Help please: Selecting components for a computer

[Seum]

Hello again Experts

I have ordered the power supply and expect to connect it to my old
computer for that check of the box with the Intel motherboard.

Meantime I have a good solid computer case and I am considering the
following for a "new" computer.

http://www.dabs4work.ie/products/gigabyte-am3-amd-770-ddr3-atx-7637.html

Gigabyte AM3 AMD 770 DDR3 ATX
Corsair Memory 750W TX series ATX Power Supply
Corsair Memory 2G DDR3 1333MHz VS DIMM
Athlon II X2 255 (3.1GHz, 65W, 2MB total dedicated L2 cache, 4000MHz
HyperTransport™ bus, socket AM3)
Zoom V.92 56k External USB Dongle Modem

Comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your help.

J Val H.

 

[Paul]

Hello again Experts

I have ordered the power supply and expect to connect it to my old
computer for that check of the box with the Intel motherboard.

Meantime I have a good solid computer case and I am considering the
following for a "new" computer.

http://www.dabs4work.ie/products/gigabyte-am3-amd-770-ddr3-atx-7637.html

Gigabyte AM3 AMD 770 DDR3 ATX
Corsair Memory 750W TX series ATX Power Supply
Corsair Memory 2G DDR3 1333MHz VS DIMM
Athlon II X2 255 (3.1GHz, 65W, 2MB total dedicated L2 cache, 4000MHz
HyperTransport™ bus, socket AM3)
Zoom V.92 56k External USB Dongle Modem

Comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your help.

J Val H.

The Feedback tab here, shows some customer reviews of the motherboard.

GA-MA770T-UD3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128451

It looks like a good basic board. They actually crammed four DIMM slots
on it. I thought from the shape, it might have only had room for two.

http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/13-128-451-Z02?$S640W$

The web page at Gigabyte, shows there are five different revisions of
motherboard. So the model number has been around a while.

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3533#ov

Your processor selection is in the CPU Support chart, so it should work.

http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=3533

DDR3 memory comes in 1.35V and 1.5V versions, and the 1.35V stuff is
sometimes marked as "for Intel". The Intel boards may have VDimm adjustable
all the way down to 1.35V to take advantage of the (slight) power saving.
I didn't think AMD boards went that low. It's hard for me to say, how
much of a difference that makes, except if you planned on overvolting
VDimm a fair bit. If I was shopping for the RAM, I might just buy
RAM that has no "for Intel" marking on it. But that's superstition.
I don't know how much difference it makes in practice (using 1.35V
memory and applying lots of extra voltage). Since there is no Corsair
part number above, I can't check for that.

Otherwise, nothing else comes to mind. Since you've selected a 65W
processor, I don't expect a problem there. Generally the retail
cooler is good enough for something like that. If it turns out
too noisy, you can always shop around for a physically larger
and quieter one.

The slot layout of the motherboard, leaves room for add-in cards. If
the sound is not to your liking, there will be room for a $10 sound
card. Sometimes, the driver for the sound, is more of an issue,
than the hardware provided, and buying a sound card is just to get
away from some bad software.

The motherboard has an 8 pin ATX12V power connector, but with a 65W
processor, using four of those pins is sufficient. Some motherboards
come with a piece of tape over the redundant pins, so you can see
where to fit a 2x2 connector. If your supply has a 2x4, then you can
always use it.

Paul

 

[Man-wai Chang]

Gigabyte AM3 AMD 770 DDR3 ATX

Why not 870, for example:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=870 Extreme3 R2.0

--
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[John Doe]

Hello again Experts

I have ordered the power supply

Hopefully a respected namebrand power supply.

Athlon II X2 255 (3.1GHz, 65W, 2MB total dedicated L2 cache,
4000MHz HyperTransport™ bus, socket AM3)

Dual core is a mistake IMO. Buy a quad core CPU and use Task
Manager Affinity to distribute your processes among the cores.
That way, if you have a particular application that needs to run
faster, you will have at least one (nearly) free core to speed up
that process.
--

 

[Seum]

The Feedback tab here, shows some customer reviews of the motherboard.

