Looking to upgrade CPU/Mobo, can you recommend a combo?

[indigo0086]

My current setup is an ABIT NF7 Motherboard Amd athalon XP 2600+
1GB DDR333 ram
Maxtor ATA133 60gb HD
Maxtor 250gbhd 16mb cache
Pioneer 16x DVD (need to replace that too, but that's another thing)
Lite-on 32x CD-RW
ATI radeon 9800 pro

I am looking to upgrade the motherboard and processor specific. I don't do much with my pc, I no longer play games on it, I use it for browsing, watching movies, listening to music. I plan on doing some video authoring and was wondering a good nicely priced motherboard/processor combo that would be nice and fast for whatever I need to do. Don't worry about the price range, but I just want better than what I have.

[Stuttgart 911]

I'd reccommend something like an X2 3800+, as dual cores do amazing things with video encoding/decoding. an X2 3800+ is as fast, if not faster, at decoding as an FX-57. Then maybe an X1300 if you're not going to be gaming on it.

[indigo0086]

Who makes the X2's, athalon or intel? what about motherboards? I don't think I'm going to do that much video encoding, but I just may if it's fast enough. Generally on my comp it takes about 6-7 hours to encode a dvd, that's why I stopped.

Edit:...too expensive lol. unless the motherboards are 100 or under, I don't hink I'm getting those. I'm not going to be doing that serious dvd processing.

[MaxRat]

For simple upgrade I would go with a NF4-939 and 3700 AMD64-939

you can get a board with onboard video and save and upgrade to a card later on...
Or

you can go with a NF3-754 and use your current card...?

[MaxRat]

there is something wrong there if it takes that long....

On the rig I am typing on: Biostar M7VitPro with a 2400-XP (266 fsb) 1 gig Corsair XMS....I can encode a full movie in a little less than 30 minutes with a 4700kbs encoding rate

I also have the same rig with a 2600-xp (333 fsb) and it encodes at 5800kbs...

I also have a DFI-LPB with a 2600-m running 210x11 (2310mhz) and it encodes movies at 9800kbs (usually less than 10 minutes)

[indigo0086]

hmm, I don't know what's wrong then. I still have win2k. And I already have vid card, I won't be upgrading since i don't game on pcs anymore.

[MaxRat]

how many proccesses do you have running....I try to keep it under 30...

Just for insite me and a neighbor are toying with an old HP Pavilion with a 2.4gig Celeron with a 100fsb with 192mb of pc133 sdram and we've manged to coax 6800kbs encoding rate out of it with only 17 proccesses running...

you may try a full reformat and reinstall of the OS....what programs are you using for the encoding....?

[indigo0086]

hmm, I'm not sure, I don't remember the programs I used, I think virtualdub was one of them, but I had to go through a whole process of adding the subtitles, joining the video, and then encoding it, which I left on when I went for work (which at the time I worked 6 hours those days) , and by the time I came back it was done, even then it looked poorly. I stopped because it was just too long and too confusing to fix. I have a crapload of small programs on my computer because all these tutorials I got had me get them, it was just a long process. I think I'll go with the 3700xp.

As for processes, I'm sure I have over 30, but generally it doesn't take up too much ram or processing power, and since I don't know most of what goes on in there, I can't just quit them. I'll see if I can get a screenshot after wor, but I'm sure I don't know most of what the programs there do, nor do I know how to regulate them.

[MaxRat]

Mother board with onboard video (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813138269)

AMD Athlon 64-3700 939 cpu (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103539)

[indigo0086]

No no no, I don't need on-board video, I have a video card already.

here's what I had in mind
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813127215
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819103539

[jgis19]

Your 9800 won't work with the board you picked,it has a Pcie vid card interface and your card is AGP.

[indigo0086]

Oh, damn. I was also reding the reviews and it said most of the drivers are in 32 bit. I'll look around for another motherboard that supports AGP. But does anyone have any specific brands?

Is there no way to put an agp card in a PCI-E mobo, like an adapter or something?

[glc]

No adapters. You will need to find a board with an AGP slot. If you upgrade, you will need to upgrade your ram to DDR400 to run properly with any Athlon 64 based system. You are looking at 400 bucks for a good motherboard, suitable processor, and new ram.

