Put together a AMD 64 system with 6800GT

[John]

unfortunately it was for a neighbor and not for me. The case is too
goofy for my taste anyway. Since it was for his kid , he picked out a
case which has bubble bar lights in the front and the buttons glow
with a blue light. A real psychedelic effect almost as fun as watching
a lava lamp.

One thing I noticed , the brackets /mounts are really great now. The
Asus board came with a metal bracket that fits underneat and a large
plastic square frame for the top. It was already installed. All you do
is put the AMD chip in as usual and plop the huge heatsink/fan in
which fits snugly in the square bracket so theres very little chance
of chipping it etc.

The clips are also a vast improvement. You can fit the clips on by
hand super easily onto the clips. And there theres a plastic lever
which is part of the heatsink assemply that easily pushes down on the
clip giving it tension which locks in place. A vast improvement over
the old system.

The temp readings on the 3200 AMD were low too 100-110 F and the fan
was another low rpm fan around 3000 rpm or so, fairly quiet.

The whole thing was a breeze to put together. He bought two sticks of
512 samsung 3200 at a gross price but it works fine.

The only "problem" i had was like another poster the thing spun and
lit iup but the there were no beeps and the chip seemed dead. I spent
an hour doing things and feeling the chip which was stone cold and
there was no video. I began to wonder if the AMD 64 might be
different and take TWO power connections to the MB like the newer
graphics cards. So after an hour I gave up and actually read the
manual........... DUHHHHH.

Yup two power connections to the MB. Theres the usual one and dinky
one thats described as giving more power to the CPU. After that the
whole things fired up like its supposed to.

I definitely want to get one of these babies soon --- the AMD 64
though my XP 3200 is fine.

 

[kony]

unfortunately it was for a neighbor and not for me. The case is too
goofy for my taste anyway. Since it was for his kid , he picked out a
case which has bubble bar lights in the front and the buttons glow
with a blue light. A real psychedelic effect almost as fun as watching
a lava lamp.

That is a shame, those are crap cases. Do not use the generic
power supply included with case, it cannot support even what few
parts you've already mentioned.

One thing I noticed , the brackets /mounts are really great now. The
Asus board came with a metal bracket that fits underneat and a large
plastic square frame for the top. It was already installed. All you do
is put the AMD chip in as usual and plop the huge heatsink/fan in
which fits snugly in the square bracket so theres very little chance
of chipping it etc.

The clips are also a vast improvement. You can fit the clips on by
hand super easily onto the clips. And there theres a plastic lever
which is part of the heatsink assemply that easily pushes down on the
clip giving it tension which locks in place. A vast improvement over
the old system.

Err, ok, but how many times did you plan on installing the
heatsink? It's really no big deal providing heatsink (clip) is
properly designed.

The temp readings on the 3200 AMD were low too 100-110 F and the fan
was another low rpm fan around 3000 rpm or so, fairly quiet.

The whole thing was a breeze to put together. He bought two sticks of
512 samsung 3200 at a gross price but it works fine.

The only "problem" i had was like another poster the thing spun and
lit iup but the there were no beeps and the chip seemed dead. I spent
an hour doing things and feeling the chip which was stone cold and
there was no video. I began to wonder if the AMD 64 might be
different and take TWO power connections to the MB like the newer
graphics cards. So after an hour I gave up and actually read the
manual........... DUHHHHH.

Yup two power connections to the MB. Theres the usual one and dinky
one thats described as giving more power to the CPU. After that the
whole things fired up like its supposed to.

I definitely want to get one of these babies soon --- the AMD 64
though my XP 3200 is fine.

Get the video card first.

 

[John]

That is a shame, those are crap cases. Do not use the generic
power supply included with case, it cannot support even what few
parts you've already mentioned.

It was an enermax. Get this, one just like it minus the light bars in
the front that change colors and look like they are filled with
bubbles -- costs 53 bucks at Newegg. I think he paid $165 ! Yikes !
And then he got talked into another $100 for a 500 watt PS. Luckily he
remembered I told him he needed a really good PS for such a system but
he was supposed to wait. He bought it on impulse and I was supposed to
order the parts for him for much cheaper prices. $265 for a case and
PS - WOW.

I actually cut my finger inside. Some of the metal edges are
incredibly sharp.

Get the video card first.

I have the 9800 - ill probably wait on the vid card hoping theyll
fall a bit by Xmas. Eventhough Ive been converted somewhat to the
insanely priced cards - 399 still seems insane. Around 250-280 seems
like a reasonable, insane price.

