Disapointed in my P4C800-E & 3.2Ghz P4..Anyone Else?

[dpain]

I was lucky enough to get in on the Dell 400SC deal a while back, and sold off the Dell with a 2.4c P4, and kept the processor. Then I rebuilt my old AMD XP1800+ OC'd to 2400+ for someone else so that I could buy a nice Lian-Li case, 1gig dual channel corsair pc3200 and this P4C800-E. I have a PNY GeForce4 ti4200 128MB 8x AGP card installed with the newest nVidia drivers. I have tried to reinstall with putting the newest intel inf drivers first and everything. This thing just does not feel as fast as my trusty old AMD XP1800+. The processor benchmarks fast as a 3.2 should with Sandra, but it just feels sluggish. It even boots slower than my old XP1800+ even after running bootvis. I thought I finally had my dream machine, but its not much of a dream. It is stable, but I guess I just expected alot more. I went through alot of weasling(if that is a word) to piece this system together. I am wondering if it is just me, or if there is someone else that has noticed this. I am sorry if I sound like a whinny baby. I know I am going to be flamed for this one, but I figure it will be worth it if someone can help. Any advice would be most appreciated. Thanks,

Dpain

 

[Thor86]

What are your bios settings for cpu and ram? Do you have Performance Accerlation Mode enabled? Are you running your ram's timings as tightest they can be? Those information would help out in troubleshooting why your 3.0 @ 3.2 "feels" sluggish. My 2.4 @ 3.3 on the same board is wickedly fast.

 

[orion7144]

Either this is someones attempt to start a flame war or he hasn't even tried a P4C. The minute I got my first 2.4C I put all 4 of my other AXP mb/cpus up for sale since they did not even compare. Now all of my box's are P4C's.

 

[dpain]

Come on orion7144, why would I lie? I have the board, and it just isn't wickedly fast. Nothing else meant by it.

Anyway, I am using 2 ATA100 drive. I am not using SATA. I am not overclocking at all. I have turned of my promise raid controller. I have the timings set by SPD for ram. I did not feel that I would get any benefit out of OC'ing. I really thought this thing should be fast enough at regular strength. When I say slugish, I mean stuff like, when I right click on any object and ask for properties, it does not come up instantaneously. It takes a second or two. I know that does not seem like much, but other p4 systems that I have built the properties windows come up before the mouse button is finished being pressed. It also takes about 45 to 50 seconds to boot up fresh, where my ole XP1800 was 30 seconds tops. Other than that it runs fine. Just not as snappy as it should be. Thanks,

Dpain

 

[ajskydiver]

I know exactly how you feel.

I also got in on the SC400 deal with the 3.2.

I kept the entire rig and added my components from my 2400+ (OC'd 200x10.5 on an 8RDA+) which I sold to a friend...

It does feel sluggish, it does boot a bit slower, it does benchmark right where it should...I'd sell it for what I paid immediately if I could.

So, it's not just you.

~AJ

 

[dpain]

Thank you Aj_UF,

I knew I could not be alone on this. I am thinking about scrapping it for the AMD XP2600+ Deal at Fry's if I can sell this pig! That is why I love these forums. Anyone else want to join our pitty party? I wonder if it's the intel 875p chipset. The chip has to be fast. The memory seems fine. The hard dirves were the same as in my other machine. No Vid problems. What other chipsets are out there for the P4's with hyperthreading?

Dpain

 

[Thor86]

Well, you didn't answer my question regarding the bios settings, and you did do a fresh install of your OS right? Did you install the Intel chipset drivers?

Give us more info to help you out man!

 

[ajskydiver]

I can't speak for dpain, but the Dell MB doesn't have any tweaking options at all...

It is a bit odd that he and I both find our experiences with the P4 similar.

~AJ

 

[dpain]

I have everything set for standard performance. Nothing is overclocked or not autodetected. I turned off the splash screen, and I turned off the RAID controller in the BIOS. Other than that what else can I tell you about BIOS settings?

 

[dpain]

Hey Aj_UF,

The similarity is the 875p Intel Chipset with our P4's. I was not all that impressed with the Dell either, but I sold that off to get this board. It is very strange?????? I was going to install linux on this thing to see how well it performs, but I cannot find one that seems to support the 875p chipset. I even tried the SUSE Demo that runs completely off the CD, but it hangs when it gets to the ide devices.

