MSI nforce 420 flexATX MB for $38 + sh, USB cable $1

[pcNate]

I found a great auction for this mobo, and didn't hesitate to jump on it this time. Now, does anyone know a source for those SFF Athlons? I check compgeeks regularly, but I haven't seen them return. So, I'm on the prowl for the NetVista case...just need to pick which auction to go for.

So far, everyone who's gotten this case from eBay (I'm assuming everyone's gotten them from the same seller that has a ton of them) has gotten a working one? Not sure if I want to bid on one or two, just to have another case to mess with or mod.

 

[fictionalcharacter]

hehe, i saw that same auction but i hesitated, oh well there is another now for $2 more, you might have trouble finding the sff athlons now, I would suggest a duron 1.3 ghz, or if your adventurous see if a thoroughbred 1700+ will work they have 1.5 V default and newegg sells them for $75

 

[pcNate]

Well, the same seller has been selling boatloads of that case...I won't link to any because I'm not sure about the rules, but if you search for "ibm netvista case", you'll find them. The seller was selling single cases, and a few in lots of 2. Some of them are said to be 'painted', with apparently a dash of spraypaint on them, just so they couldn't be sold.
Those seem to be going for $10 or less...and the lots of two (unpainted) are fluctuating because I bet lots of people are looking at them now...they were around $20...but the other night I saw one go for $40 some! I might just go for one of the cheap painted ones, and just clean off the paint.

I don't want to spend too much...are the durons or xp's more power hungry than those SFF's? I still have to worry about ram, hard drive, and dvd or burner...not to mention fitting everything in that case..

 

[OrionAntares]

Well, if you went with a 1700+ and under clocked it on the 200MHz bus, that should make it equivilant to the SFF Athlon in power usage. The SFF description said it was 1.55v and the 1700+ is 1.5v. So to me it seems that if you underclock a 1700+, you'd get a similar power consumption. And with the lower clock, you might even be able to lower the voltage to save more power. That sound like it would work to anyone else?

 

[fictionalcharacter]

I was talking about the mobo, some guy has been auctioning them on ebay for $35 with $8 shipping, I just got one so i will post it now ), the first one which i assume you got pcnate had a buy it now price of $33 which is an amazing price for these motherboards, as far as the case goes, I would get a none painted one, here are a bunch of plus and minuses to it though, the +'s being small/compact cheap, and nice looking..the minuses motherboard has to be squeezed in, cdrom drive must be mounted at a slight angle and sits on top of ram, power supply must be removed from original mount, and a new one the power supply gets VERY HOT = 70 C according to sisoft, and I felt it and this seems to be a reasonable reading for the temp of the PS, so I would definitely mount a fan on the inside of the case...however for $20 I think the case is worth it, the parts alone could be used to build another case

haha orion you got on the second mobo I wonder how many of them the seller has so far
mobo 1 went to pcnate
mobo 2 went to orion
mobo 3 went to me (actually to my dad)

 

[OrionAntares]

Yea, I got one from package2you.com originally, but it's defective and won't post no matter what RAM I try in it. If the PS is that warm, I think I'll just get a diffrent one. That'll solve 2 problems with power and heat then. As for the drive, I'm going the slim drive route on that one.

 

[fictionalcharacter]

anyone done anything creative, or any updates on max speed processor these mobos can take? BUMP

 

[gsiener]

I've gotten all the pieces, but I have been way too busy to tackle this thing. I went the standard route:

Netvista case (painted one off ebay, $10 including shipping!)
1.2 SFF from Compgeeks
Plus
Vantec Copper HSF with ASIII
2x256 DDR (with heatsinks) (had this laying around)
60Gb Seagate Barracuda IV

I really don't think cramming everything in will be a problem, I'm okay with squeezing. I've run a dual cel 366@550 with tons of drives in a small case and other than being loud, it was solid.

I'm still considering going the external PSU route. In regards to the comment "the cable is too short," duh, it would have to be modified.

As an aside, I'm also tempted by the 1700+ T-breds at newegg. I'm not convinced the heat and voltage draw would be that much greater, and the 266fsb would be nice. I might buy one to check things out once I'm up and running.

