Report: NForce4-A754 build experience

[Peter M]

Fresh from the lab slab ...

Built an inexpensive XP home system from an ECS NForce4-A754, an Athlon 64 2800+, Arctic Silencer64 Ultra, MDT 512MB PC3200U-CL2.5 DIMM, Sapphire Radeon X550, Samsung 2104N PATA, Samsung 552 DVD writer, Apacer USB 2.0 internal card reader, generic cheap case w/ 400W PSU (20-pin main plug).

No surprises, no tricks, no problems - other than a dead PSU in the case I got. To get things installed, I resorted to a ridiculously weak 300W Codegen PSU (also w/ 20-pin ATX plug) before the replacement for the dead one gets here ... and surprise, even with that one, everything is entirely stable even with hard 3D work.

Performance is good, Cool&Quiet is working fine, noise is OK, the loudest thing not being the 6000 rpm chipset fan but the one on the graphics card.

Just remember one thing: Don't plug your card reader in before XP is done installing - else your card slots will have drive letters C through F, and your system harddisk will end up being G or even H

[Will889]

Thanks for that Peter, because i may need to go with that board with my 3400+ to run a 7800 GT PCIe. Done any overlocking? How are bios controls with voltages?

[Peter M]

Some voltage controls are there, the usual system clock and CPU multiplier tweaking, as well as RAM speed limit and manual timing controls. I didn't touch any of it, since this is going out to a customer. Also as usual with the NVidia chipset, the system clock frequency is 201 MHz if you set 200.

With higher spec components than what I used, you definitely should opt for a PSU w/ 24-pin ATX plug to provide stronger power rails to the mainboard. You'll need one with PEG power cables anyway, for that graphics card.

[Will889]

Thanks Pete, i'll probably go with this one.