Oh Thor,

I did several reinstall's of XP and have used the latest intel INF file. I have tried installing them before and after the XP SP1.

 

[Thor86]

Originally posted by: dpain
I have everything set for standard performance. Nothing is overclocked or not autodetected. I turned off the splash screen, and I turned off the RAID controller in the BIOS. Other than that what else can I tell you about BIOS settings?

Here some starters to tweak your system for performance:

1) Set Performance Acceleration Mode to Enabled
2) Set memory frequency to 400 (1:1 memory ratio)
3) Set your vdimm to 2.75 (or higher)
4) Set your spd memory timings to 2.5-3-3-7 to start, and loosen (3-4-4-8) or tighten (2-3-3-6) them as stability requires it.

Good luck.

 

[subman]

Just my $0.02 -

2 weeks back I changed from an ASUS A7V333 with a 2000+ to the ASUS P4C800 Deluxe Rev2 (non E) with a 2.4C @ 3.0. (the E version is not available here at the moment)

The difference in the speeds is tremendous - I find things really move FAST - all programs run faster and my Ghost disk backup speeds has gone up from 1.2gb/min to 2gb/min with the same IBM PATA drives.

Every thing I run feels snappy - EXCEPT - when I want to drop down menus I find a time lag and when I want to select something which is down the list of the menu the cursor has a lag. But I can live with this small hiccup. This is probably due to my ancient Geforce 4 ti4200 display card.

Even my boot times give me a feel of being shorter now - the thingy which goes left/right on boot now does it in 4 cycles against 9 with the AMD setup.

 

[Thor86]

Originally posted by: subman
Just my $0.02 -

2 weeks back I changed from an ASUS A7V333 with a 2000+ to the ASUS P4C800 Deluxe Rev2 (non E) with a 2.4C @ 3.0. (the E version is not available here at the moment)

The difference in the speeds is tremendous - I find things really move FAST - all programs run faster and my Ghost disk backup speeds has gone up from 1.2gb/min to 2gb/min with the same IBM PATA drives.

Every thing I run feels snappy - EXCEPT - when I want to drop down menus I find a time lag and when I want to select something which is down the list of the menu the cursor has a lag. But I can live with this small hiccup. This is probably due to my ancient Geforce 4 ti4200 display card.

Even my boot times give me a feel of being shorter now - the thingy which goes left/right on boot now does it in 4 cycles against 9 with the AMD setup.

Are you running WinXP? Disable all those GUI crap settings to speed up your menu displays.

 

[stevennoland]

Agreed! Turn off all that windows eye candy crap! You won't miss it. Trust us.

 

[subman]

OK done it. Makes a difference . Thanks. I had all sorts of settings switched on to make XP "look good". But this lag did not bother me at all.

I think the P4C800 Deluxe with the 2.4C is really a great combo. I find it really fast and problem free. I have tweaked the BIOS as best I can - I have really poor quality Transcend DDR400 ram which has PSC chips - maxs out at 2.5/3/3/7. This ram passes the Mem86 test - so I am not too worried about it.

 

[dpain]

The lag bothers me because I have seen slower processors without the lag and with all the XP crap still turned on. Just knowing that the lag is there bugs me. I am anal... I know!!!! But it just should not be there, so why should I be satisfied with it?

Dpain

 

[RX7poor]

Will you people ever wake up and face the facts.
Intel chipsets are JUNK. Try something that will last
like M-boards with VIA chip sets. No they are not
blazing fast but are usually much less in price and
have proven very reliable with Intel processors. Ever
notice that ALL Amd boards cost less compared to
Intel GEE I wonder why.As far as speed is concerned
I will allowance go for a faster fsb processor than
some over hyped amd that may not last.Remember
Microsoft and Intel get along real good.

My 2bts worth

 

[phpdog]

Hi ,

Why dont you try installing TweakUI power tools for Windows XP .... it speeds up how your menus open and close BIG TIME .

