GA-7N400-L questions

I picked myself up one of these boards and will be building the system
tomorrow (Saturday). This will be the first time in five years that I'll
be running an AMD-based system (yay!) but I have a couple of questions...

How good is the onboard Realtek ALC655 audio that this motherboard has?
Would I be better off using my Hercules Gamesurround Fortissimo III 7.1
sound card? I only plan to use a 2.0 speaker set and/or headphones.

Secondly, I noticed that the manual says it only supports 2.5 volt DDR
DIMMs. The memory I got for it is Kingston PC-3200 CAS3 (Value RAM) and
there is a sticker on the memory which says it is 2.6v. Will this be an
issue? I phoned the store about this and the tech there said he's used
Kingston memory and hasn't come across any trouble.

Thanks!

"NightSky 421" wrote in message ...
I picked myself up one of these boards and will be building the system
tomorrow (Saturday). This will be the first time in five years that I'll
be running an AMD-based system (yay!) but I have a couple of questions...

How good is the onboard Realtek ALC655 audio that this motherboard has?
Would I be better off using my Hercules Gamesurround Fortissimo III 7.1
sound card? I only plan to use a 2.0 speaker set and/or headphones.

Secondly, I noticed that the manual says it only supports 2.5 volt DDR
DIMMs. The memory I got for it is Kingston PC-3200 CAS3 (Value RAM) and
there is a sticker on the memory which says it is 2.6v. Will this be an
issue? I phoned the store about this and the tech there said he's used
Kingston memory and hasn't come across any trouble.

Thanks!
The bios has an option that allows the user to raise DDR voltage .

"Dimitris" wrote in message
m...

The bios has an option that allows the user to raise DDR voltage .



I got the system built and my OS's installed and updated, etc. I'm using
the newly upgraded machine as we speak. It runs just fine with the
Kingston 2.6v memory and in dual channel mode as well! I appreciate the
reply. I also decided against using the onboard sound. CPU temperature
at idle with my 2500+ Athlon XP is 59C (stock AMD heat sink and fan), and
system temperature is reported at 42C at idle. Video card is an Asus
Radeon 9200SE 128MB. So far, totally stable with no trouble in the OS
install process and early benchmark testing. It's running the F6 revision
BIOS. Looks like a nice upgrade. :-)

"NightSky 421" wrote in message ...
"Dimitris" wrote in message
m...

The bios has an option that allows the user to raise DDR voltage .



I got the system built and my OS's installed and updated, etc. I'm using
the newly upgraded machine as we speak. It runs just fine with the
Kingston 2.6v memory and in dual channel mode as well! I appreciate the
reply. I also decided against using the onboard sound. CPU temperature
at idle with my 2500+ Athlon XP is 59C (stock AMD heat sink and fan), and
system temperature is reported at 42C at idle. Video card is an Asus
Radeon 9200SE 128MB. So far, totally stable with no trouble in the OS
install process and early benchmark testing. It's running the F6 revision
BIOS. Looks like a nice upgrade. :-)

Your CPU is probably running a bit on the hot side. Check the clip on
your heat sink to make sure it is on properly.

I have two machines with Athlon 2200s in them. One was running around
34C. When I initially put the other one together, it ran above 60 in
the BIOS screen. Turns out I had the heat sink clip on backwards.
Turning it around reduced the temperature down to 30C in an open case.
The two machines have different heat sinks (purchased at different
times).

"Jack Ellis" wrote in message
om...

Your CPU is probably running a bit on the hot side. Check the clip on
your heat sink to make sure it is on properly.

I have two machines with Athlon 2200s in them. One was running around
34C. When I initially put the other one together, it ran above 60 in
the BIOS screen. Turns out I had the heat sink clip on backwards.
Turning it around reduced the temperature down to 30C in an open case.
The two machines have different heat sinks (purchased at different
times).


Thanks for the advice. I will take a look. The system is very stable and
AMD's website said this processor can go as high as 85C. I have never
seen it go above 63C. I wonder if the reported temperature varies
depending on who makes the motherboard? Mind you though, the case I have
this system in is not well cooled. However, I did notice you said you are
running 2200+ processors, which are on a different core than mine - my
2500+, of course, is based on the Barton core.

I watched the instructional video at AMD's website carefully before
putting the new system together and am pretty sure that I lined up the
heat sink on the processor socket correctly. I know there is a groove
there, but I will check it again to ensure that I have the proper
orientation. I had someone with me there when I put the system together
and we agreed that the clips were on firmly and that it is installed
correctly overall, but again it's worth a look to be sure.

Thanks for the reply. I appreciate the feedback.