Which RAM? :(

[Hazel-rah]

I was mad to find out this computer only had PC133 RAM in it. =/
So let me lay this out for you.

Current computer: (HP Pavilion 7966)
Intel Pentium 4 1.7GHz @ 400MHz FSB 256KB cache - mPGA478b (Socket 478)
2x256MB (512MB) PC133 RAM with one extra slot available.
ASUS P4B-LA Motherboard w/ onboard audio, LAN, AGP 4X, USB 1.1
Texas Instuments IEEE1394 Firewire OHCI PCI card
Sound Blaster Live! Value - One of the older models

New: ATI Radeon 9200 SE - 128MB DDR - DirectX 8.1 - AGP 8X

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So I decided it was time for a partially new computer. I couldn't find a motherboard that used PC133 RAM with a P4... which was kind of odd to me...
I was just going to swap out the motherboard so I could get AGP 8X and USB 2.0... but of course it's not that simple.

I decided I was going to order stuff from TigerDirect.com. I picked out this barebone, because I don't want to buy a new processor... and I can put my current one in it for now... and get a 3.4GHz one later:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=610103&Tab=2&NoMapp=0

So everything except the RAM checks out...

Suddenly I have to decide PC2700, PC3200, DDR, DDR2, Dual Channel, Overclocking... ARGH

I want to get 1GB of RAM for ONE slot. Because that is the max you can have in one slot. I will fill the others when I get the 3.4GHz in 2006. I assume PC3200 is what I want... but what about that overclocking and Dual Channel stuff?

I can only spend about $400 and that case is $170... so that leaves about $230...

I want the best RAM I can get, btw. If you know any sites that are cheaper for memory let me know. :)

[Hazel-rah]

My cousin recommends:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=669365

But then he says it won't matter because the Radeon 9200 SE is crap...

It can play Doom 3... and I have no idea how it performs on AGP 8X... so we'll see..

[Monolith]

(Strage, there doesn't seem to be a P4B-LA model on ASUS's website.)

I don't really know much about the details of memory, but you might want to check out <a href="http://www.crucial.com/">crucial.com</a>.

[Hazel-rah]

It's a special motherboard they made for Hewlett Packard.

I ordered the stuff... *crosses fingers*

[Coney]

hey send me your old one I want it.

[Coney]

oh and I don't think this should be in the jazz related technical forum.

[Tubz]

Best Buy, has great sales on memory usually. I maxed out at 512 on this pc - I bought my memory at Best Buy, that SSDRAM I think is the best, but umm you already know that you can only buy memory, as according to your motherboard specification as specified in your motherboard manual.

[R3ptile]

Don't listen to the people on this board, most of them don't know anything about hardware, the others are just fanboys.

That memory your cousin recommended you (Corsair Value Select Dual Channel 1024MB PC3200 DDR 400MHz Memory 512 X 2) seems to be good as long as you don't plan overclock. (Value memories are not that good for overclocking as far as I know...)

[Tubz]

^^^

You think you're the only one who knows about computer hardware?

All I have to say to you Conker, is compare prices and make a good decision on the best quality for the best price.

[Torkell]

Don't listen to the people on this board, most of them don't know anything about hardware, the others are just fanboys.

That memory your cousin recommended you (Corsair Value Select Dual Channel 1024MB PC3200 DDR 400MHz Memory 512 X 2) seems to be good as long as you don't plan overclock. (Value memories are not that good for overclocking as far as I know...)

*bops you over the head with an old Netgear network card*
You were saying about people not knowing about hardware?


On the subject of memory, PC133 a bit old now. The 133 refers to the clock speed of the memory, in this case 133MHz. It won't work in the system you picked out, as it's too slow. Sorry, but that's the way it is.

Dual channel is basically a fancy thing where (IIRC) instead of using one stick of ram before the other, it uses both in parallel (giving extra performance). To use dual channel memory you usually need a matched pair of memory sticks, which most companies sell. The memory you've picked out is dual channel, and so will work nicely with your board.

DDR is another fancy thing where it transfers double the data with the same clock speed. The technical details aren't important, and almost all memory now uses DDR.

I wouldn't attempt to overclock your computer unless you know what you're doing. Usually, overclocking stuff will invalidate the warranty, and if you take it too high you can do nasty stuff to expensive bits (like destroying the innards of the processor). If you do decide to overclock, then so it in small steps and watch the temperature of whatever you're overclocking. Generally, 30-50 C is fine, hotter may cause problems like random crashes or errors. Even hotter (over 100 C) can destroy chips.

As far as sites go, you could also try http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ http://www.ebuyer.com/ or http://www.dabs.com/ - overclockers tends to be good value, tho it's probably not much good if you don't live in the UK. Both dabs and ebuyer have UK and US sites.

The rest of the spec looks alright, but a 300w power supply is a bit light now. It'd be worth looking at getting a 430w one, especially if you plan to add lots of hardware (disks, optical drives, processors, graphics cards all eat power now).

[Hazel-rah]

Well...

Because TigerDirect failed to mention CPU voltage requirements I had to order a new CPU.

It's a Pentium 4 3GHz @ 800MHz w/Hyperthreading and fan.

It seems to work for the most part. It has hardware monitoring software, and I have a few questions.
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You mentioned a certain temperature the CPU should be at. It seems to stay around 47 C. Do I have to worry about the chassis temperature for any reason? It didn't come with a case fan, so I figure it might be a good idea to buy one.

Another question... why is the Vcore voltage red? Is there something wrong with it?

