VOGONS


First post, by Sago7

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Greetings.
First: The motivation.
I got my first computer on year 2000. I started my studies as en IT engineer i told to my father that i will need a computer. Before that the nearest thing that I got was an Atari 800XL.
I remember him with a lot of affection.

-CPU K6-2 500mhz
-RAM 64MB
-MB Soyo 5EMH
-HDD Quantum Fireball 10GB
- VGA S3 Trio3D Trio3D/2X 8MB (upgraded to a Nvidia TNT 32MB)

He was my partner until i finished my studies. With many adventures, some overclocking @ 550mhz and moding (molex with red leds). I even finished my thesis with that computer and he never failed. And finished Unreal 😁. That PC lived until 2005 approximately as my main computer.
Today, I always receive some old hardware. Then an idea came to me. I want to build the PC that I never had on that days, from 2003~2004 approximately. And my journey began. I wanted a Socket A, an Atlhon XP.

First was the motherboard. I traveled with a friend to another city, more than 100kms just to contact the seller. IT was an MSI K7N2 with an Athlon XP 3000+.
RAM I have from another builds (3GB, 3x1GB), HDD too (WD Caviar 200GB). I have some old AGP cards. So I started to see on the local market (FB Marketplace, Online Site, Mercado Libre, etc). And I founded a NEW EVGA GF6200 512MB.
And a few days ago I finished the main configuration with an Aopen ES50A case. Oh, and I almost forgot. I purchased a SoundBlaster Live 24 bits.

The idea now are the upgrades.
Better VGA: two days ago I got a BFG 7800gs OC 256MB. It needs to be cleaned, after that it will replace the 6200.
Better cooler: Difficult, the market here is so small for old hardware. Almost all the people who has old hardware doesn't even know what they have.
Maybe a better PSU. Actual PSU is from a "generic brand" and I don't fell confidence about it.

Any other ideas, suggestions?.

Now, pictures!

Spoiler

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Reply 1 of 11, by melbar

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Can you clock your 3000+ with this setting in the MS bios? FSB: 200 ; Multiplier: 11

Then you've overclocked only 33,3MHz and you've got an XP3200+

#1 K6-2/500, #2 Athlon1200, #3 Celeron1000A, #4 A64-3700, #5 P4HT-3200, #6 P4-2800, #7 Am486DX2-66

Reply 2 of 11, by nd22

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Take care with the power supply! Athlon XP demands a lot from the 5v RAIL even if your motherboard has the 4 pin auxiliary connector. I would suggest a power supply with a minimum of 25A on the 5V rail. Also if you want to use dual channel you are limited to 2gb of RAM because the total quantity for channel A must be equal to the quantity of channel B. For Windows XP that is of no consequence as 2gb of RAM is more than enough!

Reply 3 of 11, by RacoonRider

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As nd22 already mentionned, AthlonXP likes beefy +5V. That said, new PSUs hardly ever work with them. In 2014 I bought a new budget Zalman PSU only to find out it could not handle the load even though my motherboard (GA-7n400S) has a separate +12V header.

Reply 5 of 11, by RacoonRider

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Doornkaat wrote on 2020-02-17, 10:32:

How come the +5V rail is used to power the CPU on boards with 4pin 12V connector?

That was exactly my line of thought back then.

Reply 6 of 11, by Sago7

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melbar wrote on 2020-02-16, 06:06:

Can you clock your 3000+ with this setting in the MS bios? FSB: 200 ; Multiplier: 11

Then you've overclocked only 33,3MHz and you've got an XP3200+

After change it to that settings did not boot anymore. Bleh. I tried another combinations with no success. Today I will try again with other settings.

@nd22
@RacoonRider
1GB removed, now it has a perfect dual channel.

This is the actual PSU. I wan't to change it. Spektra is a generic brand, not so reliable. Any suggestion?(https://www.solotodo.com/power_supplies. I was thinking about an EVGA 400w, but only has 17A on the 5v rail. I think I have somewhere a Topower 450w or something like that. I will search it to see the specs.

uIMwRjwDG.jpg

Reply 7 of 11, by Munx

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I can see this motherboard has a 12V CPU connector, so modern PSUs should work just fine and won't need strong 5V

My builds!
The FireStarter 2.0 - The wooden K5
The Underdog - The budget K6
The Voodoo powerhouse - The power-hungry K7
The troll PC - The Socket 423 Pentium 4

Reply 8 of 11, by Sago7

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Munx wrote on 2020-02-18, 14:12:

I can see this motherboard has a 12V CPU connector, so modern PSUs should work just fine and won't need strong 5V

So there's no need to 25A on 5V rail?. I'm a little confused about that.
I replaced the GF6200 with the BFG 7800GS OC 250MB, it requieres external power so it uses one molex from the PSU.

Reply 9 of 11, by Munx

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Sago7 wrote on 2020-02-18, 14:28:
Munx wrote on 2020-02-18, 14:12:

I can see this motherboard has a 12V CPU connector, so modern PSUs should work just fine and won't need strong 5V

So there's no need to 25A on 5V rail?. I'm a little confused about that.
I replaced the GF6200 with the BFG 7800GS OC 250MB, it requieres external power so it uses one molex from the PSU.

It's a late Athlon xp era motherboard with a 4pin CPU power connector.

I'd be VERY surprised if it didn't use 12V to power the CPU.

My builds!
The FireStarter 2.0 - The wooden K5
The Underdog - The budget K6
The Voodoo powerhouse - The power-hungry K7
The troll PC - The Socket 423 Pentium 4

Reply 10 of 11, by melbar

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Sago7 wrote on 2020-02-18, 12:31:
melbar wrote on 2020-02-16, 06:06:

Can you clock your 3000+ with this setting in the MS bios? FSB: 200 ; Multiplier: 11

Then you've overclocked only 33,3MHz and you've got an XP3200+

After change it to that settings did not boot anymore. Bleh. I tried another combinations with no success. Today I will try again with other settings.

Sorry, I've forgot to say there is another requirement that you allows to change the multiplier without any problems on Athlon XP CPUs.
You need a CPU manufactured before calendar week 43 (year 2003) to change the multiplier. I have done this with my Athlon XP back in the day. It was an Athlon XP with T-Bred B core and it was from cw 03/2003 .

But it's OK to clock it @ stock settings, since the performance delta is not huge. If you would need more speed you can change to A64.

#1 K6-2/500, #2 Athlon1200, #3 Celeron1000A, #4 A64-3700, #5 P4HT-3200, #6 P4-2800, #7 Am486DX2-66

Reply 11 of 11, by canthearu

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Its a very nice Althon XP motherboard to have a 12V VRM system.

This board is good for windows 98 or Windows XP, but you will get no DOS compatibility with it. Don't bother trying, it won't work!

But for a 2003/2004 install, you would normally be looking at running windows XP anyway!