bonestonne

oh, i know all that for a fact...new SDRAM costs the better part of $68 even at an expo...luckily i've gotten myself a gig of it for roughly $35. only one gig to go for my old server. well, heres whats gonna happen, since the DDR isn't going to cost me anything, i'll give it a shot, its from a science teacher at my school, he upgraded to 1gb sticks, so he's not losing anything...he gave one to me before, but i had no ddr slots to fill at the time. i'll try it out, and if it works, i'll have my older sister get me a heatsink and Athlon 2600+ however she wants, and i'll throw it together. this whole thing is meant to play the sims, and i don't play the sims...my sister said to let her know if i needed anything, so the next time i see her [she's in her dorm right now] i'll talk to her about that. if its all free, i think it'll be a decent replacement [so long as it works] compared to this original P4 1.4Ghz... basically, if the ram works, its worth having someone else buy the CPU. for the game my sister wants, she needs 2GHz minimum...an athlon 2600+ will do that, so since i'm sharing it with her, i'll still have more access, as it wont be leaving this house until i move out.

well this is good...they'll get a larger market...i might even opt for a new card now...DX9 was a bit of a put down...i didn't feel it was that great because it caused issues with my geforce...however maybe a really new card will solve my issues...i know some ram would.

any guesses or possibilities of what i'd get for it on ebay? if it isn't worth keeping, tomorrow i'm going to test it with DDR ram, if it works for that, then i'll sell it with the 900mhz CPU, with the notes of it only working with DDR ram, 184 pin...AGP4x, up to 10 USB ports..i guess someone might find it useful...i think the dollar could stretch somewhere? and maybe that'll even pay for the ram and new CPUs for my server. not too bad? i was hoping this system would have given me something. at least.

well, thats ok...its 900 stock, squeezing it up to 1.2~3 will be fine for me...i'll probably get a new CPU for it anyway...more importantly i want some help getting it working...it doesn't post. i can get it some DDR ram to try out, but with SD RAM it refuses to post. i'm using a 420W PSU with it... also, i'm going to need a new heatsink for it, does anyone have suggestions for that? the heatsink just needs to work with Socket 462...as the CPU will be replaced in time.

ok, so, i've got this habit of always getting decent to pretty sweet stuff for free. well, in my quest to round out my computer experience from only intel to a little AMD too, i've gotten two AMD boards. on i can't find a manufacturer for, it has a 700MHz AMD Duron, and it works fine. however, this board, a full size ATX board has a 900MHz AMD Athlon XP. because i don't have a way to overclock my Intel Pentium 4, i want to try out this AMD. i plan on trying to get a new heatsink, and doing some extreme overclocking on this, maybe 1.7GHz is in sight? problem is, it wont post at all. the board gets power, but i get nothing. tomorrow i can try with DDR ram if theres school [its starting to snow relentlessly] and that could be the issue. however, i did try it with some 133Mhz SD ram as i've read, and it got no where. heres the thing: the microATX board had an issue where the jumper was on 133mhz instead of 100mhz...well, the ATX board doesn't have that anywhere i can find. when i switched the jumper to 100mhz, the board ran fine. on 133, it wouldn't post. i've taken the battery off the board, switched the jumper to clear CMOS, and i still get nowhere...i've even taken out the bios chip..but still, nowhere. i'm a big fan of full size ATX boards, as my first build involved one, and they also have much more room for expansion. not to mention this ECS board will allow me to have front USB ports, onboard LAN, and onboard USB2.0... i want to use this computer strictly for playing the SIMs, possible upgrading the CPU to a better Athlon, 3000+ maybe...we'll see...i need help getting it running first. does anyone know how i can do this? i don't want to say that one of the best boards i'll ever own is just dead..is there a jumper or something i should know about? i've googled the board quite a few times and found that there were issues with this board, but the Athlon XP didnt have the issues...this board will replace my Pentium 4, as it can hold more ram, and it will be easier to upgrade the CPU. anyone have any ideas of what i can do to get it to post without anything special? or am i just a wishful thinker with a dead board.

