Computer upgrade
polycounter lvl 18
Hey guys and gals.
My computer at home has been running pretty sluggishly as of late. I've gone through the gamut of virus scans, spywayre scans, defrags, etc in effort to clean it up and it's gotten significantly better, but it still chugs occasionally doing someting as mundane as opening IE.
I found a great website, www.pcpitstop.com, that runs a bunch of tests, profiles your system, and tells you where your major bottlenecks might be. It then gives you step by step instuctions on what to do to rectify them. Among a host of other problems, this led me to discovering that my main hard drive (master) was jumpered to cable select, and my 2nd hard drive was jumpered as master. I have no idea how my system has been running at all with them set up this way, but fixing that helped out a lot. Still, I'm getting overall less performance than I'd hope for.
pcpitstop says my hard drives are a bit slower than average, particularly my main hard drive which is a 5400 rpm ATA drive with 2mb of cache. This is the only hardware it flagged as meritting attention.
My question is, working with a limited budget, what upgrades could I make to my system to get the biggest performance increase. Upgrade the CPU from a 1.6 to 3.0+, pick up a SATA hard drive with at least 7200 rpm and 8+mb of cahce, increase/upgrade to more/faster ram, etc?
I'll gladly post detailed system specs, if someone can clue me in on the best way to generate that info. Would dxdiag spit out the relevant info?
My computer at home has been running pretty sluggishly as of late. I've gone through the gamut of virus scans, spywayre scans, defrags, etc in effort to clean it up and it's gotten significantly better, but it still chugs occasionally doing someting as mundane as opening IE.
I found a great website, www.pcpitstop.com, that runs a bunch of tests, profiles your system, and tells you where your major bottlenecks might be. It then gives you step by step instuctions on what to do to rectify them. Among a host of other problems, this led me to discovering that my main hard drive (master) was jumpered to cable select, and my 2nd hard drive was jumpered as master. I have no idea how my system has been running at all with them set up this way, but fixing that helped out a lot. Still, I'm getting overall less performance than I'd hope for.
pcpitstop says my hard drives are a bit slower than average, particularly my main hard drive which is a 5400 rpm ATA drive with 2mb of cache. This is the only hardware it flagged as meritting attention.
My question is, working with a limited budget, what upgrades could I make to my system to get the biggest performance increase. Upgrade the CPU from a 1.6 to 3.0+, pick up a SATA hard drive with at least 7200 rpm and 8+mb of cahce, increase/upgrade to more/faster ram, etc?
I'll gladly post detailed system specs, if someone can clue me in on the best way to generate that info. Would dxdiag spit out the relevant info?
Replies
they seem a little confused, sometimes, but they work like horses!
I'm not sure how much ram you've got but 1 gig would be the minimum for 3d work, the ideal being as much as you can afford.
((That said there are plenty of people out there working with lesser hardware and creating amazing work despite technical limitations, I'm talking in ideals not saying that it's impossible to produce quality work with minimum or less than minimum hardware configs.))
I think 2-3 gigs would be plenty. The current version of windows won't address more than 3-4 gigs.
<I don't remember exactly how much but it's in that range, with the new 64 bit Xeons and Opterons this limit may not apply. I'm unsure whether the limit is a result of the older memory controller or the 32 bit OS. Maybe someone else can weigh in on that>.
You can get as specific with ram as you like, I suggest ECC ram but I don't know if your board supports it. You can check Kingston or Crucial websites for higher performance ram products like matched pairs and lower latancy products. There are other manufacturers those are just 2 I'm familiar with.
One helpful service that http://www.monarchcomputer.com provides is a barebones/combo configuration web app. You can find a workstation motherboard (Xeon or Opteron) with suggestions for the appropriate ram/processors/etc.
I could ramble for too long on this subject so I'm cutting myself off here. Good luck with your upgrades.
my uncle has a cow farm in israel and he has about 5 or 6 thai workers there
i dont know why but israel and thailand have some sort of close relationship, the thai people fight to come to israel to work because the economy is much better than their own, while the israelis go to thailand to vacation and ride elephants and do drugs
[ EVEREST Home Edition (c) 2003, 2004 Lavalys, Inc. ]
Version EVEREST v1.51.195
Homepage http://www.lavalys.com/
Report Type Report Wizard
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional 5.1.2600 (WinXP Retail)
Date 2005-04-18
Time 13:31
[ Summary ]
Computer:
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional
OS Service Pack Service Pack 2
Internet Explorer 6.0.2900.2180 (IE 6.0 SP2)
DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)
Motherboard:
CPU Type Intel Pentium 4A, 1600 MHz (16 x 100)
Motherboard Name Intel Rock Lake D865PERL (5 PCI, 1 AGP, 4 DIMM)
Motherboard Chipset Intel Springdale i865PE
System Memory 512 MB (DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type AMI (01/22/04)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port Printer Port (LPT1)
Display:
Video Adapter RADEON 9800 - Secondary (256 MB)
Video Adapter RADEON 9800 (256 MB)
3D Accelerator ATI Radeon 9800 (R350)
Monitor Gateway EV900 [19" CRT] (743117070)
Multimedia:
Audio Adapter Creative SB Audigy 2 (WDM) [NoDB]
Audio Adapter Intel 82801EB ICH5 - AC'97 Audio Controller
Storage:
IDE Controller Intel(R) 82801EB Ultra ATA Storage Controllers
IDE Controller Intel(R) 82801EB Ultra ATA Storage Controllers
Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive Maxtor 4G160J8 (160 GB, 5400 RPM, Ultra-ATA/133)
Disk Drive MAXTOR 6L080J4 (80 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/133)
Optical Drive SONY CD-RW CRX140E (8x/4x/32x CD-RW)
SMART Hard Disks Status OK
Partitions:
C: (NTFS) 76332 MB (64041 MB free)
Input:
Keyboard Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
Mouse Logitech USB WheelMouse
Network:
Network Adapter 10/100 PCI Ethernet Adapter (192.168.0.2)
Peripherals:
Printer Auto Auto EPSON Stylus C80 Series on WRATH on LAPTOP
Printer EPSON Stylus C80 Series
USB1 Controller Intel 82801EB ICH5 - USB Universal Host Controller
USB1 Controller Intel 82801EB ICH5 - USB Universal Host Controller
USB1 Controller Intel 82801EB ICH5 - USB Universal Host Controller
USB1 Controller Intel 82801EB ICH5 - USB Universal Host Controller
USB2 Controller Intel 82801EB(M) ICH5(-M) - Enhanced USB2 Controller
USB Device Generic USB Hub
USB Device Logitech USB WheelMouse
USB Device USB Audio Device
USB Device Veo Advanced Web Camera With Audio
USB Device Veo Mobile/Advanced Web Camera
[ DMI ]
[ BIOS ]
BIOS Properties:
Vendor Intel Corp.
