Hard Light Productions Forums

Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Liberator on January 21, 2004, 04:31:55 pm

Title: I'm at a loss...
Post by: Liberator on January 21, 2004, 04:31:55 pm: Okay, I had all but given up on getting my first DIY project to work without replacing the Mobo. I comunicated with MSI twice and they said to first, try a bigger PSU, which I did and got myself a bigger case to boot, and two, try an AGP video card instead of my PCI. Neither of these worked.

Then as a lark, I put the second memory module in. I had been only running one for testing purposes. It started and loaded like it was supposed to have a month ago. :mad:

What I am at a loss to explain is how one module won't work and two will. Maybe it has something to do with needing two modules for the DDR to function?:confused:

Anyway I am now the proud owner of this:

AMD AthlonXP 1800+ w/ Thermaltake Slim Volcano 8
MSI 745 Ultra Mobo
384 MB of PC2700
12 GB total HDD
32x10x12x CD-R Pacific Digital
Geforce 4 MX 420 PCI w/64MB of video RAM
ATI TV Wonder VE
RealTek 10/100 NIC(comes with the cable modem)

It's not the latest or the greatest, but it's a damn sight better than what I had, so :D :D :D :D :D

BTW, thanks to everyone who answered my stupid and sometimes inane questions over the last few weeks, you guys are teh :thepimp: :thepimp:
Title: I'm at a loss...
Post by: aldo_14 on January 21, 2004, 04:36:00 pm: 384 is a wierd amount of RAM, bTW.... i though they were suppossed to be matched pairs?

well done, BTW.

I've installed a new mobo, CPu, PSU, RAM. HD, CD-ROm etc (the guts, basically) over the life of my PC, it's always a nice learning experience to have.
Title: I'm at a loss...
Post by: Martinus on January 21, 2004, 04:38:26 pm: [color=66ff00]It's particularly satisfying to boot up something you built. :nod:

I'm waiting for my radeon 9800 pro 128mb to arrive, it's a slight upgrade from my Geforce2mx. ;)
[/color]
Title: I'm at a loss...
Post by: Liberator on January 21, 2004, 04:39:25 pm: 1 256 from Kingston and 1 128 from Vdata. IIRC they don't have to be matched, just the same clock, I just always thought it would act like the appropriate SDR with just one.
Title: I'm at a loss...
Post by: Martinus on January 21, 2004, 04:40:15 pm: [color=66ff00]Neither works on their own?
[/color]
Title: I'm at a loss...
Post by: Flipside on January 21, 2004, 04:46:00 pm: Scariest 10 minutes of my life was putting the new chip into the motherboard etc that I had built, it was the first computer I'd ever made, and theres still surrogate parts in my current one, though most of it's been upgraded with the casual violence of long-term hardware freaks ;)
Isn't it strange how you start off handling them like silk and after a couple of years you are using your Biro to bend the pins back into position ;)
Title: I'm at a loss...
Post by: Martinus on January 21, 2004, 04:50:59 pm: [color=66ff00]Did you hold your breath when you pushed the power button for the first time? I know I did. :)
[/color]
Title: I'm at a loss...
Post by: Flipside on January 21, 2004, 05:14:41 pm: LOL Yes, the first computer, annoyingly enough was the ONLY one ever to work first time ;)
Title: Re: I'm at a loss...
Post by: DragonClaw on January 21, 2004, 05:16:11 pm: Quote
Originally posted by Liberator
Geforce 4 MX 420 PCI w/64MB of video RAM

:shaking:

So many people I know own that card... Nvidia and their marketing techniques... :no:
Title: I'm at a loss...
Post by: Liberator on January 21, 2004, 07:36:35 pm: It was cheap and I needed to replace my Voodoo 3 2000 16MB. Overall it's been pretty good to me.
Title: I'm at a loss...
Post by: Anaz on January 21, 2004, 08:35:12 pm: seems to be two types of gfx card people here...

1) bought a GeForce 4 to replace their voodoo 3
2) bought a Radeon 9x00 to replace their GeForce 2 MX

I am in the second group.
Title: I'm at a loss...
Post by: Knight Templar on January 21, 2004, 08:49:15 pm: Same here, and loving it. :D
Title: I'm at a loss...
Post by: Flipside on January 22, 2004, 12:14:51 pm: Bought a GeForce 4 to replace my Cougar, and I have no idea what chipset it used ;)
Title: I'm at a loss...
Post by: aldo_14 on January 22, 2004, 01:30:27 pm: I bought an FX5600 to replace an MX2.... then the whole 'Half-Life reveals nVidia pish' story broke. sigh.
Title: I'm at a loss...
Post by: Taristin on January 22, 2004, 01:34:45 pm: I intend to replace my GF2 MX with a r9600xt (256Mb weee)
Title: I'm at a loss...
Post by: Martinus on January 22, 2004, 01:35:05 pm: Quote
Originally posted by Anaz
seems to be two types of gfx card people here...

