Atomic Systems

Not a problem mate. Hardware was my speciality for 2 years at college...I'm the master of specifications, and jargon-busting too! If you ever need help with anything hardware-related, PM me!

ill bear that info in mind, just waiting for the wife to email back saying ok!
lol
Thanks again!
Chris

Hi
I realise that this thread has about concluded...but I'll just through a couple of things in.
PCI graphics cards...always cause bottle necks....need AGP really
No mention of power supply...but proberbly only 230w...not really adequate... espec if your going to add a burner at some time.
Older memory will hold back your new CPU....although you will obviously see a vast improvement on your present system.
I myself have just knocked together an AMD 2500+ system for £250...replacing my aged celeron 500 which I have sold for £80..so cost to myself £170

Ps Love your Locos

Who the hell buys a 500MHz Celeron for 80GBP! Mad person who did, that's for sure...I'm going to paste in here what I put in my own thread, see if anyone can work it out (and I'm supposed to be the ICT technician!):

I doubt this is the right place to make such comments, but can someone help me work out why my PC keeps crashing?

My spec is
1.4GHz AMD Duron
120GB Seagate HDD
256Mb ATi Radeon 9600
Abit KT7A motherboard
(currently) 128MB PC100/133 SDRAM (was 640MB but works better without the extra 512MB )

It crashes mostly in MSTS, but it crashes all the time after about 10 minutes, usually less.

Any ideas? Could it be defective RAM? A motherboard gone wrong (looks the most viable option to me)?

overheating?

Dust got in during construction?

Got enough fans in there. Can't find any dust though...

LucaZone wrote:overheating?

Dust got in during construction?

Heat nearly always ....AMDs run hot...very hot...who fitted the CPU and fan...and is it a good one (ie can it speed itsself up when needed?)
AMD now recommend fitting heat pads betweem CPU and Fans...in fact they will not accept returned burnt CPUs unless they have been.
At a recent IT demo all the makes of CPUs were tested with their fans disabled....and the Duron self ignited.

Quality! ive got a 750 duron around somewhere.

My current XP2000 happily works at around 50+, though upwards of 65 and i switch her off.

I find a good deskfan works well as a heatseak

Did anyone hear about the guy on an Overclockers website, that followed suggestions to water cool his pc. But instead of looking to Watercooling, he filled in all the holes in the pc, and filled it with water! only to have a large bang on switching the pc on. He then got told what he had done and complained abundant that it was the advice on the forum that had cost him his pc, and that he was going to sue.

And he was genuine!

LucaZone wrote:Quality! ive got a 750 duron around somewhere.

My current XP2000 happily works at around 50+, though upwards of 65 and i switch her off.

I find a good deskfan works well as a heatseak

Did anyone hear about the guy on an Overclockers website, that followed suggestions to water cool his pc. But instead of looking to Watercooling, he filled in all the holes in the pc, and filled it with water! only to have a large bang on switching the pc on. He then got told what he had done and complained abundant that it was the advice on the forum that had cost him his pc, and that he was going to sue.

And he was genuine!

Got my 2500 running at 2600(2.05Ghz)...just had a 25min drive...temp went upto 54..from 48...but you recon upto 65 OK?
There is a guy recons he has had his 2500 running at 3200 speed..but whether he is right or not dont know

Posted: 11 Nov 2003 00:14 Post subject: PC Upgrade

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Hi
I realise that this thread has about concluded...but I'll just through a couple of things in.
PCI graphics cards...always cause bottle necks....need AGP really
No mention of power supply...but proberbly only 230w...not really adequate... espec if your going to add a burner at some time.
Older memory will hold back your new CPU....although you will obviously see a vast improvement on your present system.
I myself have just knocked together an AMD 2500+ system for £250...replacing my aged celeron 500 which I have sold for £80..so cost to myself £170

Ps Love your Locos

I do have a MX440 AGP card aswell,(i ordered the wrong thing for this PC, but kept hold of it anyway) so if i can ill fit that, i know its only a MX440 and they are . compared to other GX cards, but its what the budget allows! Out of work at present, so cash is a bit strapped, hopefully ill be able to add newer and better stuff as cash flow allows.

Ps i aim to please with my locos!

I used to have an AMD Duron 650 (Now upgraded to Athlon 1.2 Ghz) and could quite comfortably overclock it to 900. The temperature of your CPU is not only determined by the quality of the Heatsink and fan, but also whether or not you apply a thermal transfer paste between the CPU & Heatsink. If you do this correctly your CPU will run flawlessly.

The myth that AMD chips produce more heat than Intel, has been a myth since the advent of the Pentium IV. The P IV produces a staggering 65 Watts of heat, hence the PIV heatsink and fan being far bigger and wider than the actual CPU.

Also, I don't know why people are recommending Celerons. Most people here probably know that a Celeron is essentially a cut down Pentium, and is slower clock for clock than a lower priced duron, and a lot slower than a similairly priced Athlon.

In my opinion, best thing to do would be to get an Athlon XP, lots of DDR RAM, and decent mobo. One of the best performing chipsets for the AMD Platform is NForce 2. This is available in different variants which can include onboard GF4 MX, 5.1 surround sound, Ethernet, Firewire etc etc.

The only problem I can envisage you experiencing is fitting a standard mainboard into your HP case, which I can almost be sure won't accommodate a standard mobo.

The only you would want a celeron would be if your board would support one of the new ones, which it won't. That way it would save you having to buy a new mobo

Hmm...I'd dig out my old PC magazines and find evidence for why he should want a Celeron over a Duron. I'm getting biased towards them now, as my PC with a Duron in does not work! All my magazines are at my mum's house, over 70 miles away (and the postage on them would be HUGE!)

its already bought and en-route, so no point in arguing as to what i should and shouldnt get

Good man! Sorry to argue, but someone who disses a Celeron, on the basis that it wouldn't work in your machine, when it was stated you were getting a new motherboard, is daft...

I'd better grab that fire extinguisher!

I have no problems with the overheating thing. I might ask my mum if she can bring that room fan down tomorrow though...I'll have that thing blasting away at top speed, and then we'll see if there's a problem...

I reckon it's my board not liking what's in there, but I don't know...

Posted: 11 Nov 2003 12:45 Post subject:

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Good man! Sorry to argue, but someone who disses a Celeron, on the basis that it wouldn't work in your machine, when it was stated you were getting a new motherboard, is daft...

yep! hopefully ill get it before firday and ill be able to get it fitted over the weekend!