SPCR

I am looking to upgrade my current pIII setup as the system is unstable and crashes often, also it lacks current features such as USB 2.

I am looking at a Mobile Athlon based system, specifically:

AMD Athlon "Mobile" XP2500-M Barton 266FSB (Socket A) CPU - OEM (CP-076-AM)

With 512mb (2 * 256) of crucial ram.

2 * Samsung SpinPoint P SP1614C 160GB SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-012-SA)

ATI Radeon 9250 128MB DDR TV-Out/DVI (AGP) - Retail (R92L-LC3) (GX-015-OK)

And as a second network card a US Robotics USR997902 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Card (NW-010-US) (Gigabit isn’t necessary as its only for the internet side)


This will be used with the following components I already have:

Lian Li p60 case, with Panaflo M1A 24v fans and Acousti Pack fitted
Nebula Electronics DigiTV card (www.nebula-electronics.com)
Generic DVD Rom Drive
Lian Li 32* cdrw
Seasonic Supertornado 300w (original version which makes a horrible noise on startup, however that’s not a problem as the machine is intended to stay on 24/7)
Zalman 6000 CU Flower Cooler with a L1A panflow on fanmate lowest setting (is that sufficient cooling coupled with the 4 case fans and the psu fan?)
Soundblaster 1024 (If required)


The big question is which motherboard should I get? It needs to have the following features:

Compatible with the DigiTV (I believe the kt600 chipset boards work well)
Onboard Lan (preferably gigabit)
SATA (at least 2 ports, preferably with raid 0,1)
Preferably without a Northbridge fan, or one that is easy to remove
USB 2
Suitable for the Mobile Athlon

Any suggestions as to Motherboard and also any of the components I have chosen?

Also I was thinking of sitting the 2 hard disks horizontal in the LianLi hard drive rack on a couple of strips of foam, with foam at the sides to hold them rigid, with the 2nd disk on top of the first. If the strips are lengthwise the intake fans should provide sufficient cooling. However what type of foam do I need, and recommendations for a UK supplier? (Is any of the stuff in the acousticpack deluxe suitable?)

Many thanks.

The DFI Ultra Infinity is a nForce2 board with the MCP-T "Sound Storm" southbridge with SPDIF out for 5.1 digital out and 6 speaker analog out -- it will save you having to buy a sound card. It has two IDE controllers and four SATA controllers with RAID 0/1. It has voltage, FSB, and multiplier control for Athlon XP mobile support. It has firewire, USB2, and LAN onboard, but not Gigabit LAN. It also has passive heat sinks on both the north and south bridge chips.

If you can, you should try to find a 35w Athlon XP 2400+ mobile -- it runs at 1.35 volts instead of the 1.45 volts for the 45w Athlon XP 2500+.

I use the Zalman 7000 with a 12-7v converter and a fanmate turned all the way down (ends up ~750 rpm), and that is plenty of cooling for my underclocked/undervolted 35w mobile. I think you will be fine with the 6000 depending on cpu speed and voltage. You can always turn up the fan if the CPU gets too hot.