Assembled my first s775 system : probably screwed it.

[CougTek]

I still didn't try to power it up, but I'm pretty sure I've bent a few pins when I placed the processor. Now I understand why several among you cursed Intel for their socket 775 design. Next time, I'll read the instructions first and put the processor and heatsink afterward.

Also, last time I played with an Intel system, the heatsink retention mecanism was quite different (s478). Now, I'm not even sure if I didn't ruined the motherboard while pressing on the four pins that attach the heatsink. I really pressed them hard. I wasn't sure if the pins were sufficiently in and I think I got a little too enthusiastic when I tried to "secure" them.

I'll see when I'll plug the PSU, but I'm quite pessimistic on the result.

 

[Bozo]

It's hard to tell whether the heat sink/fan snapped into place, or the motherboard cracked.....

Bozo :mrgrn:

 

[Mercutio]

Man, I tried to warn everyone. I really did...

 

[CougTek]

On a positive note, my stuff arrived very quickly from the store I ordered it (NCIX.com). I placed my order yesterday at 4:00pm and it arrived here this morning at around 10:30am. I did not even ask for overnight shipping, just their express shipping which is supposed to take two days.

According to the e-mail they sent, they shipped my stuff just an hour and a half after I completed my order. I'm very impressed with their efficiency. Wow.

BTW, NCIX is located at Vancouver and I live at Montréal. It's just as far as L.A. from New York.

 

[ddrueding]

Coug, how did you end up with this cursed piece of equipment? Not just a P4, but a crummily socketed P4?

 

[Tannin]

On the HSF mechanisms, yeah, I agree. Can't they just pick a good design and stick to it? Maybe I'll get used to them eventually, but I don't much like the ones that AMD ship with Athon 64s and Semprons. Flimsy-looking things, very like the Intel ones. They seem to work OK but I don't like them.

Making a good HSF clip is really quite easy. All you have to do is have a spring and a slot where the screwdriver fits so the user can lever it on. Simple, cheap, practical.

Bad karma on AMD by the way for their more recent Socket A clips (the ones with the green plastic lugs): what's the point of having a slot to put the screwdriver in which is too bloody narrow to fit a bloody screwdriver into? As Tea would say, stupid, stupid, stupid.

 

[Buck]

I didn't think s775 was that difficult, although I was a bit worried when I saw how the retention mechanism slightly bent the motherboard. "Oh well" I said, "it's just a Celeron system." I fired the beast up and it works just find, has been for several months.

 

[Mercutio]

I really think AMD got it right with the 754 retention system. You don't even need a screwdriver for that one.

Except for the fact that, 90% of the time, when you try removing the HSF, you also get the CPU...

 

[ddrueding]

Except for the fact that, 90% of the time, when you try removing the HSF, you also get the CPU...

I think that can be blamed on the slightly concave shape of the heatspreader. Add some thermal compound and a mess of pressure, and make sure that the user can't slight the heatsink off the side, and it makes for a hell of a vacum.

 

[CougTek]

Coug, how did you end up with this cursed piece of equipment? Not just a P4, but a crummily socketed P4?

I needed a new system for one aging box in which the graphic card became a ghost. I already had RAM, HDD, optical drive. I wanted to stay below 500$CDN.

I wasn't very inspired by any of the socket 754 Athlon 64 since all were based on older manufacturing processes (0.13µm) and the Sempron on the new Palermo core were either out of stock in the low speed grades or almost as expensive as the Athlon 64 3000+ s939 on the +2GHz models.

I didn't need any 3D capability for that particular system, only a DVI connector (which isn't included on all the low-price boards I've checked with integrated graphics). And the cheapest PCI-E card was 30$ more that the cheapest AGP card I could find that had a DVI output. So I needed a motherboard with an AGP slot.

On the motherboard side, the only s754 with decent overclocking features and with reasonable prices were those based on the nforce 4 chipset, but nForce 4 means no AGP slot, so s754 boards were out of the game.

Same goes for s939 boards.

Then I look on Intel's side. There was a 150$CDN P4 2.66GHz s775 and a 160$CDN P4 2.4GHz s478, both being 20$ to 30$ less than what an Athlon 64 3000+ cost. All P4 with the Prescott core are easily overclockable, so that wasn't a concern. I needed a motherboard that supported PC3200 RAM and there were cheaper i865P boards for socket 775 than for socket 478.

Hence my decision to go with a P4 2.66GHz and a socket 775 i865P-based motherboard. Cheaper and faster (once o/ced) combo than what I could get on AMD's side. Well, that's on paper. It won't be cheaper if I ruined the motherboard, but that's another story. I still haven't powered it up to see the damages if damages there is. The only reliable local store with decent price didn't have the enclosure/PSU I wanted so I ordered one online. I should receive it early next week. That's not a problem since I'll be on a trip for the week-end.

 

[tazwegion]

From all accounts installing Intel's LGA 775 Socket Processor can be a real pain in the posterior... thankfully MSI recognized this and created a CPU installation tool (G52-M7001X3), though to get one AFAIK you've either got to purchase an MSI LGA 775 platform or know someone who already has

Never had this kind of problem with the SS7 retention solutions :roll:

 

[Mercutio]

Coug, I think the ATI 939 chipset includes DVI. Every tech I've talked to has said they are excellent.

 

[CougTek]

The only ATI RS480 board I can buy here is the one from MSI. I see no DVI output on it :

 

[CougTek]

I removed the heatsink and processor to check if I bent any pin in the socket. Nope. So I re-installed the CPU and heatsink, this time with Arctic Silver paste since I scrapped the thermal pad that came with the heatsink when I removed it first. Put everything together in the new Sonata II enclosure I've just received and HeeHa! It works. So my first (and maybe last) socket 775 system is a success.

I'm typing this message on it, under Ubuntu 5.04 that I've just installed.

I haven't changed my mind about it though : socket 775 is inherently stupid.

 

[Splash]

...socket 775 is inherently stupid.

Not really a socket -- Land Grid Array (LGA-775).

There's no technical advantage to this stoopid ass'd LGA-775 processor connection scheme over the ZIF socket design. All the LGA design does is put the burden on the mobo manufacturer if a pin gets bent -- since the pins are on the mobo.