I believe +12V2 dedicated to CPU, and +12V1 is for everything else, as you say. As for your +12V1: PCI cards use +3.3V and +5V only, nothing at all from +12V. AGP cards can use some of all three rails. How much depends on the individual graphics card. Take a look at the following two articles, where...

scruzbeachbum wrote:Cyrix was acquired by NSC.

That would be National Semiconductor, for those who do not recognize the initials "NSC".

I have some reservations about that RAM, at least on a quiet computer. Here is a quote from Mushkin's site: http://www.mushkin.com/doc/products/memory_detail.asp?ID=196 Active Cooling Required *----Due to the extreme speed of these modules along with the added voltages used, Mushkin requires end use...

I doubt the faster SATA interface will make that much of a difference to you. The only other difference would be that the nForce4 Ultra has a hardware-accelerated firewall, whereas the plain nForce4 depends more on the CPU for its firewall. How much of a difference that would make would depend on ho...

Well, my Mom has an entry-level Acer Celeron M 1.5 GHz laptop. It has only 1/2 the cache of the Penitum M (512 kB vs 1 MB, in this case), and no Enhanced SpeedStep. Since a large part of the Pentium M's performance comes from its large cache, it does affect performance. However, it is a good fit for...

For whatever it's worth, my motherboard shows a 10 degC difference between socket temperature and die temperature when the CPU is under load. For example, when socket temp is 56 degC, die temp is 66 degC. MSI KT880 Delta-FSR motherboard, Athlon XP 3000+ CPU.

Tiamat wrote:Man, soon we be powering these puppies with nuclear fuel pellets.

Yeah, it could take the place of the CMOS battery.

For memory, I like Memtest86+. Here are some links:

Memtest86+: http://www.memtest.org
Prime95: http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm
ATiTool: http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool

I don't see any problems with that machine. I doubt you will need the blowhole on top. The 535W power supply is looks like overkill, though, unless you are seriously considering going SLI. I wish I knew how the Whisper II series compares with the Noisetakers when it comes it noise. I know from perso...

Hmmm, now that you mention it, the graphics core temperature on my 9800XT has been a few degrees warmer lately. I had just chalked it up to being summer. I just found this post on the Rage3D forums about an X850XL also getting hotter after installing the 5.6, so it is not just us. http://www.rage3d....

Many motherboards have an option in the BIOS to shut down the computer in case they do not detect the CPU_FAN spinning. The reason for this is that it assumes that the CPU fan has broken, so it shuts down the computer to save the CPU. However, if you connect the CPU fan directly to the power supply,...

Try unplugging all of those 50 million little connectors that go from the case to the motherboard. Instead of using the power button to start the computer, just touch a screwdriver to the two pins that the power button would connect to. Hold the screwdriver there for a couple of seconds until the po...

I think it does. Probably has something to do with how the webpage is rendered on the screen.

[Edit] - A specific question or two: How much of a heat/noise penalty is associated with the 90 nm v. 130 nm cores? Will Cool and Quiet deal with this except when running max load? Here is a graph where you can compare the idle power consumption of the Newcastle "CG" (130nm) and Venice "E3" (90nm) ...

The CPU must feed the graphics card with data. If the CPU is too slow, then the extra processing power of the graphics card goes unused. This is called being "CPU bound". One way you can tell if this happens to you is if you crank up the graphics settings, and you still get the same FPS. At the othe...

Sure it would have the same performance. It's got the same core speed, the same cache, the same FSB, the same architecture. It is just able to run cooler! :D Actually, the CPU is not reporting the name strings. All the CPU passes are the bridge and jumper settings, plus a little bit of internal logi...

Your guess is as good as mine.

Aw, c'mon. It only takes 40% of my CPU usage on my Athlon XP 3000+. Quit your bellyaching! :P Seriously, part of it has to do with how the animations are coded. Big surprise there. Apparently redrawing bitmaps (as opposed to vector-based graphics) can use alot of the CPU usage. That Dirtgirl World s...

Well, yeah, not "taking off the heatsink is not an option." I think you have an XP-M 1900+ Barton core, with a 512 kB L2 cache that runs at 11x133 = 1467. There actually is such a thing, but I do not know its rated wattage. I would guess 35W. As far as I know, XP-M CPUs do not come with FSB greater ...

If you have not seen these already, here are a couple of good articles on the Athlon 64 X2, inlcuding performance and power consumption measurements: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/athlon64-x2.html http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2410 Sometimes the choice of benchma...

I think your CPU temperature is fine if you are not planning to do any overclocking. Through the years, I have been running an Athlon 900 (years 2000-2003) and an Athlon XP 3000+ (years 2003-2005) at similar or slightly higher temperatures without any problems. The official maximum die temp for Bart...

Is this the type of thing you are talking about? Which version of the CPU do you have? Thoroughbred? What is the part number on your CPU?

http://fab51.com/cpu/barton/athlon-e23.html

For what it's worth, my bet is that SpeedFan is misreporting the -12V voltage. I remember my old Epox motherboard came with some voltage/temperature sensing software. At first, it reported about -7V on the -12V rail, but an updated utility showed a value much closer to -12V. Note that this was softw...

Are you considering watercooling the motherboard's chipset, as well? If so, you may consider an NForce4-based motherboard. One of the complaints about them here is that the fans used to cool the chipsets are often way too loud. That may be totally moot if you decide watercool the chipset.

Well, I suppose you look at these values for the Athlon 64. Estimate that the Sempron power consumption will be no greater, and possibly less:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/di ... ice_5.html

I think you made a good choice with the Enermax. I also think that your English is pretty good. To be honest, it surprised me when you wrote that you were in southeastern Europe.

bit off topic, didnt' want to make another thread but would anyone be able to estimate what sempron my axp 2400+ would be equivalent to? because i'm thinking of getting sempron and would like to know the model that is comparable to my current cpu (axp 2400+) - thanks. If you are sticking within Soc...

Let us calculate the current loads a little bit differently. Let us take all the +12V values together: Maxtor 40 GB: 0.79 A 3x DVD-ROM: (3 x 0.65 A) = 1.95 A 4x Barracuda: (4 x 1 A) = 4 A This is a total of 6.74 A (81 W), not counting graphics card, case fans, etc. Since the Enermax can supply 22 A ...

I think what andyb is trying to say is, it should be relatively easy to make this a quiet computer even without resorting to watercooling. Look around the forum for good Athlon 64 3000+ heatsink/fans, quiet case fans, quiet hard drives, etc. The motherboard you linked already has integrated graphics...

Well, it does remind me of a Power Ranger or one of those Sony dog robots. It looks like an "either you love it or you hate it" case. I remember seeing a writeup on it at X-bit Labs a couple of months ago. Does the airflow really go crosswise at the bottom front of the case?