Fix what you have. I have a customer that does video work very nicely on a Gateway with a 2.0 GHz 400 fsb P4 with 1 gb of DDR266 ram. An XP2600+ should do a good job if it's running right.

[indigo0086]

I see. Does that mean I can't use the Ram I have now at all, or it just won't give me the optimal performance, I can always buy the ram later/. I still want to upgrade though. If I can only get the mobo/proc for and perhaps a cheap PCI-E Graphics card I won't mind if the ram is bottlenecking.

[indigo0086]

For now I'm going to get windows xp upgrade for my comp and do a fresh install and then I'll see how it goes.

[glc]

Buy XP OEM - just as cheap and you don't have to mess with showing it a qualifying previous version of Windows. If you get it from Newegg, you can buy a 99 cent cable to qualify for buying OEM (hardware purchase required).

You can use your DDR333 with an A64, but it's gonna bottleneck it somewhat.

There are some 939 boards out there with AGP - NForce3, ULi, and Via K8T800 chipsets. I wouldn't go 754, it's more of a dead end.

[indigo0086]

Quick questions, If I get the XP x64 version now, to kind of future-proof when I get the 64 bit mobo/processor, will I be able to install it on a 32bit mobo/proc based system?

Also if I don't get the multilingual version, will I still be able to have support for other languages through IME, because I use it often.

[indigo0086]

yeah, I think I need to upgrade the whole thing, I tried to encode a dvd and got police sirens like my cpu was overheating.

[MaxRat]

probably is....when is the last time you cleaned it....pull the cover and give it a good thourough cleaning....That thing will encode dvd's in 20-30 minutes time givin a good software cleaning too...

[indigo0086]

what program do you use? I am using AVI2dvd, it took about 2 hours to do the whole encoding and authoring process. And that wasn't even on the completed file.

[MaxRat]

are you backing up a movie you made or a store bought movie...?

store bought back up I use DvdShrink3.2
home movies to dvd...Nero6 or winproducer

[indigo0086]

I'll clean up the motherboard tomorrow, but software wise it's rather barebones. Also I'm doing mostly AVI->DVD encoding, but it does that beeping thing towards the end.

Also about the XP64 being used on a 32 bit system, is it possible?

[MaxRat]

You may try to post that question in the XP forum...I have heard you can but I am not sure....I would say no myself but I don't want to be wrong...sorry

[glc]

Nope. Don't bother with XP64. Driver support is lousy and there's not much software written for it anyway. It *requires* a 64 bit processor. By the time they get everything sorted out, Vista will be ready.

[indigo0086]

Cool, I'm going to buy a new cooling fan and stuff and windows XP today, I may upgrade my processor to the most my motherboard can handle for now though. Hopefully there will be an XP to vista upgrade. Thanks for the information.

[MaxRat]

upgrading the cpu to the most the motherboard can handle wouldn't be a cost efficient option... With the ddr333 ram you have you'd still only be able to use a 333 fsb cpu...which is a 2700, 2800 or 3000 xp....the 3200's have a 400fsb and then to run one you'd have to change to ddr400 ram (3200)

I would check the date code on the cpu itself....If it happens to be a early version and "unlocked" you could be able to run it as fast as a 3200-xp then you'd only have to spring for some ddr3200 ram...worst case $50.00

That setup was the prefered set up no so long ago....people had very good results with that board...with a little cleaning and tweaking you can get that thing running good and not spend much coin....

[indigo0086]

Hmm, I bought it in april of 2004. I actually have one gig of ram I just forgot to update my sig. Does your solution suggest overclocking, because I have never done that before, wouldn't there be a risk since I'm already getting overheating problems?

[MaxRat]

Yes.... and yes....

1st of all you'd have to get a handle on the heat problem if there is one...you need to find out what your temps are...either you can check them in the bios or you can use the utility that is on the motherboard cd....

just for comparison my 2600/333 cpu run 40deg celcius with a Thermaltake volcano 9....fan on low

[indigo0086]

hmm, I guess I need a new heatsink as well, I have the basic mwave fan, maybe that's why. But I only get the beeping siren thing when the encoding process is at a certain point. It takes like 98% of the cpu load even when I shut down a lot of processes, but I guess by the time It reaches a certain point it is already running hot. Everything else runs cool. are there guides to overclocking if I decide to do so?

[MaxRat]

Yep...up top...

