Question about new system setup

[Handruin]

OK, I do have some question about the new rig I'm putting together.

1.) I have a spire BFA07B2 HSF going onto the XP2200+ I don't have any thermal grease, but I can see that it comes with some form of compound on the base of the heatsink. I tried to look up this heatsink on www.spire-coolers.com, but it isn't listed.

I believe this is grease and not a pad because I touched the corner of it and some came off on my finger and left a smudge. I also did not have to peal off and protective film, there is a plastic cover over the bottom. Do you think is is fine to use?


2.) The Abit NF7-S is a Nforce 2 motherboard with built in SATA. The board also came with a PATA to SATA converter (marketing name is serillel). I was considering running on WD80JB using the SATA controller, and the other drive off of the ATA133 controller. Is this a bad idea to use the PATA to SATA converter? I'm actually quite curious to see if there is a noticible difference between the two. I'll probably boot off of the ATA133 incase the converter offers slower performance.

3.) Will my Antec 300 Watt power supply be sufficient for this box?

I may have more question later, but for now I'm off to build. I'm also debating the purchase of the ATI 9500 Pro vs. the 9700 pro. Groltz is promoting the 9700, but I haven't decided yet. Any thoughts on this one?

I do play a lot of games, and I'll probably watch a few DVD's now that I have a DVD drive. 2D quality is also important because I do (try to) produce some graphic related content from time to time. I have some time to decide, but I'm not sure the extra $100 is worth it for the 9700.

 

[CougTek]

1.) I have a spire BFA07B2 HSF going onto the XP2200+ I don't have any thermal grease, but I can see that it comes with some form of compound on the base of the heatsink. I tried to look up this heatsink on www.spire-coolers.com, but it isn't listed.

It isn't? Oh well, I guess this must be my imagination then. I am sure this is the one you have.

 

[Mercutio]

In stream of consciousness order

1 The Antec should be fine. 250W Premier, maybe not, but what you have is fine.

2. The grease on the spire cooler will work well enough for what you've got. That stuff, like all thermal tranfer solutions, is one application only. Also, it smears very easily. Don't touch it.

3. Ask Clocker about his OC'd 9500. I think that's the route I'd go. But then, I'm cheap. I've got a 9700. I've seen an OC'd 9500. Unless you toss off to 3D Mark scores, you're going to be hard pressed to tell the difference.

 

[Tannin]

If it's a 0.13u 2200, then it doesn't matter. Those things run so cool you could not bother with thermal grease at all. Well, almost.

 

[CougTek]

If it's a 0.13u 2200, then it doesn't matter. Those things run so cool you could not bother with thermal grease at all. Well, almost.

Try liquid paper if you're short on grease.

 

[Handruin]

1.) I have a spire BFA07B2 HSF going onto the XP2200+ I don't have any thermal grease, but I can see that it comes with some form of compound on the base of the heatsink. I tried to look up this heatsink on www.spire-coolers.com, but it isn't listed.

It isn't? Oh well, I guess this must be my imagination then. I am sure this is the one you have.

You're right, that's the one. But they don't have installation instructions for it. I was hoping to see a picture of it with the thermal grease. Sounds like I'll be fine with what it has on it. I only touched the very edge of the grease which I know won't contact the CPU, so I think it's OK.

I have the entire machine put together now, so I'm eagerly awaiting the purchase of a video card. I think I'm going to throw my old card in there for a short while just to see if the machine boots up.

 

[Handruin]

I'm amazed at how small the serial ATA cable is. It's actually kind of a pain because it's so rigid. It doesn't want to bend where I tell it to go.

 

[Adcadet]

you just gotta show them SATA cables who's da boss.

 

[Handruin]

The CPU is running at 47.5 degrees C while idle and 50 C during heavy load. (case is closed up and the machine has been running for a few hours now) That's about the temperature where my 1.2 athlon was at.

 

[Tea]

A dolop of Arctic Silver should bring you down to maybe 45C at idle. Worth the trouble? Perhaps. Put it this way, I'd do it if I was pulling the lid off anyway, to fit a new CD drive or something, but I wouldn't bother at this stage just for that one small job.