GA-MA770T-UD3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128451

It looks like a good basic board. They actually crammed four DIMM slots
on it. I thought from the shape, it might have only had room for two.

http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/13-128-451-Z02?$S640W$

The web page at Gigabyte, shows there are five different revisions of
motherboard. So the model number has been around a while.

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3533#ov

Your processor selection is in the CPU Support chart, so it should work.

http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=3533

DDR3 memory comes in 1.35V and 1.5V versions, and the 1.35V stuff is
sometimes marked as "for Intel". The Intel boards may have VDimm adjustable
all the way down to 1.35V to take advantage of the (slight) power saving.
I didn't think AMD boards went that low. It's hard for me to say, how
much of a difference that makes, except if you planned on overvolting
VDimm a fair bit. If I was shopping for the RAM, I might just buy
RAM that has no "for Intel" marking on it. But that's superstition.
I don't know how much difference it makes in practice (using 1.35V
memory and applying lots of extra voltage). Since there is no Corsair
part number above, I can't check for that.

Corsair Memory 2G DDR3 1333MHz VS DIMMMfr#:VS2GB1333D3 Quicklinx:79NWS00
http://www.dabs4work.ie/products/co...html?q=Corsair Memory 2G DDR3 1333MHz VS DIMM
This one has 1.5v.

Otherwise, nothing else comes to mind. Since you've selected a 65W
processor, I don't expect a problem there. Generally the retail
cooler is good enough for something like that. If it turns out
too noisy, you can always shop around for a physically larger
and quieter one.

Good advice.

The slot layout of the motherboard, leaves room for add-in cards. If
the sound is not to your liking, there will be room for a $10 sound
card. Sometimes, the driver for the sound, is more of an issue,
than the hardware provided, and buying a sound card is just to get
away from some bad software.

This was one of my important intentions. I have several old and very
good PCI sound cards. I hope the PCI slots haven't changed very much.

The motherboard has an 8 pin ATX12V power connector, but with a 65W
processor, using four of those pins is sufficient. Some motherboards
come with a piece of tape over the redundant pins, so you can see
where to fit a 2x2 connector. If your supply has a 2x4, then you can
always use it.

Good news!

Paul

Paul, you are out of this world

Thaaannnkkk YOU!

Will place an order within a few days and will check back again soon.
This www.dabs.ie has lots of very good prices but the technical support
is verrrry small.

 

[Man-wai Chang]

Dual core is a mistake IMO. Buy a quad core CPU and use Task

Manager Affinity to distribute your processes among the cores.
That way, if you have a particular application that needs to run
faster, you will have at least one (nearly) free core to speed up
that process.

Most software can't use more than 2 cores effectively.

--
@~@ Might, Courage, Vision, SINCERITY.
/ v \ Simplicity is Beauty! May the Force and farces be with you!
/( _ )\ (x86_64 Ubuntu 9.10) Linux 2.6.39
^ ^ 17:29:01 up 1 day 2:31 0 users load average: 1.11 1.09 1.06
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[Seum]

Most software can't use more than 2 cores effectively.

Thanks for the suggestion.

However, I am retired and speed or quads are not that important to me.

 

[Krypsis]

Thanks for the suggestion.

However, I am retired and speed or quads are not that important to me.

So am I but a Quad is a damn fine beast. I have a Q6600 in a beast here
and it runs like a cut cat. Very handy when doing CPU intensive tasks in
the background and you still don't notice any lag in your foreground
tasks. I was the first among my friends to go Quad but the others
quickly followed suit when they saw the benefits. You do need to be
running an OS that accommodates the multiple CPUs however. I dual boot
mine and have XP plus a 64 bit Linux running on it. Only issue I have is
with my 24" widescreen monitor. Current Linux flavour doesn't seem to
recognise it. Doesn't even want to be forced to the 1920 x 1080
resolution. Grrr.. PCLinuxOS worked perfectly but there isn't a 64 bit
version of that one... Even more odd because my laptop with its 17" HD
panel had no issue with 1920 x 1200 or 1920 x 1080.

