My new PC

[{I}{K}{E}]

/edit

[mr. nails]

obviously that's what u wanted so i'm not gonna critique it, but what was the price u paid?

[{I}{K}{E}]

/edit

[clocker]

Looks like fun.
Please post some temps and performance info when you have a chance.

[100%]

does it work?

congrats me jealous

[Seedler]

The vid card is a bottleneck.

[{I}{K}{E}]

The vid card is a bottleneck.
?


I don't need an expensive videocard.


1 question:
Which drivers should i use for the videocard? I never had an ATI card.
ATi Catalyst 6.8 seems to be the latest driver but i've read that the 'Omega Catalyst' and 'NGO' drivers are tweaked drivers to get the best performence :huh:

[mr. nails]

when i used ati i tried the omega and never saw any difference let alone performance.

[{I}{K}{E}]

when i used ati i tried the omega and never saw any difference let alone performance.

I'll use the official drivers then ;)

There are 2 versions of Catalyst 6.8, should I install the 'Catalyst Control Center Package' or the 'Display Driver Only' driver?

[Seedler]

Catalyst package give you the control center, so you can adjust anti-aliasing, antistrophic, brightness, contrast, etc etc settings.

Display driver only is well, only the display driver version 6.8.

[{I}{K}{E}]

thnx for the info seedler.

[Chewie]

Motherboard: Asus M2N-E
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ AM2 boxed Windsor
Videocard: VGA Asus ATI EAX1600XT Silent/TVD 256MB PCI-E
Memory: Corsair 2x1024MB DDR2 667 TWIN2X2048-5400C4
Harddisk: Maxtor 320GB Diamondmax S-ATA2 7200rpm 16MB
Floppy Disk: Sony 3,5" FDD 1.44MB
DVD: Pioneer DVD+/-R/RW/DL DVR-111D Bulk
Power Supply: Coolermaster 500Watt PSU RS-500-ASAA iGreen ATX2.2
Extra Cooler: Zalman silent fan ZM-F1
Software: Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition NL OEM
Case: Q-Tec V-MD

Monitor: Samsung 17" TFT 720N Silver


Will have it Thursday :D
Looks good. With Cool'n'Quiet it should be almost silent as well.

I love my M2N32-Sli Delixe WE but am still kicking myself I didn't hold out a few weeks longer for the drop in X2 CPU prices. I nearly gave in to temptation at a fair yesterday and upgraded my 3500+ to an 3800+X2 but kept my cool.

Strangely, the CPU temp is lower than the chipset. Asus tech support tell me this is correct and that CPU @ 30 and mobo @ 46 is normal.
That's on stock cooling.

There are some nice 'green' touches.
Asus' AI Nap puts the system into a zombie like mode that just keeps everything ticking over with no sound or video and reduced power all round to save energy. I use it when leaving it running overnight or at work.
The Cool'n'Quiet stuff automatically throttles fans depending on temps and CPU power depending on what you're doing. When the CPU isn't actually being used (reading a web page etc.) the CPU is throttled down to reduce power. The graphical display, when enabled, showed me my CPU freq dropping to 1000MHz and it's power usage to about 40W (from 89W).
These things won't make much of a difference to my electric bill but on a worldwide scale this sort of thing is a decent effort on AMD's part.

[{I}{K}{E}]

so AI Nap works the same as the windows hibernate option but with AI Nap you can still be connected to the internet?


I found 'AMD Dual-Core Optimizer' on the website of AMD. Should i use that? (URL (http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_871_13118,00.html))

[Chewie]

I think you should install it.
I would if I had an X2... which I don't :(

[clocker]

I found 'AMD Dual-Core Optimizer' on the website of AMD. Should i use that? (URL (http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_871_13118,00.html))

Yup, definitely.
You can get even more control over the functions of Cool 'n Quiet by using Crystal CPUID.
This app allows you to define the three power states and when your PC enters them.
It's interesting to play with but ultimately I found it not to make much difference.

These chips will overclock and undervolt simultaneously...my 4400 runs (stable) @ 2.5GHz and 1.3 vCore. With good cooling (*ahem*), temps range from the low twenties to mid thirties and were only a degree or three less when in the lowest power state of cool 'n quiet.
YMMV, naturally.

[limesqueezer]

Well its kind of too expensive. I have LCD 17" Samsung 710T Silver, PX6600 TD 128 MB PCI-E, Biostar S-939 PCI-E, AMD 3000+ S-939 PCI-E, 2X1GB RAM, 550W + fan, 1 fan on side, midi tower, sound+mouse+keyboard;all together on june 2005: 1080 $
And than i have around 1,3 tb on disks(on 2 disks some cooling things) + dvd/rw, some shit for diskettes. I belive thats all.

[Chewie]

Well its kind of too expensive. I have LCD 17" Samsung 710T Silver, PX6600 TD 128 MB PCI-E, Biostar S-939 PCI-E, AMD 3000+ S-939 PCI-E, 2X1GB RAM, 550W + fan, 1 fan on side, midi tower, sound+mouse+keyboard;all together on june 2005: 1080 $
And than i have around 1,3 tb on disks(on 2 disks some cooling things) + dvd/rw, some shit for diskettes. I belive thats all.
Did you miss the part where IKE said he could've got the parts cheaper and unassembled but didn't want the hassle?

