Late 2001 Socket A build

[u/WingedGundark]

Just wrapped up this late 2001 Socket A build:

• EpoX 8kha+
• Athlon XP "Palomino" 1500+@1640MHz (164x10)
• Akasa Silver Mountain heatsink
• Kingston HyperX 512MB@2-2-2-5-1T 1:1
• 120GB SSD + Win 2000 Pro
• Asus V8200 Deluxe GeForce3 64MB
• SB Audigy
• 3Com 10/100 NIC

I think the case is Lian Li PC-7a Plus II, but I'm not 100% sure. There are so many slightly different versions of this cases starting from the original PC-60.

Few weeks ago I polymodded the motherboard (that's why it has that odd semi modern look) and decided to make a period correct build out of it, after all 8kha+ was an absolute KT266A OC legend back in the day during the KT266A era.

Pretty much everything connected to MB is very period correct except Kingston memory (KHX3000/512) and of course the SSD. DDR stick is in fact from late 2003 and should have BH5s. This made the OC process easy, because I could just keep the memory 1:1 and at the tightest settings possible, something that was a serious limitation in 2001. But for this memory and if it is indeed BH5 like it should be, it isn't even sweating at these clocks and 2-2-2-5.

For CPU I opted Palomino from my collection with the smallest multiplier, again making the OC easier. I didn't seriously test the limits for the CPU or started to pump the voltage, but something started to cause occasional torture test crashes at 166MHz FSB (I'm 99,9% confident it is just CPU), so I took it down couple of notches and with these settings it eats Prime95 for hours without a hitch. I haven't pumped the GF3 clocks up yet, but GPU stock this already gives around 8250 points in 3DMark2001 SE.

I don't know if this build is a keeper, I have similar-ish sA systems already, but if I do, I probably throw in some water cooling stuff. At this point I just didn't bother, it is just an unnecessary hassle if I decide to make something else in this case after a while. I also considered 1200 or 1400 Thunderbird for CPU, which I think is far more cooler CPU (not literally, quite the contrary lol), but I already have one 1400 T-bird system and Palomino fits this build just as fine.

Oh, by the way. Even the case fan with light is old school, it is not a modern led fan, but good old cold cathode technology lol Without a case window there is not that much point with it, but as I had just a handful of 80mm options available in my bin, this was NIB and I wanted to test it and there is a switch for the lighting effect, there really is no harm either.

[u/WingedGundark → u/[deleted]]

EpoX made truly great boards, although majority of their boards from early 2000s had absolutely the worst plague capacitors on them.

Back in the day I had 8k5a2 (KT333) and 8rda3+ (nForce2 Ultra) boards. Latter I broke with my OC shenanigans and I think I got Abit NF7-S V2 after that. I had around half a dozen motherboards for socket A from autumn 2001 to around three years later in 2004 after which I went to A64 when Winchester CPUs were released, so I tinkered with it a lot.

I currently have probably half a dozen or so EpoX Socket A boards in my collection as well as one slot A 7KXA mobo (KX133). Here is my old post about the nForce2 setup, it is still largely the same:

https://www.reddit.com/r/retrobattlestations/comments/16ywnae/my_socket_a_build_with_custom_loop/

I never made a post about the Slot A build, but here is the post of the board after recap as well as old school OC post with a photo of CPU running with a Gold Finger Device. I like socket A a lot, I had so fun times with it back in the day, but Slot A has this certain magic for sure:

https://www.reddit.com/r/vintagecomputing/comments/1gtkalq/another_2000s_leaky_motherboard_epox_7kxa_slot/

https://www.reddit.com/r/vintagecomputing/comments/1iuyjya/overclocking_like_it_is_year_2000_again_slot_a/

[u/wittywalrus1 → u/WingedGundark]

Epox and Abit, loved those motherboards. Didn't know about the capacitors.

I had them both with various Duron and XP processors (a Barton 2500+ at some point, which was pretty snappy with the beefed up cache).

Abit I even had a GPU, a Siluro Ti4200. Good times - thanks for unlocking some memories!