- Oct 23, 2000
- 9,200
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Up until recently I have been running a Socket A Athlon XP Barton CPU on an MSI 8K7A Delta2 LSR motherboard and was very happy with the performance. The CPU was accidentally 'murdered' while I was moving the system so I was forced to replace it. Being on a very tight budget, I purchased a Sempron 64 2600+/Biostar K8NHA Grand combo from NewEgg based on reports from many different sources here and on other Internet forums and review sites that the socket 754 Sempron runs about 10-15% faster than the Socket A Barton at equal clock speeds.
Well, I have to say that I'm very disappointed with the purchase so far and I'm hoping you can help me get a little more satisfaction out of it since I can't be without a computer for any length of time (I need it for my work) so I really don't want to return this set to NewEgg (for a restocking fee as well) and be without a working computer if I can avoid it.
Let me start by saying that the one thing I am very pleased with is that the Sempron runs extremely cool. Even under full load when overclocked as far as the motherboard will go, it never goes higher than 38 degrees Celsius, whereas my Barton used to hit 60C on a regular basis even with very good cooling.
Anyway, let me give you some system specs and then explain what is happening.
I have two matched sticks of 512MB Corsair PC3200 value ram, a Seagate 160GB IDE hard drive, an NEC CD/DVD burner, and a GeForce MX440 video card in the system (the card is more than adequate for what little gaming I do). The same RAM, video card, and hard drive were also used in the Barton system. The Barton was overclocked to an even 2Ghz (10x200) and the Sempron is also clocked at 2Ghz (8x250). I reformatted and completely re-installed Windows XP SP2 when the new motherboard and CPU were installed.
I have all of the newest video, chipset, motherboard, and CPU drivers installed and Windows is patched with all current updates. The motherboard has BIOS version 6 (newest on Biostar's web site) installed.
Now, for the problems.
1) The motherboard only recognizes half of ANY memory sticks that are installed, regardless of brand, size, speed, or type (including single and double-sided). I have tried Corsair, Kingston, PNY, Crucial, Elixir (lame off brand) and several other unlabled sticks that I happen to have on hand for working on other peoples' machines. It doesn't seem to make any difference if the memory sticks are 64MB or 512MB or anything in between, or if I use one or two sticks, it still only recognizes half of the memory on the chips. Windows reports the same amount of RAM as the Motherboard/POST does. CPU-Z shows the full amount of RAM that is actually installed in the system so the motherboard is actually reading the full capacity of the RAM, it just isn't reporting it properly to Windows. This is most likely the cause of the rest of the problems but I don't know how to fix it.
2) 3DMark 2001 test scores are about 20% slower with the Sempron than they were with the Barton. This could be due to the RAM but I wouldn't expect 3DMark 2001 to even use a full 1GB of RAM. SuperPI scores are also about 20% slower than the Barton. Find-a-Drug (distributed computing project) reports a CPU rating 15% lower than what the Barton was getting.
3) Games like Dark Age of Camelot are completely unplayable on the new system. Where the old system was a bit slow now and then but still very much playable on low "eye candy" settings, the new system stutters and locks up so badly that it's impossible to even move around without extreme difficulty. The mis-reported RAM could definitely have an effect on this, but not to the extent that I am seeing.
4) When I first set up the system (after confirming stability at stock settings) and overclocked the CPU to 250FSB with the ram at 216/432MHz as should be expected when set at a base speed of 166 (166+50=216) but now no matter what I do including a full reset of the CMOS, the RAM never goes above 200MHz regardless of the settings I use. This is a minor inconvenience since CPU speed is more important than memory speed for the things I do, but it is still annoying and quite possibly related to the issue reported in #1.
5) Also annoying but not a big deal since it is hard coded into the BIOS is that the motherboard simply will not go higher than 250FSB even though I know the CPU could handle quite a bit more speed since it still is literally cold at stock voltage with the 25% overclock it's running right now.
Well, I have to say that I'm very disappointed with the purchase so far and I'm hoping you can help me get a little more satisfaction out of it since I can't be without a computer for any length of time (I need it for my work) so I really don't want to return this set to NewEgg (for a restocking fee as well) and be without a working computer if I can avoid it.
Let me start by saying that the one thing I am very pleased with is that the Sempron runs extremely cool. Even under full load when overclocked as far as the motherboard will go, it never goes higher than 38 degrees Celsius, whereas my Barton used to hit 60C on a regular basis even with very good cooling.
Anyway, let me give you some system specs and then explain what is happening.
I have two matched sticks of 512MB Corsair PC3200 value ram, a Seagate 160GB IDE hard drive, an NEC CD/DVD burner, and a GeForce MX440 video card in the system (the card is more than adequate for what little gaming I do). The same RAM, video card, and hard drive were also used in the Barton system. The Barton was overclocked to an even 2Ghz (10x200) and the Sempron is also clocked at 2Ghz (8x250). I reformatted and completely re-installed Windows XP SP2 when the new motherboard and CPU were installed.
I have all of the newest video, chipset, motherboard, and CPU drivers installed and Windows is patched with all current updates. The motherboard has BIOS version 6 (newest on Biostar's web site) installed.
Now, for the problems.
1) The motherboard only recognizes half of ANY memory sticks that are installed, regardless of brand, size, speed, or type (including single and double-sided). I have tried Corsair, Kingston, PNY, Crucial, Elixir (lame off brand) and several other unlabled sticks that I happen to have on hand for working on other peoples' machines. It doesn't seem to make any difference if the memory sticks are 64MB or 512MB or anything in between, or if I use one or two sticks, it still only recognizes half of the memory on the chips. Windows reports the same amount of RAM as the Motherboard/POST does. CPU-Z shows the full amount of RAM that is actually installed in the system so the motherboard is actually reading the full capacity of the RAM, it just isn't reporting it properly to Windows. This is most likely the cause of the rest of the problems but I don't know how to fix it.
2) 3DMark 2001 test scores are about 20% slower with the Sempron than they were with the Barton. This could be due to the RAM but I wouldn't expect 3DMark 2001 to even use a full 1GB of RAM. SuperPI scores are also about 20% slower than the Barton. Find-a-Drug (distributed computing project) reports a CPU rating 15% lower than what the Barton was getting.
3) Games like Dark Age of Camelot are completely unplayable on the new system. Where the old system was a bit slow now and then but still very much playable on low "eye candy" settings, the new system stutters and locks up so badly that it's impossible to even move around without extreme difficulty. The mis-reported RAM could definitely have an effect on this, but not to the extent that I am seeing.
4) When I first set up the system (after confirming stability at stock settings) and overclocked the CPU to 250FSB with the ram at 216/432MHz as should be expected when set at a base speed of 166 (166+50=216) but now no matter what I do including a full reset of the CMOS, the RAM never goes above 200MHz regardless of the settings I use. This is a minor inconvenience since CPU speed is more important than memory speed for the things I do, but it is still annoying and quite possibly related to the issue reported in #1.
5) Also annoying but not a big deal since it is hard coded into the BIOS is that the motherboard simply will not go higher than 250FSB even though I know the CPU could handle quite a bit more speed since it still is literally cold at stock voltage with the 25% overclock it's running right now.
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