Go for the Quad and the benefits will sneak up on you! ;-)

Krypsis

 

[Man-wai Chang]

However, I am retired and speed or quads are not that important to me.

If you had the cash, no harm going 4 or even 6.

--
@~@ Might, Courage, Vision, SINCERITY.
/ v \ Simplicity is Beauty! May the Force and farces be with you!
/( _ )\ (x86_64 Ubuntu 9.10) Linux 2.6.39
^ ^ 00:08:01 up 1 day 9:10 0 users load average: 0.00 0.01 0.05
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[John Doe]

Most software can't use more than 2 cores effectively.

That makes no difference. I'm not sure what specific argument you
are confused about, but how many cores a process can use is beside
the point.

Manually distributing processes to specific cores has nothing to
do with how many cores a process can use.

Using the method I described, with a quad core CPU, you can make a
game run faster or stop stuttering when it is maxing out one of
your cores.
--

 

[John Doe]

John Doe <jdoe usenetlove.invalid> wrote:

In case that is not clear enough... I am not talking about just
the process that needs to be faster, I am talking about lots of
processes that can be assigned/limited to specific cores, in order
to free up a core that can be used for that important CPU
intensive process.

I am retired and speed or quads are not that important to me.

Retired or not... For the vast majority of PC users doing a major
upgrade, a dual core would be a mistake. A quad core is a
cost-effective increase in performance, especially given the
performance improvement method I described above. Anything is
possible, but most people would do better with more power, even if
their current plans do not require it.
--

 

[Seum]

Hello again Experts

I have ordered the power supply and expect to connect it to my old
computer for that check of the box with the Intel motherboard.

Meantime I have a good solid computer case and I am considering the
following for a "new" computer.

http://www.dabs4work.ie/products/gigabyte-am3-amd-770-ddr3-atx-7637.html

Gigabyte AM3 AMD 770 DDR3 ATX
Corsair Memory 750W TX series ATX Power Supply
Corsair Memory 2G DDR3 1333MHz VS DIMM
Athlon II X2 255 (3.1GHz, 65W, 2MB total dedicated L2 cache, 4000MHz
HyperTransport™ bus, socket AM3)
Zoom V.92 56k External USB Dongle Modem

Comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your help.

J Val H.

Well, more bad luck :-(

The vendor could not find the :

Athlon II X2 255 (3.1GHz, 65W, 2MB total dedicated L2 cache, 4000MHz)
and they cancelled the order and they didn't have the expertize to
suggest a replacement.

 

[John Doe]

Seum wrote:

Well, more bad luck :-(

The vendor could not find the :

Athlon II X2 255 (3.1GHz, 65W, 2MB total dedicated L2 cache, 4000MHz)
and they cancelled the order and they didn't have the expertize to
suggest a replacement.

If you knew what you were doing and were willing to accept the
advice you asked for, that would be good luck. Now you can get a
modern quad core CPU for about the same price as an obsolete dual
core CPU. Quad core CPUs have been around for five years.
--



















Regular
maybe nym-shifting

 

[John Doe]

Well... Seems to me that Intel was producing economy quad core
CPUs (like the Q8200) before the i3, i5, i7 stuff took over. Looks
like they are mostly gone. Looks like they still manufacture a lot
of economy dual core CPUs.

 

[Seum]

Well... Seems to me that Intel was producing economy quad core
CPUs (like the Q8200) before the i3, i5, i7 stuff took over. Looks
like they are mostly gone. Looks like they still manufacture a lot
of economy dual core CPUs.

Thanks to all who responded. I finally managed to come up with a system
that might please myself and it was delivered today.

1 ASUS M4A88TD-V-EVO -USB3
2 Corsair 2 GB DDR3-1333 PC3-10600 CL9 Value Select PC Memory Module
(VS2GB1333D3)
3 Corsair Memory 750W TX series ATX Power Supply
4 AMD Athlon II X2 255 - 3.1 GHz - AM3 Socket (ADX255OCGQBOX)
I have a case and enough HDs already and my needs are not great. This
will be my plaything. In addition I am expecting to dump Win 7, which
drives me nuts.

