# Green Tea: retro AMD-nVidia build



## TRWOV (Feb 28, 2012)

I won't deny it: I've always been an ATintel guy. But I've always being curious about the "green side". I've used AMD CPUs and nVidia GPUs in laptops and they seem to work well but I never considered their products for desktops.

That's about to change now... but with a retro-spin.

Outside of the CPU, board and GPU, I'll use cheap, easily replaceable components since this'll be my first time modding a case, sleeving cables, etc. The component selection is also limited to what my local PC vendor of choice stocks.

I didn't intent to begin this project so soon but I found an Asrock 939A8X-M board for sale last week and jumped the gun on it. While it gets here I thought I could start to mod the case.


Targeted specs:








AMD Athlon FX60 socket 939








Geforce 7950GT 512MB GDDR3 AGP








Asrock 939A8X-M








4GB OCZ PC4000 Enhanced Bandwith Platinum Edition








CM Hyper TX3








Elite Power 460. I know it's a POS but should be enough.








K-MEX CM-3E22 mATX case








Evercool Evergreen fans everywhere

Inside the case:





Planned mods:
- Change the orientation of the PSU 180º so that it draws cold air from the top. *Not done since the PSU fan isn't centered.*
- Switch the PSU fan for an Evergreen. Sleeve cables. *Done.*
- top 120mm blower. *Done.*
- 120mm intakes at the bottom and front. *Changed to 90mm intakes. Done.*
- Add a window.  *Done.*
- Fan controller in the top bay? shouldn't interfere with the blower. *Done.*
- Green LED strips on the bottom with on/off switch.* Done with no switch.*



The finalized build:



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Benchmarks:


Intel Burn Test


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Cinebench


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The OpenGL accuracy test fails  (???) so it doesn't give a score:






3dmark 2003


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3dmark 2005


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3dmark 2006


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Street Fighter 4


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Devil May Cry 4


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RE5 Game test


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RE5 Fixed Test


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Lost Planet 2 test A


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Lost Planet 2 test B


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The Last Remant


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Final Fantasy XIV


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PCmark2002


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PCmark05


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Monster Hunter Frontier


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Unigine Tropics


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Unigine Sanctuary


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Unigine Heaven


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 28, 2012)

Going to be a nice built there. That fx60 is going be a hard one to cough up though. I hope you can find one rather cheap as there going for around $200 on ebay right now. Can't wait to see the final build.


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## TRWOV (Feb 28, 2012)

yeah, I'm hoping that too.  In the mean time I'll use a 3000+


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 28, 2012)

If shipping wouldn't cost too much I may have some parts for your build you maybe interested in.


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## DigitalUK (Feb 28, 2012)

i was thinking of putting one of my old systems back together either my x1950 agp or dig out my ibm aptiva and voodoo 2000.
good luck with the fx60 i would go with the 3000 nobody could afford the fx60 back then anyway,  they retailed for about £600 back then.


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## majestic12 (Feb 28, 2012)

Athlon 4800x2 could probably be found for a much lower price than an FX60


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## nt300 (Feb 29, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> yeah, I'm hoping that too.  In the mean time I'll use a 3000+


Here you go  - Buy it now is selling the AMD FX-60 @ 2.60 GHz Socket 939 between $175 to $250+.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=amd+fx+60+socket+939&_sacat=See-All-Categories


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## Wrigleyvillain (Feb 29, 2012)

Been a lot of these retro builds lately it seems. Note I am not complaining.

(Cross-Thread Comment: Ah and see that Trickson there is an example of some OCZ RAM from when it truly kicked ass...)


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 29, 2012)

I am still running 2 939 systems so I know your pain on finding a "cheap" fx60.


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## TRWOV (Feb 29, 2012)

I don't get why is that. I mean, there are quad cores that go for that amount. I get it's an FX and all that but performance wise it should be $70. tops. The 4800+ goes for about that and is my plan B but I'd really like to own an FX60. Time will tell.





ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> If shipping wouldn't cost too much I may have some parts for your build you maybe interested in.



Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.


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## t_ski (Feb 29, 2012)

Mostly because it's the best S939 CPU you can get


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## Batou1986 (Feb 29, 2012)

t_ski said:


> Mostly because it's the best S939 CPU you can get



The Denmark based Opteron 1xx series is just as good and clock to FX speeds with ease.
I need to fire mine back up and tweak on it some more bet I can get to 3.0 and fix the HT speed


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 29, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> I don't get why is that. I mean, there are quad cores that go for that amount. I get it's an FX and all that but performance wise it should be $70. tops. The 4800+ goes for about that and is my plan B but I'd really like to own an FX60. Time will tell.
> Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.


I know what you mean. I don't get it either why that proc is still so expensive. I get that it was the "best" 939 proc and all. But hell there can't be that much demand for it. You can by a x6 for cheaper.


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## Super XP (Feb 29, 2012)

Doing a retro build is plain fun IMO, though I wouldn't fork over more than $100 if that for any old CPU.


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## TRWOV (Feb 29, 2012)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> I know what you mean. I don't get it either why that proc is still so expensive. I get that it was the "best" 939 proc and all. But hell there can't be that much demand for it. You can by a x6 for cheaper.



There's also the Opteron 185 but then I couldn't use the Athlon 64 FX sticker I bought.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 29, 2012)

This build when finished will have life left in it. As I stated I am running 2 of them. Now our win 98 builds. Hmm they are just because we are bored and love to be punished.




TRWOV said:


> There's also the Opteron 185 but then I couldn't use the Athlon 64 FX sticker I bought.


 Sure you can. Just clock it at Fx speeds and call it a Fx hybrid.


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## TRWOV (Feb 29, 2012)

Yeah, I could think of some not too old games that still call fot A64 X2s as a minimum requirement. I reckon that Mass Effect requires a 3800+.


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## t_ski (Feb 29, 2012)

It's just price gouging since it's old hardware.  Someone has an old rig that they want to breathe new life into, and they look & find out this is the best chip they can get (most aren't smart enough to figure out the Opterons, and this one is unlocked).  And supply is low...


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## TRWOV (Feb 29, 2012)

I get that, what I cannot understand is people bidding over $100 for it. I would expect auctions to end about there.

Well, maybe some guy will post a BIN for $80 or something, I can always hope. If not there's the 4800+


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## martthefart (Feb 29, 2012)

amd 64 x2 ad05000iaa5d0 got 1 of these3 any good? with stock cooler


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## TRWOV (Feb 29, 2012)

Those are AM2. Sorry, cant use them.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 29, 2012)

Price will eventually go down on them. How long it takes is anyone's guess. Hell go with a Opteron or a 4800+ and tell em to shove there high price on the FX 60.


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## TRWOV (Mar 4, 2012)

*Bought the case today...*

*K-MEX CM-xx22 mini review*

The case for the build will be a K-MEX CM-3E22 mATX case. K-MEX proudly announces on the box that it comes with HD Audio plug, a 24 pin 400w ATX PSU with 2 SATA power connectors and a "shiny panel" (when did that become a bullet point in case design?) 






The case comes protected with polystyrene foam on the top and bottom along with a clear plastic bag. Pretty standard stuff.






The case is as small as they get, measuring 35x36x17 cms. The left side sports a big vent while the other side is plain. The panels are interchangeable.










The front panel is shiny indeed (good thing the box didn't lie to us, that's how brand loyalty develops) and comes with the standard I/O options of mic, headphones and 2 USB 2.0 ports in addition to the three exposed bays.






The back has a space for an 80 or 92mm fan, 4 expansion slots with punched slot covers (one already removed) and slots for a parallel and a serial port along with a DC socket mounting hole. The left panel is secured with thumbscrews and the right panel with regular hex screws.







The top panel is plain except for two indentations on the front an back.






The bottom has molded case feet and some curious holes apparently for not reason (or so I thought).






After removing the side panel I discovered that K-MEX actually took the time to secure the PSU cable and the bag of accessories with masking tape and the cables with ties. Not the best work in that regard but I've seen pricier cases that look like a party aftermath when you remove the side panel so this is a plus in my book.






And now we discover the purpose of the holes in the bottom of the case. Turns out that the case has no hard drive cage but two mounting spaces on the side and bottom of the case instead.






The accessories include an spare slot cover, assortment of screws, a buzzer, 4 rubber bases for the feet and the PSU cable.






The motherboard tray has numerous cutouts and holes so there's potential for cable management although there's not a lot of clearance but if it's just cables 8mm ought to be enough.










The interior is basically a big box ripe for some modding.










The case is pretty good really, considering the price ($30). The only thing I don't really like is the front panel but as the song says, you do with what you've got.


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## TRWOV (Mar 8, 2012)

It seems that I'll get the board in the next few days and I already have a 3000+ stand-by to test it. Once I take some measurements with the board installed I'll begin the modding.

BTW, I got a second hand Dremel rotary tool for this task. What would be a good cutting disc for 0.5mm SECC panels?


