A64 Revisited!

[ChipDeath]

Well, I'm a bit bored, and just got a decent pay rise, so I (finally) decided to buy another stick of Crucial Ballistix so I can get something approaching a 1:1 ratio, and dual channel working.

Current Rig:
A64 Winchester 3200+
Epox 9NDA3J (Nforce3)
1x512Mb Crucial Ballistix PC4000
1x512Mb Corsair XMS PC4000
Asus 6800GT 128Mb

currently CPU at 2.5Ghz (250x10), but those two sticks refuse to play nicely at anything over about 209Mhz, with single channel, 2T command rate and crappy timings.

So the plan is to swap the corsair stick for my newly acquired Crucial ballistix one, and hopefully get everything going in dual channel, 1:1, 1T, and half-decent timings.

I'll probably e-bay the corsair stick. I have a few other bits I still need to get rid of too - if I make sure the word 'Ultra' is big and bold when I place the e-bay advert for my old Geforce2 Ultra, do you think I'm more likely to get some fool paying lots for it?

Well, any suggestions, tips or insults welcome

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<font color=red>"Life is <i>not</i> like a box of chocolates. It's more like a jar of jalapeńos - what you do today might burn your a<b></b>ss tommorrow."

 

[mozzartusm]

This is about the best time you could have chosen to get RAM. My DDR2 would cost me $80.00 less today for 512MB than it did 4 or 5 months ago.

Intel P4 550(3.4)@<font color=green>5Ghz</font color=green>
Asus P5AD2-E-Premium
Crucial Ballistix DDR2 667@<font color=red>DDR2 800<font color=red> DDR2 855 using 3.73EE<font color=red>
TT 680W PSU

 

[ChipDeath]

Buying that stick of Corsair XMS PC4000 is thee biggest mistake you've made for sure.

Yup. I'd never really bothered looking into the RAM side of things that closely then (in fact I still don't, really... :redface: )

Ironically enough, I actually bought it with a future A64 upgrade in mind...(when I had my AXP rig)

Gee, I wonder how much that GF2 Ultra costed you when you bought it?

I <i>think</i> it was about £250... :frown: I'll be lucky to get 10% of that now of course... Well, sh!t happens

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<font color=red>"Life is <i>not</i> like a box of chocolates. It's more like a jar of jalapeńos - what you do today might burn your a<b></b>ss tommorrow."

 

[ChipDeath]

Forgot to say - Need the rig up and happy for now, and going out this evening, so the RAM will probably go in tommorrow.

Wusy, that post you made about the 'nuclear' BIOS clear button inspired me, so I've salvaged a 3-pin power LED molex connector from an old case, added a middle wire to it & plan to wire up a toggle switch so I can have an easier CMOS reset while fiddling...

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<font color=red>"Life is <i>not</i> like a box of chocolates. It's more like a jar of jalapeńos - what you do today might burn your a<b></b>ss tommorrow."

 

[ChipDeath]

Well, RAM is installed, now running at 1:1, 1T, 2.5-5-5-10, in dual channel... sweet ..

An amusing story to relate about when I fitted it, but for now I'll leave this running Sandra & Prime while I go watch a movie...

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<font color=red>"Life is <i>not</i> like a box of chocolates. It's more like a jar of jalapeńos - what you do today might burn your a<b></b>ss tommorrow."

 

[scottchen]

You b@stards and your high Vdimm's. I think right now it's the best time to buy generic crap, the latest Samsung 512mb DDR400 is only 31CDN per stick in 500 quantities

 

[scottchen]

e-penis, i guess that's the only type of penis you got.

 

[ChipDeath]

Mobo doesn't appear to offer above 2.8V :frown: ... Still, not too bothered. It's supposed to be rated for 2.5-4-4-10 at '2.8V +/- .2V' so I'll have a play with the timings when I'm happy it's stable at current settings.

Here's a funny story for ya...

In order to fit the RAM, I had to Remove my XP-120 (as it completely overhangs 2 mem slots), which entailed removing my 6800GT, so I basically had to remove everything... When I re-installed everything, pressed the power button and.... The rig starts pouring out loads of smoke! AAARGH! panicpanicpanicpanicPullOutThePowerPlug....

A couple of minutes of investigation revealed I'd forgotten to plug one of the fans back in (it was connected via a Standard molex - > 3 pin fan adapter thing), so the connector it was supposed to be plugged into was just loose inside the case, and was shorting out against the case. The thinner-gauge wire for the 3-pin plug suddenly had <i>far</i> too much current going through it, and happily got too hot & started burning through it's insulation...

I removed the (now somewhat melted) offending adapter and the rest of the rig's fine... Lucky escape eh? :lol: ..

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<font color=red>"Life is <i>not</i> like a box of chocolates. It's more like a jar of jalapeńos - what you do today might burn your a<b></b>ss tommorrow."

 

[scottchen]

I've had a similar panic recently when a spark came out of my computer, and it smelled horrible too, and yes there was smoke. Turned out it was my fan controller, 1 of the channels blew.

 

[scottchen]

No 4x120mm fans actually, i don't use tornados anymore.

 

[scottchen]

It was a Coolermaster Aerogate 3.