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YAY! No more P83!!

R

RSI

Diamond Member
If you know me or have seen me post a lot, then you also know that I have a bad habit of frying socket-7 mobos! Well, it's been a many months now that I've been without a computer - the only computer in the house being a dell desktop 486 system (no sound, no modem, no network, no cdrom) with a P-83MHz overdrive CPU! Ack. :|

Of course we put a modem and network card in it, switched the 200MB hd with a 2GB one, but it still sucked just as much @$$!

Well, finally, I've climbed out of the whole. 😛

Friday I picked up the ECS K7S5A mobo - $119cdn+tx. This mobo has on-board SiS (crap) sound, on-board SiS (not bad) 10/100 NIC, and optional on-board 56k modem - didn't get that. I instead got an Aopen FM56-SLM PCI "faxmodem" for $45 - a total and utter POS. After using a 33.6K ISA USR and then a 56K ISA USR, this modem was such a pos! I am exchanging it today.

I installed all the drivers properly, and it wouldn't function right! Under "protocol" where it usually says something like v90, it was a greyed out box. Under "modulation" where it usually says something like "standard", it was a greyed out box. The modem connection noise sounded like utter crap ...

Hopefully I'll get broadband sooner or later, but for now it's crap-up.

Anyway, I have most of my old components still (from my dead K6-3+ system), but here's the whole thing:

-ECS K7S5A
-Tbird 1.333
-256 PC133 (still had it still works - will go 512 DDR when I have extra $)
-20.5GB Quantum LM (7200rpm, etc)
-16MB PCI Banshee (I know, laugh, but it still works great)
-Same 300w medium atx case (noname thing from the comp store.. looks nice, i like it!)
-same logitech mouse, noname split keyboard.. like em both too
-HP 8x4x32 writer.. never had a prob!
-Pioneer 10x cdrom .. always faulty.. rips music cds well for some reason.
-15" Optiquest V55. Always a good monitor! 1280x1024x60 or 1024x768x85 .. or 1152xsomethingx75.. Always liked the good ol' optiquest. 😀

That's about it I think.

Oh yeah also picked up a yamaha speaker/sub kit to go with it since i also killed the speakers from the past comp, somehow. The new yamaha thing is pretty nice... and at least it wasn't rated at like 1200w like at those dumb comp stores.. oh yeah this little speaker is 1200w! hah... "30w total.." and it's pretty nice. Perfect for comp in my room at least! Very good quality ... what do you expect from Yam?

I have no complaints other than the modem (resolved some time today), and that the on-board sound is just utter crap - to be expected though, right? We got the board for it's attractive price - and the fact that it's pretty much identical to one of the Asus boards, and about 50% of the price.

how much does a sblive 5.1 oem go for? I think I'll pick one up.

System itself seems nice and problem-free! No stability issues, no gripes w/AMD like some people seem to have. Set up the cpu/fan myself (nice and snug!)... Don't have a case-fan yet, so I run with hte case open -... cpu runs at 40-50celcius, case at 20-35celsius. Pretty good, I guess? in the bios it says 40/150c.. so it can take up to 150? that sounds pretty dangerous!

Anyway, I'm overall happy with the purchase!

Thank GOD I don't have to tolerate that P83 anymore! 😀

Damn.. now I have to set up the network and share a dialup connection! :|:Q

-RSI
 
nah, you can't take it to 150° C... that's some serious out-of-spec-running. Don't care about the temp. I just assembeled a computer for a friend with a crappy Titan Heatsink/Fan. Under total full load, the board gets about 50° C warm and the CPU about 61° C.... didn't crash so far and I kept it running for 2 hours under full load. I just told my friend if he encounter lockups, he should let me know and I'll add a case fan.

Doesn't the connection noise not always sound like crap? 😉

And I wouldn't upgrade the RAM for the money, get the Radeon LE or something similar. It will get you a bigger boost in games. Oops, did I just said games? I think you never really played games with your old computer, did you? 😀
 
/me cries

*** SNIFF ***

It's the end on an era. No more P83 for RSI 🙁

What next? fkloster with a AMD system?

Windogg
 


<< nah, you can't take it to 150° C... that's some serious out-of-spec-running. Don't care about the temp. I just assembeled a computer for a friend with a crappy Titan Heatsink/Fan. Under total full load, the board gets about 50° C warm and the CPU about 61° C.... didn't crash so far and I kept it running for 2 hours under full load. I just told my friend if he encounter lockups, he should let me know and I'll add a case fan.

