I am about to build my father a new computer. Basically, it's not quite no-expense-spared, but close, so I'm speccing the best of everything. The machine has got to be high-performance, stable, reliable. Basically, it has to be perfect. Some provisos though: It is not to be overclocked, it must be reasonably quiet, etc. So far, I have this main spec: Abit KR7A-RAID AthlonXP 1800+ Seagate Barracuda IV 80GB Matrox G550 (he doesn't play games or do 3d stuff, and wants the best 2d image) Chieftec Dragon Alpha PAL8045 (to allow quiet fans) 5x Sunon 80mm (quiet but strong enough) AOpen DVD/CD-RW drives Netgear networking (NIC, switch) The problem I have is memory. I want something that I can run at PC2100 (266MHz) CL2. Not CL2.5. I also want something that is available in 512MB DIMMs. Has anyone got some 512MB modules that run reliably at 266 CL2? What make, where from? If not 512 modules, 256s?
5x SUNON 80mms will do his head in mate, i bought 5 with a JUNO P6, and even after i had removed the grilles to reduce noise, they still did my head in. g550 have great image quality, and so do ATi well, 2 modules of 256 will be cheaper than 1 module of 512. why CL2 though? ya dad really wont notice the difference will he? i would assume though that Crucial ddr ram will run stable at cl2 though to be honest
I'm with RTT - why do you need so many fans if you're not going to be overclocking? An exhaust and an intake will do you... r.
yeah ... sounds good to me ... but 5 fans is ott for a non o/c machine ..... like cheese and RTT say 1 exhast 1 intake and thats all you really need to keep it stable
You can get Crucial 256Mb PC2100 RAM that although rated CL2.5, will happily run at CL2. Great quality RAM, no delivery cost and inexsoensive anyway. www.crucial.com/uk Sorry, no 512MB DIMMS though, just the 256Mb
Crucial will run happily at Cas 2 at 133 (266DDR) no problem whatsoever, though if you are going to overclock the fsb it wont be stable at cas2 much past 138ish. Thers isnt a fat lot of difference in real world performance between cas 2, 2.5 and even cas 3, it is only in benchmakrs that it makes a difference.
The reason for 512MB modules is that he wants to start off with a gig of RAM, and still have room to expand. Since the KR7A has 3 slots which can be used without registered memory, that means starting with 2 512MB modules. I don't think 5 sunons would be bad...I'm speccing the same case I have, and I have 4 YS techs and 1 mechatronics, all of which are rated louder (by some 5 dB+, which is a lot, because dB is a logarithmic scale), so it wouldn't be horrendous. I might change the case fans to evercools so that it's quieter, but I reckon you need something decent on the PAL8045. Anyway, thanks for all your helps...any more comments appreciated.
Try and get some PC2700 stuff or PC2400 stuff that [H] uses.. i think its corsair - CAS 2 and bloody fast! You can OC that athlon to whatever then! Also loadsa fans will do his head in - think about water cooling if your brave enough - especially if you wanna OC.
trust me mate, 5 fans is over kill, and so is a gig or RAM you'd be hard pushed to kill a system with 512mb of ram
I'm going to repeat what RTT said again... 5 case fans is not nec. for a non overclocked system and Sunon 80mm fans are performance fans, near 40cfm and far from silent. Evercools will be fine but I still wouldn't use 5 of them As for the ram, it's cheap so it doesn't really matter... if a gig will make you happy then go for it Cheers, r.
I reckon 5 sunons can't sound too bad at all...like I said, I run 4 louder YS-Techs and one louder still Mechatronics, and the sound isnt bad at all (in fact, after the delta on my FOP38, it's positively quiet). I reckon 7200rpm drives definately need cooling (my old Seagate medalist 5400rpm drive used to get so hot that the brass 5.25" drive bracket it was mounted in discoloured, as did some of the metal on the drive, because of lack of ventilation), so one fan will blow over that. I will see about the fans...if the noise of 4 evercools and 1 sunon is too much (which I seriously doubt), I'll take out one or two of the evercools, but I'm not going to put any less than 1 intake, 1 outtake and 1 CPU fan in there. Depends, of course, on the temperatures. As an electronic engineer, I know the actual effect of heat on semiconductors, and so I want to keep it cool. Also, my father had a machine at work, which had 4 Matrox G400 cards die in it, due to overheating, so since this is a home machine, we want it to last (his present machine is a P233MMX (remember them?)). As for memory...there's reason to have 1GB. Running WinXP, several apps at once (Word, Quark Xpress, Photoshop with several 28MB bitmaps open, background apps), 512MB may start to become a prob (it can for me, when I'm having a photoshop session (My father and I are both photographers, and we regularly deal with 4000x3000 24-bit images, and may have several copies of one, with separate manipulation histories, open at once, and that can eat RAM pretty quick)), so it's just to make sure. Not that big a deal, as I reckon a gig should come in well under £200. Thanks for all your help guys (and girls...if any have replied).
I have a Dragon with 4 evercool fans and its pretty quiet considering it has so many fans going in it (4 evercools + cpu, graphics card and psu fans). You'll get used 2 'em mate!
sure do, i still have one (and it kicks ass too, i dont care what any of you say ) Fair enough - i can now understand why so much RAM is needed
i have 512 megs of ram ... enuff for a bit of photoshop .... i dont leave stuff open most of the time tho
Just to say thanks again...and to respond to will2k65, I know. I have a Blue dragon with a full complement of fans (grand total of 9), and it's not bad at all.
Your reaoning is fine, and I wasn't including your cpu fan in my fan counting - if you're worried about your hdd's perhaps separate hdd coolers would be better and quieter? Or a case which has good fan mounting by hdd rack options? Until tonight I was running 3 ys-tech's (47cfm 80mm ones) and an 80mm delta (@7v) so i know how loud it is and I know it's not too bad... but but there's nothing nicer than a silent pc Anyway just my opinions, sounds like a good pooter your building, cheers, r.
"Or a case which has good fan mounting by hdd rack options?" Well, the chieftec has an 80mm fan which blows through 3 3.5" drive bays, and I have my barracuda mounted in the middle of these, and it stays cool to the touch...I will do the same in my dad's machine. I used to run an AOpen HX08, with its dual 80mm out-take fans by hard disk bays, but that never worked as well as the chieftec, because airflow through the case was too restricted (by the central division, etc).
