gerwin wrote:

I have an Asus A7V600 with a sempron 3000+ (barton) as the secondary desktop PC in the house. It has a radeon HD3450 AGP graphics card. Someone gave the mainboard for free with a CPU. He said he could not get it running no matter how he tried. I never had any trouble with it. 😀

Tetrium: I use Coolon te enable either StpGnt or Halt state, or both, cannot remember. It does not cause any problems and dramatically reduces CPU power usage.

My system is not noisy. But I have not installed any extra system fans. (i dislike fans). I Just leave one side of the case open all the time.

Does your A7V600 also lack a system fan connector btw? Or am I in need of a new pair of specs? 😜

sgt76 wrote:

Tetrium wrote:

Btw, I got this HUGE heavy pure copper weirdlooking cooler for the P4, looks like it has a turbo engine on top.

Coolermaster Aero478?

and watch out, 478 rigs are addictive 😁

I'm gonna find out! 😜
Btw, it's not that cooler. It's kinda hard to explain, I'll post a pic later (gonna get picked up any moment now).

The bad thing for me is, I somewhat lack good Socket A CPU's, so I have to make due with the crap I have laying around Lol (or till prices come down...a lot 😜

Doh, as I reread the last couple posts, I remembered I forgot to take a pic of that huge copper P4 cooler 🙁. Sorry sgt76 🙁
I will save that one for later, I just finished uploading pics of my 2nd LAN rig 😀

This one is the second LAN rig in a planned series of 3 to be completed, though I already mentioned it was nearing completion in the retrorig topic.

The basic idea for these rigs is to complement the 2 LAN rigs I already have had for a couple years. As I had 2 rigs and 3 people needing a computer, one of them had to always bring his own rig which was, as you can imagine, kinda cumbersome.

This one proved to be quite a pain in the rear end to build. It took me over 10 tries with 3 or 4 different (and failed) slipstreamed XP disks and one dead floppy drive before I finally managed to put a copy of XP SP1 on the SATA disk (gah, gotta love those floppy sata drivers! 😜) but after that, the ride went smoothly. Only gripe is I seem to have accidentally put SP3 RC1 on there instead of the RTM version of the Service Pack or something hehe 😅

This rig is faster then the 1st one, which was more an experiment to see what the FX5900 was up to (my advice:Try to avoid the FX series for any demanding DX9 game like FEAR).
Stats:

*ASUS K8V X SE s754 with an Athlon 3200+ Venice 2.2Ghz 512KB Cache
*2x512MB DDR-400 DS RAM (Might turn out to be the bottleneck of this rig till I can find a bigger DDR module).
*GF6800 AGP 128MB 256bit with customized cooling solution (I used tie-ribs to mount an 8cm casefan to the bare stock cooler. Temps remain under 65c).
*Loudish Zalman CPU cooler, which I haven't been able to slow down using software. Perhaps the Phoenix BIOS has this option? Not likely, Phoenix BIOS's seem to be as devoid of options as Adam and Eve were devoid of clothes -_-. I might either do some creative cable management or swap the cooler altogether later.
*80GB 2008-vintage SATA harddrive, which feels very responsive for a 80GB drive
*XP Home SP3 (RC1 *cries*)
*A Soundblaster Audigy iirc. First time I ever used one. Got it out of a box of old parts for €2,50
*Brand new AC 12cm case fan
*Brand new FSP 350W PSU with 10A and 15A on the 12v lines
*Some random DVD drive/CD-burner

So far the rig has remained in perfect working order while playing 20 mins of UT3.
So far so good!

Pics are on the way.....

Edit:

The case looks very similar, but isn't identical to the AOpen H600 beige case I'm using for my other s754 Athlon 3200+ rig. Most noticable differences:
*This case has the cheaper round "feet" while the H600 case has the retractable server-like "feet"
*This case has an opening for cool air in the side
*Instead of 2x8cm, this case has 1x12cm, a better option imo.

