AlexZ wrote on Today, 18:39:My preferred brand for s754, AM2+, AM3 is Gigabyte. ctrl+F1 in BIOS activates advanced settings I need and I don't need more. Ma […]
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My preferred brand for s754, AM2+, AM3 is Gigabyte. ctrl+F1 in BIOS activates advanced settings I need and I don't need more. Main downside is old boards don't report voltage in BIOS, sometimes use plastic backplate (needs replacement) and try to backup BIOS to hard drive without permission. Gigabyte is my most common board brand. They are common and a spare board can often be bought. I used to have Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro2 and Gigabyte GA-K8NS which I sold to reduce the number of boards.
That latch on AGP slot works well, much better what later Gigabyte boards have which can break off. I use a small screw driver to push the pin in from top while pulling the card out.
If you want to run Windows 7 then 3GB RAM at DDR333 is probably better than 2GB at DDR400.
The best CPU is mobile Turion, it has SSE3, 1MB L2 cache and they run fine at 2.2Ghz. They may need a special cooler or a 0.5mm shim. They run very cool. With a tower cooler attached to the bracket, they can probably be passively cooled as long as there some airflow in the case.
Yeah, I heard about the mobile socket 754, I heard the compatibility is hit or miss on desktops, that's why I avoided it. Plus, I already have the athlon 64 cooler+heatsync.
Definitely an alternative to the venice athlon 64.
I did plan to do 3gb (I got 1gb stick ddr400 so far for testing) but with the 333mhz cap since that is the likely. Pretty much lines up with what I heard elsewhere 😉 if you know what I mean...
I do wonder though if it would be more appropriate to end discussion here as it is no longer about the FIC board, at least until someone actually needs to bring up something for this thread. I am not against its continuation, but I don't know how it aligns with this sites rules. If needed, a new topic thread could be started? I don't know honestly. I should probably stop checking this page out of habit. It has gone away from looking for constructive feedback and into impulsive responding... 🤣
I am not going to worry about the small things, though there seems to be a consensus on the trouble of the backplate being plastic and not metal, at least between you and one other person in this thread. But I ought not worry about it since I practically am incapable of replacing it (I as in me specifically, at least with my current knowledge base). I don't intend to leave it running 24/7 and when I have it settled and set up, I don't plan on removing and readding/changing components a lot to where there is a lot of physical wear, so I suppose just thermal and electric wear naturally? I mean, if it is that simple I wouldn't object so much, but I hate doing something only to make things worse, ya know?
After I switch to an ssd via sata ssd to ide interface, hopefully the gigabyte bios backup, if not avoidable, doesn't have real performance impact or fill the drive at a non trivial rate.
This gigabyte board may not be as rare as the FIC board, but my real requirement wasn't rarity, but rather being a launch athlon 64 capable board from 2003, and it is. I was trying to keep things even cheaper initially. I still have a super cheap 2004 FIC K8M-800M shipping as a backup even though it wont be launch year I should be able to transfer most hardware to it under a potential catastrophic failure of the gigabyte board.
If I say any more I'll probably just keep repeating myself, so I ought to shut up at this point.
I think in life it is valuable to worry less right? No good to increase artificial stress over trivial things, eh?
We should all agree to end this topic for now perhaps? Just an idea. Of course I will keep all the advice in mind.