Version RL86510A.86A.0071.P13.0401221036
Release Date 01/22/2004
Size 512 KB
Boot Devices Floppy Disk, Hard Disk, CD-ROM, ATAPI ZIP, LS-120
Capabilities Flash BIOS, Shadow BIOS, Selectable Boot, EDD, BBS
Supported Standards DMI, APM, ACPI, PnP
Expansion Capabilities PCI, AGP, USB
[ System ]
System Properties:
Universal Unique ID 2F862934-6D2411D8-8AC6000C-6E08065A
Wake-Up Type Power Switch
[ Motherboard ]
Motherboard Properties:
Manufacturer Intel Corporation
Product D865PERL
Version AAC27648-209
Serial Number AZRL41009286
[ Chassis ]
Chassis Properties:
Boot-Up State Safe
Power Supply State Safe
[ Memory Controller ]
Memory Controller Properties:
Error Detection Method 64-bit ECC
Error Correction None
Supported Memory Interleave 1-Way
Current Memory Interleave 1-Way
Supported Memory Speeds 70ns, 60ns
Supported Memory Types SPM, FPM, EDO, Parity, ECC, SIMM, DIMM, BEDO, SDRAM
Supported Memory Voltages 3.3V
Maximum Memory Module Size 1024 MB
Memory Slots 4
[ Processors / Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 processor ]
Processor Properties:
Manufacturer Intel
Version Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 processor
Serial Number To Be Filled By O.E.M.
Asset Tag To Be Filled By O.E.M.
Part Number To Be Filled By O.E.M.
External Clock 100 MHz
Maximum Clock 3060 MHz
Current Clock 1600 MHz
Type Central Processor
Voltage 3.3 V, 2.9 V
Status Enabled
Socket Designation J2E1
[ Caches / None ]
Cache Properties:
Type Internal
Status Enabled
Operational Mode Varies with Memory Address
Associativity 4-way Set-Associative
Maximum Size 8 KB
Installed Size 8 KB
Supported SRAM Type Pipeline Burst
Current SRAM Type Pipeline Burst
Error Correction Single-bit ECC
Socket Designation None
[ Caches / None ]
Cache Properties:
Type Internal
Status Enabled
Operational Mode Varies with Memory Address
Maximum Size 512 KB
Installed Size 512 KB
Supported SRAM Type Pipeline Burst
Current SRAM Type Pipeline Burst
Error Correction Single-bit ECC
Socket Designation None
[ Memory Modules / DIMM1 ]
Memory Module Properties:
Socket Designation DIMM1
Type DIMM
Installed Size 256 MB
Enabled Size 256 MB
[ Memory Modules / DIMM2 ]
Memory Module Properties:
Socket Designation DIMM2
Type DIMM
Installed Size Not Installed
Enabled Size Not Installed
[ Memory Modules / DIMM3 ]
Memory Module Properties:
Socket Designation DIMM3
Type DIMM
Installed Size 256 MB
Enabled Size 256 MB
[ Memory Modules / DIMM4 ]
Memory Module Properties:
Socket Designation DIMM4
Type DIMM
Installed Size Not Installed
Enabled Size Not Installed
[ Memory Devices / J5G1 ]
Memory Device Properties:
Form Factor DIMM
Type Detail Synchronous
Size 256 MB
Speed 266 MHz
Total Width 64-bit
Data Width 64-bit
Device Locator J5G1
Bank Locator CHANNEL A DIMM0
Manufacturer Manufacturer1
Serial Number SerNum1
Asset Tag AssetTagNum1
Part Number PartNum1
[ Memory Devices / J5G2 ]
Memory Device Properties:
Form Factor DIMM
Type Detail Synchronous
Speed 266 MHz
Total Width 64-bit
Data Width 64-bit
Device Locator J5G2
Bank Locator CHANNEL A DIMM1
Manufacturer Manufacturer2
Serial Number SerNum2
Asset Tag AssetTagNum2
Part Number PartNum2
[ Memory Devices / J5H1 ]
Memory Device Properties:
Form Factor DIMM
Type Detail Synchronous
Size 256 MB
Speed 266 MHz
Total Width 64-bit
Data Width 64-bit
Device Locator J5H1
Bank Locator CHANNEL B DIMM2
Manufacturer Manufacturer3
Serial Number SerNum3
Asset Tag AssetTagNum3
Part Number PartNum3
[ Memory Devices / J5H2 ]
Memory Device Properties:
Form Factor DIMM
Type Detail Synchronous
Speed 266 MHz
Total Width 64-bit
Data Width 64-bit
Device Locator J5H2
Bank Locator CHANNEL B DIMM3
Manufacturer Manufacturer4
Serial Number SerNum4
Asset Tag AssetTagNum4
Part Number PartNum4
[ System Slots / J5C1 ]
System Slot Properties:
Slot Designation J5C1
Type AGP 4x
Usage In Use
Data Bus Width 32-bit
Length Long
[ System Slots / J6B2 ]
System Slot Properties:
Slot Designation J6B2
Type PCI
Usage Empty
Data Bus Width 32-bit
Length Long
