My new system

[korgul]

I am getting ready to up grade my system. I need the wisdom of the sysopt residents on what I have planned and if they are good choices.

Ok here is what I am planning on getting.

MoBo - ECS K7VZA with an AMD T-bird 1.2Ghz - $163.00
Linkworld ATX case - $38.00
ATI Radeon 32Mb ddr video card - $144.45

What whould be a good cooling fan for the T-bird.
I will have at least 1 extra case fan added.
Also the case has a 300 watt PS.


Your thoughts please
Korgul

[Timbob505]

Well korgul, my main thought is the motherboard. I havent seen much about it, but I know it is on the cheap side. I used an ecs mobo in another pc I built - for an office, so outrageous speed wasn't needed. (besides, it was a 600 duron to replace the compaq 166mmx!) My gut is that the ECS will be mostly solid for you, but I would try and get a slightly better board. Anything from Abit, Asus, or MSI will probably give you a bit better performance, but if cost is of concern, I think everything will work nice enough for you. Have fun!

Timbob

[Axel]

I also like Giga-Byte motherboards - I've had a lot of good luck with many different ASUS products -

One question - one of the most inexpensive ways to quickly improve a computer is to improve the speed and cach size of the hard drive - If you have it to spare - I'd add a new 7200RPM hard drive with a 2MB onboard cache or better - I like Quantum's - about $120 after taxes - perhaps less -

$38 for a case sounds cheap - but then you are buying the PS seperate - or are you??? - if not - that doesn't sound right - I haven't seen a worthy 300W PS for $38 - much less a good case -

I'm no expert on fans except to say the more quality fans the better in most cases AND don't forget the thermal paste between the processor and heat sink.

[This message has been edited by Axel (edited 07-31-2001).]

[korgul]

Ok here is my update.

Just ordred an Abit KT7A MoBo w/ 1.2 Gb T-bird. $229.01 shipped

Case and CPU fan. $ 59.39 shipped

ATI radeon 32 Mb ddr Vid card. $ 87.37 shipped.


korgul

[Brangwen]

korgul:

I know you'll be eager to put your system together when the components arrive. Frankly, I would have gone with a full-size case (perhaps an Inwin) with <u>serious</u> ventilation. I was hustling around to provide info on my case and fans, but I see you've ordered. Well, should you run into difficulty, which I hope you don't, try a top grade case. I'm still an amateur at building systems compared to most other members, but I learned a very important lesson. A case is going to hold and hopefully maintain an optimum environment for all your not-so-inexpensive components. I now understand that a case should be top grade with <u>excellent</u> ventilation. I placed a 1.2GHz TBird in a midsize tower with a small fan in front and a tiny 60mm fan exhausting in back. Frankly, I skimpped on the case selection. The Bird ran okay, but a bit hot. I was <u>constantly</u> concerned about my temps. I tried several heatsink / CPU fan combos, but none really cut the mustard and it was <u>very</u> <u>loud</u>. Finally I decided that I'd spend the bucks on a quality case. I had a company customize mine as they seemed expert <u>and</u> had the cooling components I had searched the Net in vain for.

I will post a pic of my box when I photo it this week. I simply haven't gotten to that, and I'm very proud of my system.

<u>Bottom</u> <u>Line</u>: My Inwin case is approximately 24" tall (without the casters), 18" deep and 7.5" wide.

For Cooling:
I have 4 - 120mm Panaflo Whisper fans (68.9 cfms, 30dbs) and 2 - 80mm Whisper Panaflo fans (33 cfms, 28.9 dbs). This box is ultra quiet. Two 120mm's blow air from the left side of the case over the cards / mobo. One 120mm is intaking air in the lower front, and the 4th 120mm is exhausting air out the top. The two 80mm's exhaust out the case back of the case, one above and one below the PSU.

Finally my case has: Cliff's Fanbus, PCMods Baybus, Evercool Hard Drive Cooler, Thumbscrews and a 300W ATX PSU.

For my CPU (1.33GHz @ 1.54GHz) I'm using a triple-clasp Taisol (copper insert) HS with a fan I salvaged from a FOP32 unit.

My vidcard is a G450 Matrox (dual monitor) 32MB DDR, on a Iwill KK266 board, SBLive Value, IBM HDD, etc.

My point (though long-winded!) is this aluminum case is going to last me a long, long time and it will protect my components. OC'ed, as I type this with 8 windows open) my CPU temp sits at 84F and my so-called system temp is 68F. The fans are running at low-speed. I think the case (with its ventilation) is possibly the most important (and most often overlooked) component to decide on when putting together a system. That was <u>my</u> experience.

Best of luck! I hope your system satisfies you and I apologize for this "book" but I'm so impressed with my case that my enthusiasm carried me away! http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

Brangwen http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif


I included below a diagram of the case I chose before I had it modded:

<IMG SRC="http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=1663681&a=12748497&p=52404780" border=0>

I hope to have a photo of "my" case up in a day or two.

[This message has been edited by Brangwen (edited 07-31-2001).]

[korgul]

Well Brangwen I thank you for your concerns but I plan on doing a bit of mods to my case as well. I have gotten alot of ideas from www.7volts.com (http://www.7volts.com) and I am also going to add alot of extra fans to the intake and exhaust of the case.

I do not mean to flame anyone but just showing my intentions.

korgul.

P.S sorry for any spelling errors I just had about 5 paliner beers straight from Germany.

[korgul]

What about a cooling fan. I can get the volcano II. Is this a good fan for a T-bird.

Thanks for the heads up on the Mobo. I will look into a diff one.

korgul

[daveleau]

I used to only buy Abit, now I have expanded to MSI, IWill, Asus (all over Abit now). I would not go any cheaper than these. Abit and Asus are the higher dollar boards, but MSI and IWill are great mid-priced boards.

Dave

[acid_burn~187]

Hello Korgul. I agree with Timbob505, I'd jump for a better board. I'v only ever used Asus boards, however I think i'm gona jump for an Abit, maybe the KG7-RAID.

As for the cooler. check out this link.:

http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/01q2/010521/index.html
It's a comparison of 46 coolers.. very good.

good luck

~Paul