Author Topic: What I asked Santa for: (Read 858 times)

buzkill · « **Reply #15 on:** December 10, 2005, 07:59:56 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Skuzzy
Yes (sort of). I still was not happy with the overall performance though and had to under clock the RAM to make it stable (Crucial PC3200).

Also had problems with my Audigy 2 ZS card. When I did get it to work, there was still static in the sounds. Take the same Audigy 2 ZS card and use it in an Intel based system and it is flawless.

For serious audio work, I would not use nor recommend an AMD based system.

I said 'sort of' earlier. I did not keep the AMD system (ASUS motherboard, Athlon XP3200+) very long after fooling with it for a couple of weeks, I dumped it. I have never, ever, had those types of problems from an Intel based motherboard. Put it together, set the BIOS and boom, go to work. No fiddling around, no tweaking for the odd hardware, it just works.

I have not seen any real improvement in that in the newer stuff. Still picky about RAM, still finicky about sound cards. The X2 stuff has some issues I have not figured out yet. Until I do, I am staying away from them.

Kev367 is a staunch advocate of AMD systems, but I have seen how much effort he has put into his system, and the problems he has had. All have been worked out, but that is the point. You have to spend a lot of time working it out. If you want a system which just works, then AMD still has a long way to go as compared to an Intel based system.

Glad yours is working for you buzkil, and you may already do things you know that need to be done in order to get an AMD system up and stable (I do not know how you work around compatibility issues though).

all i had to do was set up the bios for the video card.....and i've built 7 AMD machines so far, the only one that was a problem was my sister's....the hard-drive power wire was loose:rolleyes:
sounds like you just had bad luck

Kev367th · « **Reply #16 on:** December 10, 2005, 01:59:40 PM »

It's amazing how many people will spend-
$300 on a CPU
$400 on a graphics card
$200 on a mobo

Then buy the cheapest, nastiest RAM and PSU in the store.
Theres were half the probs come from.

Krusty · « **Reply #17 on:** December 10, 2005, 02:53:10 PM »

Now now, let's not discount CPU/MOBO/3D problems, either. I had a nasty little problem with my computer. I bought a top of the line mobo (spent more than I wanted to, as well) and had major issues with the entire PC locking up. Over several *months* I questioned the cheap stuff like you did... I wondered if I had bad ram.. I wondered if my PSU was cheap as hell. I wondered if my old video card was the problem. Hell I began to wonder if the thermal paste that came with my Pentium4's heatsink was the problem!!! I thought it might be heat, might be lack of power on certain lines in my case, everything.

Turns out to be the motherboard. Specifically the LAN card built into the motherboard. ASUS board no less. Supposedly drivers that work on NORMAL Yukon gigabit NICs don't work on the integrated mobo NIC for ASUS P5P800s. That's a hardware problem, if you ask me. And I paid a lot for this board.

On the other hand my 512MB ram is running sweet as ever and with rebate it was only about $50-60. My PSU would have cost about $30 but on newegg I got it for $5 on a 1-day-only sale. My sound card is second-hand OEM. My vid card is as well. My HD is old as hell (20GB and I got it in 1999/2000), my DVD rom drive skips, is as old as the HD, but the problem was the new motherboard!!!

Oooooohhhhhh brutha..! If I didn't love irony so much I'd be mad right now

buzkill · « **Reply #18 on:** December 10, 2005, 04:45:16 PM »

YA....mother boards are printed out like newspapers, and sometimes a bad one slips through.

mipoikel · « **Reply #19 on:** December 10, 2005, 10:16:39 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Skuzzy
No no, the reason I said it is obviously not a gaming rig is the use of the Quattro NVidia video cards. They bite for gaming, but are awesome for video work.

+ 2D / 3D Cad (Acad, Inventor, SW, 3ds MAX etc...)

Skuzzy · « **Reply #20 on:** December 12, 2005, 07:36:42 AM »

Oy. The last time I did AMD, I RMA'ed the motherboard, as the RAM could not be run at full speed. Got the second motherboard in and it did eactly the same thing. By the way Kev, Crucial is not garbage. And the power supplies are always Antec. But I do agree with you. I see too many people spec a system and use some off-brand power supply and some no-name memory.

Took the same RAM which would not be clocked at 200Mhz on the Nforce board, and ran it at 231MHz on an Intel motherboard. Been a year at that speed and runs just peachy.

I have friends who spend hours at a time tinkering with thier AMD systems. They have used Corsair (repackaged memory from other suppliers) and Mushkin. Seems every weekend I get a call from one of them having problems with thier AMD systems. None of the these guys are novice builders either.

One of them got tired of it and built an Intel system. He is a happy camper now.

Now, there is a not a darn thing wrong with AMD CPU's. Good stuff for sure, but the motherboard chipsets still lack the polish of Intel's motherboard chipsets.
And I have yet to run into an AMD user who would not agree, that an Intel based chpiset + AMD CPU would be the best combination to be had. There is a reason for that.

buzkill · « **Reply #21 on:** December 12, 2005, 09:52:34 AM »

IT MAY BE MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH VIA CHIPS....NOT AS FAST OR TUNED FOR GAMING, BUT FOOLPROOF

Kev367th · « **Reply #22 on:** December 14, 2005, 08:25:27 PM »

Skuzzy - wasn't suggesting you had used cheapo RAM and PSU, was general comment on a problem that commonly occurs.

