recomend me a quality unit

huber · Jun 3, 2004

Hello-
I just put together a new XP system:

Abit NF7-S rev 2
Athlon XP Barton 2500+ (retail hsf)
Saphire Raedon 9200SE
1 512MB stick OCZ PC3200 EL Platinum
WD 80GB 7200RPM hard drive (WD800JB)
Sony 32x CDRW drive
crappy 32$ case with crappy 430W PS

I have been running this at stock speeds for about a week. Today
curiosity finally got the best of me and I decided to see how it would
overclock. I was able to boot up at 3200+ with no problems, but
running Prime95 would shows errors after 5 minutes or so. I dialed
back down to stock speeds, but I still get errors! At these low speeds
the stock hsf keeps the CPU at 51C under full load. I suspect the
crap power supply that came with my case. What's a quality unit to
power my modest system? I plan to add a better heatsink for
overclocking and another stick of RAM when I can afford it. Price is
important.

daniel_dynasty · Jun 3, 2004

well.. i do know someone with a great heatsink (slk the huge all copper one) and 350 watt true blue antec. IM me if you have AIM at azianwitstile. if not jus pm me here

Mr.Radar · Jun 3, 2004

The FSP350 Fortrons (or Sparkle because Sparkle is just a rebranded Fotron sold for a cheaper price) would be good. Fortron/Sparkle PSUs are under-rated and the 80mm fan version will supply 450 watts and the 120mm fan version will supply 410 watts.

Tatuya · Jun 3, 2004

Definetly that or an Antec, although my POS PSU actually works fine hehehe...I guess I lucked out

. Anyways, Fortron, Sparkle, or Antec would be my choice.

Run memtest86 if you already havent, it could be your RAM taht is defective (I had that problem).

Good Luck.

huber · Jun 4, 2004

The Antec and Sparkle definately look to be the best buy. Guess I should
have read the first sticky before I posted

Anyway, I'm between the Antec
SL350 and the Sparkle FSP350-60PN. The Sparkle has an extra 2 Amps on
the 12V rail (18 vs 16), but the Antec has a few more 3.3+5 Watts (230 vs
220). Price is the same on newegg, $40 for either one. Which do you think
it the better supply?

Turd Furguson · Jun 4, 2004

In all honesty, I would get the Sparkle. The 3.3v rail doesn't get nailed that bad on my 430w Antec Trupower on a huge OC but my 12v does drop.

TheMightyBuck · Jun 4, 2004

see which one is quieter.

i'd recommend the sparkle. also, they make great fans. i bought a bunch of sparkle 80mm fans at fry's electronics in arlington two years ago, and i run 'em at 7 votls, they keep my system near silent, and move a BUNCH of air.

i have an antec 430 watt psu, and i've been happy running it for almost two years, never a glitch.

huber · Jun 4, 2004

Thanks for the advice. Guess I'll go with the Sparkle, though I am a little peeved I've got to spend another $40 on this damn machine to get it stable.

Mr.Radar · Jun 4, 2004

The Antec SL line isn't very good. The Sparkle will outdo it.

huber · Jun 4, 2004

Well, looks like it wasn't my power supply acting up after all. Thanks, tatuya,
for suggesting I look at the memory. I currently don't have a floppy or optical
drive (being RMAed), so I can't boot into memtest86, but I bumped the RAM
voltage up to 2.7V and now I can run prime95 all day with no errors, even
overclocked to 3200+. The CPUs a little hot (~60C), so I'll probablly throttle
back untill I get a better heatsink, but at least it's working. Do you guys think
it's worth RMAing the RAM since it won't run at stock? How much voltage can
I safely put on this thing?

Mr.Radar · Jun 5, 2004

The amount of voltage that RAM can handle depends on what kind of chips it has. Look under MBM5 or SpeedFan and tell us what they read for the VDIMM (the RAM voltage). If your mobo is under-volting then you shouldn't return it. If it's right on or it's overvolting then you should definately RMA it.

huber · Jun 5, 2004

At defaul 2.6V settings, MBM shows the RAM voltage as 2.62V. Prime95 fails on the 1st long FFT test (1024K) with this voltage. At 2.7V settings, MBM reports the RAM voltage at 2.72V. I've run for an hour at this voltage with no errors (didn't test longer). I don't know the kind of chips I have, just that it's a OZC 512MB PC3200 EL Platinum module. It's a pain to return the RAM, as I'll be without a machine unitll the new stuff arrives, but I guess I really should if it doesn't perform at spec. By the way, I'm running this at 400MHz, 2-2-3-5 timing (might be 2-3-2-5, I'm not sure of the ordering; I have the bios set to get timings from the module).

Mr.Radar · Jun 5, 2004

It sounds like your timings are a bit too tight. Loosen them up a little, especially the last one. OCZ's website says that RAM is only rated to 2.5-3-2-8. However if it's fine at 2.7 volts then you should just let it be because you'll get some extra performance from those tight timings.

johan851 · Jun 5, 2004

Definitely change your tRAS to 11. Try 2.5-3-3-11 for your timings, that should help.

huber · Jun 5, 2004

Hmm. I thought I was running this at spec. This is my memory, and it's supposed to run at 2-2-3-5:
http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/memory/OCZ_EL_DDR_PC-3200_Platinum_Edition

johan851 · Jun 5, 2004

You are running it at spec. But it'll be much more stable at 2-3-3-11.

recomend me a quality unit

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