Strangely enough Ive been using it tonight and its not as different as
I thought it would be. With all the hype I thought I would turn on all
the effects in Far Cry and Doom and it would look vastly different
than my 9800 and that the action would be so fast Id be amazed. Not
that its not better but as usual with many PC upgrades - its fuinny
but its not a night and day difference at a first glance. Im sure if I
lived with it - encoding video and stuff like that I would really
appreciate the extra speed. Also with all the hype about how fast it
was installing stuff Im surprised how slow it is. Not that it isnt
faster once again but the reviews were like - WOW , that Win
installation just flew onto my PC ! Sure it doesnt make your DVD
drive any faster but you know those long waits you get --- probably
was a lot faster, but its not like I saw the progress bars just
zooming along at a mindboggling speed.

 

[kony]

It was an enermax. Get this, one just like it minus the light bars in
the front that change colors and look like they are filled with
bubbles -- costs 53 bucks at Newegg. I think he paid $165 ! Yikes !

LOL, I was thinking of the one at Newegg, don't know details of
the Enermax but that Newegg case is quite poor, much better to
look at than to build a system.

And then he got talked into another $100 for a 500 watt PS. Luckily he
remembered I told him he needed a really good PS for such a system but
he was supposed to wait. He bought it on impulse and I was supposed to
order the parts for him for much cheaper prices. $265 for a case and
PS - WOW.

I actually cut my finger inside. Some of the metal edges are
incredibly sharp.

Hmm, has Enermax dropped in quality?
I don't have any Enermax cases here, never felt "moved" by any of
them enough to try one.

I have the 9800 - ill probably wait on the vid card hoping theyll
fall a bit by Xmas. Eventhough Ive been converted somewhat to the
insanely priced cards - 399 still seems insane. Around 250-280 seems
like a reasonable, insane price.




Strangely enough Ive been using it tonight and its not as different as
I thought it would be. With all the hype I thought I would turn on all
the effects in Far Cry and Doom and it would look vastly different
than my 9800 and that the action would be so fast Id be amazed. Not
that its not better but as usual with many PC upgrades - its fuinny
but its not a night and day difference at a first glance. Im sure if I
lived with it - encoding video and stuff like that I would really
appreciate the extra speed. Also with all the hype about how fast it
was installing stuff Im surprised how slow it is. Not that it isnt
faster once again but the reviews were like - WOW , that Win
installation just flew onto my PC ! Sure it doesnt make your DVD
drive any faster but you know those long waits you get --- probably
was a lot faster, but its not like I saw the progress bars just
zooming along at a mindboggling speed.

WIndows is renowned for cancelling any hardware progress the
industry makes. I think it's part of the plan, to make sure
people feel motivated to buy another PC, that comes with another
windows license of course.

 

[YanquiDawg]

Same as the P4.>The only "problem" i had was like another poster the thing spun
and

lit iup but the there were no beeps and the chip seemed dead. I spent
an hour doing things and feeling the chip which was stone cold and
there was no video. I began to wonder if the AMD 64 might be
different and take TWO power connections to the MB like the newer graphics

cards. So after an hour I gave up and actually read the

 

[John]

LOL, I was thinking of the one at Newegg, don't know details of
the Enermax but that Newegg case is quite poor, much better to
look at than to build a system.

Im sure overall they are still the same. Actually Im a bit confused
but as usual Im sure its one of those outsourcing deals - there was no
name on the case. Came in a generic box so I looked up the model
number. The only thing that came up with it was an Enermax and at
their website they had the exact case - bar lights the whole bit under
the same model number.

Another thing the one just like it listed as a Enermax but w/o bar
lights at Newegg - consumers were complaining they didnt get any
instructions. Who needs instructions for a case - I can hear everyone
saying. Well this one does have lots of extra stuff on it though you
can figure it out obviously it would have been nice to get some. I
found you can d/l them at the site though they dont exactly match the
actual case - no lead for Power LED though theres various other power
plugs that light up the whole front anyway. .

Overall it looks like Enermax just bought a case that was outsourced
similar to the zillions of boxy mid tower designs with some slight
variations all over the net. The Antec cases though they are also
outsourced obviously since Chieftec and many others have similar cases
-- seems a lot more professiojnally packaged with lots of docs and
packaging for screws and extras and the inside looks beautifully
finished.

WIndows is renowned for cancelling any hardware progress the
industry makes. I think it's part of the plan, to make sure
people feel motivated to buy another PC, that comes with another
windows license of course.

Yeah the indiustry has been dead since there hasing been the huge
changes from Dos to Win and then from the earlier win to the modern
era win. As all the pundits have said ages ago - there really hasnt
been anything to force people to radically upgrade since the net
doesnt really require a lot of power.

Ive heard Windows Longhorn was going to add a lot more 3D and fancy
graphics stuff so who knows. And despite all the gripes about DOOM and
hardware it does seem to be justifying fairly high graphics prices in
a way I havent seen for a while. I havent felt motivated at all to get
even the 9800 until recently. Now things are happening so it my help
the hardware industry with all that 64 bit, PCI express hype.

Ive read many motherboard makers were losing money. Maybe theres a
glut of them . That might explain why MBs that used to be one of the
most stable components in price seem to really fall fast in price
nowadays like HDs.