[ System Slots / J6B1 ]
System Slot Properties:
Slot Designation J6B1
Type PCI
Usage Empty
Data Bus Width 32-bit
Length Long
[ System Slots / J7B1 ]
System Slot Properties:
Slot Designation J7B1
Type PCI
Usage In Use
Data Bus Width 32-bit
Length Long
[ System Slots / J8B2 ]
System Slot Properties:
Slot Designation J8B2
Type PCI
Usage In Use
Data Bus Width 32-bit
Length Long
[ System Slots / J8B1 ]
System Slot Properties:
Slot Designation J8B1
Type PCI
Usage In Use
Data Bus Width 32-bit
Length Long
[ Port Connectors / PS2Mouse ]
Port Connector Properties:
Port Type Mouse Port
Internal Reference Designator J1A1
Internal Connector Type None
External Reference Designator PS2Mouse
External Connector Type PS/2
[ Port Connectors / Keyboard ]
Port Connector Properties:
Port Type Keyboard Port
Internal Reference Designator J1A1
Internal Connector Type None
External Reference Designator Keyboard
External Connector Type PS/2
[ Port Connectors / COM 1 ]
Port Connector Properties:
Port Type Serial Port 16550A Compatible
Internal Reference Designator J2A1
Internal Connector Type None
External Reference Designator COM 1
External Connector Type DB-9 pin female
[ Port Connectors / LPT1 ]
Port Connector Properties:
Port Type Parallel Port ECP/EPP
Internal Reference Designator J4A2
Internal Connector Type None
External Reference Designator LPT1
External Connector Type DB-25 pin male
[ Port Connectors / USB ]
Port Connector Properties:
Port Type USB
Internal Reference Designator JA5A1
Internal Connector Type None
External Reference Designator USB
External Connector Type USB
[ Port Connectors / USB ]
Port Connector Properties:
Port Type USB
Internal Reference Designator JA5A1
Internal Connector Type None
External Reference Designator USB
External Connector Type USB
[ Port Connectors / FireWire ]
Port Connector Properties:
Port Type FireWire (IEEE P1394)
Internal Reference Designator J9E1
Internal Connector Type None
External Reference Designator FireWire
External Connector Type 1394
[ Port Connectors / USB ]
Port Connector Properties:
Port Type USB
Internal Reference Designator J2A2
Internal Connector Type None
External Reference Designator USB
External Connector Type USB
[ Port Connectors / USB ]
Port Connector Properties:
Port Type USB
Internal Reference Designator J2A2
Internal Connector Type None
External Reference Designator USB
External Connector Type USB
[ Port Connectors / RJ-45 Type ]
Port Connector Properties:
Port Type Network Port
Internal Reference Designator JA5A1
Internal Connector Type None
External Reference Designator RJ-45 Type
External Connector Type RJ-45
[ Port Connectors / Audio Mic In ]
Port Connector Properties:
Port Type Audio Port
Internal Reference Designator J4A1
Internal Connector Type None
External Reference Designator Audio Mic In
External Connector Type Mini-jack (headphones)
[ Port Connectors / Audio Line In ]
Port Connector Properties:
Port Type Audio Port
Internal Reference Designator J4A1
Internal Connector Type None
External Reference Designator Audio Line In
External Connector Type Mini-jack (headphones)
[ Port Connectors / Audio Line Out ]
Port Connector Properties:
Port Type Audio Port
Internal Reference Designator J4A1
Internal Connector Type None
External Reference Designator Audio Line Out
External Connector Type Mini-jack (headphones)
[ Port Connectors / J4B1 - +12V ]
Port Connector Properties:
Internal Reference Designator J4B1 - +12V
External Connector Type None
[ Port Connectors / J3J1 - FDD ]
Port Connector Properties:
Internal Reference Designator J3J1 - FDD
Internal Connector Type On-Board Floppy
External Connector Type None
[ Port Connectors / J5J2 - PRI IDE ]
Port Connector Properties:
Internal Reference Designator J5J2 - PRI IDE
Internal Connector Type On-Board IDE
External Connector Type None
[ Port Connectors / J5J1 - SEC IDE ]
Port Connector Properties:
Internal Reference Designator J5J1 - SEC IDE
Internal Connector Type On-Board IDE
External Connector Type None