As with the H600 case, I had a friend of mine use a jigsaw to really open up the back casefan hole, as it originally had the "lots of tiny holes" which makes for bad ventilation.
After he did all 3 of these cases I have (I got 3 identical cases for very cheap) I found out I didn't have a 12cm fan grill!
In the end I used some more tie-ribs to mount a 9.2cm one 😁

Pics with the side panel removed:

You can see this case ended up involving a LOT of tie-ribs! 😁
But it works! (...so far, keeping fingers crossed 🤣)

Ok, I took some pics of that heavy copper cooler. It's this one:

And regarding tie-ribs, I use this lovely thingy:

Tetrium wrote:

Does your A7V600 also lack a system fan connector btw? Or am I in need of a new pair of specs? 😜

I just checked, and I found three fan headers: CPU, PWR, CHA. Should be enough.

Maybe mine was an OEM model? Strange, as it came from a retail case. Mine has iirc only solder dots, oh well.

Btw, I've been working on the new Tualatin rig, but so far had no luck in cloning ME though I'm getting close...I think?

If this trick works, it would be awesome! I even recommissioned an old Tualatin rig of mine just for moving data while in the attic so I don't need to take the stairs all the time (which I do anyways, learned to walk up the ladder without using my hands even 😁).

And thanks for taking the time to check Gerwin! 😉
I think it's cool for people to help out other people 😀

I like your second rig too. It's always more fun to see some ingeniuty at work than just a "hey, lookatme I just blew a shitload a cash on my uber 1337 super gaming rig!" 😵

Your s478 cooler looks like an OEM HP cooler- I got one just like it except with a plain alu base. I wouldn't use it on a Prescott- may be ok for some lower clocked Northies though.

So you got a s462 and a 754 going. I was checking out s939 mobo and cpu prices on the bay recently- they're going for real cheap now. You should consider collecting some of those.

I can't seem to shake off the s939 bug- maybe cause some of my best times were on that platform.

Once I have some cash/ time/ space, I will be building a "perfect" ca. 2005/06 s939 rig - Asus A8N32 SLI, Opteron 165/ Athlon X2 3800+, 2gb DDR 400, sata raid 0, SLI'ed 6800GTs or maybe a single X1900XTX or 8800GTS... 😀

Socket 754 and 939 were sweet platforms. That was a nice magic moment for pc gaming too, during 2004-2006. Doom 3, Half Life 2, Quake 4, MOH: Pacific Assault, Fear, SW: Empire at War, Company of Heroes, NFS Carbon and Most Wanted, Call of duty 2, etc. List goes on and on. If you had at least a Athlon 64 3200+ and a Geforce 6800, you were set to play any of that stuff really well.

ProfessorProfessorson wrote:

Socket 754 and 939 were sweet platforms. That was a nice magic moment for pc gaming too, during 2004-2006. Doom 3, Half Life 2, Quake 4, MOH: Pacific Assault, Fear, SW: Empire at War, Company of Heroes, NFS Carbon and Most Wanted, Call of duty 2, etc. List goes on and on. If you had at least a Athlon 64 3200+ and a Geforce 6800, you were set to play any of that stuff really well.

Yeah, real sweet times! Probably has something to do with age too, I think. The new games seem to hit the "wow!" factor less and less as time goes on - nothing wrong with them it's just that I care less probably... 😀

edit- BTW Tetrium- where are the s423/ 478 P4 rigs man? 😜 🤣

Cheers mates!
I like to mix and (especially) match hardware together and I think about how to proceed with them before I start building them. I kinda have to as I have so much choice in parts! What I am lacking right now are really beefy PSU's and RAM, so those 2 are 'rationed' 😜

