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Amd 64 3400+ / includes free motherboard $119..Now S939

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i have a biostar m7vig400 and i never bothered to installed an add on sound card
rarely noticed a benefit using either soundstorm or audigy
 
Originally posted by: unclebud
i have a biostar m7vig400 and i never bothered to installed an add on sound card
rarely noticed a benefit using either soundstorm or audigy

What speakers are you using? And what setup, 5.1?
 
Originally posted by: necromancyr
Yeah, for some reason gigabyte hid it under the 'advanced' hidden menu options - the ones they don't mention in the manual. I have another gigabyte board so ended up trying that and it worked.

Kind of weird for a option thats not really a 'power tweak'

Might I have to do the same thing for a AGP card?
 
Originally posted by: Sonikku
Originally posted by: necromancyr
Yeah, for some reason gigabyte hid it under the 'advanced' hidden menu options - the ones they don't mention in the manual. I have another gigabyte board so ended up trying that and it worked.

Kind of weird for a option thats not really a 'power tweak'

Might I have to do the same thing for a AGP card?

As I recall, with the Biostar board of the same chipset, a card inserted in the AGP slot is automatically chosen over the onboard video. I believe it is the same on all examples of this chipset.

If you don't need the onboard video, though, I would recommend the Biostar nForce3 board that newegg is offering. Unless, you need a uATX, I guess. But check the dimensions. The Biostar NF325-A7 is compact, but not quite as small as a uATX
 
What are the on board videos like on the boards that have them? Are they going to be better that a gf4 ti4200? Also, if I want to be running win98 on this, is there one mother board that is better than the other? Right now I am leaning toward the nforce3 board, but am having a hard time making up my mind.
 
Installed the mobo/cpu, man this thing is 3/4 the size of my old Abit NF7-S. Somehow I feel like I'm downgrading my mobo... Hope this thing works
 
Originally posted by: Solarium
Installed the mobo/cpu, man this thing is 3/4 the size of my old Abit NF7-S. Somehow I feel like I'm downgrading my mobo... Hope this thing works


You did! The MB was a freebie, although the cpu should more than make up for the difference, especially if you got the nForce3. So, is the Abit for sale?
 
works great 🙂 I have my big typhoon on it and it fits wonderfully on the biostar board...much more room. Glad I pcked it over the gigabyte because the gigbayte from the pics looked a little more cramped.

with that said though i'm not overclocking...2400mhz is PLENTY enough for me, and i get it at whisper quiet sounds 🙂

and the audio sounds a little better than my sound storm...not because soundstorm sucked, but linux sound storm drivers sucked 😉 audio isn't as crackily or bad when i play it. still not as good as windows, but better than before. I guess i need a real hardware audiocard for the best quality under linux, but its fine 😉

i highly reccomend people with any AXP speed to pick this up, or P4 below 2.8Ghz...
 
Why do some people call this deal "warm at best"? Is there anything better out there? (too bad I can't get it for $89.99 anymore)

The MoBo on my sig is pretty much on it's last leg (won't even let me run my CPU at default speeds, let alone O'Clock it)... So, I'm on the market for just such the upgrade, and I would love to pay as little as possible, since I'm pretty hard up for cash...

Before I pull the trigger I want to know if someone knows of a better deal or something. In this particular instance by a better deal I mean paying less; not necessarily Bang For Buck.

Also I have a Zalman CNPS7000-Cu -is that going to fit/work on the BioStar Nf325 & A64? I really don't want to spend on a HS&F. I'm not being so much cheap, as much as genuinely broke.
 
Originally posted by: Ruroni
Why do some people call this deal "warm at best"? Is there anything better out there? (too bad I can't get it for $89.99 anymore)

The MoBo on my sig is pretty much on it's last leg (won't even let me run my CPU at default speeds, let alone O'Clock it)... So, I'm on the market for just such the upgrade, and I would love to pay as little as possible, since I'm pretty hard up for cash...

Before I pull the trigger I want to know if someone knows of a better deal or something. In this particular instance by a better deal I mean paying less; not necessarily Bang For Buck.

Also I have a Zalman CNPS7000-Cu -is that going to fit/work on the BioStar Nf325 & A64? I really don't want to spend on a HS&F. I'm not being so much cheap, as much as genuinely broke.

Since $$ is a priority, I think the biostar combo is a good deal for you. Since you'd like to not spend much, you probably want to keep your current video card and RAM. Socket AM2 would mean new RAM and a new video card. Socket 939 would likely mean a new video card (PCI-E). I'm not sure about your current PSU, but it should be fine for this new mobo/CPU.

According to Zalman's website, your HSF should work on socket 754. However, not owning this biostar MB, I can't say if there is enough space for this cooler.
 
I purchased this combo with the Gigabyte MB because I wanted the OBV.

The box I built uses all new parts and cost (AR) less than $200.
It is 3400+, 512Mb RAM, 200Gb HD, and a 52x CD-RW.

It is used in conjunction with a HW based security card and 8 video cameras for a kick-ass 8 channel security system that works flawlessly. All told I have less than $450 in it, a fraction of what a pre-assembled security system of the same function sells for. Plus I had the pleasure and pride of building it myself.