[ Port Connectors / J9B2 - CDIN ]
Port Connector Properties:
Port Type Audio Port
Internal Reference Designator J9B2 - CDIN
Internal Connector Type On-Board Sound Input from CD-ROM
External Connector Type None
[ Port Connectors / J9B1 - AUX IN ]
Port Connector Properties:
Port Type Audio Port
Internal Reference Designator J9B1 - AUX IN
External Connector Type None
[ Port Connectors / J8J1 - FRONT PANEL HDR ]
Port Connector Properties:
Internal Reference Designator J8J1 - FRONT PANEL HDR
External Connector Type None
[ Port Connectors / J1F2 - CPU FAN ]
Port Connector Properties:
Internal Reference Designator J1F2 - CPU FAN
External Connector Type None
[ Port Connectors / J9H3 - FNT PNL ]
Port Connector Properties:
Internal Reference Designator J9H3 - FNT PNL
External Connector Type None
[ Port Connectors / J6J2 - FRONT CHASSIS FAN ]
Port Connector Properties:
Internal Reference Designator J6J2 - FRONT CHASSIS FAN
External Connector Type None
[ Port Connectors / J5B1 - REAR CHASSIS FAN ]
Port Connector Properties:
Internal Reference Designator J5B1 - REAR CHASSIS FAN
External Connector Type None
[ Port Connectors / J7H2 - BIOS CONFIG ]
Port Connector Properties:
Internal Reference Designator J7H2 - BIOS CONFIG
External Connector Type None
[ Port Connectors / J8A1 - FP AUDIO ]
Port Connector Properties:
Internal Reference Designator J8A1 - FP AUDIO
Internal Connector Type Proprietary
External Connector Type None
[ Port Connectors / J7F1 - FRONT PANEL USB ]
Port Connector Properties:
Internal Reference Designator J7F1 - FRONT PANEL USB
External Connector Type None
[ Port Connectors / J2J1 - PS ]
Port Connector Properties:
Internal Reference Designator J2J1 - PS
External Connector Type None
[ Port Connectors / J6J3 - CH INTR ]
Port Connector Properties:
Internal Reference Designator J6J3 - CH INTR
External Connector Type None
[ Port Connectors / J9D1 - FireWire ]
Port Connector Properties:
Internal Reference Designator J9D1 - FireWire
External Connector Type None
[ Port Connectors / J9E1 - FireWire ]
Port Connector Properties:
Internal Reference Designator J9E1 - FireWire
External Connector Type None
[ Port Connectors / J7H1 - SATA-0 ]
Port Connector Properties:
Internal Reference Designator J7H1 - SATA-0
External Connector Type None
[ On-Board Devices / FireWire IEEE P1394 Controller ]
On-Board Device Properties:
Description FireWire IEEE P1394 Controller
Type Ethernet
[ Overclock ]
CPU Properties:
CPU Type Intel Pentium 4A
CPU Alias Northwood, A80532
CPU Stepping B0
Engineering Sample No
CPUID CPU Name Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 1.60GHz
CPUID Revision 00000F24h
CPU Speed:
CPU Clock 1595.94 MHz (original: 1600 MHz)
CPU Multiplier 16.0x
CPU FSB 99.75 MHz (original: 100 MHz)
Memory Bus 132.99 MHz
CPU Cache:
L1 Trace Cache 12K Instructions
L1 Data Cache 8 KB
L2 Cache 512 KB (On-Die, ECC, ATC, Full-Speed)
Motherboard Properties:
Motherboard ID 63-0100-000001-00101111-012204-iSPGDL_G$RL865006_BIOS Date: 01/22/04 10:36:47 Ver: 08.
Motherboard Name Intel Rock Lake D865PERL (5 PCI, 1 AGP, 4 DIMM)
Chipset Properties:
Motherboard Chipset Intel Springdale i865PE
Memory Timings 2.5-3-3-6 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)
PAT Enabled
SPD Memory Modules:
DIMM1: Samsung M3 68L3223DTL-CB0 256 MB PC2100 DDR SDRAM (2.5-3-3-6 @ 133 MHz) (2.0-2-2-5 @ 100 MHz)
DIMM3: Kingston KVR266X64C25/256 256 MB PC2100 DDR SDRAM (2.5-3-3-6 @ 133 MHz) (2.0-2-2-5 @ 100 MHz)
BIOS Properties:
System BIOS Date 01/22/04
Video BIOS Date 04/06/15
DMI BIOS Version RL86510A.86A.0071.P13.0401221036
Graphics Processor Properties:
DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)
Video Adapter ATI Radeon 9800 (R350)
GPU Code Name R350 (AGP 8x 1002 / 4E49, Rev 00)
GPU Clock 324 MHz (original: 325 MHz)
Memory Clock 290 MHz (original: 290 MHz)
Sensor Properties:
Tsystem 30 °C (86 °F)
Tcpu 36 °C (97 °F)
Taux 31 °C (88 °F)
Fcpu 2790 RPM
Fcase 682 RPM
Fpowersupply 3001 RPM
Vcore 1.46 V
