• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Introducing myself, please help me optimize my system (bottleneck question)

Z

zjmike

Weaksauce
Joined
Dec 22, 2004
Messages
95
So I have a 2.5 yo vpr matrix 2250 (2.2P4, 512ram,120gb,intelMoBo,Gef4 64mb mx440,300W).

I added a second 120 gig hdd a while ago. Two days ago I got it up to 1gb ddr ram, and added a 256mb ATI radeon 9550. It's already night and day compared to the way it used to play games, but I'd really like to get the most out of it.

I would be quite grateful if someone could tell me where the bottleneck is in my system right now. A friend reccomended that I upgrade to a 400w PS saying that my graffix card would like some more power, is this true?

Thanks a lot,
Mike
 
You'll want to visit the stickys for PSUs in the PSU section of the forum. You'll want to get a good one to power a newer card, especially with all that new ram and the hard drive. The 9550 isnt very power hungry though, so if its a good 300W it should handle it. The bottleneck is probably your chipset and the cpu itself. The 9550 is pretty weak by todays standards though.
 
Ah, would the $130 have been better spent on different card?

I thought it was a decent deal...
 
yes, hte 130 would have been better spent elsewhere, im pretty sure the graphics capabilities are still being bottlenecked by the card at this point. a new PSU wont help anything unless you are getting intermittant crashes

edit: i see that hte card is 2 days old. you might wanna return it and get a used 9700 (your best bet @ 130) off the FS/FT forum here, or ebay. the graphics difference will amaze you. if i am not mistaken, the 9550 is 4 pipes with 64-bit memory. hell, even the 9500pro was better than that w/ 8 pipes and 128-bit. the 9700 will give ya 8 pipes and 256-bit, and it is still a very speedy card.

edit2: with power supplies, wattage isnt everything. id have to know what kinda amperage your current PSU is giving out before passing judgement, i can run my system (aXP @2.4 w/ 450FSB, 6800GT, 1GB DDR, HDD, 2xOptical/ WLAN) on a 350, and that video card alone is very power hungry.

edit3: is that a 2.2 or a 2.2A? the 2.2A will be a northwood core with s478 which will open up some upgrades... if its just the plain jane 2.2, its a willamette s423 and leaves us with having to get a new MOBO...unless you have a s423 to s478 converter in there...

Welcome to [H]ardforum
 
The motherboard is a decent performer, even by more modern standards. The i865PE chipset was a good one. The two things really limiting your setup at this point are the 2.2GHz P4 and the video card. $130 isn't a bad price for what that card goes for, it's just that the money can be better spent on another card. A processor upgrade wouldn't be a bad idea either. 2.6GHz chips and 2.8's are really reasonable in socket 478 form especially.

Those two things are where your performance is hindered the most. For video cards, I'd recommend a 9700Pro (Used) or if you can go up a little higher on your budget to around $200, a 9800Pro or 6600GT would be a fine choice. The difference would amaze you.
 
so its an 865PE, good. go for the processor upgrade and the 9700, youll love your computer again :)

try to get ahold of a 2.8C if you got the cash
 
sounds good to me...

btw, if I were to go up to a 6600gt or a 9700, would I need to get a new PowSup?
 
depends on what kinda power supply you have, can you read us the amperage ratings taht should be listed on teh side of the PSU?

btw: the 6600GT would kill a 9700
 
It reads...

Fuse Rating: 6.3A, 250V
Max output Power: 300W (+3.3V & +5V = 200W Max)
 
Where do I find that?

I've been a computer person for years and years, but I've just begun getting into the hardware end of it.

BTW, this is a very informative forum.
 
+12V 15.0A (YEL)
-12V 0.8A (BLUE)

Is that the info?

btw, I was looking at the 2.6 and 2.8 chips, they all seem to mention hyperthreading. My 2.2 doesn't have that, correct?
 
Oh, and is bus speed determined only by the chip, or is it also dependent on the MoBo?
 
Its a mix of both. The FSB is on the chip, but it can't exceed the spec of the motherboard so it will downclock if it has to run at a lower speed. I think...

Yeah thats a very weak PSU. You'll want a PSU with no less than 20A on the +12v. The best I've seen are 36-40A. GPU, CPU, RAM and HDD's all draw a lot of power from the 12v rail so its important to have power to spare. When all that stuff is busy doing something like processing, it will draw lots more power. If you overload the psu for too long it will likely die and take lots of the components with it.
 
I'm pretty sure that chip only came in 400MHz or maybe 533. The standard is 800 with hyperthreading to 1066 with HT. I run a 533 and an 800 and the one with 800 + HT is markedly faster and has dual channel RAM(a mobo feature, not the chip). It benchmarks right with the A64 FX 51.
 
