I am building two computers at once...

JustinJustin Atlanta
edited February 2004 in Hardware
OK, here are the specs:

Computer 1:

Asus SK8N mobo
Athlon 64 FX-51
Corsair XMS Reg PC3200
Two Seagate HD SATA (I want to put them in a RAID-0)
BFG 5950 Ultra Vid Card
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Zs
Other random cards (LAN, Modem, ect...)

This is going in a Diabolic "Minotaur" case and I am wondering if Anyone anticipates me running into any snags as far as compatibility goes. How bout the compionents themselves? Any issues anyone can share with me before I proceed?

Computer 2:

Abit NF-7s Mobo
Barton 2500
Kingston 512Mb 2100
160Gb Seagate
Jaton GeForce 5200 ( I know, I know :shakehead ...)
This is all going into an Aspire X- Dreamer II with tons of fans (6 total). I really want to OC this system but I know next to nothing about that. Again, does anybody see any problems with these setups or potential pitfalls from personal experience? I need opinions here people!!!

Comments

  • FlintstoneFlintstone SE Florida
    edited February 2004
    Just from what I've read, I would say the NF7-S needs faster ram if you want to oc it. say, 3200 or 3500 at least.

    Good Luck,
    Flint
  • JustinJustin Atlanta
    edited February 2004
    Bumping to 3500 or maybe 4000 would be fine, does that make sense in that board? Which would be better? Any other issues? How about system 1?
  • croc_croc_ New
    edited February 2004
    Justin wrote:
    Bumping to 3500 or maybe 4000 would be fine, does that make sense in that board? Which would be better? Any other issues? How about system 1?

    3500 would be your best bet (tighter timings on 3500, corsair XMS and Kingston HyperX work well, also Mushkin lvl II).

    System 1 looks ok to me, but apparently Seagate SATA drives don't raid very well, might want to get Western Digital, Maxtor or Hitachi.

    How much is that FX5200 (saw one on newegg for 70$)? They are REALLY bad. You can get a Radeon 9600 for $99. I am pretty sure the regular 9600 128mb will outperform the FX5200 by ALOT. Even an FX5600 would be alot better. Hell if you are getting that low-end of a card, might as well get a GF4 4200, it will outperfom the FX5200. Yeah the 5200 has DX9 support, but any game that supports DX9 will run like crapola on that 5200. Basically you should stay away from the FX5200 at all costs. I think most people here will agree. :P
  • JustinJustin Atlanta
    edited February 2004
    Got it for a PCI only machine a few months ago. The second build is mostly a frankenstein machine from left over parts of units that did not sell from my somewhat failed www.powertowerz.com experiment. This is going to be a build up system over time anyhow. How about that overclocking? I am reading http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?p=103962#post103962 for some insight but not finding many answers there either. What kind of issues are you talking about with the seagates?
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited February 2004
    Dump the 2100 on the barton system and get some Corsair XMS PC3200-LL or Mushkin PC3500 Level II or similar RAM. Do NOT go higher than PC3500, as the timings get real crappy real fast, and look for ram that has a cas latency of 2.5 at MOST, preferably 2.

    Also, why the GeForceFX 5200?
  • croc_croc_ New
    edited February 2004
    Justin wrote:
    Got it for a PCI only machine a few months ago. The second build is mostly a frankenstein machine from left over parts of units that did not sell from my somewhat failed www.powertowerz.com experiment. This is going to be a build up system over time anyhow. How about that overclocking? I am reading http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?p=103962#post103962 for some insight but not finding many answers there either. What kind of issues are you talking about with the seagates?

    Oh I see. Tex (I think it was Tex) said in a previous thread that the Seagates are just fine for single drives, but in a raid configuration they don't run up to par compared to the other brands.

    First think you want to do it change out the ram (see geekys post), then ditch that video card. Overclocking locked CPU's is easy, you just up the FSB untill you are unstable, pretty much. With a 2500+ you can expect to get 2300mhz out of that @ around 1.8vcore (correct me if I am wrong please). An easy overclock with the locked 2500+ is to up your FSB to 200. Thats all you have to do, don't need to change anything with voltages. That will give you 3200+ speeds at no extra cost.

    Overclocking with unlocked chips gets more complicated though. You might want to search the Overclocking Forum for more info, there should be plenty of threads to read through about it.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited February 2004
    Oh, one other thing- that minotaur case is OK, but I don't like the fact that it has no hard drive cooling. That worries me a great deal, actually.
  • JustinJustin Atlanta
    edited February 2004
    For the OC, in the BIOS, just change it to 3200 or find the 100 and up it to two? What can be done for that minotuar case anyway?
  • JustinJustin Atlanta
    edited February 2004
    A few things with the Abit/ Barton case: From the front panel, there are two cables running from the USB/ MIC/ HEadphones box on the front bezel through the chasis. What is strange is that the headphone and Mic cables end in headphone like jacks... Where do these go? Seems really strange to me but maybe you all know. Also, there is a thermometer monitor in there. I have it levitating between the CPU and the RAM right now. Should I bury it in the heatsink, leave it where it is, or what? Not currently OC'd but I will be getting the RAM upgrade to support that idea. would it be OK to turn it up to 3200 for now or should I wait? BTW, Geeky, Loads of fans keeping stable temp at 80 degrees F. Runs cooler with the AC on though... :cool:
  • FlintstoneFlintstone SE Florida
    edited February 2004
    The cables with the "headphone like" plugs on them should plug into the respective jacks on the back end of the motherboard, accessible from the outside of the case. Run them out of an empty PCI slotor the like and you should be good to go. Of course there's really nothing that says you must use them, it's up to you.

    Good Luck,
    Flint :cool:
  • loxwoodloxwood
    edited February 2004
    For the first system I would pick the SK8V over the SK8N. They are the same price but the VIA K8T800 Chipset is faster than the nForce 3 Pro 150.

    oops, forgot links, these compare the two:
    http://www.hothardware.com/hh_files/Motherboards/asus_sk8v.shtml
    http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=11458
    http://www.amdzone.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1363
    http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/asusmobo/index.htm
  • JustinJustin Atlanta
    edited February 2004
    That system's issues are being tracked in the "Are Flames Bad?" thread. I am having to go with a gigabyte board now... I'm sure you get the idea from the title of the thread.
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