AMD xp 2100 cpu question

[olddood]

You folks have done pretty well by me so far, hopfully one of you can give me a good answer for this.

I am thinking about building my own, and want to use the amd My question is, what would be the best power supply to go with it. I see all kinds that say p4 ready but few if any mention amd.

Any input on this would be appreciated.

[Music Pirate]

Well most power supplys that are P4 and P3 too, ususally are compatiable with AMD. But for your computer I think a 350 or 400 Watt would be good enough. But pretty much the average today for most computers is 400 Watt Power Supply...

[the hunter]

Just to comment that power supply should not be the always on sale type. Get a A-open or similar brand name case and supply.
Many of the no name ones dont deliver what they are rated for.
Dont scrimp on the power supply, without that you have nothing.
This old 950 celleron with 2 sticks of 256ram 2 hard drives, and a burner runs fine with a 250watt a-open supply. With the aftermarket one a300watt it crashed. Many noname ones are overated. Get the best you can afford as the rest of the system is built around it. Happy building.

[olddood]

OK guys, great info, much thanks

[LPDad]

With an XP 2100 and a couple of disc drives (burner, DVD) plus one (or 2) large harddrive (you may want to add more later) PLUS a nifty new Graphics card...

Don't scrimp-- Buy a 400 watt minimum. Even if you do not need quite that much now, you can easily add components to a homebuilt withoug worring about power in the future.

Most of the new power supplies are AMD approved. (Amd has a listing of all approved if you are really worried about it)
The only real difference between Intel and AMD is that some Intel motherboards use a slightly different plug--all new power supplies have both.

[olddood]

again folks, great data. I was looking at a open earlier, looked good. I was also looking at enlight. Any thoughts on them?

[the hunter]

Lp what happened? Man that must have been one heck of a face lift. lol. Also to add to LPs post a large case. There is nothing worse than not having enough roomto add all the future toys. A computer is a work in progress.

[gbread49]

No doubt about it, if you are going to build your own box, don't skimp on the PS.....Minimum 350W, recommend 400W for a high end AMD CPU.

Most boxes come with a PS, and unless you get a name brand, chances are the PS is going to be a cheap one. If that is the case, then I would recommend replacing it with an Enlight, or Sparkle PS. Your money will be well spent in the long run.

Also, something just as important is the heatsink and fan. Get a good one, don't skimp here either. AMD chips run pretty hot, and if your heatsink/fan can't handle the heat dissipation, your gonna be in trouble. On that same line, make sure you use a high quality "thermal paste" between the heatsink and CPU. The junk that is sold at Radioshack doesn't cut it. Any good computer parts dealer will carry good stuff. I would recommend "Arctic Silver3", its probably the best there is. A bit expensive (about $10 to $12 for a 3.0 gram tube) but well worth it.

[the hunter]

Good one gbread49, the heatsink on this one had to have the corners sawed off to fit. When we post answers,no here we dont know the purpose of the machine, or if it is going to be overclocked. Some chips, and motherboards generate a lot of heat, and need extra cooling if you play with the clock speed. I am probably getting to involived for this thread, sorry.

[olddood]

Hi gbread, I'm glad to see you mentioned enlight. I was looking at their 7200 desktop box. I kind of like that style over the tower, saves a lot of space. Let me know if there's any reason not to go with that. Thanks

[gbread49]

Personally, I would go with a tower....For several reasons, probably the most important is the added space (things are not cramped all together) Second is airflow...you will get better airflow with a tower than with a desktop box (very important) and last, a tower is much easier to work around inside.

Once you get all your devices in (HD, CD ROM/DVD ROM, CDRW, floppy drive, cards, and can't forget the cables...*L*...there is not much space left inside of a desktop box.

Thats very true Hunter, when you start overclocking a CPU, you best be prepared to have a good cooling scheme set up. Just about all new mobo's allow overclocking, but one needs to really know what they are doing before attempting it. Otherwise, you could end up with a crispy, charred wafer for a CPU! *L* Just for info, an improperly cooled CPU can fry in about 10 seconds!

[olddood]

K,sounds good to me, the tower can go on the floor, cooler down there, and saves space also.

Thanks much

[LPDad]

I went with a Thermalright AX-7 Heatsink. It is an aluminum/copper blend, only costs about $20 but the real advantage is that it uses a BIG fan, not one of those itty bitty things that have to run at 6000 rpm and sound like a little jet engine. (too much noise for me)
Thermalright makes other great HSFs like the Brand New SK-7 (Review= http://www.legionhardware.com/html/doc.php?id=218 )
Check them out. I personally like a relatively QUIET and Fast machine.

[Music Pirate]

And the best place that I find to look for really low price hardware and software is http://www.pricewatch.com/. About half of it is OEM, just like what you get when you buy a computer the only differenece is that there is no warrenty. But most of computer people, we are our own technical support and warranty.....

[olddood]

Thanks for the tip on the cooler LPDad, looks like a winner. And Music Pirate, I don't know about price watch, they only seemed go up to the xp 1900, and they didn't look to have the mobo I want to use.

The place I believe has about the lowest prices, from what checking I've done is Comp U Plus. If you want to check it out it's at Http://www.compuplus.com Let me know what you think, if you do.

Again, thanks folks.