Athlon XP system. Buying components tommorow.

[Guest]

My last chance to make sure I'm not screwing up royally

AMD XP 1700
Gigabyte GA-7VXRP KT333 mobo
Radeon 8500 (retail)
Micron PC2700 DDR RAM (512 MB)
Maxtor 40 Gig 7200 RPM HD
Hercules Gamesurround Fortissimo II Sound card
LG 52X CD-ROM (replacing Creative 52X)
Floppy
ATX 18" 300 Watt case
CD-R/RW

For the KT333 to take advantage of PC2700 RAM (and be worth it), is there overclocking involved? Or anything that is "dangerous" or will void the warranty?

Sound good? Compatable? Fast? Stable? Should spend less somewhere and more somewhere else?

Thanks!!!

 

[Matisaro]

They cant tell you overclocked if you dont unlock.


If you got a better hsf, I am positive the 1700+ could do a straight 166fsb. Which would be quite a chip.

The Cash Left In My Pocket,The BEST Benchmark

 

[Scout]

The XP 1700+ is a bit on the low speed side of these XP chips now days... Do you plan on overclocking? If so, by unlocking the chip (tricky and easy to screw up) or by FSB increases? If not, I'd go with a faster chip. Get a good cooler for your chip if you overclock.

Also, your 300 watt case, make sure it is a good brand. There are a lot of $39 300 watt cases out there I wouldn't touch with a 10 ft. pole! Get a good power supply. I like Enermax. It may save you a ton of headaches later...

The Radeon is a good card although (and I know I'll start a fight here) I like the Nvidia cards better.



Scout

 

[Guest]

What's an "hsf"? Heatsink fan?

How about this case: "Enermax Power 350W with two fans ( EG365P-VE) " Ironically, it's $60 Cdn.

I thought there wasn't a big difference between 1700+ and the higher model XP's. Once you get beyond the XP 1900, the price skyrockets. Is it really worth even the price/value option of a 1800 or 1900? I could upgrade when the "latest and greatest" AMD CPU finally hits stores (assuming my mobo can handle it).

I don't like the idea of OCing. If i'd do it, it'd be by FSB increases. What cooling would you recommend?

In order to get an Nvidia card that would match the performance of the 8500, I'd have to spend at least $100 Cdn more. I'd rather have the GF, too, because of compatability.

thanks.

EDIT: Forgot, will the integrated soundcard for the Gigabyte mobo be a problem? Still be able to put a different SC in?

thanks

 

[Scout]

Wow, that's a great price for an Enermax case... Good show! I use the Enermax 350 watt supply in my rigs and it's great!

Yes, HSF refers to heat sink and fan.

I agree, I always buy the cheaper chips that hit the sweet spot in price/performance. Plus, you have a good chance to overclock and get some performance for free. Your motherboard should be good for a while in terms of upgrades, but I suspect when Hammer arrives, we're looking at new boards.

As for cooling, Coolerguys.com has lots of good options for the Athlon XP but if you don't intend to overclock, just use the fan that comes in the retail box if you're buying retail, or I've used the Volcano5 cooler on my XP1700+ and it works just fine. In either case, remove that rubber pad on the bottom of the heat sink and use thermal paste. Also, I would not recommend going for a real high speed fan though, the noise will drive you crazy. keep it down to 4500 to 5000 RPM and that should work fine, especially with good case cooling.

My beef with the Radeon is I got a bum one and had to take it back... traded it for an Nvidia!

Scout
A fool and his money are soon parted... Man, I HATE it when that happens!

 

[ath0mps0]

I don't like the idea of OCing. If i'd do it, it'd be by FSB increases. What cooling would you recommend?

With the XP 1700+ you should be able to overclock plenty just by increasing the FSB. Just remember to keep your FSB and Memory speed the same (synchronous) and see if you can find out at what speeds the PCI/AGP ratios change.

You might get some instablility at seemingly low speeds (148MHz FSB) because the PCI and AGP are running out of spec (37MHz and 74MHz). Bumping up the FSB to over 150 (if that is where the divider is) could bring them back in line (under 33 and 66MHz) and eliminate your instability. Just find out where this divider is and start above it. You will want a 1:5 PCI ratio which would translate to a 2:5 AGP ratio if you overclock past ~145MHz FSB.

An excellent, low cost (US$13), and relatively quiet HSF is the Thermaltake 6cu. Steer clear of the 6cu+ as it is VERY loud and doesn't cool much better. There are others that cost more, but aren't really that much better. Remember to always eliminate the rubberish thermal pad that comes with the HSF and apply a very thin coat of ArticSilver II or III on the chip only - just the die, not the surrounding package and not on the HSF (~US$2 for a small tube).

