finally a small upgrade to my system

[Maggi]

oh ... I just noticed, I seem to have an over-full retail version, because my card not only came with those software bundles (PowerDVD, Tweaker and full version of Tomb Raider AoD), but it also had all neccessary connectors and cables, that are 1 DVI2VGA dongle, one S-video to composite adaptor, one composite video cable and one s-video cable, whereas that list states, there were no DVI2VGA and no s-video included

[Maggi]

lastly (for now), this PDF shows, my card has a 256bit memory interface ...

http://www.sapphiretech.com/broschure/9600.pdf

looks as if I made a good deal there

[dZeus]

Originally posted by Maggi
lastly (for now), this PDF shows, my card has a 256bit memory interface ...

http://www.sapphiretech.com/broschure/9600.pdf

looks as if I made a good deal there

the 256-bit is either a typo or 'old school nVidia-speech' (DDR 128Bit = 256 Bit). 9600 core only does 64 or 128 Bit ram interface. BTW which motherboard model do you have? surely not the 'vanilla' A7V model, right?

[Maggi]

Thanx Frank ... gotta love them Marketeers ...

my mobo is an A7V333 ... dunno if there's anything special or ordinary with it.

Cheers,
Maggi

[dZeus]

no just being curious wether you were really going to OC the FSB to 166 MHz on a vanilla A7V

A7V333 probably will work out just fine for OCing. Nice system upgrade btw

[Maggi]

I see ...

btw, I suspect my PSU being too weak now, because everytime, I startup the rig, my primary IDE fails to get recognized by the system, forcing me to reset the machine, as soon as the drives are spinned up.

upon that 2nd bootup, all is fine and dandy

now, after ordering those now cooling additions, I think, I'd better upgrade the PSU or maybe I still have an older one lying around, that I could slam into the huge case, for splitting the supply for all components more evenly and taking some stress from the one PSU that I run now.

Any pros or cons for adding a 2nd PSU ?

[dZeus]

I'd replace the PSU with a good quality 300 or 350 Watt one (just to be safe).

[Maggi]

my actual PSU is 300W already and it served me for quite a while without any hic-ups, and I cannot afford to spend any more money right now ...

I suspect the change of CPU and GFX card made the difference of pushing it a little over the edge
(Cel-2 vs. Thorton and Parhelia vs. Radeon9600)

I still have an old 300W PSU around somewhere and it would be easiest for me to put it into the rig, since there's a lot of spare room to be filled.

Could the use of two PSUs introduce some scary side effects ?

[Wombat]

Nah, two PSUs would be fine.
But this might not be a power problem. You might just be booting too fast for your components to come up.

In your BIOS, there should be a boot-delay or spin-up delay option. Increase that value.

[Maggi]

excellent hint !

will check that, but I fear adding the two coolers I ordered will put my PSU at least on the edge of its capacity and I surely don't want to trash anything

Thanx Wombat ...

[dZeus]

well you can check wether it's the psu by looping 3dmark2k1 or 2000 for a while. If your system has problems spinning up drives because of a power issue, it will definately crash when running a very 3d intensive application (the videocard will need alot of extra juice).

[Indiana]

Originally posted by dZeus
(the videocard will need alot of extra juice).

The 9600 non Pro cards don't need that much power - this is why they can operate without active cooling.

[Wombat]

Originally posted by Maggi
I fear adding the two coolers I ordered will put my PSU at least on the edge of its capacity and I surely don't want to trash anything

So get it booted up, and then use something like MBM to report back your voltages. If they look fine, then do some stuff to stress the system, and see if they still look fine.

[Maggi]

Originally posted by rylan
fyi unfortunately the older thorton cores don't overclock as well as the new barton 2500+ cores. However, odds are you got an unlocked cpu and you probably don't even have to connect the bridges. I'd slap it in the system, make sure it boots at stock speed then change the multiplier up slightly and see if it sticks.

using the default HS/fan combo ... how's that for a start

[GNEP]

That should be nice and noticable