Athlon 64 Chipsets

[peternm22]

Hey everyone! First post here, although I have been a long time lurker

I'm looking into getting SageTV, but I have had stability problems with the trial version. These problems aren't exclusive to SageTV though, they are more of a system wide occurrence.

My current specs:
Athlon Xp 2000+
512MB RAM
Gigabyte mobo, KT400 chipset (VIA)

I've been having problems with my computer for about a year, and I have narrowed it down to the components above (since I have literally replaced everything else on the computer for one reason or another).

I learned to live with the random reboots, but since I started trying SageTV, the random crashes really cause a problem when trying to record a program.

So I have decided to upgrade to an Athlon 64, to hopefully put all these problems to rest for good. I'm leaning towards a 3000+, not sure which socket to go with though.

Any recommendations for motherboards? I did a search on the forum, but didn't find much about Athlon64's. How are VIA chipsets nowadays? Any problems with the latest crop?

Any advice you guys could give would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Peter

[g808]

I'm thinking it's not necessarily the processor's fault. It could be that you need to adjust your FSB, CPU multiplier, and/or voltage settings. Have you tried playing with your BIOS settings to achieve stability?

[peternm22]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Yep, I've tried adjusting the BIOS settings. Nothing works, multiplier, FSB, etc. Lowering them doesn't help.

I don't think it's the processors fault either, I'm thinking it's the motherboard (possibly the KT400 chipset).

I figure if I'm going to replace the motherboard, I may as well upgrade the processor as well.

-Peter

[peternm22]

Two motherboards that have caught my eye:


SOLTEK K8TPRO-939

and for a more featured packed one:

MSI K8N NEO2 PLATINUM


Any thoughts on these?

Thanks,
Peter

[something fishy]

It could quite easily be a memory error (especially if you've not turned off XP's reboot on critical error function as then you won't see the stop error blue screen). Unless you've bought some super duper certified memory you should test it before anything else. There are a variety of memory testers out there, I used the microsoft one:
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp
it runs off a bootable CD rom. Make sure that you set it to its thorough test and run overnight.

Cheers
Eric

[peternm22]

I did turn off the reboot on error feature, the computer still reboots or freezes though The times that it doesn't reboot, and I do get an error message, it's always something different. PFN list file corrupt, page fault error, unmountable boot device (had to run chkdsk on that one), etc... rarely are any two errors the same, which makes this frustrating.

I was also getting a "Failed Delayed Write" error popping up in the tool-tips, did a fresh install of XP though, and that fixed it.


Also, I ran memtest86 the other day for 4 hours. No errors at all.

CPU temp is 45-50 degrees. My old heatsink/fan combo failed not long ago, and my CPU was hitting 90 degrees.... I was getting a LOT more reboots then

Also note that this is an older core Athlon XP 2000+ (can't remember the name of it... Palimino I think), so they tend to run a little hotter then the newer cores. But I think 45-50 degrees should be well within operating temps.

In the past six months, this is what I have replaced on the computer (for a variety of reasons):
Power Supply: Old one blew out (too much dust I think, make sure that doesn't happen again)
Graphics card: When the power supply went, it took the graphics card with it. Was running a Ti4400, now running a ATI 9550.
Hard drive: Simply for more space.

I was having these problems before the power supply went though, so I don't think that caused any of the issues.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[nielm]

Ouch.... Sounds like you have been having some bad times!

and my CPU was hitting 90 degrees.... I was getting a LOT more reboots then

you realise that running at this sort of temp may have permenantly damaged part of your CPU?

[peternm22]

I realize that. That's why I'm replacing the processor and the motherboard.

Any thoughts on the two motherboards I mentioned above?

Thanks,
Peter

[Toddly]

Out of your 2 choices listed I think I would get the MSI. MSI has a good reputation. I have been partial to motherboards with the NForce chipset lately and there are many manufacturers that you could choose from. Abit, ASUS and Shuttle and EPOX come to mind.

[stanger89]

Whatever you do, don't buy anything with a VIA chipset, I've see way to many users report problems that were fixed as soon as they changed to and Intel or nVidia chipset.

I would look at:

Abit NF8, nForce3 250Gb (I've got one of these)
or if you're of the 939 persuasion:
Chaintek VNF4/Ultra, nForce4 Ultra.

[g808]

Originally Posted by peternm22

Two motherboards that have caught my eye:


SOLTEK K8TPRO-939

and for a more featured packed one:

MSI K8N NEO2 PLATINUM


Any thoughts on these?

Thanks,
Peter

You might have to replace the northbridge cooler on that MSI board with a passively cooled one depending on how much noise that generates.

Have you thought about getting a socket A boad/processor? That would save you a good chunk of change since the XP Mobile processors are very overclockable to A64 speeds. They are also power efficient, so overclocking shouldn't be much of an issue for an HTPC.

[peternm22]

Thanks for the help everyone. I think I've decided what to get:

-AMD ATHLON 64 3000+ PROCESSOR S939 1.8GHZ 512KB L2 CACHE
-SAMSUNG 512MB PC3200 DDR400 184PIN OEM
-MSI K8N NEO2 PLATINUM NFORCE3 ULTRA S939

The rest of the system will be (stuff I already have):
-200GB Seagate IDE hard disk, 60GB Western Digital IDE hard disk
-ATI Radeon 9550 256MB
-Pioneer DVD dual-layer burner
-Windows XP Home
-PVR250

How does that look? Any glaring compatability problems?

Will I have any trouble activating Windows XP? I believe the Windows activation process is tied to hardware changes. So after I upgrade the motherboard/processor/ram, my computer will have almost none of the original hardware when I first installed XP.

Thanks, I'm hoping to order the new parts ASAP, so any comments you guys have would be appreciated.

-Peter

[peternm22]

Alright, I've placed my order. It should be here in a few days.

I'll let you guys know how it goes

Thanks for all the help.

-Peter

[Crazedz]

Yeah the MSI is a good board and if your going 64 bit now then the 939 socket is the way to go as amd isn't going to do 754 sockets anymore. And i vote for the Nforce boards as well as they seem to have fewer problems with them.


And i don't see any compatability problems at all though i don't know how many watts your power supply puts out but i'd sugjest a 400w min or more likely 450w to make sure you have enough power as not having enough power can be just like having a bad powersupply reboots crashes etc..

Also make sure it's a good one that can handle sustained power output as that can cause random reboots as well.

One final tip make sure you have a clean source of power from your outlets as dirty(inconsistant power) can cause the same crashes reboots etc... I'd recomend a battery backup or backup power supply as it will give you clean consistant power for your system and can keep your system running in the event the power goes out for a short time.

As for xp with that many hardware changes i would say yes expect to need to reactivate it.

If i had seen this sooner i would have sugjested you look at the above possibilities before ordering a new cpu and board but at least this will give you some things to look at if your still having problems.