Building My PC II - Step II

**Gordon Moore** · 29 May 2003, 12:30 Thursday

Cool I get to reply first...

Eduardo, Nice packge you're putting together :T

About the HSF. The one that comes with the retail package is perfectly fine. Upgrade if you are going to O/C. Also, no matter what you do, keep the HSF that came with the retail box because it is part of the warranty. AMD will not look at your chip if you no longer have the original HSF that came in the box. It's all part and parcel.

Uprgade now or later...up to you...see how the retail box package works for you. Fans and heatsinks don't suffer price drops like other components.

Why upgrade the HSF? Well sound may be a big factor. The one they give you is a screamer and you can go to something bigger (80-92mm) throw a tornado fan on there and wind it down with a fan bus (rheostat...the little knob that controls voltage to the fan.)..less voltage=slower speed=quieter=a little more heat (maybe, depends on the heatsink,copper is alot more heat conducive than aluminum).

Or if you are doing an HTPC than a bigger heatsink and a stealth 80 or 92 mm or a Panaflow would do nicely. There are options from Zalman as well that will work quietly.

Thermalright, Alpha, Zalman are good quality aftermarkets and I highly recommend any of them, personally the thermalright.

Memory I'd say go Crucial but I think you could quite literally toss a coin with your choice. Seems people are pretty partial to Crucial these days. Less complaints.

What ya doing for video...rehash from an old system. Also on that case...find out who makes the power supply. Your 400W may be a el'cheapo powersupply and with that I'd say be careful. It is the heart of you system and you can kiss those new components goodbye if your powersupply starts acting up. Maany people cheap out on the power supply and blame alot of system problems on memory when it is in fact poor voltages supplying the board. (bad 12 volt or 3.3). If you can get a case with a quality supply from say Enermax or Antec you would be better off. Not trying to scare you or discourage your purchase...just my $0.02 YMMV.

Just so you know, Almunium cases do not = cooler. Bigger cases or cases with more fans than the other guy or cases with better airflow = cooler. Aluminum case are cooler... is a myth. Lighter yes. Cooler (temp wise), no.

Cool 8) (like Fonzie cool)...you betcha!

Keep us posted!

Gord

"A RONSTER!"

**Bing Fung** · 29 May 2003, 14:21 Thursday

Hey EJ, good to hear it's coming together... 8)

The Barton 2500 is a great bang for buck right now, and you couldn't do better than that unless you wanted to spend more. Like Gordon stated the original fan heatsink will be fine for the inital stage unless you plan to OC. Even then you may be able to get away with the original HSF depending on how much you wanted to overclock. Mildly (say 50Mhz) you'll be OK. Aggressive (75-100MHz) you should lthen ook at replacing the HSF. As for the noise of the Retail fan, I can't say for the 2500 Barton, however my 2800 Barton's fan is relativly quiet when i tested it. Nothing like the retail fan that came with my 2100XP, that was a screamer!

Either choice will be fine for the memory, your call.. I would probably go with the Crucial, just because I have had positive dealings with them.

Nice mother board, ask at time of order if it is a Revison 2. The revision 2 boards have a updated Northbridge that suports 400Mhz FSB CPU's natively. The Older Rev 1.2, 1.4, 1.6 boards will now support 400MHz FSB with an updated BIOS, however if you visits Asus's site they do separate the Rev 2 board from the rest of the revisions with a different BIOS. I would tend to request the Rev 2 if possible.

I see you have not mentioned a sound card which is fine, the sound from the Nforce onboard chip is very nice indeed. I actually think it sounds a bit clearer than my SBLive Platium 5.1 card, so much so that I removed the SBLive card from my setup

Nice choice of case, I think you'll like it very much, as it will provide plenty of room to upgrade and is known as a very good flowing case. I will have to disagree with Gordon on the comment that alumimum cases are not cooler (temperature). Agreed that the design and flow characteristics of a case will determine to a larger extent of how cool (temperture) the case will be rather than construction materials, however all things being equal, Aluminum has a higher co-effecient of thermal transfer than carbon steel, so it could have a lower operation temperature... Will it be huge or measureable? Probably not given the accuracy or tolerance of the thermometer used, however an aluminum case does possess the ability to transfer and dissapate the heat better than steel, all things equal. This is not based on empirical data rather my gut instinct. I do notice the aluminum Hard drive cages holding my hard drives are very warm as is the aluminum around that area, so I would say there are some marginal benifits of aluminum over regular steel

as it can act like a big heat sink for the rest of your components.

Anyway, that is a very nice case and in Ferrari Red, it will truely stand out. You will have to put it up against Trev's Blue zone in a beauty contest

Bing

**Eduardo** · 29 May 2003, 14:30 Thursday

Gordon - as always thank you for the quick response. Thanks for the heads up about warranty and HS+F

The computer is mainly going to be for web browsing, cd burning, (simple) photo editing, (simple) web design and . Future use could be fo HTPC. The plan is for this machine to last me for sometime. The Video card will inititially be pulled from my current system. I would love to get some recommendations on a good video card but as always cost is an issue.

