My new toy

[Mac the Knife]

Falcon ATX Midi Tower P4 300w PSU
MSI K7N2 Delta-LISR Motherboard - (400 FSB)
AMD 2500+ XP Barton Processor (512k cache)
512k DDR PC-3200 RAM
M$ Optical Mouse
M$ Windows XP Professional
Matrox P650 DualHead 64MB
LG 52x24x52 Internal IDE CD-ReWriter
120GB & 40GB Western Digital Hard Drives 7200rpm (8mb cache)

and from the old setup:
Avant Stellar keyboard (best keyboards ever, fully mechanical keys that fight back).
2 x LG Studioworks 700S monitors
LG Combo DVD/CDR/W (good bit of kit)

Goes like sh!t off a shovel. The Matrox P640 is far from being a games stunner, but I don't do much gaming. The image quality is stunning with 10-bit Gigacolor and rock steady - I do a lot of image processing so this is important. Direct-X doesn't pass the Direct-X diagnostics (system crashes on Direct 3D tests), but hopefully downloading the latest driver from Matrox will cure this. Anyway, now to spend the next week tweaking it and stuffing all the s/w into it.

Thanks to Richard for pointing me at the MSI Delta LISR - superb mobo, only complaint is that there is only one fan connector.

[amanoffewwords]

ONLY ONE FAN !?!??!!!!!!!"

Richard, you're fired.

[fobotcso]

Jealous as hell!

But I'm lost on the question of sound.

Where is this Realtek thingy? On the MoBo? Does it have its own RAM? Topical for me at the moment.

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Mac,

I am glad to hear you have the comp up and running, or should I say flying!

I agree the lack of extra fan headers is about the only negative to that motherboard. What I did was plug all my fans directly into the Power Supply, which is an option I prefer to using the motherboard's fan headers.

I have personally spoken with the engineers that designed the board for MSI about that very issue. It was a tradeoff. They added the extra 4 pin 12V connector to send juice directly to the CPU for added stability for overclocking and removed the extra fan headers from the design.

TCS,

The -ILSR has nVidia's Soundstorm, which with digital speakers is something else. There is nothing even close to it in the onboard audio market. For that matter, most PCI sound cards cannot compete with Soundstorm.

Take Care,

Richard

P.S. amanoffewwords, now that I am fired, will you help me find a job???

[Lost_luggage34]

Nice spec - food for thought.

Just out of curiosity, isn't all that kit close to the limit for a 300W PSU ?

Anyone have any hard and fast rules for calculating minimum PSU spec based on PCI slot population / Processor / Motherboard combination ?

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Lost_luggage34,

300W is a little under powered for that rig, if Mac were to go to a GeForce4 Ti or GeforceFX Vid Card he would need a bigger power supply.

Here is a good read:

Choosing The Right Power Supply

This is a website I use for power supply requirements:

Power Wattage Calculator

I would say the minimum power supply for that computer is 320W + the additional fans. I always suggest a 400W Brand Name Power Supply with a minimum of 28a on the 3.3v RAIL and a Max Combined Wattage of at least 200W.

Take Care,

Richard

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

TCS,

I am listening to the Sounstorm on Logitech Z-680s. They are 500w 5.1 Digital THX Speakers.

DVDs, games, MP3s and CDs all sound awesome on them.

When you run MS Flight Sim, you acutally feel the gear and flaps as you put them in.

Take Care,

Richard

[Mac the Knife]

Excellent suggestion about fan controllers TCS - I've still got a couple of big bays open so would fit in nicely. I see there are dozens of funky (and expensive) ones available on the net. Nothing available in Cape Town (maybe Jo'burg?). Any suggestions for something plain and functional?

Thanks for the explanation about the fan headers Richard - I s'pose the reckoned that overclockers would add fan controllers anyway. Certainly agree about Soundstorm - very impressive indeed.

Downloaded the latest Matrox certified driver for the P650 last night and will stick it in a hope it solves the Direct-X problem.

PS: The board as delivered didn't recognise the Athlon & wouldn't even start. Had to flash the BIOS with the latest MSI drivers before it would work. All well now.

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Mac,

It sounds like your board was one of the original first release boards for the Delta-ILSR with the original BIOS (7.0). The first BIOS revision (7.1 on Apr. 21, 2003) added support for the Barton Core AthlonXPs. The good news is that there have not been any major design changes in the board (other than shipping BIOS Revisions).

If you do not want to buy a fan bay, you can use an adapter to change the pins on the fan so you can plug it directly into the Power Supply. Here is an example:



Take Care,

Richard

[ORAC]

If you want a modern high power PSU, take a look at the Vantec.

I like a low noise level, so I use the MCX4000 CPU heatsink. It's heavy, but it's good. They don't mention it here, but to use a 92mm fan you have to have an adapter kit. It should, as stated, be bundled with it, but check.

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

TCS,

I also like the Antec TruePower Line. It is the only line I stock and I have had really good luck with it. The Antec 430W TruePower and the Antec 480W TruePower which can be found in this roundup by Tom's Hardware:

High Power For Power Users: 13 Power Supplies In The Spotlight.

The Blue LED version of the 480W is a big seller too. People really like this one and it is worth a look if you want to add a little something different to your comp.



Take Care,

Richard

[type1]

all this power.............

so u have all this "power", what exactly are you gonna do with it..........surf the net and play DVDs - pah

[amanoffewwords]

Rumour has it it's going to act as mirror server for Pprune. Just don't tell Mac, it's a surprise

[ORAC]

Do with it? You can actually do something with a PC apart from play around with it after you've built it? What have I been missing...

[type1]

ORAC - fair enough, you got me there.

i guess if you actually want to use a PC for something you buy an Apple

[PPRuNe Towers]

Absolute pleasure to see someone using a a graphics board to suit what they do rather than the relentless nVidia bandwagon.

If you are not a hardcore gamer the Matrox dualheads are superb 2d boards. Next, beg, borrow or steal a second monitor to experience how a 'wimp' OS is really meant to be used. Good brand and strongly recommended - paddle against the PC fashion police and use a board designed for what you use a computer for.

Regards
Rob

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

TCS,

I have a Diagnostics Lab for building and troubleshooting comps. I do not use a storefront, I do most of my troubleshooting work onsite. I do not advertise, it is all word of mouth.

Word of mouth can be funny, lately I have been building a lot of gaming machines for people in N.Y., N.J., N.M, and Cali. (No onsite troubleshooting for them though.)

Take Care,

Richard

P.S. Is your username TCS for Truth or Consequences, N.M.?

[Mac the Knife]

Matrox BIOS update and download and installation of latest Matrox drivers fixed problem. Direct-X now fine.

There's also an irritation that the OEM logo on bootup is scrambled (can't disable it on this system), this is due to the mode used not being supported by the P650 BIOS on bootup. Matrox have a little download on their site that fixes this.

Now time to stick in the AV (I use McAfee's Internet Security package and have had no probs with it) and get online.

Still tinkering with the FREESCO router on an old P1 at odd moments. And my area has just got ADSL, so I suppose that that will be the next project.

[Lost_luggage34]

Thanks Richard - excellent reference.

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Lost_luggage34,

Glad to help.

Take Care,

Richard

P.S. Half of the problems I troubleshoot in the MSI Multimedia Forums is do to inadequate Power Supply. That is a huge statistic when you think about it.