k dualboot or winME/win2k dualboot instead of the XP, also I wouldnt trust something as rare as a 9700 pro to such a generic power supply

God Of Gaming wrote:

I say win98se/win2k dualboot or winME/win2k dualboot instead of the XP, also I wouldnt trust something as rare as a 9700 pro to such a generic power supply

As generic as you might think it is, the insides are pretty strong, and so are the wires. I can post up some pics tomorrow.

Take care with that power supply! The only component I use new in all of my builds is the PSU! Barton 2500 is a very nice CPU - the added cache DOES make a difference today!

Sounds like a solid build. Out of curiosity, why not Socket 754?

PcBytes wrote:

God Of Gaming wrote:

I say win98se/win2k dualboot or winME/win2k dualboot instead of the XP, also I wouldnt trust something as rare as a 9700 pro to such a generic power supply

As generic as you might think it is, the insides are pretty strong, and so are the wires. I can post up some pics tomorrow.

After looking at photos online and seeing that the modecom website gives an SEC_ERROR_UNKNOWN_ISSUER error in Firefox Id not want to touch that PSU.

that PSU looks sub-par at best ^^

if I would go for something cheap I'd choose at least FSP or the like.

imi wrote:

that PSU looks sub-par at best ^^

if I would go for something cheap I'd choose at least FSP or the like.

I second this. SPI and FSP make good power supply and you often can pick the up for cheap. Just be sure to check the caps before using them. I seen a few with bad caps. Delta units are also worth looking into, but be wormed some have nonstandard wiring for use in OEM systems like dell, gateway and HP.

For that build You should pair 1gb sticks of DDR, for 2gb ram it will run significantly faster in pairs and 2gb seems to be about the sweet spot for XP. Even if for some strange reason you didn't want that much ram, at the very least you should pair two 512mb sticks of DDR for 1gb. The system will run way faster.

Warlord wrote:

For that build You should pair 1gb sticks of DDR, for 2gb ram it will run significantly faster in pairs and 2gb seems to be about the sweet spot for XP.

I missed that. Yes do opt for dual channel ram.

Warlord wrote:

For that build You should pair 1gb sticks of DDR, for 2gb ram it will run significantly faster in pairs and 2gb seems to be about the sweet spot for XP. Even if for some strange reason you didn't want that much ram, at the very least you should pair two 512mb sticks of DDR for 1gb. The system will run way faster.

Way faster? Is there any non-synthetic benchmark that shows that dual channel actually contributed to significant speedup, on any system?

dr_st wrote:

Warlord wrote:

For that build You should pair 1gb sticks of DDR, for 2gb ram it will run significantly faster in pairs and 2gb seems to be about the sweet spot for XP. Even if for some strange reason you didn't want that much ram, at the very least you should pair two 512mb sticks of DDR for 1gb. The system will run way faster.

Way faster? Is there any non-synthetic benchmark that shows that dual channel actually contributed to significant speedup, on any system?

There was always a measurable advantage of a few percent to dual channel, of course, and it's been the best way to build any system. Now there are systems where multi-channel makes a critical difference, esp. using the APU.

dr_st wrote:

Warlord wrote:

For that build You should pair 1gb sticks of DDR, for 2gb ram it will run significantly faster in pairs and 2gb seems to be about the sweet spot for XP. Even if for some strange reason you didn't want that much ram, at the very least you should pair two 512mb sticks of DDR for 1gb. The system will run way faster.

Way faster? Is there any non-synthetic benchmark that shows that dual channel actually contributed to significant speedup, on any system?

For DDR yes

imi wrote:

that PSU looks sub-par at best ^^

if I would go for something cheap I'd choose at least FSP or the like.

The one I got is pretty beefy. Not my pic (haven't had time to take one) but it's the same as mine. The only difference is that I replaced ALL capacitors on mine.

As for finding a FSP in my town - good luck. These are as rare as finding an vintage ABIT motherboard in here, and ABIT boards are nearly non-existent here, save for only one 775 board I found in a classified ad.

The best you can get here for cheap are usually L&C based PSUs, Sun Pros, and maybe rarely you can find a '08-09 dated Delta (if it even works in the first place). By far, this is the best PSU I have at this point, and it does its job pretty good. The only one that's better than this is some "HKC" branded PSU that looks more suited for a low end 775 build than a socket A build.

appiah4 - I have 754 boards (GA-K8NS-939, ASUS K8N, ASUS K8N4-E) but I have lost interest in that platform. I would've gone AM2 w/ 64 x2 and a nF4 SLi chipset but that would be way too overkill.

firage wrote:

There was always a measurable advantage of a few percent to dual channel, of course, and it's been the best way to build any system.

This is what I remember, and I wouldn't call it "way faster".

firage wrote:

Now there are systems where multi-channel makes a critical difference, esp. using the APU.

Yes, this is very significant, but hardly applies to a 2002-3 build. 😉

ok maybe for a old chipset like nforce2 I exaggerated Dual Channel Performance but this is one of the reasons it beats the KT400 chipset atleast in performance. It should be a 2-4% faster with dual Channel. Considering it costs nothing to use 2 smaller Rams instead of 1 large ram, I find it nonsensical to discus dual channel always makes a positive effect even on a nforce2. And yeah Dual Channel makes a much more significant impact with later northbridges especially those from intel.

For S462 Systems you need a Power Supply with high Power on 3.3V and 5V lane, >25A each. A decent PSU for this systems is the Enermax EG365AX, very reliable, easy to find and cheap.

I believe the Epox EP-8RDA3I does pull CPU power from 12V though (see the P4 plug) some newer socket A boards did that.

imi wrote:

I believe the Epox EP-8RDA3I does pull CPU power from 12V though (see the P4 plug) some newer socket A boards did that.

Yes, it does have a 4pin 12V plug.