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First system blunders. I am going to fix it.

D

DigitalEmperor

Gawd
Joined
Jan 24, 2004
Messages
760
First of all, I appologize about this big post as I am sure it will be a decent read. But, please try to skim over it as best as you can and offer me some advice. I NEED IT BADLY!

My first computer built seems to be a total blunder. I put it together about 4 months ago and I was originally very happy with it. That has since changed.

First off let me get the specs out of the way.

Case: Antec Lanboy V1
Case Fans: 2 80mm Thermaltake SmartFan II's (1intake 1exaust)
PSU: Antec Blue 350w PSU (Came with Lanboy)
Motherboard: MSI KT6 Delta LSR (KT600 Chipset)
RAM: 2x256mb Samsung PC3200 CL2.5
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Barton Core
Heatsink/Fan: Thermaltake Volcano 11+ Xaser (fan is another SmartFan II)
Hard Drive: Western Digital 40gb 7200rpm 2mb Cache "WD400BB"
CDROM: Lite-On 32x CDRW
Soundcard: Soundblaster Live 5.1

While on the surface this doesn't sound like such a bad setup does it? Well. It is.

My first issue: This case does not have good air movement at all. With the 2 smartfan ii's at about 3500rpm (the level at which they are deffinatly audible but not whining loud) my cpu temp registers 5c higher than when the side of my case is off. This case has poor airflow! 2 80mm fans do not cut it!

My second issue: My barton is lame. I got the short straw on my 2500+ for certain. Sure it is an earlier model what has the unlocked multiplier but what good does this REALLY do me? I can not run it past 2.1ghz stable without drastic voltage increases. I have tried 1.75v at 11x200 and it still failed a prime95 test 4 hours in. I didn't want to put any more voltage to it past that because for the small gains I would achive, it just wouldn't be worth it. Stragnely though, at 10.5x200 I am stable for 24hrs + while running 3dmark03 and prime95 at stock 1.65v.

My thrid issue is: Gaming will suffer from this system only having 512mb of ram. Unreal Tournament 2004 (which basically got me back into gaming) is lagging because I only have 512. I got 2x256 so I have to replace these sticks with more ram to get at a level where I have enough ram for these new games coming out.

And my fourth and final issue, which is probally the most important of all is this: MY HEATSINK SUCKS! I got the thermaltake volcano 11+ because it was all copper, cheaper than the thermalrights (ya ya i know ... cheaper for a reason obviously) and it had a fan on it preinstalled that moved serious air. Well, on top speed this thing is an AIRPLANE. It is LOUD. And it seems it doesn't even MATTER that it moves so much air because temps are so poor. My system idles at 43c at stock 2500+ settings!! This is with it in "Boing 747" noise levels. I move to that 3500rpm sweet spot of noise and I jump up to idleing at near 47c. I jump from 46-47c back and forth.

Ok, so I did a lot of complaining. What am I going to do about it?

My plan as of right now is cut my losses and start over.

I am thinking going EpoX 8rda+, 2x512, 2600+ mobile athlon, Thermalright SP97, and an Aspire Turbo X-Dreamer /w panaflo fans.

I probally would end up spending another $150-200 after taking my losses for selling stuff on ebay, but I am really just disappointed with this system as a whole. It frustrates me that I spent all this moeny without doing the proper research and now I just want to do a system the right way.

What would you all suggest that I do?
 
if you wanna do it right, get the DFI ultra infinity with a 2400+ mobile. get one gig of low latency ram. any, muskin, corsair, ocz, or even geil.

for a case.. a lot of ppl like the antec sonatas

if you want things to be quiet, get the zalman 7000a, it will bring tears of joy.
 
This is your first system build and you're already overclocking and complaining about heat? So you want to scrap the entire system and buy a Mobile Athlon just because you need more RAM?

Does not compute... Work on your airflow, get some arctic silver and get a new heatsink. Don't overclock until this thing has been broken in and is running the way you want.

Your system is fine. If you really have the money to blow to scrap the entire thing, send the old "crap" to me.
 
lets say i upgrade just the ram to a total of 1gb. what about my temps?

with an aftermarket cooler I am maxing out around 55c-60c depending on ambient room temp.

is that good to be running hardware that hot?

yes i attached it using arctic silver 5, and yes i used the right amount (i had supervision from someone who had done it many times before with good results.)
 
Originally posted by DigitalEmperor
My thrid issue is: Gaming will suffer from this system only having 512mb of ram. Unreal Tournament 2004 (which basically got me back into gaming) is lagging because I only have 512. I got 2x256 so I have to replace these sticks with more ram to get at a level where I have enough ram for these new games coming out.
Click to expand...
Which videocard are you using?

Something tells me that the amount of RAM is _not_ the bottleneck in this configuration.
 
I have a HIS 9800 Pro Radeon 128mb IceQ. The IceQ represents the aftermarket cooling options preinstalled. It has the Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer and also ramsinks preinstalled. Using the Omega Drivers I can clock it to 420/375 without artifacting. It clocks higher according to ATITool but I notice ever so slight artifacting on the elephant pixel shader 2.0 demo in 3dmark03. I usually just run it at default speeds because it doesn't seem to effect it much when overclocking but I have ran UT2k4 while clocked at 412/365 (9800XT spec).
 
UT 2004 benefits from 1024 megs of ram over 512, but it's not in actual framerates or gameplay, it's in loading maps between matches.

Have you got any friends with an nforce 2 mobo that would be willing to test your CPU with you? Quality chipsets / motherboards can make all the difference in the world for overclocking. Regardless, 2.1ghz is not very slow :).

Personally, I would just buy better (quieter) cooling for your system and upgrade your memory. It doesn't sound bad at all. By the way, cases are just boxes, and better cases are just fancier boxes with bigger / more holes. The only cases I've seen with REAL airflow consideration are built by Apple.

My idle is 50c, and it hasn't hurt my system ever :). Quiet, too.

Erik
 
You might want to check that the HSF is mounted correctly. Sometimes it can be hit or miss on the mounting, you might find that cleaning the HSF applying a fresh coat of AS5 and remounting it might drop your temps considerable .. shrug .. its at least worth a try before selling it all lol
 
considering one way or another I am going to be needing a memory upgrade, and also considering I won't be overclocking my frontsidebus past 200mhz .... would PC3200 CL2.5 vs. CL2 really offer a noticeable performance difference?
 
I think so (as ive now stated in like 5 threads today lol ...) I have found that tighter timings in AMD systems show signifigant gains, specifically over ram freq. I would say to stick only with CL2 ram but if there is a signifigant (and when I say signifigant I mean like $100 different) price difference between the 2.5 and 2 get the 2.5.
 
sorry for double posting a question. if the search function of the forums worked i would be a little less likely to do so. thank you for the advice though.
 
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