Dumping AMD64-going back to pentium goodness

[slag]

Not had much luck with the AMD64 scene with crummy nforce 3 drivers, buggy hardware (dfi lanparty 3 and others), and just a flaky system in general so im wanting to go back to Intel and get the most bang for my buck.

I want to use my existing AGP card (6800 OC), on a good overclocking board that will support a processor that does at least 3.5 ghz overclocked using pc3200 Samsung tccd memory.

Ideas on what I should look for?

 

[IEC]

The best "bang for your buck" would be to RMA your faulty hardware :frown:

 

[NokiaDude]

Originally posted by: ariafrost
The best "bang for your buck" would be to RMA your faulty hardware :frown:

Exactly.

A64 is the king in the PC gaming world. P4's lag behind.

 

[Technonut]

ABIT IC7-G or ASUS P4C800-E.....

 

[Matt2]

Update your BIOS, I love my DFI board, rock solid.

 

[slag]

Hard to tell whats faulty.

It doesn't work right even in standard unclocked mode. Things crash randomly, even with fresh installs of windows and all the drivers.

RAM checks out fine in the memtest tests, yet i sometimes get weird memory errors in world of warcraft and sometimes when i close IE , get memory exception errors.

The processor is unoverclockable anymore. Even a 10 mhz FSB overclock makes the computer sometimes not restart or start up in the raid setup mode even though I have 1 hard drive in the system and raid is turned off in the bios.

Speaking of bios, i've tried them all, no change in system stability or instability

I've tried a different processor, (sempron 2800+) in the box with the same instability.

I've tried 3 different motherboards, all have the same type of quirks (lack of overclockability, instability problems, etc)

I've tried 2 different power supplies--enermax 465pe and a flower 520? watt ps, same results.

I've tried different hard drives--going from pata to sata and having the same issues--sometimes i get drive errors--caching errors etc

I've swapped all floppy/ide cables in the system with no change in behavior

I want stability and cant pinpoint it down to what is wrong. I'd like to try a socket939 solution, but most of those require a pci express video card and i'm now leery of another AMD system with my bad luck with the current crop of amd64 socket 754 offerings.

By contrast, i never had any problems with my p4 2.8 overclocked to 3.25 ghz in over a year. Wish I hadn't sold that system.

I want high overclockability with decent performance. I've seen posts of people getting insane p4 overclocks lately and want to jump in on that ballgame.

Regarding RMAing, i cant RMA everything. I'm not even sure whats wrong with it. I consider myself pretty hardware intelligent, but i'm now just wanting to start fresh because, quite frankly, the past 3 months of instability and many long nights of trying new hardware/software solutions has not gained me anything except headaches.

 

[TStep]

I'm itchin' to get my mits on a Pentium-M in a 915 solution.

 

[Crashedout]

Wow if ever I have seen someone that was not meant to try AMD you are it. The 1000's of people on this forum would find it hard to beleive AMD was to blame for your problems but if you are dis-satisfied you could try:
-one of the ASUS AGP P4 boards with the older 478 socket or the new 775 socket with one of the presscott CPUs should get you to 3.8-4.2 GHZ. It will cost more than a similar A64 system but should be enough performance for you.

I have been into AMD only stuff for 8 years and seldomly had the problems you have had, the occasional wonky part but never that many. I wonder if it is something you are doing in general.

Good luck.

 

[Homerboy]

PEBKAC
Stick with AMD and do it right... will destroy any Intel for the $$

 

[slag]

Originally posted by: Homerboy
PEBKAC
Stick with AMD and do it right... will destroy any Intel for the $$

No problem me, thanks much though.

I love AMD. every system in my house with the exceptions of my wife's work computer is AMD. My most stable system is an AMD 1700+ I use as a file server.

Lets stay away from the personal attacks. I've built probably close to 30 or more systems in my lifetime and never been as stumped as i have on this one. I didnt ask for a synopsis of what was wrong, I'm wanting to wash my hands of this and am looking for a cost effective solution to migrate to.

A $185.00 motherboard at newegg seems pricey. Is that as cheap as it gets for a low cost overclocking system?

 

[Homerboy]

It wasn't meant as a "personal attack"... it was a light hearted jab if anything.
Honestly, I think 99% of people would say that AMD is the way to go for home desktops right now without exception. I don't know why you're having such an issues with components that are known to be rock solid, stable, and amazing performers (OCed or not OCed).

