Project: The Ultimate AGP System (PC-A05FNB/HD3850)

[Jayzilla]

Are you thinking this is an AGP video card with a Lian Li case work log? You are damn right, and it is going to be Ultimate.

What so special about this work log?
Since this will be my last casemod project before I go back to school and travel. I will put all my modding ideas I have on this project. The system will be fully water-cooled. Very cool indeed. Most of the parts on this project are discontinued and hard to find. So it will take some time to complete.

Why investing on obsolete components?
If we are really into casemodding, this question is not really important. I can see why people fixing their 73 Mustang. My casemod hobby started on AGP age, I had Windows 95 and I was live in Vietnam at that time. I always wanted to build an awesome high-end desktop, but I’ve never have the time and money to actually do it. Time going by and the AGP age was already over years ago. I’m putting an end to platform.

Chao. My name is Jay and I’m here to make sure this work log is worth your time, or we can simply talk about casemod logic and see some cool parts. All the hardware are fixed but I’m open to comments and advise.

Main parts:
-Case: PC-A05FNB
-Board: AM2NF3-VSTA
-GPU: HIS Ice turbo HD 3850
-CPU: Phenom II X4 980
-PPU: Zotac GT 430
-PSU: Seasonic or OCZ modular.
-RAM: OCZ Flex
-HDD: Western Raptor X2

OS: Windows XP 32-bit (only choice)

Cooling parts (in planning):
-Pump: dual or triple pumps.
-Rad: 2X120MM, 1X240MM, 2X20MM!?.
-Blocks: ?
-Tubing: ¼.

Mod parts:
-Follow the log and you’ll see.

Sponsors

I don’t get any hardware sponsors since this is not a standard system, but the photo tethering software helps me a lot in this work-log. Thank you!

http://controlmynikon.com
The finest tethering software for your Nikon DSLR.


http://rebuildingcenter.org
Thanks for the ideas and screws.

Special thanks:

Thanks for letting me pursue The American Dream.

http://zerenesystems.com
The best photo stacking program out there.


A great place for me to learn and post.

Katie and Gordon
Thanks for buying and transporting the CPU cooler.

TRWOV (a hardcore AGP user at techpowerup).
Thanks for all the friendly advises.

One of the unique parts for this project. I’m not sure if I’m going to use this. I will do a benchmark for this item later.

Be sure to check back.
Cheers

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Now I am under the impression that Agp and multi core cpu's especially Amd's don't play nice together. I am curious on to how you are going to remedy this. Also I am not seeing support for the proc you want to use for the board you listed.

[_JP_]

Aye. The last BIOS update for that board adds support for the 970BE, no sign of the 980 BE.
Also, I doubt overclocking on that board is going to provide anything worth its time.
ASRock boards of the time were built to satisfy the budget line for users that just wanted something that worked, usually, for a long time.

[Aquinus]

You know, they don't say that the 3850 is supported with AM2+ chips. Considering you'll be running an AM3 chip, it may be safe to assume that there are similar issues there as well.

http://www.asrock.com/support/note/A...TA.html#Phenom

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

I am pretty sure he will have issues running a agp card with a multi core cpu. He may want to find the fastest single core cpu he can get his hands on that will work in his board.

[Solaris17]

Originally Posted by ThE_MaD_ShOt

I am pretty sure he will have issues running a agp card with a multi core cpu. He may want to find the fastest single core cpu he can get his hands on that will work in his board.

now now lets see what happens. shit if need be he'll make another thread im sure we can all get together and fix it. bios coders driver coders modders memory limiters. shit ill help him do something never done before no problem.

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Originally Posted by Solaris17

now now lets see what happens. shit if need be he'll make another thread im sure we can all get together and fix it. bios coders driver coders modders memory limiters. shit ill help him do something never done before no problem.

Hell we may be to talk through soldering in another agp port in place of a pci port and run agp Crossfire.

[TRWOV]

He has tested several setups by now. I'm sure he'll do fine.

[Solaris17]

Originally Posted by TRWOV

He has tested several setups by now. I'm sure he'll do fine.

stop taking the fun out of it go away.

[Aquinus]

Originally Posted by TRWOV

He has tested several setups by now. I'm sure he'll do fine.

Originally Posted by Solaris17

stop taking the fun out of it go away.

Way to go, you just ruined Solaris' dreams.

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Well I recently built a Agp s939 system and it didn't want play nice at all with a Ati card and and dual core proc. I had to run a Nvidia card and Ubuntu to get it halfway stable. And then it still wasn't 100% percent.

[TRWOV]

Originally Posted by Solaris17

stop taking the fun out of it go away.

Sorry, didn't mean to

Originally Posted by Aquinus

Way to go, you just ruined Solaris' dreams.

Well, he could help me to run the RAM in my Conroe865PE at full speed. I've been looking for someone to mod the bios as the RAM runs at 3:2 when a 1066 CPU is used. I've run my Redlines at 275Mhz so I know they can take the heat.

