PC Cases, Fans, RAM and other details

Overclocking, Picking the right RAM and more

How can you own the perfect PC? Build it yourself! It's easier than you think.

This article continues with topics begun in our previous PC Builder reports (parts one and two) and concludes with part 4.

Shopping List

To build a PC, you have to make a number of decisions, and at every step of the way, you are likely to face trade-offs and compromises as you endeavour to get the best value, quality and performance for your money. let's start with the case.

The Case

Of course, all your computer-building efforts have to be put inside a case of some sort. Look for a case with a top-quality power supply, nicely finished, high-grade sheet metal (preferably spot-welded; not held together with pop rivets!), and an adequate number of drive and expansion bays to suit future expansion needs. Better cases have more than one fan, and many people prefer models with an easy-access, sliding side cover.

What to look for in a PC case:

• Side cover(s) that remove easily to provide access to expansion options inside the case.
• Expansion slot covers that do not require forcible removal or "punching out" from the sheet metal of the case.
• Sturdy construction from good quality metal.
• An extra fan, particularly if you plan to add several expansion cards or overclock your CPU.
• A high-quality power supply.
• Enough drive bays to accommodate your likely future needs.
• You may also want to consider reset switches, status lights, power connectors and other functional and/or cosmetic issues when comparing cases.

One of the best-designed mid-size cases we found (pop rivets notwithstanding) was an Intel-approved Clio-2 model LR103134 from LCH Resources. It has a motherboard panel that swings out by simply removing a single thumbscrew, much as some recent models from Dell do. The stylish case has sleep and reset buttons and a recessed floppy drive slot that gives the front panel an attractive Mac-like look. Dual ball-bearing fans, clearly labeled electrical connectors, ready-to-remove port covers and nicely finished metal edges (no cut fingers on this unit!) clinched this as our case of choice. The only problem we noted was a bit of difficulty in fitting the screws to the cards in the slots, apparently a result of the swing-out design of the motherboard panel. Nevertheless, thanks to LCH for supplying us with this excellent case.

We installed some of our "low rent" components in the VIP-303 case (13" tower/230W AT power) from White Knight Distributing. The VIP-303 uses a traditional "lift-off" cover design, and has a motherboard mounting plate that can be easily removed for easy installation of the mainboard. Electrical connections were clearly labeled and metal edges were not unduly sharp. However, port covers that are not easily knocked out (tip: punch the plates out before installing the motherboard!) make set-up a little more time-consuming than with deluxe cases like the Clio-2 model that provides ready-to-remove covers. While installing a motherboard, we found that relatively thin and soft metal of the back panel bent rather easily and tended to lead to stripped screw-holes, too. It didn't include a secondary fan or a speaker, either. Our advice: avoid cheap cases. We've seen too many gashed fingers.

The VIP-840 (16" tower/235W ATX power) was a more convenient and fully equipped design, featuring one-screw access to lift-off side panels and a better feel to the front-panel switches than we found on the 303 model. Back-facing secondary fan, speaker, port covers, motherboard mounting hardware and rubber feet all emphasize what's missing from the 303 model. The case is lockable (via a pull-out metal tab that prevents intrusion via the side panels), too. The VIP 840 is one of the few cases we've seen with an ATX power supply that includes a "slave" power plug built in -- a handy feature for automatically shutting off a connected monitor. Port covers required knocking out, though. Note however, that this case design is not appropriate for full-size motherboards such as the dual-CPU BrillianX IV model (in all, one of the most feature-rich boards we've seen) from Legend-QDI.

Note, however, that the Legend-QDI BrillianX IV motherboard with onboard SCSI and Ethernet and dual CPU slots is a poor choice if you plan to run Windows 2000. This board works well under NT, but is very, very slow under Windows 2000, due to a known issue. The good news is: these boards can, in Feb. 2000 be bought from dealers such as MicroConcept for about C$120 -- an incredible deal for NT users who will not be moving to Windows 2000. (I own one and have verified this problem myself.)

