boiler

Unfortunately, my motherboard is slightly limited in that I do not have direct control over my ram timings. I think I can select "400, 533, or 667 MHz, or Auto" on the speed, but I don't know how these translate to the fsb timings that I'm using when OCing my cpu. From what I can tell by reading other posts, I can't screw up my ram by trying diff timings, worst case is my system will be unstable. I'm not sure it's worth screwing around with. I got a pretty significant boost in performance for my 3.0-3.4 OC, and thats with ram timing set at "auto". The auto setting will always keep the 3:4 ratio (fsb:ram) timing. Gee, I'm learnin something new everyday about this stuff

user reviews aren't always the best. post on an enthusiast forum that you're getting that and you'll get 5 posts within 10 minutes saying "stop" and "what teh heck are you thinking". antec, enermax, and ocz are probably the 3 best. the enermax liberty is expensive but awesome.

 

as to the intel ocing, i'm not all that familiar with it but i know ddr2 533 on my laptop runs at 1:2 ratio when my laptop is 133fsb. so if you're cpu is at 200fsb then your ratio should be 3:4 or so i think cause it's 266x2 for ddr2.

 

brb, scrim time.

that sounds about right. I checked by un-OCing my CPU, and the ram stayed at 3:4. I think my mobo bumps up the ram to keep the ratio the same, perhaps?

Last word on the PSU - I found an Antec smartpower 2.0 500W for $63 at newegg, but I'm not gonna drop that much money just yet. I'll give my current crappy psu a couple weeks to redeem itself first... then I'll replace it with an antec

Antec Smart Power 2.0 500W

I know this topic has been dead for 10+ days, but I just felt like throwing my 2 cents in. I love my eVGA 7800GT CO. Gives me kick-butt performance even with my "bottleneck" of a CPU. (Yes, I have an intel... its a 630 3.0GHz OCed to 3.41GHz). Cujo has already scolded me a couple times about my cpu (among other things ), so no need to pile on

Just ran CS:S stress test w/ everything maxed at 1280x1024, and got average of 140fps. Spose thats decent for my inferior cpu!

Thanks for the input vovik. I understand what you were saying about the PSU, but I'm 90% sure it is the cause of my random shutdowns/restarts after talking to a couple other folks. besides, even though the replacement is not really expensive, from what I've read it will be better than "el cheapo" that came with my case. (NM, SEE BELOW)

I will try that program to check my ram for sure, but I believe my bios has the timings for the RAM set at something to effect of "automatic" or "with cpu" or something, thanks for the heads up i'll look into that. In the mean time, is not having them 1:1 going to cause major problems, as in I need to put my cpu right back where it was till I get it figured out? As you can tell I jumped into this whole "hey build your own computer, it could be fun" thing without knowing every little in and out. I'm learning though!

EDIT: *I just ran cpu-z, says my memory is at 301.6MHz, and my FSB is at 226.1MHz, thats 3:4. According to cpu-z, I think my ram's max bandwidth is 266MHz (box calls it ddr2 533)... does this mean it got OCed too? If this is a prob, them I need to un-OC my cpu cause I can't change memory timings beyond the stock "400, 533, 667MHz" settings in my BIOS. I am so confused.... my newbness is really showing through on this crap, sorry for bothering you pros with this.*

Yeah, I have turned off V-sync. I'm an idiot for not realizing that myself.

Surprisingly, turning HDR off didnt make much difference either, even on milita.

CUJO:

Ok, I cancelled it. I hadn't heard anything negative about that PSU yet, and I'm glad you caught me when you did. Thank you. I read as many reviews as I could and hadn't found anyone saying much bad about it, but then again most have only had it for a couple months at the most when they write glowing reviews. I'll look into antec, I know they're the shiznit in PSUs, if I have to I'll tolerate the random shutdowns/instability until I can afford it. Thanks for savin me a few bucks in the short run... I didnt mean to pull the trigger so fast, I really had been looking at PSUs for much longer than I have been posting here so I thought I might have found a decent one. I just want my instability to go away and be done with "el cheapo"

Here's my baby (first-ever build!) - Please don't laugh, I cheaped it up a couple places cause I bought it all at once (in Nov. '05):

P4 630 3.0GHz w/ HT, 2MB L2 Cache, currently running at 3.41Ghz on stock cooling (56C max under load)

ECS 945P-A 1.1 (cheap, I know, but good features and OC, and stable)

1GB (2x512) Corsair DDR2 @ 533MHz RAM

200GB WD Caviar SATA-II

eVGA 7800GT CO

Lite-On DVD +/- R/RW

EDIT: *thanks cujo, no NEW "el cheapo" on the horizon, saving for antec 500w beaut to replace my current "el cheapo" that came w/ case*

Just ran 3DMark05, got 7133 for your reference

Ok, I just ordered this PSU to hopefully ease some of my troubles:

Aspire 500W

Hopefully this will end my "random shutdown/restart" issues , and make sure my 7800gt is gettin all the power it needs. I'm hoping to see a difference in gfx performance, but we'll see.

