Bringing the Socket A back to life.

[Woah Mama!]

So here is the goal, next week I plan to spend $200 AUD to get my Athlon XP Barton a new home (its 3rd home now :banghead: ) and a nice shiny graphics card to replace my somehow deformed 9600Pro which has been causing my latest gaming troubles.
Right now this backup system I am on is driving me insane, it's capped to 1.1ghz CPU and I only have a lousy 9550 256mb which according to ATItool runs 250/200mhz respectively :shadedshu

So, the components are; An Axper VT600 K7 (http://www.axper.com/product/motherboard/MB_XP-K7V600.htm) mobo and a Palit X800GTO 256mb AGP. You think that would be a worthwhile $200 investment to tie me over till I get my new 939 system sorted out? I would also consider the XpertVision X800GTO 256mb AGP, as it is about the same price. Not looking to break records, just play games like NFS Most Wanted and CoD2, DoW Dark Crusade etc. A mild overclock of my Barton 2600+ would be nice. Motherboard has an FSB speed of up to 400mhz so I should be able to get a little extra from my CPU as it ran 1916mhz with my Asus A7S8-MX with an FSB of 233mhz.

Doh! Please move to general hardware if possible, ta. This is what sleep deprivation does to you :(

[von kain]

ok 1 question are you a archaeologist?

[Woah Mama!]

No, I am in the process of moving house, rebuilding two Range Rovers, paying bills and using what I've got sitting about. Like I've said, I am putting a reasonably solid s939 system together but I won't get it over here for some time as it is at my mums in America. This is a cheap tie over.

[DaMulta]

Go with the HD2600XT instead of that X800.

It's to bad you don't have DDR2 because you could get a video card/motherboard/CPU for around that price in AM2.

[Woah Mama!]

I know, I hate DDR2 for some reason. Is a pain that pretty much every computer store I called around me looking for an Abit Av8 board originally when my Asus gave out, either didnt have any 939s, or they were more expensive then an AM2 setup.
$100 2600XT huh? I imagine that it will overclock better then a X800 GTO?

[hat]

It will be faster than an x800GTO stock, has DX10 and SM 4.0, although not sure about OC abilities. It has no PCI-E connector. I doubt an x800GTO can be overclocked enough to meet the performance of an overclocked 2600xt GDDR4.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102102

[DaMulta]

Well maybe not but then you would have SM3.0(And 4.0).

I had a X800 and a x1600. The X800 was faster, but I liked my x1600 more.


Yea you can find those HD2600 for some good prices if you look around.

[Woah Mama!]

Well I'm pretty much splitting $100 each way, my motherboad will be $90.50 so I have $109.50 for my new cheapo graphics solution. This is AUd and I dont want to screw around waiting for things to get shipped to me that are outside of Australia or that I can't just go buy for a similar price at the local stores in Penrith. In all honesty I need this to keep me sane. You can't go taking cars apart only a week before you are moving them to a new place.

LMAO, a random call from a mate just then yielded the results of him having 3 spare brand new AGP cards sitting around. So I'll grab one of those, just have to choose between spending that $100 on, either a sata hdd or a case/psu so i can send my TR2 back to Thermaltake for warranty. I have insomnia.

[pt]

the hd2600xt oc quite well

[3991vhtes]

w00t!! Socket A! :toast:

Feel free to come to my club house (http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=39517). :)

[Woah Mama!]

Thanks for the move pt! I'll probably keep building this up to run as a lan/server/internet mule when I get my new rig together. So it seems I'll be buying a HD2600XT for this later on, hoping I can find one for a reasonable price in AGP though.

[hat]

You need AGP?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129092

Better OC it to 900/1000 :p

this will be more overclockable, it has the PCI-E power connector. It also has 512MB RAM which will help a little in DX10.

[pt]

You need AGP?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129092

Better OC it to 900/1000 :p

this will be more overclockable, it has the PCI-E power connector. It also has 512MB RAM which will help a little in DX10.

the xt will wipe the floor with that card, and has i said before, the pci-e is useless in this cards, and 512 aswell, since you won't be able to play in dx10 at high settings anyway ;)

[hat]

Which XT? 2600XT? The guy said he needed AGP, and that's really the best AGP DX10 solution out there. I can't reccomend a DX9 card with all this DX10 stuff coming out...

