New PC in a week or so

[Ivan]

Waiting for delivery of another batch of A8N-SLI boards at the computer shop...

Final specs
- Board: A8N-SLI, Socket 939 with onboard Gigabit LAN and audio
- Processor: AMD Athlon 62 3500+
- Memory: 1024 MB CAS2 DDR-SDRAM
- Video: PCI-e GeForce 6800, 256MB (Asus EN6800/TD)
- System drive: WD Raptor 36GB (fastest SATA drive you can buy)
- FS/Games/Stuff drive: Maxtor 250GB with 16MB Cache
- PSU: Coolermaster 550W

Parts not changed
- Case: Trusty Aopen H700A bigtower that still needs USB2 connectors at the front. Same as previous machine
- Monitor: 19" Iiyama
- Input devices: Intellimouse Explorer and a Cherry oldtimer keyboard (old enough to have an AT/XT switch at the bottom)


The motherboard is rumoured to be a temperamental piece of kit...

[luke]

Ivan,
the last comment on the motherboard !?.
My planed upgrade is with same Asus.
What is so bad about it.
Please look in to my post  "Advice on proposed Bunle"
5 or 6 below your post, and give me your opinionof best combination, or what to avoid buying.
Thnx               luke

[Ivan]

It's BIOS isn't the nicest one around...
WinXP is said to install only on BIOS 1008 (anything higher will crash at first startup and anything lower won't run with maxtor SATA drives), and it will only run stable with version 1011 (but you need to download a driver before you update or it won't start at all)

Some come with bad chipset coolers (small ones mounted straight are the old crappy ones) that die in a few hours of operation. Probably the new ones will be common now but be careful

But if you have it running OK its one of the best boards available

[the_autopilot]

I've never had any of those problems with my asus mobo. The only I ever had with one of their mobo was when a chipset overheated, but that was my fault more than theirs.

I guess I'll consider myself lucky.

BTW, Ivan, congrats on your new system...though I've never heard of an athlon62 processor

[Ivan]

Typos...

ASUS generally is good...
Alhough my A7V333 cant do 333MHz bus speed because the clock chips aren't the right type (pre rev 2.0 one) there isn't much wrong with them.

Apart from my famous scrapheap PCs that were retired in the last half year, almost all computers in my home have ASUS motherboards (except for the custom-built MSI in my brothers PC)

Asus stuff that i have:
- P3BF (oldest gaming rig, stored at the moment)
- A7V333 (current gaming rig, soon development PC)
- CUV4X (another oldtimer that is still working)
- A7V8X-MX SE (current reserve machine, Harddisk motor not really working so its quite unstable)
- Another one with 133fsb/AMD and built-in video, can't find the name at the moment

[luke]

craky  Ivan,

what with things like:-
"......It's BIOS isn't the nicest one around...  
WinXP is said to install only on BIOS 1008 (anything higher will crash at first startup and anything lower won't run with maxtor SATA drives), and it will only run stable with version 1011....."    

and like"........this fan is a known disaster and Asus are doing their best to replace the defective part worldwide (so the press release states).  
It's got a record breaking 3 week lifespan and my fan expires in 3 days, The nForce4 chip needs active cooling (a fan and heatsink) on this board, apparently because the chip runs quite hot. There is no room for a large heatsink on the board......."

Should I better give Asus a miss do you think?.

Anybody can advice on MSI or Gigabyte?

[the_autopilot]

Asus motherboards are fine. I've never had a problem with them.

Gigabyte is also good. Had some good dealing with them.

Never tried MSI, I'm happy with Asus.

[congo]

I had the exact specs and identical hardware to all the compatibility whiners in the Asus forum, and I had absolutely no problems at all like they reported en masse, so go figure............ I suspect they just screwed up their configs.

Ivan, why did you go for the 6800? Are planning on modding it to a GT?

[GunnerMan]

Yeah ASUS is an AWSOME board for compatability and stability. My number one choice for any builds I do for anyone.

[Ivan]

@luke: i consider that a challenge, not a problem. My previous board (A7V333 with RAID) was said to have a terrible reputation but there's nothing wrong with it actually apart from the clock chip.

The cooling fan is said to suck horribly, and it dies in a few days, at least the original one does. but what else do you expect from plastic bearings being revved to 8000 rpm

@congo:
Dunno, but when it proves to be slow, i just put in another one

[luke]

Ivan, planning to get the same, but why the gfx card "GeForce 6800, 256MB" when everybody is screeming for GT, 128mb, 256 is agimmic, 6600GT best etc etc.
At UK prices this is

[Ivan]

Still havent got mine... video card is stuck somewhere between taiwan and the shop central storage.

About the card:
6600gt can be clocked the same as a 6800 if you have luck.

[Ivan]

Finally got the parts... PSU weighs about 2kg alone