alive again!!Amd athlon64 3000+ 754 retail cpu plus ecs nforce3 motherboard for $99.99 at outpost.com!!Hot!!

[Bullhonkie]

I bought one for a friend at B&M Fry's on Friday and I'm really kicking myself now for not buying another. After seeing how cheap and easy it was to get this to 2.4ghz I really should've gotten one to replace my girlfriend's P4 system.

Bang for the buck on this combo is just incredible.

 

[rvr2k3]

Originally posted by: mechou

Originally posted by: rvr2k3

Originally posted by: mechou
I bought and put this combo together last night, intending it to be an upgrade mythtv pvr box. Most of you probably couldn't care less, but if you intend to use the mobo (especially w/ linux), this is a heads-up, don't bother.

The mobo bios is EXTREMELY buggy, especially if you enable APIC (and even if you don't). It couldn't even configure the PCI space correctly when all the slots are populated. (Can't determine AGP aperture and other memory space configuration errors, such that it either won't boot completely or kernel panics if you do.)

While I was pleased to get a nice deal on a processor, this particular ECS board is very disappointing. I've had plenty of other ECS boards that worked flawlessly, including the much maligned K7S5A that always worked like a champ for me.

I have the Sempron 3100 combo with this board running my file/mp3 server on Ubuntu Breezy, no problems what so ever.

Tell me you don't get this in your dmesg (regardless how many slots get populated):
NFORCE3-250: BIOS didn't set cable bits correctly. Enabling workaround.

And this is what happens when your slots are fully populated, as I said earlier. Here 01:00.0 is a nvidia fx5200 AGP display card (tried other cards such as ATI too, pretty much same deal):
kernel: PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 1 of device 0000:01:00.0
kernel: PCI: Failed to allocate mem resource #1:8000000@b0000000 for 0000:01:00.0

And when one tries to load the proprietary nvidia driver:
kernel: NVRM: This PCI I/O region assigned to your NVIDIA device is invalid:
kernel: NVRM: BAR1 is 0M @ 0x00000000 (PCI:0001:00.0)
kernel: NVRM: The system BIOS may have misconfigured your graphics card.
nvidia: probe of 0000:01:00.0 failed with error -1
kernel: NVRM: The NVIDIA probe routine failed for 1 device(s).
kernel: NVRM: None of the NVIDIA graphics adapters were initialized!

I don't want to make a mountain out of a molehill but I advise peple to stay away from this one especially if you intend to full populate all your slots.

I'll admit, that my slots are not all populated, not even close. I think I just have an AGP and firwire card in there. Otherwise my board has been running 24/7 for about 4-6 weeks. No overclock on the Sempron either.

 

[electricJ]

I created another thread in General Hardware, but barely got any response... but am wondering, what RAM recommendations might anyone have to go along with this combo? I'd be looking at overclocking to 2.5 GHz if possible. I just didn't want to go overboard on spending for RAM if unnecessary.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: electricJ
I created another thread in General Hardware, but barely got any response... but am wondering, what RAM recommendations might anyone have to go along with this combo? I'd be looking at overclocking to 2.5 GHz if possible. I just didn't want to go overboard on spending for RAM if unnecessary.

Any value RAM will do. Just set HTT to 250 and RAM to 166. Adjust voltages and HT multiplier if necessary for stability. Enjoy!

 

[winr]

I am running my A64 3000+ at 245 right now.
I have 2 sticks of Corsair Value Ram.

And like Zap said, ram is at 166, stock voltage and HT multi is at 3.

Running 44c. crunching Rosetta@home 100%.

I will bump it to 250 later then put it in my EPOX 754 mobo and see if it acts any different.

 

[Triggerhappy007]

Yes, regular PC3200 will do fine. It doesn't help much if you run your RAM at 250MHz. You don't need dual channel RAM either.

 

[wazzledoozle]

Link doesnt work for me?

 

[CTrain]

Originally posted by: wazzledoozle
Link doesnt work for me?

Cause its DEAD on Outpost.

 

[CTrain]

Originally posted by: electricJ
I created another thread in General Hardware, but barely got any response... but am wondering, what RAM recommendations might anyone have to go along with this combo? I'd be looking at overclocking to 2.5 GHz if possible. I just didn't want to go overboard on spending for RAM if unnecessary.