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## InnocentCriminal (Mar 8, 2012)

WAHEY!

Love worklogs. Sub'd!


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Mar 8, 2012)

There are normaly 2 thicknesses if cutting discs stocked on store shelves. Get the thicker of the two. If you can find the reinforced disc get those.


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## Sir B. Fannybottom (Mar 8, 2012)

I've got the copper versions of that ram you want  I only have one 512 dimm though, SN is OCZ4001024PDC-K


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## TRWOV (Mar 8, 2012)

I already have the RAM. In the P4 days I used to buy quality memory intended for OCing as back then it mattered a lot...nowadays in the age of integrated memory controllers, not so much.


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## Luciel (Mar 9, 2012)

This sounds like fun!

Thought I´d post my own green project, was never meant to represent nvidia but most thought it did, and since amd is "the green" side too... figured












Hopefully that helps out a bit with ideas


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## Peter1986C (Mar 9, 2012)

Subscribed.


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## TRWOV (Mar 9, 2012)

woot!   The board is in the post office. I'll go and pick it up later. Pics tonight.


Nice green rig over there Luciel!!


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## TRWOV (Mar 10, 2012)

Having some problems to make the board post... no beeps come from the buzzer so I'm at a loss ATM 

In the mean time, some pics:










I'll use a TX3 and 2400PRO as placeholders.


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## Aquinus (Mar 10, 2012)

Oh man, I haven't seen AGP in a while.


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## TRWOV (Mar 10, 2012)

Ok, found my answer:



> Answer:This problem will occur on some AGP cards which does not use native AGP chip, but use native PCI-E chip with an "PCI-E to AGP Bridge" to become AGP interface.
> Please set "AGP P2P Deep Fifo" to [Enable] in the BIOS. (Advanced>Chipset Settings>AGP P2P Deep Fifo)
> It may need to upgrade the BIOS for this option:
> 
> ...



Sadly I don't have any native AGP card left. There's my Voodoo 5500 but it's 2x and the board is incompatible. I'll try to borrow one for the bios flashing.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Mar 10, 2012)

I have that same card running in my nf2 system. Great card.


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## t_ski (Mar 10, 2012)

I have some old AGP cards that probably don't have the bridge in them


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## Aquinus (Mar 10, 2012)

I might have a Radeon 9200 AGP 4x sitting around somewhere. I would have to find it though.


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## Widjaja (Mar 10, 2012)

Good luck with finding a cheap FX60 let alone cheap high end dual core 939skt CPUs.

Sometime last year I recall seeing an FX60 sell for around 245USD used.

I would have considered selling either my X2 4800+ or Opty180 if you were down this way.


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## JrRacinFan (Mar 10, 2012)

Awaiting finished results.


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## TRWOV (Mar 10, 2012)

Borrowed a 6200LE. I'll let you know how things work out 




EDIT:

Still no POST. I removed the RAM and got the beep code so at least I know the buzzer is fine. That leaves me with two options:
- damaged CPU
- damaged AGP slot
- damaged board
- some other noob thing I'm not aware of

I'll try to research this a little more. I think I'll have to get a PCI card to rule out the AGP slot.


EDIT2: 

Managed to POST. Apparently there are a couple of issues:

- 1st RAM slot seems to be bad. I'll give it a cleaning and see how it goes.
- The board isn't happy with my DDR500 RAM. I had to use a DDR400 stick. I'll update the bios and see if that improves the RAM compatibility.


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## TRWOV (Mar 11, 2012)

Widjaja said:


> Good luck with finding a cheap FX60 let alone cheap high end dual core 939skt CPUs.
> 
> Sometime last year I recall seeing an FX60 sell for around 245USD used.
> 
> I would have considered selling either my X2 4800+ or Opty180 if you were down this way.



YGPM






SUCCESS!!!


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## Bambooz (Mar 11, 2012)

@Luciel: Just curious.. what case is that? Looks one heck of a lot like the MS-Tech LC-402 I used to have in the P4 heydays..

@TRWOV: I hope you're not planning on any overclocking or stuff like that. ASRock boards of that vintage aren't good for anything except office machines (no OC features, hardly any options in the BIOS), and most of them are semi-dead by now due to the crappy capacitors they liked to use (and still do .. mostly "OST", which are really nasty cause they hardly ever bloat when they go bad)

I know what you're talking about with the higher-end S939 CPUs though. I've got a Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI bundle with the matching Gigabyte 3D1 (dual 6600GT in SLI on a single card), and I'm having one heck of a hard time finding a cheap 939 dualcore for it, so I have to make due with an A64 3700+ for now


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## TRWOV (Mar 11, 2012)

I suppose that I could change the capacitors. Should I replace every capacitor on the board or just the ones in the power phases? They don't seem to be of the low ESR type so replacements should be easily attainable.

BTW, these are the OC options present in the bios:


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## Bambooz (Mar 11, 2012)

Motherboard caps _have to be_ low ESR. Only exception are the tiny filter caps (like 16V 100µF) for the audio part or around the chipset.

The OST caps on yours look like OST RLX or RLS series. The others are Nippon Chemicon KZE (? ; japanese) which are OK and a ton of LTec 6.3V 1000µF scattered all over the place. Those aren't great but they should be OK.

What values are the OST's ? 6.3V 3300µF? I could look up some replacements with matching or better specs (I fix all kinds of electronics all day long for some extra income.. got all the datasheets etc. on hand)

As for the BIOS.. more settings than I expected, but as usual, some stuff just isn't there, like RAM voltage for example.

edit: just looked up the board.. really oddball one.. especially the ULi M1689 chipset 
ALi (Acer Labs Inc.) was partly split up into ULi in 2003 and bought by nvidia in 2006..


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## TRWOV (Mar 11, 2012)

I think that's "VCCM Voltage". Anyway, the RAM is rated for 250Mhz 3-3-2-8 but I've pushed them to 270 on stock volts in the past so I have quite a margin. More if I loose timings.

I'll look into replacing the capacitors. Maybe I'll replace the capacitors on my 775i65G and Conroe865PE while I'm at it.


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## Bambooz (Mar 11, 2012)

Is the 775i65G a Rev. 2.x? If so... *jealous* .. I've bought 3 of those used and all of them were stone dead sadly.
The oddity of that board alone is what fascinates me.. i865G chipset from the P4 days and they somehow made it Core 2 capable (the chipset predates those CPUs by years Oo!)

If you need a few sources for quality low ESR caps and/or datasheets of the original caps, just PM me.


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## TRWOV (Mar 11, 2012)

Bambooz said:


> Is the 775i65G a Rev. 2.x? If so... *jealous* .. I've bought 3 of those used and all of them were stone dead sadly.
> The oddity of that board alone is what fascinates me.. i865G chipset from the P4 days and they somehow made it Core 2 capable (the chipset predates those CPUs by years Oo!)




yup, it's my HTPC nowadays 







I also have its bigger sibling, Conroe865PE


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## Melvis (Mar 11, 2012)

I have 2 soon to be 3 939 Systems here if you would like help or to compare with?

System 1:

AMD FX-57 
GB-K8NF-9 Ultra Mobo
2x1GB Mushkin DDR500 RAM
ASUS 9600GT 512MB

System 2:

AMD 4600X2
GA-K8N Pro-SLI 
2x1GB DDR400
Sli 8600GT's

and the 3rd system which will arrive next Sat will be AMD 3800x2, 1GB ram, ASUS A8S-X. Not sure what to do with it yet, im happy to sell them off if anyone is interest?


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Mar 12, 2012)

I have 2 s939 system running as crunchers now. Pretty rock solid systems. 1 is a Asus A8n Sli premium with a x2 4200+ running 3 gb of mem on win xp pro sp3 and the other is a Asus A8n-e running a x2 3800+ and 2 gig of 3200 under Ubuntu 11.04 64 bit. Both run great. 


Good luck with your build Trwov


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## xBruce88x (Mar 12, 2012)

wow looking nice so far!


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## TRWOV (Mar 13, 2012)

Getting ready for the weekend:


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## TRWOV (Mar 18, 2012)

I cut the window today. Fitting test:






Now I need some vinyl siding to make it look finished. I know the cage shows but I'm going to put the stickers on that area.


I'm having some problems on the software side, I can't find a W7 LAN driver for the board. I found a post about an ASUS board with the same chipset and some guy supposedly modified the XP drivers for W7 but I tested them and don't work.

I found another post saying that Windows Update has the driver but I can't connect obviously. I'll get a PCI NIC to connect to Windows Update and see if I can get it. At worst I'll have to go with XP for this built.

I'll keep you posted


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Mar 19, 2012)

Whoa whoa back up the horses a bit. I just remembered something going through your thread here. I believe agp and dual core procs do not get a long at all. You may have to go with the fastest single core you can get. Do some research on your board with a dual core proc. I could be wrong and it may only affect certain boards. Best to be on the safe side before you shell out money on a dual core and not use it.


