Another A64 system being built - Suggestions welcome

stromgald · Post by **stromgald** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 8:28 am

Minkyboodle beat me to the punch

. It seems we're both builidng similar A64 systems, but there are a few differences. I’ve also been a lurker for quiet a few months and am also making an A64 Winchester system. Earlier, I silenced my old Dell which had its fan go out. The replacement I first choose for that system drove me straight to this forum

. I eventually settled on an Arctic Cooling 4Pro TC and a 92mm Panaflo M1A. A relatively cheap solution since I was planning on getting a new system soon (which is now).

I was hoping for an nForce 4 board, but considering how expensive they are now (with so little in stock), I decided against it. I only hope that AGP/PCI will be around for 2-3 more years. I’m planning on ordering really soon and here’s what I’ve got planned so far:

Athlon64 3200+ (939)
MSI Neo2 Platnium
1GB PDP Systems (Patriot) 2-3-2-5-T1 PC3200
80 GB Seagate 7200.7 SATA Drive
160 GB WD1600JBRTL (from old computer)
16X Toshiba 1912 DVD-ROM
10X HP CD-RW (from old computer)
ATI Radeon 9800Pro or 9800XT (still deciding)

Antec 3000B or 3700BQE (hopefully i can get the 3000B)
Fortron 350W Blue Storm power supply
Zalman 7000B-AlCu heatsink+fan
Panaflo 120mm M1A (with fanmate of course)
I’m hoping to ordering the Antec 3000B, 80GB Seagate, DVD-ROM, motherboard and processor tonight. I'm going to use most of these in stock form, and dont have any extra damping products planned right now.

My main concerns are the blue storm power supply, and the video card cooling. I choose the blue storm because I live in Houston and can get the 350W blue storm for $40+tax without shipping. They also have the 400W version for $10 more. $40 to $50 dollars is the price range I'm aiming for with my PSU. It also needs SATA power connectors. My second choice was the Seasonic 300W Super Tornado, but its more expensive and harder to find.

Somebody mentioned in minkyboodle’s thread that there’s some difficulty in fitting an Arctic Cooling cooler on the video card on a Neo2 Platinum. Will this be a problem with a ATI Radeion 9800? Should I get an aftermarket cooler or is the 9800’s stock cooling good enough?

Also as far as the cooling components go, I choose the Zalman 7000B-AlCu because its cheaper than an XP-90 + fan and lighter. I think it should be enough for a Winchester core processor and I move my computer to and from college on most holidays and over the summer so a heavy heatsink worries me. I can get the Panaflo M1A pretty easily and cheap. The Nexus fan’s low air flow doesn’t allow for much headroom in cooling, and the L1A and Papst fans are hard to get cheaply.

Any suggestions, concerns, or comments are welcome.

eidolon · Post by **eidolon** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 1:00 pm

I'm cooling my 3500+ (winchester) with the zulman 7000b alcu.
As I write the cpu is cooking at 30°C and the fan is turning at 1700rpm.

TMonte · Post by **TMonte** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 5:40 pm

I run a 3500+ (Newcastle) on a K8N Neo2 with a 9800 & AC Silencer (original v3). I was running the Zalman 7000 (Cu) - it does hit the rear brace/bracket of the Silencer. You can get away with it if you don't mind tweaking the video card a bit. It ran fine for me, but I didn't like the interference, so I just switched to an AeroCool HT-101Jr. The AeroCool is a nice piece and clears the brace/bracket of the AC Silencer, but it gives up 3-5C in performance to the 7000. Right now it idles at ~32 and peaks at ~49 with CPU burn. (The A64 is slightly undervolted to 1.39v, stock clock)

The other problem with the AC Silencer on the K8N Neo2 is that you can't use a taller (or passive) cooler for the NF3 chip. The Silencer completely obstructs it. I use speedfan to cut the stock NF3 cooler speed down.

Tom

Zyrin · Post by **Zyrin** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 7:12 pm

I like the artic cooling fans. I have both the thermal controlled and the manual, 3-speed contolled artic cooling fans. I prefer the manual, puts out a darker blue color. They use more of an aqua colored led in the thermal. The manual one is more practical as well. The leds on the fan aren't all the same brightest. My friend has one too and its the same situation wit his. Another problem is that one of the leds on his fan isn't lighted up. Same issue with one of mine too. but the three that lights up are plenty bright, esp the ones on the thermal controlled. Sometimes I think they put only 3 led in there but i'm pretty sure its four. Seems like its the same company the make the scythe fans but the scythe is not a good value cuz it doesn't blow a lot of air if u want quiet.. The only thing good about it is the sexy speed control. i do not recommend the smart fans either (themaltake/antec).

