A few questions about Athlon XP

[MadMechwarrior]

I am going to be buying my upgrade sometime next week, maybe easter (Athlon XP 1800+, maybe 1900+ if price drops with new 2100+, 512MB DDR, Geforce 4 ti4400, MSI K7T266 Pro2). I know the Athlon XPs run fast and hot and I was wondering how the retail fan did in terms of performance. I dont plan on doing any overclocking or anything but my case isnt ventilated that well. Another thing is that my current power supply is only 230W 5A. I know this probably wont be enough (unless I hear otherwise) so I think im gonna buy a 300W PS with 15A. I was wondering if this would be enough or if I would still need more power.

Thanks for your help

MadMechwarrior

 

[Cstew77]

I would up the power a little 350 min. Enermax makes a really good one - and has a variable fan speed controller.

As for the heatsink, I WOULD NOT TRUST THE RETAIL HSF!!! I did once. Quickest way to toast a perfectly good proc. Tom put out a really good article a while back that outlines a few good hsf's. The ultimate beast is the Swiftech 462 - bolts right to the mobo. Loud as a jet engine. There's a couple of others that aren't nearly as loud. Do a search for "coolers". You should find it.

I hope that helps...

 

[xazos79]

Dude, definitely get another powersupply.

As for cooling, i've got a CoolerMaster HSF and no case fans. My temp max's out at 49c. If i had a case fan i'm sure this would drop a couple of degrees. My CoolerMaster cost me $10 US so it was well worth it.

 

[MadMechwarrior]

The PS I was gonna get was from enermax... Dual Fan, i'll check out the 350W one but im kind of on a tight budget. About Swiftech... I saw there fan at the place im buying for like 100$ CND which is way more im willing to pay for a fan and I would prefer a fan that isnt to loud cuz I usualy sleep with comp on... What about the Dragon Orb 3 or the Volcano 7... any comments on those?

 

[kief]

The retail hsf is just fine if your not overclocking, plus the retail chip gives you a warranty!

The power supply is on the weak side, I am running a 300 watt on a tbird 1400 with 4x10k rpm drives, 2x7200 rpm drives, burner, dvd, and several cards (including a raid card with its own CPU and memory onboard) and its fine. In theory you could get away with your current supply but if you can afford it get a 3 or 400 watt.

Jesus saves, but Mario scores!!!

 

[MadMechwarrior]

Hmm... Warrentee would be good. I think i'll stick with retail.

The power supply is on the weak side, I am running a 300 watt on a tbird 1400 with 4x10k rpm drives, 2x7200 rpm drives, burner, dvd, and several cards (including a raid card with its own CPU and memory onboard) and its fine. In theory you could get away with your current supply but if you can afford it get a 3 or 400 watt

Im confused, you say its on the weak side then you say it runs fine... Please clearify that and what your system has is nowhere close to what I have... I only have 1x7200rpm 1 CD-ROM 1 CD-RW and not very many add-on cards (maybe a modem, ethernet and sound card). Anyway im still confused about what you said.

 

[ath0mps0]

230W is a little low for an Athlon Proc. I have gotten away with it on a Duron system and 250W on an AXP - both systems were 1 HD; 1 DVD; 1 Floppy; 1 stick of RAM; 1AGP; 1 PCI card. 300W is the minimum I would recommend for a system with more than one HD or CD/DVD.

My production system has a high quality 300W and I never see problems - 2 HD/RAID; 2 DVD/CD; 1 AGP and 4 PCI. To be on the safe side you could go higher, but 300W should be OK.

I thought a thought, but the thought I thought wasn't the thought I thought I had thought.

 

[Kelledin]

The retail HSF on Athlons is OK if you don't overclock. As far as your current case ventilation, you definitely need a fan in the lower front of the case. Having a fan in the rear would be a good idea as well.

300W should be enough if you go for a name-brand power supply (i.e. Enermax or Antec). If you have a lot of devices besides the standard complement (like three hard drives, two CDROM-type drives, etc., you might want to go with 350W anyways.

<i>If a server crashes in a server farm and no one pings it, does it still cost four figures to fix?

 

[Matisaro]

would up the power a little 350 min. Enermax makes a really good one - and has a variable fan speed controller.

As for the heatsink, I WOULD NOT TRUST THE RETAIL HSF!!! I did once. Quickest way to toast a perfectly good proc. Tom put out a really good article a while back that outlines a few good hsf's. The ultimate beast is the Swiftech 462 - bolts right to the mobo. Loud as a jet engine. There's a couple of others that aren't nearly as loud. Do a search for "coolers". You should find it.

I hope that helps...

The retail hsf is perfectly good, the only way it would toast a cpu is if the user was an idiot and applied it wrong.

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No Overclock+stock hsf=GOOD!

 

[MadMechwarrior]

As far as your current case ventilation, you definitely need a fan in the lower front of the case. Having a fan in the rear would be a good idea as well.

All I have in lower front of my case are a bunch of little holes and in the back there is no fan (only holes). Would this cause a problem for my Athlon/Geforce4. The Enermax power supplies have fans that take air from the CPU section and spit it out the back... would this help or do I still need a case fan. I dont wanna toast CPU!

 

[MadMechwarrior]

As far as your current case ventilation, you definitely need a fan in the lower front of the case. Having a fan in the rear would be a good idea as well.

All I have in lower front of my case are a bunch of little holes and in the back there is no fan (only holes, well atleast I think its hole... might have a fan behind them. Not sure). Would this cause a problem for my Athlon/Geforce4. The Enermax power supplies have fans that take air from the CPU section and spit it out the back... would this help or do I still need a case fan. I dont wanna toast CPU!

 

[FatBurger]

No, your CPU won't fry. But cooler components are always better. Try getting a fan in the front to pull in air. You can get one of those 5.25" fan bays if you don't have any other spots for one.

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[camieabz]

I was led to believe by a local retailer (who tends to chat to me rather than sell to me) that if you don't plan to overclock, the standard HSF is fine.

He tends to supply OEM chips with Coolermaster HSF, and he says there are two HSF available for the XP1800+ from Coolermaster. The first is rated up to XP1800+. The other is rated from the XP1800+.

Perhaps something to look out for if you go that CPU.

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[MadMechwarrior]

I can get a Coolermaster DP5-6131C (up to Athlon XP 1900+) for 20$. The Athlon XP 1800+ probably comes with a cheaper fan because there is only a 15-20$ difference between OEM and Retail but the 1900+ has a 65$ difference so it must come with a better fan. I want to get retail for the warrenty incase anything ever brakes and I MIGHT overclock sometime in the distant future when I need the extra power... say in 2 years. Im not sure what to do.