CUSL2 setup.

[harpomx]

I've finally bought all the pieces for a new system, which will be the first on I've built from scratch. I just know I'll have some unforseen problems with incompatibility or some stupid crap, but I'll deal with that later. I don't know very much about setting bus speeds (FSB:AGP ratios, RAM speed, multipliers, etc.). What would be the best ratio and multiplier for this system on a CUSL2?

P3 733 EB 133fsb
PC133 RAM (Generic)
ASUS V3800 TNT2 Deluxe AGP
SBLIVE Value
SMC 10/100 NIC
Pioneer 16x/40x with Hollywood Decoder
Panasonic 8x4x32 CDRW
30 G Fireball LM ATA66
17 G Fushitsu ATA33

Question 2: What would the best setup be for the 4 IDE drives as far as Primary/Sec./Master/Slave?

Question 3: I know the CUSL2 has 6 PCI's and I've heard I should keep slot 1 open, but I really want to pu a slot fan in for the AGP. Is there any slots I should stay away from when I'm putting in my NIC and SBlive? I heard I'll likely have to reserve IRQ5 for the SB in the BIOS. Any advice?

 

[Sisyfos]

1. FSB/RAM/PCI should be 133/133/33 for your CPU and RAM. The CPU multiplier is of course locked at 5.5x.
With the generic RAM it's hard to tell how aggressive you can run it. You'll just have try it out.

2. If you want to burn CD to CD, you're probably best of with:
Fireball primary master
Panasonic primary slave
Fujitsu secondary master
Pioneer secondary slave

3. The reason for not using PCI1 is IRQ sharing, so you can safely put in a slot fan (this board's PCI1 doesn't share with AGP anyway).
On page 28 in the manual you can see how this board has it's IRQ sharing set up.
The only reason you'd want to reserve IRQs is if one of your cards has trouble with certain IRQs, or to control how your cards are prioritized, ie. 0 thru 2 and 9 thru 15 are of higher priority than 3 thru 8 (page 27 in manual). E.g. you will want your TNT2 on a high priority IRQ.
As far as I know, the SBLive can reside on any IRQ (I've had it at 4, 5, 10, 12 no prob).
My current setup:
G400 AGP
SBLive PCI4
3C509B NIC PCI5
In BIOS I've disabled COM1, COM2 and Parallel (I don't use 'em).
In Windows I've disabled SB16 Emulation, SMBus Controller and USB Controller 1.

Hope this helps

 

[harpomx]

Thanks! Good point about the master/slave setup, I wasn't thinking along those lines, but it makes sense to have the burner on Primary.

for the ratio settings (or anything else I will have to config) can I do the adjustment I need to in the BIOS, or am I going to have to meddle around with jumpers for a couple of things?

 

[Sisyfos]

I gathered that you'd want to use the Fireball for the OS, hence primary master.
The Pioneer will probably be your drive for installing, gaming etc. (DVD of course). That's why it should be kept off your primary to get avoid task switching between it and the Fireball.
If you want to burn from HDD to CD, you'll just use the Fujitsu.
Of course when you're burning, you can't lean to heavily on the Fireball, but that's IDE for ya.

FSB and the lot can be adjusted in BIOS
Some of the more obscure tips on OC'ing is to use the DIP switches for better stability, but you've only got limited FSB'es if you choose that road.
I can't say from personal experience, if the DIP switces does it more stable than the BIOS.

Some things to note.
PCI and AGP are only in spec at the 66/100/33, 100/100/33, 133/100/33 or 133/133/33 settings. There's no way to go under spec, eg. you can't choose 1/4 PCI at 124/124/41 if your PCI devices are acting up.

Kim