Woohoo! Newbie builds a Soyo K7vme

[Subbaculcha]

Greetings first post.

I'm a long time mac user, but have been happily using a Win XP pro machine at work and rather like it.
So I thought i'd build one on the cheap for home and give the old imac to the kids.
Problem is I only had about $325 to spend. I saw the Soyo Kv7me barebones at TigerDirect for $19 after rebates and went for it. I read about the negative experiences after buying it, but oh well what's done is done.

Without researching of course, I then bought an AMD xp2500 (barton), 512MB Ultra Pc2700, 80gig WD HD, BenQ DVD 4x writer, Thermaltake TR2 M2 fan, firewire card, PNY 64mb nvidia card and a cheap modem.
Amazingly with rebates (cross my fingers) it all came close to budget. (Some from newegg some from TigerDirect).

I've never built a computer before, but I must say it was not all that dificult. Luckily I had some people who could help a bit, but didn't need them very much.

It fired right up after installing CPU, Fan, Ram & HD. I was going to install a copy of win98se I had, but I managed to get a copy of WinXP Pro (work has site license as long as i work here), so that was a bonus.
After getting bios set up and OS installed adding the other parts was a breeze.

I've had no problems with it yet, a week old. It does run a bit hot I guess, i'm getting about 54c fan set to medium, with the side cover off. It drops about 2 deg set on high, but that's too noisy. I'll put the side back on tonight and see where it goes. I saw on AMD's site the chip is ok until the mid 80's so I guess i'm not too hot.

Here's a couple of questions.
The heat sink/fan had paste (white goo) pre applied to the bottom. Would I get a signifigant change in temperature by buying a high quality paste and re-applying. Is it worth the trouble?

The box is working fine, but I realized that I had never installed the drivers that came on the soyo disk (for the motherboard). Are they necessary? Should I just skip it since everything seems hunky dory. I'm scared something will go haywire if I mess with it.

Just thought i'd put this here as i've read of many bad experiences with this box, and it did scare the crap out of me, but it worked out fine. Additiionally, if you've never done it before. Give it a whirl. If I can do it anyone can. On the cheap too! (Assuming I actually get the rebates, and even if I don't I still have a computer that does everything I need for about $500..not too bad).

Thanks for reading!

 

[MDE]

I'd go to ViaArena and download the 4-in-1 (or Hyperion, same thing) drivers for the motherboard, and the newest video drivers fron Nvidia. Other than that, run Windows Update and install everything marked Critical and you should be set.

 

[ttown]

Welcome to the Dark Side

 

[Kaspian]

like ttown said "welcome to the dark side." soon u will b overclocking everything around ur house and keep in it cool

 

[trexpesto]

Way to go man. Yeah I was one posting some negative crap on that Soyo deal. Glad it worked out for you! I am waiting for TR2-M2 to come back from RMA, stock meanwhile.
Runs hot alright! I just underclocked it with the wire trick, my first "hard" mod. I only have a TBred in there, not too worried about performance or killing the chip. Now at idle it is 42 degrees and running Prime95 it gets to 43. 8x200@1.325V VCore on Shuttle AN35N Ultra mobo. Pretty quiet too, even with stock fan.

$20 for the case,psu,keyboard,mouse,speakers,CD, and the mobo. I figured they are some emergency spare parts anyways. The PSU was hanging open when I got it!
$109 Shuttle and TBred 2700+ at ouptost
$130 250G WD HD
$70 512 PC3200 Mushkin C2.5 --> Free pen!
$30 TR2-M2 HSF

$379 Total and I think there was like 20 shipping on the case, right? Not a bad system, now all I need is a new case, etc.
Need a KVM and wireless dohickey for it.

 

[Subbaculcha]

Yeah, the power supply is pretty hinky but then i'm not carrying it around or anything. I might try to mount it externally, or on the floor of the case to give better clearance for the heatsinf/fan.

For full price the case is pretty crappy. It's plenty sturdy enough for sitting in one place, but they are touting it as a gamer portable, it'd fall apart pretty quick if you were lugging it around. But it looks nice and is not going aywhere, so in my case that's moot. For $20, that's a whole 'nuther matter.

I finally got around to hooking up the speakers yesterday. No sound, so I installed the driver for via on-board audio from Soyo's site. Windows flipped out (of course it warned me, it said it's unsigned software or something, and recommended not to install it...but did I listen...nooooo!). Thank you MS for System Restore!

I just got a new driver today from Via's site some new "vinyl" codec, i'll give it a whirl. If it doesn't work i'm kinda stuck, I don't know where to go from there. I don't have a slot for a sound card (unless I get DSL or Cable and ditch my modem card), but that may be the only solution. Any ideas?

I've got the bug now though! I'll probably get an old case with a bigger PS on the cheap and decorate it myself (no not some lame thing, i'm a designer, it'll look classy). Then a used but respected MB...then...and....and....

cheers!

 

[trexpesto]

Make sure to test the network port at a friends house before you decide to buy a soundcard and get broadband!
Besides the sound, that is another thing that is often broken on these boards.
Shuttle an35n ultra is back in stock at newegg. LINKY
Great for overclocking etc. Just no onboard video.

This crap is like the thin end of a wedge, soon you want a new case, better cooling, yadda yadda. Other manufacturers should pay Soyo to put this junk out, it turns you against them and makes you want to immediately upgrade. Really the cheapest thing in the long run is to get better parts at the beginning, and skip getting workarounds like the TR2-M2, but oh well. One thing I have been considering is the Evercool bay freezer not sure how loud it would be though.



EDIT: ANTEC with good 350W PSU Model "SLK3700AMB" is "on sale" for $64 shipped. That's a step in the right direction!

 

[impudence]

I built a new pc using the exact same barebones kit as you. To answer your question about the thermalpaste I tried using the thermal paste that came with my aercool heatsink, and then tried it with artic silver 5 thermal paste, there was a 1-2 degree drop celcius in the idle heat. So yes good paste is worht the investment.