Best Desktops for Pro Tools LE

[Allen Hallada]

Originally posted by PeteW:
I was trying to place an order for the A7V333-X motherboard on newegg because thats where I found everything else I'm going to buy, but I can't find the motherboard on their site.

This is the closest I can find ASUS A7V8X-X AMD, but I thought I heard bad things about the KT400 chipsets. Would this be a good board, or should I just try and find the A7V333 from a different website?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">You can either buy the A7N8X from Newegg or do a search on www.pricewatch.com for the A7V333-X.

Allen [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[giot]

Hi guys!!!

I'm thinking about building an "Allen machine", but maybe upgrading some key parts

What do you think about the new AMD Athlon XP 3200+ CPU with 400MHz Bus with an ASUS A7N8X Deluxe?

NVIDIA nForce2 chipsets are good choice for a DAW?


Thanks for your input

[Allen Hallada]

Originally posted by giot:
Hi guys!!!

I'm thinking about building an "Allen machine", but maybe upgrading some key parts

What do you think about the new AMD Athlon XP 3200+ CPU with 400MHz Bus with an ASUS A7N8X Deluxe?

NVIDIA nForce2 chipsets are good choice for a DAW?


Thanks for your input

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">They seem to be working well for those that are using it. I would probably go with the non-deluxe version for ease of setup and the firewire ports don't work with 002 anyway. It does come with USB 2.0 though in the non-deluxe version and would be my top choice for the XP3200.
Allen [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[jcoker]

Originally posted by genebadd:
Anyone try out the new 1004 bios update for the AV7333-x board? I couldnt find much info on it except for it was made to support newer CPU's (as if the others didnt support them already?) Anyway, just curious to see if anyone has tried it. Anyone having stability problems trying to run their CPU's at max speed with this board? I got a 2800+ chip that has problems running at 2.08 Ghz. Sandra throws a big fit complaining about bus speeds. The memory is 512/2700/333Mhz. The computer just isnt very stable at 2.08Ghz like it should be. Talk to you later.

Gene

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Gene...I feel your pain. That AGP BIOS tweak you posted seemed to work for a few days, but then the pc became unstable again, so I went back down to 1.6 CPU speed in the BIOS. The pc is stable again. I've got the same MOBO and chip as you. I'm pretty sure I'm running BIOS v1003 because I installed it right before your AGP tweak and the BIOS upgrade didn't make a difference. So I guess when I get home, I'll try the new v1004 BIOS. BTW...I had two tickets open with ASUS on this issue, and they said it was either a bad MOBO, chip, or RAM. They did point me to a website to test my memory chip, but I never did. Seems like if you're having the same problems I am, then it's not broken hardware. Must be incompatibilities between the MOBO/chip/RAM!? I'm stumped. Sandra and my BIOS both complain when I clock at 2.08GHz. BIOS says, 'make sure memory FSB speed is 333 or >', which it is. Sandra says 'FSB speed too high for AGP, PCI, etc' or something along those lines. Anyway, I'll LYK if the BIOS upgrade fixes things. LMK if you find a fix. If anyone out there has a clue why the AMD 2800+ chip, ASUS AV7333-X MOBO and Crucial 512/2700/333Mhz RAM chip can't do 2.08Ghz reliably, I'm all ears [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Thanks.

[giot]

The new P4's are coming:

"Pentium 4 2.80C, 2.60C and 2.40C processors with 800MHz Quad Pumped Bus and the Hyper-Threading technology support for $278, $218 and $178 respectively"

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/dis...512093746.html

Looks like a better choice than the XP3200+, at least cheaper...

[Allen Hallada]

just swapped out the case for better quality Enermax case with 350W PSU. Also swapped out Volcano 9+ for Volcano 11+ to handle XP3000+ and beyond. Price of system has gone down about 30.00 from last month, but not enough to squeeze the XP3200+ in there. Maybe next month.
Allen [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[Allen Hallada]

Originally posted by jcoker:
<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Originally posted by genebadd:
Anyone try out the new 1004 bios update for the AV7333-x board? I couldnt find much info on it except for it was made to support newer CPU's (as if the others didnt support them already?) Anyway, just curious to see if anyone has tried it. Anyone having stability problems trying to run their CPU's at max speed with this board? I got a 2800+ chip that has problems running at 2.08 Ghz. Sandra throws a big fit complaining about bus speeds. The memory is 512/2700/333Mhz. The computer just isnt very stable at 2.08Ghz like it should be. Talk to you later.

