Building my first Socket478 PC... \ VOGONS

Building my first Socket478 PC...

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First post, by bigfish

bigfish Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 2
Joined: Yesterday, 20:15
Location: Chile

Hi everyone, I am new to these boards and (kinda) new to PC building. I am currently putting together a Pentium4 rig to play games from the early 2000s and work on video-transfer with an old PCI TV tuner.

I recently had my Gigabyte GA-8S648FX motherboard stop POSTing mysteriously after having kept on my computer at night... so i'm planning on rebuilding this thing.

Parts that I do have, and work when used.
- CPU: Pentium 4 Northwood 2.4GHz w/ stock cooler
- RAM: 2x 1GB DDR-400 RAM
- GPU: ASUS ATi Radeon 9600Pro (128mb, 128-bit bus)

I plan on getting a PCI sound-card, optical and floppy drives, and of course, a new mobo.

Anyone got suggestions on PC parts (Motherboards, PCI-cards, drives) from 2000-2004 time period that I could use? And yes, before anyone asks, I will clean the case..!

Below here is a pic of the PC when it was still working.

By the way, how much is the fish?

Reply 1 of 3, by st31276a

Posted on Today, 06:43

st31276a Offline

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Rank: Member
Posts: 354
Joined: 2023-03-20, 13:11
Location: South Africa

Hey! That makes me want to play HL2... Looks like it is running in at least DX8 mode too!

Maybe it is just the electrolytic caps on the motherboard that need attention.

My 478 system is on a GA-8ITXR and yes, it is currently non-functional needing cap replacement.

If you had to swap the board, I would go for something 865 based and keep the rest of the stuff exactly as is. (I might or might not clean the case, aint nobody got time for that 😀

Reply 2 of 3, by bigfish

Posted on Today, 06:55

bigfish Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 2
Joined: Yesterday, 20:15
Location: Chile

st31276a wrote on Today, 06:43:

Hey! That makes me want to play HL2... Looks like it is running in at least DX8 mode too! [...] Maybe it is just the electrolytic caps on the motherboard that need attention.

HL2 on this system while it was running was pretty fun! And yes, I was running it on DX9 mode on low-mid settings. Good performance, so I was pretty happy.

It could be the caps, though they all look fine to me and don't appear to be expanding/leaking. I haven't a clue about recapping and such, so for my sake I will keep this board for spares and look at it a later time. Capacitors sure are a mystery...!

PS: I've been thinking about getting an ASUS P4B but I've been kind of worried about it supporting up to AGP4x -- not sure if it will damage the AGP8X card.

By the way, how much is the fish?

Reply 3 of 3, by zapbuzz

Posted on 50 minutes ago

zapbuzz Offline

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Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 826
Joined: 2018-05-08, 20:36
Location: Earth

There will be no damage to AGP between 8x and 4X you might notice the difference it is small for most things.

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