My Wonderful Computer...
Is built from :
Enlight full size tower.
Creative 52x CD-Rom
128MB 133mhz RAM
600 (o/c to 757) mhz Duron processor w/Mega7 heatsink
Asus A7V motherboard
Voodoo3 3000 AGP
And it was dirt cheap too! (about $700 around June of 2000)
Here's the pictures, from SiSoft :
Duron Processing Benchmark
Multimedia Benchmark
Memory Benchmark
Memory Benchmark made after a reboot, what a difference a reboot can make...
Megahertz
A few pictures of the temperature of the computer, showing it at idle and at full load running SetiAtHome, and lastly running a software cooling program (which made the chip run hotter).
Results from 3DMark2000
A few things I discovered while making my system...
First, when I overclocked it, the system would suddenly power down occasionally. I reduced the cpu voltage from like 1.75 down to 1.66, and this hasn't happened since. Odd...
Second, the Asus mobo wanted to set the Duron 600's voltage to something like 1.45 (using jumper free mode and letting the mobo handle the details. This resulted in a less stable system than overclocking the Duron to 757 with a voltage of 1.66. Boy do I love this little chip...
Also, the Asus came with a fancy IDE cable that lets you use ATA-100 or whatever they call it. When I was removing this fancy cable from the back of one of my drives, one of the plugs came off of it. What a piece of crap... The cable works fine still, but only with one drive.
I am using a rather ordinary heatsink on the processor, the Mega7 from TennMax. At idle, Asus probe claims that the CPU (at 74' F) is running around 95'F. At full load (running SetiAtHome), it hits about 122'F. I have a case fan in the front pulling in cool air, an exhaust fan beside my Voodoo3 and a StealthCooler on the Voodoo3. The mobo temp usually stays around 80'F. I have noticed that with the cover off, the air flow over the processor is really lessened, and the heat of the whole system really goes up. Enlight did a good job on this case. It doesn't use those awful clips, it has real screws which I never use because the side slides on and off pretty nicely. Unfortunately, Enlight discontinued this case shortly after I got it.
Note : I have since increased the processor to 800mhz, and lowered the voltage to 1.6. I am not sure that this works because it is a good, stable chip, or if there really is an effect caused by prolonged burn-in, as some people claim. Dropping the voltage .5 has lowered the temperatures signifigantly.
The Mega7 heatsink
If you have any questions about the Asus A7V and the Duron processor, feel free to email me at GarrettSocling@email.com, or check out www.hardwarecentral.com, and click on discussion. This site is an excellent resource for anyone wanting to learn more about computers.
