VOGONS


First post, by HunterZ

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Well I finally got what I thought was the last components of my new system (specs at the bottom of this post) today - a motherboard and CPU combo. By getting them I mean that I had to drive to the next town over to pick the damned package up from the UPS sorting facility because they didn't follow my instructions to leave the package with my next door neighbour in the (100% likely) case that my roommate might be sleeping too heavily to hear the door.

Once I got the package home and opened it, I saw that they put the CPU in the motherboard but didn't put a fan on it. I was pissed because I assumed that not paying the extra $5 for a fancier fan would mean that I would get a no-frills stock fan. I would have assumed at that point that I had just made a stupid assumption (cue Snover's reply), except that they listed the following on the invoice:

MB-KIT AMD    MOTHERBOARD & COOLER FAN              1
MOTHERBOARD & CPU,APROVED FAN BY AMD
MBGA/7N400PRO2GA-7N400PRO2 nFORCE2 ULTRA ATX 1

I went to my local CompUSA (yeah I know - the better place had already closed) and picked up their $15 Intel/AMD fan. I put some of my roommate's Arctic Silver thermal compound on the CPU and put on the cheapo cooler, only to discover that it wasn't a snug fit (we didn't need a screwdriver to put it on or remove it, for example). I'll be taking it back tomorrow and buying a better fan+heatsink combo from CompuCare (www.compucare.com) across the street. I'm not planning to overclock, so I just want something as close to the stock AMD as possible - no LEDs or super-high fan speeds - just something quiet and not ugly that will keep the CPU cool.

I went back to the web site of the place I ordered the mobo+CPU from (www.unitedmicro.com) and pretended to start ordering another CPU/mobo combo, and decided that it was dumb after all for me to assume that I'd get a fan, as I explicity chose the OEM version of the CPU (because the retail was $75 more expensive). I don't feel too bad now though (other than the wasted time) because I could get a much-better-than-stock fan for $75.

Anyways, here is the system I'll have when it's assembled:

  • Case: Black Super-Flower SF-561 ATX Mid-Tower Case http://www.directron.com/sf561t.html
  • CPU: AMD Athlon XP 3200 (Barton core, OEM, 400MHz FSB)
  • Motherboard: GigaByte GA-7N400 Pro2 (Rev 2.0) www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Products/ ... 202.0).htm
  • Video Card: Sapphire RADEON 9800 PRO ATLANTIS 256MB 256-bit DDR AGP8X TVO/DVI (Lite Retail) http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/product.asp?pid=9984
  • RAM: PC3200 1GB(2x512MB) Dual-Channel Optimized 400MHz - CAS 2.0 (2-2-3-6) http://www.hardcorecooling.us/index.asp?PageA … PROD&ProdID=462
  • Optical drives: Samsung 52x CD-RW/DVD combo drive (only reads DVDs), Ricoh 32x CD-RW
  • Hard drives: Seagate ST3160023A 160GB IDE, Maxtor 4D080H4 80GB IDE
  • Displays: Samsung SyncMaster 700IFT 17" flat CRT, Cornerstone Color 21/75fp 21" CRT (old and weighs like 100 pounds, but it's big and does 1600x1200x70Hz)
  • Input: Generic $5 PS/2 keyboard (the kind that CompUSA sells I think) and old Microsoft Intellimouse w/Intellieye 1.0 USB optical mouse (removed the weight and it still works well)
  • Sound: Going to try on-board sound first. Might have to buy new speakers as I'm currently using a custom 4.1 system cobbled together from old home stereo and computer speaker systems, and without the kX drivers I might have to do either 4.0 or 5.1. I also picked up an Altec Lansing headset for use when playing UT2004 (with TeamSpeak for voice chat) on the LAN with my roommates
  • LAN: Going to use on-board Ethernet port to connect to Linksys WRT54G router (which my roommates connect to via Netgear wireless 802.11g cards)
  • Power supply: Got a generic 550W supply from directron.com that was on sale for like $25. I'll probably get a fancier-looking one later, as I have a window in the top of my case that would show off a pretty PSU
  • Floppy: name-brand (don't remember which) 3.5" floppy (white, unfortunately - I should paint it)
  • OS: WinXP SP2

I'm using the RAM and video card in my current system - they work great. I can even run the video card at 8x AGP in this old VIA motherboard (which wouldn't run my roommate's Radeon 9700 Pro at higher than 4x without locking up in 3D apps).

I should mention that the main reason I'm upgrading now is because my current computer is comprised of a significant number of components being borrowed from my roommate, who really wants to build a second computer out of them. Plus, I finally have a job that provides enough income for me to be able to afford to upgrade. I'd rather have waited a year, but I've planned ahead and got parts that will make a great server (or "data whore" as my roommate calls them), such as dual IDE controllers on the mobo, for a total of 4 channels (and an SATA controller with 2 ports as well, of course) - this way, I can upgrade again in a year or two and use this as a good second computer for serving files and running other non-game apps.

