Upgrading my system -- running it by the experts

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 9:36 am

Hi everyone,

I'm about to upgrade my system to the latest stuff, as my current one is three years old and showing its age. I'm looking at:

-ASUS A8N-SLI PCI Express mobo for AMD Athlon 64, nForce 4 chipset
-AMD Athlon 64 Dual Core 3800+
-ASUS EAX800 PCI Express video with ATi X800 VPU 256MB

Are there any issues I should be aware of? This probably should work fine, but do PCI Express and Dual Core work OK with Scope?

Thanks!

shayne

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[ This Message was edited by: Shayne White on 2005-10-09 10:37 ]

djmicron · Post by **djmicron** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 12:13 pm

hi,
i've read inside this forum that the nforce 4 chipset does not work fine.

I'm using the asus k8n (amd 64 3400) with the nforce 3 chipset and it's absolutely great.

Micron

[ This Message was edited by: djmicron on 2005-10-09 13:16 ]

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 1:05 pm

Yeah, I just discovered that on my own. I also found the link to RME's test results where they said "use at your own risk." It seems that the Intel 9xx chipset will work if I use a very low-performance graphics card, which I don't want to do. Unfortunately, the nForce3 chipset doesn't seem to support the latest AMD Dual-Core CPUs. I guess I'll wait until they get PCI Express working some time in the future.

Thanks,

Shayne

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 5:07 pm

I'm having to upgrade another computer, so I decided to look around for something not quite as good but will still work for my main computer, and then I'd put my current parts in the second computer (we do that often around here). So -- I'm looking at nForce 3 with AGP now. The only board I found that has nForce 3, 1394 FireWire, and Socket 939 is the EPoX EP-9NDA3+ board. It looks good, but I'm afraid to move away from ASUS, since they're usually supposed to be the best. Does anyone know if this EPoX board is any good? Did they tag anything onto the PCI bus, like GigaBye apparently did?

Thanks again for your help!

Shayne

Update: I read a bunch of reviews, and everything I read said that it was great. If it's running nForce 3, there shouldn't be a problem with the PCI bus.

Here's another question: I went on EPoX's site and saw that the latest BIOS revision supports AMD's dual core CPUs. That's exactly what I wanted in the first place! The only issue is this: if I get a dual core CPU and the BIOS doesn't initially support it before the upgrade, how am I supposed to do the upgrade?

Any thoughts/workarounds?

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[ This Message was edited by: Shayne White on 2005-10-09 22:52 ]

jea · Post by **jea** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 7:22 am

Hi Shayne!

I have a GIGABYTE K8NS-Ultra 939,

which is AGP and 5 pci's.

Installed a AMD Athlon 4400 x2.

Very fast, but I have not installed the Scope cards here.

JEA

dawman · Post by **dawman** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 3:09 pm

Shayne,
Ther is a Gigabyte NF3 board that supports AMD dual core. A simple bios update is all you need. I can't remeber the model, but a small project studio here in LV is using it for Nuendo, with lots of VSTs' in real time from what I saw.I prefer DSP over VST in summing and sound quality, but my friend disagrees with me, but he's a DJ rapper type, so VA done right is not his cup of tea.

next to nothing · Post by **next to nothing** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 6:32 pm

hi Shane,

regarding your BIOS upgrade question:

i dont know if you intend using webshops or street-shops for your purchase, but either way:

you can tell them to upgrade the bios BEFORE shipping you the card, just inform them and get a confirmation mail or have a verbal concversatiom. tell them your situation and im sure it will work out.

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 8:10 pm

Well, I got the Epox EP-9NDA3+ board. After reinstalling Windows from scratch, I fired up my Scope boards. It started locking up after a minute. With much hassle and configuring all day, I've determined that it only seems to happen when I'm running three boards. One or two boards seems to work OK. It doesn't matter which slots I plug the cards into, if I have all my three boards running at once it doesn't work. It isn't a power issue because I unplugged a couple of extra fans, and the problem didn't go away. I've decided it's a defective motherboard, and if I swap it out for a replacement of the same kind, it might work. One question before I send it back: does anybody know about this problem and this board? Has anybody used this board and gotten it to work? Any other comments?

I just hope I can get them to upgrade the BIOS again on the new board. They weren't happy about it at all the first time, and they charged me $80 USD. I'm NOT paying that again, so I hope they don't give me a hard time.

Shayne

_________________
Melodious Synth Radio
http://www.melodious-synth.com

Indieanna: Integrated Solutions for the Independent Musician
http://www.indieanna.com

[ This Message was edited by: Shayne White on 2005-10-13 21:11 ]

jea · Post by **jea** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 1:02 am

Hi Shayne,

I have not yet installed Scope cards in my system yet, but I have installed 2 UAD-1's.

Regarding bios, on my GIGABYTE K8NS-Ultra 939, this is very easy. Why let someone do it for $80? It's near the price of this mobo btw.

My mobo came with the F6 bios, the one that supported X2 core, so I just upgraded to F9 straight away.

Did you install the chipsetdrivers?

This is a must, on any system.

I myself is thinking of having 2x Luna II in the machine, and just have the SPL stuff, Vinco and other less dsphungry stuff in this machine, which I am going to mix on, so just effects, no synths here on this machine.

I can't put the Scope project or Scope pro in this case, it can't take full length cards.

I believe so much in these machines, I have bought one 4400 X2 and GIGABYTE K8NS-Ultra 939, just for synths (vsti's).

I just hope CreamWare can update drivers soon now....

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[ This Message was edited by: jea on 2005-10-15 02:04 ]

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 10:15 pm

It would be easy to upgrade the bios IF THE MOTHERBOARD ALREADY SUPPORTED THE CPU. If I have to do a bios upgrade to support the CPU, how do I run the computer to do the bios upgrade? Can the motherboard still run anyway before the upgrade? I only have one socket 939 CPU, and it's dual core.

I'm definitely not paying $80 again, because the motherboard is certainly defective. If I could upgrade the bios myself on the replacement board, I would do it, but I don't know how to if I don't have an already-supported socket 939 CPU. I'm not looking forward to convincing them to upgrade the bios again for me.

Any ideas?

Shayne

Post by **garyb** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 10:53 pm

don't accept one that doesn't support your processor, it's likely an old rev, and likely to be trouble... charging you $80 doesn't seem reasonable. the next batch they buy will have the new bios.

just my opinion, it probably is no help..

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 7:07 am

Actually, it is a good idea! I could ask them if they got a shipment since September of these boards, and if they could send me one of those.

Thanks for your help,

Shayne