1) remove any slave drives, external drives, extra media etc. [unplugging is fine, no need to physically remove] or 2) take out the CPU for a few minutes, place it back in and reboot. [oddly enough thats solved problems for me in the past] if its off a fresh boot, its something local on the machine...also unplug any ethernet cables or remove antenna for wireless...something has to be causing it.

my printers done that a few times, but i've never gotten an error like that...have you checked to make sure the belt is in place for the ink cartridge, and also that theres nothing on it..if the page ripped and a piece is missing, that could easily be causing the problem.

or if you use multiple instant messengers, i'd suggest trillian. it supports AIM, ICQ, YIM, MSN, Jabber and network IM'ing. the pro version at least...the basic version just has AIM, ICQ, YIM and MSN. one of the best instant messaging programs you'll ever use. also, don't have a ton of tabs open in firefox. defragment, scan for viruses, spyware and adware, and then clear out the extras, and it should work a lot better. the temp folder is probably just stuffed up.

oh yea...i tried the thermal grease idea...if i wiped it all off, you wouldn't notice at all...my processors are just insanely hot...i'm looking into a pair of 900MHz pentium III's with the 2Mb L2 cache...run like the wind with those things.

i stuck one onto my PCI chipset as its a steady high 60's C...you wouldn't want your finger on it for long, its the PCI slots link to the CPUs.. as for the 440GX chipset...i wouldn't even want to be able to touch it...its probably blazing... yea, my board is probably a lot warmer than that, but once i have the money and after i get all the ram i can, i'll be putting in some more stick on ram heatsinks to a couple chipsets around the mobo that heat up beyond ok, and also replace all the fans with 120mm Aerocools...89CFM each...that'll be good i hope.

Invalid system Data media change and key ___________ the last word...i dunno...i've never seen that before. are you actually able to boot from the USB device? it might not be recognizing it with a set name.

until i get a good amout of dough to blow, my cooling is staying how it is. i'm debating on 3 Antec Tri-Cool fans or 3 Aerocool fans...120mm...both fans that i looked at move similar volumes of air, the Antec at 79CFM and the Aerocool at 82.3 or something around there. i'm opting for then Antec, and getting red ones to give a pretty sweet look on a mesh front panel. yea, i know what you're talking about with the cases nmX.Memnoch, but those designs didn't come out until after the workstation Xeons came out because heating became more and more of an issue with the 3d design programs of the time, and then they realized the servers weren't doing quite that well...thats also about the time the Pentium III 700/100/2Mb came out...unless there was a faster clocked one with 2mb of L2 cache, i think that was the fastest Xeon of its time, which evolved into the pentium 4 core with minor changes [mostly the switch to socket from slot2]. i think i might have been a little out of it, i thought i read of a 1Ghz processor with the 2mb L2...in theory a pair of those would fly at their max clock of 1.7Ghz...but i need to re-check that, i dont think i read the L2 cache right...by the time the CPUs made it to 1ghz, a larger sized cache wasn't as important, because it was accessed faster.

you could try disabling the services, although i'm not sure what else you can do.... you could always mount the drive with elastic to silence it....i prefer good old fashioned FM over internet radio...partly because i have my own radio show... but aside from that, i think that your best bet would be more in silencing the case rather than trying to slow down XP...by disabling services, you could actually mess up the system [i know from experience]...silencing is pretty easy too.

yea, after the Xeon workstations were released, companies started creating new cases for it that were designed to keep their temps incredibly low. my thermal plates are under management, but the overheat is when the temp of the CPU goes above 90C behind the plastic, which you wouldn't normally notice at first. the best way to to give strong side airflow so that some will make its way up into the CPU. they're like hard drives, where just a little airflow will go a long way, but getting it to go where it needs to be is the hard part.

yea. i've got my processors basically as cool as i can get them...i think i figured out how speedfan is displaying the temps on this. the Local Temp is actually the temp or the heatsink itself, and the Remote temp is the internal temp of the processor. yesterday i had the coolest boot i've ever had, both heatsinks were 26C, and CPU1 was 59C, CPU2 was 62. at the moment, i've each heatsink at 33C, and the internals at 66C...cooler than ever before. i'll have pictures when i'm done tweaking, but this might be final. and thanks in advance nmX.Memnoch, the dual and quad PIII xeons wont be that far from this, it'll be worth a look

well, both my heatsinks are the same, but its something i keep getting arguements over. with my heatsinks with vertical fins, its easiest to cool from above, as the air goes between the fins. cooling from the side is obstructed by the wider fins near the middle, causing the heat to just build up. am i right? i plan to add another 80mm fan to the top of the system now that i know how its going to cool. i don't have any 40mm fans to use as DRM fans as the stock cooling was, but how i have it works...but my idea of how the heatsinks are designed are correct right? cooling from the sides is harder than from above...its kinda hard as the processors are so hot, but its working.