Reply 2 of 5, by Snover

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Ouch dude. Ouch. Those cases are some of the cheapest, flimsiest things I've ever worked with. Ouch x2 on the el cheapo power supply. 550W for $25 does not a good deal make! I would get rid of that thing ASAP; cheap power supply = lightweight = something important was cut out = your components will fry. (Not to mention it will NEVER actually deliver 550W, and you're probably leaking a lot of juice in the form of heat.) I'm not sure why you are getting a 32-bit AMD processor; perhaps because the 64s are too expensive, but for a computer efficionado I am surprised that you are making that decision. I won't comment on the Gigabyte board.

Yes, it’s my fault.

Reply 3 of 5, by ribbon13

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Yeah...

It's not like he could afford my machine now is it?

I toasted a $25 550w psu at a mere 12A on the 12v and it was putting out 11.3v... mega shitty. Makes me laugh. A REAL 510W PC Power & Cooling will set you back $200, but they are the untouchables of the PSU world.

http://pcpowerandcooling.com/pdf/Turbo-Cool_510_vs.pdf
http://pcpowerandcooling.com/pdf/510-SLI.pdf

For a mere $89 you could have gotten the BEST Socket A motherboard: The Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe. The latency of your ram isn't the best. Always go with 2-2-2-5 for DDR400. If you would have gotten that you could have kept it for a socket 939 board like the Asus A8N-Sli

As for cheap cpu cooling ,remember this; for every 10c increase in temperature, the lifespan of a IC is halved.

next time get a Tyan K8WE, 😜
http://tyan.com/products/html/thunderk8we.html

Reply 4 of 5, by avatar_58

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I can agree that cheap PSU = VERY BAD! 😢

I've never seen one "go" before but believe me it happens. I had an older P3 machine that liked to heat up, which I can understand that the PSU fan had died (without me knowing). The thing popped and then shut off. Would not turn back on. 🙄 After that I stuck an OCZ power supply with more than enough power. Sure it was overkill for the old box, but it will last now.

On my rig I have a Vantec Stealth and it is silent and very nice 😀

Reply 5 of 5, by HunterZ

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God, I hate MSIE. I typed up a long message and then accidentally hit the back button... Let's try this again:

I thought I'd give an update on the current status of my box, which I've named Daedalus (was thinking of doing a movie/video game AI naming scheme - Daedalus is from Deus Ex). In no particular order:
- That cheap PSU finally blew out. It lasted 8 months, so I think I got my money's worth out of it. We've had PSU problems in the other computers in our apartment, so I think it was partially due to electricity quality issues. I replaced it with this PSU: http://www.compucare.com/asp/viewitem.asp?idp … oduct=PWRULT556 - it had a mail-in rebate, but I of course forgot to send it in and it's now probably too late.
- Found out my RAM is Infineon brand. I don't regret it because I've got it to run pretty stable at the advertised timings, while I've heard of others having stability problems on that mobo with even top brands. There were some quirks though, as you can see here: http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/image-vp501111.html#501111
- I gave up on waiting for GigaByte to release an update BIOS for my mobo, so I made my own: http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/image-vp501175.html#501175
- Added some old case fans that were laying around. I now have two ugly black ones in the front where they're not visible, and a silver one in the back. Haven't compared case temps, but I don't keep my case closed much these days anyways.
- Got new-revision Logitech Z-5500 5.1 speakers. They work well except that the rear channels are too quiet (probably due to the fact that I incorrectly placed them behind me instead of off to the sides and back a ways because I didn't read up on Dolby placements at the time)
- Replaced my keyboard with a Zippy aluminum USB keyboard. It has small keys but I've gotten used to it and like it quite a bit. Only problem is I'm using all my USB ports now and should get a hub. My mouse is still working, but it's getting worn out and I'm thinking of replacing it with a Razer gaming mouse.
- Acquired Roland MT-32 and SC-88 synths and a USB MIDI cable to connect them and my MIDI keyboard. My mobo has a joystick/MIDI pin header but didn't come with a bracket; I recently salvaged a bracket from my parents' house and am planning to rewire it to match GigaByte's pin assignments
- Got two Seagate 250GB SATA drives and made them into one 500GB striped RAID array. Also just got a 400GB Hitachi IDE drive from newegg.com this week. I now estimate that I have over 1.1TB in my system.
- My on-board sound is still working well. It was lacking MIDI capabilities, but I got my synths now, and have been slowly getting into VST/DXi synths for composing. I'm thinking of trying Realtek drivers on it in place of the nVidia ones, as the former can apparently drive the ALC655 chip directly.
- Flashed the WRT54G v1.0 router with a recent (v22) version of dd-wrt firmware ( http://www.dd-wrt.com/). Its QoS features are awesome - so much better than the near-useless implementation in the official Linksys firmware. I hope to upgrade to a OpenWRT-based v23 build of dd-wrt when I have time, as it's supposed to be more streamlined than the Sveasoft-based v22 version I'm running now.