Just get any value rams pc3200(thats DDR400).
Set it to 166 for the rams speed and HT to 3x and you can easily OC the CPU to 250mhz.
My Sempron 2800+ is running at 250mhz without any voltage adjustment.
Only wish the board go higher than 250mhz.

 

[freshspace]

Thanks to this thread, I ordered 2 sets and they have been shipped! Thanks a lot guys and gals.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: CTrain
My Sempron 2800+ is running at 250mhz without any voltage adjustment.
Only wish the board go higher than 250mhz.

There's two ways to do this, one is to use Clockgen and the second is to flash the BIOS with one from a matching Biostar board (check this thread for info). The Biostar board is near identical and the BIOS opens up HTT to a higher limit at the cost of losing "smart fan."

 

[winr]

Originally posted by: CTrain

Originally posted by: electricJ
I created another thread in General Hardware, but barely got any response... but am wondering, what RAM recommendations might anyone have to go along with this combo? I'd be looking at overclocking to 2.5 GHz if possible. I just didn't want to go overboard on spending for RAM if unnecessary.

Just get any value rams pc3200(thats DDR400).
Set it to 166 for the rams speed and HT to 3x and you can easily OC the CPU to 250mhz.
My Sempron 2800+ is running at 250mhz without any voltage adjustment.
Only wish the board go higher than 250mhz.

I am running my Sempron 2800+ in my EPOX mobo 8x280 on stock voltage.

Maybe with like Zap said you can get your board higher.

 

[ofacto]

Originally posted by: Bullhonkie
I bought one for a friend at B&M Fry's on Friday and I'm really kicking myself now for not buying another. After seeing how cheap and easy it was to get this to 2.4ghz I really should've gotten one to replace my girlfriend's P4 system.

Bang for the buck on this combo is just incredible.

Its still on sale til tuesday at LA/OC Fry's (probably all others too). They should still ahve them instock, cause it didn't seem like too many people picked this up on Friday, they all seemed to be going crazy over the Pentium D 9XX combos they had.

 

[backinsac]

Will standard Windows XP Professional work on this combo, or do I need to purchase 64 bit Windows XP? Thanks.

 

[wampa]

Originally posted by: backinsac
Will standard Windows XP Professional work on this combo, or do I need to purchase 64 bit Windows XP? Thanks.

Any version of windows will work with this combo. Just as long as you update to the latest drivers, you should be set.

 

[neovan]

Originally posted by: backinsac
Will standard Windows XP Professional work on this combo, or do I need to purchase 64 bit Windows XP? Thanks.

you don't need 64 bit Windows. Home, Professional or MCE will work just fine.

 

[backinsac]

Thanks guys, will go with windows xp pro.

 

[imported_moabb]

Thanks OP. Mine will be here today along with 1GB of Corsair Value Ram. Do I need to install Windows again when I replace the existing cpu/mb with this new one? I partitioned my HD and Windows is installed on its own partition.

 

[dman]

Received today, Retail Box w/ Aluminum Heatsink (no copper).
CPU is same as above:
ADA3000AIK4BX
CBBWE 0611FAE

Will fool with later and see what kind of oc I can with stock stuff and AS5 paste.

 

[dman]

Originally posted by: moabb
Thanks OP. Mine will be here today along with 1GB of Corsair Value Ram. Do I need to install Windows again when I replace the existing cpu/mb with this new one? I partitioned my HD and Windows is installed on its own partition.

Not supported by MS and maybe more trouble than it's worth, but, I've done it with success once so far (from a Celeron BX intel to Athlon XP VIA KT400 )

How to swap boards w/o reinstalling windows.

 

[yingyan]

Just got today delivery by DHL!!The cpu & motherboard both are Retail!!!
Cpu ID ADA3000AIK4BX
motherboard:ecs nforce3-a v.1.0a
will do some overclock later!!

 

[T8ZBUD]

Mine just arrived DHL ground, same numbers.

 

[Triggerhappy007]

Please post your OC results. I might pick one up at a Fry's in a few hours.

 

[cparker]

Just got mine delivered here in NY. CPU same as posted above.

 

[SubCarrier]

Pick mine up on last FRI. So far I found out that it don't like AGP TNT2 card. I believe it's not a 1.5 volt card even though the connector was correct. Anyways, put a PCI trident card and up it goes. I've max the fsb to 250 with stock voltage. The 1M superpi number on this 2.5GHz setup gives my x2 a run for the money. Gonna give Clockgen a try when I get home.