[pt]

Which XT? 2600XT? The guy said he needed AGP, and that's really the best AGP DX10 solution out there. I can't reccomend a DX9 card with all this DX10 stuff coming out...

there isn't a hd2600xt agp flavour? :wtf:

[hat]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048+1069609639+106792278&name=Radeon+HD+2000+series
AGP HD2k series on Newegg. The fastest is a 2600pro.

With 512MB memory overclocked to 900 core/1000 memory it can't exactly be slow...

[pt]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048+1069609639+106792278&name=Radeon+HD+2000+series
AGP HD2k series on Newegg. The fastest is a 2600pro.

With 512MB memory overclocked to 900 core/1000 memory it can't exactly be slow...

oh, my bad then, then that's prob the better choice

[Random Murderer]

oh, my bad then, then that's prob the better choice

no, there IS a 2600xt agp, just not on newegg. he's in australia anyway, newegg doesn't ship there, hat ;)

[Wile E]

no, there IS a 2600xt agp, just not on newegg. he's in australia anyway, newegg doesn't ship there, hat ;)He made reference to his mother being able to ship it to him from the US.

[Random Murderer]

He made reference to his mother being able to ship it to him from the US.

he also said
This is AUd and I dont want to screw around waiting for things to get shipped to me that are outside of Australia or that I can't just go buy for a similar price at the local stores in Penrith.

[Wile E]

he also said
Ah, somehow missed that.

[Ketxxx]

KT600 chipset = crapness. NF2 mobo only to do anything in the system justice.

[AddSub]

X800GTO AGP vs HD2600XT AGP

GPU comparison link:
http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=521&card2=356

[Woah Mama!]

Thanks for all the replies fellas. All I'm after with this is to get it back and running. The X800GTO and the Gigabyte rip-off motherboard are the easiest/cheapest way to do it, not really after buying things from Newegg if there is a viable solution that would only take a few days to get to my door here. I meant going with Newegg if worst came to worse, by that comparison that AddSub linked to it looks like a mildly overclocked X800 would be fine for DX9 games like NFS Most Wanted, Dawn Of War etc like I referred to in my original post. I'll keep those 2600s in mind for a month or so when I'm building my DFI and end up buying more ram from NewEgg. Right now there are a few VisionTek X800s on eBay, I imagine that would be quite usable for awhile?
Like I said, need it all quick and am trying to limit the spending. Found out that those cards my mate has are a crappy Sapphire 9550 256mb which is exactly what is in this disturbingly slow computer right now, the others are a 128mb HIS 9500 something that is having some serious noise issues, and the other wasn't any better then my 128mb GeCube 9550 I have in a box somewhere.
I know the KT600 is an old chipset and that yes the equivalent nVidia chipset board would probably be better but I managed to run TDU & Quake 4 quite nicely with my VIA board, so seems good enough for now, once it gets the 2600 later down the track then I think the equivalent nVidia board would look quite sad as to my knowledge not many nVidia 512bit/DX10/affordable cards come in AGP?
Would an X800GTO be a decent DX9 card? I've heard good things about them but not too sure on the cheaper versions.

[ex_reven]

This is AUd and I dont want to screw around waiting for things to get shipped to me that are outside of Australia or that I can't just go buy for a similar price at the local stores in Penrith. In all honesty I need this to keep me sane. You can't go taking cars apart only a week before you are moving them to a new place.

PENRIFF!
Western Suburbs represent lol.

What stores are you using?

[AddSub]

I got a PCIe Powercolor X800GTO in my media box. I've got no complaints. I don't use my media box for heavy gaming, but I did/do benchmark and tweak it. (3DMark01, 03, 05, 06, GL Excess, etc) and it performs pretty well. Also, they are dirt cheap nowadays (eBay-wise). It won't break your wallet and you will get pretty decent performance.

[Woah Mama!]

ex_reven - Usually ARC. I built all of that socket A through them. I'm keeping Scorptech in Victoria in mind, though as a last resort. eBay is alright, there is some X800s on there now for cheap, I know that ARC has next to nothing AGP wise that is decent. Know of any other good stores are Penrith? Quick calls through the list in yellowpages didn't yield any better-than-eBay results.