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## TRWOV (Mar 19, 2012)

The board does support X2 CPUs and since it doesn't have an IGP using an AGP card is a must. The FAQ for the board warns about a slight incompatibility (cards working in PCI mode when an X2 is installed) but the updated bios and GART driver took care of that. The only unknown at the moment is if said issues are present with W7 too since there are no W7 drivers. I hope that the built in drivers are the correct ones.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Mar 19, 2012)

Cool glad you checked into it. I know back in those days there where some incompatibility between x2's and some agp boards.


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## Melvis (Mar 19, 2012)

We should all do a 939 show down


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Mar 19, 2012)

lol there seems to be a few left up and going.


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## Melvis (Mar 19, 2012)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> lol there seems to be a few left up and going.



Sure is and there now cheap and fun to play with.

Hey, your system specs are very simular to mine lol, copy cat


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Mar 19, 2012)

Hey they sure are very similar. lol.  I have a few other system running with those.


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## Melvis (Mar 19, 2012)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> Hey they sure are very similar. lol.  I have a few other system running with those.



Indeed lol, great minds think a like haha 

Yea i have my other 939 rig with the FX-57 in it also an old SKT A system, thats about it.


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## TRWOV (Mar 21, 2012)

Melvis said:


> We should all do a 939 show down



Sure, that'll be fun.




I think that I've come across an auction for an FX60 or Opty185. Description says "For sale ASUS A8V-VM with dual core 2.6Ghz processor and 1GB DDR400". According to ASUS website, the A8V-VM is a 939 board compatible with the Opteron 185 so that might be it but I can only hope that the guy stuck an FX60 in there. 

There is no pic and it's his first item but the guy lives about three hours away so I should be able to pick it up in person. I'll let you know how it goes. 

If this goes thru only thing missing will be the GPU. 


I bought a wireless NIC card and Windows Update indeed had the missing drivers; I'll make sure to make a backup of those. Now the only unknown is how will the 7950 + dual core work under W7. There are fixed drivers for XP but not 7, let's hope that the W7 built-in drivers work.


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## Sinzia (Mar 21, 2012)

After looking at the pics and stuff, I came to the realization that 20 pin power placement sucked back in ~2002.

I used to run an AMD Athlon XP 3200 with a 6800GT, AGP...

I miss that system, not sure what ever happened to it.


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## Melvis (Mar 21, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> Sure, that'll be fun.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Im up for it, i wont be OC anything just run them how they are and have some fun 

lets hope it is a FX-60, always wanted one but they was always to dam expensive, i got lucky with my FX-57 as it was, as the dude put it as a 3500+ in the listing by mistake haha

Good luck with the rest of it


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Mar 21, 2012)

Trwov, I am crossing my fingers for you that that proc is a fx 60 and you are able to get it. That would be sweet man. 





Melvis said:


> Indeed lol, great minds think a like haha
> 
> Yea i have my other 939 rig with the FX-57 in it also an old SKT A system, thats about it.



Damn I also have another s 939 3800+ system and 2 system running Socket A boards. One Asus a7n8x system with a Athlon 3200+ and my trusty ol server running a Kt7a Raid running a Athlon xp 2400+. I also have enough socket A stuff to build like 5 or 6 more systems. I also am in the middle of another Phenom II x4 build.


My s939 are part of my crunching array, so they run 24/7. One is running win xp pro and the other is running Ubuntu 11.04.


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## Melvis (Mar 23, 2012)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> Damn I also have another s 939 3800+ system and 2 system running Socket A boards. One Asus a7n8x system with a Athlon 3200+ and my trusty ol server running a Kt7a Raid running a Athlon xp 2400+. I also have enough socket A stuff to build like 5 or 6 more systems. I also am in the middle of another Phenom II x4 build.
> 
> 
> My s939 are part of my crunching array, so they run 24/7. One is running win xp pro and the other is running Ubuntu 11.04.



You must love ya Skt A systems?  Mine is a very old Athlon XP 2100+ OC to 2200+ speeds to make the system stable  (weird i know) 1GB of DDR333 Memory and a AGP 4X FX5700 GPU. I have a box full of Skt A heatsinks and fans, and i had 3 spare mobo's as well but ive sold two but i still got one if anyone wants it? hint hint lol. Also a couple of CPU's as well like the 3200+, 1200+ and a Duron 800Mhz o yea the power haha. I just want the stuff gone, ive got to much junk, i havent event started on all the Intel system i have laying around also


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## eidairaman1 (Mar 23, 2012)

http://fab51.com/cpu/barton/athlon-e24.html

info on the Locked/Unlocked Multiplier and other multiplier info


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## TRWOV (Mar 23, 2012)

Three more days until auction's end  Haven't asked the guy about the exact CPU model just in case someone else down here is looking for an FX60 too (doubtful but you never know). Even if it turns out to be an Opteron 185, it'll be a good deal compared to what I could get on eBay. 



I'm getting some random lockups in W7 but I don't know where the blame lies. I ran 10 iterations of IBT (1 hour ) and it didn't crash  I've noticed a trend, though: whenever I'm multitasking the lockups tend to happen easily. 

The HDD i'm using is an old laptop drive I salvaged so that might be it but CrystalDiskInfo says it is fine. I'll give XP a go and see if the lockups keep happening.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Mar 23, 2012)

Melvis said:


> You must love ya Skt A systems?  Mine is a very old Athlon XP 2100+ OC to 2200+ speeds to make the system stable  (weird i know) 1GB of DDR333 Memory and a AGP 4X FX5700 GPU. I have a box full of Skt A heatsinks and fans, and i had 3 spare mobo's as well but ive sold two but i still got one if anyone wants it? hint hint lol. Also a couple of CPU's as well like the 3200+, 1200+ and a Duron 800Mhz o yea the power haha. I just want the stuff gone, ive got to much junk, i havent event started on all the Intel system i have laying around also



I do have alot of socket crap. Probably too much. My kt7a sys is running a Gainward fx5700. The other Socket A system is running a Radeon 9800 xt. I also have a hd2400 pro for backup.


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## TRWOV (Mar 24, 2012)

Installed XP and ran some benchmarks without problems so I guess it was a driver issue. I think I'll have to use XP for this build.


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## Melvis (Mar 24, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> Installed XP and ran some benchmarks without problems so I guess it was a driver issue. I think I'll have to use XP for this build.



Yea id stick with XP also, anything that old just runs so much more faster then on windows 7, thats what i have found anyway. 

So you have got the FX-60? or still waiting?


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## TRWOV (Mar 24, 2012)

The auction ends on monday and I'm the only bidder so far. I hope that the Pope's visit gets everyone's attention


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## TRWOV (Mar 26, 2012)

Someone asked the seller to post a picture






I was hoping to be the only bidder...  Well, the other guy hasn't bid yet so there's hope. 

By the way, going by the cooler, do you think there's an FX60 or Opt185 under there? Seems to be an aluminium cooler 


Edit: This seems to be the cooler in question: http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=5321
so I think there's still a good chance of it being an Opteron 185 at least.


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## Melvis (Mar 26, 2012)

Hmm you still might be in luck then, did you ask the seller what the CPU was? or?


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## theJesus (Mar 26, 2012)

sub'd


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## TRWOV (Mar 26, 2012)

Melvis said:


> Hmm you still might be in luck then, did you ask the seller what the CPU was? or?



I asked but hasn't responded yet.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Mar 26, 2012)

Have you won it yet or is there a bidding war going on?


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## TRWOV (Mar 27, 2012)

The auction ends in about 4 hours. I'm still the only bidder but the guy that asked for the picture might snipe so no victory dance yet.


----------



## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Mar 27, 2012)

Thats the way it works for me. When there's something inparticular I really want from there, someone comes in and outbids me with 1 second to go.


----------



## TRWOV (Mar 27, 2012)




----------



## TRWOV (Mar 28, 2012)

I arranged the pickup for next week. Next update till tuesday.


----------



## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Mar 30, 2012)

So I take it you won the auction? If so great job there


----------



## TRWOV (Mar 30, 2012)

Yes, I was the only bidder at the end. I feel a little guilt... I don't have need for the board and RAM so I think I'll let him keep them to resell.

Apparently a friend of him built the PC so he isn't sure what CPU it is but he says it ran at 2.6Ghz. The manual on Asus site doesn't mention any overcloking options so I'm almost 100% sure an Opteron 185 it is. That's way better than what I would have got on ebay for a similar price. Heck, the bus tickets are going to cost more  

I think I'll take a PSU with me to test the CPU on site.


----------



## TRWOV (Apr 3, 2012)

Whaaa ha ha ha ha haaa!









And something that came in the mail:





Now I need to pickup some sanding sheets and lime green paint.


----------



## Melvis (Apr 3, 2012)

NICE!! its an FX-60 good shit i must say, well done.

939 show down is a go lol


----------



## Widjaja (Apr 3, 2012)

Good to see you did get an FX-60.
Hopefully you paid a reasonable amount if that is possible with these 939skt chips.


