I've at long last kicked my addiction for cheap-ass notebooks and got myself an even worse 'normal' PC with which I will use to play simulations of online racing(LFS). First thing is obviously it has no GFX card, I realised this after about a half hour of searching for the motherboard manufacturer for E-systems(ASUS) for drivers for the GFX cards?

What GFX cards can I use for this motherboard please?

The GHz maker is a Celeron D and OC'd to 3.93GHz it will sit stable under load at 35-45 degrees celcius but this means nothing probably as it's shite to begin with. Do I need a new GHz maker? or will this one do for LFS?

I don't want a system that runs the nuts off GTA IV, I just want something to run LFS at ease.

The motherboard you have linked to is actually a socket AM2, this means you cannot have a celeron D you will find only AMD CPUs will fit, you probably have a semperon (the budget chip) but any AM2 socket Athlon, Athlon64 or athlon X2 will fit in there.
Nearly 4GHz is very fast and might be fine to play LFS so just upgrade GFX first
The mobo also comes with one PCI Express 16X slot this will allow you to fit almost any modern GFX card that is listed at PCIExpress, personally I would go for an ATI 47XX or 48XX based card.

Good luck.

SD.

ghz maker?

a motherboard with via chipset? why!??!? even their SITE is DOWN

dude csu1... how much money did you pay for what you got?

and what exactly did you get?

i think he is either drunk or joking. possibly the latter due to the former.

3.93G at 45C and he thinks the "ghz maker" is a "celeron d"?

€100, and I'm just kidding with the silly language

SD, I came across that AM2 reference whilst searching for EL-systems pc's with foxconn N15235 motherboard(as thats whats printed on mine), obviously it's not AMD I know now - TBH I'm clueless with this stuff and I can't find this specific board on foxconn's site



yes, I need more ram too

OK fistr dont buy a PCI Express gfx card, it wont fit

your board is this one http://www.foxconnchannel.com/ ... view.aspx?id=en-us0000191

it has AGP 8X gfx card slot, its not a great mobo but with a half decent gfx card and maybe upgrade to a pentium should play LFS fine.

What resolution is your monitors native resolution?

Be very carefull overclocking as the temp info is not always correct, and be very carefull overclocking it can kill PCs faster than you think

make sure you download all the latest drivers from the page linked above you might improve performance, maybe not

good luck.

Ill try to post some more thoughts another day, its getting late

SD.

two sticks of 1GB mem, it's dirt cheap these days
a 3850 agp
a pentium D (dualcore)

and the pc will flyyyyy

Quote from SparkyDave :

OK fistr dont buy a PCI Express gfx card, it wont fit

your board is this one http://www.foxconnchannel.com/ ... view.aspx?id=en-us0000191

it has AGP 8X gfx card slot, its not a great mobo but with a half decent gfx card and maybe upgrade to a pentium should play LFS fine.

What resolution is your monitors native resolution?

Be very carefull overclocking as the temp info is not always correct, and be very carefull overclocking it can kill PCs faster than you think

make sure you download all the latest drivers from the page linked above you might improve performance, maybe not

good luck.

Ill try to post some more thoughts another day, its getting late

SD.

Cheers

Native? erm, it goes 'up' to 1280x1024

I have a feeling that Foxconn's software is'nt telling me the whole story as fan speeds can't be controlled, or maybe this is because I selected the wrong mobo to begin with but I would have thought the app covers a range of mobo's and not particular to just one.

Just in case, I have set in bios to not allow anything above 65 celcius but all seems smooth after I cleaned the 2 kilo's of compacted dust from between the cpu fan and heatsink.

So, a cheap as AGP 8X GFX card and some ram and I'll be back on the servers racing again before X-mas *fingers crossed*(Work+kids+social life = no LFS)

Which "EI SYSTEM" model is it? I know a fair bit about them.

EL 106 I fink

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/72677 x2 (1gb 400DDR2)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167115 x1 (dual core celeron 2.4ghz)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152423 X1 (ATI HD3650 agp)

total ~£100

Quote from anbiddulph :

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/72677 x2 (1gb 400DDR2)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167115 x1 (dual core celeron 2.2ghz)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152423 X1 (ATI HD3650 agp)

total ~£100

Thanks, erm, I won't bother reading up on specs and compairing products I'll just order all that stuff right away...

edit . erm the dual core celeron is better than the one installed, yes?

Quote from CSU1 :

Thanks, erm, I won't bother reading up on specs and compairing products I'll just order all that stuff right away...

edit . erm the dual core celeron is better than the one installed, yes?

i would get a second opinoin first, i dont want to be the one who gets it wrong :P. i think that it would work, i just think you should check with someone else

If you have been inside the case cleaning dust off take a quick digital pic and post it here so we can see the slots on the mobo just to double confirm everything will fit ok

personally I would buy only the gfx card and either another 512 DDR2 ram (the same as the one you have, or do you have 2 sticks installed?) or 2 new larger sticks of ddr2, and see how it runs with your current CPU before getting another.