[ex_reven]

ex_reven - Usually ARC. I built all of that socket A through them. I'm keeping Scorptech in Victoria in mind, though as a last resort. eBay is alright, there is some X800s on there now for cheap, I know that ARC has next to nothing AGP wise that is decent. Know of any other good stores are Penrith? Quick calls through the list in yellowpages didn't yield any better-than-eBay results.

Hmm never heard of ARC. I believe Scorptech is slightly expensive.
The only store Ive physically been to is MSY in Auburn, which is cheap although the customer service is seriously lacking (its an extremely popular [not to mention small] store packed with hardware). Other notables Ive bought off are generally in North Sydney area (I only shop online with them so far), ITEstate (excellent), Maco technology and Umart (decent - but I believe they have shut up shop recently).

These online stores are pretty reasonably priced and it isnt too expensive to get stuff shipped to your house.

Incidentally do you use staticice? Its an excellent search engine for hardware, I advise you to try it if you havnt http://www.staticice.com.au/. I dont use ebay anymore because there are too many people trying to rip others off on there now in terms of both exorbitant prices and actual illegal scams.

[Woah Mama!]

MSY - I've heard of their lack of customer care too. I only buy brand new computer parts on eBay from eStores. That way if you get something that is falsely advertised or whatever you can actually report them and they get huge repercussions if they didn't help you out once you received your item. There is a Crucial X1600 Pro 512mb on eBay right now, it's for the maximum price I would spend on my computer and it is buy it now, brand new. Worth it over an X800GTO? It only has just over 2 days left before the listing ends though.

[AddSub]

Well, if you intend to do any gaming with latest SM3/4 titles at any decent visual settings, then both X1600Pro and HD2600XT would be somewhat underpowered. Although, I would recommend 2600XT. If you are not going to do any serious gaming, then I recommend X800GTO. Overall, X1600Pro is the weakest card of the three. I mean, it has 512MB of VRAM, but since it is memory bandwidth starved (@ around 12GB/sec, 128bit), 512MB of it won't help out much.

Also, if you don't intend to keep this machine for long or use it extensively, I recommend going for the most economical option.

[Woah Mama!]

There is only a $13 price difference between the two cards, so both would be economical. The motherboard, while not great is the best for the price on eBay right now. There is no point calling computer stores for Socket A now, as even if they do have something it is grossly overpriced.
So I think my original combination of the motherboard and an X800GTO is the best option. Pity there is no Palit X800GTO going on eBay now as there was the other week. Only Xpertvision ones. No matter, I read an old X800GTO vs X1600 Pro post on here from a year ago and saw the GTO was the better card from what was said.

So I'm back to the beginning now and getting a 2600XT for this rig later on, probably at the beginning of next year.

Cheers again.

[ex_reven]

How much was the x800gto on ebay?
http://www.stonebridgecomputing.com.au/catalog/-p-11206.html?osCsid=bc0277067596dc79acb23fa68ce1ad7a
$90 here

[Woah Mama!]

Just a quick update on this rig, motherboard is on it's way and so is the X800. Thanks for that link ex_reven, it also turns out that SBC has 939 4200 X2 Athlons for basically the same price I paid for my 3800 OEM from NewEgg+relevant sihpping, damnit.
Oh well, that is an excuse to build a third computer right? :D

[Craigleberry]

I only threw my old 2700+ out the other day still sitting in its Soltek board :)

[DrunkenMafia]

Hey Whoamama

Good to see another aussie in here..... even though you are from "down" there.. lol

I was just havin a look at some parts and man, you coulda got:

AM2 mb - $60
3200 AM2 cpu - $59
512mb DDR2 - $27
8500gt pci-e - $92

That only comes to $238 man.......

It is newer, better, faster, DX10, more effecient, more upgradeable, bro the list could go on for ever.....

Its a shame the parts are already on the way....

Good luck with it though.

:)

[Woah Mama!]