----------



## TRWOV (Apr 3, 2012)

I let the seller keep the board, RAM and my 3000+ and he let the FX go for half the auction price. Factoring the bus tickets in, I spent around $70 on it 

I could have asked him to ship it but as he's a first time seller I thought picking it up in person would be the smarter choice. 

And now two XFX 7950GT pooped up on eBay...should I bite? They are going for ~$100, shipped 


http://www.ebay.com/itm/XFX-GeForce...TV_Cards_TW&hash=item1c259b6d1f#ht_795wt_1397
http://www.ebay.com/itm/XFX-GeForce...artes_Vidéo&hash=item231bc05b53#ht_571wt_1397

The french one includes the box and adapters. Does anybody have had any experience with the french post? I've bought plenty of items from the UK but none from France.


EDIT: Ugh, 600Mhz memory?? The reference calls for 700mhz... :shadedshu


EDIT2: The Evergreen fans look way better in the stock pictures; in person they aren't clear green but more like "smoke green" or something, like the green Nintendo 64. Well, I already have them so complaining is no use. They are practically silent, which is nice.


----------



## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Apr 4, 2012)

Good deal there Trwov. 

@ Melvis, I would join the show down, but it wouldn't be fair as I have pci-e boards. And one is a sli board so I could just pop 2 x 8800 gtx's and it will be show over.


----------



## Melvis (Apr 4, 2012)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> Good deal there Trwov.
> 
> @ Melvis, I would join the show down, but it wouldn't be fair as I have pci-e boards. And one is a sli board so I could just pop 2 x 8800 gtx's and it will be show over.



lol i know what ya mean, all mine are the same PCI-E and with my old FX-57 rig i ran a 4870X2 with it for a good 8months, now that be unfair


----------



## TRWOV (Apr 4, 2012)

The 7950GT in the UK is sold already... aghh... should I buy the other one or wait?? decisions, decisions... I guess I can wait a little more, the build still has a long way to go but it'd be nice to have all the parts ready... but $100... 




Melvis said:


> lol i know what ya mean, all mine are the same PCI-E and with my old FX-57 rig i ran a 4870X2 with it for a good 8months, now that be unfair



I could throw in my HD3850 (824/1215)


----------



## Melvis (Apr 4, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> The 7950GT in the UK is sold already... aghh... should I buy the other one or wait?? decisions, decisions... I guess I can wait a little more, the build still has a long way to go but it'd be nice to have all the parts ready... but $100...
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Waiting is always good to a point, see what turns up and if ya happy with what ya see and the price then go for it.

3850 would be good, it wont bottleneck the CPU i wouldn't think, as i ran a 3850 before the 4870X2  for a good yr or so, good card, still got it


----------



## TRWOV (Apr 4, 2012)

The French seller states that the card's model is PV-T71A-YDF7 which seems to have the complete 7950GT specs... Apparently XFX released four models of this card (YDF7, YDF3, UDF3, YDL3) all similar looking and only one has the full speed...

aghh... can't make up my mind... according to ebay, every 7950 has sold in the $100 range...


----------



## t_ski (Apr 4, 2012)

If that's the going rate and you're willing to pay that much, then go for it.  Otherwise hold off and keep looking.  There's always a chance you may find one cheaper, and then again, there's always a chance you might never see one available for sale again...


----------



## TRWOV (Apr 4, 2012)

yeah, that's why I can't make my mind up... Apparently finding a 7950 with the reference clocks is rare for some reason (all the generic ones on ebay are 500/600)... but then I can't understand people paying $100 for it... I mean, an X1950PRO AGP goes for what? 50? 60? The 7950GT has comparable performance and sells for twice the ammount.  Heck, an HD3850 AGP goes for 70-80 in auctions. Damn fanbois


----------



## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Apr 5, 2012)

I would just "watch" the cards and keep looking. One just may turn up. Also you may find one bundled up with some other hardware for next to nothing.


----------



## Melvis (Apr 5, 2012)

Sorry if i missed it, but why do you want a 7950 for again? I would get a 9600GT or something like that, cheaper and will perform better?


----------



## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Apr 5, 2012)

He has a Agp board. Also might be hard pressed to find a 9600gt in agp.


----------



## Melvis (Apr 5, 2012)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> He has a Agp board. Also might be hard pressed to find a 9600gt in agp.



Oh my bad 

Thats fair enough then, good luck


----------



## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Apr 5, 2012)

That's why I was saying if I slapped 2 x  8800 gtx's in mine it would be game over, as he is limited to the agp bus.


----------



## TRWOV (Apr 6, 2012)

How does it look?


----------



## Bambooz (Apr 6, 2012)

Looks pretty damn good IMO (apart from the deformed casing around the screws, but as it's a soda can "thick" case, you probably can't avoid that)

Unless you plonk it on a desk, it would do a very good job as a vacuum cleaner too


----------



## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Apr 7, 2012)

Damn TRWOV, I have the perfect case for a Nvidia build and didn't even think of it. I have one of these with one of my crunchers housed in it. Linky to case 

Here is a pic of mine


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## TRWOV (Apr 8, 2012)

Finished the top blower hole:







I messed up with the top-left screw hole and for that reason the fan grill is off-center. I tried to set it right by force but couldn't; I think I'm going to cut that corner of the fan grill to center it.

Now I just need some u-channel molding.



Also doing some color tests:


----------



## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Apr 8, 2012)

Right one "I" think would look best.


----------



## TRWOV (Apr 9, 2012)

Honestly, I don't really like either one. The left one is neon green and the right one is leaf green. Something in-between  would be perfect but there's not much to choose from in terms of green shades.  Red, blue and yellow there are hundreds but green only these two.








Dupont has only two green shades too: http://www2.dupont.com/DPC_Refinish/es_MX/assets/pdf/Cromacryl.pdf

Duplicolor isn't any better: http://www.duplicolor.com/products/premiumEnamel/

and I don't know where to get Krylon over here...


----------



## Norton (Apr 9, 2012)

The darker Dupont green with some chrome or white trim work might look pretty good together.... I would try that if that were my build and that was all I had to work with.


----------



## TRWOV (Apr 10, 2012)

I think I'm going to do this:

Primer > White  > Leaf green

It should make the green a little lighter, shouldn't it?


----------



## t_ski (Apr 10, 2012)

Probably.  Do you have white primer available?


----------



## TRWOV (Apr 10, 2012)

What brand this 7950GT is? The seller doesn't have any info on it 











The heatsink is the same as the Galaxy 7950GT but with a different sticker:






EDIT: I think I'm going to pull the trigger on this one.

EDTI 2: bought.   Hopefully it'll have the complete 7950 specs (550/700)


----------



## t_ski (Apr 10, 2012)

It looks like it's an Nvidia branded card.  I tried googling the part number, but nothing comes up.


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## TRWOV (Apr 11, 2012)

t_ski said:


> Probably.  Do you have white primer available?



Not on the Comex brand. They carry grey and red primer. I could get flat white paint though, would work more or less the same.


----------



## TRWOV (Apr 14, 2012)

*sanding*


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Apr 14, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> *sanding*



Ruff work that is.


----------



## TRWOV (Apr 15, 2012)

OMG, is there a Dremelñ bit I could use for this?


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## xBruce88x (Apr 15, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> What brand this 7950GT is? The seller doesn't have any info on it
> 
> http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/9151/kgrhqjhj4e9qkfjd2bpg6ln.jpg
> 
> ...


 there's a website on that 2nd sticker, the smaller one on the back, but i couldn't make it out very well


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## theJesus (Apr 15, 2012)

looks like something ibusa.com


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## TRWOV (Apr 15, 2012)

theJesus said:


> looks like something ibusa.com





xBruce88x said:


> there's a website on that 2nd sticker, the smaller one on the back, but i couldn't make it out very well



It's www.sibusa.com, seems to be the store that sold the card but there's no listing for the 7950GT anyway.


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## de.das.dude (Apr 15, 2012)

dude i hope you will finish those rough edges with a file?


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## TRWOV (Apr 15, 2012)

de.das.dude said:


> dude i hope you will finish those rough edges with a file?



I'll use this: http://www.mnpctech.com/UChannel.html


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## xBruce88x (Apr 16, 2012)

That'll do!

btw you said you bought ithe 7950 right? were you able to verify it was the one you were hoping for yet? (plug it in and test)


----------



## TRWOV (Apr 16, 2012)

Don't know yet. It's coming from the US so it'll take a little while.


----------



## angelhunter (Apr 16, 2012)

How is something like this


----------



## TRWOV (Apr 23, 2012)

I painted the metal panels, still deciding what to do with the front panel


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## eidairaman1 (Apr 23, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> I painted the metal panels, still deciding what to do with the front panel
> 
> http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/7739/img8728g.jpg
> http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/2153/img8729z.jpg
> http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/6113/img8730h.jpg



Anyway of Getting the AMD and Nvidia Logos Etched into the Plastic with their Applicable Green Colors?


