Tech questions, where to ask?

[jdbnsn]

Hi all,

I was wondering if you know os a particular forum or website that would be a good place to find help with system setup/optimization questions. I know there are thousands of them, but I have no experience with these and frankly don't have time to sift through them at the moment. I just need someone to help me review my hardware config and components and give suggestions on upgrades and settings. Anyone know of a good noob friendly place? Thanks a million!
Jon

[CanaBalistic]

Umm... Your here...

Ask away...

[Crimson Sky]

LoL...dude.

[DaveW]

Yeah, this place is great for this stuff.

-Dave

[CanaBalistic]

Post a quick list of your hardware and we can begin to direct you from there.

[jdbnsn]

Well, I've posted this type of question here before and didn't get many hits so I just figured that it was a little to far on the technical side and not mod-related enough to be discussed here. But since there seem to be volunteers...

I have many questions, basically I am learning most of this stuff for the first time when it comes to system tweaking. I have been able to slap some hardware together and make it run for years, but not too much beyond that. I have put together a system which runs good, but I think it could run much faster with the proper adjustments. Here is what it's made of:
-ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe s939 Crossfire Ready
-AMD Athlon 64 X 2 Dual-core (4800+) still using stock cooler
-Thermaltake Toughpower 700W Crossfire Certified PSU
-ATI 1900XTX Graphics card
-Creative Labs Soundblaster Fatality
-2 GB Corsair RAM (1GB X 2); I need to look up the model b/c I don't know the latency and such off hand but it was not the more expensive model
-IDE1 has master 250GB HDD (West. Dig. WDC WD2500BB-98DWAO) and slave 200GB HDD (Maxtor 6B200RO)
-IDE2 has DVD writer only
-SATA Maxtor 250GB HDD (Maxtor 7Y250MO)
-Running Windows XP Media Center Ed. 2005

At some point I may get another 1900 crossfire Ed and use dual GPU's, and will likely change the CPU cooler as it runs around 45 Celcius idle (seems a little high, but I am not sure). So, with all of this stuff, does anyone spot a potential bottleneck? I just read some posts earlier about the raptor drives and RAID which I have considered for a while, maybe this would help? I guy I know who builds incredible computers sent me pics of one of his latest which had a rambus (I think 8GB) and said it gave him an incredible boost, anyone know much about these? I am open to the idea of overclocking, but not until I can upgrade my cooling system. So that's most of it, if anyone has suggestions of what to try, where to read, I greatly appreciate the help. Questions, comments, insults?
Jon

[CanaBalistic]

Humm... The system seems pretty powerful... Lemme think...

You can still overclock that with the stock cooler and it should be safe. What i would try is turning down the multiplier and increasing the FSB, You'll get a higher FSB(very good) and keep the stock GHz(or close to)

You could fiddle with the ram timings but since you've got decent memory allready, it probly isnt needed.

You can overclock you GPU and get some performance drivers (i use omega drivers for my x700)

Are you using the sata drive to run windows? you should be for best performance. Also, you can set the page file to your other drive in the IDE channel and increase its size. It should give you a bit of a boost.

There are some programs and background tasks you can turn off to free up system reasources.

IDK how old your computer is but a defrag helps if its needed.

[edit]
I was just checking out your board spec's. You can use the AI NOS and Asus utillities to tweek your settings. I actualy wouldnt use the AI NOS. Insted, use the permanent settings in the utillity.

[nil8]

I have some experience with ASUS overclocking and cana is right. NOS is designed for people who don't know anything and doesn't work nearly as well as actually going into your bios and tweaking from there. There is an asus utility that allows you to alter all the overclocking items in the bios that I can't remember the name of. I'll find out after I put my WC rig back together this week.

NOS does flat-rate overclocking, if you choose 5% OC on it, then it changes your voltage and multipliers. to make your processor 5% more powerful without allowing you to set options yourself. Very quick and easy way to run into problems. It's quick and it does work, but not always stable and you don't learn anything.

I would say upgrade your coolers and monitor your temps. You can tell your OC issues from temps long before you have burnouts. Start with a base reading on a 2 hour idle test or a 2 hour load test and then increase things slowly and do the tests over again. It's slow and boring, but it gives you the ability to see how your temps vary and how much your system can tolerate before it becomes problematic.

Also, get the max temps allowed by the manufacturer and don't go above these. That's just asking for trouble. Both companies have info on their website about each processor line they produce and their temp range. Another added feature of ASUS is that in your bios you can set a max temp for your processor. If it goes above this your system shutdown automatically. Use this as a failsafe and use the proc's info as your guideline to that failsafe.

The reason I'm suggesting 2 hours is because typically if you're going to have unstable conditions, they will present themselves after a couple of hours.

As for your graphics card, ATITool works wonders. Just be careful, it's easy to throttle it up 20% and not spend the time measuring temps and testing for problems.

Overclocking, like everything else, requires patience. Don't get in a hurry or you could end up with an expensive paperweight.

[jdbnsn]

Thanks for all of the advice, this gives me some things to start with for sure. I will probably overclock, but not at the moment. I want to ensure some better cooling first b/c I think the ATI is running on the hot side also. I have never heard of the page file thing, so I'll look into that and I will move windows to my SATA as well. I may even get another SATA drive and try RAID, I've heard it helps. I have used ATI tool before, but couldn't figure out how it worked very well so I decided to skip it and not risk the card, but I'll read more on it and try it also. I have also figured out that ASUS NOS is crap, but I neglected to install my floppy drive when I got the new setup so I can't flash bios until I do, and I think I should do this first. Thanks again for all your ideas, and when I get through them I'll probably hit you up for more advice.
Jon

[Airbozo]

Good thing about the ATItool is that it will test all the settings for you. It will not clock it up to comething it cannot handle. Of course the best testing is a game... I have an ATI x850xt and have done some OC'ing to it with the stock cooler. Got the thing up pretty high before there were any artifacts and then bumped it back a little. It only ran a couple of degrees hotter than no OC'ing. Of course I do have some big fans in my system.

Good luck and post results here!