BTW I'm planning on running xp or gentoo on this. I saw not too long ago on windowsxp.nu a new hewlett packard comp that had a built in tuner and emulated a tivo. It runs "Windows XP Media edition" and it looks pretty cool. Anyone have insight on how to get/run this? Seems like it's the killer app for these boxes.

 

[Ziptar]

Originally posted by: gsiener

I saw not too long ago on windowsxp.nu a new hewlett packard comp that had a built in tuner and emulated a tivo. It runs "Windows XP Media edition" and it looks pretty cool. Anyone have insight on how to get/run this? Seems like it's the killer app for these boxes.

I have seen that too. I have heard that is available in a stand alone install or there is an install out there that adds it on to XP as a shell. I don't think it's available for purchase yet, it just comes on New PC's like the HP. (although you might want to ask a freindly donkey about it )

 

[pcNate]

Originally posted by: gsiener
I've gotten all the pieces, but I have been way too busy to tackle this thing. I went the standard route:

Netvista case (painted one off ebay, $10 including shipping!)
1.2 SFF from Compgeeks
Plus
Vantec Copper HSF with ASIII
2x256 DDR (with heatsinks) (had this laying around)
60Gb Seagate Barracuda IV

As an aside, I'm also tempted by the 1700+ T-breds at newegg. I'm not convinced the heat and voltage draw would be that much greater, and the 266fsb would be nice. I might buy one to check things out once I'm up and running.

That's kinda the setup I was thinking of making...just looking around for good prices on a Barracuda and some DDR...wish I would have gotten that SFF Athlon though.

So how is the painted case, is it like in the picture, or better/worse? It seems like they go for a lot cheaper, especially lately.

 

[gsiener]

pcNate-

I think the pic is a good representation of the product. It is brand new, only it was sprayed on the top of the case with a red stripe- like in the pic. I haven't tried to clean it yet, seems like it will come off with a little effort. The paint they used is kind of crappy though, not dry to the touch.

What do I care though, once cleaned up it will be more than fine. A very cool little case.

 

[DD]

Just FYI, I found another motherboard that fits in the NetVista case, including using the PSU in its default position:

K7VEM Pro

Supports 100/133 FSB Athlon/Duron, SDR, built-in video, LAN, audio.

It fits in the NetVista with the PSU in place, although the sockets and mounting screws don't match up quite properly.

But....

I'm not able to get my NetVista to power on. Mine didn't come with any documentation for the power switch wiring.

Does anyone know how to properly hook (i.e. which jumpers to connect the cable to) up the power switch?

Thanks,

DD

 

[gsiener]

Well I hooked everything up, and I was amazed at how close everything was to not fitting. I mean millimeters.

Anyway, seems like a cool little board, supports the prog. "speedfan" for changing the cpu fan speed. I rewired the case plug and all works, but the same isn't true for the front usb.

Anyone get the front usb to work? I switched the position of that "thick black" wire, and I get two very different effects-
on USB1 it just doesn't work. On USB2 it makes the back usb ports not work, e.g. I have a ms intellimouse optical hooked up, and the light would flash red for a sec, then nothing.

Not like I really need these ports, I just wanted to have a fully functioning case.

Anyone figure out where to get a spdif bracket for these boards?

Otherwise, everything is great. I need to add a case fan though, b/c with an open case I get temps of 40C idle, 51C max load. Closed case, I get 52C idle, and I was too chicken to let it keep going on full load, but my guess is 62C.

I hope that the AS3 does its job and that goes down some.

Also, this is an aside, do you guys prefer to have the HSF blow onto the cpu, or away?

 

[tryanasaurus]

Has anyone found a backplate that will fit this case? I am thinking of grinding the opening on the case a couple of mm in order to fit a regular sized one in. Any thoughts?

 

[RandyHarris]

Easier to cool with the Fan blowing onto the Heatsink towards the CPU.

 

[gsiener]

Thanks Randy, that's what I thought but I can always convince myself one way or the other.

