Building a system for my sister, excited about this one. :D
Well, first I just wanted to say that I am finally going to get a chance to play with some of the newer technology out there. No, not Athlon 64/FX. Just Barton. But do understand that I have been consumed time wise and financially by school, which got out last week. I have 9 weeks of work only, which is like a friggin' vacation for me.
Anyway, I have some questions about Barton overclocking on the nForce 2 (NF7-S 2.0). You don't need to bridge these things, right? You can change multiplier through BIOS?
Anyway, here are the brief system specs:
Mobo: NF7-S 2.0
Processor: Barton 2500+
Memory: 512MB GeIL PC-3200 2-3-3-6-T1 (First time using GeIL, gets good reviews... We'll see)
HDD: 80GB WD SE
Video: 9800 Pro 128MB (Sapphire)
Cooling: SLK-900A w/ 92MM Sunon 56CFM
Peripherals: Logitech Elite and an MX700
Case: Blue Chieftec. Yes, the overused one. Hey, it's still a good case, even if we're all tired of looking at them.
Optical Media: Lite-On CDRW/DVD combo drive.
Clearly this computer is being built on a budget... The whole deal comes in at about $1080 shipped. But I'm confident that I can push this thing far beyond the legal limits.
The only thing I'm nervous about is that I'm going to be using the Foxconn PSU that comes with the case (450W). I know next to nothing about these PSUs, but the budget did not allow for the Antex/Enermax route. I've used Enermax PSU's in the past with great results, despite what some say about weak 5V rails.
Anyway, I'm really looking forward to playing with a 9800 Pro. This is pretty much the same computer I'll build for myself one of these days... But I'll likely resuse my 430W Enermax.
Comments? And somebody answer the overclocking Q. Yes I'm behind the times... Bear with me here.
Anyway, I have some questions about Barton overclocking on the nForce 2 (NF7-S 2.0). You don't need to bridge these things, right? You can change multiplier through BIOS?
Anyway, here are the brief system specs:
Mobo: NF7-S 2.0
Processor: Barton 2500+
Memory: 512MB GeIL PC-3200 2-3-3-6-T1 (First time using GeIL, gets good reviews... We'll see)
HDD: 80GB WD SE
Video: 9800 Pro 128MB (Sapphire)
Cooling: SLK-900A w/ 92MM Sunon 56CFM
Peripherals: Logitech Elite and an MX700
Case: Blue Chieftec. Yes, the overused one. Hey, it's still a good case, even if we're all tired of looking at them.
Optical Media: Lite-On CDRW/DVD combo drive.
Clearly this computer is being built on a budget... The whole deal comes in at about $1080 shipped. But I'm confident that I can push this thing far beyond the legal limits.
The only thing I'm nervous about is that I'm going to be using the Foxconn PSU that comes with the case (450W). I know next to nothing about these PSUs, but the budget did not allow for the Antex/Enermax route. I've used Enermax PSU's in the past with great results, despite what some say about weak 5V rails.
Anyway, I'm really looking forward to playing with a 9800 Pro. This is pretty much the same computer I'll build for myself one of these days... But I'll likely resuse my 430W Enermax.
Comments? And somebody answer the overclocking Q. Yes I'm behind the times... Bear with me here.
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Comments
As for the memory, lord oh lord would I change that to Corsair, Mushkin, or Kingston. Geil is hit or miss on quality. Sometimes it'll do 2/3/3 at the rated voltage and speed, sometimes you need +.3v, 2.5/3/3 or 2.5/4/4 and maybe you'll hit the rated speed.
Otherwise, everything is good good good.
I got her hooked on HL when she was 9.
Mmmm... 30A @ 3.3V, 15A @ 12V. Not liking those specs. Guess we'll see. Worst comes to worse, I will give her my Enermax and get a new one when I build my system. That sucker puts out 45A @ 3.3V and like 25A @ 12V.
There really won't be much 12V stuff to power, though. A few fans, which are relatively negligible, a hard drive and an optical drive. It should suffice.
It's the 30A @ 3.3V that I'm more worried about. Not to mention the cleanliness of the power.
Cant go wrong with that.
Almost forgot//
Tex among others are in your area and you may be able to get a decent one from one of them for a reasonable price.
mtgoat hopes he's not treading on anyones toes here.
