Archer57 wrote on 2025-06-28, 11:05:

The need for unlocked CPU depends on if OC is wanted or not. I personally do like to play with OC, but for 20 year old hardware i am actually going to use... i prefer to leave everything stock, may be drop voltage a bit. Longevity is bigger concern than with new hardware here.

Also i hate NB fans, those are annoying, small, noisy hard to replace ones, just like on some old GPUs. And they often lead to NB failure too, if the user does not notice the fan died. Have to be careful buying boards with one.

And i do prefer lighter, aluminum + copper plate coolers for socketA. Full copper ones exceed AMD spec for max cooler weight and may break the CPU even if you just move the computer around. Also may break socket. What is, IMO, more important is fan size. Larger aluminum coolers with 80mm fan work well and are sufficient.

Unlocked isn't just for OC, it works in both direction.

nd22 wrote on 2025-06-28, 11:13:

HDD: the fastest and noisiest SATA1 drive: WD raptor 150gb. A seller on eBay got a whole bunch of them and I snatched 10 for 20 USD a piece.

Well since you have more than one .. it only makes sense to have two in Raid 0.

DVD-RW and case with FDD are the same from the last build (you can see the pictures on page 55): some IDE drive, no name FDD and cooler master force 500 case. Price - 0 USD.

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-06-28, 11:15:

nd22 wrote on 2025-06-28, 11:13:

HDD: the fastest and noisiest SATA1 drive: WD raptor 150gb. A seller on eBay got a whole bunch of them and I snatched 10 for 20 USD a piece.

Well since you have more than one .. it only makes sense to have two in Raid 0.

Good idea! Every single socket 462 system that I got has one installed (if it has a SATA connector). It is compatible with every controller: Silicon image, nvidia, marvell,... you name it.

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-06-28, 11:14:

Archer57 wrote on 2025-06-28, 11:05:

The need for unlocked CPU depends on if OC is wanted or not. I personally do like to play with OC, but for 20 year old hardware i am actually going to use... i prefer to leave everything stock, may be drop voltage a bit. Longevity is bigger concern than with new hardware here.

Also i hate NB fans, those are annoying, small, noisy hard to replace ones, just like on some old GPUs. And they often lead to NB failure too, if the user does not notice the fan died. Have to be careful buying boards with one.

And i do prefer lighter, aluminum + copper plate coolers for socketA. Full copper ones exceed AMD spec for max cooler weight and may break the CPU even if you just move the computer around. Also may break socket. What is, IMO, more important is fan size. Larger aluminum coolers with 80mm fan work well and are sufficient.

Unlocked isn't just for OC, it works in both direction.

Technically yes, but why? There are no speed-sensitive games on XP and if i wanted to reduce heat i could always just drop FSB in 33Mhz steps, even on locked CPU. Going above 200Mhz is an issue, but that's for OC only...

Archer57 wrote on 2025-06-28, 11:21:

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-06-28, 11:14:

Archer57 wrote on 2025-06-28, 11:05:

The need for unlocked CPU depends on if OC is wanted or not. I personally do like to play with OC, but for 20 year old hardware i am actually going to use... i prefer to leave everything stock, may be drop voltage a bit. Longevity is bigger concern than with new hardware here.

Also i hate NB fans, those are annoying, small, noisy hard to replace ones, just like on some old GPUs. And they often lead to NB failure too, if the user does not notice the fan died. Have to be careful buying boards with one.

And i do prefer lighter, aluminum + copper plate coolers for socketA. Full copper ones exceed AMD spec for max cooler weight and may break the CPU even if you just move the computer around. Also may break socket. What is, IMO, more important is fan size. Larger aluminum coolers with 80mm fan work well and are sufficient.

Unlocked isn't just for OC, it works in both direction.

Technically yes, but why? There are no speed-sensitive games on XP and if i wanted to reduce heat i could always just drop FSB in 33Mhz steps, even on locked CPU. Going above 200Mhz is an issue, but that's for OC only...

