new tower

[LordKwiKSilva00]

OMFG!!! i love my mom :D she went out today and bought a brand new barton XP tower(the bartons that run at 400 fsb) runnin 3000XP!!! this lil b**trd COOKS!!! came with a 160 gb WD hdd, 512 pc2700, NForce2 board...damn this thing is awesome...all for $650(just tower) at best buy...


only downfall is its an emachine T3025 :p

gotta love the power jump from that p2 350 mhz gateway pos we were runnin :D :D :D i got all this power and no unreal tournament to use for benchmark purposes :( my copy got stolen last may

btw, anyone know the combination of keys to get into bios on an emachine??? wanna see how far this lil sucka can OC :p

[BBA]

Probably has no OC options at all. You might get away with modding the CPU L bridges, IF you really want to OC you MOM's new computer that has a WARRENTY still.

[LordKwiKSilva00]

lol...i dunno, its an nforce2 board..most of em i have seen have the ability to at least up the fsb...i know some even have ability to up the multiplier...mebbe i outta at least give it til end of warranty :p just in case...i dont wanna mod cpu, my luck i would blow the stuff outy....i am just happy to have such a good computer compared to the p2 350mhz i was running(stupid POS :p i think i gonna give it away or somethin, pain in the @r$3 it was unless anyone wants to buy parts from it or something :p)

[Shyguy]

If its an nforce2 board there should be some OC features on it, whether its an e-machines or not, most newer systems have at least the basics for OCing, fsb, voltage, etc, tweaks. at least from what ive seen.

Besides Why the He** would you want to OC that beast anyways, dude its got a 400fsb, a 3000XP barton chip & ddr333 in it, if you want it to run faster put 2 ddr3200 sticks in it & run it dual channel (is the current ddr running dual channel if not go that route), its safer than possibly frying the cpu & mobo, but if you are gonna OC make sure that emachine has plenty of cooling in it, before you do, It may have a kick a$$ board & chip in it, but emachines are not known for having abundant cooling & features for OCing, there's a reason they are so cheap. also if you do OC it the warranty definitely will not cover it, so be especially careful.

Also if you want to run a game to benchmark get the newer UT2003 or UT2004 when that comes out, either one will give the system a good challenge. What kind of vid card is in it?

As to the key combo, usually most systems tell you at the main system test screens when you start the computer, usually the delete key or something.

[LordKwiKSilva00]

meh, i dont really like ut2k3, levels are too dark...was thinkin of picking up halo this week for 29.99 at EB(preowned), minimum requirements for it are somethin like 8 gig hdd space free, and at least a 933 proc(1.6 is recommended)

i know emachines cooling sux, if i do OC, i wanna go to 3200, see what it can do...this system is only runnin ddr pc2700 right now(what you expect, its best buy tech support) and i dunno if it has support for dual channel or not...havent really dug into bios yet...gonna run 3dmark on it overnite here along with hotlite cpu tester..

[davidw]

Halo - good game

[Shyguy]

Yep, Halo is a good one too, I got that one also.

Most, if not all nForce2 boards should have dual channel, after all thats supposedly one of the big features of the nforce boards besides the integrated network\sound\video chipset, the one I've got has most all features except video, Soundstorm (just regular 5.1), & RAID.

[LordKwiKSilva00]

yea...i got to lookin around and found this is not the barton 400fsb, but rather the 333fsb...i do know it is runnin ddr333 pc2700 though, just have no way to see if it is dual channel or not

[BBA]

It is dual channel, even if it is only one stick. The nforce2 uses banks in dual channel with crossbar memory controllers ( like the graphics cards from nvidia) this is not true dual channel though, at least not like the Intel, which uses seperate dimms to give true dual channel.

[LordKwiKSilva00]

ah, i see...so it is runnin one stick of 512 mb pc2700 then prolly...easily fixed(best buy is runnin a nice deal on kingston pc3200 and pc2700 dual channel 512 mb for somethin like 89.99 after rebate)

[Shyguy]

BBA- so what your saying is that if you have one stick its running "dual channel", but if you have 2 Identical sticks your running true dual channel? If thats the case then I hope I'm running true Dual channel, I have it enabled on the boards bios & have 2 identical sticks of pc2100 256MB ram (inserted in the proper dimm slots).

[jshahani]

Your Mom bought an eMachines?:p :p :rolleyes:

[LordKwiKSilva00]

Originally posted by jshahani
Your Mom bought an eMachines?:p :p :rolleyes:

yea :rolleyes: what you expect though, it was that or compaq :D :D :D think i would rather run an emachine over compaq any day(i can do tech support on hardware myself without having to use torx drivers :p )

they had sony vaios at best buy, but for tower alone it was 1500 bux

[jshahani]

Did you tell your Mom about the Dell deals?