I have the M version of the panaflo but its an 80mm. Its not worth it and on mine, I had to terminate it myself. specs say its designed so there is no ic noise or motor noise but it's easy to hear it. I do not use the panaflo. I prefer the rifle bearing fans from cooler master. Great value. They are silent and i feel they blow as much as the 80mm panaflos, well almost. i also see newegg has raised the price on those fans by almost 3 bucks. The only problem i have had with it is that i've ordered like 4 or 5 of the white led-ed ones and the three i've been using for over a year doesn't light up anymore. They were the brightest fans I had when i first got them. Also, the brightest of the led is tied into the voltage. My case is lighted up by other leds. I also got like 2 blue ones and I don't have any problems with those. These fans blow more air, quietly then the artic cooling ones.

The fanmate is a waste of money.. get another fan controller.. Why dun u jus get a passive videocard cooler? is that videocard too hot? I do not like antec products (I do not have their case).. its a bias.. I like to mod their overpriced stuff. My case is pretty modded. I prefer the LG dvd writer.

I have a FPS-300 something.. and its quiet (moreso then my raptor hd and other fans) and stable. Though, it doesn't supply me enough power when i plug in like 2 harddrives, 2 optical drive, and when i have 5 (one for video/one for CPU) case fans and a harddrive cooler going. I think i had too much stuff on the 12 volt line. Without the hd cooler i was fine. I had that setup for like a couple days before changing everything. Oh keep in mind that i turned the fan in the power supply around to become an intake fan (keeps dust out of PS and keeps it quiet) but it does lower PS performance a tad, unless u additionally cool it in another way..

My friend has a coolmax 450 PSU with the 14cm fan. and its quiet.. he says when he puts his ears to it and changes the fan speed, he second guesses whether the speed control is working..

Well there goes my opinion for the day. gl.

minkyboodle · Post by **minkyboodle** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 1:49 am

This A64 Winchesters are powerful motivators for upgrade eh stromgald

Sound like you have a good system plan in place as well. I'm about the pull the trigger on most of my parts as well. I just hope I can run my blue line mushkin at decent timings. I got it at such a steal (165 shipped) I went for it. I figure with the great support at Mushkin I'll figure something out. I was gonna buy some fanmates like you but I decided to try it first with some ghetto molex 5 and 7 volt adapters. Gotta go find that soldering iron

Good luck on the system build.

burcakb · Post by **burcakb** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 8:07 am

120mm M1A is overkill. Nexus should be more than enough. I use 2 (push pull config), both undervolted to 780 rpms. I get enough airflow to use a totally passive cooler on my Radeon 9700

Though I LOVE Fortron PSUs, having used a Super Silencer 400W, I'd say pay the extra money and get a Seasonic. Definitely worth every penny.

Why don't you buy a 80GB Samsung? Well, yes, that WD is going to be loud enought to cover anything else but still...

stromgald · Post by **stromgald** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 3:23 pm

Hmmm, the main reason i was going to buy last night was because I noticed SLK3000Bs at mwave and was slightly worried that they might run out, and prices seem to be going up a bit. But, I found out that zipzoomfly also got some 3000Bs in (about $2 more when shipped) so I'm not so worried now.

After looking around in these forums and others, I've started thinking about an ASUS A8V Deluxe mobo instead. It's almost as fast in some benchmarks I found (I doubt I can tell the difference), and it has a nifty WiFi card built in. The only real loss is the firewall on the MSI board, but there's one less tiny fan, so it'll be quiter. The few bucks I save would go towards getting a Nexus fan (burcakb's suggestion).

I'll definitely look into getting a super silencer if i can squeeze some more money out of someplace. As a college student, money's hard to come by. I'm also rethinking the graphics card, not sure if I want to stick with a 9800Pro, those 6600GT AGPs look so nice

.

Thanks for all the help

. One new question I have is with the A8V Deluxe board. Does the passive heatsink on the northbridge chipset (not sure if its the northbirdge, i'm not a mobo layout expert) get in the way of anything? Like a CNPS-7000B or a video card cooler? I looked at the picture on ASUS' site but I'm still not too sure.