New System

KholdKhold KY
edited November 2004 in Hardware
First I would like to say that this is one exceptional site, alot of forums to answer alot of questions one might have. So I decided to join up and get into the mix of things :)

My old system has seen its best days...Slot A 800mhz Athlon so I decided to build a new one. Nothing superb but a nice rig.

Asus A7N8X-X Nforce2 mobo
Athlon XP 2600+ 333mhz Barton
512 (256x2) 333mhz *generic* :confused:

Gonna use my Roms and HD from old rig plus the gforce4 4200ti 128ddr vid, also my Soundblaster Live card although I dont have to have sound with this board.

When I ordered this the cpu came with a hsf and I ordered another one anyway. I expected it to be a stock junker but it was a Speeze 5R266B1H3G. The one I ordered seperate is TT Volcano 7+, so I assume is better than the Speeze. Any suggestions you guys have between the 2 are welcome. :)

My new case is a MGE Gamerbox, but I cant find an actual pic online of this model except the lesser models of this case. The lesser models are definitly ugly but this one is nice. 5 fans...3 intake, 2 exhaust if u dont count the fan in the 400 watt psu.

I picked the Nforce2 chipset over VIA although I have always used boards with VIA chips. Dual channel 128bit Nforce2 from what I have read on other forums is alot better than what VIA can do in the 64-128 bit war.

I might overclock this rig when I get all my parts in and test the waters cause I havent o'clocked a cpu of the caliber that are out today. Another side note is I will be running WinXP Pro full version which I purchased for $50 from a lady my wife works with, unopened and still in original container, lucky me :thumbsup:

Looking forward to being apart of Icrontic Forums and any suggestions or ideas are welcome. :)

Comments

  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited November 2004
    First and formost welcome to the boards. Lots of helpful tips here and knowledgable people in just about every possible field.

    On the rig Nice rig. It's not top of the pack but it'll certainly do what you ask it to without to much complaints. As for the HS's the volcano is better and since you paid for it you might as well use it. If you aren't OC'ing it either would do fine. Even if you are doing a typical OC either would do fine. However if you want to push it a little further the volcano will be more then adequate especially with the other ventallation in your case.

    The Nforce is also the better board now over the VIA if you have the RAM set up propperly (matching ram in the two primary banks) then it certainly will pas the VIA in speed.

    If this is the Nforce with the better built in audio (forget the name of it now someone shoot me). But I'd actually stick with it instead of the stock soundblaster live. It's got better sound and resource wise is about the same.

    On the WinXP side of things install it upgrade to SP2 first and then start installing everything else. This I say for two related reasons. I hope you are planning on doing a clean install and not just plugging in your old drives and booting up to see what will happen. It may work but new rig, new install is always best.

    So assuming clean install if SP2 messes up your stock system then nothing lost you can re-install and not do the SP2 upgrade. The second reason is that if you install SP2 first before any other software it's less likely to cause a compatiblity problem for you.

    Again welcome to the boards.
  • Nive11enNive11en Europe
    edited November 2004
    I've had a similar rig to Yours just a week ago. AMD Athlon XP 2000+ and GeForce4 Ti4200 (which I still have now). Your processor will handle anything easily, especially if Your ram is good enough to get the FSB to 200MHz (400MHz), although if its no-name might not.
    You should get a better graphics card though. The Ti4200 just doesn't do it. Best choice would be a Radeon 9800 I guess. Or if you can spare more money, GF6600GT GF6800 or X800 :p
    Right now I'm trying to save up for a new HD (SATA and as quiet as possible, my current HD's are well.. loud and screaming) then probably will auction for a used GeForce 6800. These hopefully should have prices falling (especially the AGP ones) so I can get one for a reasonable price.
  • KholdKhold KY
    edited November 2004
    The ram is no name to say the least, ordered it from Mwave.com and it was house brand so I am not sure if I can clock it without hazards.

    To what Kryyst said bout clean install of WinXP, I always do clean installs first and foremost. Hehe it saves time with compatibility problems.

    My 4200 ti card has been my buddy for a long time lol, but right now I dont think I can swing a new one as of yet. I am not much of an ATI fan but I do know they make some powerful cards. Nvidia has been the "known good" for me and I would like to have a 6600GT or the 6800 but have to watch the cash flow. : )

    Oh yeah my old system might give ya's a heart attack.....Slot A, yep its a slot.. 800 AMD on a Gigabyte mobo. So you guys can imagine how this new system is gonna feel like a Nasa computer to me.
  • KholdKhold KY
    edited November 2004
    Just started to assemble the components, the ram is Spectec so I am still not sure of its o'clocking capabilities. On another note was having a hard time getting the proc down into the mobo. Being sure not to "force" it, I looked closely and found 1 prong to be bent slightly. Carefully straightened it out and all is good. ......so far hehe
  • KholdKhold KY
    edited November 2004
    Got it all together with the fsb set at 166 x 12.0 so its running just a bit over 2gig and it shows 2700+ instead of a 2600+. idle temp at it showed 34 C and played some Sacred and it went to 39C and thats with the Speeze fan and just 1 intake fan so far. But I played the game for about 20 minutes so I doubt it put much of a strain on the system. Using AsusProbe to monitor.
  • KholdKhold KY
    edited November 2004
    This board is running single channel and not dual, I cant find in bios anyway to change it. Any help I would appreciate.
  • lordbeanlordbean Ontario, Canada
    edited November 2004
    The motherboard's memory slots, if it supports dual channel, will have a small gap between two slots, indicating the two channels. Make sure you have a ram module in each side, and not two on the same side.
  • KholdKhold KY
    edited November 2004
    well i am disappointed now, tried different banks and still single channel. The board was advertised as a dual channel board. Anyway I set got the 2600+ showing 2800+ with 166 x 12.5. I am not familiar with O'C and alittle weary of boosting the fsb above 166 without knowing more.

    I have read that some peeps have had their a7n8x-x board go dual channel after upgrading the bios..........is that feesable, or maybe the tech installed the wrong chip?
  • KholdKhold KY
    edited November 2004
    Well no dice on bios upgrade cause this board has the current version 1010. Looks like single channel all the way for me.
  • lordbeanlordbean Ontario, Canada
    edited November 2004
    with the Athlon XP, it makes practically no difference anyway. The CPU was not designed to take advantage of the increased memory bandwidth.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited November 2004
    No but onboard devices take greater use of it. Also if you are OC'ing the extra bandwidth helps.
  • lordbeanlordbean Ontario, Canada
    edited November 2004
    unless he upgrades his video to a 6800 or X800 class card, there isn't a single device in his computer capable of even getting close to single-channel RAM speed.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited November 2004
    lordbean wrote:
    unless he upgrades his video to a 6800 or X800 class card, there isn't a single device in his computer capable of even getting close to single-channel RAM speed.


    Oh I know. Besides it's all relative anyway your computer will only function at it's slowest component.
  • yaggayagga Havn't you heard? ... New
    edited November 2004
    Well, have fun, but remember... you must fold for team icrontic! :)
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