Still, as Mad_Shot mentioned, the setup is hardly ideal. Being limited to XP with such hardware because of driver issues is sad The board can use up to 8GB but in XP it won't do shit. There are "working" drivers for W7 on Windows Update but the cards work in PCI mode:

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Well the ultimate AGP system should be on win xp any way as that was the os of choice back in those days

[Jayzilla]

Originally Posted by ThE_MaD_ShOt

Now I am under the impression that Agp and multi core cpu's especially Amd's don't play nice together. I am curious on to how you are going to remedy this. Also I am not seeing support for the proc you want to use for the board you listed.

Originally Posted by _JP_

Aye. The last BIOS update for that board adds support for the 970BE, no sign of the 980 BE.
Also, I doubt overclocking on that board is going to provide anything worth its time.
ASRock boards of the time were built to satisfy the budget line for users that just wanted something that worked, usually, for a long time.

Originally Posted by Aquinus

You know, they don't say that the 3850 is supported with AM2+ chips. Considering you'll be running an AM3 chip, it may be safe to assume that there are similar issues there as well.

http://www.asrock.com/support/note/A...TA.html#Phenom

Thanks yo’ll for all the kind comments. So much love I’m receiving for this project on TPU. In return I will try my best to showcase the system.

I started a thread somewhere asking the compatibility for the Phenom 980 with the AM2NF3-VSTA. I got turned down with most of the answers. No one does seem to have exp with this CPU and board. My thought was the latest BIOS supports the 970, why not the 980? And the 975/980 came out a year after the last BIOS updates. I tried and BOOM! I was like F*** yeah! Fastest quad core and AGP, here I come.



My bottom line is sometimes we have to try shit out even everyone said no. Just like the Zalman ZM-GWB 3850 water block will not fit the AGP version (Got told from Zalman official). I can’t find any info in the whole World Wide Web but hunt the block down and try it and BOOM!

Originally Posted by ThE_MaD_ShOt

I am pretty sure he will have issues running a agp card with a multi core cpu. He may want to find the fastest single core cpu he can get his hands on that will work in his board.

Like TRWOV mentioned earlier. The issue I’m having with this particular board is I can ONLY stick with WinXP-32bit. Others let down is Kim Kardashian wouldn’t want to go out with me.

I’ve thought about the Conroe865PE too. It can handles Windows 7 but I want DDR2 platform. So the AM2NF3-VSTA is the best choice for me.

Originally Posted by Solaris17

now now lets see what happens. shit if need be he'll make another thread im sure we can all get together and fix it. bios coders driver coders modders memory limiters. shit ill help him do something never done before no problem.

You can mod bios? I have no knowledge of bios modding. I wish this board could run XP-64bit or windows 7. No one seems to care about AGP nowadays. So I didn’t bother to ask.

Originally Posted by ThE_MaD_ShOt

Hell we may be to talk through soldering in another agp port in place of a pci port and run agp Crossfire.

I doubt I will have any PCI slots left, but that sounds interesting!

Originally Posted by ThE_MaD_ShOt

Well the ultimate AGP system should be on win xp any way as that was the os of choice back in those days

You got it. XP-64bit was my first choice for this project.

What’s next?
Review that hyper-cooler.
Current status: Trying out PhysX with the Zotac GT 430.

********************************************

Before I have another updates. I want to share something with you guys. I just bought this desktop.





We seem scammer on fleebay pretty often these days. What interested me is this guy selling other’s people casemod project. I knew because I’ve live long enough on fleebay/casemodding industries. I got impressed with this casemod because of the straight tubing. So I went ahead and buy it! Here are my conversations with that guy.

Me: Where is the CD ROM? I didn't see it. How many GB of DDR3 you have in here? Any more details you can give me? I'm ready to pay.

scamie: This system is 12GB DDR3, the CD rom does not have an actual tray. It was actually modified from a cars strio system their for you slide the DVD / CD in and press eject to remove the DVD / CD. It is the little green light at the bottom of the front face.
I'm, having trouble with Paypal connecting to other websites such as amazon and other sites, if the payment does not correctly send, send it directly to XXXX@live.com from your Paypal, in the note leave me this eBay order ID. Alongside with your full shipping address. To avoid any complications please send as a gift. (right.)
Thank you,
Thomas.

Me: That is a cool looking PC right there. How come the CPU from your screen shoot doesn't match what you have listed?

Scamie: That picture is taken 7/22 I placed an order for a couple new drives and cards the 5th, I've actually also installed a fresh LEGAL copy of windows seven. This does come with a windows seven disk, including the key. I have just installed esus-partition for you due to me spiting my drives into multi partition to dual boot with mac OSx and Windows XP pro, Mac has been removed due to software problems but windows XP is still included in the boot sequence 1500GB is dedicated to the F drive of windows seven and another 500gb is dedicated to the Windows XP installation. Nothing is installed on both OS's as of now it is just two clean installs of both Win 7 & WinXP. Their should be no issues software nor hardware this computer was very rarely used. Honestly I hate to see this go but being called in I'm not going to be able to store it anywhere it will get stolen this is a very expensive piece of work. And I ask for you to take care of it as I would. Are you still interested in it?