There like set at a 1 sec delay or something you can accelerate it and when your scrolling through programs and stuff , you can like put your mouse from top to bottom in like under a second and they all open and shut .... really good i download it everytime i install windows .... it also disables and tweaks a lot of windows garbage .... bye

 

[phpdog]

Hi ,

Why dont you try installing TweakUI power tools for Windows XP .... it speeds up how your menus open and close BIG TIME .

There like set at a 1 sec delay or something you can accelerate it and when your scrolling through programs and stuff , you can like put your mouse from top to bottom in like under a second and they all open and shut .... really good i download it everytime i install windows .... it also disables and tweaks a lot of windows garbage .... bye

 

[jiffylube1024]

I find my P4 C system to be incredibly fast.

Perhaps (just perhaps) your system is running very hot and it's throttling a bit (although this is a reach).

Originally posted by: subman
Just my $0.02 -

2 weeks back I changed from an ASUS A7V333 with a 2000+ to the ASUS P4C800 Deluxe Rev2 (non E) with a 2.4C @ 3.0. (the E version is not available here at the moment)

The difference in the speeds is tremendous - I find things really move FAST - all programs run faster and my Ghost disk backup speeds has gone up from 1.2gb/min to 2gb/min with the same IBM PATA drives.

Every thing I run feels snappy - EXCEPT - when I want to drop down menus I find a time lag and when I want to select something which is down the list of the menu the cursor has a lag. But I can live with this small hiccup. This is probably due to my ancient Geforce 4 ti4200 display card.

Even my boot times give me a feel of being shorter now - the thingy which goes left/right on boot now does it in 4 cycles against 9 with the AMD setup.

I seriously doubt window lag would be caused by a GF4 Ti, and I myself would not call the GF4 Ti cards "ancient".

 

[Bad Dude]

Originally posted by: dpain
I have everything set for standard performance. Nothing is overclocked or not autodetected. I turned off the splash screen, and I turned off the RAID controller in the BIOS. Other than that what else can I tell you about BIOS settings?

You might find your answer. It might or might not help but it's a start from the problem you are describing.

 

[UCSDHappyAsian]

i heard P-4 isnot doin too well.. and the fsb 800 is not really twice as fast as 400.... i guess intel was playin around with the number and the customer

 

[subman]

Originally posted by: jiffylube1024
I find my P4 C system to be incredibly fast.

Perhaps (just perhaps) your system is running very hot and it's throttling a bit (although this is a reach).

I seriously doubt window lag would be caused by a GF4 Ti, and I myself would not call the GF4 Ti cards "ancient".

My case has 5 extra fans which keeps the CPU cool enough. I have a case temp of 33C and a CPU idle temp of 36C - on full load the CPU touches 50C.

I called my Ti card ancient because it is the bottle neck in my computer. Anything that is display card depended runs a bit slow. But DIVX has gone up from about 32fps to a cool 60fps and this makes me see the speed of the P4 2.4C @ 3.0

 

[Chunkee]

I have experienced something similar as to you. I am primarily an AMD man, in fact all my rigs are AMD. All VIA chipsets (KT400). Right now, my main rig is an ABIT ATMAX2 with a 2600 (333) oc'd to 2.38 about 192 fsb. It is pretty fast with a raid stripe.

A while back, I wanted to try the oc potential of the intel p4s. I got an abit ITMAX 845 motherboard with a 2.53 533. I successfully and stabliy oc'd the p4 to 3.2. When i started getting into applications and gaming, i noticed that it was not as responsive or snappy as my AMD rigs, that were much slower in clock speed. Boot times were slower as well.

I have been curious in checking out the 800FSB with HT, but wonder if I would really notice any difference. I am getting into video editing and wonder if it would help significantly. I have a RADEON 9800np in there, oc'd to pro speeds that plays all my games just fine. ALSO, this rig, the abit and 2600, is ROCK solid stable!! not one problem with RAID, or crashing...nothing.

I would like to see someones rig with a p4c and test it out before I bought one.

Good luck with your computer

 

[subman]

Originally posted by: Chunkee
I am getting into video editing and wonder if it would help significantly.

DIVX was were I saw the MAX difference between the AMD and the P4. My 2000+ AMD was way slower than the P4 2.4C The AMD just did not have the power of the P4. Like I said above it was 32 fps against 60fps. I agree I have a faster P4 CPU but the difference is still quite a lot.