It seems I hit a wall with the memory! with 1gb stick of DDR400 ram the system runs fine at FSB:Dram = 1:1 If I put a second stick, identical to the first the system passes MEMTEST86 but is not stable in windows - prime95 stops because it detects a hardware failure. Also I get random retarts, no BSOD just restart. The problem appears with Kingston, Corsair and Aeneon sticks. If I set FSB:DRAM to 6:5 which results in DDR333 the system passes MEMTEST86 and is stable in windows, including prime 95 which runs flawlessly. If I put 3 1gb sticks the motherboard defaults to DDR333 on its own. If I set FSB:DRAM = 6:3 (DDR200) in order to run the processor and the memory synchronous the system is 100% stable.
Any advice about how to proceed is welcome!

I found the problem! The memory is fine; the seller let me test every single stick and they are all fine.
The problem is the dual channel memory controller and 1gb dimms(dual channel mode is activated when slots 1+3 or 2+3 or 1+2+3 are populated):
1.if I put 2 1gb sticks in slot 1 and 2 (sinle channel mode) the system is perfectly stable and passes 1 hour of prime95;
2. if I put 2 1gb sticks in slots 1+3 or 2+3 the system doesn't pass prime95 and crashes;
3 if I put smaller sticks of 512mb of ram in slots 1+3 or 2+3 the system is stable and passes prime95;
4. the problem may be not the capacity itself but the nforce2 memory controller and double sided dimms; the 512mb dimms are single sided and the system runs fine with them.
5. is it possible to find 1gb single sided ddr400 dimms? The ones I got are all double sided.

I come back to the power supply problem: is the FSP 350w enough to run the system if I change the video card to something powerful like nvidia geforce 7800gs or no? I ask because I found on the local eBay a TAGAN power supply compatible with both ATX1.3 and ATX 2.00 standards with very good amperage and power; this is the one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?It … N82E16817101516 It has very high amperage on the 5v rail - 48A - and power - 240w and also supports a power hungry video card. The downside is the price, unlike the FSP unit which was cheap as chips this one cost 4 times more!

Today I come back with the final piece of the puzzle: the video card! After a long search and some careful consideration I decided to finish my retro build with the most expensive piece of all: a Leadteak geforce 7800gs 256mb! Despite this is not the best nvidia video card - there are still some Gainward models based on geforce 7900 series that comes with 512mb of memory - this reference leadtek card still packs a serious punch. All games tested are running with at least 30 fps at 1280*1024 and maximum in game details including AA and AF.
However I have a small problem with the card that comes with a back-plate that is blocked by the memory retention clips. I had to bend a little bit the card to make it fit! Should I remove the back-plate in order to fit the card without forcing it or should I leave it? Will the slight bending have negative consequences or no?
Below is the first test done with the card: 3d mark 2001!

These are the scores with 3dmark 2003, 2005, and 2006 (I consider 2005 and 2006 to be too much for the 7 series GPU and not really relevant):

If you intend to permanently replace the Radeon 9200 or similar low-power card with a GF7800, the latter card will eat a LOT more energy!

The GF7800 should use mostly 12v, so you could check your FSP to see if it has the required amps.

And nice to see you're going along, even though you keep getting into new problems.

I don't think I've ever seen single sided 1GB DDR1 sticks? The double sided ones were all I ever saw and heard about.

The official Nvidia requirment is 400watts with 20amps on the 12v rail EDIT: The memory problem might be related to the ability of the chipset to address more than 3gb of ram. In my experience with 478 chipsets using 4 1gb sticks ends up with 3.3gb usable. Maybe try to run it with1gb sticks in one channel and 512s in the other for a total of 3gb?

ODwilly wrote:

The official Nvidia requirment is 400watts with 20amps on the 12v rail EDIT: The memory problem might be related to the ability of the chipset to address more than 3gb of ram. In my experience with 478 chipsets using 4 1gb sticks ends up with 3.3gb usable. Maybe try to run it with1gb sticks in one channel and 512s in the other for a total of 3gb?

I can remember vaguely that the sA VIA chipsets often had similar limitations, but those seemed to have more to do with the total number of memory chips (double sided DDR tends to have 16 chips while single sided tends to have only 😎 and making it run with more than a certain amount of "sides filled with memory chips on all DDR modules combined" could make it run unstable at higher clock frequencies. This is often also documented in the way that they often mention that higher amounts of memory must be run at lower clock frequencies in order to maintain stability.

What I said above is from memory (no pun intended), but I do also remember my s478 board acting in a similar way: When I added 2x 128MB DDR 400 to the already existing 2x512MB DDR 400, the memory ran at 320MHz or so instead of the 400MHz I had intended it to run at.

Careful mixing and matching may help avoiding memory problems and don't forget that not all DDR 400 modules are created equal (2x1GB cheap DDR 400 modules with Elixer chips were hopeless till I replaced them with memory 2x1GB DDR 400 modules from corsair I think, all problems went away).

And with the older boards I tend to prefer to use matched modules when using more than a single module.

This is of course easier if you have lots of parts to choose from.

The FSP PSU that I use has 16A on the 12v rail! Until last night the system was perfectly stable and did not crashed, not even once. I played Farcry 1, Half life 2, Doom 3 and everything went fine but I should mention that the air coming out is really hot when gaming!
Now about the memory: I can't have 2*1gb sticks and 2*512mb sticks because the motherboard has 3 memory slots; also the motherboard sets automatically the ram to DDR333 if I use 3 sticks regardless of capacity but because I intend to use XP as the newest version of windows with the system I think that 2gb is more than enough for every possible task so I need to find some kits that this motherboard can run at DDR400 without crashing.

