Author Topic: My new nForce based machine works GREAT (Read 276 times)

Lephturn · « **on:** September 12, 2002, 11:55:39 AM »

Finally finished putting my new machine together a couple weeks ago. I've been really busy, but I wanted to report back on what I built and my results.

1. Abit NV7-133R nForce board with RAID, built-in sound, built-in ethernet.
2. MSI GeForce 4 Ti4200 128 MB
3. Enermax 350w PS.
4. Cheap case but with coolio front-mount ports for headset and USB.
5. 4 USB 1.1 and 2 USB 2.0 ports.
6. Athlon XP 1800+ and a cheap heatsink/fan.
7. 512 MB Crucial PC2100
8. Windows XP Pro.

Well, I did my homework before I built this one, and it paid off. I made myself a bootable CD with updated BIOS and a BIOS flash utility, nForce drivers, and several versions of nVidia Detonator drivers for the video. I also burned various patches and utilities onto the CD so I would have everything I needed. I put the IDE 133 RAID drivers on the CD that Windows XP would need during setup as well. I double-checked the documentation to confirm the BIOS flashing process, and noted it wanted me to clear the CMOS after I flashed it. Cool.

Well, I carefully assembled the RAM and the CPU onto the mainboard first. I used Arctic Silver III and followed their very thorough instructions. Then I bolted everything else into the case, and put the mobo in it carefully. Hooked it all up according to the very good manual (Abit's manuals are much better lately I find!) and I fired it up. I hit BIOS immediately, and set it to boot from the CD. Saved, and booted, the CD loaded up. I flashed the BIOS, shut down, cleared the CMOS with the jumper, and then fired the XP disk in the CD drive and started it up. XP came up, I loaded the Ultra-ATA 133 drivers, and installed XP. Sweet.

Well, to make a long story short, everything went completely perfectly. I'm shocked. This has never happened before. I always have SOME little issue to curse about. My wife couldn't believe it.

AH now runs at 4x FSAA 1024x768 32 bit and sits at the 85 FPS that matches the refresh rate of my toejamty 17" monitor. Me=happy. After my last build with a VIA based KA7-100 and lots of problems with it, my next machine will probably be an nForce 2 or nForce 3.

I would reccomend this setup to anyone.

Ripsnort · « **Reply #1 on:** September 12, 2002, 01:49:08 PM »

WTG Leph!

Thanks for reminders to start burning CD's, I finally have a CDRW I can now start backing some critical stuff. See my new system below in my signature, I was lazy(and not all that "Hardware Savvy"), had it pre-assembled by a local guy, roughly $1000 plus tax.

funkedup · « **Reply #2 on:** September 12, 2002, 01:58:58 PM »

WTG

nForce rules.
Be sure to get the 1.13 drivers. The audio controls are sweet.

bloom25 · « **Reply #3 on:** September 12, 2002, 06:27:30 PM »

Leph, I agree with Funked, get the new 1.13 drivers off nVidia's site if you haven't already. The 1.13s add a very nice audio configuration utility and new network drivers (if you use that).

I've been pushing the nForce boards on the boards here for a while now. I haven't used the Abit board, but based on my experience with the MSI and Asus nForce series I can say they rival the Intel BX chipset in stability and ease of setup. It's really a shame the original driver that shipped with these boards was unable to give them a significant performance advantage over the KT266a boards, but the 1.05 (and now 1.13) drivers fixed that.

I have yet to see a review site test an nForce board with the 1.05 drivers, but my own testing shows they are now about equal to the KT333 boards.

They aren't the best boards for tweaking with, but for out of the box stability and speed they are hard to beat. Unfortunately they are hard to get right now, because nForce 2 is right around the corner. The spec sheets look like they take everything good about nForce 1 and add dual NIC support, DDR 400, 333 MHz FSB support, and USB 2.0.

Lephturn · « **Reply #4 on:** September 12, 2002, 06:30:06 PM »

Heh, burned those drivers onto my CD and installed them from the start.

I also got a 40 Gig Maxtor 7200RPM drive btw. No RAID yet, couldn't quite get that one past the budget.

What I did was I bought a new CD burner with the parts, and a put the burner in my server box. I pulled the old CD-ROM drive out of the server and tossed it in the new gaming rig. All it has to do is install the games.

Plus this way I can be ripping CD's to MP3 and burning stuff while I game away.

Vulcan · « **Reply #5 on:** September 12, 2002, 07:22:22 PM »

Rippy! Snap!

I just finished upgrading my board and cpu, I have the Asus A7V333-RAID with an XP2100+ and 512Mb

Having a little problem with the keyboard vs ch throttle vs mainboard but I believe disabling a jumper that provides stanby voltage to the keyboard fixes it (will find out tonight).

I'm running 1600x1200x32bit on my 21" getting a constant 75fps (refresh rate limitation), sure does look preddy.

Quote

Originally posted by Ripsnort
WTG Leph! Thanks for reminders to start burning CD's, I finally have a CDRW I can now start backing some critical stuff. See my new system below in my signature, I was lazy(and not all that "Hardware Savvy"), had it pre-assembled by a local guy, roughly $1000 plus tax.

Lephturn · « **Reply #6 on:** September 13, 2002, 08:06:41 AM »

Yeah, my next upgrade needs to be a monitor. I certainly have the hardware to go to much higher resolutions now and still get great framerates.

Gotta start looking for a good deal on a 19".