"High-end system" running like a herd of turtles...

[MrFahrenheit]

Hello,

I need some help here. I've had my PC since July, and it's never really impressed me all that much, and I figure it should, considering it was pretty darn high-end when I bought it. Now, it's just frustrating and embarrassing.

First, the specs:

AMD Athlon X2 4200+
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
1 gig of ECC DDR 333 RAM
(Two) Evga 7900 GT KO running in SLI mode
Maxtor ATA(?) 200 gig drive running XP Pro

It also had some hardware troubles throughout its life that I believe I've fixed:

- The chipset kept overheating, so I gave it a new cooler (Zalman heatsink)
- A WD 120 gig drive started failing, so I switched.


Also, I used to have 1.5 gigs of DDR 400 RAM, but I distributed the sticks to some family members in need, and a friend had some DDR33 ECC memory lying around that he gave to me.

Okay. So, here's the trouble: It lags like a snail in pretty much any game I play, unless it's at least two years old. I have a score of around 5700 in 3D Mark '06 (which, honestly, I don't know what this means, but I thought I'd list it anyway), I get an average of 30 fps in Oblivion on medium settings, and an average of 17 in Company of Heroes on medium. Don't even get me started on BF 2142.

I updated the drivers for the cards, I updated the "dual core optimizer" from AMD, I tried different monitor resolutions... Same old tale.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but an SLI set-up like this should not be doing this, right?

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Well, first thing that hits me is the 1gb of RAM--I would think that is one thing that I would definitely look into upgrading. Have you gone through and made sure you have all the updated and correct drivers? Checked to see if your ATA drive is operating in the correct mode. Etc., Etc.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: MrFahrenheit
1 gig of ECC DDR 333 RAM

a friend had some DDR33 ECC memory lying around that he gave to me.

DDR333 on top of being ECC...

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: Blain

Originally posted by: MrFahrenheit
1 gig of ECC DDR 333 RAM

a friend had some DDR33 ECC memory lying around that he gave to me.

DDR333 on top of being ECC...

That is one thing I hated about my server. I was stuck with ECC DDR-266. It was slow as all hell, and it was noticeable. So I would definitely get some RAM that is one par with your motherboard.... Check out your manual to see what it supports.

 

[MrFahrenheit]

Thanks for the replies. I somewhat suspected my memory... I didn't know ECC was a bad thing.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: MrFahrenheit
Thanks for the replies. I somewhat suspected my memory... I didn't know ECC was a bad thing.

ECC isn't necessarily bad--it just has it's applications like everything else. In a desktop computer, it's rather useless, because there is no need, and performance is more of a concern. In server platforms and the like, accuracy of data is far more important than performance, so ECC memory has it's place there...

 

[MrFahrenheit]

Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo
ECC isn't necessarily bad--it just has it's applications like everything else. In a desktop computer, it's rather useless, because there is no need, and performance is more of a concern. In server platforms and the like, accuracy of data is far more important than performance, so ECC memory has it's place there...

Huh... Well, I guess I'll try testing it out with some different memory.

 

[PCGOD]

2 fat 1 gig sticks of DDR500 will cure what ales you.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820220084

Or find some used stuff.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: PCGOD
2 fat 1 gig sticks of DDR500 will cure what ales you.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820220084

Or find some used stuff.

With everyone upgraded to C2Ds, you likely could find a deal on some good DDR in the FS/T section...

 

[MrFahrenheit]

Originally posted by: PCGOD
2 fat 1 gig sticks of DDR500 will cure what ales you.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820220084

Or find some used stuff.

I don't think my motherboard can use that. Believe it can go as high as DDR 400 for 2 gigs. I think if I use DDR 333 I can go to 4 gigs.

But I'll look around. Thanks anyways.

 

[chusteczka]

Originally posted by: MrFahrenheit

Originally posted by: PCGOD
2 fat 1 gig sticks of DDR500 will cure what ales you.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820220084

Or find some used stuff.

I don't think my motherboard can use that. Believe it can go as high as DDR 400 for 2 gigs. I think if I use DDR 333 I can go to 4 gigs.

But I'll look around. Thanks anyways.

The DDR 500 memory allows the motherboard's memory bus to operate at a speed up to 250MHz. The default setting is 200MHz. This DDR500 memory is only useful if the motherboard, processor, and memory will be overclocked; and then only if your specific overclock requires the memory to operate between 220 - 250MHz. The DDR400 memory is appropriate if you will not overclock your system.


EDIT:
Your AMD 4200+ cpu has a clock speed of 2.2 GHz. This is based on a cpu multiplier x11, which is multiplied by the system bus, mentioned earlier, that has a default setting of 200 MHz. 200 MHz x 11 = 2200 MHz = 2.2 GHz

With DDR400 RAM and assuming the DDR400 RAM may overclock from 200MHz to 220MHz, you could theoretically overclock your system to the following:
6/6 memory divider : 220 MHz x 11 = 2420 MHz = 2.42 GHz
5/6 memory divider : 264 MHz x 11 = 2904 MHz = 2.90 GHz
(264 MHz cpu bus * 5/6 memory divider = 220MHz memory bus)

with DDR500 RAM that is capable of reaching 250MHz, you could theoretically overclock your system to the following:
6/6 memory divider : 250 MHz x 11 = 2750 MHz = 2.75 GHz


Switching from the 6/6 memory divider down to 5/6 typically involves a 5 - 7% performance loss at the same bus speed. However, the difference becomes negligible once the bus speed is increased during the overclocking process.

 

[Talcite]

You can disable ECC, it'll just ignore the 9th bit of data. Small speed increase till you can get the new memory =D