I have just built a new PC. Here are it's specs. Athlon XP 3000+ with Barton core and 333 mhz FSB ASUS A7N8X Deluxe motherboard 512 MB 333mhz Patriot DDR Ram (1 stick) GeForce FX 5700 Ultra Graphics Card 80 gigabyte western digital 7200 rpm hard drive 52x32x52 speed CDRW drive 5x case fans, 3 of them cooler masters (boo yah!) What I want to know is what I should do to this brand new PC to boost its performance. I would really appreciate your input. Thanks!
Overclock the cpu and graphics card, and add another stick of ram to enable dual channel mode... With the ram you have, multiplier may be the only way to overclock the CPU (Unless its mdae after week 41 in which case you cant even do that) Install/enable coolbits for the nvidia drivers or download rivatuner and oveclock the GFX card a little... the 5700's clock fairly well, but it depends on the brand...
definately not worth bothering with dual channel and i highly doubt 1gb of ram is needed anyway. Overclocking really wont give u any 'real world' noticeable difference in performance but if u r just looking to boost your 3dmark score then overclocking your gfx card will give you the easiest results.
Thanks all! You are right. I really dont need to oc this PC-its extremely powerful already, and more than meets my needs. What I still want to know though, is what features should I add to "pimp it out"? I do not have any real special hardware inside. Hell, I dont even have a fan controller! What pieces of (affordable) equipment should I add to make it cooler?
RotoSequence, I'm assuming you have a 2500Barton. Better ram is the way to go. Get good stuff though like Kingston HyperX pc 3200 for instance. Raising the FSB is the meat and potatoes of overclocking which will give you quite a noticable increase in speed, core speed increases in the CPU is the gravy, increases here aren't quite so noticable. Just make sure you get good cooling for your CPU like a Thermalright or a Zalman, these are quite big though so make sure they will fit your mobo. With your cpu and mobo you shouldn't have too much trouble getting 200MHz FSB if you get better RAM, with ABit mobo's ive seen people get as much as 220MHz FSBs and higher using air cooling on a 2500Barton. If you're going to get new ram, you could look into getting matched pairs for not much more money (high-end memory is expensive enough) so you can make use of the dual channel memory controller, you dont need to use matched pairs but it will give you a more stable overclock. Also using dual channel RAM doesn't give much of an increase but every little bit helps and why the heck not if you're gonna buy new ram anyway..
I think that we've already established that he's not aiming to overclock and throwing more money at RAM really isn't going to be much use for him. You said you have 5 case fans so your idea of getting a fan controller seems like a good one! i'm sure that thing sounds like a bit of a monster. You could go for some simple aesetic changes like adding rounded IDE or SATA cables for that extra bling. Have you got a window in your case? A cold cathode is a worthy addition to any windowed case but if you have then it's time to get the out. hehe
If you have the money you could get a WD Raptor. Thats whats going to give you the most obvious speed boost.
Well he did originally ask what he should do to boost its performance. But if hes not aiming to O/C then 5 case fans is way too much, unless he likes the sound. In my two comps at my office (both are 2100TBredB) i have one O/C to 166x13 with no case fans...PSU has 2 fans, and max temps have been 38°C on the cpu and 35°C on the mobo. the other one has one fan (80mm generic), and max temps there is 28°C. I guess the point is that all those fans aren't necessary.
Your right that that amount fo fans probably isn't needed. But your temps are very wrong. Even with a very high performance water cooling setup your unlikely to have the CPU temp 3C above ambient, whihc seems too high as well. And I doubt the other one is really at 28C. Motherboard temp sensors are never accurate so should always be taken with a pinch of salt.
It's simple mate - you're not into overclocking it, so don't listen to these guys. Get a nice case, a Western Digital 74GB Raptor and make sure it sounds nice (a nice low-pitch or something, not too loud) and it'll just ooze quality when you play games and run 3D Mark etc; you don't need a case window or a cold cathode, or a dozen blowholes, or a really bling fan controller that wakes you up with a cooked breakfast every morning, it's all about what it really is...
Thank you all for giving me these suggestions They are really helpful! Just a few things I would like to point out... 1. The CPU is not overclocked. AT ALL. It is a stock AMD 3000+ (we all know that its a barton) 2. I am considering OCing this PC. Thats part of the reason for the five fans. 3. 3 words: Ambient Room Temperature. My house becomes an oven in the summer, and air circulation becomes critical when the room starts reaching 90 degrees+ 4. I am using ASUS PC Probe that came with my A7N8X Deluxe. The CPU and motherboard temperatures provided are 38 for the CPU (Celcius) and 32 for the motherboard. I dont know how accurate this program is, so word on that would be helpful! 5. My case came with a really nice pre-modded acrylic window, so I dont need to cut any holes into its side. I am planning on purchasing a decent fan controller ASAP. I am a little low on funds right now-a slight problem. I would really appreciate word on what a good, nice looking and reliable (and not too expensive) type would be! Also, How exactly do you install cold cathodes? As far as I can tell, you would need special mounting hardware, and would need to drill a hole into your PC's case. A little advice on how to do this stuff would REALLY be appreaciated! I probably should purchase some PC 3200 400 MHZ DDR RAM in 512 MB quantities. The OCing capability that these add are critical for anyone who wants to boost pc performance. Also, is the 3000+ very OC able? and how much more so can I boost its performance? What steps do I take to make the thing overclock and where do I go to do these things? I really need to know what to use. Finally, when it comes to CPU cooling, I was considering using something like a "Jet fan" cooler. I dont know what exactly they are called, but they are the coolers that have a fan on top of a heatsink, sucking in air from the front of your case and blowing it out back. How reliable are these? Should I get one? And which one should I get? Your input is indespensible, and I thank you for your effort! Now all I need to do is learn how to use a dremel and get one...
aria.co.uk have some cool 3.5" bay fancontrollers, silver fronted, nice little knobs with blue rings around them. A friend of mine got some for around a tenner each i think. A "ufo" mod: some kind of light source coming from the underside of the case, i used to have a green cathode placed under my case, it looked cool. or the blue led case feet from coolercases.co.uk what case do you have? what colour is it? consider spraying the drive bezels (properly), or fitting the coolermaster bezels. you could buy an ups (uninteruptable power supply). maxtrix orbital lcd/vfd, check out the lcdc software before buying though. white power and hdd led's (like mine ) an etch on the window, or window tinting film from a car shop, check out project macro black on this site, it rules! edit: to fit cathodes just stick them on, the akasa and sunbeam ones come with sticky pads i think, they come with an inverter which connects to the cathode and to a molex connector to power the tube. to be a bit different consider a neon tube instead of a cathode, the colurs are stronger and the brightness isnt overpowering like cathodes.
