Hi

My Athlon XP Asus AV733 rev1.x has died on me.

I have yet to confirm if it's a mobo/PSU/CPU or graphics problem but while the lights come on it appears there's nobody home.

I'll need to re-research what version of AGP my mobo actually does support (this is not the same as those it was advertised as supporting) but this event has led me to consider a new build.

This is/was my 2nd AMD CPU the first being a K6. That got swapped out in a rebuild for a Celeron 500 which is still going strong 7 years down the line. The K6 failed within 6 months of the swap.

As I also still have a 486 going strong I am considering going back to Intel.

But it's been a while since I worried heavily about hardware and so I am wondering what are good boards and CPUs these days.

I note the poll against Intel Dual Core v. AM2 seems to rate the AM2.

I need a box that will run Linux plus Windows as a virtual machine. ( I have to design an AutoCAD course on the Windows platform so I have no choice but to re-install XP Pro which is a shame after so many years without it but I do need to earn money.) This may push the graphics requirement up and I will check on the AutoCAD site for what the limits are on that.

Ideally I would like not to have to rush out and buy SATA right away. I could survive with one IDE channel but two would be better.

I have noticed an Asus board out there that has two IDE channels plus SATA so that seems a reasonable buy.

If I do a new build it will have a new case. The reason being that I bought an I-Tee case and that has a specifically sized PSU in a poor place - at the bottom below the IDE drives and so hot air rises thru the machine. I can't locate replacement PSU's for this case, it's a poor design anyway and if I did cobble another PSU into it I'll still have to cobble a lead from the new PSU's mains lead socket to the one on the side of the case.

I have replaced the case fan this year to find I could only fit one because the second would catch against the IDE cables. I also upgraded the processor heatsink at the same time.

So ... I may be looking for a new case, mobo, PSU, CPU and may have to upgrade memory to suit the new board but I need to transfer my IDE hardware across while retaining the ability to go for SATA at a later date. Cross platform graphics capability will be important.

I'll be avoiding any brand new early revision boards. I bought an early Asus AV733 which only gave half of what it promised. You have to have a rev 2.x board to take the Athlon 2000 XP up to 1800 and there are funnies around the AGP and RAID support in rev 1.x plus limitations on the RAM configurations.

Any suggestions what to look out for and what to avoid? My current focus is on a stable working system with upgradeability to SATA. I need to have two IDE channels.

Thanks in advance.

Lesley

Not sure about most of your post, but I can only affirm - AVOID AMD LIKE THE PLAGUE. We have had -several- AMD CPU based systems go bad on us, pretty much on the same parameters as yours - very low hours on it, then boom, gone. (Ok, I'm in South Africa, maybe the local AMD distributors got shipped a bad batch, or something...) But this was over a four year period. While, just like your case, Intel CPUed machines just keep on going, somethimes for several years. Why, I've NEVER seen an Intel CPUed system go bad like several of my AMD systems have done at the same locale. I also have an ancient 386DX50 in the closet somewhere, and it still goes 100%.

As for the rest, I'm using an old board (GA8-TRS350MT) that does everything you seem to want. I still use IDE on it, but it has got SATA support. Only, you won't get this anymore, its been out of production for years (according to my local PC emporium).

Your best bet might be to get a board that has been around for, say, three to six months. I think that chances are good that there will be kernel level support for its chipset, and you will be reasonably sure that it'll work well enough in XP to do Autocad and the other things your require.

Thanks for your reply rylan.

Have been trying to get the processor heat sink and fan off w/out much luck. Need to dig a meatier screwdriver out of the garage I think. Just want to take a peek at the processor underneath to see if it is showing any signs of having blown.

I might try getting a legacy AGP card today to see if it's just the graphics card that's died. I don't think the PSU has gone. I've taken off all the IDE stuff so none of that powers up. Still get lights up on the board, fan activity on proc, graphics and case but no signs of any other activity. Which makes me think processor. No POST nothing.

I upgraded the RAM this year, plus case fans and processor heatsink and fan because of overheating probklems. Should have taken that as a sign and got out while still live.

Ho hum

Hmmm, I've been running various AMD cpu's for the last 15 years and haven't had any issues. As with any cpu, as long as you keep them cool, don't over-clock them and handle them using ESD precautions they should work fine.
After building a few systems, I've had a few problems with the mobo chipset drivers, but not the cpu itself.
I'd suggest reviewing the HCL, this should make your h/w decision easier. Also you can google linux systems; there are a number of online businesses that specialize in professional level PC's.

I'll agree with Lnx805 - in my experience I like AMD CPU's better than Intel. This is not to say that Intel has flaws (I'm using a P4 2.4Gz CPU in my main PC) but for a given price, I feel I can get a better performing CPU from AMD. Strictly personal opinion, of course.

One question I'd have is whether or not you are overclocking. If so, that could be the source of your trouble. OC'ing can cause instability and/or shorten a CPU's life, and personally I'd recommend against it.

Lastly, check the LQ HCL (in my sig block) for tons of reviews of specific hardware reviews. Good luck with it

Just thought I'd post back here.

Did some further fault finding over the weekend and identified it was the PSU that had died.

Leastways when I put a 250W PSU on it I at least got the board, graphics card and 512MB RAM to show the POST and go into the BIOS. Which is a lot more than I did have.

I need to get something off the hard drive and am hoping the temporary PSU will deliver at least long enough to do that.

I have ordered a new PSU and case. Everything is currently in an I-Tee case which is a unique design but with the major design fault that the PSU is at the bottom under the hard drives plus both the mains and the board cables come out the same side of the PSU case. I have ordered a 380W Seasonic PSU and an Antec case and will be swapping the whole lot over when that arrives. The Antec case carries 12cm fans and has a duct for the CPU. The PSU will give me a 150W over the manufacturer's stated board requirements so I hope that will cope with a few things.

I did try running the Athlon at 1667MHz in the BIOS in Feb this year. That's the reported BIOS speed and while the CPU should be able to cope with that, early 1.x revisions of the A7V333 don't deliver on it.

Also, until Feb this year I had typically run with the case open because I never liked the heat issue with the PSU but the collapse of a bookcase encouraged me to close the thing up.

As the PSU was then effectively completely enclosed in steel with no mesh, only side vents and one 8cm fan on one side I'm not surprised it eventually gave up the ghost.

The CPU has a Speeze EEA67B4 VultureSpin AMD CPU Cooler meant for XP's and Semprons up to 3.2k/3.0k respectively and has, in my opinion, one of the best set of fins I have seen, reminscent of the Krell amplifier. I think it will handle the little XP 2K I have.

Thanks for all your advice. When I am earning some money again I may still treat myself to a new setup with PCI-E graphics and a Core 2 Du0, but at least this is a cheaper solution than a totally new box.

Thanks for posting back lesleyb. Good luck with it