New System! Yeah

[xazos79]

Finally i've ordered my new system and i'm getting it this Monday night! For the Aussie lads out there...(and those USA folk who can divide by 2) here's what i got....
Athlon XP 1600 - $273
EPox 8KHA+ KT266A - $218
512mb DDR PC2100 - $149
MidiTower - $46
Geforce2 MX-400 - $129
Pioneer 16x DVD - $122
AcerKBoard & Optical Mouse - $45

These are Australian prices....

 

[lhgpoobaa]

A few questions (as always)

a. what brand ram... and is it rated for Cas2.
b. what brand case & psu (please dont say omni or codegen)
c. i really would suggest a more powerful graphics card... unless of course your not going to do any 3d work or games. geforce2gts,pro or radeon reccommended (or better)
d. cpu cooler?
e. soundcard?


Is that a Northwoody in your pocket or are you just eXPited to see me?

 

[xazos79]

a. Hmm, Kingston i think. Dunno about Cas2. I've only heard of it and don't know what it is either.
b. Don't know either of those except that its 300W
c. I was planning to get that down the track, as i was trying to save as much money as possible. At least this way, i can wack the mx-400 in my k62-300 when i get another card in 6months time.
d. Don't know, it cost $20 from the dude whose putting my system together. The real world price would be around $30-$40. So anything that can be bought in that price range.
e. Using the onboard sound of the Epox Mother board. I'm not a musician so i don't need anything more than that really.

 

[xazos79]

Just found out the memory question. Its cas2.5

 

[lhgpoobaa]

kingston is a good brand. should be able to do cas2.

hmmm. well good luck with that 300W PSU...
it should work.. (emphasis on the should)
the main problem is even amongst generic psu's there is quite a diverse range, from decent to "i wouldnt use this to power a 486!"
when u get it, open it up and tell me:

A. the brand
B. the max Amp's for the 3.3v, 5v and 12v lines.

then i can compare it to what i know... see how good yours is.
(ive had plenty of experince with dodgey psu's now.)

interesting idea for the graphics card. dont expect much from 3d games with it on your new beast though.

hmmms again on the cooler. hope the guy your getting it from doesnt stiff you with a crap one.

Is that a Northwoody in your pocket or are you just eXPited to see me?

 

[xazos79]

Hmm should work huh, I thought a 300W power supply was ample for a 1.4gig processor. I'm not overclocking BTW.

He's a workmates friend so i've been assured he knows what he's doing. I'm getting it monday night so rest assured i'll check those figures out and send them to this post so you can let me know if i've bought a piece of crap. What are the symptoms of a dodgey PSU?

My cousin seems to run Quake2 reasonably well on his P3 500 with a TNT graphics card. So i'm assuming i'll be able to run Quake3, Black & White, Warcraft 3 fine on my system for now. I will upgrade it though, sometime next year.

 

[lhgpoobaa]

well i have had 2 prime examples.

1. ME. has an OMNI case, with generic OMNI 300W psu. while it didnt die, it most definately would have during the heat of summer. i just wouldnt let me overclock beyond 1386mhz (or use 1.85v or greater). since i have replaced the omni with a enermax unit. wonderful difference.
much more stable.

2. sisters Fiance' got a athlon 1.4 with a CODEGEN 350W psu (one would think 350W would be quite sufficient would you?)
basically myself and him tried vainly to problem solve the computer for one month. then one day a smokey smell came out the computer and it wouldnt start anymore. we got a 250W temp replacement and found that, yes, the 350W psu burnt itself out. and nothing was overclocked.
after he saw the sucess i had with my enermax he got one too, and since installing it the number of crashes has reduced 98%. when it does crash its usually a driver problem now.