Craigleberry - Damn. :(

DrunkenMafia - Yeah, in theory I could have got an extremely budgeted AM2 setup but I have a 939 project in the works, so wouldn't need another. I mean that in the way of; why spend that extra $50 for something I wouldn't even be using once my 939 gets all set up. I'd not be bothered to try and sell the AM2 once my 939 got here as I'm not bothering to sell my socket A, otherwise I would have done that instead of getting it back up and running. Also bought some new G Skills ram for that 939 but have decided not to use it. I'll instead use it with one of my existing 512mbs for my socket A. If it gives out again sometime in the near future then I will be able to get twice as good an AM2 rig.
But somehow I think these will be my last rigs for awhile, afterall I will have up to 3 Range Rovers to build and spend money on next year including a $30,000+ Tuff Truck.

[DrunkenMafia]

yeah man, I see what you mean, even a 939 system is getting outdated and expensive now, due to it also being ddr1. AM2 is so much cheaper and quicker.

Don't get me wrong 939 was/is a great socket but it is getting outdated and more expensive. Mandalore might get a little cranky with that statement... lol :)

If I were you mate I wouldn't even get that 939 system frieghted over here, sell it in the US and use the coin for a 775/am2 system over here...

Oh and I gotta see some pics of your tuff truck too, when its done... :)

[Woah Mama!]

Well the CPU, ram and motherboard are on their way as I type this. I've got the goal to do serious overclocking with my 939, possibly chuck an Opty on it and by the time I actually have the money to get back into the computer hardware side of things even 775 and AM2 will be outdated.
Tuff Truck will be made from a 1977 Range Rover coupe, trayback with either a built up 308 or a blown Toyota 1UZFE. Right now it's either a Tuff Truck or moving to Canada, don't know yet.

[DrunkenMafia]

Sounds good man, definitely go with the 308. I used to own a VR SS 5lt in my younger days and I will always miss the v8 it had... It just gives you an awesome sense of power... lol

Although with fuel prices these days you may not be able to afford it... :(

If you need a hand ocin' that 939 sys let me know, my last rig was a crossfire opty 165 setup, I loved it.

[bigboi86]

I know, I hate DDR2 for some reason. Is a pain that pretty much every computer store I called around me looking for an Abit Av8 board originally when my Asus gave out, either didnt have any 939s, or they were more expensive then an AM2 setup.
$100 2600XT huh? I imagine that it will overclock better then a X800 GTO?

Why didnt you just build a cheap AM2 system? A 30dollar AM2 Sempron and a 50dollar motherboard will rape that Socket A all day.

DDR2 is cheaper than DDR1, and it's faster, yet you hate it?

Buying obsolete hardware is more expensive than buying newer hardware, and it's a waste of money.

[Woah Mama!]

Dude, it's already done. So technically, you're wasting your time if I'm wasting my money right?

All computers are a waste of money, because whatever you buy is outdated not 6 months after you spent your money. So far I have spent less then $400 AUD and have two decent enough computers for what I want them for, what's the problem with that?

[AddSub]

All computers are a waste of money, because whatever you buy is outdated not 6 months after you spent your money. So far I have spent less then $400 AUD and have two decent enough computers for what I want them for, what's the problem with that?

Nothing at all. AM2 is overrated anyhow. It's really 939 with DDR2 support, except DDR2 is not that important for AMD platforms (well compared to bandwidth hungry Intel platforms). Tight latency DDR can equal or beat DDR2-667, and in some instances there is no difference between tight latency DDR and DDR2-800 (as far as AMD platforms are concerned)

As for Socket A, there is plenty of life and purpose left for that platform.

[Woah Mama!]

Hope the G Skills (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231012) ram I have got on the way will be good enough for extending my socket A life then, I at least know that it is better then my 4 year old Kingston sticks.

[bigboi86]

Nothing at all. AM2 is overrated anyhow. It's really 939 with DDR2 support, except DDR2 is not that important for AMD platforms (well compared to bandwidth hungry Intel platforms). Tight latency DDR can equal or beat DDR2-667, and in some instances there is no difference between tight latency DDR and DDR2-800 (as far as AMD platforms are concerned)

As for Socket A, there is plenty of life and purpose left for that platform.

Doesn't matter.

DDR2 is cheaper.

[Craigleberry]

[QUOTE=Woah Mama!;491829]Craigleberry - Damn. :(
QUOTE=] Yep as I chucked it in my bin I said to myself no use hanging on to this No one would want it:laugh:

[Woah Mama!]

