[g_raham]

Hello i've attached a report from Everest for the spec of the system i'm currently using. I built this system around December 2004 and to be honest i don't know an awful lot about components etc. Basically everything works fine and i've had no problems.

I'm thinking of changing a few components just to speed up the system a bit more. The thing that's bugging me the most about my system is the rate in which i can switch between programs and the fact that it takes a long time to load something after i've quit playing counterstrike or something. I'm guessing this has to do with the RAM? As you can see i'm running 512Mb SDRAM 3200 will i benefit from upgrading to Dual Ram instead? And upping it to 1Gb? I mean will i see the benefits of doing either of these?

Another thing is i'm using speedfan to detect the speed within my system (i know it's not entirely accurate) but it's showing my cpu at a temp of 60C just while i'm typing this... is this normal/ok? It's just got this little 'fire' sign next to it as if i need to be worried. I have fitted an approved AMD heatsink.

Ok another thing, i don't really know if this is the place to discuss it but.... overclocking. What is a 'safe' or i should probably say sensible speed i can overclock my processor? Will anyone be able to assist me in doing this?

That's about all the questions i have for now... It'd be great if people could get back to me and let me know what components i can change or tweak which would give me from my system. Thanks alot everyone!

G

Attached Files

•  Report.htm   295.77KB   31 downloads

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What do you want to change?

[OneCool]

What do you want to change?

[g_raham]

Whatever that will cost me the least or nothing, but will give me a better system...

[OneCool]

Your cpu temp of 60c is way high.

Go for the 1 gig of memory and look into a good aftermarket cpu cooler

[g_raham]

what should my cpu temp be?

[OneCool]

what should my cpu temp be?

Athlon XP 3200+ try to stay in the 55-57 range FULL 100% load

[audioboy]

the hsf (cpu cooler), did it come with a thermal pad or thermal paste to attach to the processor? if paste, how did you apply it?

I also wonder about case cooling. if there is not enough air movement, then the same air is getting recycled inside the PC, constantly getting warmer.

you will definitely get a performance boost from a gig of DDR ram. assuming your chip/board will support it, get a dual channel kit meaning 2 sticks of 512 sold together, to ensure they work together.
look up your mobo on the manufacturer website, find the list of approved RAM, and go with something they reccomend- usually kingston, corsair, OCZ, etc. it will cost a little more, but its worth it.

[g_raham]

I used a thermal pad... heated the heatsink surface with hairdryer then stuck the pad on and stuck it in the fridge till it cooled and took the sticky label off. Can you recommend a better heatsink and thermal pad/paste?

As for the air movement. I have one fan in the front pushing air in. Two side fans pushing air in and one fan at the back (top) taking air out. Temp inside around 30C (speedfan)

I just looked up the mobo and got this off their website:
'Dual Channel DDR400 memory architecture support
With the Dual Channel DDR400 memory architecture, this platform delivers high capacity of 3GB memory and high bandwidth up to 6.4GB/s to ensure greatest memory performance. '

[Ntd]

With the fans you should really have the same amount of air going in thats going out, eg 2 fans blowing air in and two fans blowing air out.

With the ram, DDR400 means PC3200 and i would recommened corsair.

Good luck.

[g_raham]

Hmm regarding the fans, i presume i should keep the fan in the front (air in) and back fan (air out) what should i do with the other two side fans? they're located near the bottom corner of the case blowing air onto the pci slots. I could get a exhaust which fits in a pci slot if this helps or reverse the air flow in the side fans?

Edited by g_raham, 05 June 2005 - 08:19 PM.

[g_raham]

I've attached a screenshot of speedfan... the heatsink fan is running at aroun 4800rpm which is actually correct... so i don't quite know why the heat isn't being removed from the processor

Attached Thumbnails

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[audioboy]

I agree with NTD you could use another exhaust fan. does your case have a space for an exhaust fan near the CPU? if so, try moving the front inlet fan to there, and turn it around for exhaust.

thermal pad should work OK, but it wouldnt hurt to try paste. artic silver 5 is usually recommended. remove the hsf, clean the cpu and the hsf contact points with alcohol (not booze!), then put a pea-sized drop on the cpu die and spread it evenly across the chip. too much can hurt as much as too little.
if you have any questions on that, post back and I will have someone who knows more about it than me answer.

[g_raham]

Unfortunately i don't have room for another exhaust fan near the cpu...

So if i replace the pad with the paste do you think it will reduce the temp considerably to the temp it should be at?

Thanks to everyone for your help so far aswell

[g_raham]

Can you's give me the ok on two product i have chosen....

paste
http://www.extremepc...=291046&eq=&Tp=

2 sticks of RAM
http://www.extremepc...=301521&eq=&Tp=

Thank you

[audioboy]

the links you posted arent working for some reason.
I have asked for help from another staffer who knows a great deal more about AMD chips than me. doby should be taking a look at this later, and he should be able to help with the temp issue.