2 queries on my new Shuttle SFF build
 

I’m using Win Rip to playback CD music from my optical drive but it tends to spit and crackle a bit. All sounds fine if I playback ripped MP3’s from HD.

Now when I built the system there wasn’t a 2 wire lead from the drive to the motherboard as I think I've seen on older PC's – it has only the IDE connection [it's a Shuttle SN85 64bit Athlon jobbie]. Is this wire connection necessary and would it help?

Also what sort of CPU temps should I be aiming for - cant find a guide on the reams of paper that came with the AMD Athlon 64bit 3200 processor and it tends to run at about 59C according to my Speedfan prog.

Cheers if you know!

Hi Diesel,

My Shuttle SN45 runs at about 54C, up to 60C under load. That's with the 'intelligent fan setting" in the BIOS. I'm running a 2500XP, but let's face it there's very little room in there for ventilation, especially if you have two hard disks and a DVD writer.

Not tried playing optical CDs as the PC is right next to the stereo.

HTH
Joolz

Does yours continually ramp the fan speed up and down? If I launch a prog it speeds the fan up! Bit annoying, but have found a prog called speedfan which may allow me to fix it (once I work out how the prog works and what I should set the temps to!)

I've got the same athlon 64bit Sn85. My Athlon 2800 runs at between 41-48. I thinkthe 3200 would be a bit warmer but 58 seems a little high to me....though I haven't done a lot of research on temps for that CPU!

As for the audio.....are you running Win XP? XP can use Digital Audio Extraction so it doesn't need a 2 pin Audio wire. If you have the one and there's connections for it on board (Can't remember whether I have one or not!) then use it!

Thanks for the advice - most of my q's often get glossed over here ;) I will be out to buy a 2 pin audio lead as I run Win 2000. Cheers

Diesel

It's doing that because in BIOS the fan is set to run at full speed when the CPU temp reaches what is actually the temp you get when it runs programs. Result is, when the system is idling the CPU is below the threshold temp and the fan runs slow. As soon as you boot a program the CPU heats up past the threshold and the fan ramps up to full. Go into BIOS and push up the threshold by about 5-10oC. As long as it's set below 70oC you won't hurt the CPU.


M

Cheers! Have been experimenting with AMD's downloadable 'cool and quiet' and 'dashboard display' software as I hear good things, but cant get it to work unfortunately. This may be because my BIOS is slightly older; gonna check the vers and compare to latest from Shuttle tonight. D

ooh, good point. I had to upgrade BIOS to get a better smart-cooling system. Original setting were crap. New BIOS upgrade much better!

Checked it out last night and I am indeed running an old non Cool and Quiet compatible BIOS. It is with great trepidation that I will change this as it sounds a bit complex for a novice!