ams gbox- this is a great little system

[foofoo]

i was looking for a small desktop replacement that could be easliy moved for lan stuf and with an agp slot so i could get reasonable gaming.
the shutle box isnt ready yet and it does look like it'll be a while so i got one of the ams gbox.
link

combined it with a p4 1.8a and a gainward gf4 4200 wd80jb and sb audigy (no fire wire on this one) and it's running stable and great.
pcmark2002 cpu = 4331, mem = 4068, hdd = 1045
3dmark2001 = 8400

not the best out there but totally reasonable for a second system.
no overclocking options on the mb.
heck, my main computer only gets
pcmark2002 cpu = 5167, mem = 4372 hd = 1097
3dmark2001 = 8722
and it's a p4 1.6a @ 2133 with 10k scsi and the same video card.

but the interesting thing is that everyone that i know who has seen it wants one now. my gf is going to sell her pc (that i built for her) and have me build her one. 3 other people that have seen it since i got it together a week ago are buying them. it's kind of got that apple g4 plexiglass cube thing going.
wish is got a comission

these boxes are cool

 

[vetteguy]

I'm glad you posted this. I have a thread I started last week here that talks about a problem I'm having with this same system. I have almost the same setup you have, and my Audigy is causing it to lock up constantly. When I pull the Audigy, it runs fine. If you could offer any insight as to what you did to get it to be stable that would be awesome.

 

[foofoo]

hi vetteguy,
i read your other thread (not a subscriber so the link doesnt work "subscriber" => "forums").
i'm not sure what you are doing wrong
(if anything) but i can tell you what i did to get it going. after installing cpu, dvd/cdrw, floppy, mem, vid card. boot up and set up bios. fsb = 100 (locked by board jumper) mem bus is set to 133 for pc2100 dr ram, built in audio = disabled, usual on other setings. i then installed the os (win2kpro). installed board drivers. then when i was up on ethernet i downloaded the bios update from the ams webpage and updated the bios. (you dont mention doing this in your thread, maybe this would help?)
installed the audigy and drivers and then the rest of the software. no problems.
the only thing that went wrong for me was that the cute blue power led stopped working right away and i had to buy one and replace it myself (beats shipping it back).
if you want me to look in the bios and tell you setting let me know. also, i've only got 1 stick of crucial 256 mb pc2100. you might try running only 1 stick on known good ram as a test for a while.
let me know if you need any more info.

good luck

 

[vetteguy]

Sorry about the link...I keep forgetting about that. Anyway, here is what I have done:

I installed everything then set out to install XP. That's when it started locking up (well, if you read my other thread you know that). In BIOS, I have onboard sound disabled, FSB=100 (although I've cranked it up a little for a couple hours, still ran fine), mem bus = 133, pretty much everything else the same. I have NOT installed the BIOS update, so maybe that could be the key. I think I'll try that (if I can find a floppy drive somewhere) and get back to you. Thanks!