I seem to have fitted everything together ok - it starts up!

At the load-up screen I get this:
Quote:


Is everything ok there? I took the cable for the DVD/CD-RW IDE channel off an old P2 dell we have, must need a new "80 conductor" one. It looked the same to me!

What frequency should the RAM be at? 400Mhz?  

The book I've bought is quite good at most of the other stuff but it doesn't give any explanation of these messages!

If it is DDR400, it will say 200MHz for your RAM, which you double because it is DDR.  In this case it is 333MHz RAM, or DDR333.  If you know it is DDR400, go into your bios and change it to that. 

Also that cable you used from an older computer may be ATA66 cable, which will not work with newer ATA100/133 drives.  Also make sure the Second drive from the secondary part is set as slave. 

If it will reach use the cable from the ATAPI COMBO52XMAX Ver 1.00.  It should have a second connector on it.

Hi Birdman,

The CPU is configuring correctly as a 2800+ on a 166 mhz front side bus speed.

Here is the trick with AMD systems: Run the RAM at the same speed as the FSB and CPU, even if you have 400mhz ram, leave it at 333mhz (166mhz), it will result in a faster system.

Also note the RAM is running in single channel mode as predicted, that will change to dual channel if you add another identical ram module.

Your hard drive is on the primary IDE channel as master. That's correct. It also correctly has an 80 wire cable on it or you would see a warning as you see on IDE channel 2.

The Combo drive is correctly configured as the Secondary IDE Master drive. It doesn't require an 80 pin cable because CDROMS don't use that high an ATA specification. So, disregard the warning unless you add a hard disk to the secondary IDE channel.

Another hard disk can be added as a slave on IDE channel 1 to take advantage of the 80 pin cable  already there.

Good Job!

I went into the Bios again - this time I noticed the CPU FSB was set to 100Mhz. I set this to 166 and restarted - it seems to be fine. Did I do the right thing?

It stopped at Quote:
before I did that, now it no longer says that and begins to look for a boot device - I'm not sure why it changed? I'll take it that is a good thing.....

Any idea's about the temperature?

I missed the temperature question , I must have posted about the same time as you.

It does seem a little high, considering it's basically idling. But don't worry just yet. I've found that once you run an intense application for a while, the temperature will rise dramatically for a few moments, then the heatsink compound "beds in" and the temp then drops just as dramatically.

It's a good idea to monitor the temperature when you use your first intense program, (like fs2004) to watch what happens. If it goes over 65 degrees and stays there, you have a problem.

After the first real CPU workout, the temp shouldn't ever go over 60* and should be between 45 and 55 degrees during heavy usage. (well, that's my experience)

I've got my new cable - the round ones were about £6 which I thought was a bit much compared to 50p for a normal one!

Quote:

I am indeed jumping in at the deep end! But I've got my little "Building computers for dummies" book to help me!
The book does tend to assume though that everything is hunky-dory!

I asked the guy at the computer shop about the temperature and he said it was fine. What your saying makes complete sense to me. Even if it does get too hot i think the Asus board should cut it off before it damages itself.

Quote:

I try to touch as little as possible - i've looked at it alot over the last two days! (amazed I got the thing to even start up that far!)

Anyway - I'll plug this cable in and get going!
Thanks for your help!

PS. I think we we're all posting at the same time!

Yes Aida_32 is a great little program - I've been using it for a while now and recomended it once myself on this very forum 8) A must have!

Im not so sure about the temperatures! In the Bios it remains around 45-55, but in Asus-Probe it says its 30 degrees? Which am I to believe!

Thanks,
Birdman.

I've managed to get Aida32 over to her computer now - I must get a USB key thingy! It shows two temperatures, one for the thermal diode thing like you said and one for the external  temperature. The internal one is about 10 degrees more (40 degrees) which seems fine.

I've decided to sell my sister on Ebay and install FS

AMD temperature on idle depends on the core version. Newer ones with a rectangular core are cooler.
My old 1800XP (square core)runs around 50C idle and 65-70 on full load, while the new one (last 2400XP series with 266FSB and rectangular core) is a lot cooler, 35-40C idle and around 60-65 at 100% load.

For the older series XP they had 2 different types: a normal (max 85C) and a 'tropical' one (max 95C)... most likely because of heat problems.

The new XP has a max temperature of 85C, but as the older one still is supported FSB-wise, the shutdown trigger can be changed from the 85C default to the 95C of the special version.
All temperatures based on the internal sensor reading, which became available with the Athlon XP...

ASUS probe can't be trusted concerning processor temperature on some boards (A7V333 for example). to combat the problem, they changed the software to indicate about 10C less than the actual reading.
A program that does the job a little better is MBM 5. This one can read all the temp, fan speed and other sensors that are fitted on the board...

The real heat allowance differs for each specific processor anyway... Both of mine have been to 85C+ and back and survived

thats about how long it takes with an AMD.....