[LordKwiKSilva00]

yea, but we went to best buy to return the modem she bought that turned out to be crap, then she got to looking at computers and walked out with a pretty good emachine(and i hate emachines with a passion) for 650 bux...she wanted something on the spot anyway(didnt wanna wait 2 weeks for dell to ship, and she just wanted the tower alone)

just to name a few of the parts in here:

nforce2 mobo
512 ddr
GF4 MX integrated vid(64mb shared)
160 gig WD 1600AB 2mb cache
48x32x48 CDRW(lite on)
samsung syncmaster 16x dvdrom
400 watt PSU

pretty decent IMO for an emachine

[Shyguy]

Look on the bright side at least youve got a NForce2 Board & a good AMD chip, to toy with, can't get that with Dell!!!

[LordKwiKSilva00]

lol, true...now if only i can figure out how to get into the bios :p anyone know the key to get into bios on an emachine??? is it f1 or f2???

[Twiztid Truckie]

Lord,

I think its F2, but unsure...Its different on like almost every emachine since they use so many different parts these days:)

Truckie:)

[LordKwiKSilva00]

lol, k...mebbe i should have asked about it for an nforce2 board then??? :p

[ThRoNkA]

i had an emachine that was 250 mhz and got it for 400 bucks back in the day. was a great machine back then but now it is a bad company with bad service. They replaced the emachine one time for a bad power switch when the switches were going bad.
... their PSUs are crap tho

[Shyguy]

Lord, On my NForce2 system (custom build) you have to hit the delete key at the POST screen.

[LordKwiKSilva00]

tried the delete key...nothing....

my post screen doesnt show anything but a big emahcines logo, so i dont know what it is...might help also if i hook up a ps2 keyboard instead of a usb keyboard :p

[Shyguy]

ps\2, usb, shouldn't matter as the board should support both right out of the box, did your e-machine come with a manaul for the pc maybe its in one of those, otherwise you could try to download one of those utilities that allow you to access your bios from within windows, if you can't get into it from start-up.

[LordKwiKSilva00]

hmmm, i will check the manual....if i dont find it, what program would you recommend for accessing bios from windows??? i am on dialup, so it has to be dialup friendly for download, cant be too big(couple meg max)

[Shyguy]

unsure, ive never used one but always see some when ever i go to cnet downloads & such to download stuff, maybe one of the other guys know's (Mntsnow, Gohan, etc). Also I just went to e-machines site to see if they had anything in the FAQ's about how to enter the bios, all it said was to hold\press the delete key when the logo screen comes up. here's the link:

http://www.emachines.com/support/view_faq.html?faq=1004998907#4

Otherwise you could try e-mailing one of their tech support guy's in the meantime while your tyring to figure it out on your own, the link is on their site somewhere.

[LordKwiKSilva00]

hmm, i will hafta check into that...i dunno if legacy usb support is enabled in the bios or not(the option that lets me use usb in dos/post mode)

i will ask snowman if he knows where to find one just in case i need it...i have an extra keyboard layin around i can hook up also(ps2) if i cant get into it with usb

[Roadkill]

Try depressing and hold the key down, then turn on the machine. I have run into this problem before, it was the monitor, by the time the monitor showed anything, it was to late to hit the key. When I pressed and held the key, then turned on the machine, by the time the monitor showed anything, it was already in the bios screen.

[LordKwiKSilva00]

will try that...tnx roadkill

btw, YGPM on that siig ata66 card :D :D :D

[jshahani]

Hehee.....LordK, you seem happier than a hog in a pile of $hi7.:D

[LordKwiKSilva00]

lol :p of course :D :D :D now if only i could benchmatk the system :p what would you reccomend, 3dmark???

[jshahani]

First try the Sisoft sandra. It's not the best but its comprehensive. I think memory and hdd tests are not too reliable but you do get a starting point.

For hard drive, try HDTEST or any of the many free utilities available --do a google.

[LordKwiKSilva00]

heh, ok...i have sandra 2k3 pro around here somewhere on disk...time to go trash my bedroom(more :D) to try and find it...i could download it again, but its not very 56k friendly(i run dialup at 26.4k :D :D :D)

[Shyguy]

OUCH!!!:whoa:

Thats gotta hurt!

[LordKwiKSilva00]

yea...tryin to convince mom to get comcast cable internet :D :D :D doesnt seem to be working :p btw, i got into the bios by rebooting and holding delete key...doesnt look like i can OC through bios, gotta resort to old fashion jumper OCing :p god i hate doin it that way :p too easy to fry things....

[Shyguy]

There's jumpers on a nforce2 board to OC? (I know theres some for reseting the cmos & stuff but fsb, vcore, dram, etc?

Is that e-machine using some custom made NF2 board & bios or what?

[LordKwiKSilva00]

i dunno...here is what i do know:

!. it runs an nforce2 board
2. bios is a pheonix/award bios
3. dunno if i have jumpers to oc with or not, if not looks like i am SOL for OCing

any ideas??

[Shyguy]

not sure, I just reset my system & checcked my bios on this system (kt333) to see what bios I had (phoenix\award), I know its not the same chipset (my brothers using my nforce2 system right now), but I wanted to get an idea of where those oc options might be. Does your bios have a section labeled frequency\voltage (or something similar), thats where your fsb & voltage setting should be, there might be an option to have it set automatically, you might have to switch it to manual to change stuff, your dram settings might be in the same section, if not maybe try the advanced chipset features section (or similar), at least thats where they are on my bios. other than that i can't think of anything else.

