For Sale: AMD XP3000+ for £45 ono

[albert]

I was just sizing up the bits and pieces needed run one of these babys and noticed that there are some heatsink/fan combos that use that icky sticky silver particle glue stuff, and some that use a handy clip like:

http://www.coolermaster.com.hk/product_det...1&product_id=12

I assume this fella aint a bad choice? A bit more expensive than the clipless ones but you don't need to spend £10 on glue straight away, and I like quiet fans.

Also, I think the Abit nForce NF7-S V2.0 looks like a fine board for the job, I was considering this one anyway:

http://www.abit.com.tw/abitweb/webjsp/engl...ODEL_NAME=NF7-S

TL, Q: I checked the Corair DDR page but I haven't a clue what all these different DDR standards are and what is the best. I want 1GB probably in the form of 2 x 512MB DDR, any good explanatory pages you know of?

In fact this will be the first PC I build from scratch so if anyone has a good link to a nice basic setup page, I have upgraded almost everything apart from the CPU before so I'm not a complete n00b.

That Prometia thingy looks too mental still though.  :lol:    

[JB]

I've just ordered one of the abit motherboards last week, so hopefully it'll be here tomorrow.  I'll let you know what it's like and whether id recommend buying it.   :wink:

[TeaLeaf]

I was just sizing up the bits and pieces needed run one of these babys and noticed that there are some heatsink/fan combos that use that icky sticky silver particle glue stuff, and some that use a handy clip like:

http://www.coolermaster.com.hk/product_det...1&product_id=12

I assume this fella aint a bad choice? A bit more expensive than the clipless ones but you don't need to spend £10 on glue straight away, and I like quiet fans.

(Apologies if I have misunderstood the question am about to teach you to suck eggs here)
ALWAYS use a high quality thermal paste between the CPU and the bottom plate of the heatsink, period.  I use Artic Silver III, generally regarded as one of the premium thermal paste compounds.  I prefer not to use any glue to connect my heatsink to my cpu - what happens when you want to upgrade or remove the cpu for some maintenance?  The clips are easiest as you can refresh the pea-sized drop of thermal paste and re-seat the clip each time you want your CPU to be taken out and replaced.

Also, I think the Abit nForce NF7-S V2.0 looks like a fine board for the job, I was considering this one anyway:
http://www.abit.com.tw/abitweb/webjsp/english/pt_main_back.jsp?pPRODUCT_TYPE=MotherBoard&pMODEL_NAME=NF7-S

This is one that I think will do a fine job, it is one of only a very few that allow almost total adjustment via ABIT's Softmenu.

TL, Q: I checked the Corair DDR page but I haven't a clue what all these different DDR standards are and what is the best. I want 1GB probably in the form of 2 x 512MB DDR, any good explanatory pages you know of?

Erm, no I don't actually  :oops:  However, I have been reading up a wee bit more on the RAM I want for this test rig.  I currently run some XMS2700LL, but Corsair currently don't do any matched sticks of XMS3500LL (low latency), however OCZ do and that's what I think I am going to go for.  You can find their 1Gb DDR PC-3500 Dual Channel EL kit here.  I'm not sure if I can stretch to 1GB myself (I need the money for an entirely 'cooler' purchase), but from the reviews I have read it has run at 500MHz at Vdimm 2.8v   :wtf:

In fact this will be the first PC I build from scratch so if anyone has a good link to a nice basic setup page, I have upgraded almost everything apart from the CPU before so I'm not a complete n00b.

Safety Tip: Do not turn the power on without the heatsink attached to the CPU.  I only ever did that once, for just 3 seconds.  It fried an Athlon XP in that time.     But I'll never make the same mistake again  
Bonus Tip: Get the biggest and best PSU you can fit into your case - if you are messing with voltages etc then you need something that can handle the increased load without breaking a sweat  

That Prometia thingy looks too mental still though. :lol:

Momma says that "Mental is as mental does"  :silly:   Damn, I like the look of that Lian Li mod kit  :crazyeyes:

TL.  

[albert]

Ah, it's not glue its thermal paste  :lol:  Like Vindaloo  :lol:  Ok I will buy some of that stuff. Just pea sized drop you say, enough to sort of fill the space between CPU and sink?