 

[Technonut]

slag Is not alone... Check-out the How many of you have gone from AMD to Intel because.... thead @ Overclocker Forums...

A $185.00 motherboard at newegg seems pricey. Is that as cheap as it gets for a low cost overclocking system?

You can check the FS/Trade forum... I have seen some good deals, including my (shameless plug ) ASUS / 2.8C @ 3.6GHz P4 combo for $250.00 Shipped.

 

[slag]

Originally posted by: Crashedout
Wow if ever I have seen someone that was not meant to try AMD you are it. The 1000's of people on this forum would find it hard to beleive AMD was to blame for your problems but if you are dis-satisfied you could try:
-one of the ASUS AGP P4 boards with the older 478 socket or the new 775 socket with one of the presscott CPUs should get you to 3.8-4.2 GHZ. It will cost more than a similar A64 system but should be enough performance for you.

I have been into AMD only stuff for 8 years and seldomly had the problems you have had, the occasional wonky part but never that many. I wonder if it is something you are doing in general.

Good luck.

Who said AMD was to blame for the issues I was having?
Read my above post. I really like AMD performance and chips, I am just getting a bit turned off by the nforce 3 drivers subsystems (especially the multitude of problems world of warcraft users are having with it) and am wanting to go back to a fast intel system.

I'm beginning to wonder if it might be an electrical problem in my house but i have it all set up through a good working UPS.

 

[ColossusX]

Could it be your powersupply? When I had an XP-M with a crazy OC, my PSU (Antec Truepower 430watt) couldnt handle it. I had random crashes, etc. Not stable at all. I tried swapping everything out, just like you. When I upgraded to a PC Power & Cooling Turbo Cool 510 Deluxe, all my problems went away. Now, with the rig in my sig, I still have NO problems with stability.

Since it looks like you've swapped everything else out, I would guess maybe its the PSU, or you are getting bad power from your house. I dont think, but I am probably wrong, that a UPS regulates the power supply incoming, but merely provides backup power when the main line goes off. If you're drawing too many amps from the same ciruit, you would have power stability problems as your breaker box attempts to supply all the items on that individual circuit with power.

Just a thought.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Dude lets face it, you came to the wrong forum for intel help. I have no quarrels with intel. Fact is if i were getting a new system, I would be getting an AMD for single core or an Intel for Dual core. Fact is, AMD is better in the dual core area, but not 2x the price better. And besides, Intel is still doing better in the encoding area, which is what i do above all else, One problem this froum has is that instead of reccommending based upon use, people are AMD biased. And maybe Intel has committed some crimes against AMD. Maybe Microsoft has to. That still hasn't stopped it from being the most popular operating system manufacturer in the world. If you doing encoding slag, get yourself a 820 and see how far you can push it.

 

[Pabster]

Yeah if you are looking for honest advice on an Intel-based rig, you might as well look elsewhere. 80%+ run AMD rigs here.

I personally never had stability issues with AMD or Intel. With the exception of those damn VIA chipset boards. But I don't fault AMD for that.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

w00t! Wow. Pabster thank you. I expected to be immediately slapped down by the next peron sriting on here lol.

 

[BillyBobJoel71]

i don't see much of a difference in normal computing with intel or amd. only in games i get higher fps with an athlon.

 

[dainthomas]

Originally posted by: slag

Originally posted by: Crashedout
Wow if ever I have seen someone that was not meant to try AMD you are it. The 1000's of people on this forum would find it hard to beleive AMD was to blame for your problems but if you are dis-satisfied you could try:
-one of the ASUS AGP P4 boards with the older 478 socket or the new 775 socket with one of the presscott CPUs should get you to 3.8-4.2 GHZ. It will cost more than a similar A64 system but should be enough performance for you.

I have been into AMD only stuff for 8 years and seldomly had the problems you have had, the occasional wonky part but never that many. I wonder if it is something you are doing in general.

Good luck.

Who said AMD was to blame for the issues I was having?
Read my above post. I really like AMD performance and chips, I am just getting a bit turned off by the nforce 3 drivers subsystems (especially the multitude of problems world of warcraft users are having with it) and am wanting to go back to a fast intel system.