CPU update:

I got my 630 OCed to 3.41GHz now, idling as we speak 38-41C and peaking at 56C while running 3DMark05 (free version). Thinkin I might consider a better heatsink/fan in the near future when I get this PSU paid off and get some more money. Scored a 7133 on 3DMark05 versus the 6700ish before I overclocked. I'll play a little CS:S to see how things are goin. Thanks a lot for everyone's help! Maybe in a couple years I'll convert to AMD and join the cult...

I would look into gettin a decent PSU, since you said you have a el cheapo that came with your Case.

 

I have a couple of suggestions for you... first is overclock that sucker..

oh wait I see you have an ecs motherboard... hm... i dunno how good of an OCer it is, with my experience with ECS, its not very good. Anyway, I had a 2.6 P4 which I just sold and I could get my bus speed up to around 240 stable, running at 3.2Ghz, which gave a good boost in my FPS and smoothness.

 

Next is a sound card. I just went through a big problem with my sound. If you have a card, it takes a load off your CPU, hence more FPS. I have a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. I recently upgraded to this AMD 64 with onboard sound. I orignally disabled it, but somewhere in the mix of reseting the bios it got turned back on. this was causing conflicts and my machine was crashing as soon as I would get into a game. After troubleshooting, I figured out it was my sound card.

 

I removed my sound card and the game no longer crashes, however, the Frame rate is significantly lower and I get alot more stuttering. I think I was running an Average of 50 on cs_office. More tweaking tonight and hopefully can get my santa cruz stable again.

Ok, my ECS mobo overclocks pretty darn well as it turns out. American Megatrends BIOS (same as in more expensive Asus boards I have installed) does it. Upped my bus speed up from 212 to 224 and am getting 3.37GHz at around 38-40C idle and 50-55C load (with stock cooling, mind you). I hopped in militia w/ 6 ppl playin, and I was gettin at least 15 fps better. I turned off HDR, but it didnt give much of an improvement (maybe 3 fps max). V-sync settings only netted another few fps. Changing AA from 6X to 4X didnt make a noticable difference.

I am willing to bet that my gfx card might not be getting all the power it needs... my "el cheapo" does have 2 12V rails, but total amperage is slightly less than recommended by evga as minimum for my card. I spose if this were the case, I would be getting decreased performance (duh). I'm lookin at an Aspire 500W deal on newegg for $40 (can't drop $90 on an antec). That might be the way I need to go.

Ok, no change w/ newest drivers. I'm newegging possible PSU replacements if you think that might be my prob. Thanks!

fraps runs in the background are your best way to do testing. just test for one setting at a time. post back here your results.

Sorry for being mega-n00b here, but I'm not sure what you're talking about here with the "fraps in the background"

As for my PSU, I am starting to get skeptical about it. It's a 400W unit that came with my case (Coolmax). I have had a problem come up over the last month with my computer randomly restarting or shutting down. I can go days without it happening, but I have also had days where it's done it to me three times in two hours. I initially thought my CPU was overheating (mobo set to shut down when temps >70C), but speedfan 4.27 and your comments make me think otherwise. Could this stinkin PSU be the cause of my troubles? Not sure how else I can test for that.

I'm updating to newest forceware drivers right now and will test again to see if it made any improvement by itself. Will post back with results. Thanks so much for your help!

Hey guys, thanks for providing these great forums! I'd like a little input regarding my processor situation. I built a new system in november (my first!), and didn't have boatloads of money sitting around. Since I knew absolutely nothing about AMD, I went with the Intel P4 630 (3.0GHz) and a 945P mobo. Here's my system as it stands:

Intel P4 630 (3.0GHz, 2MB L2 cache) (stock cooling)

ECS 945P mobo (cheapish, but good features/stability)

1GB (2x512) @ 533MHz Corsair

eVGA 7800GT CO

200GB WD Caviar (SATA 3.0GB)

When I'm running CS:S or HL2, I'm getting around 60fps, dipping to ~23fps on militia w/ heavy action. This is running at 1280x1024 with EVERYTHING maxed out. I have heard that, especially w/ my gfx card, I should be getting much higher. I know my cpu is the bottleneck, but I don't exactly have $300 sitting around to buy some kick-butt AMD cpu and mobo. If I overclock my cpu from 3.0 to 3.2 or 3.4GHz, will I notice a big difference in performance? (after of course upgrading my heatsink... I'm running 36C idle, 48+ load) To be honest, I need good all-around performance... this is not just a gaming rig, I work on it too! It's just slightly annoying that I get choppy at times on max settings with a near-cutting-edge graphics card.

Maybe in a couple of years I will consider upgrading the CPU and mobo, but right now I'm trying to make do with what I have. Thanks for your input folks!