V1.5 1.48 V
Vio 3.32 V
[ Power Management ]
Power Management Properties:
Current Power Source AC Line
Battery Status No Battery
Full Battery Lifetime Unknown
Remaining Battery Lifetime Unknown
[ Sensor ]
Sensor Properties:
Sensor Type National LM85 (SMBus 2Eh)
Motherboard Name Intel D845GEBV2 / D845PEBT2 / D845PESV / D865PERL / D875PBZ
Temperatures:
Motherboard 31 °C (88 °F)
CPU 36 °C (97 °F)
Aux 32 °C (90 °F)
MAXTOR 6L080J4 42 °C (108 °F)
Cooling Fans:
CPU 2796 RPM
Chassis 685 RPM
Power Supply 2995 RPM
Voltage Values:
CPU Core 1.46 V
+1.5 V 1.46 V
+3.3 V 3.33 V
+5 V 5.08 V
+12 V 12.06 V
Debug Info V 70 7D C2 C3 C1 24 1F 20
[ CPU ]
CPU Properties:
CPU Type Intel Pentium 4A, 1600 MHz (16 x 100)
CPU Alias Northwood, A80532
CPU Stepping B0
Instruction Set x86, MMX, SSE, SSE2
Original Clock 1600 MHz
Engineering Sample No
L1 Trace Cache 12K Instructions
L1 Data Cache 8 KB
L2 Cache 512 KB (On-Die, ECC, ATC, Full-Speed)
CPU Physical Info:
Package Type 478 Pin uPGA
Package Size 3.50 cm x 3.50 cm
Transistors 55 million
Process Technology 6M, 0.13 um, CMOS, Cu, Low-K
Die Size 146 mm2
Core Voltage 1.475 - 1.55 V
I/O Voltage 1.475 - 1.55 V
Typical Power 38.7 - 89.0 W (depending on clock speed)
Maximum Power 49 - 109 W (depending on clock speed)
CPU Manufacturer:
Company Name Intel Corporation
Product Information http://www.intel.com/products/browse/processor.htm
CPU Utilization:
CPU #1 100 %
[ CPUID ]
CPUID Properties:
CPUID Manufacturer GenuineIntel
CPUID CPU Name Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 1.60GHz
CPUID Revision 00000F24h
IA Brand ID 09h (Intel Pentium 4A)
Platform ID 0Fh (Socket 478)
IA CPU Serial Number Unknown
HTT / CMP Units 0 / 0
Instruction Set:
64-bit x86 Extension Not Supported
AMD 3DNow! Not Supported
AMD 3DNow! Professional Not Supported
AMD Enhanced 3DNow! Not Supported
AMD Extended MMX Not Supported
Cyrix Extended MMX Not Supported
IA-64 Not Supported
IA MMX Supported
IA SSE Supported
IA SSE 2 Supported
IA SSE 3 Not Supported
CLFLUSH Instruction Supported
CMPXCHG8B Instruction Supported
CMPXCHG16B Instruction Not Supported
Conditional Move Instruction Supported
FEMMS Instruction Not Supported
MONITOR / MWAIT Instruction Not Supported
CPUID Features:
36-bit Page Size Extension Supported
Advanced Cryptography Engine Not Supported
Alternate Instruction Set Not Supported
Automatic Clock Control Supported
CPL Qualified Debug Store Not Supported
Debug Trace Store Supported
Debugging Extension Supported
Enhanced SpeedStep Technology Not Supported
Fast Save & Restore Supported
Fast System Call Supported
Hyper-Threading Technology Not Supported
L1 Context ID Not Supported
Local APIC On Chip Supported
LongRun Not Supported
LongRun Table Interface Not Supported
Machine-Check Architecture Supported
Machine-Check Exception Supported
Memory Type Range Registers Supported
Model Specific Registers Supported
No-Execute Page Protection Not Supported
Page Attribute Table Supported
Page Global Extension Supported
Page Size Extension Supported
Pending Break Event Not Supported
Physical Address Extension Supported
Processor Duty Cycle Control Supported
Processor Serial Number Not Supported
Random Number Generator Not Supported
Self-Snoop Supported
Thermal Monitor Supported
Thermal Monitor 2 Not Supported
Time Stamp Counter Supported
Virtual Mode Extension Supported
CPUID Registers:
CPUID 00000000 00000002-756E6547-6C65746E-49656E69
CPUID 00000001 00000F24-00010809-00000000-3FEBFBFF
CPUID 00000002 665B5001-00000000-00000000-007B7040
CPUID 80000000 80000004-00000000-00000000-00000000
CPUID 80000001 00000000-00000000-00000000-00000000
CPUID 80000002 20202020-20202020-20202020-6E492020
CPUID 80000003 286C6574-50202952-69746E65-52286D75
CPUID 80000004 20342029-20555043-30362E31-007A4847
MSR 00000017 000A-0000-0000-0000
MSR 0000002C 0000-0000-1010-0010
[ Motherboard ]
Motherboard Properties:
Motherboard ID 63-0100-000001-00101111-012204-iSPGDL_G$RL865006_BIOS Date: 01/22/04 10:36:47 Ver: 08.