----------



## TRWOV (Apr 23, 2012)

eidairaman1 said:


> Anyway of Getting the AMD and Nvidia Logos Etched into the Plastic with their Applicable Green Colors?



mmm... maybe though I don't know where could I get that kind of work done


----------



## eidairaman1 (Apr 23, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> mmm... maybe though I don't know where could I get that kind of work done



id say look up a machinst shop or DIY


----------



## t_ski (Apr 23, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> I painted the metal panels, still deciding what to do with the front panel



Leave it black but put some green accents on the front?


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## TRWOV (Apr 24, 2012)

Looks like I'll have to use XP for this. I got the 7950GT (500/650 ) and installed W7 again. Everything seemed to work fine, no random crashes this time, but the card works in PCI mode:







I'll fiddle around de bios to see if there's a setting that could correct this.

EDIT: no dice. XP it is.


----------



## eidairaman1 (Apr 24, 2012)

Its a Lack of driver support by Nvidia, NF1-NF4 Users were shafted on Driver Support for Win Vista/Win 7.

Those who have such a board with an AMD video card get a Code 43 when a Dual Core CPU is put in. Sis/Via/Uli Fixed the issue fast on AGP.



TRWOV said:


> Looks like I'll have to use XP for this. I got the 7950GT (500/650 ) and installed W7 again. Everything seemed to work fine, no random crashes this time, but the card works in PCI mode:
> 
> http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/1663/7950gt.png
> 
> ...


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## TRWOV (Apr 25, 2012)

ok, I've been digging on Google and, apparently, there's a way around this. If a random forum post is to be believed, there's a single registry entry that should correct this situation:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\AGP]
"10B95246"=hex:80,00,00,00,00,00,00,00

It's the same value that's included in the ULI AGP GART .inf file 

The thing is that I can't create the value because...








> CAN'T ADD VALUE: REGISTRY WRITE ERROR.




If I try with a .reg file:








> Can't import blablabla agp.reg: Not every value was written correctly in the Registry. Some keys are in use by the system or other processes.





Is there any way to edit the registry from a command line or something without loading Windows? I tried the advanced boot options (F8 at startup) but there doesn't seem to be anything of that sort. Tried safe mode but the same happens.


----------



## Melvis (Apr 25, 2012)

The system will run better and perform better on XP thats what ive found with older Hardwware


----------



## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Apr 26, 2012)

I am running Win xp on one of my s939 systems and Ubuntu on the other.


----------



## TRWOV (Apr 26, 2012)

OMFG 

I ordered 18ft (3 *x 6ft*) of u-channel molding from mnpctech.com but someone must have skipped over the "x 6ft" part because they only sent me 3ft 



I contacted them already. Hoping for a good resolution. :shadedshu


----------



## Thefumigator (Apr 26, 2012)

I love the rig, retro AMD-nvidia -snif- :')

One thing, I haven't read the whole thread but AGP with Windows Vista or Seven is a no go (but maybe you can have some luck with 32 bit version, is a GART driver AGP problem). Not sure if even linux can do it. The AGP port will work like PCI. So XP is the only way.

The chipset is an uli (later nvidia bought it) it was a good chipset. But the best 939 chipset you can consider is Nforce 3. Unluckly is agp too. Via chipsets were fast too, but not as great as nforce or uli in my opinion. Also the asrock boards of that time were the cheapest of them all. Hopefully you got a good one, because in the early days asrocks amd boards were slllloooooowwwww


----------



## Peter1986C (Apr 26, 2012)

Linux has got AGP support. No problem with installing the Nouveau drivers for making an old GeForce 2 MX400 (!) work on a Compaq Presario I am preparing for a charity. His 7xxx series should still even be supported with the official nVidia Linux drivers. Although Win XP is more useful to him if he wants to turn his legacy build into a gaming rig.


----------



## TRWOV (Apr 26, 2012)

I think it's just a driver issue. I'm running W7 x64 on a 865 chipset (see specs) with no issues so it isn't just a 64bit+AGP thing.


As I said, there seems to be a way around this: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=531358

According to http://kmuto.jp/debian/hcl/Asrock/939Dual-SATA2/ the 10b95246 PCIid is for the ULi AGP 8x controller so if it isn't registered it obviously won't work. The thing is that I can't edit the registry for some reason. I've already gave full access to me (only the "TrustedInstaller" had full control over the registry) but that didn't change anything, I get the same error messages


----------



## Thefumigator (Apr 26, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> I think it's just a driver issue. I'm running W7 x64 on a 865 chipset (see specs) with no issues so it isn't just a 64bit+AGP thing.
> 
> 
> As I said, there seems to be a way around this: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=531358
> ...



Yet the 865 was one of the best intel's chipset, and the only one (really, intel is the only one) supporting AGP on windows 7. So the thing would work perfectly fine on 865. I loved that chipset. Even a core 2 quad runs perfectly fine on it.

I had an Asrock K8 upgrade NF3 (it was a 754 board with an expansion to 939 and later on AM2), and I used the PCI to CPU bridge instead of the AGP for a lot of time. Unluckly, nvidia never released the driver  so I had to change the board and move to PCI express

The only 939 board sporting PCIexpress is also manufactured by asrock. While its pretty rare, its a nice one with the ATI 785 chipset


----------



## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Apr 26, 2012)

Um both of my Asus 939 boards have pciexpress and one is a Sli board. One is a Asus A8n-e and the other is a A8n Sli premium. They both have nforce 4 chipsets. One is running a Hd 3650 1 gig card and the other is running 2x  7300 gt's in Sli.


----------



## Thefumigator (Apr 26, 2012)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> Um both of my Asus 939 boards have pciexpress and one is a Sli board. One is a Asus A8n-e and the other is a A8n Sli premium. They both have nforce 4 chipsets. One is running a Hd 3650 1 gig card and the other is running 2x  7300 gt's in Sli.



Yeah its right, I forgot nforce 4 completely, cause nforce 5 started to appear later with AM2.


----------



## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Apr 26, 2012)

Now I think the Nforce 4 boards where about the best s939 boards.


----------



## TRWOV (Apr 27, 2012)

I managed to edit the registry but the change didn't do anything  so XP it is.

I really wanted to use W7 because the FX60 performs way better in a 64bit environment:

XP 32bit

View attachment 46841

W7 64bit

View attachment 46840




For some reason the Vcore is higher in XP 

On another note, I f***ed up the front panel. Re-sanding. 



EDIT:

XP installed, card running at 8x

mnpctech is shipping the missing U-channel molding


stock 7950 clocks (500/650) 3d06 4788 3DMarks 
http://3dmark.com/3dm06/16627367


max 7950 oc (625/745) 3d06 5483 3DMarks 
http://3dmark.com/3dm06/16627410


EDIT2: having problems ocing the CPU.  I can't go beyond 210Mhz for the bus and for some reason setting the multi at x14 doesn't work according to CPU-Z but the bios reports it as 2800Mhz  How safe is to increase Vcore on AMD CPUs? The max Vcore is 1.4v; currently it's at 1.35v.

I set the RAM at 2.5-3-2-5. Working fine


----------



## TRWOV (Apr 29, 2012)

Something I noticed:






The GPU core resets to the stock frequency when no load is present, like some sort of Overdrive. And no, I don't have a 2d/3d preset. Is this the case of every nVidia GPU? I thought that ATi was the first with this feature... or could it be the driver? I'm using the latest one.

benchmarks galore incoming...


EDIT:

Benchmarks


----------



## NAVI_Z (Apr 29, 2012)

Didn't see da Heaven benchie in there......


----------



## TRWOV (Apr 29, 2012)

Heaven and Lost Planet 2 crash for some reason


----------



## eidairaman1 (Apr 29, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> Heaven and Lost Planet 2 crash for some reason



Video card might not have good drivers or those games do not support that card.


----------



## TRWOV (Apr 29, 2012)

Fitting test. No major clearance issues to report except for the first SATA port. 











This will require some serious PSU modding (cutting and trimming cables, sleeving, etc).






If you're wondering how am I going to fit the DVD drive correctly, I won't. I'll use a laptop DVD drive but I'm missing a bracket to use it in a 5.25" bay ATM.


----------



## Melvis (Apr 30, 2012)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> Now I think the Nforce 4 boards where about the best s939 boards.



That would be correct  as all mine are Nforce as well, never miss a beat, work perfectly, except for this ASUS one which has a driver conflict argh!



TRWOV said:


> Something I noticed:
> 
> http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/7273/srncpt.png
> 
> ...



Thats some awesome benching there, im happy to also run some of these if your interested how your system runs against other 939 rigs?