Craigleberrry - Checked eBay lately? People still spend plenty of money on even used socket A motherboards as unless you are lucky enough to find something decent the only ones available now are POS Asrock MATX.

bigboi86 - Do you also disagree with other peoples taste in which colour they choose for their car or what fridge they buy for their kitchen?

[Wile E]

Nothing at all. AM2 is overrated anyhow. It's really 939 with DDR2 support, except DDR2 is not that important for AMD platforms (well compared to bandwidth hungry Intel platforms). Tight latency DDR can equal or beat DDR2-667, and in some instances there is no difference between tight latency DDR and DDR2-800 (as far as AMD platforms are concerned)BS. Throw some CAS3 DDR2-800 in an AM2 setup, and see which performs better. Or how about CAS4 DDR2-1000?

DDR can no longer keep up with DDR2.

bigboi86 - Do you also disagree with other peoples taste in which colour they choose for their car or what fridge they buy for their kitchen?In his defense, a color choice is a matter of personal preference, it can't really be compared to the DDR1/DDR2 debate. As for fridge, if somebody you know bought an older fridge for more money than a newer and better one, wouldn't you say something?

Not picking a fight, just trying to put it in a different perspective. I have nothing against your 939 or Skt A setups.

[hat]

I also agree that socket 939 is still a great platfom, but AM2 is superior because it supports newer, faster processors and just face it, DDR2 is faster than DDR1 in any aspect. Latency isn't everything.

[bigboi86]

As for fridge, if somebody you know bought an older fridge for more money than a newer and better one, wouldn't you say something?


I found it to be a lot cheaper to build a good AM2 rig than it was to build a 939 rig. DDR2 is so cheap too, I love it :)

I'm not hating on anyone's rig either.

[Woah Mama!]

Not saying there is any hating going on but I am saying just what Wile E said really, it's personal preference in a way. My preference was to spend as little as possible and I didn't really care if I had the latest platform or not. In essence it was more expensive to build an economy pack AM2 and if I did, then what was the point of buying my 939 stuff last month?
Like I said earlier, I'm not too fussed about keeping up to date with a market that is always ahead of you no matter how much you spend.

Also, AM2+DDR2+PCIE means more power consumption which in term equals to a bigger electricity bill and a smaller budget for my long awaited Tuff Truck build up. Right now, that $50 I've saved is $50 more towards the 3.5" steel tube I need for my tray.

[3991vhtes]

I will admit this - Socket A is old, and i've gotten struck w/ the upgrade bug. now, my previous rig is my "guest" PC so no one can use mine :)

[/ off topic]

[Woah Mama!]

So there is another good reason to spend less on this socket A, it'll be an internet mule in the end. No point wasting a dual core and all that jazz for something so mundane.

[3991vhtes]

well if you dont plan on gaming, or movie editing, or anything that is CPU intense, then Socket a is perfect for your needs.

[bigboi86]

Not saying there is any hating going on but I am saying just what Wile E said really, it's personal preference in a way. My preference was to spend as little as possible and I didn't really care if I had the latest platform or not. In essence it was more expensive to build an economy pack AM2 and if I did, then what was the point of buying my 939 stuff last month?
Like I said earlier, I'm not too fussed about keeping up to date with a market that is always ahead of you no matter how much you spend.

Also, AM2+DDR2+PCIE means more power consumption which in term equals to a bigger electricity bill and a smaller budget for my long awaited Tuff Truck build up. Right now, that $50 I've saved is $50 more towards the 3.5" steel tube I need for my tray.

AM2 CPUs and DDR2 use less wattage than 939 and ddr1. Also.. PCIE only uses up wattage if there is a video card or PCIE card in.

But I understand about getting the other parts.. too bad you wouldnt have planned out an AM2 system.

[pt]

am2 = less power comsuption (brisbannes, etc)
ddr2 = use less votlage than ddr
pci-e = depends the gfx card you use

[Woah Mama!]

Regardless, the X800 is on it's way. Hoping to hear from the eBay seller I got the motherboard from tonight saying he will post it off in the morning. Always makes me happy to know that the barton will once again roar into life, even if it is for a short amount of time. Lets hope the third motherboard and the third graphics card are the lucky ones.

