Project: The Ultimate AGP System (PC-A05FNB/HD3850)

[eidairaman1]

NF4 was PCIE

NF2/3 was AGP

NF3 was also PCI E

Win 7 gaming runs like crap without a Proper GART from NV- like they had for XP.

That would be Nf3/Nf4 wouldn't it. Primarily Nf4. Nf2 was socket a.

The system I built not long ago that was Nf4 based s939 wouldn't even install the os without issues. Hell half the time I couldn't even get it to boot with the Ati hd card in it. I had to swap it out for a Nvidia card and got it stable with it.


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 .

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Nf4 didn't have much love either from Nvidia for Vista or 7 did it?

 

[eidairaman1]

Nf4 didn't have much love either from Nvidia for Vista or 7 did it?

They had a Vista driver but no 7 driver- so technically the vista driver should work in 7, but for AGP there is no driver at all.

A Vista driver works for my GC in 7 but without a proper GART the machine has to be XP only.

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Cool thanks man. Both of the s939 boards I have are Nf4, so no agp to worry about. I may try and dig up the win vista driver for them. Right now the one is just gathering dust until I can come up with a low profile gpu for it and the other one is crunching under Linux. Ubuntu has no problem with these boards. And the one I built with Agp I also ended up running Linux on it as the os without issues.

 

[TRWOV]

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 .

Wrong thread??? I think you want to go here: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=161350

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Damn your right. I just seen your post in here so many time I though it was yours. Let me correct that.

But I was meaning for that to be in your thread as I have been following along on your Green tea rig. And I do like what you have done so far.

 

[TRWOV]

:lol: Well, I also have a sort of Ultimate AGP rig too. I think we could run a deathmatch once he is done

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

:lol: Well, I also have a sort of Ultimate AGP rig too. I think we could run a deathmatch once he is done

Not sure how he will fair against that FX60. lol

 

[TRWOV]

I mean my QX6800 rig but yeah, why not? let's throw the FX60 in there too

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

heh then he might as well just start licking wounds now LOL

 

[de.das.dude]

sub

 

[nasospakos]

Great thread Jayzilla,

I've learned quite a few things while I was reading this. As it seems there are no possible solutions for this hardware combination. Let's hope that this Bios moder is going to arrive very soon!

Long live AGP!!!

 

[Jayzilla]

nice build to start with, but if it was me i would have taken that 7950GT if i am not wrong and use that it was a nice card for AGP at it's time.

If I ever wanted to build another AGP rig. Intel quady and 7950GT would be my choices, but I doubt it would beat my current system.

Just for information there is a 4670 AGP 1gig ddr3 at 1780mhz. It's the top notch of the IceQ they made with the cooler as in the 3850 picture of the OP.

Do you have any info or link for the card you referred? To my knowledge there is only the X series had the same cooler as my HD3850. It doesn’t make sense if the HD4670 has that cooler because the card is much shorter.

:lol: Well, I also have a sort of Ultimate AGP rig too. I think we could run a deathmatch once he is done

TRWOV. You know what. I can’t wait for that! See if my AMD and DDR2 would help my HD3850 beats your W/O OC.

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Thanks!

Great thread Jayzilla,

I've learned quite a few things while I was reading this. As it seems there are no possible solutions for this hardware combination. Let's hope that this Bios moder is going to arrive very soon!

Long live AGP!!!

Yeah. Look at these guys. They are very knowledgeable about PC hardware. We are the most passionate/active players especially on old parts and only on TPU. No kidding.

You'll need to disable automatic restarts to get the error code, or look in the event logs to see if you can find it there.

sorry! i havent checked back. unfortunetely the bios update was an example. for the OS problems or something microcode related the bios will not help. as for the missing PCI device get the hardware ID and google to see what it wants?

also try and stress 3d i see GPUz isnt displaying it right thats probably because of the "built" driver. and the missing piece. but if you can find the hardware ID then you can probably remod the INI with one that does have the info and get it to show up. but practice makes perfect and these ideas are all better if you attempt it with windows 7 or rather the final OS/of choice. because windows xp 64 wasnt ever that stable to begin with.