----------



## TRWOV (Apr 30, 2012)

Well, I'm positive that your dual 8800GTs will swallow my 7950GT alive but sure, that'll be fun


----------



## Melvis (Apr 30, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> Well, I'm positive that your dual 8800GTs will swallow my 7950GT alive but sure, that'll be fun



 Naa that's the mad shots system, mine are running 2x 8600GT's and the other a single 9600GT all at stock settings


----------



## TRWOV (May 1, 2012)

Any good/cheap place to get PSU modding tools? pin extractors and such. I'm planning on trimming and sleeving the wires, maybe change the connectors too for UV green ones. Should I go with single wire sleeving?


----------



## theJesus (May 1, 2012)

Ebay, from china with free shipping, if you don't mind waiting up to a month.


----------



## ThE_MaD_ShOt (May 2, 2012)

Melvis said:


> Naa that's the mad shots system, mine are running 2x 8600GT's and the other a single 9600GT all at stock settings



MY Sli system is running Linux right now. LOL


----------



## TRWOV (May 2, 2012)

Any tips on OCing the FX60? I don't have any experience with AMD CPUs.


----------



## ThE_MaD_ShOt (May 2, 2012)

Hell I don't oc anymore. I am more for total stability right now as I use most of my system for crunching.


----------



## TRWOV (May 2, 2012)

You can always have a stable OC. What I don't do is overvolt (lost many Celerons due to that), I'm happy to live within the stock voltage but getting as much performance as possible.

BTW, I previously reported that I set the multi at x14 but CPU-Z reported x13... well, dxdiag and the system propreties panel show 2.8Ghz so I guess it's a CPU-Z bug.






burning at 2.8Ghz, 10 loops, standard. Wish me luck.


EDIT:
IBT stable at 2.8Ghz 

How safe is to increase the Vcore on AMD CPUs? CPU-World reports the FX60's Vcore as 1.35-1.4V so if I set the Vcore at 1.4v I should be in the clear, right?






There are some BIOS options that I don't understand that much, specially the HTT decode scheme and the HT width. Is there a way to measure their effect? I've already set the HT Link at 1000Mhz (Auto is 800Mhz).















EDIT2:

Ok, I've educated myself a little. Let's see if this wo


----------



## eidairaman1 (May 2, 2012)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> Hell I don't oc anymore. I am more for total stability right now as I use most of my system for crunching.



Minor OC wont kill it, aka a 500MHz Increase from Stock


----------



## TRWOV (May 3, 2012)

mmm... I'm not having luck with this. At x15 (3Ghz) it won't boot at any voltage. 

I tried to raise the bus speed but the most it can do is 203 with the x14 multi AND HT at x4. With the x13 multi I can go up to 210Mhz with x5 HT and 213 with x4 HT.

I think that I'm hitting the board's ceiling in terms of how much power can it deliver to the CPU. I'll try to get the capacitors replaced and get some VRM heatsinks. Apparently the average OC is 3.2Ghz, I'd like to reach 3Ghz at least.

I'll leave it at 200Mhz x14 CPU x5 HT for the time being. The only thing I don't like is that I can't take advantage of my RAM's 250Mhz rated speed but I've lowered the timmings to 2.5-3-2-5 so not everything is lost.



BTW, there's another thing I've noticed: shouldn't XP detect 3.25GB of RAM??? It only detects 3GB for some reason. W7 detected the whole 4GB so I know that all the slots are working fine.


----------



## TRWOV (May 5, 2012)

ok, this is a first:






A TWIMTBP title that's incompatible with an nVidia card?


----------



## _JP_ (May 5, 2012)

HA! That's what you get for trusting a generic random no-vendor card! 
Just kidding, that is really weird.
What game is it? Far Cry?


----------



## TRWOV (May 5, 2012)

Crysis 2


----------



## _JP_ (May 6, 2012)

Well, the minimum requirements for that game lists a 8800GT...so that card is underspec'd.


----------



## TRWOV (May 6, 2012)

oh, that must be it then...


----------



## _JP_ (May 6, 2012)

Shoot for the 1st one.


----------



## TRWOV (May 8, 2012)

so I removed the heatsink to give the card a proper cleaning and found two bulging caps... does anyone knows if GPU caps need to be of the low ESR type? I've found replacements but they aren't low ESR caps.


----------



## eidairaman1 (May 8, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> so I removed the heatsink to give the card a proper cleaning and found two bulging caps... does anyone knows if GPU caps need to be of the low ESR type? I've found replacements but they aren't low ESR caps.



low ESR is required on all caps to work properly, right now those caps have High ESR


----------



## TRWOV (May 9, 2012)

Someone knows a good site to order low ESR caps from that ships woldwide? I tried eBay but read that there are quite a few bootleg caps out there.


----------



## Norton (May 9, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> Someone knows a good site to order low ESR caps from that ships woldwide? I tried eBay but read that there are quite a few bootleg caps out there.



Check these guys...
http://www.newark.com/


----------



## stinger608 (May 9, 2012)

Also Digikey is great and ships world wide! Huge discounts. Caters to individuals as well as very large corps!

http://www.digikey.com/?gclid=CLzI_...C095ADE-128B-46E8-BC7C-0D925897B218cs3juYXzQH


----------



## TRWOV (May 9, 2012)

another question: what range can be considered low ESR?


----------



## eidairaman1 (May 9, 2012)

http://www.badcaps.net/

http://www.capacitorlab.com/failure-modes/index.htm


----------



## TRWOV (May 13, 2012)

Painted the kb and mouse.










I decided to paint the whole front panel green as I couldn't find a way to paint just the front without the edges looking like shit. I'm going to use black DVD and floppy drives with some green accents (the eject button and the floppy lid will be painted green).

Also bought a cheap LCD 5.25" panel: 





and the slim DVD 5.25" bracket it's on its way too. All that's left is to mod the power supply and recap the boards.



I got the u-channel molding and finished the window and top blower.










I'm going to replace those screws with black ones later.


----------



## Jayzilla (May 15, 2012)

Cool.


----------



## gtoforce (May 21, 2012)

im so impressed with the interest in retro setups

im using current phenom and cards for gaming etc
but for normal pc usage and playing minor requirement games like Assassins Creed 3 or mass effect 2 (can play mass effect 3 at max but bottlenecked), dragon age, borderlands, i am using my old legend pc which has the specs below:

AMD Athlon FX-60
4gb Ram
ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe
1000w PSU 
Win 7 64
ATI 4870x2

i am sad cuz the processor can go further but the pcie 2.0 can only go as far as gtx 285 or 4870
anything modern such as the ati hd 5xxx and above, the pc wont POST
crap...


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (May 22, 2012)

gtoforce said:


> im so impressed with the interest in retro setups
> 
> im using current phenom and cards for gaming etc
> but for normal pc usage and playing minor requirement games like Assassins Creed 3 or mass effect 2 (can play mass effect 3 at max but bottlenecked), dragon age, borderlands, i am using my old legend pc which has the specs below:
> ...




Well what you do there is find someone that will trade you S939 board. One that does Sli and put 2 gtx 285's in Sli. Problem solved.


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## Melvis (May 22, 2012)

gtoforce said:


> i am sad cuz the processor can go further but the pcie 2.0 can only go as far as gtx 285 or 4870
> anything modern such as the ati hd 5xxx and above, the pc wont POST
> crap...



Im not sure if thats right? i find that a bit odd, i ran a 4870X2 on PCI-E 1.1 with out any issues, im sure ive tested a GTX295 on that also (S939)

I must admit i dont think ive run anything more modern then that on PCI-E 1.1 but im sure they will run on it without fail.


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## gtoforce (May 22, 2012)

Melvis said:


> Im not sure if thats right? i find that a bit odd, i ran a 4870X2 on PCI-E 1.1 with out any issues, im sure ive tested a GTX295 on that also (S939)
> 
> I must admit i dont think ive run anything more modern then that on PCI-E 1.1 but im sure they will run on it without fail.



sorry i was mistaken
i tried the GTX 295 on it...and it ran.
and the A8R32-MVP is a crossfire motherboard
so i did crossfired my 4870x2 but after one burnt, finding another in my country (malaysia) is really difficult

anyways, yeah, the 1.1 can run 2.0 cards but it cant run 2.1 cards


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (May 23, 2012)

Oh hell I though you where in the US. I would have traded you boards. I have a Asus a8n Sli Premium.


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## eidairaman1 (May 23, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> Painted the kb and mouse.
> 
> http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/3774/img0043ls.jpg
> http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/4285/img0046yv.jpg
> ...



Why not paint them green to match the case?


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## TRWOV (May 23, 2012)

That would look tacky, I think


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## theJesus (May 23, 2012)

I agree.  Green screws would be tacky indeed.  It's not like there isn't any black on the rest of the case for them to match with.

Also, you may have already said this (I'm one of those guys that mainly just looks at the pics and skims the text lol), but are you planning on painting the inside at all?  I think it would look good black.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (May 23, 2012)

I second thejesus's suggestion


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## eidairaman1 (May 23, 2012)

i was only sayin the same green paint on the case to match up, if you have it i mean it would save a few bucks etc


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## TRWOV (May 27, 2012)

Anyone knows which is the current "GeForce" font or something similar?