Options, being able to change multipliers on the fly with software is pretty nice to have.

cant do that on a locked chip.

PSU: again I must stress the importance of the power supply: don't skimp on it! Bought brand new in 2011 for 100-120 USD.
Corsair TX750 V2 provides clean and stable voltages!

nd22 wrote on 2025-06-28, 11:29:

PSU: again I must stress the importance of the power supply: don't skimp on it! Bought brand new in 2011 for 100-120 USD.
Corsair TX750 V2 provides clean and stable voltages!

I have that model in my I7 2600k rig, bought it in 2012 and its still running strong today.

And here is the fully assembled system. Note the space around the socket - large enough to mount a pretty large cooler.

I never cracked a PIII / Athlon XP die either. I hold the cooler flat on the die and very slowly attach it with the help of a screwdriver. I also clean the die and heatsink with finger before mounting it. A little particle could easily damage the core. Thermal paste is unnecessary for quick tests / BIOS updates.

nd22 wrote on 2025-06-28, 11:31:

And here is the fully assembled system. Note the space around the socket - large enough to mount a pretty large cooler.

Fascinating. I've been looking at this thread for a while and only just noticed - you ended up with red motherbord, green videocard - i with green motherboard, red videocard. Not that it is of any consequence, just funny:

Also palit seems to have used significantly larger, dual slot heatsink:

I wonder how are the temps on your card (this are defective, bumpgate era, GPUs after all) and what the frequencies are. This palit one has exactly stock 560/700, no factory OC at all, and tends to sit at around 55C under load.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-06-28, 11:47:

Thermal paste is unnecessary for quick tests / BIOS updates.

Be careful - this is dangerous without heatspreader. On CPUs with heatspreader it is indeed totally fine, but with bare die some areas will have no contact with the cooler, will heat up to very high temperature and such uneven heating (or even localized overheating) can easily kill the chip. Applies to anything with bare die. That's also why thermal compound has to be applied a little more carefully with bare die. Or in excessive enough amount it is pretty much guaranteed to cover whole die.

But yeah, have not killed any athlons myself either, but have seen enough of dead ones to be extra careful.

And here is the system info. Drivers installed are: nvidia platform driver 5.10 (latest for nforce2); geforce driver 93.71; audio driver from nforce package and NOT the one from realtek!
Memory timings are 3-3-3-8 CR 1T as seen in screenshot 2.

I also got that Palit geforce 7600GT. I do not like it because it does not have a heat sink on the HSI bridge!
Temperatures are very good. I installed a 120mm fan on the side panel that blows air directly over the video card. Great care must be taken in order to replace the thermal paste on the north bridge and put enough (that means a lot!!) to cover the whole north bridge!

nd22 wrote on 2025-06-28, 12:29:

I also got that Palit geforce 7600GT. I do not like it because it does not have a heat sink on the HSI bridge!

Hmm, curious. I have 2 cards like this -7300GT and 7600GT and both have aluminum plate attached to main heatsink which contacts the bridge. This should be more than enough and perhaps even better than separate heatsink as main one has a fan.

Perhaps different versions exist.

I do have 6600 with similar design - separate heatsink on the bridge, and it gets quite toasty, much more so than GPU heatsink, especially when idle.

Though i suspect in the end both solutions work just fine and are more than sufficient.

nd22 wrote on 2025-06-28, 12:29:

Temperatures are very good. I installed a 120mm fan on the side panel that blows air directly over the video card.

Yep, that's a great solution. I do not have one though because the case does not have a place for one.

nd22 wrote on 2025-06-28, 12:29:

Great care must be taken in order to replace the thermal paste on the north bridge and put enough (that means a lot!!) to cover the whole north bridge!

Or a pad can be used. In a way it is safer, especially if there only 2 clips holding the heatsink (meaning it can easily move) and with relatively small amount of heat it generates (compared to CPU, for example) conductivity should not be an issue.