Krusty - The built in v seperate card drivers are not that uncommon. Very common for servers with built in SCSI or RAID for you to need different drivers than an equivalent seperate card. Dam Dell and their onboard Adaptec stuff is renowned for it.

x0847Marine · « **Reply #23 on:** December 15, 2005, 05:54:10 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Skuzzy
Oy. The last time I did AMD, I RMA'ed the motherboard, as the RAM could not be run at full speed. Got the second motherboard in and it did eactly the same thing. By the way Kev, Crucial is not garbage. And the power supplies are always Antec. But I do agree with you. I see too many people spec a system and use some off-brand power supply and some no-name memory.

Took the same RAM which would not be clocked at 200Mhz on the Nforce board, and ran it at 231MHz on an Intel motherboard. Been a year at that speed and runs just peachy.

I have friends who spend hours at a time tinkering with thier AMD systems. They have used Corsair (repackaged memory from other suppliers) and Mushkin. Seems every weekend I get a call from one of them having problems with thier AMD systems. None of the these guys are novice builders either.

One of them got tired of it and built an Intel system. He is a happy camper now.

Now, there is a not a darn thing wrong with AMD CPU's. Good stuff for sure, but the motherboard chipsets still lack the polish of Intel's motherboard chipsets.
And I have yet to run into an AMD user who would not agree, that an Intel based chpiset + AMD CPU would be the best combination to be had. There is a reason for that.

I will gladly take any old Athlon XP cpus / parts.

F1Bomber · « **Reply #24 on:** December 17, 2005, 10:21:55 PM »

not a direct attack on your skuzzy or anyone here.

I purchased the following.

a7v8X-MX-SE
AMD xp2600+
786mg kingmax 333mhz
9800 pro 128meg

have been running her for the past 4 years without any problems. Although i have stayed with asus boards because of people saying they are the most reliable motherboards.

MrRiplEy[H] · « **Reply #25 on:** December 18, 2005, 04:53:16 AM »

I slapped my old 256mb DDR266 stick of Crucial to a A64 Nforce4 board and it booted @ 400Mhz DDR rock solid.

It has happened to me that when I changed motherboards, only the other one of the memory pair no longer worked in the new motherboard (amd). The only AMD system I've had problems with was a VIA based chipset on the old Athlon XP system. It had problems with soundblaster etc. The current Nforce4 board takes a soundblaster happily in with zero problems.

Kev367th · « **Reply #26 on:** December 18, 2005, 03:23:27 PM »

I think as Skuzzy has so eloquently put it -
The problem isn't AMD, it has been some of the poor chipsets that have been available.
Setup usually is easier with Intel based ones.

However the situation is reversed with Intel/AMD dual cores.
Intel dual core setups have been notoriously picky, difficult to setup and unstable.
Toms harware test, 3 mobos (2 destroyed/heat damaged), 2 PSU's, 2 or 3 sets RAM and even then they had to disable SLI to get it stable, and a visit from Intel engineers to set it up.
But I'm sure it will change given time, after all dual core is still a relatively 'new' area.

Newman · « **Reply #27 on:** December 24, 2005, 07:51:54 PM »

Just checking in on this thread.

I preface this with my attitude about a PC. I consider it an expensive gaming platform. The ONLY reason I got my first PC was when MAC-AW was canceled and I had to FLY! Little did I know where that path would lead me!

I was a 10 year MACHEAD when that happened.

I was also very lucky to have a couple friends that had been luring me to the Dark Side for a while, and knew what direction to point me in, and taught me the fine art of tweaking..

My first system was an AMD K6-2 350, and I haven't looked back! AMD has always done what I asked, and any problems I've had are due to my learning curve

Ya, I fried a few components trying to overclock them, or tweak their BIOS, or use a cheap PS or RAM. I'd guess I've built 20 AMD systems clean.. and another 30 rebuilds due to MY inexperiece and errors. I've built a couple Intel systems with the same result..

Skuzzy, you use Antec PS's exclusively? An Antec, and Powerman PS's are the only ones I've had die. The Antec took out a MB as well, BUT I didn't have them on a UPS either. Possibly my fault.

I've learned a lot in the 7 years I've been tweaking PC's, and I currently have an Athlon Barton 2500+ reporting as a 3200+, and has been for well over a year. My MB is an Asus A7N8X 400. I have a new system OTW, NF4 Ultra chipset, Radeon X1800 XL PCI-E, Athlon 64 3700+ (San Diego core), and I'll still be using te Geil Ultra PC 3500 RAM I've had for years in the new system

The MOST important lesson I've learned is that there is no substitute for good RAM. RAM is the key to a speedy system. Back when I had my K6-2 system, I spent the bucks and got some Atlas PC 130/ 128 MEG RAM, and the difference was incredible!

A good PS doesn't hurt either

We currently have 3 AMD based, one Intel, and one Cyrix system running in the house, but the Intel's days are numbered..

SALUTE! and Merry Christmas!

Newman the GEEK