Abit KR7A-Raid Advice

[Hawkes]

OK, so I just got an Abit KR7A-Raid for Christmas. Looking @ getting the OEM AMD XP 1700 for $145.00 from newegg, but need advice on the cooler for it - I'm NOT going to be overclocking at all - want a QUIET CPU fan that has good cooling.

Also curious about power supply requirements - I seem to remember that AMD procs suck a bit more juice. I plan on mirroring 2 hard drives, and am using a Geforce3 Ti200 in addition to a NIC and SBLive in the machine as well a single 512M stick of DDR2100 RAM. What would be minimum recommended power supply wattage for this setup?

Any other gotcha's before I start building this system up?

 

[MichaelD]

Hi there,

It's smart of you to ask. Kind of a "look before leaping" kinda thing. For the system you describe, a name-brand (Antec, Enermax, etc) 300-watt power supply will do you fine. If I were you, invest the extra $25-$30 and get the 400-watter. You don't NEED the 400w, it's just a little extra headroom, that's all.

Being that you're not gonna overclock, the stock cooler will work just fine. Buy the 1700XP OEM package. It'll come with an AMD-approved HSF for that processor. Also, buy a tube of Arctic Silver II (AKA ASII) and use that instead of the thermal pad (pink square with a peel-off cover on the bottom of the heatsink....scrape the pink stuff off with your fingernail and clean the bottom of the HS with rubbing alcohol on a paper towel). You'll be good to go.

Congrats on your KR7AR. That is my next mobo, pending AT's review, which has been "on the way" since early November :rolleyes; Let us know how it all works out for you. What OS are you gonna run? W2K, I hope.

 

[DIRTsquirt]

I boght a retail box 1700 and the factory heat sink while quiet, isnt very good.. I get 54c temps at full load... with the kr7a board..
I need a better quiet hs prolly going with the sk6 and sideways 80mm