just built a "new" rig!

[charlie22911]

well, i had a bunch of parts laying around and decided to throw them together. i had an HP case here, so i used that (looking to mod all the HP logos off somehow ) this is intended to be a mediavalue gaming PC for lan's when i have friends over.

here the specs:

 

Biostar P4M80-M4 m-ATX Motherboard (socket 478)

Pentium4 Northwood 2.66Ghz533FSB @ 2.7GHz (heat issues with small POS HP case)

2x512MB Micron PC3200

Seagate Baracuda 7200.10 160GB SATA

All In Wonder X800XT @ XT PE

HiPro 300w PSU (12v @ 19A)

HP DVD DL Burner WLightScribe

DVDCD-RW Combo

HP a705w m-ATX case

 

the plugs on the HP case fit the board headers perfect, its pretty snappy too, scores 4513 in 3dmark05 (cpu bottleneck). its a nice PC, but the case has BAD airflow, everything runs HOT, heck, the side of the case is near as hot as the air coming out of the exaust :drool:. i have a mid tower dell ATX case that is pretty nice, i may move the parts to that... here is the best pic i could find of the case, http://i.walmart.com/i/p/00/82/91/60/70/00...584_500X500.jpg

 

anyhow, what do you think? if you have any suggestions please feel free to post, i love input .

[dr_bowtie]

Charlie...

 

I have a old HP case that I use also for a back-up rig and you're right about the small size and cooling limitations...(HP Pavilion 512w)

 

What I did was to take the side cover off and cut 2 80mm fans down low just so the top of the fans would be at the level of the vid card and hard drive...

 

I also took a 4pin-molex pigtale and jumped it to make the fan run off 5volt trick...turned it into a small very cool case with no heat issues at all after that...

[diff_lock]

Those northwoods are deadly slow. My sisters machine (my old one) is a northwood oced to 2.4 i think. horible machine. but that thing is SILENT (nexus breeze case) and a passive 5700le (old p3 heatsink modded on.)

 

Its not useless though.

[charlie22911]

@dr_bowtie- i have a couple of 120mm fans just laying around, i was thinking of cutting a hole low so it will blow on the slots. one of them is an ADDA brand fan and its whisper quiet but moves a very large amount of air.

 

@diff_lock- Northwoods are supposedly faster clock for clock than a Presshott, but by todays standards it is a dog. once i get the cooling situated i *may* be able to reach 3GHz with it. if not i would probably just drop in in a cele' D machine i also have laying around and buy a 3GHz Presscott for ~$70

[n_w95482]

I would stick with the Northwood even if it doesn't hit 3 GHz. Less heat to deal with and it would probably still be faster than a 3 GHz Prescott (my mom's Celly D 2.93 loads in the high 60s-mid 70s on stock cooling). That thing would really scream with a Northwood 3.2C in it . My dad has a Dell with a 2.6C in it and it's still a pretty snappy machine.

[Angry_Games]

Those northwoods are deadly slow. My sisters machine (my old one) is a northwood oced to 2.4 i think. horible machine. but that thing is SILENT (nexus breeze case) and a passive 5700le (old p3 heatsink modded on.)

 

Its not useless though.

 

i thoroughly disagree. I had probably 10+ Northwood P4's (all 800FSB from 2.4 up to 3.4Ghz (3.4 was an engineering sample that i still have!) and they were anything but slow. They ALWAYS, I repeat ALWAYS whipped anything AMD could put out for media encoding/decoding until AMD finally dropped X2 dual cores on us (and even then at first the P4 still was strong since most media like DivX etc was primed and optimized for the Intel Hyperthreading architecture)

 

If I can find just an old P4 board laying around, I plan on dropping the 3.4 ES into it and dumping it all the way down to 2.4-3.0 and putting my best AGP (X800 Pro 256MB) card in it and seeing if she'll pass muster in my thread over in the PC Games section!

[red930]

I think you can easily modify that case for better cooling. The side panel can have a 120mm fan (Intake) installed if you cut out the right point thats lined up with the CPU HSF. The front case section you can cut more of the bottom piece just below the power button for better air circulation or to install a larger fan. Save your money even though cases are EXTREMELY CHEAP. Also as one of the users mentioned above, look for any DIP switches on the motherboard that would offer overclocking ability. Another thing would be memory to look at as well.

[charlie22911]

@n_w95482- thats what i thought, lol. thing is, save for ebay, there are not many places you can even find a northwood .

 

@Angry_Games- i have two boards for you, both from biostar.

the first is the PCIe version of the board i have (which i am EXTREMELY pleased with): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813138079

the second is the board i have, the agp version: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813138262

the P4M80-M4 is not red, but has the same color scheme as the PCIe board, and %99 of the DOAs are probably because of either them using a willimette or because they use PC3200 ram, which you have to set manually in bios as PC3200 or you have issues.

BTW, say you were selling that 3.4c, how much would you want for it angry?

 

@Mack27- i have already drawn up a hole for a 120mm fan in the VGA area, and plan to add maybe a 92mm over the cpu heatsink. i can overclock in bios up to 3.02GHz, but im having heat issues :drool:. now one project i want to get into is modding my coolermaster centurion 5 case, but thats another story .

[Angry_Games]

BTW, say you were selling that 3.4c, how much would you want for it angry?

 

ah well its an engineering sample, and one of the best I've ever laid my hands on so I'm gonna want a pretty premium price for it ($150 + shipping).

 

I got to see if I have any P4 boards still laying around (can't afford to buy anything right now and for a few more months)

[CPDMF]

LOL. At that price I would hope you are attached to that CPU because you will own it for awhile.

 

I still love the A_G sales technique.. ah well it is an engineering sample, and one of the best. Too bad an AM2 Sempy would hand it's butt on plate..

[charlie22911]

ah well its an engineering sample, and one of the best I've ever laid my hands on so I'm gonna want a pretty premium price for it ($150 + shipping).

 

I got to see if I have any P4 boards still laying around (can't afford to buy anything right now and for a few more months)

 

:eek2::drool::eek:

 

LOL. At that price I would hope you are attached to that CPU because you will own it for awhile.

 

I still love the A_G sales technique.. ah well it is an engineering sample, and one of the best. Too bad an AM2 Sempy would hand it's butt on plate..

 

i actually understand, if i had that i would probably want more just to keep someone from buying it. i know if i had an engineering sample of anything, i would hang on to that baby . i remember when C2D ES was going on ebay for crazy prices :eek2:.

 

by the way, i have narrowed my OC problems to more than just heat. anyone that OC an lanparty S462 board (and more) knows that it forks over the SATA controller. well looks like i have that problem even though the PCIAGP bus is locked . i have a 80GB WD IDE drive i can put in it and just do a partition copy (which is what i did when i built my raid array), but that 7200.10 drive is a nice one . im going to try a bios upgrade or something, maybe that will help...

[Angry_Games]

LOL. At that price I would hope you are attached to that CPU because you will own it for awhile.

 

I still love the A_G sales technique.. ah well it is an engineering sample, and one of the best. Too bad an AM2 Sempy would hand it's butt on plate..

 

lol i don't want to get rid of it

 

and an AM2 sempron can't hold a candle to the P4's encoding power, sorry (you are free to test it yourself to verify)