I'm beginning to wonder if it might be an electrical problem in my house but i have it all set up through a good working UPS.

I was going to say power supply, until I saw you've tried 2 different units. Could be your house. Have you tried running it anywhere else? The only other thing I can think of is your vid card. My nforce3 is rock solid, so I'm stumped.

 

[Shimmishim]

seriously... this is the LEAST friendly Intel forum i know of...

more like 90% use amd on these forums... and always without fail will you hear someone say... 'gosh, you must be on crack cuz you want to go with an intel system' or something along those lines...

but honestly... i'd go with the asus p4c800-e, 479 to 478 adapter, and a dothan with a 533mhz fsb... killer combo... and an awesome gaming rig...

if i can save up enough, that's what i'm going for next!

 

[czech09]

Originally posted by: Matt2
Update your BIOS, I love my DFI board, rock solid.

Word.

 

[TGS]

I have an Abit AV8, Socket 939 AGP board.

I would like to know if you took the voltages from the PSU, ran memtest, and the typical hardware barrage.

What are your full specs as of now, perhaps there is some hardware conflicts.

 

[slag]

Originally posted by: TGS
I have an Abit AV8, Socket 939 AGP board.

I would like to know if you took the voltages from the PSU, ran memtest, and the typical hardware barrage.

What are your full specs as of now, perhaps there is some hardware conflicts.

Haven't taken voltages from the PSU. I can sometimes go days on end with everything working great and then have a slew of problems for one full evening. Next morning, things are back to normal.

I've ran virus scan after virus scan, done the microsoft antispy thing (I'm pretty anal about this stuff), etc. I've run memtest for over 24 hours with zero errors.

I have a DFI Lanparty 3 UT 250 with Geforce 6800 NU OC. Samsung 2x512 tccd pc3200 memory, and a 52x cdrw and a 60 gig sata drive. Thats all thats in my system along with the super flower psu.

 

[pyrosity]

Originally posted by: slag
Hard to tell whats faulty.

It doesn't work right even in standard unclocked mode. Things crash randomly, even with fresh installs of windows and all the drivers.

RAM checks out fine in the memtest tests, yet i sometimes get weird memory errors in world of warcraft and sometimes when i close IE , get memory exception errors.

The processor is unoverclockable anymore. Even a 10 mhz FSB overclock makes the computer sometimes not restart or start up in the raid setup mode even though I have 1 hard drive in the system and raid is turned off in the bios.

Speaking of bios, i've tried them all, no change in system stability or instability

I've tried a different processor, (sempron 2800+) in the box with the same instability.

I've tried 3 different motherboards, all have the same type of quirks (lack of overclockability, instability problems, etc)

I've tried 2 different power supplies--enermax 465pe and a flower 520? watt ps, same results.

I've tried different hard drives--going from pata to sata and having the same issues--sometimes i get drive errors--caching errors etc

I've swapped all floppy/ide cables in the system with no change in behavior

I want stability and cant pinpoint it down to what is wrong. I'd like to try a socket939 solution, but most of those require a pci express video card and i'm now leery of another AMD system with my bad luck with the current crop of amd64 socket 754 offerings.

By contrast, i never had any problems with my p4 2.8 overclocked to 3.25 ghz in over a year. Wish I hadn't sold that system.

I want high overclockability with decent performance. I've seen posts of people getting insane p4 overclocks lately and want to jump in on that ballgame.

Regarding RMAing, i cant RMA everything. I'm not even sure whats wrong with it. I consider myself pretty hardware intelligent, but i'm now just wanting to start fresh because, quite frankly, the past 3 months of instability and many long nights of trying new hardware/software solutions has not gained me anything except headaches.

I don't see that you tried replacing your memory in there. Memory is the number one cause for instability in systems, and memtest can't gaurantee to be completely right, as WoW and closing of IE has shown you. I'd say...before you try an Intel set-up, do yourself this one last check of putting in different RAM if you haven't yet (get a totally different brand).

 

[Pederv]

Have you tried a different video card?
I got a AIW X800XT last month and it would let the system bootup and I was able to run benchmarks on it. Sometimes though my system would go black screen and the only way to bring it back was to cycle the power, the reset button wouldn't bring it back.
After my motherboard died, I tried the video card in another system - same problem. RMA'd the video card and bought a new motherboard, no more problems.