My First AM2 Build: Asus M2NPV-VM

[kellamne]

Wow that title sounds like a primary school activity - I think I'll keep it .

So - I got my hands on an AM2. Its intended use is to sit quietly in a mates home office (none gaming system at present), so its not an overclocking project but did need to be a major budget job (i.e very much to compete with shop bought systems).

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Win XP (Home)

Asus M2NPV-VM (OMG - the book mentions it can take 8GB of memory!; and for now, it is set up just to run with the 6150 onboard graphics which are not that bad considering I was expecting them to be awful)

AMD Semprom 2800+ (Yes I know not blinding - but will serve purpose)

2 * 256 MB Crucial DDR2 4200

2 Cheap case fans

PSU

Sorry bout image quality (Taken on my phone)
Also not taken after pics - but its looks pretty standard (I mean boring of course)
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Result:
Um, well it meets its primary criteria: it is VERY quiet. Not much in the way of overclocking options with the board, so its currently only running at 1.68 (1.2v) on stock cooling. In the long term, it will hopefully be housed in a newer htpc case, as a living room media centre/come office work PC - but for now it'll do. Ok so it only has 512 mb of shared memory, but whilst it wont be running games really I did load up guild wars and it was suprising playable).
EDIT: USING HDD/Drives from the upgrade.

All came in at about £260 inc VAT/Delivery; but no graphics card in there; and using old monitor, KB, Mouse etc.

Summary:
Im amazed at how quiet it is, I'm still going to stick with my NF3 for now..

[danrok]

Front page!
http://www.aoaforums.com/frontpage/content/view/804/2/

[kellamne]

Wow - now theres incentive to go back with a proper camera asap

[madcatmk3]

damn you beat me to it, another month and I would have had one, just have to wait for exams for exams to finish. The one I'm going to be building will be gaming.

[cadaveca]

pics of cpu heatspreader if you get a chance, mate. I's like to see which stepping is in your neck of the woods.

Seen 3000+ sempy @ 3ghz just today. Bandwidth is awe-inspiring.

I'm plannign on building a couple of machine jsut so for the cafe...any thoughts you have on the build and setting up would be greatly appreciated!

[kellamne]

Re: pics of cpu heatspreader. >>

Should have noted that when I opened it - doh. Will look at it in the week when I go back to tidy the cables. Was up at 5 today and a long day ahead, so probably wont be this evening sorry. Hmmm coffee.

Processor seems fairly heavy.

Apart from curiosity for the AM2, I didnt see the point in buying the dead horse that is "754" which was coming in at about the same price locally (no longer justifying it as a budget option). I would make the observation that AM2 is almost like a welcome return to Socket A style of housing both budget and hardcore on one system. Maybe should have considered a different MB, due to the limited future OC options, but at least the upgradeability isn't limited by the socket.

I'm a little confused by the DDR2 stuff (waiting for more input as the chips become more common so I can better understand this I guess); hence my post a few days a go, but if I am assuming this correclty - if/when the processor gets an upgrade - the memory we chose to install should be ok without the need to upgrade immediately (in regards to its speed).

Anyway I'm rambling ....

[madcatmk3]

I think I understnd what you asking, you saying if we get ram thats say 1066, hen we put it in will we have to OC it to 1066 or will it automativly do it?

[chrisbard]

...left upper box... what Linux dist. is that ?

[kellamne]

OK. So got back from work earlier than i expected. And got straight around to do the box.

SDA2800IAACN forgot pic

[kellamne]

And the photo

[cadaveca]

umm, stepping is the letters on the bottom line(including the 4-digit numerical date code), compounded with the last 5 digits of the serial number.

[kellamne]

Doh - will put it up later. Thought that was part of the warranty/serial number.

[cadaveca]

the first how-many-ever digits of the serial number are not important. pls do not post them

The last five correspond to where on the individual wafer the cpu came from, while the first correspond to the actual wafer.

the five letters are the silicon design, mask revison, and memorycontroller revision.

Date code is week and then year(2 digit per) of production.

the "matrix" design holds this info as well as a bit more.

[bradmax57]

good stuff cant wait to see some benchmarks!

[Áedán]

Originally Posted by cadaveca

the "matrix" design holds this info as well as a bit more.

The 2D barcode isn't clear enough in the picture to make the information out unfortunately!

[kellamne]

Just spoken with Cadaveca - told me he was interested in these bits:
Thanks - not really taken any notice in those parts on the chips before - as not needed to: So for anyone else:

LBBVF 0618 EPGW
60364

[cadaveca]

so basically a venice cpu w/ new memory controller, and should be a decent overclocker, depending on thermal offset.


That's what i was looking for...good to see some decent chips getting over there.

[grandmaster_b]

Hi have you managed to build your system yet ?
Just wondering what you think of it ?
I am thinkning of getting this same board AM2 Athlon 64 3800+ and 1GB of 7200 DDR 2 900mhz memory it says the board only supports 800mhz does that mean the 900mhz wont run or it will underclock I was thinking of overclocking the FSB to run at 900Mhz.
Thanks.

[kellamne]

If you want to overclock - I wouldnt bother with this ASUS board to be honest. It may just be me, as i use a DFI in my own system, so the bios options are very limited/limiting in overclocking options in this board. Been run stable at 5% OC in the 2 or so weeks its been up and running though.

[grandmaster_b]

Thanks thats good enough for me it will be used as a media center pc so that will be sufficient.
As long as this 7200 900mhz memory works then I should be ok