98 percent is okay...just need to know what the temps are...do you have a way to monitor them while encoding....

My rig sits idle at 26-28 deg celcius but on load hits 30-34deg celcius...

[indigo0086]

I'll check, I think my motherboard came with some software that allowed tempurature montioring. Do you recommend heatpipe based tech, or could you recommend a low noise HSF combo. How risky is overclocking, high failure rate?

[MaxRat]

I swear by the Thermalright SI-97...these are the best and at 35.00 they're worth it...You'll have to throw a fan on it...and it can be a quiet fan and will work just as well....This is a heatpipe cpu cooler...

As for overclocking...No not a high failure rate...Is fairly simple with the right parts...Encoding is more about cpu speed than anything else....If you know that you have an unlocked cpu it will be very easy to overclock a simple step...If it is unlocked that means the cpu multiplier is not locked and can be raised and lowered... you can raise it and keep the same ram and just effectively raise the cpu speed or you can lower the multiplier and raise the system speed... which is the best way....if it is unlocked you maybe able to get a 200x11 pretty easy...most will do 200x12...

If it's locked your stuck.... easiest way to tell is go into the bios and try to lower the multi and reboot... if it boots but at a slower speed try raising it... if it boots and at a faster speed it's unlocked...

If it dont boot you WILL have to clear the cmos to be able to reboot...

Edit: if you opt for a fsb increase you will need ddr3200

[indigo0086]

If it's unlocked, do I overclock it through the motherboard or through the bios?

Can't find the that particular thermalware model on newegg.

[MaxRat]

Bios....I wouldn't recomend even trying until you know where the idle and load temps are...you can try and run prime95 to check stability and load temps when you find a program to display the temps....

I am not saying you have to overclock your rig....it should encode movies just fine especially if you do a fresh install of xp (not an upgrade)....

I only suggested this as an option for a little more performance if the option presents itself... And only should be done so after you find that temps are not a problem....

[indigo0086]

I can't seem to find that heatsink fan anywhere.

[MaxRat]

go to www.pricewatch.com in the search bar on the page type in SI-97a

[indigo0086]

Does that one need a fan?

I was looking at this one
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835118119

[MaxRat]

The SI-97...yes...any 80mm or 90mm fan will work...

The one you linked is very nice.... I use the si-97 and a thermaltake UFO silverfan... It's variable speed and has all kinds of blinking lights....

you will be happy with the one you linked....just make sure to visit there sight to make sure it IS compatable with your board...

[indigo0086]

I think I do have a heating problem. I went to the bios and this was in the PC safety menu

Warning Temp: 75°C/160°F
System Temp 42°C/107°F
CPU Temp 61°C/144°F :eek:

Unless the tempurature guage is screwed up, that ain't good.

[MaxRat]

Yea.... for idle thats alittle high....A good cleaning and some new thermal interface material should do the trick...

[indigo0086]

I think I'm just going to go with another motherboard and processor upgrade. I bought and installed the new fan and, I mean my cpu temp is at like 50-51 degrees idle, I don't know about it under load, maybe it won't change much. Does the actual tempurature in the case do much for the cpu temp If I can get the surrounding a bit cooler? Also when fitting the fan I did a dangerous thing, the bracket you screw in to the two mounting braces has a capacitor in it's way. I kind of moved the capacitor out of the way making sure it doesn't break (I saw this one one of those pc review sites when they installed something) and screwed it in till it was out of the way :eek:. I made sure not to break it or have it break from the motherboard, and made sure the coating wasn't rubbed off, though I fear the vibrations (as low as they may be) may do that form me. Why did they even put the screws on the motherboard if the installation itself interfeared with the capacitors? Do those holes on the mobo serve any purpose? Why not the other way?

[MaxRat]

Yes... Actual room temps do play a part of how high the cpu temp gets...what is your room temp?

for the purpose of a backplate....(hole around cpu)

[indigo0086]

That explains much, the computer is on the floor with it's back pretty near a wall, I have no space to put it otherwise. I'm getting my own room soon so I am planning on having it pretty well ventilated. I think I'm going to move one of the case fans from the hd holder to the back so I have two near the cpu. The fan is awesome though, You can't hear a difference between low and high.

[MaxRat]

good case airflow plays an important role as well...if you cant get ait thru the case....all the cpu (air)cooling in the world won't help you...