[LordKwiKSilva00]

nope, dont have any of that stuff...must be either a custom nforce board or its proprietary crap nforce board that the modded at the emachines factory...oh well, i can find a windows based OC tool somewhere...i thing www.voodoofiles.com has one

hell if it comes down to it i can always find more info out about this board by searching motherboards.org and using the bios string ID from the post screen(should be able to identify manufacturer of board, most likely PCchips NForce2 or some crap like that)

[Shyguy]

Well, Good luck with your search, Hope you find something!!!

[LordKwiKSilva00]

i will post back of course, let ya know the manufacturer/distributor of the board :p

how much you wanna bet its PCchips crap or some company like that :p its an emachines tower for petes sake :p(a decent one at that :p)

[Shyguy]

Not sure about PCchips, just went to their site, absolutely no mention of a nForce2 board their anywhere. KT400's, SIS's, but no nForce2?

[LordKwiKSilva00]

hrmm...wonder if it one of their subsidiary companies(I.E., ECS, etc)

[Vester]

Here is the description of your computer at Best Buy (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1069300362844&skuId=6229716&type=product). I like the tests at PCPitstop (http://www.pcpitstop.com).

[LordKwiKSilva00]

tnx, checkin it out now

[Shyguy]

Hey, Lord, is your mobo purple in color?

[LordKwiKSilva00]

no clue, havent had side of case off yet :p

i hope to hell not, as its prolly gonna be ECS if it is :p

[Shyguy]

If it is, this just maybe the board, went to anandtech & they have a review on a ECS nForce2 400 board, here's the link, if your read the blue text there's some bad news about your board IF this is the one:

http://www.anandtech.com/news/shownews.html?i=21231

[LordKwiKSilva00]

hmm, unless they make a 333 version of the board, i think i am all right...this is one of the 333 bartons...i will crack the case tomorrow while moms is at work, and make sure not to break the seal on it(so i dont void the warranty)

*edit* from the looks of the review at OCworkbench, my board is different...that one has 3 ram slots, my board only has 2(from what i saw in the bios)...few other differences put me off the idea that that was my board

[Shyguy]

That is pretty lame how they put a d*mn seal on it to keep people from violating their warranty. I just broke the seal on my brothers emachine a few of months ago, though it was a few years old, Celeron 333 with 32MB PC100 & built in ATI 4MB AGP2x.

[LordKwiKSilva00]

yea, it is kinda lame...i could prolly get around it by callin them and explaining that i am A+ certified since june 4, 2003 and that i am looking for more info on their parts used in this system :D :D :D

[Shyguy]

That might work!!!

I tried e-mailing them earlier on the subject, so maybe I'll get a response, then again maybe i'll get the run around like a lot of other places?

[LordKwiKSilva00]

lol, sounds like something emachines would do :p hehe

i dunno, mebbe i just break the seal anyway, see what they say..they try to void our warranty i jkust pull out my A+ cert card and give em my certification number then tell em to suck on that egg :p anyway, i give up for toingiht, dont feel like rebootin to get the string ID nuber, i do it in the morn...gonna log offline and get some food then sleep

[Shyguy]

Guess what Lord, I got a response back from emachines & I was right they gave me the run around, here's their response:


Thank you for contacting eMachines.

I understand you would like to know how to overclock your system.

We do not have information to overclock the system; it was not given to us by the manufacturer.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Should you require further assistance with your eMachines system, please feel free to send another message. Your comments and suggestions are welcome.

Sincerely,
Robert


Yeah, Right, I find it F'n hard to believe that they purchased the mobo's from somebody else with out knowing info on them, how the hell do they expect to provide tech support for their customers if they don't have the info on hand!!!

[Mntsnow]

Truthfully I would be amazed that any manufacturer of a complete system would instruct people in how to make their system run outside of spefications. Of course they arent going to tell you how...If they did they could be held liable for damage to a system.

[ThRoNkA]

Lord.. I know this is a bit late.. but on my emachine you had to press the tab key real fast to get the post screen then hit the hot key it showed. Dunno if that will work.

[LordKwiKSilva00]

lol shyguy, i figured they would give ya the run around :p i didnt expect them to tell ya how to OC the system, not many manufacturers will :p i wonder if they would at least tell me the manufacturer of my motherboard :D :D :D more than likely i would get the run around also

Thronka, i got in to the bios already, roadkill's suggestion worked...i rebooted and held the delete key til it started beeping at me :D

snowman, i here ya.. of course OC a system will void most(if not all) warranties on the system...if anything went wrong, they could and they couldnt be held responsible(play th eblame game all ya want, wont help ya :D :D :D )

[ThRoNkA]

well i guess i was too late. school cache doesnt update really fast.. grr

[LordKwiKSilva00]

lol, read my new thread :p see what emachines tech support told me through they live chat program on they site :p