Crashed computer:
I will be putting the above components into the case soon, when I find
out which component is working and which not at present. The case
contains the remains of an Intel Board D845GEBV2 and other components.
Something blew up and the PSU stopped working. I replaced it with the
new Corsair PSU and removed all the cards from the PCI slots. The video
card (Radeon 9000 64M DDRTVO)doesn't give any signal of life and the
monitor is pitch black. The little green light on the motherboard works
ok but, apart from the CPU fan and the HDs, nothing else seems to work.
It does not respond to the start button or the reset button. Any
suggestions for this situation, apart from dropping the board into the
waste bin, er. after I remove my new PSU?

TIA

 

[Paul]

Thanks to all who responded. I finally managed to come up with a system
that might please myself and it was delivered today.

1 ASUS M4A88TD-V-EVO -USB3
2 Corsair 2 GB DDR3-1333 PC3-10600 CL9 Value Select PC
Memory Module (VS2GB1333D3)
3 Corsair Memory 750W TX series ATX Power Supply
4 AMD Athlon II X2 255 - 3.1 GHz - AM3 Socket (ADX255OCGQBOX)
I have a case and enough HDs already and my needs are not great. This
will be my plaything. In addition I am expecting to dump Win 7, which
drives me nuts.

Crashed computer:
I will be putting the above components into the case soon, when I find
out which component is working and which not at present. The case
contains the remains of an Intel Board D845GEBV2 and other components.
Something blew up and the PSU stopped working. I replaced it with the
new Corsair PSU and removed all the cards from the PCI slots. The video
card (Radeon 9000 64M DDRTVO)doesn't give any signal of life and the
monitor is pitch black. The little green light on the motherboard works
ok but, apart from the CPU fan and the HDs, nothing else seems to work.
It does not respond to the start button or the reset button. Any
suggestions for this situation, apart from dropping the board into the
waste bin, er. after I remove my new PSU?

TIA

What was the brand of the old PSU ?

There is a certain model of Bestec supply, which overvolts on 5V and
burns motherboards and hard drives in the process. There would not
be a lot to save in that case.

Many other PSUs die without damaging stuff, in which case your symptoms
are harder to understand. If that were the case, it could be the
motherboard itself with a problem. You can pull the video card,
and do a "beep test". If the BIOS code was running, and the BIOS
detects no video card, it is supposed to beep an error pattern through
the case speaker. That proves the motherboard is OK, and there is
an interaction between the video card and motherboard. Using
beep tests, and removing video, RAM, video+RAM, and listening for
beeps, you can get some idea what failed.

Given that this is D845GEBV2 and has integrated video, the only good
beep test, would be to remove the Radeon 9000 video card and remove the
RAM sticks as well (with the power off). If you don't hear any beeps
on powerup, with that stuff missing, then the motherboard itself has
an issue.

Also, when working inside the computer, always check to see if any cables
have come loose. It's important for the main power connector to latch
to the motherboard. The main connector can work loose, and the
pins inside the connector can overheat and burn from the bad connection.
I've had one Molex 1x4 incinerated from such an effect. Due to the location
of that connector, the only replacement I had on hand was to make up a
pigtail for it.

Paul

 

[Seum]

To the Rescue again Paul. You are my hero

What was the brand of the old PSU ?

PC Power and Cooling, Silencer 610 EPS12V, Ultra-Quiet Power Supply. It
has the exact same cables attached as my new Corsair Memory 750W TX
series ATX Power Supply. Inside it looks pristine - no melted solder, no
blown capacitors, etc. It does not respond at all if plugged in and
switched on. I think it would be a pity to dump it. It has exactly the
same cables as the new "Corsair Memory 750W TX series ATX Power Supply"
The web site is at: http://www.pcpower.com/

There is a certain model of Bestec supply, which overvolts on 5V and
burns motherboards and hard drives in the process. There would not
be a lot to save in that case.

