Antec Sonata and LGA755 P4 - any problems?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Hi all,

I'm thinking about replacing the flaky Epox board in my wife's PC with
something shiny and new - currently leaning towards an Intel D915GAG
(http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/ag/). Going with Intel for the sake
of reliability - we've had next to no trouble with the many we run at work,
and I'm certainly happy to pay a little bit more for something that doesn't
randomly crash every couple of weeks...

However, the board will be going in an Antec Sonata case - the quiet one
with the single-fan 380W TruePower PSU. An excellent case, but not a
Thermally Advantaged one, so supposedly not recommended for the LGA775 P4
I would be using on the D915 board. The Sonata is designed for quiet more
than cool (although it seem to do a pretty good job of that too) so I'm
worried this configuration might run too hot.

Anyone running a similar setup and run into any cooling issues? I'm looking
at a 2.8 or 3.0Ghz CPU and very little else in the box - 1GB RAM, Seagate
disk, DVD burner and that's it. The machine is unlikely to be used for
anything very intensive, so it _should_ be fine - just hoping for
confirmation from somebody who's actually tried it.

Oh yeah - ideally I'll be running this with a Zalman cooler
(http://www.quietpc.com/uk/p4cooling.php#7700). Any positive or negative
reports about that in a similar setup would be cool too!

Cheers,

Scott

 

[Dee]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

I personally see no reason to pay a premium for an Intel brand name,
when I can get better performance for the money from AMD.

I have been using AMD processors for almost 20 years now and have never
had a reason to pay more just for the Intel name!


Dee


Scott Mitchell wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I'm thinking about replacing the flaky Epox board in my wife's PC with
> something shiny and new - currently leaning towards an Intel D915GAG
> (http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/ag/). Going with Intel for the sake
> of reliability - we've had next to no trouble with the many we run at work,
> and I'm certainly happy to pay a little bit more for something that doesn't
> randomly crash every couple of weeks...
>
> However, the board will be going in an Antec Sonata case - the quiet one
> with the single-fan 380W TruePower PSU. An excellent case, but not a
> Thermally Advantaged one, so supposedly not recommended for the LGA775 P4
> I would be using on the D915 board. The Sonata is designed for quiet more
> than cool (although it seem to do a pretty good job of that too) so I'm
> worried this configuration might run too hot.
>
> Anyone running a similar setup and run into any cooling issues? I'm looking
> at a 2.8 or 3.0Ghz CPU and very little else in the box - 1GB RAM, Seagate
> disk, DVD burner and that's it. The machine is unlikely to be used for
> anything very intensive, so it _should_ be fine - just hoping for
> confirmation from somebody who's actually tried it.
>
> Oh yeah - ideally I'll be running this with a Zalman cooler
> (http://www.quietpc.com/uk/p4cooling.php#7700). Any positive or negative
> reports about that in a similar setup would be cool too!
>
> Cheers,
>
> Scott
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Scott Mitchell wrote:

> I'm thinking about replacing the flaky Epox board in my wife's PC with
> something shiny and new - currently leaning towards an Intel D915GAG
> (http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/ag/). Going with Intel for the sake
> of reliability - we've had next to no trouble with the many we run at
> work, and I'm certainly happy to pay a little bit more for something that
> doesn't randomly crash every couple of weeks...

Although Intel boards are probably just fine, I really think you're a little
off here. I've never heard of a properly setup, name brand board causing
any crashes, ever. If you skimp on PSU or something, then even an Intel
board will crash. However, I don't think there's a better board on the
market than Asus. Besides, you get so much more for your money.

> However, the board will be going in an Antec Sonata case - the quiet one
> with the single-fan 380W TruePower PSU. An excellent case, but not a
> Thermally Advantaged one, so supposedly not recommended for the LGA775 P4
> I would be using on the D915 board. The Sonata is designed for quiet more
> than cool (although it seem to do a pretty good job of that too) so I'm
> worried this configuration might run too hot.

Although the case is nice, and I highly recommend them, I built a box for a
friend using the case and an MSI 925X Platinum board with an LGA775 socket
3.2 P4. It runs hot rather hot. Now, we used the supplied HSF combo,
instead of a good aftermarket one, and we didn't use any Artic Silver,
which I swear by. However, this processor is just to darned hot for most
cases, especially quiet ones like the Sonata. You really need a case loaded
with good fans and preferably one on the top blowing out to keep the temps
down. Also, an aftermarket HSF combo with Artic Silver does wonders.

> Anyone running a similar setup and run into any cooling issues? I'm
> looking at a 2.8 or 3.0Ghz CPU and very little else in the box - 1GB RAM,
> Seagate
> disk, DVD burner and that's it. The machine is unlikely to be used for
> anything very intensive, so it _should_ be fine - just hoping for
> confirmation from somebody who's actually tried it.