I bet you $2 paypal money that ram will not do 6-2-2-2 @ 200 fsb 2.6vdimm. I've been a proud owner of corsair xms, kingston hyper x, and Mushkin so far. Only other way i would go is Buffalo Tech, Adata, Infineon, or that new OCZ Universal pc4200. Don't some GeiL sticks have problems with nf7 boards, or is that just something i made up?
The 2500+ will not show much of a performance increase over a jiuhb dlt3c 1700/1800. So to me it doesn't justify the $30 price difference. Temps on bartons are also much higher due to the higher voltage and increased size of the core, due to the increased L2 cache.
I may be willing to sell you an Antec TruPower 480W psu for somewhere around $65, if the robantron 600w i get in the mail is a true performer.
Are you going with a 1G of ram or 512? What are you expecting out of the oc on this machine?
RAM, we'll see... I don't remember reading anything about GeIL/NF7 problems. The review I remember off the top of my head compared XMS, Hyper-X and GeIL on an NF7-S, with the GeIL and Corsair running neck and neck in the lead.
I think I'll just chunk that Austin/Foxconn... sigh. Should have done my homework first. That's alright, I kind of wanted to try an Antec PSU in my next rig anyway. Despite having NO problems with my Enermax.
OH so right m8, that's what I'm running now.
You want me to check if the guy I found local here still has any of those 430 Enermax's left were $25 bucks? Brand new still shrink wrapped. Shoot me an email if you do. And I noticed below your avatar it says your back in Big D again? If so you should give me a shout and we can run down to the computer fleamarket on First or Third saturdays of the month.
Tex
We really should get together again some time... I think there are some other DFW members, too. Show yourselves!
This Sat is the third of Oct, right? I get off work (Graff Chevrolet @ Grand Prairie) around 1... What time's the flea market close?
And last saturday was the third saturday. It was the 18'th this month.
Tex
Dunno what to do about that, I work every Saturday until 1. :\
That's ok, there's always beer.
I like the case, too. To be honest, this is the first time I've built a system with the all-too-popular Chieftec tower - The one with the door. It was a good case to work with. Lack of motherboard tray, slight bummer, but otherwise, very solid case.
I ended up using my Enermax PSU just to be safe. Didn't want to mess with that cheap IS or whatever it is. I parted it out for fans, connectors, switches and such. I had to steal the 12V AUX connector and splice it to my Enermax; I chopped off the Enermax's about a year ago because I thought that I would never need it. At the time, no AMD motherboards had the 12V AUX and I didn't know that the NF7-S had it. So, after several cig lighter burns and a couple bucks worth of high quality 3M heat-shrink splices, the thing is good as new and has the 12V AUX connector. Even did the repairs internally so you can't tell that it was ever missing. Luckily I had the forsight to leave enough of the original wires in the Enermax so that I could splice onto the originals in the future should I ever want to use them... Although I anticipated using them for a fan circuit, not their original intent.
I'll post pictures of the built up computer and overclocking results when I get done with it. Right now it isn't all prettied up. I still need to splice the fan wires to eliminate all those bulky connectors, and wire loom and cable tie everything to make it pretty. Considering blue lighting, since this case has a window and it is being built for my sister... Not me. Anybody here who is familiar with me knows that I care little for windows and cathodes.
Oh, I got one of those NewEgg aluminum case badges since it was free w/the fan purchase. Must say, I'm impressed. The badges are sharp and classy looking. Other mfgers should take note.
Get your ass in gear and come on out!
Tex
Anyway, this is so cool, I have all these games that I've been putting off playing because I didn't have a good enough computer... Now I get to play them for a week before I ship this thing off.
Tex
Edit: One of these weekends I will take off work to go, but this week I am already at 49 hours, so basically, today and tomorrow are pure gravy... 1.5x overtime pay.
CPU and memory are running comfortably at 200 x 10, 6-2-2-2 for break in.
We'll see where this all ends up...
I am definitely having fun playing with all this ****.
Alright, the memory won't do 210Mhz at rated timings right now. I've seen 5-10Mhz gains after a few days break in, so I am not too discouraged yet (Considering how little this stuff cost). Still, it is not impressive. This stuff is DDR400, rated for 200Mhz operation at 6-3-3-CAS2 which it does quite nicely. Again, note that this is about as cheap as high performance RAM gets, so I'm not discouraged by it. Haven't hit any ceilings with the processor yet. Currenting running 206x11 (2266Mhz). Also haven't tried relaxed memory timings yet. Gotta install some benches before I mess with that.