General AMD Questions

General Skanky

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I'm about to buy a Gigabyte GA-7AVXP motherboard.

The plan is to use an AMD XP 2200+ or 2400+ if it drops a bit in price soonish.

Q1. As it's 8x AGP, and some of you say that it is incompatible with the Radeon 9700, is that a universal problem? Crucial Memory are selling a Radeon 8500LE for £71+VAT which they 'say' is compatible with the board.

Q2. What cooling method do you all use for AMD? I've read the posts on the Zalman Flower, but what decent alternatives do you use?

Q3. PSU. I'm now going for the 431W Enermax at Overclockers unless there is a better one that someone knows about for the same money?

Thanks.
 
I can't answer question 1 but for the others:

2. Coolermaster fans are pretty good. They may not be quiet enough for HTPC use though. Don't be too worried about CPU cooling with AMDs (unless you start to get over 70c)- although temps tend to be higher than P4s. Temp utilities often over-report temps anyhow:

http://www.amdforums.com/showthread.php?threadid=154147

Tom's Hardware had a comprehensive review of coolers recently:

http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/02q3/020916/cooler-06.html

3. 431 should be more than enough. It's the stability of the power supply that counts - Enermax PSUs are fine.

:)
 
From info given to me on the P4 recommendations thread it would seem with the radeon 9700 the incompatability issue was with the card itself rather than specific mobos. Newer revisions of the board are apparently fine with x8 AGP although I can't verify this myself.
 
Thanks to you both.

It was going to be a HCPC but I've gone down the route of using it as purely my pc now. Noise isn't such an issue anymore, but the Coolermaster range will be fine.

Enermax. What more can be said really?

Do you know how the Radeon 8500LE rates in relation to other cards? I'm not after the very best performance, just a good card. I've got a GeForce 4 MX440 64Mb already, but, and maybe it's just me, but the Radeon website seems easier to get on with for drivers etc.:confused: So I'd sell the GeForce, buy the Radeon and hope for the best.:)
 
The 8500LE is a fine card, its better than the 9000 IMO. I have both cards, the 9000 is back in its box. The only down side is that the fan is a bit noisy, but that can be changed if needed.

Jeff
 
Hi General Skanky

I use a Thermal Take with my AMD, if you go over to the AMD site there is a page that you can select the type of processor you wish to use and the will give you a list of recommended cooler for it. Do not skimp in this area as the cooler the pro runs the longer its life span is likely to be. Do not forget some thermal transfer paste. I also use a shim which can help with the seating of the heat sink on the pro. Take a look over at http://www.theoverclockingstore.co.uk.
 
I've been looking at cooling for a little while and needed some back up.:rolleyes:

I've now decided on a Akasa Silver Mountain 2Q for cooling and the Enermax 431w psu from Overclockers.

Thanks all.
 
Do not buy a 8500 for home PC use if you are using it for games. Buy a Geforce 4 Ti4200 at least. The drivers are far more stable than the Radeons and the performance is far better, especially when the prices are very similar.

If you want ultimate performance then get the ATi 9700, although it comes at a hefty price. On the quietness, always go for as quiet as you can get it. If you are going to be sat next to your PC for hours at a time, a loud fan is going to seriously get on your nerves.
 
hmm, Radeon drivers are pretty good these days.
 
They are not as bas as they once were, that is true. And some of the Nvidia drivers have their fair share of glitches :(

However, my friend has his 8500 and gets a lot of glitches on games like GTA3 and SOF 2.

Plus at the prices from Komplett, the cheapest 8500 is 160 quid, whereas you can get the Abit Ti4200 OTES for 130, check out the review here

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MzYy

OTES is really something special dirt cheap and can be clocked to over Ti4600 speeds, could not recommend this card more.
 
As to the quietness there is a thread somewhere on this forum on that subject. As I stated in it I deadened the noise of my machine by taping some very thin foam to the inside of the case about 3/16” (and the cooling fan is on full belt).
 

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