Hopefully that "pci device" isn't the pci-e to agp bridge chip. not sure where you'd get software for that, except the manufacturers card drivers. I think that's why its "agp8x @ pci" but i'm not completely sure... here's the files from HIS, you have to click the little blue arrows to download.


hmm... interesting... the 3850 has twice the texture power of the 4670 and better memory bandwidth, yet the 4670 has about twice the pixel fillrate power. tough choice.

it is an Nvidia Driver Issue actually.

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

The issue I got seems more complicated than I thought. There is a lot I haven’t tried and the time I have is limited. I browsed through a few NF3 forums and haven’t seemed a solid evident claimed that’s works. I’m agreeing with Solaris17. Windows XP 64bit wasn’t a stable platform for old apps and hardware. Is that really a big deal for this rig to runs modern OS?
These bother me because I have to pick between 4GB and 8GB of DDR2 for my OS. The RAM I pick is related to my water-cooling plans (Aluminum/copper mixed). So a right decision has to be made in the end, but I’m not giving up of trying WinXP64 and W7. I just need more time to experience the issues.

I have to admit. I’m always a big fan of OCZ Flex. Back in the days OCZ used to make best DDR/DDR2 in term of price and performance. I bet we are all had OCZ parts in the past. Sadly they don’t produce memory anymore more but crappy SSD and PSU.

I had a thread somewhere about water cooling corrosion. They are the main part in this concern. If I’m succeed on 64-bit platform. These guys will be on my systems. They are 4X2GB DDR2. They are also the fastest Flex EX I can get. The down side of them is they are pure aluminum. OCZ claims the cooler is anodized but not the barb. The best part of these guys is I can clean the path if they got corroded. So there are some risks I have to take in here, and yes. I WANT OCZ FLEX for this project.

These guys are 4X1GB DDR2. Ideally they are for 32-bit OS or the replacement for the Flex EX if they are corroded. They has copper path but the nipples are aluminum and I can’t dissemble the module

Of course OCZ Flex is not the only choice I have. There is also Corsair Dominator GT CMG4GX2M2A1066C5. Yes. They are DDR2 and they are real. Even through not much people acknowledge their existence. Tons of copper blocks out there for the Dominator GT. Galvanic corrosion shouldn’t be an issue anymore if I had them. Let me know if you own them and wanted a human wearing Tyrannosaurus costume for you to ride!

Current status: Reviewing the W120 hyper-heatsink.
What's next? Yeah, that cooler.

Cheers

 

[eidairaman1]

Since you do have a non nv based motherboard you shouldnt run into man issues because unlike NV. ULI/SIS/VIA released a Proper AGP GART for Vista.

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Isn't his board a nf3 board?

 

[eidairaman1]

Isn't his board a nf3 board?

umph. i just re-read his specs and ya he has a NF3 250 board.

thx man

Jayzilla you would have to run XP64 to work right

http://www.asrock.com/mb/NVIDIA/AM2NF3-VSTA/?cat=Download&os=All

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

No prblem man I tough my brain was going into shut down for a second intil I went back and reread to make sure I was right.

 

[eidairaman1]

No prblem man I tough my brain was going into shut down for a second intil I went back and reread to make sure I was right.

AsRocks labeling was confusing back in the day

 

[Krazy Owl]

http://www.hisdigital.com/ca/product2-448.shtml

almost the same but not the same. This card is exactly what I have.

 

[TRWOV]

That's the IceQ, pure aluminium. The IceQ3 is made of copper.

 

[Krazy Owl]

Anyway this card rocks ! HDMI port so I can have a backup rig with power to be used for gaming and HTPC

 

[Jayzilla]

umph. i just re-read his specs and ya he has a NF3 250 board.

thx man

Jayzilla you would have to run XP64 to work right

http://www.asrock.com/mb/NVIDIA/AM2NF3-VSTA/?cat=Download&os=All

I don't know man. I got a quote from Jstn7477:

"XP x86, multicore: Works with everything. AMD's drivers work but kind of suck.
XP x64, multicore: Works with everything, but no AGP texture acceleration (almost as bad as PCI mode)
Vista/7 32/64 multicore: NVIDIA cards run in PCI mode, ATI cards with PCIe to AGP bridges will not run drivers at all."

He's been right all along. The only hope I have is the 64-bit GART dirver cdawall provided. I need to try it again and see what I can do with it.

AsRocks labeling was confusing back in the day

I'm sure we can clear out everything in the end of this work-log.