We haven't yet tested it, but the deluxe 14" case with the rounded front panels from Acer/Aopen looks like a good one, with a better-than-average power supply and good workmanship throughout. It's a pity that it is a "lift-off" top -- many users tend to prefer cases with sliding side-panels, such as the C2000 model supplied to us by CompuCon has (it, too, sports a high-quality power supply), or the spot-welded Jamicon case with the ATX power supply and fan that faces down toward the CPU. In fact, Acer/AOpen's 19" case does provide a slide-off side panel, along with a good-quality power supply. It provides three 3.5" mounting spaces and three 5.25" bays.

Cases Tested (Summary)

VIP_303 case - Baby AT minitower, low-grade sheet metal bends easily. VIP 230W; no case fan.  Port covers require punching. Lift-off-panel access to motherboard. No side access.

MD-ATX - Better quality ATX mid-tower. Lift-off-panel access to motherboard. Port covers require punching. Includes case fan, VIP 235W power with slave plug. Two-side access

Compucon C2000 - High-quality, Mid-size AT. Pre-punched port covers. Two-side access. Seventeam 230W power, case fan.

LCH Clio-2 - High-quality ATX case. Swing-panel access to motherboard. Pre-punched port covers. Case fan; Fortron/Source 235W  power. Two-side access.

Tools of the Trade

Motherboard manuals recommend using an anti-static strip to ground yourself when installing CPUs, RAM and other sensitive components. DIMMs, motherboards and CPUs are expensive and easily damaged -- be careful. To ease the installation process of mainboard, drives and other screw-in components, we found it really helps to have a magnetized Philips screwdriver (although you should avoid using magnetized objects around disk drives and magnetic media). Good lighting, such as a light you can position to shine into the case without having to hold it, will prove handy, too.

Follow the Instructions

Virtually all motherboards provide detailed instructions for jumper settings, electrical requirements, CPU and RAM installation, and other configuration details. Read these items carefully! It also helps to plan ahead. Do you need to attach the retention mechanism for that Pentium II CPU before bolting the motherboard to the case's mounting panel? Yep. Punch out port cover blanks before beginning assembly, too. Many pro PC builders use a non-conductive insulator (often small washers or pieces of rubberized fabric, which also may help cut down vibration) between the motherboard spacer-screws and the metal case mounting plate, too. Some motherboards  include these washers.

Keep it Cool

For our Pentium II-based systems, we used -- and recommend -- a boxed processor with Intel cooling fan. This kit provides optimum cooling you just can't get from a heat sink arrangement. We chose a PII/350 -- not the fastest processor, but one that allows 100 MHz external bus performance and meets the CPU requirements of next-generation OS enhancements such as Microsoft's Chromeffects. We think the 350MHz PII will prove to be one of the most popular CPU models in the coming months, just as the 486/66 was in its time. We also expect the 300 MHz Celeron-A, in conjunction with overclocking-friendly motherboard like the Abit BH6, to be a popular model with upgraders and value-conscious buyers.

For Super 7 systems, we chose an AMD K6-2 300 -- again, a chip with legs. We cooled this CPU with a CPU Cooler brand fan. Sure, there are better ones, but this ball-bearing fan/heatsink combo does the trick at the right price (about $5.50).

Which PC/100 SDRAM should you buy? Experts say memory from Samsung, Micron, Toshiba, American Megatrends, Corsair, NEC, and Texas Instruments (in that order) is the most reliable. 7 or 8ns memory is considered more reliable than 10ns, but of course costs more.  As customers are increasingly better informed and demanding of reliable components, the higher-quality alternative can be a point in a dealer's favor -- and a few extra dollars in the till. A good source of info on how to buy the fastest PC100 RAM is www.pc100.com. To summarize, the author notes that the parts that will operate at cas 2 @ 100 MHz are the fastest parts. Samsung DIMMs that have a PC100-label saying "222-620" are the fastest, he says, and are rated at 125MHz (max), supporting CAS 2 @ 100 MHz. Next best, he says, is GoldStar's SDRAM, also labeled 222-620. This memory is also reliably capable of CAS 2 @ 100 MHz, and is rated for a max. of 100 MHz. Most others aren't.

