New set up...need advice

[AMDBarton2500]

I just bought components to put together my first PC.

Here are the components I bought.....after many many hours of research.

Asus A7N8X Deluxe
XP2500 Barton
Geil PC 3200 400mhz 512mb DDR
ATI 9600pro
120GB Maxtor HD
Antec Solution with 350W PS
POS CDRW.....I/O Magic I think

Here is my questions, at the first boot should I go into bios or just boot of the XP cd and load it. What would I need to change in the bios to make this thing run the best. Do I update bios before or after XP?

I also hear alot of people running this thing at 400FSB.....changing the settings to 200X11 <<<whatever that means. I hear that if you run yout FSB at the rate of your Ram (in my case Geil 400mhz) it will make the computer run faster. How reliable is this set up at 200x11 setting. I guess the MB reads the CPU as XP3200 at that point.

I want to leave my set up stock at the begining for about a month or so....is this a good idea or should I just OC it from the beggining? Which bios upgrade should I use for this MB???

Only thing Im really planning to do as far as OCing goes is just 200X11. Unless there is something else that worth doing.

What do you guys use to get 3d marks and what should I be getting with this set up about???

Also what you guys think about GEIL....?

Thanks IA!!!

 

[pelikan]

The geil may not work.
When you boot go into bios and set it up. Since this is your first time just let it auto detect everything. I would turn off the Asus splash screen, spread spectrum and anything you aren't using like parallel ports, etc.
When you have windows loaded do SP1 from CD, mb drivers, dx9, video drivers, and then complete windows update - in that order. Defrag.
Then run ten loops of memtest86 and prime95 overnight. If everything's good start overclocking.

 

[AMDBarton2500]

From reading reviews on Newegg it seems like people are having good experiance with this set up (memory)

Whats Memtest or Prime95??? Is that part of bios??? Or seperate program???

 

[pelikan]

They are separate programs. Google will find them for you.
Hopefully the geil you got will work fine.

 

[AMDBarton2500]

I will run those I guess.....what do they really do? Give me specs of my system? Whats the point of running it 10 times???

 

[pelikan]

They test the stability of your system. It's always a good idea to test a new build. That way you can nip any problems in the bud and not have a trouble down the road.
Memtest86 runs continuously. Ten loops about four to six hours. This is for your memory. Prime95 is primarily for your cpu. It will also heat up your system more than any other program which will test your cooling.

 

[AMDBarton2500]

And I can download these from the web I assume.....great those are the first things Im doing after XPpro goes on.

Thanks alot for the info!!!!

I hope this Geil holds up well...

 

[calvinh]

I have A7N8X-Deluxe MB, Barton 2500+, Corsair TwinXMS256PC3200C2 (2x256), SLK900A with panaflo 92mm, Antec SLK3700AMB with Smartpower 350W setup.

I cant hit 200FSB on this combo under any setting so far. Memtest fails on the memory at anything more than 175FSB. Prime95... wont run for even 30 secs at anything more than 166FSB and memory in sync. The memory is supposed to have been tested on A7N8X mobos, it says so on both ASUS and Corsair websites. I have tried all sorts of timings, no use.
I am thinking of testing the same setup on a different mobo that supports Dual channel DDR at 400MHz. for more info, check the thread 'Help, Barton 2500+ not stable with prime95' or something like that.
I have read in other forums that lot of ppl are having problems with this mobo and hitting 200FSB.

 

[pelikan]

Originally posted by: calvinh
I have A7N8X-Deluxe MB, Barton 2500+, Corsair TwinXMS256PC3200C2 (2x256), SLK900A with panaflo 92mm, Antec SLK3700AMB with Smartpower 350W setup.

I cant hit 200FSB on this combo under any setting so far. Memtest fails on the memory at anything more than 175FSB. Prime95... wont run for even 30 secs at anything more than 166FSB and memory in sync. The memory is supposed to have been tested on A7N8X mobos, it says so on both ASUS and Corsair websites. I have tried all sorts of timings, no use.
I am thinking of testing the same setup on a different mobo that supports Dual channel DDR at 400MHz. for more info, check the thread 'Help, Barton 2500+ not stable with prime95' or something like that.
I have read in other forums that lot of ppl are having problems with this mobo and hitting 200FSB.

The older revisions had trouble with 200FSB a lot of the time. I think the NF7 rev. 2 is the best.

 

[AMDBarton2500]

I think I have Rev2.

I'll be running stock settings whe doing these test.....I just want to see if Geil will be any good with this set up. Thats my main consern right now.