I chose that case becuase of this thread:

Oops! We ran into some problems.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=40&threadid=1005394&highlight_key=y&keyword1=chieftec

But I can get the case with out the PSU and get an Antec True Power 430W

Keep the suggestions coming.

http://home.nc.rr.com/ejimenez

**Eduardo** · 29 May 2003, 14:30 Thursday

to many clicks :evil:

http://home.nc.rr.com/ejimenez

**Eduardo** · 29 May 2003, 14:30 Thursday

Bing - Thanks for your input too. 8)

Nice mother board, ask at time of order if it is a Revison 2. The revision 2 boards have a updated Northbridge that suports 400Mhz FSB CPU's natively. The Older Rev 1.2, 1.4, 1.6 boards will now support 400MHz FSB with an updated BIOS, however if you visits Asus's site they do separate the Rev 2 board from the rest of the revisions with a different BIOS. I would tend to request the Rev 2 if possible.

I was going to do an internet order but probably call it in and see if it is possible to get a Rev. 2.

http://home.nc.rr.com/ejimenez

**Bing Fung** · 29 May 2003, 18:23 Thursday

You stand a very good chance of getting a Rev 2 board as I suspect Newegg draws from a warehouse that has quick inventory turns. however it's best to be sure.

They may not be able to guarantee a Rev2.0, however at least they may be able to tell you something, or you could state you wan terms of refund if you do get a Rev 1.4/1.6 Getting a Rev 1.4/1.6 will not be the end of the world, but if you buying new, may as well try to get new. For the record mine is a Rev 1.4

Budget Graphics card that kicks booty, I would recommend the Radeon 9500, 9500Pro or if you can get a Geforce 5500.

Bing

**Eduardo** · 30 May 2003, 15:45 Friday

Does Newegg.com accept phone, fax, email or regular mail orders?
All ordering, price quotes, stock status, and shipping quotes are done directly online, no exceptions. We do not accept phone, fax or e-mail, orders or quotes. All pricing quotes on products and shipping are available on the website only.

Unfortunately - you get what you get but like you said it should make no difference.

I'm about to jump ..........

http://home.nc.rr.com/ejimenez

**Trevor Schell** · 01 June 2003, 02:02 Sunday

Nice configuration!.
With the falling prices of Processors you could likely upgrade that
immediately before buying.
The Barton 3000+ is a bargain right now, due to the release of the 3200+

I picked up the 2500+ at release time and paid $329 CDN for it , which was a couple of months ago.
Now , you can get it for $149 cDN...
The 2800+ can be had for $269 CDN,,:E

Trevor
My HomeTheater S.E.
Sonically Enhanced
C5

**Jeff Kowerchuk** · 01 June 2003, 03:50 Sunday

Hey Eduardo, you don't need a power supply do you? I've got a sweet Enermax that has never been used and needs to find a nice home.

**Eduardo** · 02 June 2003, 11:03 Monday

Ok here is the final config. Haven't bought it yet but probably will by the end of the day.

CHIEFTEC Server Chasis (Aluminum Workstation Tower with Plastic Front Cover) Blue w/acrylic window - 450Watt Foxconn Power Supply **Now with 2 x Front USB2.0 and 1 x Firewire IEEE1394 ports**
Specifications:
Material:Aluminum/Plastic
Form Factor:ATX
Bays:4 x 5.25", 2 x 3.5"
Expansion Slots:7
Fans:2 Rear Mounted Fans
Power Supply:450W AMD approved Power Supply, Powered by Foxconn (Austin)
Dimensions:473 x 205 x 522 mm (D x W x H) Weights Only 18LBs! $89.00

Memory (System Memory)
CORSAIR MEMORY XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series 512MB 32MX8 PC-3200C2 With Heat Spreader
Specifications:
Speed 400MHz
Organization 32MX8
CAS Latency 2-3-3-6-T1
Memory type DDR
Part number: CMX512-3200C2
$95.20
Motherboards - AMD
►On Sale!
Asus Motherboard for AMD Athlon/XP/Duron Processors, Model# A7N8X Deluxe Retail
Socket A AMD Athlon/XP/Duron (support AMD XP3000 "Barton")
Chipset: NVIDIA nForce2 SPP, nForce2 MCP-T
FSB: 400/333/266MHz
IDE: 2 x ATA133
RAM: 3x 184-pin DIMM Sockets (PC3200/PC2700/PC2100 non-ECC DDR)
Slots: 1x AGP (Pro/8X), 5x PCI
Ports: 6x USB2.0
Onboard Silicon Image Sil 3112A Controller w/ 2 ports
NVIDIA SoundStorm Audio Processor Unit with Dolby
MCP integrated 3Com MAC + Broadcom AC101L PHY LAN
Firewire 1394: 2 Ports MCP-T integrated IEEE 1394a + Realtek PHY 8801B
more info>
N82E16813131436 $126.99
$126.99
Processors
►On Sale!
AMD ATHLON XP 2500 "Barton" 333 FSB PROCESSOR CPU- RETAIL
Specifications:
CPU: 1.83 GHz
Type: XP 2500 Barton Core
Cache: 512K L2, 128K L1, Total 640KB
BUS: 333MHz
Socket A
Retail Box (Heatsink and Fan included)
more info>
N82E16819103379 $98.00
$98.00

Video card will be used from current system only for a short while.

