Need Help: System Build/Performance

[mlandsl]

Hello,

I'm building my first system from scratch and have purchased the following main components:
CPU: AMD XP2100 (Palamino)
MOBO: EPOX 8RDA
MEMORY: Corsair XMS3200 PC3200 DDR (512MB)
VIDEO: ATI Radeon 8500 (128MB DDR)

My primary use for this pc is to play MechWarrior4 Mercenaries (I'm play competitively online), perform standard Office suite functionality, and do standard web development (HTML/ASP Code).

What do you think the bottleneck is going to be with this hardware configuration? What can I do to optimize the system's performance without sacrificing stability?

My initial thoughts (due to my limited knowledge in the area) were that my bottleneck would be the FSB speed due to my processor which operates at 133, whereas my memory can run at 200.

I was thinking of raising my FSB to 166, to close the gap, and then lowering my CPU multiplier so I'm still running it at around 1.73Ghz. My motherboard has an AGP and PCI lock so no divisors necessary there. Would this put a strain on my system at all in an adverse way? Does the cpu multiplier adjustment nullify the FSB increase, thereby maintaining the CPU operating load as though I had never tweaked the settings?

My goal here is to tweak my settings to make this system run optimally, not to try and OC it to get insane performance. Stability is the key for me 🙂

Thanks in advance for your help and comments

 

[bgeh]

Does the cpu multiplier adjustment nullify the FSB increase, thereby maintaining the CPU operating load as though I had never tweaked the settings?

usually yes, and you will see higher performance due to extra bandwidth
and get 2 sticks of 256 mb to enable dual channel ddr on it

 

[techfuzz]

Originally posted by: mlandsl
I was thinking of raising my FSB to 166, to close the gap, and then lowering my CPU multiplier so I'm still running it at around 1.73Ghz. My motherboard has an AGP and PCI lock so no divisors necessary there. Would this put a strain on my system at all in an adverse way? Does the cpu multiplier adjustment nullify the FSB increase, thereby maintaining the CPU operating load as though I had never tweaked the settings?

My goal here is to tweak my settings to make this system run optimally, not to try and OC it to get insane performance. Stability is the key for me 🙂

Thanks in advance for your help and comments

Definitely bump the FSB up to 166 mhz so that the processor and memory run asynchronously. Best performance/stability combination available at the moment.

techfuzz

 

[mlandsl]

Thanks for your responses, I just got the mobo in and will get the cpu in shortly and I'll give it a go.

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

good luck
overclocking is a fun thing to do (until you go and smoke something lol 😉 )

 

[mechBgon]

I play MW4 Mercs on Zippy and it works pretty well. The big battles like Tharkad Overlord can put huge amounts of RAM into use (350Mb on my system)... I estimate about 60 combatants in that mission, most of them engaging simultaneously. Tip: cLBX10's + multiple flamers in a Thanatos, Uziel or Gladiator = "Solarismobile" 😀 And buy all the flamers you see, they run out after a while! 😛

As for CPU:Memory ratio, everything I've read about nForce2 says to run the memory in sync with the CPU. If you drop the multiplier and bring both CPU and memory up to 166MHz, you'll gain about 5-7% performance per MHz (judging by Hexus' benchmarking).

 

[rommelrommel]

I think the biggest bottleneck for performance in game there is the Radeon 8500... it's kinda getting dated. I'm not completely familiar with how demanding Mechwarrior 4 is, but a lot of newer games, especially the once coming out in the next few months, are going to suck pipe on anything less than a GeForce4 TI / Radeon 9500 or greater. Seems a shame to have a two generation old vid card (soon to be three) in there on a kickass board with kickass ram and a pretty good CPU...

 

[mechBgon]

For the record, MW4 Mercs is not cutting-edge stuff. They re-used the original MW4 engine from a couple of years ago. The worst situations for me are when my 'mech is giving off a lot of smoke from critically-damaged areas and I'm backing up through my own smoke... gets a bit rough on the GeForce2 GTS-V. The rest of the time it's pretty smooth, although I think a 64Mb card would iron out occasional bumps by storing more textures locally.

Given the nature of the game, ultra-high framerate isn't that critical... it's not like a 90-ton assault 'mech is going to suddenly dart around behind you or change direction on a dime. 😉

 

[mlandsl]

thanks for the great info guys... oh and mechbgon, try running a 4ERPPC Nova Cat/Black Knight/Masakari/Sunder/Gladiator . It's a 2 shot kill on just about every mech out there 🙂