okay, so i've got a pair of Pentium II Xeon processors, 450MHz with 512k L2 cache. this is a picture of the heatsink: http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g142/bonestonne/new computer/IMG_0763.jpg the fins are going vertically. this is a picture of a Pentium II Xeon rated at 550MHz with 1Mb L2 cache http://www.freebsddiary.org/images/xeon-cpu-installed1.jpg the heatsink on that has the fins going horizontally. that would cause a big difference it cooling wouldn't it? i've gotten the cooling as best as i can, like this: http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g142/bon...er/IMG_0792.jpg http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g142/bon...er/IMG_0790.jpg http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g142/bon...er/IMG_0791.jpg the tunnel is off the side of the case, it was there for newer computers, to duct air to the heatsinks...since i took it off because it didn't fit with the Pentium IIs, i'm using it to duct air straight to the processors, and its doing a really good job at it, the processors are cooler than they were before, even overclocked to the max. the only change i've made is putting a stronger fan in the duct, the clear one was helping, but i had a faster one lying around that is doing more. but the difference in heatsinks is probable whats keeping me from cooling these efficiently isn't it?

yep, that was what i wanted the 330 case, the front is all mesh, giving great air intake...i also was eying the sythe Kama Bay for intake, but i'm not sure if its completely necessary, it might just constrict the system. i only plan on having one ODD in it, so that gives more room. i kind of want to have a 120mm fan in the front by the HDD's, but i'm right in thinking that its not 100% important unless in brought in a massive amount of air. my budget is definately stretched a little, as the case is $50, and i have $48. my mom is spotting $15, and i might be able to squeeze in the Tri-Cool if i can scrounge up another few dollars..i think to get the case and the fan ill need about $75..i'm running a little short. i have one 120mm fan now, the case comes with one...that means i could have two in the case for a while and slowly upgrade. i'll have to count the dough after i do the homework. this morning i had it all set up on the kitchen table for a few minutes, and something odd happened..i'm not quite sure how or why, but when i booted, a opened up speedfan to check the temps, and it only have me one CPU bar, as opposed to two, and the first local temp was 27C...that would be amazing for this. well, i saw this as an issue, as i have two CPUs, so i restarted my computer, and when i opened speedfan again, it showed me that i had two processors, and the temps were 60 and 75C...not surprising for the room, as the kitchen is probably the second warmest room in the house. anyone have an idea on what caused that? i don't understand how it would not see my second processor. also, when i booted, it had some strange new hardware addition...i had no idea what it was, or what it could have been. thats a problem right? anyway, i'm off to do some homework, i'll check back and maybe write more, or throw together an article for my dad to read on the heating issues of Pentium II and Pentium III slot2 type CPUs, and what does and does not work with cooling them. on a last note, the standard cooling of the CPUs were 40mm fans mounted on the CPU brackets, and that doesn't have any effect in cooling the second CPU...how could that have been good cooling?

