Computer Help Continued

[Vince]

Ok, as some of you might have known from last year, I'd been having computer problems, and I thought that I burnt out my 'new' Athlon 1.2 Gig processor a while back. Since then, I've been using the roommie's computer, because I didn't have the money to replace my processor. Well, now I have a little bit of cash, and I'm going about replacing it. I'm fairly certain it is the processor (tested pretty much all the other components individually on other systems), but since I only have a limited amount of money, I'm sticking with my motherboard, which fits Athlon chips. So when I get a new Athlon 1.2, how do I know how much fan I need to keep it from overheating? Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance...

[Tasan]

Well, the type of heatsink/fan you want is one with a copper core. It'll look just like any other except when you look at the bottom, you'll see a copper circle in the middle.

If you burnt out your last one and it had a heatsink/fan on it, more than likely you didn't have good heat transfer from the processor to the heatsink. To avoid this, I also recommend you scrape off any of the 'sticky' substance that normally comes on these and get you some Artic Silver or other thermal compound and use that instead. It gets the best heat transfer. Also, when applying that stuff, don't get it too thick, or it won't work right. A nice thin layer that covers all the area that the heatsink touches the process is fine.

[Daimyo]

If your motherboard can support it, this is a great deal for an AMD processor from the best online retailer:

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?description=19-103-351

They also carry fans and powersinks.

[Tasan]

Originally posted by Daimyo
If your motherboard can support it, this is a great deal for an AMD processor from the best online retailer:

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...ion=19-103-351

They also carry fans and powersinks.

This is for an AMD XP processor. More than likely, his year old motherboard doesn't support XP processors, just TBird and Duron.

[Airhog]

Originally posted by Tasan
Well, the type of heatsink/fan you want is one with a copper core. It'll look just like any other except when you look at the bottom, you'll see a copper circle in the middle.

If you burnt out your last one and it had a heatsink/fan on it, more than likely you didn't have good heat transfer from the processor to the heatsink. To avoid this, I also recommend you scrape off any of the 'sticky' substance that normally comes on these and get you some Artic Silver or other thermal compound and use that instead. It gets the best heat transfer. Also, when applying that stuff, don't get it too thick, or it won't work right. A nice thin layer that covers all the area that the heatsink touches the process is fine.

you dont have to run a copper core heatsink, not unless you are running something really fast. you want a heatsink with alot of surface area, the more surface area, the better. A good fan will run you 35 bucks, but you can get away with spending less

[Tasan]

I'd recommend this and the Thermaltake DRAGON ORB3 here

[Vince]

Thanks guys...I'll keep this in mind. That's a hell of a deal there Tasan...I appreciate that. I gotta make sure I know the specs on my motherboard as for what it can and can't run...I think it is only T-Bird and Duron capable, but I seem to remember that the motherboard could only run up to like a 1.4 GHz processor...as you can already tell, I know a little bit about computers, but not that much. I'm going to go look up the specs of my motherboard.

[Vince]

Dola:

Ok, so I found the model number, and here's what Gigabyte's site has to say about it:

Model GA-7VTXE
ATX Form Factor
Socket A for AMD Athlon/Athlon XP/Duron 200/266 MHz FSB processors
3 DDR DIMMs support up to 3 GB of PC 1600/PC2100 DDR memory
Supports AGP 4X and 4 USB ports
Supports UDMA ATA 100/66 IDE devices
AC97 Audio
Supports ACPI and STR (Suspend-To-RAM)
Supports DualBIOS, EasyTune III and @BIOS
Multi-FSB Settings

Now, how do I find out what it's capacity is? I don't want to go get a 1.8 GHz processor only to find that my board can't run it. I've tried e-mailing Gigabyte before, but they don't respond. Any ideas?

[dacman]

If I'm reading your BIOS manual correctly, you can get up to 1662.5 MHz (which is the Athlon XP 2000).

[Vince]

Thanks dacman...now as a layman trying to learn more, how did you figure that out and how can I figure that out in the future?

[dacman]

True Bus speed * maximum clock ratio.

In your case 133 * 12.5 = 1662.5.

There is however, that 12.5+ setting in your BIOS that has me wondering. Anybody know what that is?

[Vince]

Ok, well the motherboard manual won't load up for me on the Gigabyte page. Anyhow...thanks for the input guys. I'll let you know how it goes over the next few days.

[dacman]

You will need to change some dip switches it appears so you will be needing that BIOS manual if you don't have one.

[Vince]

Ok...on a recommendation, I tried to replace the power supply...and when I finished I tried to start up my computer with the same result...nothing being sent to the monitor.

Well, randomly about an hour later, I turn on my computer just for fun, and it works. I've been moving things around to test component parts to lock down the problem, so I had my roommate's video card in it, so it started to ask for drivers. I skipped all of that because it wasn't my Video Card. It then went to the desktop and gave me an error in the registry. "Windows will restart and repair the registry."

So I hit ok, it goes to restart...and leaves me with a black screen again. The computer is running, but the monitor is not getting anything. Any ideas?