[vox-tech] Athlon (was Hardware Question)

[Peter Jay Salzman]

begin Stephen M. Helms <Mytho_X@pacbell.net> 
> Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
> 
> >2 cents: i have a 1.4GHz athlon system that was dead in the water.  i
> >checked everything and bought all AMD approved stuff -- fans, RAM, case,
> >heatsink.
> >
> >except the powersupply.   foo told me that there were AMD approved power
> >supplies.   i bought one off the web and 5 days later i had a working
> >athlon system.
>
> Do you have a list of the places where you bought the parts -- fans, 
> RAM, case, heatsink, PSU?  I have looked at AMD web site and the list is 
> pretty extensive, so if yours are working well, I can save some time 
> searching.
 
no, unfortunately don't have the places where i bought the stuff.

in fact, i had trouble myself.   i went through the AMD list and spent a
good 10 minutes to come up with the power supply with the best ratings.
kinda like how you try to max out your character in AD&D.  :)  when i
determined the best, most powerful PS, i found that it was nowhere to be
found!

i emailed the company that makes it and they gave me a list of vendors
who carry their stuff.  for various reasons, none of the companies
worked out.  i couldn't find the PS anywhere.   i emailed all the
companies, and the only one that had it in stock spammed me the very
next day, so i instantly crossed them off the list.  a couple of other
places had java applets that made their website useless to anyone
without IE.   so i crossed them off the list too.

i finally managed to buy the supply from the vendor itself after begging
them to help me.  i think what the dude actually did was buy the power
supply himself, cashed my check and mailed the supply off to me, because
it came in an "unmarked bag" with a hand written return address.

> >big weakness in AMD stuff, making it totally unsuitable for the person
> >who wants to build a system for the first time.
> >
> I would agree with this.  I have built all of the computers that I 
> currently have (with the exception of the Sun Ultra 5 and the Toshiba 
> Libretto 50CT) and have not had any problems like this in the past.  I 
> guess I am not as up to speed on the AMD chipsets though.
 
heh.  none of us are.  i was an expert at AMD processors and motherboard
chipsets about half a year ago.  i'm totally behind the times at this
point.  i've been playing around with the thought of getting an MP
system because the boards are so damned cheap now.  but the woes i had
in setting up my XP athlon system were pretty huge.

in fact, when i first tried to build an athlon system, it wasn't
booting  (probably was the power supply).  i figured that i'd try to
ixnay all the power drain except for the cpu and mobo including the fan.

i booted the computer without a fan (heat sink was still on), and saw
nothing.  i left the system on for just 2 seconds, long enough to make
sure the system wasn't posting.

by then the damage was done.  the cpu went to the afterworld, and took
the motherboard with it.

i've *never* seen a cpu get fried in that amount of time.  AMD already
proved it can compete with intel hardware.  if they can just get thermal
stability and power consumption to a reasonable state, they'd be killer.


> >but you have to love the price.
> >
> Of course, sometimes you get what you pay for, I may be spending a 
> little more to get quality rated parts.  I would have to say this is not 
> really a problem with AMD as much as it is with vendors selling parts 
> that do not perform like they should i.e.  a 350W PSU does not really 
> provide a total of 350W to your whole system as you loose power with 
> resistance, etc.

maybe that's the problem -- they can still say "350W" if V is a bit low
if they make up for it by providing more current.   LOL.

pete