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

 

[Guest]

BTW, this is mainly a gaming system (though I'll use it for other stuff, of course).

I'm not the one who is building the system (no clue), but I'll tell them about the thermal paste just to be 100% sure.

Does having the PC2700 DDR RAM fit in well with the system, regardless of whether or not I OC? I'm thinking about keeping the system as it is, and when it starts to lag behind, OCing the CPU and video card.

Do I need the retail HSF if I get the Thermaltake 6cu?

BTW, an Ethernet card for a cable modem will fit in this system, right? (I can only assume so)

thanks!

PS: Is this the right fan?: "Volcano-6Cu: for Intel S370 & AMD S462, upto 2.0ghz 5000rpm " <P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Decado on 04/06/02 02:32 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Quetzacoatl]

"Does having the PC2700 DDR RAM fit in well with the system, regardless of whether or not I OC? I'm thinking about keeping the system as it is, and when it starts to lag behind, OCing the CPU and video card."
Yeah, its probably the best of the best right now. Just make sure you can get some of the good Cl2 PC-2700. Make sure you get it from a good company as well, be it Micron, Corsair, Kingston, ect.

"Do I need the retail HSF if I get the Thermaltake 6cu?"
Your choice really. I wouldn't use the retail fan if you plan on getting a bigger one. I like the volcano series of fans. Coolmaster has some good HSFs, cheap and decent cooling.

"BTW, an Ethernet card for a cable modem will fit in this system, right? (I can only assume so)"
Yeah, you can get a PCI ethernet card for broadband



"When there's a will, there's a way."

 

[Guest]

Thanks...

...and DAMN! I think the "Enermax Power 350W with two fans ( EG365P-VE)" is just the power and fans, not the case. I really can't afford to go all out w/ the case. I was hoping any 18" case w/ a 300W power supply would be OK.

This is the Micron RAM I was looking at:
"512M DDR-PC2700: 333mhz ( new version with new routing ) $220"

You know what that last bit means ( new version with new routing )?

thanks.

 

[Quetzacoatl]

Lol, I have no clue. But that is what you want, PC-2700...good stuff

"When there's a will, there's a way."

 

[Guest]

Thanks.

How does using the Win 98SE or Win XP make a difference? Should I use less RAM if I run it on SE? Will the computer be slower if I use SE rather than XP?

thanks!

 

[ath0mps0]

For the home user WinXP is the current winner - no question, but some business users prefer Win2K. Win98 SE is too outdated for current systems, IMHO.

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

 

[chuck232]

I'd suggest not running Win2K as I am with a Radeon and the performance reeks compared to even ME. I get 2300 in 3DMark in W2K and 3200 in ME.

 

[AMD_Man]

That's very strange. What graphics card are you running. I haven't used W2K with my R8500 before but it's faster in WinXP than WinMe and 98SE. And yes, they're all legal. I buy every single new version of Windows once it arrives.

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the <b>ULTIMATE</b> PC processor

 

[Quetzacoatl]

-I get 2300 in 3DMark in W2K and 3200 in ME.
Really? I got a higher score in 3D Mark with my Ahtlon T-bird in 2k Pro than Me. An even higher increase was from 98se to 2K pro. I think you might just have a glitch with the Radeon in 2K, unless you got a crappy software package or something...old drivers...could be lots of things...driver incompatabilites. Especially if you have the Radeon7200 or before...they aren't exactly top of the line.

"When there's a will, there's a way."

 

[Quetzacoatl]

I wouldn't use XP...it has some problems, a little memory intensive, and microsoft plans on releasing an XPse later on this year. I like windows 2000 Pro a lot. Fast and doesn't require too much ram. I would not use 98se, it will be noticeably slower than XP. If you do use 98se, it only can detect 192MB of ram, so keep that in mind. The later windows (2000, Me, and XP) have fixed that problem.

"When there's a will, there's a way."

 

[xxsk8er101xx]

For a case check out the Antec SX1040B (B is for black, they have beige too) w/ a 400watt PSU is about 130. You won't regret getting it. Well worth the money.

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=9933" target="_new"> My Rig </A>

 

[xxsk8er101xx]

oh and another thing, why not get the pioneer 16x dvd player? or the plextor 16x dvd player .. the plextor cdrw also. the plextor is a very good writer and the pioneer dvd is really good also...

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=9933" target="_new"> My Rig </A>

 

[chuck232]

I have a Radeon AIW (I really regretted buying it cause a week later R8500 came out. Then I wasn't into tech stuff, but to avoid that from happening again, I did a lot of reading on tech.) and I have version 6043 drivers for Win2K and 9017 or something for WinME. By the way AMD_Man I went to Rage3D for those drivers and I got quite a performance increase. THanks a lot!!