We tested several of the 100 MHz Socket 7 boards (particularly those based on the the Baby AT form factor) with 66MHz RAM to see what impact it had on reliability and performance. Although ALi-based boards seemed to fare better in general than those based on the MVP3 chipset, problems and performance limitations were minor and only one board (the DFI P5BV3+) exhibited severe symptoms during our torture tests. Thus, LX-to-BX motherboard upgraders may want to try their existing SDRAM before dumping it for PC100 memory.

Putting it all together

A floppy disk with a CD-ROM driver on it, such as is created during the installation of Windows 98, is the easiest way to get a new system up and running. Alternatively, you might find it convenient to format a hard drive on another computer, and copy the Win98 directory (or whatever other operating system you are using, etc.) to your hard drive.

We configured our test systems using some or all of the following:

• HP internal (IDE) 8250 CD-Writer
• Pioneer IDE DVD-ROM drive
• 7200 RPM (ATA/66) Maxtor hard drive
• ATI All-in-Wonder 128 or Matrox G400-TV (AGP) graphics card
• Creative Sound Blaster Live!
• D-Link or RealTek PCI network cards
• NEC or Panasonic floppy drive
• Windows 98; Windows 2000 Professional
• 64MB or 128MB PC100 SDRAM

System Notes: Slot 1/BX boards

Abit BH-6 -- less expensive than the BX-6 that preceded it, the BH-6 is in many ways a better product, despite having one less DIMM socket. It provides 5 PCI slots (2 ISA), and a truly innovative feature sure to be popular with performance buffs. You see, the BX-6 and BH-6 are unique in their ability to set the core voltage for the CPU, and the BH-6 goes further by providing software control over the status of the SEL100/66# signal, allowing 66 MHz Slot 1 (Intel Celeron, Celeron-A and Pentium II) processors -- even recent chips with with locked multipliers -- to be easily and effectively overclocked. (Note: this feature only works on Pentium II 350s and 400s produced before Aug19th. After this date, all PIIs are locked at their respective multiplier and the BH6's SEL100/66# feature cannot unlock it.) The Abit is our "Overclocker's Choice" among BX boards. It exhibited no problems with plug-and-play device detection in either manual or auto mode under Win98, even when six of the slots were filled. It offers two other features we look for, too: fan off in suspend mode and the option to init AGP or PCI first. Recommended.

Asus P2B/S (Slot 1) - No complaints! Clearly labeled electrical connectors on the Asus mainboard and little extras included with the P2B/S, such as nylon straps to tie cables out of the way, extra jumpers, and non-conductive washers to help isolate the motherboard from the metal case, made the installation as speedy and convenient as you could want. And having SCSI onboard -- especially SCSI as versatile and powerful as that provided by the three onboard connectors (80MB Ultra SCSI 2, Wide and Narrow) clinched this model as one of our favorites. Users looking to minimize the hassles of "no available IRQs" should definitely consider a motherboard with onboard SCSI. With a benchmark score in our test second only to the Aopen AX6B Plus (below), this is our "Quality Board" choice in the BX category. Note that you need to flash the BIOS to at least version 1005 in order for it recognize a Celeron-A / 300. Recommended.