Doesn't the connection noise not always sound like crap? 😉

And I wouldn't upgrade the RAM for the money, get the Radeon LE or something similar. It will get you a bigger boost in games. Oops, did I just said games? I think you never really played games with your old computer, did you? 😀 >>

Hehe, funny guy. 😉

Well first I'll comment on your friends system. It's perfectly fine and that titan or whatever isn't "crappy". The Tbirds can not run with crappy heatsink/fans! They'll catch fire or melt in your board! 😉 That's one advantage of P3 or is it P4s? They lower the speed if it heats up too much or something, the older ones just shut off? ... while AMDs tend to just.. die. 😉 That's why you should always make sure your HSF works!

Mine is retail and it runs 40-50c, didn't check under "full load", but I am guessing it will be 60-70. That's fine with me, never had a problem yet - if i do I'll get a better HSF, but really the one that comes with the CPU should be designed to handle anything, otherwise it'd be pretty stupid to sell it like that. Oh and I'm not OCing.

Now, for the games.

HAH. 😉

Yes, I've played games, on the previous K6-3+ system AND the P83. Yeah, I did try UT on the P83. Am I crazy? Sure, why not. It was like... 5fps in 320x240 with everything off - I think. The old system I had worked fine though, silky smooth in 640x480, still nice in 1024 but I like my games smooth, not just "playable" (ie, 30-40fps).

Hmmm ... If I play an MP3 with Winamp, it takes "00" % of my CPU, but if I use the winbloze thingy, it takes 5-15%. 5-15% of a TBird 1.3??? That's nuts. MP3s shouldn't take more than a few percent even on a K6-3.

So you really think the mem wouldn't be worth it? 256 PC133 compared to 512 DDR? Double the speed + double the amount - I think it would provide at least a noticable difference in overall performance? I agree that the vid would be great to up too, but I really have never been big on games and I don't see myself as a future "l337 gamer" or something. So it should do for now... But would I upgrade the vid now, I would probably go with the card you mentioned.

-RSI

 


<< Hehe, funny guy. 😉

Well first I'll comment on your friends system. It's perfectly fine and that titan or whatever isn't "crappy". The Tbirds can not run with crappy heatsink/fans! They'll catch fire or melt in your board! 😉 That's one advantage of P3 or is it P4s? They lower the speed if it heats up too much or something, the older ones just shut off? ... while AMDs tend to just.. die. 😉 That's why you should always make sure your HSF works!
 >>


Well the Heatsink doesn't work, but you mean the fan, right? 😉 *sorry for my smart-assing*

I had a Duron running for about 3 hours without the fan, it crashed but the core never burnt. Still runs like a champ.

Mine is retail and it runs 40-50c, didn't check under "full load", but I am guessing it will be 60-70. That's fine with me, never had a problem yet - if i do I'll get a better HSF, but really the one that comes with the CPU should be designed to handle anything, otherwise it'd be pretty stupid to sell it like that. Oh and I'm not OCing.


<<
Now, for the games.

HAH. 😉

So you really think the mem wouldn't be worth it? 256 PC133 compared to 512 DDR? Double the speed + double the amount - I think it would provide at least a noticable difference in overall performance? I agree that the vid would be great to up too, but I really have never been big on games and I don't see myself as a future "l337 gamer" or something. So it should do for now... But would I upgrade the vid now, I would probably go with the card you mentioned.
 >>



For overall performance, it's a nice upgrade, but if you want to play games, I really think the banshee is the bottleneck. But I think you're used to 640x480 anyway 😉, so you can stay with banshee forever 😉 Forgot to mention that you can never be a 1337 g4merZ without a G3F0RC3 3, and a big ass 24" g4merZ m0n170r.


<<
-RSI >>



ndee
 
The heatsinks works dammit! In its own special way. 😛

Well, I am short of $, so I don't think a vid upgrade is in order. First I need sound that doesn't fluctuate when I minimize windows. And a modem that works, and stays connected. Maybe in a few weeks I'll get a... oh wait, no, I'm not putting a cent into this computer dammit (my parents paid so far). It's a "family" computer ... even though it's in my room.

I don't want to spend tons of money on a gf3 and DDR mem, just to have my brother say "it's a family comp and mom and dad paid for it so let me play my games!" I'll just save up and buy my own if I see it necessary...

Hmm now to find a good deal on modem/sound.. so far I'm looking at a Diamond pci hardware for $50 and a sb something or other for ~50.. may go for a $70 one but prolly won't notice a diff.

-RSI
 
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