1) bought a GeForce 4 to replace their voodoo 3
2) bought a Radeon 9x00 to replace their GeForce 2 MX

I am in the second group.

[color=66ff00]Yeah I just bought a 9800 pro to replace my GF 2 MX. Strange that. :)
[/color]
Title: I'm at a loss...
Post by: kasperl on January 22, 2004, 01:37:59 pm: and this is why i don't want a GF myself.
Title: I'm at a loss...
Post by: Taristin on January 22, 2004, 01:38:29 pm: Clicky-clicky (http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/product.asp?pid=8282&sid=A8D3M1HS5PBS8H6SG5D619T5AED4DLBA) ;7
Title: I'm at a loss...
Post by: kasperl on January 22, 2004, 01:56:57 pm: ok, a bit to expensive for me.

can anyone who likes to browse lot's of hardware catalogues brows to my "choose my new graph card" thread an give there opinion?
Title: I'm at a loss...
Post by: Flipside on January 22, 2004, 02:01:35 pm: Oooohh.. and a free mousemat if you order quickly ;)

Seriously though, looks a v.nice card, but when I upgrade, I plan to get the 9800xt, or better if possible, I want something I don't have to replace for a while.
Admittedly, this means that I will have to upgrade the motherboard, and while I'm at it, I might as well look at upgrading the 1700XP.....

This is why I don't upgrade often ;)
Title: I'm at a loss...
Post by: Taristin on January 22, 2004, 02:05:31 pm: Quote
Originally posted by Flipside

Seriously though, looks a v.nice card, but when I upgrade, I plan to get the 9800xt, or better if possible, I want something I don't have to replace for a while.

There wasn't much difference between the 9600 and the 9800 from what I've seen. SO for 1/4th the money, I could have 2x the memory and a very cool card.
Title: I'm at a loss...
Post by: Flipside on January 22, 2004, 02:10:18 pm: The 9800xt has 256Mb of memory same as the 9600xt, and slightly better pipelining, however, you are right, having looked at the two, the difference is not worth the extra price.
Doesn't matter, by the time I can afford to upgrade, there'll be something else out anyway ;)

Flipside :D
Title: I'm at a loss...
Post by: Grey Wolf on January 22, 2004, 02:25:13 pm: I actually got a GF4 to replace a TNT2.
Title: I'm at a loss...
Post by: Darkage on January 22, 2004, 05:48:16 pm: I upgraded from my Geforce2MX 32MB 100/200 to a Sapphire Radeon9600XT 256MB DDR. And i love it.
Title: I'm at a loss...
Post by: Kamikaze on January 22, 2004, 06:20:22 pm: I replaced a TNT with a Geforce 2 GTS. I'll replace that with a Radeon 9500 sometime.
Title: I'm at a loss...
Post by: Bobboau on January 22, 2004, 06:21:03 pm: this is great, a bunch of computer nerds talking about 'there first time' :lol:

you realy didn't know about pairity, ind the BIS didn't give you a pairity error?

hmm tuner card :cool: I had that model, upgraded recently to the pro/RC version
Title: I'm at a loss...
Post by: Flipside on January 22, 2004, 07:01:47 pm: Quote
Originally posted by Bobboau
this is great, a bunch of computer nerds talking about 'there first time' :lol:

:lol:
Title: I'm at a loss...
Post by: Liberator on January 22, 2004, 08:34:21 pm: Well, I wouldn't have the tuner card if I had space for a television, but it does work pretty good. The signal is as clean as you can expect after being converted to display at 1024x768@85hgz. The software can even act like a DVR, the trick is finding a happy medium between quality and file size. I don't have the HD space to let it crank out multi-gig AVIs or MPGs.
Title: I'm at a loss...
Post by: Martinus on January 22, 2004, 08:36:32 pm: Quote
Originally posted by Bobboau
this is great, a bunch of computer nerds talking about 'there first time' :lol:

[color=66ff00]Unlike bob, who's been around the block a few times and is past it. ;)
[/color]