I'm planning on putting a vynil decal saying "GEFORCE 7950GT" on the top of the heatsink plate.


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## TRWOV (May 29, 2012)

Got the bracket in and a little something for another project 










The bracket is very versatile, it can hold two slim ODDs, one slim ODD and one 2.5" HDD or one slim ODD and one 3.5" HDD (which in turn could be two 2.5" HDDs with a 3.5 to 2 2.5 adapter)


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## Jayzilla (May 29, 2012)

That is one nice case mod gadget you got right there. I wish it could fits my Lian Li DVD bezel so I can get one free 3.5 room. Would you consider a SSD for this project?


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## TRWOV (Jun 6, 2012)

Jayzilla said:


> That is one nice case mod gadget you got right there. I wish it could fits my Lian Li DVD bezel so I can get one free 3.5 room. Would you consider a SSD for this project?



I don't think so as the OS will be XP.



Another piece of the puzzle arrived:










Removing the floppy lid to paint it green


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## TRWOV (Jun 9, 2012)

Got the LCD panel:










Had I seen it before, I would have preferred the STW-5027 model... I'll try and get it instead.






A handful of things left:
- find the misplaced reset button :shadedshu
- mod the PSU...I think I'll go with multiwire sleeving ATM. 
- buy capacitors to recap the mobo and GPU

Haven't got a monitor for this; I'm thinking 17" 1280x1024 LCD but I guess a 15" 1024x768 would be fine too. I'll try to score a used one.

I'll buy and paint the speakers this weekend.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Jun 9, 2012)

Nice work Trwov  It is really coming together.


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## TRWOV (Jun 11, 2012)

It seems that I've hit a snafu. With the SATA DVD connected the bootup hangs after the RAM test and a code "423C" is shown on the lower right corner. I've tested with two other optical drives so I know it isn't just the slim drive.

Apparently it has to do with the RAID options implemented in the 2.10 bios which seem to conflict with the DMI in some way when a non-HDD device is connected to the SATA ports. I could rollback to 2.00 if 2.10 wasn't required to support my 7950GT 

If I reset the bios and set the SATA option to RAID the boot up continues but then the hard drive isn't detected. Setting it to non-RAID gives me the error.

Waiting to hear back from Asrock although I won't be holding my breath. Looks like I'll have to get a slim ATAPI DVD-RW drive. I hadn't run into this because I was using a spare IDE DVD-RW drive I had lying around.

Or does anybody do bios modding around here?


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## TRWOV (Jun 18, 2012)

Not much to report today: Asrock support hasn't solved my issues with the SATA ports. 

I removed the PSU cables that I won't use and got the green connectors:


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## TRWOV (Jun 24, 2012)

Testing the LED strip 






Needs moar canned air


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## TRWOV (Aug 1, 2012)

Reporting:

Asrock couldn't help me with the SATA problem and I had to hunt down an ATAPI slim drive. I also got an IDE adapter and everything is peachy so far.

Got a bunch of caps from badcaps (going to recap 3 boards, this 939A8X-M, my Conroe865PE and the Chaintech from my 98SE build)






Missing:
- round IDE UV green cable, <10 in
- round floppy UV green cable, ditto
- a second 92mm fan for push-pull config
- UV green cable sleeving kit
- crimping tool
- molex removal tool

Should I replace the PSU fan with a led one? I'm thinking this one: http://www.mipc.com.mx/index.php/ha...r-20cg-gp-r4-l2r-20ag-r2-120mm-led-green.html

The LED strip is pretty bright on its own though


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## t_ski (Aug 1, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> Got a bunch of caps from badcaps (going to recap 3 boards, this 939A8X-M, my Conroe865PE and the Chaintech from my 98SE build)



I have a package of my own on its way from Badcaps to me.  Easy stuff and works well.


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## TRWOV (Aug 9, 2012)

Recapping is in progress and ordered some stuff online to complete the rig. 

I also found an used Acer AL1716w LCD monitor that'll be perfect for the build. I'll pick it up over the weekend.


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## TRWOV (Aug 14, 2012)

Got tangled up and couldn't pick up the monitor. I'm scheduling another date for the pick up. 

In the mean time, I changed the PSU fan:






I decided against the LED fan as the LED strip is pretty bright by itself.


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## TRWOV (Aug 15, 2012)

Picked up the monitor today:






The backlight is pretty bright in the AUTO settings; dialed it back to 60. The viewing angle isn't pretty good and the colors look washed out but as it's an old TFT monitor it was expected. Could do worse for ~$35.

Now, should I paint it all green or just the front bezel? Apart from the inverter, is there any other electrical part I should handle with precaution while I take it apart?

specs: http://support.acer.com/acerpanam/monitor/0000/Acer/AL1716/AL1716sp3.shtml


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## Jayzilla (Aug 17, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> Picked up the monitor today:
> 
> http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/8087/img0564hg.jpg
> 
> ...



I got the same display as your. Mine is 22inch. Don't paint it. Display frame suppose to be in dark color. Do it ONLY if you like green that much. 

I replied on the HD3850 thread. I wanna put you on my work log as a AGP helper. Cool?


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## TRWOV (Aug 20, 2012)

Recapping almost complete:







also joined the TX3 fans into a single plug:


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## t_ski (Aug 20, 2012)

Are you doing all the caps, or just the blown ones?


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## TRWOV (Aug 20, 2012)

all of them... In fact none was blown but according to some reading I did the OST caps often don't bulge even if they fail. Besides I don't have an ESR tester so better safe than sorry.

The only ones I left are the small filter caps (100uf 16v)


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## TRWOV (Aug 21, 2012)

recapping done... I was afraid of having done the board as it looked like one of the solder pads had broken  Well, it's posting and alive so there's that... or maybe the cap isn't critical (it's one of the caps near the bottom PCI slot).







BTW, is it just me or it seems like no one in China knows how to properly wire an internal USB cable? It's the 2/2 card reader that I have to re-wire myself (this one was completely backwards).


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## TRWOV (Aug 22, 2012)

It seems that re-capping was a good move. Gflops went up by 1.2, from 5.5 to 6.7


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## Jayzilla (Aug 22, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> It seems that re-capping was a good move. Gflops went up by 1.2, from 5.5 to 6.7



That's make me want to recap my board, but all of them seem in good condition.


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## TRWOV (Aug 23, 2012)

Looks like I'll have to settle for 2.8Ghz, unless the copper heatsinks I'll get later improve the situation. Won't boot at 3Ghz no matter the voltage.


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## TRWOV (Aug 26, 2012)

I got the sleeving kit but I'm still waiting for the molex pin remover so I started to sleeve what I could:


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## t_ski (Aug 27, 2012)

You might be able to do it with a firm piece of wire like a paper clip or a small screwdriver like a jeweler's type.


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## TRWOV (Aug 27, 2012)

I think I'll wait. It's my first time doing this so I'd like to make it as easy as possible. I don't want to end up breaking one of the tabs on a pin.


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## TRWOV (Aug 31, 2012)

Just got the pin removers in. De-pinning (is that a word?) the PSU...


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Sep 1, 2012)

I am down to 1 s939 system now. But it is still crunching along with a 4400+ in it now. Still running Linux but I have another cruncher in the work to replace it. So I will take it down and reinstall win xp on it and play with it.


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## Jayzilla (Sep 4, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> I got the sleeving kit but I'm still waiting for the molex pin remover so I started to sleeve what I could:
> 
> http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/3699/img0592pb.jpg



It is a pain-in-the-ass job. I hope you enjoy the sleeving process.


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## TRWOV (Sep 7, 2012)

Didn't turn 100% right (specially the ATX plug) but it's done.






I ran out of 9mm heatshrink  Only 30cms for a complete PSU??? And that's after removing the PCIE and SATA cables :shadedshu


Rig is 95% done. Just waiting for some cables.


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## TRWOV (Sep 9, 2012)

Since the build is practically done on the hardware side I'm now trying my hand with W7 32bit. If it works I think I'll stick to it.


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## de.das.dude (Sep 9, 2012)

did you heatshrink over the zipties?


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## TRWOV (Sep 9, 2012)

errr.... no...

Also W7 32bit didn't work. AGP 8x @ PCI mode... :shadedshu I give up,this is going to be an XP machine


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## TRWOV (Sep 11, 2012)

XP running fine. I ran into a problem trying to run  3Dmark (System info error). Working on it,

In the mean time, IBT:


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 11, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> errr.... no...
> 
> Also W7 32bit didn't work. AGP 8x @ PCI mode... :shadedshu I give up,this is going to be an XP machine



You may want to read this for a headsup, blame NV for this stupid crap.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NForce3#Windows_Vista_Incompatibility.

NF2 combined with a R300 Series GPU is capable of running Aero and gaming.

Just NV never released a Proper AGP Gart to support Vista or 7 or even fix the Error when using a X2 CPU with Radeon or even GF graphics.



