Buying a computer

[Berlin]

So which one are you again

Neila ?

 

[Beldivok]

are you jokeing alien ... windows in loosing market share quiet fast to linux and mac...

I actually hope it stays a win dominated world then at least there are a better standards before windows the games sucked that change is largly do to the creation of direct x etc.... and as a result works best if there is a dominant party.... anyway I'm babling at work so I'm

cutting short.

 

[Peeping Tom]

I spec'ed about 25 MSI based AMD at work over the last eighteen months or so. No problems so far in that environment. With this experience in mind, I upgraded at home, choosing the K7N2. So far, all good, especially the dual channel DDR.

is MSI board any good ? I used ASUS before, but a store I visited was recommending MSI.

The issues with Kingmax are well known. Since it appears that you changed the board yourself you should have known to read up on it beforehand. The nforce 2 is a relatively new chipset and as such, the early adopters usually wind up with the most problems. As for generic ram, I'm using some pretty basic stuff without problems. If you are attempting to use the dual channel controller it is best advised to start with identical sticks, much like the old days - this way, the SPD is the same and the timings can then be manually adjusted later. Alternately, fill banks 1 and 2, then check or relax the timings when using the cheep stuff.

If you bought this for performance, have a look at the Corsair paired packages. They are hand tested and guaranteed to work at the specified timings. It does cost a bit though, something which shouldn't be a problem given the high rate of cash spending in the primary hobby this board caters to.

Be warned, I bought the MSI K7N2G-ILSR board on the weekend, it's incompatible with Kingmax memory and most generic memory

 

[LoveThemGirls]

Yah, I should've read up on the memory problem, but the K7N2G was appealing because it came with everything integrated (video, tv-out, firewire, digital audio, ethernet, usb 2). No other board had the amount of features for the money. According to bigfoot computers, the only memory that they recommend for the nforce2 chipset is ocz, which goes for $180 or so for 2 sticks of 256 (2 sticks to take advantage of the dual channel). I finally got the board up and working, had to do major tweaking in the bios. Along with my new AMD XP 2000 cpu, the machine is incredible fast.

Now that I got it working, I'm happy with it. I am using generic memory but plan to get the OCZ memory when the price goes down. Bottom line, unless you're a tecchie or want to spend the money on the OCZ memory, avoid the nforce2 chipset for now. I built an MSI KT4 a few months ago for a friend, had no problems with it.

 

[Peeping Tom]

Be aware that using the onboard vid prevents you from using the dual channel feature - one channel for the vid, one for the system.

OCZ has a history of ripoff schemes, is a waste of money and any source reccomending it must be treated with suspicion. Avoid like the plague. If your box is stable with generic DDR there is no need to get better stuff. Most problems, apart from the Kingmax, are from those using mismatched sticks and / or excessive overclocking. If you use the onboard vid most likely you won't be needing, or noticing, the slight gains to be had by using more aggressive timings.

In general, your comment about features for the money needs to be distanced from the nforce2 chipset. You get what you pay for - exactly my reasoning for the basic model, as I never use onboard anything. "The everything onboard" is more towards the integrator selling low cost, low quality machines.

 

[WoodPeckr]

Panther is coming out this summer. It will apparently be surperior to Loghorn, which will not ship for several years.

Interesting, first time ever hearing about Panther. Can you or anyone expand on that? Anyone have a relevant website for info?