[AddSub]

Woah Mama!, you'll be just fine with socket A/462 machine. As for multi-core CPUs? Well they are really useless at this point in time, outside of few specialized and specific applications. There just isn’t enough software out there to fully take advantage of them. Simple as that. 10 years from now? Sure, but today? Nope. You aren’t missing much for now. Paired up with that X800 card, you'll have enough pixel pushing power for some decent gaming and media playback.

I myself had basically maxed out the socket A/462 platform before I fully switched to socket 754/939. I had what I believe was/is the fastest CPU for socket A/462, an Athlon XP 3200+ (which I sold on eBay for almost twice as much as I paid), an EPoX based nForce2 Ultra 400 motherboard (another max-out item for socket A/462), top of the line DDR, so on and so forth. I built two socket 754 machines and three socket 939 machines before I could notice any overall performance increases vs. that old maxed-out socket A/462 machine. And that was on my second to last socket 939 machine I built (see the specs to the left). In all the time I used it (the maxed-out socket A machine) I had no problems with "movie editing" (encoding?), gaming, whatever. And if I still had it today, along with a nice modern AGP based video card it would still perform just fine.

Yeah, I mean socket A/462 must have sucked for people who had shitty SiS based motherboards and were running Durons along with paltry 64MB of RAM and a junky budget minded GeForce2 MX.

[Craigleberry]

My old setup was good other than I had the Soltek mob:slap:o eeeek

[Woah Mama!]

Yeah I know a socket A can hold it's own. I mean, like I've previously said I played hundreds of hours of Test Drive Unlimited on my Asus boarded one before I got sick of Atari's general attitude towards the PC game. Considering that I was the only person able to push 24-31FPS with a computer that didn't meet Atari's posted minimum specs surprised a lot of people.
Well at least having an X800 in this now will make it noticeably faster then it was before. Also, chucking in that G Skills Ram with an extra 512mb of my Kingston stuff will give it a kick. At least I know that I can sell whatever socket A component I like for a lot of money on eBay if I choose to next year.

[Woah Mama!]

Ok, a few hours ago I got this all sorted out in it's new home; A Coolermaster 534. But, I think there is something stupidly unstable with my motherboard, I've only had it in use for an hour or two but haven't been able to play more then a few minutes of any games. All of this computer is brand new aside from my sound card, hard drive and one 512mb stick of Kingston ram.
I can't see the Audigy being the problem, as it was working perfectly well yesterday in my brothers computer. It's only say, 2 years old at most. The hard drive is rather lame, it is a Maxtor which is pretty much my least favourite brand. But this doesn't seem like anything to do with a hard drive failure. My stick of ram was, like the Audigy, working fine yesterday in my brothers PC.
So I managed to play Most Wanted for about 10 minutes maximum before the monitor went on standby mode, the sound was stuck in a millisecond loop but it didn't turn itself off. I just tried again then after watching a Top Gear episode and half of Getaway in Stockholm 4 and managed to last 3-4 minutes before the computer reset itself. I can spend as much time in windows as I would like to be spending in a game without it crashing. I'm struggling to figure out what is wrong with it as like I said, every main component is brand new. I'm going to try reinstalling some ATi drivers as the XpertVision driver CD that came with my card is really buggy and slow. It doesn't like being accessed manually, either does my motherboard CD. The only auxiliaries plugged in are the front and rear 120MM case fans, one with a speed adjuster and an LED, the other fan is standard CoolerMaster. The other thing is the two LEDs that are in the case's front behind some mesh openings.
Should I try some different display drivers and then try without that stick of Kingston ram? There is no revised BIOS for my motherboard, I am not sure if a Gigabyte BIOS would work?


Please don't tell me my north/southbridge is screwed already :(

[JrRacinFan]

Holey schnikeys! What chipset is it? nForce?

Whats your power supply volts look/fans sound like?

[Woah Mama!]