The video card choice was influenced by 2 factors: compatibility with windows 9X so a 256mb video card is required and performance in 1996-2004 games. I met a very nice person that lend me 4 different video cards for 24h and let me test them under condition that I buy one of them. The cards that I choose were all nvidia because forum members told me to go nvidia route in order to have less problems with OPENGL and old games: geforce 6600gt 128mb Asus with 500mhz GPU and 900mhz memory (the standard 6600gt has 1000mhz memory); geforce 6800gt 256mb BFG with factory overclocks - 370mhz GPU and 1000mhz memory; geforce 7600gt 256mb leadtek; geforce 7800gs leadtek both with standard clocks. I had 3 games all from 2004 that I tested with: FAR CRY 1, HALF-LIFE 2, DOOM 3. I consider these games to be representative for the era for which Athlon XP is designed and put a heavy load on the system so if all 3 run well any older game should also run well.
I made a mistake in the beginning and I choose to test with maximum in-game settings (including maximum AA level supported by each card) at a resolution of 1280*1024 which is not too CPU bound as 1024*768 and not too GPU bound as 1600*1200 and because the monitor that will be used with the system is a 19 inch LCD with the maximum resolution of 1280*1204 at 75hz. After several hours of 3dmarks and games with the 6600gt and 6800gt I realized that none of them can run smoothly any of the 3 games. 6600gt chokes severely with frame rates as low as 5; 6800gt also dips in the low twenties in Doom3 and Farcry1. I changed my methodology and disabled antialising completely because it kills performance and it is not suited for any geforce 6 series and retested but by now it was too late and I did not make any screenshots this time around.
These are the conclusions I reached after a night of tests:
1. The 6600gt is really not suited for 2004 games; despite owning one back in 2004 I find that performance is really poor at maximum in-game settings (even without antialising) and can not be considered a serious card for directx9.0 games. Doom 3 at ultra settings proved to be beyond the capabilities of this card; Far cry 1 also posed major problems with many dips below 30 fps; only Half – life 2 can run with good frame rates on this card at 1280*1024 and 75hz.
2. The 6800gt really is a nice card. all 3 games tested run at maximum settings (without AA) flawlessly. Doom 3 warns you that a 512mb card is required in order to use ultra settings but the game runs excellent! There are no slowdowns, no dips below 30 fps, everything just runs smooth! However the BFG card is really loud; I can clearly hear it even when the system is idle! This is the card to get if I would make a period correct system! However I would not choose a geforce 6800gt because…
3. The 7600gt does everything the 6800gt does only better (but not by much), with less noise, less heat and at a lower TDP according to official data! The performance of my system further increased with this card! Please do note that you need a 4 pin power connector to use this card in a AGP system. This would be the card I would recommend for a socket 462 system based on a Barton CPU. It is a single slot card, does not need a beefy PSU and all games tested runs exceptionally well on it!
4. the 7800gs is the last nvidia card for the AGP slot! There are several variations based on different GPUs: official GPU has 16 pixel and 6 vertex shaders with 375mhz GPU and 1200mhz memory clocks like the one I got and others based on geforce 7800gt or geforce 7900gt GPU (Gainward card with 512mb of memory reported to be the best nvidia AGP card in existence). The 7800gs did NOT improved performance. The 3dmark scores are near identical with the 7600gt; performance in all 3 games is the same. However I bought it because I thought: why not? It is the only legacy system that I have and I wanted the best even if the price is really high (it costed me more than the motherboard, both CPUs, the PSU and all the memory together). This would be a poor choice for a socket 462 system and also an expensive one! Also the card is really long and comes with a backplate that is blocked by the retention clips for the memory so I had to bend it a little to make it fit!

I should add that I used driver version 175.19 in all the tests and the latest version of 3dmark downloaded from the legacy section of the futuremark website! I did not encounter a single crash or BSOD, everything worked perfectly.

After 1 month of absence because of many problems at work I managed this week to solve the memory problems by using a Corsair 2*1gb kit with silver heat spreaders with CAS2-3-3-8 timings. The system is stable and passes memtest and prime95 without errors; however I expected a big increase in performance by using dual channel memory but with the exception of 3dmark2001 all the benchmarks show minimal difference - only 1-2% increase! The games that I tested - Far cry 1, Half life 2, Doom 3 - show no difference whatsoever! Shouldn't the dual channel memory offer more performance? The CAS2 timing does not help at all but I already knew that performance is not influenced by the memory timings.

This is the final build after 3 months of searching and testing:
Athlon XP 3200
Abit AN7
Corsair 2*1024gb C2PT
Leadtek 7800gs 256mb
LG IDE DVD writer
Maxtor 80gb SATA

I am using Altec Lansing 5.1 surround system and nvidia soundstorm sounds really nice! Also I am using an intel SSD with Windows XP to make tests and eliminate one of the worst bottlenecks of the era: slow hard drives!
Any suggestions about what to add or change would be great! Should I stay on soundstorm or a Creative live would offer an improvement? Also i tested the speed of the integrated nvidia IDE controller and Silicon image controller using an Intel 240gb SSD : despite using the PCI bus the silicon image controller is faster than the nvidia IDE controller! The Maxtor 80gb and western digital 320gb show no difference in transfer speed because they are too slow!