Anyway this card rocks ! HDMI port so I can have a backup rig with power to be used for gaming and HTPC

Yeah. HDMI definitely is a big plus for an AGP. This why the HD4670 is the most powerful card and still on production. Here is a look for the coolers.

P.S: The hot chick became a owl now?

 

[TRWOV]

What's that? An X1650?

 

[eidairaman1]

The Cooler of the SHorter card has been around since the Radeon 9700 Series. so that design is 10+ years old now (Works well for what cards need)

I don't know man. I got a quote from Jstn7477:

"XP x86, multicore: Works with everything. AMD's drivers work but kind of suck.
XP x64, multicore: Works with everything, but no AGP texture acceleration (almost as bad as PCI mode)
Vista/7 32/64 multicore: NVIDIA cards run in PCI mode, ATI cards with PCIe to AGP bridges will not run drivers at all."

He's been right all along. The only hope I have is the 64-bit GART dirver cdawall provided. I need to try it again and see what I can do with it.



I'm sure we can clear out everything in the end of this work-log.



Yeah. HDMI definitely is a big plus for an AGP. This why the HD4670 is the most powerful card and still on production. Here is a look for the coolers.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8173/7991223896_f44c85d30a_c.jpg

P.S: The hot chick became a owl now?

 

[Jayzilla]

PCCooler OC3 W120 hybrid cooler.

I first saw this unique cooler on TPU a year ago. My thought was “I got to have that”.
http://www.techpowerup.com/147218/P...s-Tower-Type-Air-Cooler-with-Water-Block.html
It took over two months all the way from China to get here. My friend told me it could be only transport by boat because of the market trading issue between China and U.S. Its Apple products related too…I don’t really understand but anyways.

There are a few reviews out there for this item by the Chinese people. Most of the comments are positive and I’ve learned different region has different hardware quality standards .Today I will do a “half” review as a progressive DIY liquid cooling user.

Did you notice all the chalklike powder substance on the cooler surface? Yeah, they are all over the package and very annoying. I’m guessing they are from the metal cutting machine.

Here is a comparison with the ThermalRight IFX-14. The W120 is heavier and the fins are thicker plus uneven.

The fan gives me a cheap plastic feel. The quality is terrible.

® S #@%

So one of the reasons I’m facing Galvanic corrosion issue is because of this cooler. They didn’t have much info about the materials of the cooler from the label, but 500W cooling capacity! That is lots of cooling power. So how cool is 500W? An high-end passive cooler from Artic Cooling offers 320W. So what size of the tubing, reservoir, any extra radiator? What kind of pump(s) to achieve 500W of cooling capacity? From the pictures when we first saw it. Seem like they used a D5 and dual 120MM radiator. If they got the 500W from that setup, that is not really an impression.

Broken parts. I’m expected it to happens.

Corrosion in a brand new block? Or maybe just some cocaine. It is from the barbs module.

Okie. I'm done.
That's right. I'm done dissemble the block. Look at that nasty stuff! I do not want them inside my loop. Not even my testing loop. Yes, I can wash them off but it's a failed design cooler. I can't unscrew the based (bad screws position). I can’t see how the block is constructed. I don’t have visual of the inside. So I’m not going to mount it on my rig.

Conclusion

You must be disappointed that you can’t see it got mounted and running with water. I’m disappointed too! The craftsmanship of this cooler is absolutely horrible. I can’t think of any good things but negative comments for this hybrid cooler. I mean I bought this for a fortune and knowing it is a piece of junk. It just not worth my time to mount and test it. I really like the concept of it. If it was made by Swiftech or Thermalright there is great innovative cooling potential. There is still a long way for PCCooler to get into liquid cooling industrial and have a stand in the U.S markets. Now I know why their products are "exclusively" sold in the Asian markets.

This might not be a full good review. I have limited in words for English, my apology . I do not think it is necessary to give this cooler a rating since my priority here is finishing up the build. I’d give review to the parts I actually use on my project. This unit will be replace with any AMD block or Swiftech Apogee Drive II.

What is next?
Since we are having a 64bit GART driver topic earlier. I see lots of helpful suggestions so I want to clear out my OS choices. I will make a 4GB or 8GB DDR2 decision after this.

Cheers