More importantly, I was using SiSoft Sandra, and it claims the voltage rating on this cpu is 1.4V, not 1.5V. I realize the bios doesn't support voltage adjustment, but is there anyway to step down the voltage? We're almost underclocking this chip to begin with, and I'd love the reduced heat output/ wattage draw.

 

[RandyHarris]

I made this for myself, but am happy to offer it to others.

Since I don't have a floppy on my new system with this MS-6353 motherboard, I had to make a bootable CDROM for the BIOS update. I also included some other goodies on the cdrom that you may find worth the download. btw - I've used the BOOT cd to update my BIOS without problem.

If you can accept a 12meg email, you can get the BOOTCD via e-mail: click here to have the cd emailed.

Or you can download the 8.5gig file via http here: click here for http download.

INFO:

This is a BootCD that will Flash the BIOS for the MSI MS-6353 (OEM for Fujitsu-Siemens).

Just boot off this cd, press any key and it will update your BIOS to v3.0 dated December 19, 2001.

Also included on the CD:

SpeedFan v4.07, awesome monitoring program that can control the speed of the fans.
MSI's PC Altert III Monitoring program (SpeedFan is better as it can modulate the fan speed.)
Manual (German) for the MS-6353 Motherboard
Manual (English) for the MS-6373 Motherboard which is MSI's retail NForce board.
Circuit for TTL -> S/PDIF output

 

[RandyHarris]

By the way, the modem built into the motherboard works fine for me. After installing WinXP Pro I did a windowsupdate and it found the driver for the modem automatically.

 

[OrionAntares]

Does anyone know where to find a backplate that actually fits this board?

 

[pcNate]

So what are you guys using to cool these things? I have the mobo and will eventually get one of those netvista's (stop bidding on them on eBay, everyone!), and might pick up that 1700+ Thoroughbred, what kind of HSF can I fit in that case? Do I need a small form factor sized one, or can I use any regular one that isnt' overly huge? I was looking for a quiet one and came across the Arctic Cooling Super Silent Pro TC from SVC...looks pretty quiet and capable... any thoughts? Or are there any other cool looking cases out there? I've seen a few, but they just look bland.

 

[Dagar]

Does anyone know how to change the multiplier? I put a XP 1800+ Mobile in and it is only using a 6x multiplier -- the 1Ghz Duron was fine.


Any thoughts?

 

[Ziptar]

Originally posted by: pcNate
So what are you guys using to cool these things? I have the mobo and will eventually get one of those netvista's (stop bidding on them on eBay, everyone!), and might pick up that 1700+ Thoroughbred, what kind of HSF can I fit in that case? Do I need a small form factor sized one, or can I use any regular one that isnt' overly huge? I was looking for a quiet one and came across the Arctic Cooling Super Silent Pro TC from SVC...looks pretty quiet and capable... any thoughts? Or are there any other cool looking cases out there? I've seen a few, but they just look bland.

I am using a Vantec CCK-6012 Low-Profile CPU Cooler I haven't fired it up yet but if it's too noisy I will 7 volt it. I haven't been able to find a case that I like yet. The HTPC will most likely wind up in a gutted DVD Player. That way it will fit in nice with all of the other stuff in the entertainmet center.

I did order a Morex Cubid 2677R miniITX case. The measurements look like the board will just fit (big maybe). I will have it next week I will let you guys know. Even if the case doesn't fit I maily bought it because i want to use the 60W external power supply in whatever I build. With the SFF Athlon, Slim CD-RW/DVD (CD only for now), and a 2.5" laptop I may get away with it and still even run a TV Tuner Card.

 

[Dagar]

I'm using the same cooler... just it's the OEM model. My Duron would operate in the 60-65 Degree (C) range -- very hot. So now I'm trying to get the Mobile Athlon XP to work at the right speed....

Also, has anyone done a BIOS upgrade (from another MSI NFORCE)?

 

[vladgur]

So did anyone manage to find a good location for the psu and this board in the netvista case?

 

[OrionAntares]

Does anyone have one of these boards actually up and running?