But does that Coolmaster fellow look good or not? I amn't going for the Pro-whats it called thing (yet), and with a decent heatsink and fan that AUIAH chip should o/clock pretty well and stay cool, I hope? Any thoughts on fan choice? Good brands?

That RAM is outragously priced!!! I may rethink my strategy and go for a good but not so expensive model.

So you are going for the Prometia then? I thought you might, I will see if the missus gets a new job this month and think about it. It does look the business, but hardly the portable option eh!  :lol:

I will make sure I keep the power off until the rig is built, and buy a nice meaty PSU.

This is going to be fun. Cheers TL.

[TeaLeaf]

Pea sized works just fine     And right where you said.  AS3 will go 'melt in' during the first 200 hours or so and by the end of that time is pretty much set like a glue and perfectly flush on the two surfaces - sufficient to hold the heatsink upside down, but not so strong you can't get it off.  But they do a thermal glue as well - if you use the glue you will never get the heatsink off the cpu!  :lol:   AS3 is mean to to give an extra 3-5 degrees extra cooling compared to AS2  :thumbsup:

The one Hexus used in their review was the Akasa Silver Mountain (Fan Speed 4,600 RPM, Air Flow 23 CFM and Noise 33 dBA).  The Coolermaster you picked out does Fan Speed 3000 RPM and only 14.13 CFM, so you may not get the same results as they did - 9CFM is quite a big drop off.  What about the Thermalright SLK-800 instead?  It reviews very well here.

The RAM is an outrageous price - but I was only thinking of 512MB (2 x 256), but I am yet to commit to it.......at the end of the day something in the system will be the limiting factor, whether it is the PCI bus, the gfx card, the ram, cpu, temperature or voltage, something will get you.  The advantage of PC3500 RAM is that it will be very unlikely that the RAM will be the limiting factor.  But I guess that with PC3200 (very much cheaper) you would still be able to get a very fast system!  The OCZ PC3200 low latency dual channel tested 2 x 256MB works out at about £140 inc.

Enermax is good for the PSU if you want a recommendation - and they are very quiet    I have the 431W Enermax EG465AX-VE in my current case and it is beaut!  Variable fan speed and oh so quiet.

As for the Prometeia - we'll have to wait and see, I have not gone that crazy yet, but it is close, real close......

TL.

[albert]

Cheers matey, that Thermalright SLK-800 looks pretty darn good, the 900 looks awesome too, and its compible with the abit nForce mobo for securing it to the board.

I was thinking, if I get the basic components, high quality e.g. mobo, heat sink/ fan, PSU, RAM, then I should be able to get a system built that will have some good potential. I intend aiming for moderately oveclocking the cpu (say 2GHz) and increasing the gfx card I have up to Ti4600 level.

I'll likely get a decent 120GB HDD too as I only have a couple of 40GB 5400rpm things just now.

It's all about cost just now, so looking at the current setup, £500 should build what I want cause of not needing to get the media cards.

[albert]

BTW, cpucity are darn cheap for everything, even the paste is only £4 compared to nearly £6 at O/clockers. their mobos are cheaper too.

[Anonymous]

Please NB that power isn't everything on a PSU. A good quality 350 Watt PSU may well outperform a cheap 500 Watt PSU!!!

What you need to check is the current that can be supplied on each of the rails (+12V, +5V, 3.3V, -5V and -12V rails). A 500 Watt PSU may give lots of current on one rail but little on another. get a PSU that gives lots of current on each rail and you'll be a happy bunny. PSUs should have a sticker on the side showing the current ouput capability on each rail.

You also want one that gives a good quality output (smooth and steady) but that is harder to check.

here is a good quality PSU.

http://www.thermaltake.com/products/purepo...ser/w001011.htm

Click on the link then scroll down and you will see a table showing the current at each voltage. NB the +5VSB current. Many manufacturers recommend nothing less than 2 Amps on that rail yet a lot of PSUs still give about 1.5 Amps!

HTH?

[Stryker]

Applying arctic silver to your cpu core:

Put a bead of AS on the core of your cpu.  Then using something like a creditcard plaster the bead of AS evenly over the cpu core so you have a layer about 0.5mm thick..... (kinda paper thin).

The AS is only to fill in the scratches, NOT to form a filling between the cpu and heat sink.

