Author Topic: New "guts" for a system. Advice please. (Read 469 times)

Toad · « **on:** August 17, 2002, 01:12:55 PM »

Need to re-build an older system.... how's this for parts from NewEgg? Rest of the innards are decent enough.

CORSAIR MEMORY XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series 256MB 64MX64 PC-2700C2PT With Platinum - Silver Heat Spreader OEM

Asus A7N266-C NVIDIA nFORCE 415-D Chipset 266/200MHz FSB Motherboard with Dolby Digital Audio Retail Box

AMD ATHLON XP 2000+/266 FSB PROCESSOR CPU - OEM 2000+/ 1.67GHz, AX2000DMT3C

VOYETRA TURTLE BEACH SANTA CRUZ - OEM PCI Sound Card

Chaintech Geforce4 4400 Model "GT40" Retail

All deliverd to my door for $606.

Any bad apples in this barrel?

Thx.

Animal · « **Reply #1 on:** August 17, 2002, 02:19:45 PM »

All good choices
What cooling system are you gonna use for the CPU?

Toad · « **Reply #2 on:** August 17, 2002, 02:44:53 PM »

Actually, I was thinking of just going with the retail boxed cpu and AMD fan.. 3 year warranty...... no worries? From what Bloom said, the MB has CPU heat protection built in.

Open to suggestion though.. long as the fan doesn't cost more than the cpu.

The MB also is reported to have decent sound capability built in, guess I could skip the Turtle Beach and save a few $. Thoughts?

DAVENRINO · « **Reply #3 on:** August 17, 2002, 03:01:08 PM »

Toad,
I know it's hard to wait but Nforce2 boards should be out next month withh DDR400, USB 2, dual LAN, etc.

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=738

But I have no complaints with my A7N266-C. I already had a SB Live card for this box but I use the OB sound and Lan on my MSI Nforce box and it is great.

DJ229

Animal · « **Reply #4 on:** August 17, 2002, 03:10:17 PM »

the Turtle Beach is an AWESOME sound card, but so many people swear by the nforce's included sound that I'm gonna say go ahead and ditch the Turtle.

bloom25 · « **Reply #5 on:** August 17, 2002, 03:39:18 PM »

Save yourself some cash and ditch the sound card. The retail fans included with AMD 1900+ and higher chips are not too bad really. I'm using one myself on my 1900+ OC to 1680 MHz (2012+ reported) and it runs at 46 C full load. (It was at 44C stock.) An important detail here was that I removed the thermal pad and used Artic Silver 2 instead though.

As for nForce 2, don't bother waiting. The boards won't be around for at least a month and performance wise there won't be more than a 5% difference. You are also going to pay a huge premium to get the board, both because it is new AND because they have an integrated GeForce 4 MX which you will not be using. A new chipset also may have bugs in the drivers and early bios revsions. The current A7N266-C board is rock solid.

If I were to wait for anything, it would be for the XP 2400+ and 2600+ CPUs, which are supposed to be released at the end of this month. (The 2400+ at least.) Even if you can't afford the 2400+, the prices of the other lower speed CPUs will drop.

The Radeon 9700 graphics card is also out this coming week, which may result in GeForce 4 price drops.

(Depending on the case you have, the bundled ACR audio card with the Asus board is a pain to insert into it's slot. I found out that if you just remove the 2 screws holding the back bracket onto the card and hold it with your hand the card will insert perfectly. Once it's in, you can put the screws back in.)

senna · « **Reply #6 on:** August 17, 2002, 03:46:48 PM »

I am planning on building a new system myself since my current system has alot of little irritating glitches. For example, everytime I have to reboot, its a terrible pain because it takes about 7 reboots beforre it comes up ok. Though a 1.2 seems ok, it is starting to show some signs of aging. I havent done my homework on available systems yet so can anyone who knows whats a good buy help me out with this. Any recommendations would be appreciated so I am open to your advice. Im usually a fixit, make up my own mind sort of a guy but you guys seem to really know your stuff when it comes to PC technology.

thanks in advance,

Chairboy · « **Reply #7 on:** August 17, 2002, 04:30:50 PM »

Instead of spending money on hardware, you could try a cheaper fix first:

Reinstall your OS.

Seriously, the problems you describe can often be addressed by re-installing your OS over itself. If it's 9X you can do it without any data loss (and don't need to reinstall software). If 2k, it's a little trickier.

Try this before you spend money JUST to fix those boot problems, there may be a cheaper alternative that will allow you to plan your upgrade with less haste.

Chairboy

senna · « **Reply #8 on:** August 17, 2002, 04:33:04 PM »

Its for sure a MB electrical issue on bootup. Get a grey screen after POST with or without the OS installed

Toad · « **Reply #9 on:** August 17, 2002, 04:59:30 PM »

I can easily wait till September. Lots of other things to do and the old system's been sitting disconnected at least that long.

Probably will ditch the sound card then.

Swager · « **Reply #10 on:** August 18, 2002, 09:16:58 AM »

Toad, wait until September and you'll see alot of price drops on the quipment you describe. I have also heard the onboard sound in the new MBs is excellent. Good luck!

Swag

Thorns · « **Reply #11 on:** August 18, 2002, 10:46:24 AM »

Senna,

I had the same problem, and searched all boards, and asked everyone who has something to do with computers, but didn't find any solutions until one day I decided to remove programs to see if any caused the problem. I found that Zone Alarm was the program that would hang my system from properly booting without any problems. Now I have removed Zone Alarm from the start up programs, and start it manually. I haven't had any problems since doing this, except one. I have to start Zone Alarm to access the Internet. I have removed the program completely, but have to reinstall Zone Alarm to access my ISP, which is Comcast. Can anyone explain to me why, and what to do to get around this? I am using Win98 with no other problems.

Thanks,
Thorns

Toad · « **Reply #12 on:** August 18, 2002, 10:52:10 AM »

Just one question about that MB without the sound card...... does it have the old analog joystick gameport on it anywhere? Or would I have to break down and finally buy the USB CH gear? Guess I could add a game card or something.

Suggestions?

DAVENRINO · « **Reply #13 on:** August 18, 2002, 01:33:39 PM »

Toad,
My MSI Nforce does have a gameport but I have never tried to use it. The Asus board lists LAN, digital audio out riser, and gameport as optional but I think most have a gameport. I can't look at my Asus box cuse it's 2000 miles away. Never used gameport on it either so can't say how well it works.
DJ229

bloom25 · « **Reply #14 on:** August 18, 2002, 10:52:46 PM »

The A7N266-C has a gameport.