Built my First PC Last Night!

[NewbieBob]

I built the PC for my kids. I couldn't have done it without all the great information on this web site. Thanks AnandTech. I put together an Athon 1.2G, ECS K7S5A MB, Volcano 5 HSF, 256GB DDR, 40 GB drive, DVD, CD-RW, Antec 400W PS, generic 56K modem, GeoForce MX video, running Windows 98 SE. EVERYTHING worked the first time. It was so much fun, I'll never buy a commercial PC again.

One question - After running the system for about an hour, the BIOS hardware monitor says the System temperature is 31 degrees C, and the CPU is about 52 degrees C. Is this O.K., or should I re-examine the cooling or re-mount the HSF?

Thanks Again

 

[Sugadaddy]

I think 52 C is normal for that heatsink/fan and CPU. Did you use Arctic Silver, or something else?

 

[RadioactiveCPU]

usally 52C isn't that good for the processor. I mean it's not bad, but you shouldn't go over 55. My athlon 1.333 is running at like 44-47 usually, so i don't know. I am also using the PAL6035 HS.

 

[NewbieBob]

I removed the black thermal pad that came on the Volcano 5. I used a high temperature silicon heat sink compound made by GC Electronics.

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

Congratulations Bob! I guarantee, you'll never go back. The only thing pre-built has over homemade is the software bundles and a little prudent shopping on Ebay will fix that. I recommend a better HSF too. The volcano's just don't cut it. Try one of these. Look to the interactive listing on the right.

 

[GT578]

Maybe you should add some case fans if you think you installed the HSF correctly.

 

[Bovinicus]

That temperature is completely within limits. Unless you plan on doing a lot of crazy overclocking the Volcano will suite you just fine. 52c is not high, this forum is just filled with tweakers and overclockers who have to have the highest speed in combination with the lowest temps. Don't worry about it.

 

[John]

<< That temperature is completely within limits. Unless you plan on doing a lot of crazy overclocking the Volcano will suite you just fine. 52c is not high, this forum is just filled with tweakers and overclockers who have to have the highest speed in combination with the lowest temps. Don't worry about it. >>



Well said.

 

[BeanCrusher]

Any recommendations for someone else thinking of trying the same?

 

[contra53]

again, congratulations bob. as stated earlier you will never go back. i enjoy it so much that whenever a friend wants a new computer, i will explain to them the upgradeability with a homebuilt system and within a couple of days i will be building a computer for them ( like i said i enjoy it so much, i do it for free, they just pay for the parts, i just enjoy trying out new combinations and with the information i receive from this forum, the computers are always fast and reliable ).

 

[Dan]

NewbieBob: Congratulations! It's always a pleasure to welcome another pc-builder to the ranks.

contra53:


<< i do it for free, they just pay for the parts >>


You're going to give some of us a bad name! I charge $100-$150 (plus parts) to build a new system for someone.

 

[gershel]

Wow, you build a system for the first time, and you didn't have any problems. This never happend to me, and I been doing this for about 10 years.

Consider your self lucky, but you missed the fun part => debugging/pulling your hair out, trying to make the damn thing work

 

[SkunkButt]

I hope to have the same luck as you. I'm in the process of building my own, just waiting for my last few items to come in from newegg on Monday. First time as well. The nice fedex man brought me my A7M266 today, what a nice guy.

 

[NesuD]

Nice job Newbiebob. The fact that you hit it right on the first try tells me that you did your homework. 52c isn't anything to be concerned about. The system should run just fine at those temps. Ah the memories of my very first build. Didn't go quite that smooth since i was using some scsi stuff to. Made it a little more complicated putting together a boot disk with win 95 scsi cd rom drivers. Got through it just took me a little while longer. You should be proud that your kids can now impress their friends when they tell them their Daddy built that Kickass pc for them.

Pssst! Be careful though. Once the word gets out that you can build pc's everyone and their brother will be wanting you to fix their machines for them.

 

[majewski9]

Doesnt seem hot running to me!

 

[Xenon14]

Hmm... you're temps seem a bit hotter than normal. I have a K7 1.33ghz and a Volcano II HSF (~5400 rpm) w/ the thermal pad that's on the HSF; At full load I've seen it hit 53 degrees celcius, average usage of the computer I get 48. You might want to get another Case Fan.... $5 minus the shipping, it should increase air flow throughout your whole computer, and cool everything down. You can also put rubber bands on the wires inside your computer to minimize the space they take up and increase airflow. 53 degrees isn't bad, but lowering it by a couple degrees could increase stability and cpu life.

 

[NewbieBob]

Thanks for the feedback. I spent 2 days building the PC. The first day I read all the manuals of all the components I bought, so I would be familiar with them. Of course, this did not include the 2 weeks of browsing through this forum to get ideas and instructions. I also found good info at tomshardware.com on how to assemble everything.

The second evening, I put everthing together, got it to boot, and installed Windows 98, as well as the device drivers. That took about 4 hours. I was real carefull handling the circuit boards. I did have a few small glitches - I broke one of the motherboard standoffs in the case (fixed it), and I connected the floppy cable backwards (duh!).

I haven't finished tweaking the BIOS (that's when I'll probably get myself into trouble), but I hope to have all the kids (and my) games installed this weekend.

I'll keep my eye on the CPU temperature. If it doesn't go above 50-52 degree range, I'll leave it alone.

 

[Xenon14]

Oh, btw if you already played around with the jumpers on the mobo.. this might be useful. If your motherboard has multipliers, you should leave them as default and let the system configure it on its own during boot. I didn't know this and set my multipliers to get my cpu's clocked frequency of 1333. At bootup my temp read 52 degrees. Then somone mentioned on this forum that I should leave the multipliers at their default position. I still booted up at 1333, but my temp dropped down to 44 degrees celcius.

 

[NesuD]

Don't be concerned about what temps others say they are getting in their systems. Unless you are using identical motherboards they will almost never read the same. The differences can be as much as 10c from one board to the next.
Xenon14's epox board is known to read to the lower end of the scale as far as socket a boards go. I on the other hand using the identical cpu and HSF as Xenon14 but in an Msi K7T turbo motherboard consistently read temps between 52 and 55c in a 72f room. My case cooling is extensive so that couldn't be it. An Antec sx-1040 with all fan mounts populated plus a 92mm side panel fan see to that. If you are in the low to mid 50's and are not experiencing any stability issues i would not be concerned. It is recommended that you have a couple of 80mm case fans installed 1 intake and 1 exhaust is usually sufficient for most situations.

 

[thraxes]

The temps are OK for a untweaked not supercooled and not loud as hell athlon.
The building of PCs is kinda fun... I realized this early on when I was 15 and took my 486 to pieces (incl CPU and mem of the mainboard... cpu was not in aZIF socket, spent half an hour getting those pins back straight ) and put back all in working order.... still bought my P75 prebuilt but that was my last time I bought a finished comp.

It's so much more fun doing it yourself...


oh and congrats to the trouble free install... I've had good luck with the ECS K7S5A board up untill now aswell -cheap and reliable what more do you want... oh yeah and it's fast too.

 

[VTrider]

Newbiebob- first off, congrats....sure is rewarding, eh? I wouldn't worry either about your system/cpu temps as long as your not experiencing any weird lockups. It's always a good idea to keep track of these temps for a few weeks. It's a good idea to have atleast 2 case fans is your box, 1 intake and 1 exhaust.

Xenon14- How did you get your Volcano II to run at 5400rpm?, I thought they were spec'd at 4500rpm?