This is about the same setup as the one we built. He has a desk with an area
for the tower, but when he puts it in there, the thing overheats. He has to
have it outside the desk in order to provide enough ventilation.

Honestly, you ought to consider going AMD and running cooler with second
generation 64 bit processing power. Intel stability is way overrated, as
Via and nVidia chipsets and pretty much all 1st tier motherboard makers are
rock solid.


--

Registered Linux user #378193

 

[Phisherman]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

I believe the Sonata should work fine. If you find it runs too hot,
add another fan although there goes the quiet.

On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 23:58:00 GMT, Scott Mitchell
<this@address.is.invalid> wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>I'm thinking about replacing the flaky Epox board in my wife's PC with
>something shiny and new - currently leaning towards an Intel D915GAG
>(http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/ag/). Going with Intel for the sake
>of reliability - we've had next to no trouble with the many we run at work,
>and I'm certainly happy to pay a little bit more for something that doesn't
>randomly crash every couple of weeks...
>
>However, the board will be going in an Antec Sonata case - the quiet one
>with the single-fan 380W TruePower PSU. An excellent case, but not a
>Thermally Advantaged one, so supposedly not recommended for the LGA775 P4
>I would be using on the D915 board. The Sonata is designed for quiet more
>than cool (although it seem to do a pretty good job of that too) so I'm
>worried this configuration might run too hot.
>
>Anyone running a similar setup and run into any cooling issues? I'm looking
>at a 2.8 or 3.0Ghz CPU and very little else in the box - 1GB RAM, Seagate
>disk, DVD burner and that's it. The machine is unlikely to be used for
>anything very intensive, so it _should_ be fine - just hoping for
>confirmation from somebody who's actually tried it.
>
>Oh yeah - ideally I'll be running this with a Zalman cooler
>(http://www.quietpc.com/uk/p4cooling.php#7700). Any positive or negative
>reports about that in a similar setup would be cool too!
>
>Cheers,
>
> Scott

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Ruel Smith wrote:
> Scott Mitchell wrote:
>
>> I'm thinking about replacing the flaky Epox board in my wife's PC with
>> something shiny and new - currently leaning towards an Intel D915GAG
>> (http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/ag/). Going with Intel for the
>> sake of reliability - we've had next to no trouble with the many we run
>> at work, and I'm certainly happy to pay a little bit more for something
>> that doesn't randomly crash every couple of weeks...
>
> Although Intel boards are probably just fine, I really think you're a
> little off here. I've never heard of a properly setup, name brand board
> causing any crashes, ever. If you skimp on PSU or something, then even an
> Intel board will crash. However, I don't think there's a better board on
> the market than Asus. Besides, you get so much more for your money.

I didn't mean to come across as some kind of Intel freak... I am after all
typing this on an Athlon XP box, and there's a VIA EPIA under the desk
running my firewall Just trying to take the easy way out - I know the
Intel board would be reliable and not need much setup (there's never
anything interesting to setup in an Intel BIOS, IME), whereas I'm
completely out of touch on the question of what's a good, reliable,
Athlon64 board - haven't needed to build a new machine for ~4 years now.

That said, since it seems the LGA755 + Sonata combo might be a bit iffy I
will be looking at the AMD option in more detail. A colleague has
recommended the Abit AV8, which seems to be a good board. And as you say,
Asus is usually a good bet...

> Although the case is nice, and I highly recommend them, I built a box for
> a friend using the case and an MSI 925X Platinum board with an LGA775
> socket 3.2 P4. It runs hot rather hot. Now, we used the supplied HSF
> combo, instead of a good aftermarket one, and we didn't use any Artic
> Silver, which I swear by. However, this processor is just to darned hot
> for most cases, especially quiet ones like the Sonata. You really need a
> case loaded with good fans and preferably one on the top blowing out to
> keep the temps down. Also, an aftermarket HSF combo with Artic Silver does
> wonders.

I'm a big fan of Zalman coolers, both for keeping things cool and being
quiet about it

> This is about the same setup as the one we built. He has a desk with an
> area for the tower, but when he puts it in there, the thing overheats. He
> has to have it outside the desk in order to provide enough ventilation.
>
> Honestly, you ought to consider going AMD and running cooler with second
> generation 64 bit processing power. Intel stability is way overrated, as
> Via and nVidia chipsets and pretty much all 1st tier motherboard makers
> are rock solid.

Thanks for the comments - exactly the kind of stuff I needed to know.

Now to go read all those Asus/Abit/Athlon64 threads...

Cheers,

Scott

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Scott Mitchell wrote:

> A colleague has
> recommended the Abit AV8, which seems to be a good board.  And as you say,
> Asus is usually a good bet...

You bet they are. I've only built one system with an Asus board, and it was
the easiest of all that I have built to get everything working. It's also
been as reliable as it could be, but then, so has most of the boards (MSI,
Soyo, Gigabyte).


--

Registered Linux user #378193