Fortunately for me, I have never heard of that model.

Many other PSUs die without damaging stuff, in which case your symptoms
are harder to understand. If that were the case, it could be the
motherboard itself with a problem. You can pull the video card,
and do a "beep test". If the BIOS code was running, and the BIOS
detects no video card, it is supposed to beep an error pattern through
the case speaker. That proves the motherboard is OK, and there is
an interaction between the video card and motherboard. Using
beep tests, and removing video, RAM, video+RAM, and listening for
beeps, you can get some idea what failed.

Given that this is D845GEBV2 and has integrated video, the only good
beep test, would be to remove the Radeon 9000 video card and remove the
RAM sticks as well (with the power off). If you don't hear any beeps
on powerup, with that stuff missing, then the motherboard itself has
an issue.

I pulled :
The Radeon 9000 video card - no change, no beeps
The memory cards - no change, no beeps
The Reset button does no work
The computer On switch works. The Off version does not.
As I mentioned earlier, the only signs of life are:
green light on the board, the CPU fan and the HDs.

I think that just about ends the life of that Intel Board :-(

Also, when working inside the computer, always check to see if any cables
have come loose. It's important for the main power connector to latch
to the motherboard.

There are two main connectors - a 20 pin goes onto a socket on the edge
of the board and a 2x2 near the CPU.

The main connector can work loose, and the pins inside the connector can
overheat and burn from the bad connection.

Both of those connectors have strong clips to keep them in place. I
withdrew and returned them several times. That showed nothing new.

I've had one Molex 1x4 incinerated from such an effect. Due to the location
of that connector, the only replacement I had on hand was to make up a
pigtail for it.

Wow, I feel the heat already

Paul

Thanks again Paul for your super assistance

 

[Loren Pechtel]

What was the brand of the old PSU ?

There is a certain model of Bestec supply, which overvolts on 5V and
burns motherboards and hard drives in the process. There would not
be a lot to save in that case.

I ran into a batch of IIRC Raidmax power supplies that took the board
& something (variable) with them when they died. I never tried to
figure out the exact means of destruction.

 

[Seum]

Thanks to all who responded. I finally managed to come up with a system
that might please myself and it was delivered today.

1 ASUS M4A88TD-V-EVO -USB3
2 Corsair 2 GB DDR3-1333 PC3-10600 CL9 Value Select PC
Memory Module (VS2GB1333D3)
3 Corsair Memory 750W TX series ATX Power Supply
4 AMD Athlon II X2 255 - 3.1 GHz - AM3 Socket (ADX255OCGQBOX)
I have a case and enough HDs already and my needs are not great. This
will be my plaything. In addition I am expecting to dump Win 7, which
drives me nuts.

Crashed computer:
I will be putting the above components into the case soon, when I find
out which component is working and which not at present. The case
contains the remains of an Intel Board D845GEBV2 and other components.
Something blew up and the PSU stopped working. I replaced it with the
new Corsair PSU and removed all the cards from the PCI slots. The video
card (Radeon 9000 64M DDRTVO)doesn't give any signal of life and the
monitor is pitch black. The little green light on the motherboard works
ok but, apart from the CPU fan and the HDs, nothing else seems to work.
It does not respond to the start button or the reset button. Any
suggestions for this situation, apart from dropping the board into the
waste bin, er. after I remove my new PSU?

TIA

Made a small mistake here: The start button on the computer does start
up something, e.g. the case fan and the CPU fan and HDs but another push
does not shut it down. Reset button did nothing at all. I have now
removed that board and have started installing the ASUS.

 

[Paul]

I ran into a batch of IIRC Raidmax power supplies that took the board
& something (variable) with them when they died. I never tried to
figure out the exact means of destruction.

There are undoubtedly more brands than the Bestec.

But it was the Bestec that caused so much unhappiness.
Perfectly good computers ruined in an instant. And since
the Bestec was in a pre-built computer, most of the
owners wouldn't even know what broke.

If only someone had informed the owners, they had a
ticking time bomb inside their machine :-(

Paul