The Aopen AX6B Plus (including onboard UW SCSI) we received was unfortunately marred by not one but two fairly serious (but non-damaging and easily removable) solder blobs on the motherboard. Presumably, this is not a common occurance, but it was troubling, nonetheless. Performance was better than average, particularly when we substituted a Permedia2-based AGP card for the ATI Rage Pro we ran our standard tests on. With the Permedia 2, the composite benchmark score shot up to 372 -- an impressive 15 percent improvement. With the Rage Pro, the AX6B Plus scored a 325 on our Bapco test -- the second-best score of all Slot 1 boards tested and about 2 percent faster than the Abit BH-6 or the SCSI-equipped QDI Brilliant IV board (below). As virtually all BX boards rate within a few percentage points of each other, we elected not to award the performance board Editor's Choice to the AX6B or the fastest board tested, the Iwill BS-100, as the BH-6 actually presents more opportunities for performance enhancement via its multiplier-unlocking capability. Still, the Aopen and Iwill boards are both performance champs in their own right and, solder blobs notwithstanding, the Aopen board was no trouble to set up and configure.

As a teaser for our next set of Lab Tests, we benchmarked this speedy board with both the graphics card we used for the rest of our tests, and a 3DLabs Permedia2, which shows just how much the benchmark results can be improved by a speedy graphics accelerator. BAPCo is optimized for 2D graphics tasks, so we'll also be running a set of 3D tests (including FutureMark's hot new 3DMark 99) on the cards we receive over the next few weeks in our labs here at Canadian Computer Wholesaler -- look for plenty of graphics action in the months ahead!

The Gigabyte GA-6BXC rated a 316 on our initial BAPCo tests, but by setting a "Turbo" jumper and using the recommended "Performance" settings as listed in the manual, the BAPCo benchmark result jumped to 323. (We did not overclock the CPU or FSB.)  The manual provides descriptions of optimal performance settings for the BIOS, but provides a scant one-line description of this "Turbo" setting, intended primarily for use with 100 MHz+ bus frequencies.

The Legend-QDI BrillianX IV motherboard was the most full-featured board we tested (dual PII slots, 10/100baseT Ethernet and Ultra Wide SCSI!), but a few items concerned us. At a superficial level, the fact that the supplied BIOS started up our test unit with a glaring typo ("capablity") was annoying, and the board needed more fiddling than most to set up and configure the BIOS and Power Management settings. It tied with the BH6 on Bapco benchmark scores -- rating a respectable 317 -- a mere two percent lower than the performance leaders. Indeed, this would have been the board we'd have used in our Windows 2000 test PC if not for the above-mentioned problem that makes Windows 2000 run far more slowly in dual-CPU configurations on this board than it should. Details at www.qdigrp.com or www.qdi.ca.

Initially, we liked the look of the snap-in PII retention bracket shipped with the Shuttle HOT-661 motherboard. It seems like a great idea -- a PII mount that doesn't require those fiddly screws. You just drop it over the SEC slot and push down on the plastic pins. However, we found it to be problematic and it required a great deal of force to press down properly (and good luck if you ever want to remove it!). Perhaps others will have a better experience with Shuttle's snap-in retention mount (and it certainly has the potential to speed up system build times!), but we ended up discarding ours in favor of the screw-down type. Once the system was built, we found Shuttle's BIOS-controlled CPU speed menu to be quite convenient although the board's lack of Green LED connectors and Sleep Switch connectors to be very unusual and, frankly, quite disappointing. The board seemed to work equally well with both 66MHz and PC100 SDRAM.

The MSI MS-6119 Slot 1 board was the fastest board to set up of all the ones we tested. It uses a "Fold-up" Pentium II retention bracket and there are no jumpers or switches required to set up the CPU and bus speeds -- it is all handled via the BIOS. The system even recommends SDRAM CAS settings for your installed memory. Just for fun, we pulled out the CPU fan connector while the system was running. (Don't try this at home, folks!) The MSI motherboard's BIOS issued a warning message, just like you'd want it to in the case of a real emergency. A good manual and a full complement of sleep switch and green mode LED pins made this board ideally suited to our VIP-840 case's external sleep switch. The MS-6119 worked well on either standard or PC100 SDRAM and we were amazed with the ease with which the RAM snapped into the large-handled memory sockets. It's a well-designed board.

