Cheapo (sort of) computer

[Clown]

I'll post a help me thread before I get banned for being gay in the Mobile thingy forum.

Antec Sonata Piano Black Quiet Midi Tower
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Barton OEM
Asus A7V600-X Via KT600 Socket 462 Motherboard
Thermaltake SubZero4G T.E.C AMD XP 3400+ (A1618)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80Gb ATA OEM
Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9800 Pro 128Mb LITE Retail Boxed
Order total: £508.26

I didn't really want to spend so much money so soon, but I broke my Shuttle and other components by doing stuff to it. I put that Zalman heatpipe heatsink on my GF4. I put a new Shuttle PSU in it. I put watercooling on my AMD Athlon 2600+... And now my computer keeps randomly shutting down, and one of the motherboard fan power plugs seems to have shorted. Changing so many things at one time, it gets kind of difficult to tell what went wrong... but anyway, I have my mind set on getting another (better) computer.

Before anyone tells me to wait a month or two, for that new technology... NO! I'll get that new technology when it comes out as well
So is that set-up up there ok? I mean, is there anything you might want to change or something. I'm looking for a quiet computer, that should do alright in games such as Battlefield 1942/Vietnam, and Unreal 2004.

Thanks, and sorry, and some other feelings that I can't describe.

 

[wyrd_fish]

I'd be carful of the LITE gfx card, chances are its heavily underclocked

and if your looking for a quiet PC, don't go for the biggest, baddest CPU cooler you can find

 

[Mr.Monkey3]

My only suggestion is possibly a AMD Mobile (as they can be very easily overclocked). Can be simialr prices.

 

[gunner440]

get a WD caviar instead of the seagate :l

oh and i've had bad experiences with via chipsets, no chance of getting an nforce ?

 

[Clown]

I'd be carful of the LITE gfx card, chances are its heavily underclocked

and if your looking for a quiet PC, don't go for the biggest, baddest CPU cooler you can find

Couldn't I overclock the LITE 9800 Pro like a normal one? I thought the only difference was that it didn't come with all taht software bundle. Also, that CPU cooler might be a tad expensive, but it's a Peltier thing, so it does all sorts of scientifical stuff that is nonsense to me, but I've hear it can provide really good cooling, at really low noise.

My only suggestion is possibly a AMD Mobile (as they can be very easily overclocked). Can be simialr prices.

I thought this Barton could be very very easily overclocked by just putting the FSB to 200MHz and getting DDR3200 RAM (which I forgot to add up there). I'll have a look at the AMD Mobile thing, although I kind of am looking at cheaper solutions for bigger performance... Did that make sense?

get a WD caviar instead of the seagate :l

I've got a Western Digital Caviar here already. It got whiney and slow very quick. The two 160GB Seagates downstairs still seem pretty hush hush, so I think I'm going for them again

 

[Clown]

No edit

So, I may well just end up getting that AMD Mobile XP because it runs cooler (I guess) and faster than what I have now (Thoroughbread 2600+). So will the 2400 XP-M overclock as well as the 2500 XP-M?

Oh I wish I knew what was wrong with this computer
Spending 600 quid to fix it is dumb.

 

[Mr.Monkey3]

The advantage of the mobile AMD is as you said: Runs cooler.
But it is also multiplier unlocked, meaning you have two ways to overclock. FSB and multiplier.
YAY!

 

[Clown]

I don't really wanna be buying another gigabyte of RAM but will if I have to... But I already have PC2700 RAM here...

Couldn't I run this XP Mobile at 166*13 (or maybe more) to get it running faster?

Thanks,

Clown

 

[Tom]

Why don't you take your old computer to bits, slowly reassemble it, and eliminate whatever is causing the trouble. That means no overclocking, no fancy gfx cards, nothing plugged into it, one drive, no cdrom, fresh xp install, etc.

It might work out a lot cheaper than buying a new computer.

 

[Clown]

I did. I thought it was the new PSU... but I put the old one back in and it carried on fucking up. I know the motherboard isn't 100% because one of the fan connectors on it doesn't work, and I'm not sure how easy it is to replace a Shuttle motherboard. The GFX card seems to be ok, even though I've put a screw through one of the RAM chips. So thats the reason I can't rule that out. Incedentally, I've already bought a new graphics card. I'll try that when it comes and see if the problem persists.

EDIT - I would still like an answer to that multiplier thingy question.

 

[Tom]

Did the screw go through the centre of the chip? Is it all the way through? If the card is working ok, then chances are you didn't damage the circuitry inside it. I'm betting someone here knows a program that could run a test on it?

The fan connector for the motherboard is an easy one, just wire it from a molex power connector, you won't be able to control its speed, but its only a little bit of noise.

 

[henson0115]

right the problem is most likely to be the motherboard if u screw one thing up on a mb u screw the whole thing up its preety easy to install a new motherboard bye a cheap test board or summit for a month and see if that eliminates the problem summit like a via matsonic ms8137+ or newer or even better the pc chips board from www.web-systems.com its only 25 quid

 

[Clown]

Heh Tom. I would have thought that you already know by now that I'm a sound-freak. I NEED low sound. I don't need to use the PSU for fan power quite yet though, because I've got another fan plug on the motherboard that is able to control the fanspeed. I only brought that up because it gave me the idea that the motehrboard might be broken somewhere else on it too.

The screw is just 'chipping' the edge of the RAM chip, but yeh, it runs fine most of the time.

If it WAS the motherboard, henson0115, I'm not certain that I could easily replace it, because it was made to fit in a Shuttle.

I'm sort of interested in getting this next computer now anyway. I'm interested in seeing how well the Peltier does, inside a case built for quietness.

 

[henson0115]

ive done sum resaerch and this sounds a gd deal for a shuttle motherboard chek it out it is most likely to be the motherboard take it to a shop ave it tested (wer do u live do u liv in notts if u do i no a gd place)

 

[henson0115]

http://www.digiconcepts.com/shuttle_motherboards_31.htm

 

[Clown]

Heh, thanks for the input but that website is American, I think, and I'm almost certain that those motherboards will not fit in a Shuttle case

 

[henson0115]

well they r american so probably not but ther r ones out ther ther not that hard to fit ive heard prob best just to get a new one mate