Asus > biostar BTW.

[limesqueezer]

Chewie: u reply to every post i make on any of this forums like u look like.

[clocker]

Asus > biostar BTW.
Cat sick > Biostar.
DFI > Asus.
:yup:

[Smith]

I was looking at the same mobo..is it any good?

[mikeco]

nice build :)

price is a tad high but no worry u got a nice pc to look forward to :D and weeks of messing about with it till u get used to having it. :)

[{I}{K}{E}]

any other tweaks/tools I should check out? :)

[Seedler]

ATI tools is a must.

So is Everest, Pc probe, etc etc. if you want to monitor temps and such.

[{I}{K}{E}]

ATI tools is a must.
So is Everest, Pc probe, etc etc. if you want to monitor temps and such.


ATI Tools is an overclocking tool right? I don't want to overclock my videocard :unsure:

[{I}{K}{E}]

YAY!! using my new pc right now :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

[zapjb]

Congrats!

[{I}{K}{E}]

When I want to enable the Cool & Quiet feature in the bios I cannot choose 'Enable'. its currently set at disabled, when I want to change it I can only choose 'auto'. Is this normal? because the manual says I need to set it to 'Enabled'

[lynx]

When I want to enable the Cool & Quiet feature in the bios I cannot choose 'Enable'. its currently set at disabled, when I want to change it I can only choose 'auto'. Is this normal?Yes.

For some reason most choices like that only have the options Auto and Disabled.

[{I}{K}{E}]

Thanks lynx its working now :)

Does this option make my pc run slower??? :unsure:



After installing the 'AMD Dual-Core Optimizer' I have a new entry in my startup list (msconfig) can i disable 'amd_dc_opt' from starting everytime i turn on my pc?

[clocker]

Thanks lynx its working now :)

Does this option make my pc run slower??? :unsure:
Yeah...what did you think it did?
When it kicks in you'll be running at around 1GHz and 1.1 vCore.



After installing the 'AMD Dual-Core Optimizer' I have a new entry in my startup list (msconfig) can i disable 'amd_dc_opt' from starting everytime i turn on my pc?
No.
If you look at your boot.ini you'll notice it also added a switch "-usepmt" to the end of the string.
It's not hurting anything- just let it run.

[{I}{K}{E}]

When I make a CCE DVD-r (7 passes) with my new pc it takes 263 min. With my old pc it took 850 min. :lol:

[clocker]

You should be well chuffed, that's a significant improvement.

[{I}{K}{E}]

Looks like fun.
Please post some temps and performance info when you have a chance.

screenshot was taken when the pc was idle for 1½ hours (Cool & Quiet enabled)

I used PC Probe II v1.02.01

2287

[clocker]

OK, now run Orthos* (http://sp2004.fre3.com/beta/beta2.htm) and see what she does.
What cooler are you using?

*Automatically lauches two instances of Prime95 to fully load your CPU.
Run for a couple of hours to see real, fully loaded temps.

[{I}{K}{E}]

*Standard AMD fan on the CPU heatsink.
*Zalman silent fan ZM-F1 on the back of the case which blows hot air out of the case.

Should I run Orthos with Cool & Quiet disabled?

[clocker]

Should I run Orthos with Cool & Quiet disabled?
You shouldn't have to do any special config.
C'nQ should (in theory, at least) scale up to accomodate the load on the CPU(s).

You'll get better, more accurate temp reporting by using CoreTemp. (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=103638)
I've added a correction factor to my MBM temp display based on data from this app.
MBM now shows (at least in theory) the higher of the two temps derived from CoreTemp (I need MBM to output data to my CrystalFontz LCD).

[{I}{K}{E}]

I was checking the ASUS website and I found a new BIOS version for my M2N-E Motherboard.

M2N-E BIOS Version 0304 Patch, memory compatibility.

I currently have version 0203, Should I install the update? if so should I use the AsusUpdate tool?

[S!X]

Sounds like a nice rig ike, its about time you got yourself something nice :)

[Virtualbody1234]

I was checking the ASUS website and I found a new BIOS version for my M2N-E Motherboard.

M2N-E BIOS Version 0304 Patch, memory compatibility.

I currently have version 0203, Should I install the update? if so should I use the AsusUpdate tool?
I would only update if there was a memory incompatibility issue. You don't seem to have anything like that.

[{I}{K}{E}]

I was checking the ASUS website and I found a new BIOS version for my M2N-E Motherboard.

M2N-E BIOS Version 0304 Patch, memory compatibility.

I currently have version 0203, Should I install the update? if so should I use the AsusUpdate tool?
I would only update if there was a memory incompatibility issue. You don't seem to have anything like that.

Thanks for the info VB :cool:

[fz_shurtugal]

I envy your sudden honor..............