Motherboard Name Intel Rock Lake D865PERL
Front Side Bus Properties:
Bus Type Intel NetBurst
Bus Width 64-bit
Real Clock 100 MHz (QDR)
Effective Clock 400 MHz
Bandwidth 3200 MB/s
Memory Bus Properties:
Bus Type DDR SDRAM
Bus Width 64-bit
Real Clock 133 MHz (DDR)
Effective Clock 267 MHz
Bandwidth 2133 MB/s
Chipset Bus Properties:
Bus Type Intel Hub Interface
Bus Width 8-bit
Real Clock 67 MHz (QDR)
Effective Clock 267 MHz
Bandwidth 267 MB/s
Motherboard Physical Info:
CPU Sockets/Slots 1
Expansion Slots 5 PCI, 1 AGP
RAM Slots 4 DIMM
Form Factor ATX
Motherboard Size 240 mm x 300 mm
Motherboard Chipset i865PE
Motherboard Manufacturer:
Company Name Intel Corporation
Product Information http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/index.htm
BIOS Download http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/genbios.htm
[ Memory ]
Physical Memory:
Total 510 MB
Used 344 MB
Free 166 MB
Utilization 67 %
Swap Space:
Total 2012 MB
Used 361 MB
Free 1651 MB
Utilization 18 %
Virtual Memory:
Total 2523 MB
Used 705 MB
Free 1817 MB
Utilization 28 %
[ SPD ]
[ DIMM1: Samsung M3 68L3223DTL-CB0 ]
Memory Module Properties:
Module Name Samsung M3 68L3223DTL-CB0
Serial Number F2005E0Eh
Manufacture Date Week 36 / 2002
Module Size 256 MB (1 rows, 4 banks)
Module Type Unbuffered
Memory Type DDR SDRAM
Memory Speed PC2100 (133 MHz)
Module Width 64 bit
Module Voltage SSTL 2.5
Error Detection Method None
Refresh Rate Reduced (7.8 us), Self-Refresh
Memory Timings:
@ 133 MHz 2.5-3-3-6 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)
@ 100 MHz 2.0-2-2-5 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)
Memory Module Features:
Early RAS# Precharge Not Supported
Auto-Precharge Not Supported
Precharge All Not Supported
Write1/Read Burst Not Supported
Buffered Address/Control Inputs Not Supported
Registered Address/Control Inputs Not Supported
On-Card PLL (Clock) Not Supported
Buffered DQMB Inputs Not Supported
Registered DQMB Inputs Not Supported
Differential Clock Input Supported
Redundant Row Address Not Supported
Memory Module Manufacturer:
Company Name Samsung
Product Information http://www.samsung.com/Products/Semiconductor/DRAM/index.htm
[ DIMM3: Kingston KVR266X64C25/256 ]
Memory Module Properties:
Module Name Kingston KVR266X64C25/256
Serial Number 281AF400h
Manufacture Date Week 8 / 2002
Module Size 256 MB (2 rows, 4 banks)
Module Type Unbuffered
Memory Type DDR SDRAM
Memory Speed PC2100 (133 MHz)
Module Width 64 bit
Module Voltage SSTL 2.5
Error Detection Method None
Refresh Rate Normal (15.625 us), Self-Refresh
Memory Timings:
@ 133 MHz 2.5-3-3-6 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)
@ 100 MHz 2.0-2-2-5 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)
Memory Module Features:
Early RAS# Precharge Not Supported
Auto-Precharge Not Supported
Precharge All Not Supported
Write1/Read Burst Not Supported
Buffered Address/Control Inputs Not Supported
Registered Address/Control Inputs Not Supported
On-Card PLL (Clock) Not Supported
Buffered DQMB Inputs Not Supported
Registered DQMB Inputs Not Supported
Differential Clock Input Supported
Redundant Row Address Not Supported
Memory Module Manufacturer:
Company Name Kingston Technology Company, Inc.
Product Information http://www.kingston.com/products/default.asp
[ Chipset ]
[ North Bridge: Intel Springdale i865PE ]
North Bridge Properties:
North Bridge Intel Springdale i865PE
Revision / Stepping 02 / A2
Package Type 932 Pin FC-BGA
Package Size 3.75 cm x 3.75 cm
Core Voltage 1.5 V
In-Order Queue Depth 12
Memory Controller:
Type Dual Channel (128-bit)
Active Mode Single Channel (64-bit)
PAT Enabled
Memory Timings:
CAS Latency (CL) 2.5T
RAS To CAS Delay (tRCD) 3T
RAS Precharge (tRP) 3T
RAS Active Time (tRAS) 6T
Error Correction:
ECC Not Supported
ChipKill ECC Not Supported
ECC Scrubbing Not Supported
Memory Slots:
DRAM Slot #1 256 MB (DDR SDRAM)
DRAM Slot #2 256 MB (DDR SDRAM)
AGP Controller:
AGP Version 3.00
AGP Status Enabled
AGP Device ATI Radeon 9800 (R350)
AGP Aperture Size 64 MB
Supported AGP Speeds 1x, 2x, 4x, 8x
Current AGP Speed 8x
Fast-Write Supported, Enabled
Side Band Addressing Supported, Enabled
Chipset Manufacturer:
Company Name Intel Corporation
Product Information http://www.intel.com/products/browse/chipsets.htm
Driver Download http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/index.htm
[ South Bridge: Intel 82801EB ICH5 ]
South Bridge Properties:
South Bridge Intel 82801EB ICH5
Revision / Stepping C2 / A2/A3
Package Type 460 Pin mBGA
Package Size 3.1 cm x 3.1 cm
Core Voltage 1.5 V
Chipset Manufacturer:
Company Name Intel Corporation
Product Information http://www.intel.com/products/browse/chipsets.htm
Driver Download http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/index.htm
[ BIOS ]
BIOS Properties:
BIOS Type AMI
System BIOS Date 01/22/04
Video BIOS Date 04/06/15
BIOS Manufacturer:
Company Name American Megatrends Inc.
Product Information http://www.ami.com/amibios
BIOS Upgrades http://www.esupport.com/biosagent/index.cfm?refererid=40
Problems & Suggestions:
Suggestion Are you looking for a BIOS Upgrade? Contact eSupport Today!
[ Windows Video ]
[ RADEON 9800 - Secondary ]
Video Adapter Properties:
Device Description RADEON 9800 - Secondary
Adapter String RADEON 9800
BIOS String BK-ATI VER008.017D.005.000
Chip Type RADEON 9800 AGP (0x4E49)
DAC Type Internal DAC(400MHz)
Installed Drivers ati2dvag (6.14.10.6525)
Memory Size 256 MB
Video Adapter Manufacturer:
Company Name ATI Technologies Inc.