Its the best chispet I could find on a new motherboard. Northbridge is VIA KT600 Southbridge is VIA VT8237R. I originally built my socket A on a Gigabyte K7 VT600P-RZ. It was sucha nice board at the time I wanted to find another when it burnt out thanks to a cheap kettle my mum bought..
Power Supply is a CoolerMaster 430v. It has 2 12V rails, ratings are

+12v1 +12v2 -12v1 -12V2

14A 15A 28A 30A

Looked more then enough to run a socket A with single IDE HDD, single IDE DVD, AGP8x X800GTO, SB Audigy & 1.5GB of DDR400.

Everything sounds fine, all fans are working, it all looks great. I turned it off after the second crash and felt all the heatsinks and ram and they were all barely warm, including the northbridge and the southbridge itself.

[JrRacinFan]

Very very strange! That chipset is one of the best for Socket A.

Only thing I can come up with is corrupted chipset GART drivers.

[Woah Mama!]

Not impossible..... Like I said, the motherboard disk is pretty crap, I'll try finding a driver for it and also update the Catalyst driver too.

I wonder why there is no nForce2 motherboards still available now for the socket A. Up until the Axper came along all there was were SiS Asus boards and SiS Gigabyte boards. I learnt early that SiS suck. Those Asrock boards are a joke, they seem to be all there is for socket A unless you look harder.

[JrRacinFan]

Actually, I had an Asrock K7VT4A Pro/Sempron 2400+ at one time. Was my favorite rig out of all my older stuff.

Check out this page for drivers.

http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=2

[Woah Mama!]

Thanks for the link, I downloaded the VIA chipset driver from the Axper website. I'll go see if it works while I'm downloading the new Hyperion one. hope it does, I want this to be software and not hardware related...roffle.... :P

[Woah Mama!]

Ok, downloaded the drivers from the Axper website. Just had a sturdy warm-up pursuit in Most Wanted.... 98 cop cars later and I was still going. So seems to have worked.

Thanks a bunch Jr, let the overclocking commence :)

[JrRacinFan]

Anytime bro.

[Woah Mama!]

Ok so I am on the next step of this build; overclocking.

So far I've got the FSB steady at 180mhz with no ratio or voltage change. I'm running at 1980mhz instead of standard 1813mhz. I've got a decent heatsink on my CPU, I'd like to replace the fan on it and I probably will put a new 80MM on there this Thursday. Now, I tried to goto 185FSB but after I saved to CMOS and restarted the monitor wasn't turning on. So I turned it off and waited 20 seconds, turn it back on and the monitor started up fine... Windows got to its log-on screen, I clicked on my profile and then it reset. Then the monitor wouldn't turn back on so I turned it off, and waited 20 seconds again. It worked and I went into the BIOS and put the FSB back to 180.
I then reset and managed to load windows, I restarted and then tried to put the FSB back to 185 and bump voltage up from 1.600v standard to 1.625v. That is the right way? You are meant to only bump voltage up by .025v at a time and only if the CPU fails to boot into windows? So I tried it, reset and the monitor was ok but it wouldn't get past the windows loading screen. So, reset, put the voltage and the FSB back to 180. That is where I am at now.
I've no idea about how to specifically overclock a Socket A. I just put into practice what I had previously read on overclocking a CPU. My BIOS has the option for me to change the CPU ratio, DIMM voltage and AGP voltage. Right now I am only trying to get my CPU faster as I only have the R420 X800GTO not the R480 ( :( ) and only 2 of my 3 ram chips are good overclocking candidates. I'm fine with having 1.5GB of ram actually.

Edit: Ok so after a good look around it seems I won't get much out of this, which is fine because if I could just break 2ghz I'd be happy enough.

So with my options now, how would it be possible to get an extra 2% or thereabouts of an overclock. Currently, according to CrystalCPUID I'm at a flat 8.0% overclock in just FSB settings.

[JrRacinFan]

Do you have an unlocked proc?

I was going to say, you will probably notice better performance dropping the multi down one notch and upping the fsb more.

[Woah Mama!]

Nah, from what I've figured, all socket A's made after late 2003 are locked at x11.0. All I can choose between is ratio and voltages. 1980.0mhz is so close to what I want to achieve it's just furstrating.

[hat]

Try just using your shiny new Gskill, take the Kingston loner out for now, see what happens. If no, bump the DIMM voltage up slightly. If no, feed the CPU a little bit more.