I have to say that the tie ribs work very well, everything is solidly in place, the fan grill is secured as if I used screws instead of some wire 😜

s754 and 939 are great gaming platforms, their only hassle is with the SATA drivers 🤣. They come in AGP and PCIe versions and have good performance. I kinda like to see them as the easy way socket A's, but with a little bit extra performance. And they are indeed cheap right now. Too bad I got no cash to burn right now, but the boards should be there for a couple months on the bay 😉

s423, don't have a board for that yet. I bought some s754 boards second hand (with varying results -_-) because I got a small lot of Athlon 64 3200+'s for cheap and these boards work in single instead of dual channel (so no messing around finding matched pairs and having to use either 2GB (too much) or only 1GB (lil bit cramped for a gaming rig), I can install 1GB or 1.5GB if I have the modules available 😀
Except in processors (generally s939 has faster processors) s754 and s939 seem very very similar in performance and it comes down more to the board's features.

The Socket 478 will have to wait, I'm still going to work on the 3rd and final LAN rig after I stop messing around with Tualatin (the ME cloning thing isn't going too well...guess I'll have to come up with another solution) and I still want to build a Nehemiah rig for no real reason except to put another one of those V3's I have laying around to good use 😁

Yup, new games "look" good, but does that make them better? Also it seems like new games are released faster then I can play them 🤣, I'm always "behind schedule"
Btw, I'd need to build 3 new LAN rigs if I wanna start playing games like Crysis and such. Also those newer games often involved STEAM-like solutions. I'll wait till Conroe comes down in price (which shouldn't be too long, maybe half a year or less).

s754 and 939 maybe have clock-for-clock max 2-3% difference between them. Dual channel too is no big boost for A64s. What counts high clock speeds, then fsb and lastly ram latency 😁 ! Much different from Netburst architecture where high fsbs make all the difference.

But I like s939 better cause of nostalgia (the first REALLY high performance rig I ever bought) and it's flexibility - like you so correctly pointed out.

And you need to get that s423 rig going man, with 1gb RDram, a 2ghz Willie and a 4200ti or 9600 Pro it'll surprise you!

Yeah, for the standard Athlon64 machine, 754 Vs. 939 doesn't really matter one way or the other.

The big deal about 939, IMO, is the availability of dual-core CPUs. On the other hand, a lot of 754 boards have the ability to run the ML- and MT-series Turions, so there's the possibility of making a nice low-power machine out of one.

Old Thrashbarg wrote:

Yeah, for the standard Athlon64 machine, 754 Vs. 939 doesn't really matter one way or the other.

The big deal about 939, IMO, is the availability of dual-core CPUs. On the other hand, a lot of 754 boards have the ability to run the ML- and MT-series Turions, so there's the possibility of making a nice low-power machine out of one.

That's right, I forgot all about those! I do have a couple mobile Semmies, but no real intent to use them since I later received the A64 3200's.

And the s423, I'm always on the lookout locally for one. The 2Ghz CPU is already waiting in ambush!! 😁
BUT as things are for the moment, 512MB RDRAM will have to do

I've been messing with ME cloning a lot, sucked in all my time. Without much success alas, I made no progress today...except for a couple really small things.

Old Thrashbarg wrote:

On the other hand, a lot of 754 boards have the ability to run the ML- and MT-series Turions, so there's the possibility of making a nice low-power machine out of one.

Oooo dusty memories! Forgot bout the old Turions- TDP 25-35w 😲 would make a real nice retro rig for surfing, media and stuff. With some tweaking and the right heatsink could maybe go fanless on those?

Tetrium wrote:

And the s423, I'm always on the lookout locally for one. The 2Ghz CPU is already waiting in ambush!! 😁
BUT as things are for the moment, 512MB RDRAM will have to do

512mb ram would do fine for that gen of games, plus points if you have some pc800 40ns or pc1066 32ns modules.

try to get a board with some tweaking features to crank that willie over 2 ghz- that'll be one FAST 2001 system!

