How can you tell...?

[jasonmstone]

So - yeah.

For the first time ever, I built a computer yesterday. Nothing exploded when I plugged it in, so I consider it a successful endeavor. (The thing is MUCH louder than I expected, but I'll worry about that some other time.)

Here are the specs (no, I'm not planning to OC):

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (Retail)
AOpen AK86-L (K8T800)
OCZ Enhanced Latency Series Platinum Edition (512MBx2) PC-3200
WD Raptor 74GB
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
Thermaltake Silent (my ass) Purepower 480W PS
Coolermaster Wave Master

My question, which will surely serve to highlight how utterly clueless I am about building these, is: how do you know if you're REALLY getting all the performance out of it that you should be?

I basically just loaded the setup defaults in BIOS. There was an option for "Load Turbo Defaults" but the manual said: "Please avoid using [this] unless you are sure your system components are good enough for turbo setting." Of course, then it didn't say what constitutes "good enough."

But then I noticed in one of the utilities that came with the motherboard (called AOConfig) that when I look under the "Processor Information" setting, it says:

CPU Vendor: AMD
CPU Type: Unknown Type
Socket Type: Socket A (uh... isn't this supposed to be 754?)
Frequency: 2010MHz = 201MHz*10.0
Core Voltage: 1.52V

ANOTHER utility called EzClock has a buttload of other numbers:

Ratio: 10.0x
FSB: 255 MHz
Freq: 2550 MHz
Voltage: 1.500

Under the DRAM part, it has numbers but no indication of what they mean (maybe voltage and clock?):
2.650 and 510

Same for the AGP section:
1.530 and 85.00

And also PCI:
3.300 and 42.50


So, given the processor/RAM/motherboard, etc... is anything completely out of whack here? It could be completely SNAFUed, and I'd never know it.

 

[CrazyHelloDeli]

The only way to really know if your system if performing on par with similarly configured machines, is to run some benchmarks and compare them to some online reviews of your chip and motherboard.

I have never used AO Config so I cant vouch for its features, but generally when a utility gives wrong information about a component in your system its because its an older version that cant recognize and report newer technology. Looking at AOPEN's website the latest version of AOConfig was released 2003/06/18. Hence, the Socket A error.

The numbers EZClock are reporting are voltage and clock speeds. I didnt quite understand what they were either until I saw you had set Turbo mode in youre bios, essentially slightly overlocking. Here is some more info on EZClock from Aopens website.

http://english.aopen.com.tw/tech/techinside/EzClock.htm

 

[imported_oralpain]

I have built and used a system nearly identical to that. CPU-Z from www.cpuid.com is a good program to use to double check the current settings. Sisoftware's Sandra is usefulf or detailed info and some benchmarking. The single most useful non game benchmark is probably futurmarks 3Dmark 2001SE build 330. Many games also have buit in bechmarking tools, unreal tournament 2003/2004 is a good example.

Try running 3dmark 2001SE, you should score very near 20,000 if that system is running correctly.

Don't bother with the Turbo modes in the bios. If you want to overclock do it manually.

Also that powersupply should have a fan speed control on the back.