System Notes: Super 7 boards

The Asus P5A-B was one of our favorite Super 7 motherboards, despite the fact that several other boards were a little faster. The Asus P5A-B was one of the most trouble-free and well-equipped Socket 7 board tested -- helped in part by a concise and easy-to-follow manual. It also sensibly places the CPU socket out of the path of expansion cards -- a rarity in AT form-factor boards, and just the ticket for those of us with one or more 7" expansion cards. We had no troubles with 66MHz or PC100 memory. We also liked the board's optional sound capability, with a generous array of CD (2) and MPEG (1) audio connectors, digital and analog audio I/O (including S/PDIF in/out), and a game-port connector. Supplied port-cards provide a PS/2 port, AT and XT serial, and a parallel port. An optional card adds USB connectors and IR capabilities. Best of all, this board fully supports fan-off during ATX sleep mode. (An AT power connector is also provided, which does not provide ATX-specific suspend mode functionality.) As we mentioned in our motherboard reviews, the Asus packaging and documentation are of superior quality, making the product well-suited as an end-user "DIY" (do it yourself) upgrade.

For those who want maximum performance, the Aopen AX59Pro is an excellent choice, only a fraction of a single percent slower than the Gigabyte GA-5AX in this test. It rated an impressive 286 on our BAPCo benchmark tests, placing it about 10 percent above the Asus P5A-B in terms of overall speed.  (The Matsonic 6260S, the fastest board in the roundup, rated a 290.) Graphics performance was exceptional, yielding best-of-field performance (in the Socket 7 category) in the CorelDraw and PageMaker benchmark tests. It includes both SIMM and DIMM sockets and supports a 112 MHz external clock (although, as Dr. Tom Pabst notes in his review, not always reliably), further strengthening its appeal to upgraders. The multilanguage printed documentation includes a quick reference booklet to help experienced system builders get the switches and jumpers set up quickly.

Gainward 5VPA - A confusing motherboard manual (36 pages) and a few configuration problems made the installation of components a bit more stressful than things might have been, but performance was surprisingly good on this inexpensive (US$62) board. Probably as a result of its ability to successfully run with the RAM sync'ed to the 100 MHz CPU clock, this board rated a 277 in our BAPCo tests -- a little faster than the DFI P5BV3+. We were disappointed to note that the edge connectors on the 5VPA's DIMM sockets are tin -- most of the others in this test were at least attempting to look like gold contacts. Perhaps we've just unlucky, but we noticed what seemed to be a definite trend with the boards based on the VIA Apollo MVP3 chipset: we had more network card IRQ hassles (even with PCI NICs) and more system startup problems overall. On the flip side, the MVP3 chipset's ability to run memory ansynchronously makes boards based on the VIA chipset more appealing to overclockers than those based on the ALi set. Overall, this board was ahead of the DFI product in both ease of configuration and performance.

We found better quality sockets on the DFI P5BV3+, which also uses the MVP3 chipset. It provides both AT and ATX power connectors. This board, which rated 276 on our BAPCo benchmark test that the Asus P5A-B rated only a 260 on, will be attractive to those looking for a Super 7 board with a one-meg cache. This led to best-of-field performance in the Excel, Freelance, Paradox and WordPro tasks in our benchmark suite, although graphics performance was oddly low in the CorelDraw and PageMaker tests. This board includes 4xPCI and 3xISA slots -- although our mostly unsuccessful attempts to coerce it into running at anything better than "Failsafe" mode on 66MHz memory suggest those hoping to leverage an existing set of SIMMs or LX-type DIMMs may have some difficulties. The manual comes up short on the subject of possible RAM configurations, and the DFI board was the most sensitive to SDRAM speed of all the boards tested. When we tested it with 66MHz (LX type) SDRAM clocked to the 66MHz AGP clock that worked well in several other machines, the DFI board couldn't even run some of the benchmarks. (See our chart for details.) We found that the system wouldn't boot at all when the 66MHz SDRAM was sync'ed to the CPU clock, and the Sept. '98 BIOS update on DFI's website left our Windows startup screen with bits of garbage scattered throughout.