[Torkell]

47 seems about right for the CPU - a quick check here shows my Athlon 1.3GHz is running at 48. The danger point is somewhere around 100 (IIRC).

Why the Vcore's in red, I don't know. The rest of the voltages all look okay, the 12v is a little high but that's probably due to relative loading of the voltage rails.

It might be worth getting a case fan, as 42 for the case is a little warm. Mine I think is about 30. It's not something that you have to get, but it'll cool things down a bit and give you an excuse for more flashy lights and stuff. Flashy lights are always good. Especially blue :D

If you decide to overclock, then do get a case fan. Also look at replacing the processor fan with a better one - the fans that come with the chips tend not to be as good for overclocking. Tho I still recommend against overclocking - too risky IMO.

[Hazel-rah]

I don't have any plans to overclock. 3GHz is fast enough for me.
Keep in mind this is in a near idle state. :P
I don't want the temperature to creep up on me when gaming.

Now to test this sucker's performance. }>

[Torkell]

I'd expect it to climb by no more than 20 when under heavy load (probably nearer 10).

A good test would be to play the heaviest (graphics- & cpu-wise) game you can for half an hour or so, then have another look at the temperature. It's actually hard to cook a P4, becuase they shut down if they get too hot.

[Hazel-rah]

Well..

I need to know whether the case fan is supposed to blow to the inside or to the outside....

Anyone know?

[Torkell]

If it's on the back, then it should be blowing the air outside. If it's on the front, then it should be sucking the air in.

[Hazel-rah]

Yeah, it's on the back. I need to find screws to secure it with.

So it will suck the air out of the case, I guess.

If I leave the computer idle for a while it freezes. I don't know what's causing this. Also, before I updated the BIOS the Secondary hard drive kept turning off and freezing the computer, but that seemed to have gone away after the BIOS flashing.

This 350W power supply is kinda loud. It blows a lot of hot air out the back. The front USB door seems kinda flimsy. The boot post takes longer than the average computer because it has to detect the CPU voltage/freq. and memory type every time I turn it on. The boot sometimes hangs if I leave a CD-RW disc in the CD-RW drive while booting.

I managed to accidenly push the power button several times while leaning over it. It's poorly placed, and of course Windows automatically shuts down when you push it. Turned that button to "Ask me what to do". Problem solved I guess.

[Torkell]

Yeah, it's on the back. I need to find screws to secure it with.

So it will suck the air out of the case, I guess.
Yep. Check it's the right way round - there may be an arrow on it. It will have either come with screws, or your computer should have come with them. They usually are short countersunk philips screws.

If I leave the computer idle for a while it freezes. I don't know what's causing this. Also, before I updated the BIOS the Secondary hard drive kept turning off and freezing the computer, but that seemed to have gone away after the BIOS flashing.[QUOTE]
Hmmm. You sure it's not just in standby? In standby, the computer powers down most of the stuff, which may make it appear to freeze. Hitting the power button should bring it out of standby. When in standby the power light usually either goes a different colour or starts flashing.

[QUOTE]This 350W power supply is kinda loud. It blows a lot of hot air out the back. The front USB door seems kinda flimsy. The boot post takes longer than the average computer because it has to detect the CPU voltage/freq. and memory type every time I turn it on. The boot sometimes hangs if I leave a CD-RW disc in the CD-RW drive while booting.
If the fan in the power supply is running flat out, then it's probably struggling with the load. You may want to look at putting a better one in - Antec stuff is quite good, and you should be looking at 430W or so.
How long does the POST take? 5 seconds? 10? 30? a minute?

I managed to accidenly push the power button several times while leaning over it. It's poorly placed, and of course Windows automatically shuts down when you push it. Turned that button to "Ask me what to do". Problem solved I guess.
Not much else you can do about it. FYI: should Windows lock completely, you can force a poweroff by holding the button down (usually for 4 seconds - just hold it for a count of ten or so). Failing that, the power lead can always be yanked :D

[Hazel-rah]

Yep. Check it's the right way round - there may be an arrow on it. It will have either come with screws, or your computer should have come with them. They usually are short countersunk philips screws.

Had to buy screws. And Hewlett Packard has managed to screw me again. This fan is slightly larger than the fan that is supposed to go in there, so I had to secure it to the case at an angle...
I am really tired of HP and their proprietarianism.

Hmmm. You sure it's not just in standby? In standby, the computer powers down most of the stuff, which may make it appear to freeze. Hitting the power button should bring it out of standby. When in standby the power light usually either goes a different colour or starts flashing.

Actually... there was a setting in the BIOS I just changed today... it was set to something else for standby mode... but now it's on "BLANK SCREEN"... hopefully that will make the screen go blank in standby, instead of leading me to assume it froze.

If the fan in the power supply is running flat out, then it's probably struggling with the load. You may want to look at putting a better one in - Antec stuff is quite good, and you should be looking at 430W or so.

The whole thing is behaving itself now. It's blowing room temperature air now. Speaking of which after I installed the case fan it dropped about 12C inside the chassis.
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Now why is the CPU fan speed suddenly half of what it used to be?

How long does the POST take? 5 seconds? 10? 30? a minute?

It seems to have gotten shorter, about 5 seconds after you push the power button before it will show the BIOS info.

[Torkell]

The CPU fan speed will change depending on the temperature of the CPU. It's probably dropped because the case fan's cooled things down a fair bit.

I think I confused you with my question, so let me rephrase it: How long (roughly) from pushing the power button to the windows startup logo appearing?