well, i don't think i can mount fans on the sides easily...there are mounting spots on the brackets for 40mm fans, but i only have one, and its on my graphics card. i have the fans mounted like that because there will be a vent right above them, so fresh air will come right into the case, and the rear fan will push air out, and fans in the front will bring air in, so that all the air is brought in and then focused straight out the back. there are two 50mm fans mounted on the sides, one is higher than the other..the higher one is by the ATX power supply, so it gives more room for that, and it pushes air towards the back. there is another 50mm fan on the other side mounted lower, pulling air out from between the CPUs and towards the rear fan of the case. its not like that yet, but hypothetically, that would be how it works. i found this article about a person with the same motherboard as me with newer processors, but its the same issue i have. "So I bought two 300W PSU and modified them so that when I switch one on, the other one starts. One is giving power to the motherboard only, and the other to all the rest of my system. I also had three 80mm fans (two blowing across CPus and one sucking across them). That way, I could overclock them to 784 (7*112) and run Seti for hours without problem! So, in that case, the problem was power related. But, 2 weeks ago, I moved my PC to my living room (which is a warmer room) and the reboots came back! I replaced the 3 80mmm fans with two 120mm (under powered) and it kept being unstable. I put some thermal compound between the heatsinks and the thermal plates but it didn't change anything." it proves my dad wrong on a few things. 1) having a second PSU for peripherals will not do anything for cooling whatsoever. 2) the system needs to be in a cooler area, its not condusive to hot rooms. therefore, the system is not supposed to run warm. it also means that the graphics card problem wasn't even the graphics card...it was the overheat issue. thats my proof on a couple things. about the Centurion 534. i did look at it, but the way the HDD cage is placed turned me off. theres little breathing room for air to move around the case. basically, hot air from the HDDs is blown to the back of the case. since my CPUs already run very hot, the idea is to avoid adding to it. i think that the Elite 330 is only better than the Centurion 534 because it has the extra room for drive bays...i use anywhere from 1 to 3 HDDs in my system at any given time depending on what i'm doing, so the Centurion would limit me a little. i can use an idea from the Centurion that i like though, which is the fan on the side vent at the bottom. i have several fans and adapters and i have plenty of soldiering skills to be able to make a quick 80mm fan to attach there, probably with clear craft adhesive. also, the way the vent is on the side of the case above the fan on the Centurion, its the same way on the elite, i plan on removing that, and just putting a finger guard over it, so that the fans on top of the CPUs can freely draw in air...the most i may do is put a filter over it, but the filter would be black, so it wouldn't be noticable. when i go to CompUSA i'll see what they have, and i'll basically go off that. i'd order from newegg, but my mom probably wouldn't like that because i don't have the money to eat shipping right now, and i want that system built asap again. i miss my dual CPU setup. tomorrow's a delayed opening for my school, so i'll be able to do a little before school, and hopefully friday afterschool [half day] i'll be able to get the case...if i'm lucky the presidents day sale will have started...however, i'll check that tomorrow...if the presidents day sale goes to tuesday, i'll wait for then, because i have about $58, and i want to try to get a tri-cool while i'm there. but, if the elite isn't in stock when i go, i'll definately get the Centurion, and find a way to mod the HDD cage. thanks for the reply

Ok, so i've recently taken out the dual Pentium II Xeon server i have, and put my P4 in, little to no performance change sadly...it boots faster, loads Virtual PC faster, but isn't quite as good as the joy of two processors. since i had a snow day today [and it wasn't even worth it in some senses] i worked on the server all day. i took it out to the garage, where its -3C, and had it running for about 3 hours, i was in and out, just checking on it. i have a picture of it, the CPUs made it to about 50C [from bios] and 60C [from Speedfan] then i placed a 92mm fan on top of the processors blowing down onto them, and the temp dropped to an impressive 54C. http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g142/bon...er/IMG_0749.jpg ^before the fan, actually, before i even turned it on...i had cable trouble...turns out my nice IDE cable was ripped. http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g142/bon...er/IMG_0752.jpg ^with the fan on top. surprisingly effective...i was very cold, at least the garage door wasn't open. now, having that one fan on top gave me a brilliant idea, which then took the next few hours of my time to pull off...i had all the supplies, i just wasn't sure how to do it. well, i eventually came up with this: http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g142/bon...er/IMG_0758.jpg ^basically thats a pair of fans that used to cool the CPU's, now mounted on top. its very sturdy, and i can pick up the entire board by grabbing the edges of the fans...i dont want to prove that too many times though. well, with that idea done, and once i test it i'll know for sure [i'll test it tomorrow] i'll be half way to better cooling that computer. the next idea is a new case. I've been eyeing the Cooler Master Elite 330 lately, as the front panel is mesh, and will provide a generous amount of airflow. i plan on removing drive bay fillers, so that its only mesh, and theres no plastic obstructing it, and then when i have the money, attaining a Kama Bay for the case. for fans, i'm eyeing the Antec Tri-Cool fans, 120mm versions have seem to caught my eye. 3 speeds, lighted [i'm going for red with this case] and they'll move 70CFM on high. noise isn't a bother to me, it'll be under my desk or behind me. i can always wear headphones and play music over it...i don't care much about the rest of the room. my apevia X-Dreamer is an ATX midtower, so i don't see why the board wouldn't fit in the Cooler Master. my only question is how people think the Elite 330 case will do in terms of cooling. i want to have 3 120mm Antec Tri-Cool fans in it...they should do the trick with cooling right? i got the idea of having a case with mesh front from the new server my school bought which has basically a wide mesh front...with a 120mm fan in the middle pulling air over everything. this case wont have a window, although cables will still be very neat, and a work in progress as always. i'll be keeping the airflow over the processors by putting a piece of plastic about 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch below, and it'll stretch across the case to the rear fan, so that there will be a chamber for the processors to ensure excellent and hopefully max. airflow. any ideas for fans, or other materials or customizations i should do are more than welcome. i plan on going to CompUSA on friday to get the case, however if i can't do it then, tuesday next week.