The Soltek SL-54U5 is, as our Motherboard Specs chart shows, a Baby AT format Super 7 board. It includes the ability to select an AGP- or PCI-based graphics card as the system default -- a great feature for Win98 upgraders wanting to run more than one monitor. (Many systems always default to PCI, which is what those who upgrade to a snazzy new AGP card usually don't want.) The board was among the toughest to insert SDRAM into, though. It worked well with either standard or PC100 SDRAM.

The Super 7 board we found most difficult to install SDRAM into was the Matsonic MS6260. Other than the amazingly tight RAM sockets, we were pleased with the feature-set and performance of the MS6260. Equipped with an AMI BIOS and 1024K of L2 cache, on-board audio and supporting either AT or ATX type power, this mainboard roared through our benchmark tests, rating a best-in-its-class score of 290. It was also one of the few boards we looked at that allows an AGP or PCI graphics card to be set as the default display. It comes with a port card for (2) USB and a PS/2 mouse port (plus another mini-DIN port labeled IR), plus a separate port card providing a game port and sound I/O -- even a S/PDIF IN cable. (a jumper is available for an optional S/PDIF OUT digital connector, as well.) The sound card provides Aureal 3D drivers, software wavetable, HRTF (head related transfer function) positional audio, and DirectSound 3D; it all adds up to a nearly ideal gaming system. PC-cillan and Trend's ChipAway Virus are provided for virus protection. Recommended.

The Gigabyte GA-5AX (based on the ALi chipset) will appeal to those wanting plenty of future growth potential and maximum performance (a close second to the best-in-its-class Matsonic MS6260S) in a Super 7 design. As the ubiquitous "X" in a board name usually implies, it's an ATX format board. Its four PCI slots, three ISA slots, and three DIMM sockets are complemented, as on most ATX boards, by a pair of PS/2 ports and 2 USB ports. 66MHz memory seemed to work well, even when clocked to the 100 MHz FSB.

When choosing a motherboard, it is important to look beyond the number of slots and raw specs, to consider the board layout itself. Baby AT boards such as the DFI P5BV3+ typically place the CPU socket close to the expansion slots, severely limiting the number of full-length cards that can be used. The DFI board, for example, cannot use full-length PCI cards in three of its four PCI slots, and if a full-length card has a heat sink, as our Winfast 2510 did, it doesn't fit in any of them!   In an ATX design such as the Gigabyte GS-5AX, on the other hand, none of the slots are blocked.

Despite these limitations, there's still a healthy market for Baby AT form factor Socket 7 system boards. They are typically equipped with both AT and ATX power supply connectors and provide upgraders with an easier transition path than the new case/new motherboard/new power/new RAM/new keyboard adapter demands of an all-ATX solution. Note, however, that advanced features such as "soft power off" and ACPI power management require ATX power.

The controversial practice of Overclocking is discussed in a Q+A Report.

FOR FURTHER READING

Building a PC for Windows 98.

CCW's Motherboard Supertest part 4

Looking for the best motherboard? Start here: motherboard-listings.html and www.anandtech.com

Considering overclocking? See www.tomshardware.com

You'll need to consider cooling, too. Here's the Heatsink Guide

Adaptec's analysis of SCSI vs. Ultra DMA (EIDE)

http://www.ix.de/ct/english/98/07/018/,

http://www.ix.de/ct/english/98/09/022/

http://cnn.com/TECH/computing/9805/13/bogus_chips.reut/

http://www.heise.de/ct/p2info/#download Remarked processors - a Special Report from www.pro-desk.com

INTEL chipsets datasheet:INTEL

VIA chipsets datasheets:VIA

UltraDMA information:UtraDMA (from INTEL)

AGP information:AGP FAQ, AGP and 3D Graphics Software (from INTEL)

See Intel's website for more background on upcoming NX and ZX-based products.

Thanks to White Knight Distributing (1-800-668-6188) for supplying us with cases and components for these tests.