Any suggestions for a s423 board with GOOD BIOS features? I noticed the Phoenix ones are often very bare

Edit:I changed the A64 rig and experimented a bit. I ended up with a don't-try-this-at-home trick 😜

I changed the AC system fan with a Coolermaster one and plugged that one into the CPU fan header. The Zalman CPU cooler I plugged into a 7v fan adapter, so it doesn't make as much noise. CPU temps of course rose (it's in the 40's now instead of 1c over ambient) but the GPU temp went down by 5c while the system produces MUCH less noise 😀
Later I finally managed to somehow squeeze a 12cm system fan into the frontside of the case and though this extra addition didn't seem to lower GPU temps any further, I'm hoping it will help in keeping the tie-wraps cooler and preventing them from melting 🤣.

Measurements were done while playing Unreal Tournament 3 using speedfan

Tetrium wrote:

Any suggestions for a s423 board with GOOD BIOS features? I noticed the Phoenix ones are often very bare

Asus P4T was a stand-out if you can find one.

Those are a bit expensive though, I'll wait till I find a good deal on a couple (I want a couple spares also)

Yeah, they're pricey cause they're THE best. Intel's own i850 boards have no tweaking features but they're damn stable and built like tanks to last a gadzillion years... plenty of them for sale cheaply.

I'll look into it, but I'm having slight money problems atm 😜
I like FS boards as you can simply use a FS recovery disk, install XP and it's already activated. And FS stickers I have enough of 😉

Anyway, I've had some success with cloning ME, though I'm still considering just using msbatch.inf
I'll play some more UT3 on the second LAN rig but so far it seems very stable when playing half an hour. But I'd still need to play like 1 1/2 hours non-stop and I still want to be careful with my now improving RSI you know 😉

The 1st LAN rig I haven't had the time to switch the cards around, I got heaps of stuff to do, and heaps of stuff on top of that that has to do with hardware 😜
Anyway, looking like the next LAN-party isn't gonna work out, meaning I'll have 2 more weeks to complete some rigs 😁

Also found a computer today in the trash, a s478 SDRAM ( 🙁 ) rig with no special components whatsoever. But I'm contemplating making an SDRAM Northwood (yes I know SDRAM + netburst = suckage) but I got more 512MB SDRAM modules laying around then I have 512MB DDR modules -_-
Perhaps another ME rig?

The 3rd LAN rig is somewhat finished, but I still need to switch case, include the graphics card and finish the rest of that install. It'll proly be haused in the same type of case as the A64 one (got 3 of those 😀.

I'm quite busy with the hardware stuff right now, barely have time to game even hehe 😜
Only testing UT3 on the 2nd LAN rig.

Good news, the Athlon64 survived the first LAN party with flying colors 😀
It had exactly zero problems and temps remained at or below 70c for the GPU when playing UT3 for a couple hours straight 😁
I did do some additional tweaks before I got to the final layout of the cooling solution. I wanted one extra cooler to help cool the GPU (and it's wires 😜) but had a problem in the fact that the case doesn't have any spot to mount a front case fan.
Then I looked at the empty PCI slots and it's brackets and thought "I got an idea!".
So I mounted a 8cm case fan to the 4 slot covers as seen in these pics:

Alas, when I tested it, the fan kept locking up due to the stress caused by the mounting wires on the fan assembly thingy, so I had to think of another way.

In the end the best solution often turn out to be the simplest ones, I used a piece of foam and 2 rubber fan corner thingies and it succeeded in keeping a 12cm fan in place. It didn't lower temps anymore, but it will help in keeping the wiring cooler 😀
You can also see how I connected the new case fan to the CPU fan header and the CPU fan is connected to a 7v molex adapter.
The rig now has the error message "No CPU fan, press F1 to continue" but this doesn't really bother me too much, the rig works flawlessly 😀

It now looks like this:

I've also completed the hardware work on the 3rd rig (the 1st rig is in the attic, pending a graphics card replacement) but I still need to finish the software part of it.

Work is in progress! 😁

Good work man. Looks nice and solid in there.