SO:
symptoms of a poor psu include:
random yet reoccuring lockups and spontaneous reboots, particularly when the cpu and/or graphics card are being utilised eg games.
lockups unable to be cured via any method.
symptoms of INSUFFICENT power are:
low value for 5v line in system monitoring programs. (mine was 4.89v for 1200, but only 4.76v for 1350mhz)
voltage drops in system monitoring programs when the cpu goes from idle to full load (especially the 5v line, mine got down to 4.71v at times. not good)
likewise fan speeds also drop... in my case the HSF fan speed fell so much i could hear the change in pitch!
physical heat output of the PSU. i.e. the 300W omni was pumping out buckets of heat as it was running at full throttle. the replacment enermax merly puts out luke warm air, and it also takes extra air away from the cpu area.

enough detail for ya?

Is that a Northwoody in your pocket or are you just eXPited to see me?

 

[xazos79]

Definitely enough detail. Those figures you asked of me before. Could you post your's up and then tell me what range mine should be in for the PSU to be suitable?

 

[lhgpoobaa]

sure. did it a little while back.
did a mini PSU review.
u can find it here:
<A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=faq&notfound=1&code=1" target="_new">http://forumz.tomshardware.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=faq&notfound=1&code=1</A>



Is that a Northwoody in your pocket or are you just eXPited to see me?

 

[Matisaro]

Nice compy, the vid card is a tad underpowered but it should play any game out today. You can always get that gf3 ti 500 later on ;-)

~Matisaro~
"The Cash Left In My Pocket,The BEST Benchmark"
~Tbird1.3@1.5~

 

[xazos79]

Yeah, that's definitely the idea at the moment.

 

[xazos79]

Ok i've got the info off of my psu....
Brand = MCM
Max Amps for 3.3v, 5v, 12v
7A , 14A, 6A

Have no idea what this means, but i'm sure you'll be telling me soon!

 

[lhgpoobaa]

whoaaaaa

congradulations buddy...
i think you have got the saddest 300W psu ive ever seen! (assuming its a 300W unit... think u said it was)
those current ratings are really abysmal...

those numbers refer to how many amps of current the psu can reliably supply at each voltage... higher is ALWAYS better as modern PC's are hungry beasts, especially the graphics card and the cpu.

taking the values from my PSU mini-survey we have

YOURS:
7A, 14A, 6A
OMNI 300W
16A, 30A, 9A
and the best u can buy @ 300W:
Enermax 300W
28A, 30A, 15A

very telling numbers arnt they?
enermax CAN supply 4 times the current at 3.3v, over 2x at 5v and over 2x at 12v.

however... your PSU may well work... i just would NOT want to try it on an athlon 1.4.

OEMs selling "High End"PCs with integrated video will be forced into Q3tournaments using a TNT2M64!

 

[xazos79]

Yay, sounds fantastic Is there any chance those numbers are the minimum Amps that the PSU can reliably supply? I've been running my system and it seems fine though. The PSU doesn't get much past warm. The air it blows out the back is relatively cool. I haven't experienced any of those PSU induced problems you listed. What damage could it do if it can't sustain the required amount of Amps?

 

[lhgpoobaa]

its possible...
they are very low...
*shrug*
well im glad its working for u

as for damage... thats a bit harder to pin down
general instability, lots of crashes...

i believe my omni played some part in frying my motherboard...

so when your cpu goes from idle to full load you dont witness and fan slowdowns or voltage dips with your monitoring software?
hope not

OEMs selling "High End"PCs with integrated video will be forced into Q3tournaments using a TNT2M64!

 

[xazos79]

Here's the part where you tell me the name of the monitoring software and where to get it

 

[lhgpoobaa]

well there are a few, but the one us tech-heads seem to use the most is Motherboard Monitor... version 5.1 i believe.
<A HREF="http://mbm.livewiredev.com" target="_new">http://mbm.livewiredev.com</A>
if u dont like it there are others.
but u will have to use the mystical search engine

p.s. i love the way u can have temps in your task bar

OEMs selling "High End"PCs with integrated video will be forced into Q3tournaments using a TNT2M64!