uhh, yea, about the chipset, if its important, you may thing about actually opening the case and finding out what its called. 6GB of ram, thats got to be one intense board...is it all compatible? also, what kind of RAM is it?

yea, thats why i want to keep this thing as cool as possible....the CPU usage never really goes down and idles, thats why i have no idle temp. my CPUs bounce around 28-47% usage right after it boots. nothing loaded but a firewall/av, wireless connected, and everything. i have 768mb of ram, so yes, that isn't all that much, but this computer could run easily with half that. i'm using XP Pro sp1 Corporate edition..before i ran Pro sp2, and it was the same. is there something preventing my computer from chilling out? i keep trying to make an nLited XP that i can at least hope would change it, but every time i test it theres an issue during the installation. earlier i did a mod to my case, i took out the lower two optical drive spacers, and put a mesh screen and air filter there and fit a 92mm fan on the inside, it blows air onto the processors, and at the highest clock, 503MHz, its running stable, and the heat isn't that high, 82.7F....i think thats around 26C but the CPUs themselves are 73C and 69C, close to thermal max. i missed a shot on ebay for a pair of 1GHz CPU's for this computer this morning, i overslept, but since i put the filter in front, the CPUs are running a bit cooler, theres more air coming in. i'm looking at a Cooler Master 330 case, they're cheap, and i'll be able to do the same thing, and use better fans too, i'm looking at Antec Tri-Cool 120mm 3-speed fans. comparing the noise and the airflow, its worth it to me...it would take a while to be able to have all the money to pull it off, but i'm going to a computer expo on the 18th, and i can get ideas and help there. i'll have the Cooler Master case by then, and i'll be running my P4 system...i want to keep this system as my main system though, so i'm basically relying on the Antec fans to be in stock when i go to get them. the system is 9 years old, but its still running well for what it is, i don't want to loose this system.

well, i'm gonna look around for a new better case for this system..in the meantime, i have a question that's got more to do with the OS and how hot my CPU's run... what would be preventing my CPU's from going below 40% usage? there was a time, and i can't remember which installation it was, when my CPU usage was next to nothing. i recently made an nlited xp...but for some reason i keep getting a cdaudio.sys error during the installation...i'll try burning it slower after i test the iso..i'm also going to see if i can bolt the heatsinks down better...i don't think they were installed correctly or something...they just dont dissipate heat properly or something...i'm going to try to get a pair of P3 Xeon 1Ghz for this tower tomorrow...hopefully that will give this system new life in many ways.

i've read a ton of articles there about how people cool their PCs...like when i googled the heatsink my friend wanted to order, there was an article about it on silent pc...after i finish my homework, since i just have a little today, i'll try to run up a decent article. basically i know that watercooling would be so difficult its almost not worth it, and the current setup i have is a little iffy. i'm seriously looking for a new case, even if that means i'll loose the case window. i'm actually trying to find a good one at the local dump, partly because there are very nice cases there, and i could even use one for a dummy, as its already trash, nothing really getting wasted in the process. i have a few ideas, but seeing as there are no circle hole cutters around my house, i may have to seek elsewhere to get a job done the way i would like...i can see a pair of 80MM fans placed right by the processors blowing out of the case, with a fan on either side of the processors blowing towards them. it sounds handy..but i wouldn't do it with the case i have now. its just based on a special Xeon CPU cooler that i saw last night...only, more airflow. it turns out that they usually do run close to their thermal max, or at least as far as i've read, so its not like this is just a random case thats popped up. i'm also going to see if i can install Windows 98 SE on a spare HDD, if it works, and i can tweak it how i want it, i may even just do that, being as this board and CPU set was made around the time of windows 2000 server, 98 should run amazingly on it. i'm gonna be getting my P4 system some more ram, hopefully it works, i'm going ebay on this, only because RDRam is so expensive new, if i can make my idea work, i'll play musical towers once again.

try removing google toolbar. if it stops slowing down, theres the problem.