Fun I had Yesterday

[nimbu]

I was rebuilding my 2nd Rig yesterday (see sig), as originally I only had a PCI Geforce 4 in there. Anyways I got my hands on an uber cheap X300SE ( i know its rubbish, but i bought it to muck around with). I also replaced the DVDR with a CDRW as i wasnt really using it in this rig.

I spent ages tidying up all the cabling to try and improve Air flow. I get it all together, and try and power up..........get no output. So first I check the mem and cpu are seated correctly, still nada. Then I go on to take of the hd cd tc still nothing.

System used to work fine with the PCI Geforce video card. So heres where I got worried. The PSU is not ATX 2.0 and thus doesnt have a 24pin connector. Though the M/B maker states the board will work with a 20pin connector, but i may have issues with PCI Express video cards.

I plug a PCI video card in and sure as hell the pc posts........ Anyways I went back to the Shop i picked the ATI up from (i used to work there and my cousin still does), and the fired the card up, it was duff, phew. However no others in stock to replace it. I was really not up for buying a more powerfull card as I wasnt 100% sure it would work.

I ended up biting the bullet and picking up a 6600, its was a cheapo sparkle one. Got it home, and plugged it in, hey presto it booted nps. Installed the drivers and reinstalled DirectX, and loaded up a few games, they all work fine, no power issues what so ever.

Why am I ranting, Im real real impressed with the 300Watt Antec PSU in the Aria, Its running an NF4 board and the 6600 no probs what so ever.

The only issue i really have, is technically my 2nd Rig (muck around one) is nearly or more powerful then my main rig,

Nimbu

[Rave]

Get that 6600 OCd then, most do 500MHz on the core easily enough, at that speed your 5900 will be in for a thrashing.

[nimbu]

hehe, well i just ordered some minor bits for the main rig, and its needs a reformat, then i'll play with the AMD rig and see what i can get outta it!

[StormPC]

I'm testing a Winfast NF4 uATX with a Winchester 3200+, Thermaltake Venus 12, 1GB Corsair PC3200XL, ASUS 6600GT, 74GB WD Raptor, Liteon DVD-CDRW combo all in a Monarch Hornet case. The PSU is a 270 watt Enermax.

My question for you is, do you overclock? If so I'd be interested in what kind of overclock you can get with the Antec. The Enermax is fine if you don't overclock, but the max stable overclock I can get with this setup is only about 2400 MHz, and it will only boot at about 2220 MHz, and then I have to bring up the FSB slowly with Clockgen to get the rest.

[nimbu]

On the main machine yes, got the cpu and video card o/c (ok i cheated on the video card a used the bios upgrade to turn it into a 5950U)

Tbh I wasnt planning to, but u may have tempted me. First I need to get the main machine reformated, its been 21 months, and my desktop temp folder (I used this to clean up my desktop now and then), has over 100 short cuts.

Once I get the main rig redone, I'll have a play on the AMD.

Main let downs I can think of tho are Im using the Stock AMD cooler as its damn tight inside this case.

Atm I'm getting temps of 43 under load and around 35 idle

[StormPC]

Those temps are not bad. I was considering the Aria but decided on the Monarch instead because it seems to be a little better design as far as airflow goes, and I can fit a Venus 12 in it which is a very good cooler.