PC Poll...

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Moderator: enderzero

Are you happy with your current PC?

Yes Damnit!!!
10
63%
Frig No!!!
6
38%
 
Total votes: 16

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R3C
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Post by R3C »

Get ATI Tool, and OC the card a bit. You can bump up your FSB a little without causing problems on Athlon XPs. The longer wait states on your RAM may even allow you to OC more.

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Post by McNevin »

I will do whatever it takes to get 92 more 3dmarks...

What kinda timing do you have on that kingston memory?
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R3C
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Post by R3C »

Dunno right off-hand. I've got a package of the same RAM at work, so I'll post them tomorrow. Can't restart computer right now to check BIOS.

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Post by enderzero »

McNevin - If you want to beat my score you should stop upgrading my computer. Make that 109 you gotta squeeze outta your RAM timings.

P4 2.8 (533), 1GB RAM

new score: 5656

(kev - I guess it just messed up the first time)

Poor Asus MB design. I had to remove the video card to add the ram.

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R3C
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Post by R3C »

If you do it just right, you don't have to remove the card. :D I've done it a couple of times. You just hook the RAM in on the video card side first. It's not much easier than taking out the video card though. [TEE HEE HEE]

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Post by enderzero »

I have done it before as well but it was a a slide the hand in at a weird angle to minimize moving the computer kinda job and it just wasn't happening until the card came out a smidge.

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Post by McNevin »

Ok you win!

I actually went down in 3D Marks.

3DMARK 03: 5463 (193 less than Ender)

Can you guys verify this is how you have it set?

Antialiasing and Anisotropic all the way down, then checked for aplication preference. Anisotropic Performance radio button enabled. Temporal AA Enabled. Texture Preference on highest quality. Mipmap Detail Level on highest quality. VSync: off, and Trueform: off.
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Post by enderzero »

Temporal AA off for me and VSync on App Preference.

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R3C
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Post by R3C »

I turn VSync off for testing, but under normal circumstances I force it on. I can't stand seeing anything that isn't synced, so that why I force it. McNevin, did you try clocking your CPU up or your card? Slap a little arctic silver on your cooler, and bump up the FSB a little bit. It'll be rock solid on that board. Don't overdo it, but it will definitely yield the results that you seek. More people OC than not these days. Every hardware manufacturer even keeps this in mind with their designs, because they know the community for this (their potential buyers) is huge. I stopped doing it for a long time after our initial OCing high in the P1/P2 days, but there really isn't a reason to be a clock-rate-nancy-boy these days. Of course Ender is listening to this (or reading, whatever) and P4s overclock better, so he could bump his score up too. :D I raised my 3DMark03 score by about 2000 marks by clocking my CPU and Video Card up to where they are now. No problems, everything runs perfectly, no artifacts, everything runs cool.

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Post by McNevin »

Artic Silver that stuff is great! I dont have any now, i just borrowed a tube from a dude at my old work. That stuff dropped my temp by 10 degrees.

My system is running kinda hot, so i dont want to overclock right now. I'll get soom coolermaster arctic knockoff, and OC my shit.
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R3C
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Post by R3C »

Be careful with the knock-offs. I don't think it was CoolerMaster, but one of the brands was "saying" silver, charging for it, but contained none. What's your CPU running at temp-wise? Mine is at 118 degrees and that's with a little extra juice, and a 400MHz clock increase. Here's the cooler I'm using:

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Zalman - CNPS7000-AlCu

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McNevin
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Post by McNevin »

We got a hot one here... it keeps rebooting.

Need to get that new fan...

MB:120.2F CPU:132.8
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Post by enderzero »

Do you use a prog to view your temps in windows? If so, which one?

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R3C
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Post by R3C »

I use the BIOS. I never check in Windows. If I need to see how hot something's getting I run a software rendered demo (so it uses the CPU not the GPU,) let it run for a few minutes, then reboot, and check the temp in the BIOS. That's always worked pretty well for me anyway. If there's a util that you can just run when you want to check, and doesn't have any attached services or startup items necessary then I will use it though. That would be cool.

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Post by McNevin »

Nvidia system utility, but it requires an nforce.



