Recommend an nForce2 Mobo

[KvHagedorn]

I have a PC Power and Cooling 450w and it runs a pair of P3s and 4 SCSI hard drives without any problems. More and better power is ALWAYS better. Yeah it was $200.. so what's your point?

You want the Asus for stability, right? The power supply is at least as important an ingredient for that.

[Kurt]

get a good PSU from Fortron Source (Aopen, PC Power&Cooling, Zalman, others I forget).

Get a decent 350W-400W model. They've got room to spare no sweat and they don't cost an arm & a leg (except the PC Power & Cooling special server ones). The cheapest are probably the Aopen, but they come in a decent case so I guess it's all bonus...

[TnT]

I am running an Antec True430 and here are my specs:
1800 XP
DVD Drive
Combo Drive
4 IBM Hard Drives (8,10,15,40)
1 Seagate Hard Drive (80)

No issues and the PSU costs $70 USD.

[KvHagedorn]

Another plus for stability is a line conditioner. I use two Panamax MAX series surge protectors (both have line conditioners) in line and then an Adcom ACE conditioner, and then the PC Power and Cooling unit has a line conditioner as well.. somehow I think the power that finally gets to my components is pretty pristine.

[Kastuvas]

Well i will give it try if it works, I will keep my power supply, if not i will just get a new one.

GNEP where did you order your stuff from? Was the processor unlocked? did you try oveclocking it?

[GNEP]

It hasn't arrived yet (should theoretically be tomorrow, but we'll see...). Ordered from ebuyer.com, as I already have details etc set up with them and so they can deliver to work rather than my billing address. Komplett.co.uk was marginally cheaper, but not so much it was worth the hassle setting up my details. Will let you know re. unlocked-ness, but I don't expect it to be as I understand new Bartons have packaging that buries all the L-bridges and are locked by default. Don't know if this is relevant or not on this mobo, but ramping up the FSB should be sufficient anyway.

[Fat Tone]

I don't want to worry you DM, but this is my experience of e-buyer this week:

I was expecting a delivery from e-buyer today, but they have monumentally cocked up! Since placing an order for virtually an entire system, the delivery date was shown as today. The gfx card came separately on Tuesday (unexpectedly and with no notice). By this morning, the web site still said 'awaiting dispatch' so at 9 I rang to see what was going on. They apologised, said to expect a City-link delivery today and gave me credit for free delivery on a subsequent order. She also said that the small&expensive items will be delivered separately tomorrow and no I can't change the delivery address (I'll be at work tomrrow). The delivery came around lunch time and the case didn't arrive so I have to wonder if they class that as small&expensive (well actually the phrase is 'from our "safe" warehouse') and the combo drive doesn't have WinDVD XP with it as it is supposed to. The IDE cable is an extra long one and the floppy is the wrong colour. The box was crushed and not selo-taped up, so all in all a very poor performance.

Also, the citylink web site says they tried to deliver yesterday, which they didn't!

I'm not impressed. I hope you have better luck.

T.

[GNEP]

Hmmm still says "awaiting dispatch" but they usually seem to leave it at that stage for about 3 days then change it v. late the day prior to delivery. Doesn't matter to me much if it arrives next week as I am away all weekend anyway... but thanks for the heads-up Tone.

Actually I notice the recent comments on them at http://www.romulus2.com/feedback/chart.php?1 (useful site btw)seem to indicate they might be going downhill... which would be a shame as they have done well in the past... Will let you know how this one goes...

[GNEP]

Just got the email (at 21:33 GMT) saying my order has been dispatched (all items).

Checked the tracking links to find it is coming by City Link and was picked up by them at 16:19 this afternoon. Both Ebuyer AND City Link have an expected delivery of tomorrow...

So all is looking good - all of my bits came from their orange No.1 warehouse though so that may be why... nothing too complicated for them

[Fat Tone]

So now they just have to negotiate your post room, like your camera did

That link was very useful thanks - not only a list of ratings, but a good list of suppliers. I've been looking for a good comparison site (I have virtually stopped using www.computerprices.co.uk) and this is a good stop-gap. TVM

There's nothing on the ebuyer site to let me track my remaining parcels...it says total parcels 5,: I had 3 today, one 2 days ago, and by my reckoning there should be two more (as one is a case/keyb/mouse/spkr set and the other is cpu/hdd etc) so who knows...we'll see what tomorrow brings.

T.

[GNEP]

I had to dig a bit to find the tracking - somewhere after clicking on the invoice link and then on the item or something gave me a link to City Link...

The post room should see my name and bring anything for me wrapped in tinsel these days...

[Fat Tone]

LOL.

The tracking reference is still the number that shows the eroneous data from before

[GNEP]

Ah. not much more you can do than wait then...

[GNEP]

How have your deliveries come along (or not) Tony?

Mine has just arrived up here straight to my desk All seems to be present and correct... will test it over the weekend.

[Fat Tone]

Excellent!

I imagine they are posting a 'you weren't at home' card through my letter box at this very minute.

Have fun testing.

T.