Jeff - how much power does the PSU have?

http://home.nc.rr.com/ejimenez

**Jeff Kowerchuk** · 02 June 2003, 13:10 Monday

Eduardo:

Its a 350W Enermax.

**Eduardo** · 02 June 2003, 13:22 Monday

Do you think that will be sufficient power, if I decide to try OCing?

You have mail too.

http://home.nc.rr.com/ejimenez

**Jeff Kowerchuk** · 02 June 2003, 13:54 Monday

Bing is the expert to consult on that point. I think it will be ok, depending on how many drives you have. If you've got a whole raft of HDDs and ROMs, it might not be.

Friend of mine uses a 350W on his AMD, along with an HDD, DVD, CD-RW drive, overclocked, and no issues.

**Bing Fung** · 02 June 2003, 14:10 Monday

Eduardo, my inital gut instinct is that it would work, I say this beacuse I have ran a RAID array and an Althon (T-Bird) on a generic 250 W power supply, The Enermax 341W is a quality supply that would be suffient. You may want to check to see if your case comes with a power supply, as I suspect it may. Added* Just checked your link, it does come with a 400W PS (Sorry Jeff...)

You could determine how much power you going to need if you added up the current draw for every component in the PC, however you'll need specific specifications for each device, card, drive... If you want we can calculate that.

Bing

**Eduardo** · 02 June 2003, 15:08 Monday

Ok here is a recap.

Mobo - Asus
CPU - Barton 2500
Memory - CORSAIR MEMORY XMS 512MB 32MX8 PC-3200C2 With Heat Spreader

Case - Blue but the inside will be red.

Opt 1 - CHIEFTEC Server Chasis (Aluminum Workstation Tower with Plastic Front Cover) Blue w/acrylic window - 450Watt Foxconn Power Supply (AMD Approved)

Opt 2 - Enermax PSU from Jeff and case sans psu ($70)

Misc Items.

Artic Silver(?)
Floppy Drive (?)
Red Round IDE cable (?)

Almost there guys. Thanks for all your help and input.

http://home.nc.rr.com/ejimenez

**Trevor Schell** · 03 June 2003, 23:14 Tuesday

Good Job!!

Your going to have an awesome system!!
Smart move on the PC 3200 ram!!:T

Trevor
My HomeTheater S.E.
Sonically Enhanced
C5

**Eduardo** · 05 June 2003, 11:38 Thursday

OK - I finally bit the bullet. My order is as follows

1 - CPU AMD\2500/333 Athlon XP
1 - Corsair 512 MB TwinX Memory Kit
1 - MB Nforce2 A7N8X Deluxe
1 - Case Chieftec w/ 450 Watt AMD approved PSU

My next step to build the computer with stock HSF and cooling fans.

http://home.nc.rr.com/ejimenez

**Bing Fung** · 05 June 2003, 15:28 Thursday

Way to go EJ :T

Let us know how it goes

Bing

**Eduardo** · 10 June 2003, 09:57 Tuesday

Ok I received my parts and I started the configuration. The case is very nice with lots of room. It came with everything I needed. I like the rails used, it makes 5.25 drive installation simple. They should do the same with the 3.5 drives.

The MoBo is a REV 2.0 :T The only jumper change was to disable SATA the rest stayed at factory default. The memory and cpu with stock HSF has been installed. The HSF clip is very tight. So tight that I thought it could be doing some damage and that will left to be seen. Next was to connect the front side USB to MoBo. I couldn't connect the front Firewire port even if I wanted too. The connector is totally differant. Using the supplied ribbon cables from the MoBo, the floppy, CD-RW and HD are also installed. That is as far as I gone. No power has been connected and the video card still needs to be installed. I'm photo documenting my steps and will show pictures later.

Any current ASUS A7N8X and "Barton" Chip owners have any tips, especially BIOS configurations?

http://home.nc.rr.com/ejimenez

**Bing Fung** · 10 June 2003, 23:19 Tuesday

EJ, looking forward to the photos, you know that we all love photos here!

About the only major tip is keep the FSB of the Memory and CPU Syncronous. Running it Asyncronous actually reduces performance even if your running 200 MHz Memory FSB and you CPU is at 166 MHz.

Don't use the 2.41/2.42 drivers. nVidia actually has taken them off the site and have reverted back to the 2.03 drivers. The newerones are full of bugs that slow down system performance. You may want to check which ones come on your disk, or just use the ones downloaded from nVidia's site. http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=nforce_udp_winxp_2.03

Bing

**Eduardo** · 11 June 2003, 10:27 Wednesday

Thanks Bing. Currently have the FSB and Memory set to 200 Mhtz. I love the voice after the POST :LOL: . Although I'm sure it will get annoying very quickly :? . The motherboard Bios is 1003. I have a few other questions but I want to get my system running smoothly first.

http://home.nc.rr.com/ejimenez

Building My PC II - Step II

Building My PC II - Step II

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment