Tech-head question

[Bluetonic]

Even though my job is in IT, im quite a virgin when it comes to fiddling about with the inside of....my computer ;)

I've just invested in a new Case with 350W PSU, Athlon XP2400 with compatible motherboard (on board sound) and 256 DDR RAM.

I'm gonna be taking bits off my old PC which is:
P3 500
DVD Drive
Sony CD/RW
192 MB Ram pc 100/130 (cant remember)
32 meg ATI 3d card
modem

Is there anything else i need to buy as originally i didnt realise i needed a new PSU ( :dunce: ). Got MB, CPU and RAM today, ****ing PSU and case dont come till monday :mad:

[john_us]

Most of the onboard sound features many motherboards have are quite shitty. If your sound is for basic "You've got mail" type crap, then not to worry, but if you play games or listen to music, a small investment in a quality sound card will help alot.

You may need extra fans, depending on the case really.

The round IDE cables are always nice too.

A can of compressed air for dusting, always fun to have, especially if you have dog you like to play with ;)

[Delilah]

Judging by that list there, you won't get very far without a Hard Drive or Floppy Drive ;)

[Pood]

anywhere i can buy compressed air online? about as rare as dodo shit round where i live, also, are there psus that have rounded power cables? i got rounded ide cables, looks better but still a shitload of yellow, red, black wires all over the place, doesnt look too good in my transparent side-panel thing

[Dunny]

Didn't realise it was possible to be "quite" a virgin ;)

[great white]

http://www.danasoft.com/vipersig.jpg

3 outta 4 not bad.... :clap: ;)

[Pood]

yeh thing is tho it doesnt detect my isp properly and says my isp is co.uk, well, i guess they got the country right ;)

[Bluetonic]

Originally posted by Delilah
Judging by that list there, you won't get very far without a Hard Drive or Floppy Drive ;)

Got 50GB of space though im gonna need another HDD :(

Waiting till my pay cheque comes through and im gonna get a Radeon 9600 AGP :D

(nicely in time for half life 2 ;) )

[ourkid]

Originally posted by Bluetonic
Even though my job is in IT, im quite a virgin when it comes to fiddling about with the inside of....my computer ;)

I've just invested in a new Case with 350W PSU, Athlon XP2400 with compatible motherboard (on board sound) and 256 DDR RAM.

I'm gonna be taking bits off my old PC which is:
P3 500
DVD Drive
Sony CD/RW
192 MB Ram pc 100/130 (cant remember)
32 meg ATI 3d card
modem

Is there anything else i need to buy as originally i didnt realise i needed a new PSU ( :dunce: ). Got MB, CPU and RAM today, ****ing PSU and case dont come till monday :mad:

hey mate, if your onboard sound is Realtek 650 (aka Nvidia Soundstorm) then its not bad at all, unless your doing some serious midi work or sampling..

As for your GC, hunt around and see if you can find a Radeon 9500 Pro, they perform better than the 9600 Pro's. How much did you pay for all this mate? Usually i opt for a Shuttle SN45G that gives me a mobo & case capable of an Athlon 3200XP+.

Pood, head on over to www.viking-direct.co.uk for the compressed air.

[Delilah]

Originally posted by Bluetonic

Waiting till my pay cheque comes through and im gonna get a Radeon 9600 AGP :D

(nicely in time for half life 2 ;) )

Don't mention that to me - I've got a GeForce 4 which are getting pants benchmarks on HL2 :angryfire

[James_F]

Originally posted by DunstableTownFC
Didn't realise it was possible to be "quite" a virgin ;)

:laugh:

[Dunny]

Yeah, I've heard some girls who say they're "a bit of a virgin". Just face it you're a slut :laugh:

[Bluetonic]

Originally posted by ourkid
hey mate, if your onboard sound is Realtek 650 (aka Nvidia Soundstorm) then its not bad at all, unless your doing some serious midi work or sampling..

As for your GC, hunt around and see if you can find a Radeon 9500 Pro, they perform better than the 9600 Pro's. How much did you pay for all this mate? Usually i opt for a Shuttle SN45G that gives me a mobo & case capable of an Athlon 3200XP+.



Yeah it is Realtek and it aint bad to be fair (being a moosic man). In total paid 230 quid roughly for Athlon xp2400 cpu, msi kt4v motherboard, 256mb ddram, case, 350w psu and 52x sony cd/rw.

Major problem im getting now is CPU speed. When i first installed XP it showed it as 1.5ghz when it should be 2.0ghz. Found out the CPU was running at 15x100 (1500mhz) rather than 15x133 (1995mhz). Change the FSB in the bios u may say, but when i try and change it to 133 my machine hangs and wont load windows etc. Thus i have to clear the bios and go back to 100.

At the mo, im managing to get it to run at 15x115 (1.73ghz) though it can get to 120 before dying. Do i need to upgrade the motherboard bios as its v1.0 when on the msi site there is v1.9 available??

Any help would be most appreciated! :clap:

[ourkid]

Maybe mate, dunno much about the mobo, i had a nightmare with mine and in the end i just had to triple check i had the right multiplier settings (for a 2200XP+).

Im not entirely sure without some research what the 2400 runs at, but try your 15x133 and make sure your memory is set to SPD.

[Bluetonic]

Well i dunno wots wrong ive got it to 119 ish now after updating the bios.

It says its an Athlon XP1800+ yet i know ive bought a 2400 as it says on the actual CPU and box it came in!

I cant even get it to 133 without crashing :( What do you mean by setting memory to SPD???