Rate this baby...

[Rabs]

Heres a system I've planned:

Athlon XP 2500+
Epox EP-8RGMI matx Nforce 2 IGP
2 x 256 PC3200 (Generic)
Coolermaster XDream HSF
Plextor DVD-Rom
60GB Maxtor 2MB Cache (Already got)
Silver KB + Mouse
AOC LM720 17" TFT (25ms)

Ive ordered the above from Stak, Komplett and Dabs.

Here's the case for the above:





Spec: 200W SFX PSU, 1 x 5.25 Bay (vertical) 3 x 3.5 drive bays (2 hidden), 2x Front USB, Front Audio, Firewire

Case has hardware LCD indicating temp, HD, Power etc

Just awaiting delivery and I can give a proper eval of the case.

Comments please, oh I only had a budget of £640 not inc HD which I already had.

[leon]

Not bad. Providing the PSU is pretty good quality I dont see any problems personally. I'm running higher specs in 2* YY A102's and had no probs power wise.

I'd be interested in your opinions on the case and also what you make of the TFT in game. I've used the AOC's but never for games.

[Rabs]

I actually own an AOC LM700, Ive had it for over a year now and I'm very pleased with it. I'm buying the LM720 because its the current model and the response time on the pixels is 25ms (LM700 = 50ms).

The 3 year warranty is also very good and gives me a bit of confidence in them. The good news is that I have no dead pixels whatsoever on the LM700 after a year! yay!

Thanks for your comments on the system, the primary use of the system is for occasional gaming (when im not on my main rig) and using at lan parties, it should play most games at decent enough frame rates, the LCD monitor being the icing on the cake as its easily transportable too.

More comments appreciated!

[Rabs]

I forgot!

Gaming wise, I have no problems what so ever, I play UT2003, C&C RA2 Yuris, Elite Force II and IGI2 without any flaws (monitor wise), windows looks fantastic (as it should on a TFT), the myths of slow gaming on TFT's tbh is long gone, get yourself one and you wont go back. The space saving is the best bit, the only downside I know of is the viewing angles (which is common on all TFT's), unless your right in front of it, you'll lose colour and brightness, so I wouldn't recommend it for tv or watching films from the other side of the room or the sides.

[leon]

do u know that there is now a LM 721? its similar to the 720 but has 16ms response time.

[Rabs]

Finally got all the bits, stak sent me the wrong case but I dont mind. I put the system together, the cpu fan is in the way of the dvd, I trekked to Scan in Bolton to get a Coolermaster Aero 7+, got home and put all together.

I installed winme, drivers etc etc, tried 3d mark 2000 & 2001 - graphics corruption, loaded mem test and reset bios to fail safe, ram fine. Next task... I installed XP, tried both 3d marks, corrupt display again This was after I put everything in a bigger case with a 350w psu (to rule out the psu).

Looks like the lovely Epox is getting rma'd. What a waste of a day off...

Oh well you cant win em all. The only good news is that I bought two of these cases, so I could build my gf a htpc. That one works perfect, oh well if it keeps the gf happy

[Rabs]

*** Update ***

I got a new board from Komplett, same prob, after doing some further research and testing etc, I found that Epox IGP boards dont like TwinMOS DDR400 ram and I just happen to have 2 sticks of it. I tried a single 256MB PC2700 Generic stick and it worked fine.

I then put my TwinMOS back in and put a seperate gfx card in (GF2 ti) and it worked fine. Ran 3D mark 2001 SE 10 times no budging

On epox's site a new bios was released for IGP boards which states a new bios option added for incompatibility with TwinMOS DDR 400 ram. I d/l it, flashed and tested with onboard gfx, still crashing...doh!

Oh well a ti4200 for this system then it is...

I love Epox boards but why couldn't either them or the retailer state incompatability with these mem modules. It looks like the first board that I rma'd would have been okay.

[Knoxville]

have you tried running the twinmos at 2700?

some IGP's don't like 3200 speeds

[Rabs]

I've tried it at all speeds, even 100FSB CPU and Ram, same result nvm.

[sludge]

Heh, don't know how old this is, but it is exactly what I've been looking for all over the web.

Okay, so I'm putting together a system with the same CPU(it's a barton, I'm presuming), same case, only slightly different looking, and same mobo. I've been looking for answers on my OCing question. So, we all know by raising the FSB on the 2500+ to 200 we get the equivalent of a 3200+. I've been looking all over the place for a micro ATX mobo with overclockability and this seems to be a good one. Have you ever OCed your CPU with this board, if so, how high could you get it stable? Could you get the FSB to 200?

[Rabs]

Heh, don't know how old this is, but it is exactly what I've been looking for all over the web.

Okay, so I'm putting together a system with the same CPU(it's a barton, I'm presuming), same case, only slightly different looking, and same mobo. I've been looking for answers on my OCing question. So, we all know by raising the FSB on the 2500+ to 200 we get the equivalent of a 3200+. I've been looking all over the place for a micro ATX mobo with overclockability and this seems to be a good one. Have you ever OCed your CPU with this board, if so, how high could you get it stable? Could you get the FSB to 200?

Yep this is an old thread but here we go...

Basically I abandoned the project as I was having major ram problems, using dual channel the GFX wouldn't work, one stick though was fine - I was using TwinMOS PC3200 256MB sticks FYI.

As for overclocking, I got to 200FSB with my 2500 CPU but it was unstable, I fleabayed the lot (at a loss) and bought a SN45G which I should have bought in the first place. Even at 166FSB I was having major heat problems too (with a Aero 7 which only just fits in the case).

My advice is buy a shuttle, only problem is dont expect to be able to overclock as all new 2500's are 'super' multiplier locked. In fact go and buy an Athlon 64 based shuttle and be happy