Product Information http://www.ati.com/products/gamer.html
Driver Download http://www.ati.com/support/driver.html
[ RADEON 9800 ]
Video Adapter Properties:
Device Description RADEON 9800
Adapter String RADEON 9800
BIOS String BK-ATI VER008.017D.005.000
Chip Type RADEON 9800 AGP (0x4E49)
DAC Type Internal DAC(400MHz)
Installed Drivers ati2dvag (6.14.10.6525)
Memory Size 256 MB
Video Adapter Manufacturer:
Company Name ATI Technologies Inc.
Product Information http://www.ati.com/products/gamer.html
Driver Download http://www.ati.com/support/driver.html
[ PCI / AGP Video ]
ATI Radeon 9800 (R350) Video Adapter
ATI Radeon 9800 (R350) 3D Accelerator
[ GPU ]
Graphics Processor Properties:
Video Adapter ATI Radeon 9800 (R350)
GPU Code Name R350
PCI Device 1002 / 4E49
Transistors 117 million
Process Technology 0.15u
Bus Type AGP 8x
Memory Size 256 MB
GPU Clock 324 MHz (original: 325 MHz)
RAMDAC Clock 400 MHz
Pixel Pipelines 8
TMU Per Pipeline 1
Vertex Shaders 4 (v2.0)
Pixel Shaders 1 (v2.0)
DirectX Hardware Support DirectX v9.0
Pixel Fillrate 2592 MPixel/s
Texel Fillrate 2592 MTexel/s
Memory Bus Properties:
Bus Type DDR
Bus Width 128-bit
Real Clock 290 MHz (DDR) (original: 290 MHz)
Effective Clock 580 MHz
Bandwidth 9280 MB/s
Graphics Processor Manufacturer:
Company Name ATI Technologies Inc.
Product Information http://www.ati.com/products/gamer.html
Driver Download http://www.ati.com/support/driver.html
ATI Registers:
ati-00F8 10000000
ati-0140 00000075
ati-0154 F0000000
ati-0158 31420042
ati-4018 00010017
ati-CLKIND-0A 01302B04
ati-CLKIND-0B 48001600
ati-CLKIND-0C 0400BC30
ati-CLKIND-0D 00DF8002
ati-CLKIND-0E 0400BC00
ati-CLKIND-0F 00000000
ati-CLKIND-12 AA021212
[ Monitor ]
[ Gateway EV900 ]
Monitor Properties:
Monitor Name Gateway EV900
Monitor ID GWY8883
Model GATEWAY EV900
Monitor Type 19" CRT
Manufacture Date Week 43 / 1997
Serial Number 743117070
Max. Visible Display Size 36 cm x 27 cm (17.7")
Picture Aspect Ratio 4:3
Horizontal Frequency 30 - 95 kHz
Vertical Frequency 50 - 160 Hz
Maximum Resolution 1600 x 1200
Gamma 2.72
DPMS Mode Support Suspend, Active-Off
Supported Video Modes:
640 x 480 160 Hz
800 x 600 150 Hz
1024 x 768 115 Hz
1152 x 864 100 Hz
1280 x 1024 85 Hz
1600 x 1200 75 Hz
Monitor Manufacturer:
Company Name Gateway, Inc.
Product Information http://www.gateway.com
Driver Download http://support.gateway.com
[ Desktop ]
Desktop Properties:
Device Technology Raster Display
Resolution 1024 x 768
Color Depth 32-bit
Color Planes 1
Font Resolution 96 dpi
Pixel Width / Height 36 / 36
Pixel Diagonal 51
Vertical Refresh Rate 60 Hz
Desktop Effects:
Combo-Box Animation Enabled
Drop Shadow Effect Enabled
Flat Menu Effect Enabled
Font Smoothing Enabled
Full Window Dragging Enabled
Gradient Window Title Bars Enabled
Hide Menu Access Keys Enabled
Hot Tracking Effect Enabled
Icon Title Wrapping Enabled
List-Box Smooth Scrolling Enabled
Menu Animation Enabled
Menu Fade Effect Enabled
Minimize/Restore Animation Enabled
Mouse Cursor Shadow Enabled
Selection Fade Effect Enabled
ShowSounds Accessibility Feature Disabled
ToolTip Animation Enabled
ToolTip Fade Effect Enabled
Windows Plus! Extension Disabled
Problems & Suggestions:
Problem At least 85 Hz vertical refresh rate is recommended for classic displays.
[ Multi-Monitor ]
\\.\DISPLAY1 Yes (0,0) (1024,768)
[ Windows Audio ]
midi-out.0 0001 0066 SB Audigy 2 Synth A [BC00]
midi-out.1 0001 0066 SB Audigy 2 Sw Synth [BC00]
midi-out.2 0001 0066 SB Audigy 2 Synth B [BC00]
midi-out.3 0001 0066 Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth
mixer.0 0001 0068 SB Audigy 2 Audio [BC00]
mixer.1 FFFF FFFF USB IMAGING DEVICE
wave-in.0 FFFF FFFF USB IMAGING DEVICE
wave-in.1 0001 0065 SB Audigy 2 Audio [BC00]
wave-out.0 0001 0064 SB Audigy 2 Audio [BC00]
[ PCI / PnP Audio ]
Creative SB Audigy 2 (WDM) [NoDB] PCI
Intel 82801EB ICH5 - AC'97 Audio Controller PCI
[ Windows Storage ]
BTW if your 7200rpm drive is not your master, switch em around so that you're running your OS from it. The 160G 5400rpm is perfect as a storage drive. There's no need to have a 7200rpm drive when you're playing music or video from it at <1MB/s.
hth.
