AMD64 questions

[TnT]

In a followup to my bad board...

1) I have a 3 year old Antec power supply True430 I believe. Do I need to get a new motherboard with new connectors for the mobo (SATA aside)?

2) Winchester vs Venice. I see SSE3 as a difference, what else?

Thanks,
Thien

[Nowhere]

1) If that is 430W, I don't think so. Every manual I looked at (in case of AMD) stated that the additional square connector was optional...(besided AMD's don't draw that much current)

2) Changed memory controller. But I really can't say which is better - I've seen sites which show in benchmarks that it's slower, but more memory is compatible with it, OTOH there are sites that say that is faster (I would believe that rather...)

[Helevitia]

Nope. I have the same power supply and it works fine with my chip and mobo (specs in sig)

[Wombat]

Venice is also more power-efficient, and probably more likely to OC well.

[UtwigMU]

Check if MoBo is 24 or 20 pin ATX. SLI Mobos tend to be the former, while your PSU is the latter.

[RichL]

My A-64 Winchester is running off a several year old Q-Tec 550w, I'd say your 430w Antec will be up to the job

My Winchester 3200 runs 235fsb on stock voltage, cooling and multiplier. It will go to at least 245fsb, but my Crucial PC3200 ram gets unstable beyond 235 and noticably flakey at 245 and higher.

[GNEP]

a) Running a Winchester fine on a 350W here

b) apparently you can plug a 20 pin ATX PSU plug just fine into a 24pin mobo connector and it will work (wires are just repeated)

c) do it, try it (it won't melt things), and if there's any instability get a new PSU.

[Helevitia]

Just to clarify, there is another 4 pin connector that you need to use on AMD Mobos and my power supply had this connector already.

[TnT]

Whoops, I posted this in the wrong thread (that one is about my old, this is about my future ):
I'm really eyeing the Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-9 since it has all the features I want besides a second PCIe x16 slot. Also liking Gigabyte's 6600 card because it is stocked passively cooled. The 256 MB version is only 16 bucks more than the 128 at NewEgg.

Anyways. Besides Crucial, what brands for RAM are good. I've been out of the loop for a while now. TwinMos, Geil, PQI, Corsair Value Select? I'd like stability, don't feel like paying an extra $30 for speed I won't use. If I can get 2x256 for under $50 that'd be great. I think 2 Crucial sticks would be $56... which I'd do if those cheaper brands suck.

Whoops, totally missed the EPoX EP-9NPA+Ultra. Has the same features as the Gigabyte, but not passively cooled, though 30 dollars less. NewEgg doesn't have it in stock though

[RichL]

Anyways. Besides Crucial, what brands for RAM are good. I've been out of the loop for a while now. TwinMos, Geil, PQI, Corsair Value Select? I'd like stability, don't feel like paying an extra $30 for speed I won't use. If I can get 2x256 for under $50 that'd be great. I think 2 Crucial sticks would be $56... which I'd do if those cheaper brands suck.

I've had TwinMos RAM before, 1 stick 512mb PC2700, 1 stick 256mb PC3200, and two sticks of 256mb PC3700.
The 512mb PC2700 would run 178fsb quiet happily, the PC3200 is either very finnicky of mobo's or very unstable at PC3200 speeds (running okay at PC2700 in my works Compaq P4 though), and the two sticks of PC3700 had timings so slack it might as well have been PC2100 and wasnt stable even then!
If it isnt TwinMos with Winbond, I wouldnt touch it with someone elses bargepole.

I've got a 256mb stick of Corsair Value PC3200 and it's stable , never used it overclocked.
Corsair 3200LL is pretty impressive - 220fsb at 6-2-2-2 or 215fsb at 5-2-2-2

Crucial stuff is IMO the best bang for buck. Never had a bad stick, never had a compatibility issue, always been able to push it beyond the rating on the sticker.

[Jammrock]

1) what they said.

2) Venice is more efficient winchester w/ SSE3 (sans two instructions that require hyperthreading), 'fixed' memory controller, more power efficiency - which allows it to clock *much* higher than the WInchester cores - and various other errata fixes. From what I've read, some people using run-of-the-mill HSF cooling have gotten Venice cores up to 2.6 GHz with no stability problems. Water cooled rigs seem to go up to 2.8'ish GHz.

However...

the San Diego core has just hit. It has all the fixes of Venice, 90 nm, and E4 stepping (Venice has E3) ... how much of a difference there is between E3 and E4 I don't know. But, the SD core comes with a 1 MB L2 cache for a little extra kick. NewEgg has a single San Diego core out right now for $345:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103539

Jammrock

[KeiFront]

Eewww ditch that Q-Tec RichL, get a real PSU.

[RichL]

Eewww ditch that Q-Tec RichL, get a real PSU.

It does the job and it's cheap as chips.

I had that QTec running 5x10,000rpm SCSI disks, DVD, CD burner, and an overclocked XP2000 with 512mb of RAM and it never caused any glitches whatsoever.
Now I've got an A64 with 1gb and a single 160gb SATA disk I figure it's unlikely to be less stable. The air coming out the back is certainly cooler

I bought a 550w Eye-T psu recently with a 120mm blue fan and UV reactive green molex connectors. It didnt cost much more than the QTec550 but the 12v rail was rated at about 33% more Amps.

[KeiFront]

Sure it's cheap but it's still cheap crap and indeed the 12V line can't take much.

[Kurt]

It's not that it can't take much, it's that it's frying the rest of your hardware...