Monitors temprature, and you can overclock bus and ram speed from within widows.
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R3C
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Post by R3C »

That's pretty cool. I'm happy to see the way things are going. (Where the BIOS and OS can sort of work together.) I like updating from in Windows. The coolest thing would be if Windows had a tiny service built in that monitored BIOS settings. That way you wouldn't need third party crap running. I'm sure Abit has something like that for mine. I just wouldn't want it running all the time. I guess it wouldn't really have much of an effect on my resources though. I've got plenty. Maybe I'll look into it.

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Post by R3C »

Wow, Abit has a utility that lets you view and change any setting in the BIOS from in Windows. Then you just restart the system, and it's done. Kinda cool I suppose. I'll have to try it.

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Post by R3C »

Hopefully you can change some settings on the fly, like clock rate. That would be really cool, but who knows. It would be much easier to find the boundaries that way. Bump it up, if it starts acting a little funny, back it off a little. Now I'm curious. Bleh. Stupid nifty utilities! Now look what you did Admiral!!

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Post by McNevin »

Ender: Try Motherboard Monitor

I dont have this running all the time. If i want to see my temp i fire it up. Then close it down when im done. It rox.

Also i forgot that you can adjust the ras/cas timings from within windows.

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Post by McNevin »

Everyting in mine is "On the Fly"...
Now look what you did Admiral!!
[TeeHeeHee]
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R3C
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Post by R3C »

I decided against it. :D

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Post by McNevin »

You're missing out, i tell you.
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R3C
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Post by R3C »

Nah... :D I really don't need it. Everything is working.

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Post by McNevin »

Ok I got some overpriced 20$ arctic silver, and im down from 132.8 to 123.8.

I also got a new fan, didnt get the quietrock II, had to settle for a Cooler Master X Dream II.

I need one of those power y cables, so that i can power my case fan, because i had to unplug it to power the 9800.
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Post by R3C »

How do you do your case flow? All you really need is the exhaust, because it pulls in fresh air from the front anyway. If you have the front one, you probably don't need it. I've actualy got a couple of those right now. I think postage would be more than the cable though.

Have you tried meddling with you clocks yet?

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Post by R3C »

I decided that I like ATI Tool enough to allow it to start up when Windows boots. (Not required.) It sits in the systray, and reports the video card temp. I can also overclock the card with a couple clicks. (Click the icon, select the profile.) Pretty nice. It's a tiny program too. I still just get the CPU temp in the BIOS though. I don't need to check it as often.

Admiral: Have you installed that community bonus pack for UT yet? Do it and try out the CTF level that's up in the clouds. To quote Carl, it's "frickin' awesome"

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Post by McNevin »

I do only have an exhaust fan, but the temp is still a little high (129.)

I think that I need a new power supply now, because it keeps rebooting. Tell me what you think of this: System operating normally, Running games fine. I try to install from dvd E: to drive c:, while downloading to d:, it reboots itself. I did it 5 times. System ok, but as soon as i tried to install UT, it reboots. Here is the tricky part, clocking the ram back to 333 fixes it, but im assuming that takes alot more power to run at 400.

Does that sound right?
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Post by R3C »

I'm going to guess as much. What's your PSU? That's weird. The RAM probably doesn't make a huge difference. Here's an idea, try putting your RAM at 400, and then bump up your RAM voltage by an increment. Then try it. Can you complete the install if you aren't doing all those other things? Try and unplug one of your HDDs and then install it. If any of that helps, then maybe you need a bigger PSU. AMD chips use a bit more power I think.

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Post by McNevin »

This is only a 300 Watt PS. Before I go buy a new PS, I will try upping the ram voltage one notch.

Oh i got UT2004 installed, i went down to 333 to get it installed. I didnt put on the bonus pack yet.

So me and ender played some onslaught last night, it roxors.
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Post by enderzero »

And here is the bad boy I am running:

Thermaltake Purepower 420

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Only $40 at Newegg (only I got the gold). Or is it $51 - active PFC, huh?

Here's the 480W for $59

They got some bad ass stuff on their homepage.

Installed the MB Monitor. My good ol' Enlight ATX case is running at a breezy 104F, but the cpu is at 129-132F. Should I try to lower that before OC-in?

This is how we do it in the OC!

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