I was so impressed with this combo deal, in fact, I just purchased another combo tonight (the same Gigabyte board) to update another older computer that is used to surf and check E-mail.


Here are some numbers I looked at:

Typically for a low-use system like this I would buy the AMD retail package processor.
If I did that for this system it would be: $194.99 for the processor and the MB

If I didn't utilize the combo deal and got the OEM processor, MB and Fan it would run: $163.69

With the combo deal and a fan I pay: $113.70

To me that is a good deal.

 
Just an update, O/C'ed from 2400 to 2600 mhz without any problems. 36 celcius ambient, 50-53 under max load. Using PC3200 ram, it worked fine under default settings at FSB 217 only if I turned the voltage from 2.6 to 2.9. I only noticed a 2 FPS increase in F.E.A.R. though, which was kind of disappointing, probably means that my system is video card bottlenecked (using x800XT aiw agp)
 
Exact same thing I'm using. I'm finding in World of Warcraft, I'm actually bottlenecked by my 3400+ and not by my X800XT AIOW.
 
Originally posted by: mellondust
What are the on board videos like on the boards that have them? Are they going to be better that a gf4 ti4200? Also, if I want to be running win98 on this, is there one mother board that is better than the other? Right now I am leaning toward the nforce3 board, but am having a hard time making up my mind.

I have never encountered any onboard video that is remotely on par with the Titanium serie of the GF4 card. Onboard video is for those who plan on not playing 3d games.
 
Originally posted by: mellondust
What are the on board videos like on the boards that have them? Are they going to be better that a gf4 ti4200? Also, if I want to be running win98 on this, is there one mother board that is better than the other? Right now I am leaning toward the nforce3 board, but am having a hard time making up my mind.

The onboard video is not as fast as nForce2/400 IGP. You can barely play old DX7 games at moderate resolution, no eyecandy. GF4 TI4200 is multiple times faster at what it can play, but frankly if gaming is your need, unless your current system is ancient a video card might make more sense than this board/CPU combo, OR if you want to replace both (the longer-term solution, now would be the time to move to PCI Express.
 
Well after my experience thus far with the first two, I ordered a third combo last night with the same Gigabyte MOBO.

While this deal may not be super hot, it is working great for me. The other two I got have been running stable as hell since the day they got here.

Hoping for another flawless build and fire up like the first two (That is once I plugged in the 4-pin PS header on the first one. DOH)

If you are on the edge, this is what NewEgg told me. "The promotion has no end date, yet it may end at anytime." The lady I talked to was very courteous and urged me to buy now if I wanted another. That could have been just salesmanship and maybe I'm a sucker, but I felt she was being sincere.

Either way I'm happy as a pig in, ah.... mud. I have substantially upgraded 3 of my machines for less than $340.

I do a lot of video encoding and on the fastest machine I had the new combo provided for a 38% decrease in video encoding times. Very nice for $113 bucks.

BTW so far I have both OC?ed to 220Mhz and both are stable. 225 made one puke and I haven't tried 225 on the second yet. I?m running one of the cheapest copper-insert Coolmaster?s NE sells and the temp stays between 38-42.

 
I've built 4 systems using the Gigabyte mobo and 2 using the Biostar mobo in the last 2 weeks (just happens to be upgrading my office computers). The Gigabyte mobo, in particular, works great (no need for powerful video running office apps). I've got 4 more on the way.
 
I built the Venice core 3400+ on a Biostar Tforce board. Very nice. Speedy enough for me at stock speeds for single threaded applications. I see Newegg has updated the description on their page to indicate it's a Venice core. I watched as a Ebay seller sold MANY of these CPUs for 99.00 plus 15.00 shipping. He probably has a stack of motherboards that cost him nothing. Amazing how people won't do a little Google action to find out that they can get a better deal from somewhere else.

Anyway, I need some ideas what to do with my 3400+ PC, as my main rig is a dual core 4200. Probably would make an ideal HTPC. It's too nice to go unused.
 
Turn it into a beyondTV box. There's a thread in hot deals right now for a good deal on it.

I have the Biostar but I'm amazed at how hot the nforce chip heatsink gets on the motherboard. It will literally burn my finger if left on too long, anyone else's get this hot? This is with like 0 load and no OS running.
 
Originally posted by: GeezerMan
I built the Venice core 3400+ on a Biostar Tforce board. Very nice. Speedy enough for me at stock speeds for single threaded applications. I see Newegg has updated the description on their page to indicate it's a Venice core. I watched as a Ebay seller sold MANY of these CPUs for 99.00 plus 15.00 shipping. He probably has a stack of motherboards that cost him nothing. Amazing how people won't do a little Google action to find out that they can get a better deal from somewhere else.

Anyway, I need some ideas what to do with my 3400+ PC, as my main rig is a dual core 4200. Probably would make an ideal HTPC. It's too nice to go unused.

read 1st post in this thread here 😉
Originally posted by: amdskip
Turn it into a beyondTV box. There's a thread in hot deals right now for a good deal on it.

I have the Biostar but I'm amazed at how hot the nforce chip heatsink gets on the motherboard. It will literally burn my finger if left on too long, anyone else's get this hot? This is with like 0 load and no OS running.

you'll need either a bigger passive chipset cooler or one with active(fan) ..🙁
 
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