New comp

[confused]

I need a new comp for my son, as he's about to go to uni and he deffo isn't stealing this one.

Naturally building from scratch with a budget of about £900

So far i've specced one off OCUK which i'd like some imput to.

Gigabyte K8N SLi nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-040-GI)
£59.95 £59.95
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3800BVBOX) (CP-134-AM)
£204.95 £204.95
Leadtek GeForce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-069-LT)
£184.95 £184.95
OcUK Value 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 184pin DDR Memory Dual Channel Kit (MY-006-OK)
£96.95 £96.95
Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 NCQ 160GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (0A31637) (HD-001-HI)
£50.50 £50.50
Zalman CNPS7700-ALCU Ultra-Quiet CPU Cooler - Retail (HS-011-ZA)
£22.95 £22.95
Antec SLK3800BUK Black Quiet Midi Tower Case - 400W SmartPower PSU (CA-048-AN)
£58.00 £58.00
Vantec Spectrum Fan Card (FG-004-VA)
£7.95 £7.95
LG GSA-4167SBB 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Silver) - OEM (CD-034-LG)
£26.00 £26.00

Subtotal £712.20
VAT £124.64
Total £836.84


Thanks in advance

 

[Coolan]

i personaly would change the memory and go with something like Geil as thats what im using but it would cost abit more.

GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Ultra Platinum CAS2 (GL1GB3200DC) (MY-017-GL)

 

[confused]

i personaly would change the memory and go with something like Geil as thats what im using but it would cost abit more.

GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Ultra Platinum CAS2 (GL1GB3200DC) (MY-017-GL)

1gb of that Geil ram is almost as much as 2 gb of the OCUK ram

 

[Coolan]

i know thats the problem, just alot of ppl i have spoken to seem to rate it quiet highly.

 

[confused]

Just realised that i'll need an OS for it.. so had to add:
Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition - OEM (SW-022-MS)
£83.95 £83.95

 

[confused]

Ok comp all built up with that spec, yet (using card thermometer and normal mercury one) at about 67 degrees, even with the card fan, new cpu fan and with the pci fan :S

Any suggestions cos 67 seems quite hot

 

[DirtyDiana]

Ok comp all built up with that spec, yet (using card thermometer and normal mercury one) at about 67 degrees, even with the card fan, new cpu fan and with the pci fan :S

Any suggestions cos 67 seems quite hot

That is well to hot for a x64 CPU before i put my vaporchill on i think used to run about 34 degrees. Might be the thermometer thats out. Silly question but did you take the plastic off the bottom of the cpu fan when you put it on? and did you use a thermol pad on the bottom or artic silver? if you used artic silver you may have put too much on.

 

[confused]

I took off the plastic and used the pad, but after using 4 different thermometers to check temp they all come up with 65-70 C. Not 100% sure whats making all the heat though, because the whole thing seem to be about that temp.

 

[cHodAX]

That CPU temp is dangerously high, under full load you could be hitting 90c which you should never even get to with a massive overclock. At stock 3800 speed you should be getting no more than 45c at idle even when using the AMD supplied heatsink/fan.

First of all, are you using the heatsink/fan that came with the CPU? Secondly what program are you using to measure temps? Grab Speedfan from http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php just to confirm the temps. The main things most likely to cause that much heat are ;

Incorrectly installed heatsink/fan.

Too much voltage being sent to the CPU, check BIOS.

Poor contact between thermal compound on heatsink and CPU. Remove the heatsink/fan, clean the compund off the CPU/Heatsink (using rubbing alcohol) and apply a blob of Artic Silver (around the size of a cooked grain of rice is ideal).

BIOS incorrectly reporting CPU temp. Check motherboard makers website for BIOS updates, if there is a fix for a temp reporting problem that site should list it.

 

[confused]

Problem solved, now running at full load at 42c and 28 idle... CPU fan had a bad connection <blames son>

 

[Dracus]

chodax could you help me out with the speedfan program..I tried looking through help file, but couldnt find any explanations...I need to know excactly whats what in the config of speedfan. They just say temp# Few of em are obvious ofc.

Hope this helps

/Dracus

 

[cHodAX]

Temp 1 is CPU

Temp 2 and Temp 3 are usually the motherboard chipset or the motherboard ambient temp sensor. Usually the hotter of the two is the chipset.

All your temps look very reasonable. Ignore the ones that showing as 125c, they are just optional sensors that are either not connected to the monitoring IC or fitted to the board.

 

[cHodAX]

Problem solved, now running at full load at 42c and 28 idle... CPU fan had a bad connection <blames son>

Glad to hear you got it sorted out.

 

[Dracus]

Temp 1 is CPU

Temp 2 and Temp 3 are usually the motherboard chipset or the motherboard ambient temp sensor. Usually the hotter of the two is the chipset.

All your temps look very reasonable. Ignore the ones that showing as 125c, they are just optional sensors that are either not connected to the monitoring IC or fitted to the board.

Great thx now I just gotta find a better cooler for my gfx card...its too hot >_< 6600gt if you have any advice on that

/Dracus

 

[confused]

Great thx now I just gotta find a better cooler for my gfx card...its too hot >_< 6600gt if you have any advice on that

/Dracus

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=62

Thats the cooler you want for a 6600

 

[mze]

Yeah defo, ac silencer is the win, quiet and all that
Make sure u have room for it, i got MSI mobo, AC freezer 64 cpu cooler and VGA Silencer on gfx card and the two are against each other. That's a problem with MSI mobo layout tho i guess ... that is if this revision too has that bigass backside radiator .

 

[confused]

Son just bought another 7800 gt and another 2 gig of ram
And it just beat my comp at 03' benchmarking...

 

[Benedictine]

Son just bought another 7800 gt and another 2 gig of ram
And it just beat my comp at 03' benchmarking...

OT slightly can you recommend a good benchmarking site?

 

[confused]

OT slightly can you recommend a good benchmarking site?

He wants to have a higher frame rate than me on BF2... so he might stand a chance

also http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=576 for 03 benchmark
Or http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=874 for 05 benchmark.

 

[Dracus]

Kinda in the same context...whats too hot for chipset?(northbridge chip) mines runnin around 40 idle...seems a tad hot. got one of Zalmans passive coolers on it atm..so shouldnt be.

/Dracus

 

[cHodAX]

Kinda in the same context...whats too hot for chipset?(northbridge chip) mines runnin around 40 idle...seems a tad hot. got one of Zalmans passive coolers on it atm..so shouldnt be.

/Dracus

40c idle is just fine, late 40's under full load is normal.