Gene

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Gene...I feel your pain. That AGP BIOS tweak you posted seemed to work for a few days, but then the pc became unstable again, so I went back down to 1.6 CPU speed in the BIOS. The pc is stable again. I've got the same MOBO and chip as you. I'm pretty sure I'm running BIOS v1003 because I installed it right before your AGP tweak and the BIOS upgrade didn't make a difference. So I guess when I get home, I'll try the new v1004 BIOS. BTW...I had two tickets open with ASUS on this issue, and they said it was either a bad MOBO, chip, or RAM. They did point me to a website to test my memory chip, but I never did. Seems like if you're having the same problems I am, then it's not broken hardware. Must be incompatibilities between the MOBO/chip/RAM!? I'm stumped. Sandra and my BIOS both complain when I clock at 2.08GHz. BIOS says, 'make sure memory FSB speed is 333 or >', which it is. Sandra says 'FSB speed too high for AGP, PCI, etc' or something along those lines. Anyway, I'll LYK if the BIOS upgrade fixes things. LMK if you find a fix. If anyone out there has a clue why the AMD 2800+ chip, ASUS AV7333-X MOBO and Crucial 512/2700/333Mhz RAM chip can't do 2.08Ghz reliably, I'm all ears [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Thanks. <hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I'd go to a local computer geek and stick some different ram in the computer first. If that didn't help I'd probably get a new motherboard.
Allen [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[Swaphappy]

Just wanted to pass this along to the DUC. AMD's new 64-bit processors are
out, but they aren't advertising this a lot. Below are a few links where you
can go to view some of these machines. They mostly run on SuSE Linux, but I
think MS has a version of Server 2003 and XP for these procs too. Dual cpu
based systems start around $2,500

http://www.penguincomputing.com/store/altus-1000E.php

http://www.polywell.com/us/rackservers/poly1u2c-0.asp

[genebadd]

Hey guys, I ran that mem86 program for over 11 hours with no errors. So im not sure. I would hate to think the motherboard is faulty since a few of us are having the exact same problem. Even though mem86 passed doesnt necessarily mean the board and ram are compatible with each other. Looking at A7V333-x memory list, it lists only 256 meg chips. Maybe two of those instead of one 512Meg. I Dont see why that would make a difference but at the same time I dont know why assus hasnt listed any 512 meg chips. I managed to get this board running stable by setting the multiple 14x and the freq mulitplier to something like 147/33 or something. Its running at 2.01 Ghz.
Still getting the same old warnings from sandra
" FSB exceeds chipset rated FSB"

"The AGP bus speed is too high. The AGP bus speed should not be increased over 75MHz" ( dont know why the agp bus would be to hi, its set on auto)

"The PCI bus speed is too high. The PCI bus speed should not be increased over 36MHz" (maybe some one can clue me in on where the 36Mhz comes from.

I think it might be awhile before I build up the nerve to go buy a couple more sticks of ram just to see if it works or not. Running out of ideas here. Anyone actually running a A7V333-X with a 2800xp chip and one 512 meg stick successfully with no problems? Does anyone know if there is a utility out there that can diagnose a bad board? I know its a long shot but it seems like there is software for everything now days. Good luck,

Gene

[Allen Hallada]

Originally posted by genebadd:
Hey guys, I ran that mem86 program for over 11 hours with no errors. So im not sure. I would hate to think the motherboard is faulty since a few of us are having the exact same problem. Even though mem86 passed doesnt necessarily mean the board and ram are compatible with each other. Looking at A7V333-x memory list, it lists only 256 meg chips. Maybe two of those instead of one 512Meg. I Dont see why that would make a difference but at the same time I dont know why assus hasnt listed any 512 meg chips. I managed to get this board running stable by setting the multiple 14x and the freq mulitplier to something like 147/33 or something. Its running at 2.01 Ghz.
Still getting the same old warnings from sandra
" FSB exceeds chipset rated FSB"

"The AGP bus speed is too high. The AGP bus speed should not be increased over 75MHz" ( dont know why the agp bus would be to hi, its set on auto)

"The PCI bus speed is too high. The PCI bus speed should not be increased over 36MHz" (maybe some one can clue me in on where the 36Mhz comes from.

I think it might be awhile before I build up the nerve to go buy a couple more sticks of ram just to see if it works or not. Running out of ideas here. Anyone actually running a A7V333-X with a 2800xp chip and one 512 meg stick successfully with no problems? Does anyone know if there is a utility out there that can diagnose a bad board? I know its a long shot but it seems like there is software for everything now days. Good luck,

Gene

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Gene,
If you are running stable at 2Ghz what is the problem? Forget about Sandra. Sometimes she is just a .... [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Just run it for awhile and see how things go.
Allen [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]