Good luck

SD.

I jumped the gun a bit. As I was passing Maplin returning from work Friday evening I went in and bought an Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 AGP 8x and alas upon my arrival home with screwdriver in hand gazing into the PC that feeling of sickness in my tummy took hold of me.

This is my board apparentley, but rest assured I am quite clear of what I need now.

Am I better off reading up about ram and FSB frequecies and messing with them or will the return be not so great on a low end system such as this and leave them be?

http://support.thetechguys.com ... 9-41fd-8b4c-99a5d53e16cc}

That is your computer. I have a EI SYSTEM 214, but was supposed to get a 106 . I got the 214 as the 106 was out of stock and I didn't even pay extra .

I must warn you that all EI SYSTEM computers were made for PC WORLD / Currys, so they are rarer than most. Cheaper too .

EDIT: I bought a ATi Radeon 256mb X800 PRO VIVO AGP for £45 2 years ago, but there are better cards now for the money.

Sapphire 11129-02-20R HD 3650 512MB AGP

EDIT 4: Oops, read Jack's post for a slightly better (£44 to £52) price on the GFX card.

The Tech Guy's download section sucks a great deal of balls, and yes that is the PC I have Shaun, thank you

I still think you need to post a photo of your actual mobo so we can see the slots, if shaun is correct, and it sounds like he is, then you will need a PCIExpress gfx card, but all the links have been to AGP versions?

here is a similar card to the ones linked to but in PCIE
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ ... ;catid=56&subcat=1274

Good luck.

post a pic

SD.

Defo a PCI EX slot even says so right next to it

SD.

The older Celeron Ds that have enormous clocks are crap, whilst the older ones are basically C2D with a core disabled and half a megabyte of L2 cache. Basically a Pentium Dual Core (NOT a PD) with a core removed or disabled. These ones can overclock good too. Because of its efficient architechure, I'd say at stock 1.6 ghz speeds, it can kill a 3 ghz Celeron D of the older models. Overclock it to 3 ghz, and it will run LFS as if there was no tomorrow.

- AMD Athlon™ 64FX, Athlon™ 64X2, Athlon™ 64, Sempron™ processors, Socket AM2
- 2000 MT/s HyperTransport™
- Dual channel DDR2 800 / 667 x2 DIMMs, Max 2GB
- 1 X PCIe x16******, 2 x PCIe x1, 3 x PCI
- IDE x 2 + Serial ATA x 2 w/ RAID 0, 1, JBOD
- 5.1 channel, Realtek (AC’97)
- 10/100M LAN
- 8 USB 2.0 ports

There is a PCIe Port, or did you guys change websites? In any case, good AGP cards are still coming out, like 4650, and 3870, both noctorious cards. You can still get good cards that run LFS, such as cards from the X1 Series. An X1300 would probably run LFS easy. X1900s should do it no problem FOR SURE.

EDIT: Never mind, saw it. Forget the top part of it. The newer Celerons probably won't run on this motherboard without a flash of a new BIOS. In any case, these older Intel CPUs are based off the same architechure, Netburst variants, if I am correct. At least the 'newer' Pentium 4s, contrary to one in my old 478 P4s, can overclock. If good, you should be able to get a 3 Ghz to Pentium 4 well past its 4 Ghz barrier. Nevertheless, with the given CPUs, you would probably bottleneck a good GPU anyways. If you are getting a 3850, remember to push the CPU all the way. In this case, a Pentium D is your best bet. You won't be getting much outta the sucker though, unless you push the clock inevitably high. That would be the only way of avoiding bottlenecking (hmm... the 3850, not 4850 =/) and playing GTA4, at such speeds.

EDIT 2: If you are running LFS, you can probably pick up any old AGP GPU and leave the CPU at stock. As long as the GPU isn't like an ATi Rage 128, or something.

Quote from GenesisX :

EDIT 2: If you are running LFS, you can probably pick up any old AGP GPU and leave the CPU at stock. As long as the GPU isn't like an ATi Rage 128, or something.

...I thought AGP cards won't fit and I need PCI Express?

I'm now officially confumbled and confuzed

Quote from CSU1 :

...I thought AGP cards won't fit and I need PCI Express?

You are correct, with the pic you posted an AGP card WILL NOT work with your mobo.

I don't know why people are still talking about them

SD.

Sorry... The first post was rather baffling. It showed a motherboard with a PCIe port and AMD Specs. Later, I discovered, that was the wrong link, which was supposed to be an Intel Build 775, but with AGP. You can basically ignore my original post, but really, you can use it for reference next time you get a new PC.

...whats the difference between PC 4200, 5200 and 6400 and which can my board take please?

http://www.foxconnchannel.com/ ... view.aspx?ID=en-us0000242