Knowing this, is the 2.8c worth it or whould I just step up to the 2.6?

Right now the plan is going to be to sell a few things (old 512ddr, 120gig, etc.) in order to get a 2.6 or 2.8, 9800pro, and a 400W 21A@+12v psu

right now my 3DMark03 scores are around 2500, how large of a difference, should I be able to expect from these mods?
 
Personally I'd do this: Keep the CPU for now, get a better Intel 865 or 875 chipset that supports Dual Channel RAM, get a Geforce 6800nu [(its about the same as the 9800 pro in price but will give you almost twice the performance) 9800pro 3dmark03=5400, 6800nu 3dmark03=9250. Add to that two matched 512MB sticks of RAM from newegg(gotta be matched for Dual Channel to work well) and you'll have a great gaming experience. You'll be able to upgrade to a P4 Extreme Edition or whatever socket 478 P4 you like with that motherboard and chipset(excluding the LGA775 P4's).

Also, for the PSU make sure you read the "before making a post about buying a PSU sticky in the PSU section of the forum to see which brands to avoid and which to buy.
 
I already bought two 512 MB sticks of Kingston DDR, would it have been specially labeled it it were dual?? BTW, what exactly does that mean?

If I'm not going to be upgrading my processor, do I really need to upgrade the chipset? I assume you're reccomending that I do this for FSB reasons??
 
look...you should

1.return that 9550....it's not even worth 80 to me...
2. get a used Radeon 9700 Pro off of someone on the forum...for about 120....it's about 2x as fast
3. buy a 380 or 430 antec true power supply for $50

that will be a huge upgrade if you want gaming performance....
 
The 9550 has already been returned (btw, they are now only $100 at best buy), and my buddy that works at a best buy warehouse is going to get me some prices on the 6800nu and 9800pro. He get's 5% over cost, I'll figure out which is the best bang for the buck and purchase (i'll probably be getting the 9800pro, unless the 6800nu is very close in price). And of course a new PSU.

Everyone here has been VERY helpful, but I've already got the mod bug. I remember doing this with a Jeep of mine a couple years ago. Once one begins modding something it can be quite difficult to stop.

I'm glad I found this place and returned the paper weight.
 
zjmike said:
I already bought two 512 MB sticks of Kingston DDR, would it have been specially labeled it it were dual?? BTW, what exactly does that mean?

If I'm not going to be upgrading my processor, do I really need to upgrade the chipset? I assume you're reccomending that I do this for FSB reasons??
Click to expand...

Dual Channel RAM means that the motherboard addresses two channels of memory independently of each other, effectively doubling the memory bandwidth to the CPU. You need identical CAS latency ram with identical specs for both DIMMs. If not, it likely will not run properly in dual channel. You can use the memory you have now in single channel on a motherboard with Dual Challen capability until you get some matched memory DIMMs just fine.
 
No. The dual channel RAM setup only works on motherboards that support it. Its not specific to any type of DDR ram either. The way it works is as follows. You'll have 4 DIMM slots on your motherboard, two of one color, and two of a different color. To run dual channel you'll put two identical dimms into the two similar color slots. They will be addressed by two separate memory controllers and will double the effective memory bandwidth. You can also fill all 4 DIMM slots with matching RAM and it will run in dual cahnnel. If you use two dissimilar colored slots or any three of the slots it will run single channel. Dual channel operation requires that both DIMMs of DDR are the exact same CAS latency and preferably made by the same manufacturer. You can just buy a matched pair on newegg to be sure. Older motherboards don't support dual channel setups and just address all the memory on one channel.
 
All i865PE chipsets from intel support dual channel memory bus. If you have the manual for your motherboard, look and see in which memory slots the chips have to be set for dual channel. If you don't have the manual, look if the slots have different colors and match the chips in the colorized slots. If both is not a viable option, look at the manufacturers website of the mobo and see if you can find this info.

Many said you need matched ram chips to make dual channel work. Well, let's just say your chances that it WILL work are much higher with matched chips, but that doesn't necessarily mean that your memory won't.

Do the following: Put the mem into the designated dual channel slots and boot up normally. Download a program called "aida32" or "everest" from lavalys. In the "motherboard" section in this program under "chipset", it'll tell you if you're running dual channel. If not, check out the "SPD" section for both modules. If they differ, go into your motherboard bios and manually adjust the memory timings to the lowest settings that your slowest memory has been reported as "SPD" timings in Everest/Aida32.

Then reboot and check again. If you're lucky, you're running dual channel now without buying a matched pair.
 
It may work, but its better off to get matched pairs to avoid the hassle of having to return them if they don't work.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top