Other than that, see what cpu your board can max out at.
Upgrading to a new MB/CPU isn't an option right now (would also require new RAM), but my mother board can go as high as a 3.4GHz P4 cpu, which would over double my CPU speed. Depending on what revision of the MB I have, Intel's site says it may support up to a 3.4GHz P4 extreme edition. I have no idea what that is, but it appears to be a P4 cpu with a 2mb cache compared to my 1.6GHz's measly 512k cache. It is grossly expensive though. The price break seems to be right around 3.0 GHz, so if I were to upgrade the CPU, that's probably what I'd pick up.
I believe the 7200rpm drive is already my OS drive, which is contrary to what I originally thought. (I may need to triple check my jumper configurations) The board does have Serial ATA IDE interfaces with RAID 0 and RAID 1 support. Again, this is new territory for me and all I know is that format is newer and faster, but I have no way of judging if it would be significantly faster enough to warrent investing in a SATA hard drive compared to memory or CPU upgrade.
thanks for the help everyone.
Going up to a 3GHz P4 sounds like a good plan too. My current machine just recently got upgraded to 3GHz P4, with 1gig of PC3200 RAM, actually, it runs everything very nicely indeed...
And yeah, what those guys said about the hard drives. If you do get a new one, and your motherboard can support SATA, go for that route - if nothing else, they're a hell of a lot easier to install, and the cables take up MUCH less space inside the case than the standard fat IDE ones...
1. Don't get a PCI card to switch to Serial ATA. The PCI but is slower than the ATA interface, and data will bottleneck.
2. The data on a standard ATA chain will go as fast as the SLOWEST drive on that chain.
3. Always set your fastest drive to the Master, and make sure this is where your OS and apps are installed.
I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.
Sure, they might plug the wrong cable to the wrong place in some times... I mean, sure, they may rape your dog and cook it, he was a dirty old bastards anyway, right? so sure, maybe they'll kidnapp one of your chips, so what? who needs those bitches..
I'm giving you free start up here: thai workers. Take it, or get the hell out of here and do us all a favor huh?
Get a job!
bum.
btw steady: yes, we do have a lot of those thai workers taking over the farming employment. They work cheap, they was hard, they have no teeth but they will eat your dog if you let them.
It's thai workers.
Many Israelies go to thailand after the mandatory army to release the steam. It makes perfect sense, everyone get their brains fucked up when they are drafted, and then once they are done they go to thailand and reverse it, double fucking it up the other way with drugs.
When you think of that and of how crazy the people who do that must be, it explains a few things about Israel. I'll tell you that.
... I suggest ECC ram but I don't know if your board supports it.
[/ QUOTE ]
eh, ECC is nice, but unless your computer is setup as a server or an highly sensitive accountant machine at a credit card company, i don't really recommend it. I do recommend Registered memory as opposed to unbuffered, but ECC is a feature that is rarely appropriately used, especially for us. It's not really going to do much but cost more and give a barely noticeable performance hit due to the constant code checking.
That was the longest scroll of my life, I forgot what I was going to say because of it.
2. Would this mean it might be better to put my slower drive on my secondary IDE with my CD-ROM and leave my primary drive by itself?
After some further investigation, I think RAM might be my best route. While playing CoH tonight, I tab'd over into windows to see how much memory I was using and it was spiking over 650mb, which caused my system to start paging. Even now with nothing up but IE, task manager claims it's using over 269mb of memory...so XP seems to be really crappy about freeing up memory again.
Honest to god.
This is why I use win2000.
Also, I've heard that putting your virtual memory on a RAMDisk will increase performance, as insane as it sounds. Windows always wants to page stuff and complained that my virtual memory was too small when my physical was still less than 50% full.
XP is a big fat pig when it comes to RAM and if you can bump up your CPU that will be a big hitter too. Another 512M would do wonders for your rig. I noticed that going from 512M to 768M on one machine made a world of difference - i was able to run Max, PS, DP3D, a browser and Winamp comfortably unless I started opening really big PS files. On another machine there's 2G and the only time I see it starting to chunk down is when I have 15-20 apps open.
That's a great idea KDR to make a RAM drive and use it for the swap file. Windows just seems to want to page stuff to the HDD regardless of how much RAM you have and that would be a good way to force it to use the RAM.
Personally I didn't see much difference between 512MB and 1024 but then I'm using 2k.
CTRL+A: It's recommended to set the virtual memory to twice your RAM size (both min and max so the page file doesn't resize and fragments the disk), to me 256MB seem to be enough (Win2k + 512MB) though. Just make sure you give it a fixed size.
Gonna have to wait a bit on the CPU upgrade, but I think the RAM alone will solve most of my problems. The one thing I'm not sure about is the tech notes for my motherboard say that for DDR400 ram the CPU's system bus frequency has to be 800mhz, where as mine (1.6GHz) is only 400mhz. I'm assuming the ram will still work, only clocking at a lower speed until I upgrade my CPU. I'm also assuming that PC3200 ram can be used with PC2100 ram, again...functioning at the lower speed. I'm making a lot of assumptions here, hope it doesn't bite me in the booty.
You might also run msconfig from run line to see what progs are loading and hogging memory on startup. I had trouble running PS at first, I reinstalled win98 se and then the first prog I reinstalled was win 98se and then my other progs, games and so forth and PS runs fine now. Shrugs.
Also might set your memory allocation - swap file - from windows default control to 2.5 times the amount of ram you. have.
And maybe run scandisk and defrag or use Norton speeddisk which is way faster then ms tools.