Nforce2 actually heats up a lot! You need active cooling on it or a big enough passive heatsink. Even on the southbridge I put a small blue heatsink.

One advantage of this old CPU coolers compared to modern tower ones is that some airflow from it does get to NB heatsink. So i do prefer larger heatsink here. The one on epox board here is not as large as i'd like, but apparently it is more than enough - it is barely warm to the touch.

As for SB - i agree, having no heatsink is not the greatest idea - it gets quite hot. The board i've used here did have one out of the box, but on other ones i did install heatsinks too.

On my Gigabyte GA-K8NE with nforce4 chipset I screwed the heatsink to the board and used thermal paste as it gets quite hot. It doesn't have a fan at the moment and 80'C system temperature is reported, which is probably this chip. I will be attaching a little fan on it. Anything you can't hold your finger on should have a large heatsink or a fan. I had to fix it because the board came with the heatsink detached and broken plastic holder. 2.5x10mm screws work fine.

I was also doing maintenance on Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 north and south bridge because the old thermal pads were hardened and didn't fulfil their function anymore. I tried to use thermal paste but noticed then heatsink would be too close to little smd parts and I didn't want to cause a short so I used a fresh 1mm thermal pad instead, cut to cover the whole package instead of just die.

Archer57 wrote on 2025-06-28, 12:10:

Also palit seems to have used significantly larger, dual slot heatsink:

My GeForce 9800 GT has the same heatsink. The main problem with it is worn out and noisy fan which can't be replaced easily. So I had to attach a larger slim fan, which isn't as effective at cooling due to being slim.

There are also some very nice aftermarket coolers still available for purchase compatible with 7600 GT such as Thermaltake Sorb or DuOrb. I have seen also an orb cooler from Acutake which is better than the stock cooler on GeForce FX and looks the same as what some Gigabyte 9800 GT cards used. May be worth purchasing for those who end up with terrible little stock fans on FX / 7600 GT. The palit one seems to be fine.

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-06-28, 11:15:

nd22 wrote on 2025-06-28, 11:13:

HDD: the fastest and noisiest SATA1 drive: WD raptor 150gb. A seller on eBay got a whole bunch of them and I snatched 10 for 20 USD a piece.

Well since you have more than one .. it only makes sense to have two in Raid 0.

Or four? For maximum speed and minimal data integrity 😉

H3nrik V! wrote on 2025-06-29, 06:11:

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-06-28, 11:15:

nd22 wrote on 2025-06-28, 11:13:

HDD: the fastest and noisiest SATA1 drive: WD raptor 150gb. A seller on eBay got a whole bunch of them and I snatched 10 for 20 USD a piece.

Well since you have more than one .. it only makes sense to have two in Raid 0.

Or four? For maximum speed and minimal data integrity 😉

I like the way you think .. its a retro system after all .. who needs data integrity there 😁

Now I will try to answer some possible questions:
1. Where is the beige case?
Since I bought my first PC in 1998 I used only black cases. No RGB, no fancy lights, just standard black case. I am aware that many people use beige cases as it was the norm back in the late 90's and the early 2000's; they got my respect - they are some really great builds on the forum. All my cases were, are and will be black.
2. Does this system ensure additional playability beyond 2004?
NO. In 2005 there are some highly demanding games: Serious Sam 2, Fear, Call of duty, Battlefield 2 to name a few. Both the CPU and the GPU are too weak for smooth gameplay. And no, there are no AGP cards that can play 2005 games at max details - Quake 4, for example, can not be played with an average of 60 FSP, not even with the Radeon 3850.
3. Any extra upgrades worth getting?
The one thing I can think of is a sound card - Audigy 2ZS would be great. Unfortunately my retro corner is only 5 m2 where all my stuff must fit and all I got are a pair of stereo speakers.
One other thing is a RAID with a pair of 150gb Raptors, but I got only 10 of them and all are used in different builds.