If applied as above the AS will find its own way into the imperfections as the heatsink is attached and firmly secured.

[suicidal_monkey]

yup. You want just enough to fill in the imperfections on the heatsink and chip surfaces to provide a continuous connection between the two. If you put on so much that theres actually a layer of thermal paste between the chip and metal heatsink you start to reduce the effectiveness of the heat transfer. Put on too much paste and you could actually worsen the connection to the point where its worse than having no thermal pate at all. If the metal connections could be trusted to be perfectly flat you wouldn't need it at all :n00b: btw, how soon until you can recount stories of some burnt out xp1700 chips?

[TeaLeaf]

Please NB that power isn't everything on a PSU. A good quality 350 Watt PSU may well outperform a cheap 500 Watt PSU!!!

What you need to check is the current that can be supplied on each of the rails (+12V, +5V, 3.3V, -5V and -12V rails). A 500 Watt PSU may give lots of current on one rail but little on another. get a PSU that gives lots of current on each rail and you'll be a happy bunny.

here is a good quality PSU.

http://www.thermaltake.com/products/purepo...ser/w001011.htm

Click on the link then scroll down and you will see a table showing the current at each voltage. NB the +5VSB current. Many manufacturers recommend nothing less than 2 Amps on that rail yet a lot of PSUs still give about 1.5 Amps!

You are absolutely right about the quality aspect (I forgot to mention that bit but kinda hoped it was implied  :oops: ), that's why I recommended the Enermax.  I use it myself and it can be found  here.  It exceeds the Thermaltake specs as far as current delivery and also supplies the current within the same (or slightly better) tolerances :wink:

TL.  

[Anonymous]

Yup, that is indeed a better spec. The reason I like the Thermaltake is the front mounted fan control (you do not have to scrabble around at the back of the CPU). Otherwise, Enermax are always a safe bet :-)

[albert]

Oh dear, this isn't going to be a straightforward as I first thought.

Are there any other little querks I should know. I thought this was about the size of the list of stuff needed to build the thing:

CPU
Heat Sink
Fan
Mobo
RAM
PSU
Pastey Pastey
Case of some description
IDE cables and, cables to go into the DVD drive, Floppy
GFX card (Got)
Sound card (Got)
Floppy
Tons on screws

Is that it other than the silly extra you mod maniacs like to put in your pcs?

If there is a nice page with a o00b guide on it, let me know. I can forsee a real botch coming over the horizon.

[TeaLeaf]

Are there any other little querks I should know. I thought this was about the size of the list of stuff needed to build the thing:

CPU (XP1700 JIUHB)
Heat Sink & Fan (Zalman Flower)
Mobo (Abit ABIT NF7-S V2.0)
RAM (OCZ 2 x 256MB PC3500 CAS2 dual channel tested)
PSU (get the Enermax!)
Pastey Pastey (AS3)
Case of some description (it HAS to be aluminium with a window, right :wink: )
IDE cables and, cables to go into the DVD drive, Floppy (most mobos come with these, but you will need to buy different ones if you want funky round cables etc)
GFX card (Got)
Sound card (Got)
Floppy (surely you go tthis already?)
Tons of screws
More fans for the case if the current ones are not powerful enough

Is that it other than the silly extra you mod maniacs like to put in your pcs?

If there is a nice page with a o00b guide on it, let me know. I can forsee a real botch coming over the horizon.

Trust me, you'll be fine - it is far more difficult to botch than you think  :lol:
The above list is just about all you need.  I'm still thinking about the RAM to go for, I almost pushed the button on the OCZ ram but not yet  

I have changed my mind about the heatsink and fan after a discussion I was having with Smite.  I went and looked at the figures and found a review of the Thermalright - it cools well, but it is real noisy  8O   The Zalman cools real well and is quiet.  Go with the Zalman - I finally remembered that it is what I use in my own system  

TL.  

[TeaLeaf]

I've just ordered one of the abit motherboards last week, so hopefully it'll be here tomorrow. I'll let you know what it's like and whether id recommend buying it.  :wink:

JB, when it arrives could you do me a favour please?  Go here and print out the template and then tell me whether or not the Prometeia will fit that mobo?

Could you post the results back here please?

Thanks  

TL.