 

[Handruin]

I'll probably put that on order Tea. Come summer time it'll be much warmer in my room, so dropping the temp another couple of degrees is a good thing.

I let it run all night long with F@H and it's still at 50.5 C.

The one thing I'm having a little trouble with is playing DVD movies. I verified the DVD drive is set to region 1, and I downloaded 3 different software DVD players, but all three of them gave me an error. Two of the software players gave me a macrovision error. Has anyone seen this before? I tried more than one DVD movie to make sure it wasn't the film, but no luck.

The only thing I could dig up was an incompatibility with my video drivers. I'm running the latest detonator drivers from nvidia 43.45.

 

[Mercutio]

Methinks you don't have anything installed to unencrypt the movie before viewing.

 

[Handruin]

I figured the software DVD programs came with that?? I have not installed anything special, so this could be my issue.

 

[Howell]

The CPU is running at 47.5 degrees C while idle and 50 C during heavy load. (case is closed up and the machine has been running for a few hours now) That's about the temperature where my 1.2 athlon was at.

I presume your old CPU was a thunderbird. The 1.2G thunderbird was rated to produce 66W of heat. Depending on whether you have the 6-8-0 or the 6-8-1 2200+ your new CPU is rated to output either 67.9W or 62.8W.

Since you say your temps are nearly the same I would guess that you have the 6-8-0 version and a better HSF. You can verify my guess with the WCPUID util.

 

[EdwardK]

I may have more question later, but for now I'm off to build. I'm also debating the purchase of the ATI 9500 Pro vs. the 9700 pro. Groltz is promoting the 9700, but I haven't decided yet. Any thoughts on this one?

I do play a lot of games, and I'll probably watch a few DVD's now that I have a DVD drive. 2D quality is also important because I do (try to) produce some graphic related content from time to time. I have some time to decide, but I'm not sure the extra $100 is worth it for the 9700.

I just got an ATI 9500Pro and I must say its 2D quality is much better compared to my nVidia card. Playing Comand&Conquer Generals at 1600X1200, the nuclear explosion scenes lags my 9500Pro. Maybe a 9700 is better :wink: No wonder the gamebox wrote recommended minimum of GeForce4.

Cheers,
Edward

 

[CougTek]

I'm also debating the purchase of the ATI 9500 Pro vs. the 9700 pro. Groltz is promoting the 9700, but I haven't decided yet. Any thoughts on this one?

Either buy a 128MB 9500 non-Pro or a 9700 (then again, non-Pro offers better value). I know that Sapphire's 9500 128MB can be modified into a 9700. Some cards do it without problem while others can't since the GPU on the 9500 sometimes has some defective pipelines and enabling all 8 results in image problems. The 64MB version of the 9500 is significantly slower than the 128MB version, while the 9500 Pro cannot be modified into a 9700.

There has been a thread about this a few months ago here. My take is that if you feel adventurous, buy the 9500 128MB, while if you don't want to modify your card, then the 9700 non-Pro might be a better long term investment (long term for a graphic card, that is). Everything that needs a 9700 Pro in order to play well also plays well on a regular 9700. The same cannot be said about the 9700 versus 9500 Pro and lower.

 

[Handruin]

I purchased the 9500 on last Sunday. Today I embarked on an overclocking mission to see where it would get me. I used an article that groltz sent me and so far I've been able to reload the rom file for my 9500 Pro. Now my card comes up as a 9700 pro.

This new BIOS also unlocked my card and I've been able to overclock the card to the default speeds of the 9700 Pro.

My highest 3D Mark 2001 is: 11810

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=6305031

Now I'll work on OC'in the CPU to try and get it higher.

 

[Howell]

I purchased the 9500 on last Sunday.

Which 9500 did you get?

 

[CougTek]

If you bought a 9500 Pro, you won't be able to achieve 9700 Pro-like scores. At best you'll end up with glorified 9500 Pro-like scores. With a 9500 non-Pro though, it's a different story.

I trust Groltz's judgement on the matter.

 

[Handruin]

Well, I ended up buying the 9500 pro before I read any feedback on Sunday. I would have bought the 9700 pro, but it was out of stock.

I know my card won't get to the true 9700 scores, and it's definitely a glorified 9500. It's much faster than any card I've ever owned, so it makes me happy.