Me: Dear Mr. Thomas or whatever your real name is-
I think I should stop asking you technical questions and let you go get a life. The answers you made up does not impress me at all. Here is the thing, If I ever try to fake an expensive painting and try to sell it, I wouldn't pick Picasso works I’m cool with everything you said, but about the Armed Forces, I hope that is really untruth, because I don’t want someone like you serving our country. I wish you the best in your life.
Sincerely
Jay

Reference:Cm-haf-xl by Kier
http://madebykier.com/2011/04/25/cm-haf-xl/

Cheers

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

Well cool man glad you are working things out and crossing the hurdles of this build. Can't wait to see it finished.

[m1dg3t]

Nice project! Care to sell the 865 Conroe? I have an e5200 & x850xt PE collecting dust

[cdawall]

So I just helped someone else out with the nforce3 in windows 7/vista issue. There are beta 64bit drivers out there for nforce 3 that allowed me to run my dfi s754 nforce3 board in windows 7 64bit.

[TRWOV]

Originally Posted by cdawall

So I just helped someone else out with the nforce3 in windows 7/vista issue. There are beta 64bit drivers out there for nforce 3 that allowed me to run my dfi s754 nforce3 board in windows 7 64bit.

Where? I have an HD4670 AGP that could use a new home

[Mindweaver]

Originally Posted by ThE_MaD_ShOt

Now I am under the impression that Agp and multi core cpu's especially Amd's don't play nice together. I am curious on to how you are going to remedy this. Also I am not seeing support for the proc you want to use for the board you listed.

I didn't have any problems with my 4CoreDual-SATA2 paired with a C2D E6400 and a BFG 7800gs agp card. I think he'll do fine with this build. Didn't amd release the dual core optimizer to help this problem anyway?

EDIT: I miss that old 7800gs.. lol I got it from best buy.. I had a $250 in store credit and the BFG 7800gs was $389.. hehehe So, I picked it up and was not disappointed.. That card blow away my current 9800pro.. hehehe

[MaxAwesome]

This is a nice project! But... wouldn't the ultimate AGP system roll with an HD 3870 instead of a 3850? :P

Anyway, I'm curious... is there a special reason why AGP and multicore CPUs don't play well together?

[Mindweaver]

Originally Posted by MaxAwesome

This is a nice project! But... wouldn't the ultimate AGP system roll with an HD 3870 instead of a 3850? :P

Anyway, I'm curious... is there a special reason why AGP and multicore CPUs don't play well together?

They never made a 3870 agp card. There were talks about it, but it never seen the light of day. A 3850 is pretty much a waste on agp anyway... The pci-e variant was a lot faster.

EDIT: Plus, I believe the fastest agp card is the HD4670, but the 3850 and 4670 are neck and neck.

[TRWOV]

Originally Posted by MaxAwesome

This is a nice project! But... wouldn't the ultimate AGP system roll with an HD 3870 instead of a 3850? :P

Anyway, I'm curious... is there a special reason why AGP and multicore CPUs don't play well together?

There's no 3870 AGP. Still the 3850 Iceq3 Turbo comes pretty close and it's very OCable. Mine gets to 824/1197 0.974v (stock is 720/940 1.174v)

The multicore issue is because there aren't 64bit GART drivers for nforce3

[_JP_]

Glad you had that sorted out, Jayzilla. i await more developments.

Originally Posted by Mindweaver

I believe the fastest agp card is the HD4670, but the 3850 and 4670 are neck and neck.[/B]

Depends on the screen resolution and game, tbh.

[cdawall]

Originally Posted by TRWOV

Where? I have an HD4670 AGP that could use a new home

I have a copy on my flash drive. No idea if it has 64 bit GART drivers I might have used XP 64 bit drivers...

[Mindweaver]

Originally Posted by _JP_

Glad you had that sorted out, Jayzilla. i await more developments.

Depends on the screen resolution and game, tbh.

Like I said they were so close in performance that it was pretty much a wash... The 4670 had 1gb ram clocked at 1600mhz and the 3850 had 512mb at 1400mhz, but the 4670 had a 128-bit Memory Interface and the 3850 had a 256-bit Memory Interface. Both used GDDR3 memory. All I'm saying is that one could argue that the HD4670 was the fastest.. I just threw it out there just for reference. My nephew still games on a HD3850 pci-e card I gave him and it amazes me.. hehehe It still plays current games fairly well. I just bought him AC:II and Just cause 2. It plays all of his steam games except RAGE..