TRWOV said:


> XP running fine. I ran into a problem trying to run  3Dmark (System info error). Working on it,
> 
> In the mean time, IBT:
> 
> http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/5230/ibtgt.png



which 3DMark Program were you trying to use?


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## TRWOV (Sep 11, 2012)

all 3 of them


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 11, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> all 3 of them



you dont think its because of XP?

IDK XP after SP3 seemed to break alot of stuff.

here is a possible solution for NF2/NF3 users with Windows 7 and a Dual Core CPU

http://www.sevenforums.com/graphic-cards/13935-x1950-agp-nforce3-x2-athlon-4000-problem.html


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## TRWOV (Sep 11, 2012)

eidairaman1 said:


> you dont think its because of XP?
> 
> IDK XP after SP3 seemed to break alot of stuff.
> 
> ...



IDK, they were running fine in a previous install.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Sep 12, 2012)

Trwov I have been waiting for you to finish this thing like a kid a Christmas waiting to open presents. Keep up the great work man .


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## TRWOV (Sep 12, 2012)

ok, got 3dmark running. The Futuremark System Info was the culprit. 

I've been doing some tests and I think that with the FX60 I'm hitting the upper limits of how much power can the board deliver to the CPU. I can't get anything above 200Mhz on the FSB to be stable, no matter the voltage...  maybe a beffier PSU _could_ help but that's a big if, plus I don't think I'm really stressing the PSU to the point of being unstable. 

I've installed cooper heatsinks on the VRMs and the situation didn't improve so I'm going to have to live with a 200Mhz overclock. At least that'll make it as fast as the FX57.


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## TRWOV (Sep 13, 2012)

Benchmarks 

Intel Burn Test


Spoiler










Cinebench


Spoiler



The OpenGL accuracy test fails  (???) so it doesn't give a score:






3dmark 2003


Spoiler










3dmark 2005


Spoiler










3dmark 2006


Spoiler










Street Fighter 4


Spoiler










Devil May Cry 4


Spoiler










RE5 Game test


Spoiler










RE5 Fixed Test


Spoiler










Lost Planet 2 test A


Spoiler










Lost Planet 2 test B


Spoiler










The Last Remant


Spoiler










Final Fantasy XIV


Spoiler


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## Jayzilla (Sep 14, 2012)

Where are all the PCmark? Jezz, I need to find all those games to have a DM with ya.


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## 3870x2 (Sep 14, 2012)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> Going to be a nice built there. That fx60 is going be a hard one to cough up though. I hope you can find one rather cheap as there going for around $200 on ebay right now. Can't wait to see the final build.



Youve got to be shitting me, I threw one away at the beginning of this year, exactly like that (though dont remember the fab#).  Didn't figure I would have a use for it, and would probably bend the pins whenever I moved out of my house.

I was going to donate it to you.  Just for kicks ill check and see if I for sure did throw it away.


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 14, 2012)

TRWOV- I was reading through the thread and noticed you had a PHY Lan Issue, I just wanted to mention some XP drivers do work with windows 7. Since you're XP only on this machine it dont matter anymore. I Assume this is 32bit you're running correct?

http://www.asrock.com/mb/ULI/939A8X-M/?cat=Download&os=XP64


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Sep 14, 2012)

3870x2 said:


> Youve got to be shitting me, I threw one away at the beginning of this year, exactly like that (though dont remember the fab#).  Didn't figure I would have a use for it, and would probably bend the pins whenever I moved out of my house.
> 
> I was going to donate it to you.  Just for kicks ill check and see if I for sure did throw it away.



I could use one thats for sure as Trwov got lucky and got one for a steal.


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## TRWOV (Sep 15, 2012)

more benchmarks:

PCmark2002


Spoiler











PCmark05


Spoiler










Monster Hunter Frontier


Spoiler


















Unigine Tropics


Spoiler










Unigine Sanctuary


Spoiler










Unigine Heaven


Spoiler


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## [XC] Oj101 (Sep 15, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> Apparently the average OC is 3.2Ghz, I'd like to reach 3Ghz at least.
> 
> I'll leave it at 200Mhz x14 CPU x5 HT for the time being. The only thing I don't like is that I can't take advantage of my RAM's 250Mhz rated speed but I've lowered the timmings to 2.5-3-2-5 so not everything is lost.



Who told you that? Getting 3 GHz stable on S939 is no small feat, I've never seen 3.2 GHz stable - out of the ~200 S939 chips I've been through not even my FX-55 which did a hair under 4 GHz could do more than about 2.96 GHz perfectly stable. The odd one (call it one out of every fifty chips) could bench 3DMark2001 at up to 3.3 GHz but forget any form of stability. Of course, my idea of stable is 24/7/365, for game stable I've gotten up to about 3 GHz.

As for your memory, S939 had PLENTY of room to play with the HT speed, don't be scared to try 254 * 11 (2,794 MHz on the CPU, DDR508 on the RAM).

Moving on to voltage, I think the DFI boards were the only ones which could supply enough voltage to hurt a S939 chip. I've run 1.62v for 2.92 GHz stable on a 3700+ for the last... Jeez, it must be closing in on eight years now. No degradation whatsoever, cooling is taken care of by a Zalman 9700.


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## TRWOV (Sep 15, 2012)

I made a search for "FX60 overclock" and many posts stated >3Ghz so I thought that was the average. Anyway, I think that I'm being limited by my board. I suppose that I'm getting close to its power delivery limits with this dual core.

About the HT, anything above 210Mhz won't boot on my board. 206-210 is unstable, boots fine but fails in the second or third loop of Intel Burn Test. 205 is semi-stable, sometimes I complete 10 loops and sometimes it fails in the middle of the run. I've tried setting the HT at x4 ad the CPU at x12 thinking that may help but it didn't. Maybe the NB/SB is overheating (this ULi chipset is a single chip solution) but I don't have enough clearance even for a 10mm thick fan. I'll try with a low profile cooper heatsink but I'm not holding my breath.

Another weird thing is that if I set the multi at x14 CPU-Z reports the speed as 2.6Ghz but the bios and dxdiag report 2.8Ghz. Still the Gflops don't increase so I think that CPU-Z is reporting the right speed.


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## [XC] Oj101 (Sep 15, 2012)

Were these people talking about proper stable or bench stable? Most people buying FX-60s were buying them to benchmark.

You want to keep your HT Link speed at under 1,000 MHz for maximum stability, the higher your HTT speed the lower you want the HT Link multiplier to be. For example, if you want to run 200x14 for 2.8 GHz you can do so with the HT Link multiplier at 5x as 200x5 = 1,000MHz. If you want to change that to 280x10, you'd need to drop down to a 3x HT Link multiplier as 280x3 = 840 MHz which is well below 1,000 MHz but 280x4 = 1,120 MHz which may introduce some instability. I don't know why you're stuck at such a low HTT speed though, all of my chips were able to do over 300 MHz and a fair number could do in excess of 400 MHz.

Going from 2.6 GHz to 2.8 GHz is not a massive increase, it's a 7.7 % increase in frequency so your increase in speed in going to be in line with that. I see you were getting about 6.75 Gflops at 2.6 GHz, at 2.8 GHz a 7.7 % increase will net you a maximum of around 7.23 Gflops - are you sure you aren't seeing a small gain and dismissing it?


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 15, 2012)

The ASRock boards of that time werent known to overclock hard


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## [XC] Oj101 (Sep 15, 2012)

I must have read wrong, I could've sworn an Asus board was being used. Oops


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## TRWOV (Oct 17, 2012)

A (small) development:






I ordered more FX stickers since the ones I had bought previously didn't made it. The seller sworn that he shipped them... I've heard bad things about the Italian post so I guess he could be saying the truth. I don't know why finding an Athlon FX sticker is so hard 

I've been playing some Scarface on my Green Tea since it doesn't work on W7 and I'm having a blast. I still need to paint the speakers though.


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## xBruce88x (Oct 17, 2012)

looking good so far!


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## TRWOV (Oct 31, 2012)

I need to get off my butt and put the finishing touches on this build.


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## eidairaman1 (Oct 31, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> I need to get off my butt and put the finishing touches on this build.



Take all the time in world. rushing a build can be disasterous


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Oct 31, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> I need to get off my butt and put the finishing touches on this build.



I hear you man. I need to get off my butt and start my new build. Maybe when the case gets here tomorrow that will get me going on it.


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## TRWOV (Nov 5, 2012)

Got the sticker:






It's bigger than I thought:






There's still a couple of minor things I'm not 100% satisfied with such as cable management but in such small case it's pretty hard to do, plus taking down the system is almost like a jigsaw puzzle now (I need to put the components in a certain order or they won't fit inside) so I guess I'll let them as is. The build is 99.99% done now.


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## t_ski (Nov 5, 2012)

Too bad you don't have a green backplate for that video card.  The blue looks out of place.

Great job anyway


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