PC tech questions/opinions

[Billy.]

*UPDATE* PC tech questions/opinions

I'm in the process of rebuilding my desktop. Everything on it dates to 2006 with exception of the power supply and graphics card.

What i've got:

• Tower - Dell e500 series (large case with good cooling)
• Chipset - G965 Broadwater; 500, 800, 1066mhz clock, 65nm support, up go 8gb DDR2 memory on 4 dimms of 500, 667, 800mhz, 1x PCIe 16, 4x PCIe 4, 1x PCIe 1
• Southbridge - 82801HH 500,800,1066 mhz
• Form - Socket T LGA 775
• CPU - Pentium D 805 2-core Smithfield 90nm, 2.66ghz clock, 533mhz bus, 2mb L2
• Memory - 2x 1gb ddr2 533mhz PC2-4200 SDRAM
• Graphics - ATI Radeon x1600 Pro, 512mb, ~500mhz clock, PCIe 16
• Audio - Integrated 5.1on the board
• Power - Dynex 400w
• Hard memory - Western 320gb 5200rpm, SATA
• Screen - 23" Samsung LCD 720p, native 1920x1080

What I've bought (in transit):

• CPU -Intel Core 2 Duo 3.06GHz Wolfdale E8400, 1333mhz bus, 6mb L2, 45nm tech, for LGA 775 sockets
• Memory - G.Skill 4x 1gb DDR2 800mhz PC2-6400 SDRAM with heat sinks
• Power - Rosewill ATX 600w 12v
• Graphics - Zotac GeForce 9500 GT 1gb GDDR2, 800mhz clock, for PCIx 16 2.0

So you can see the current setup is pretty outdated. I use the system mainly for web browsing, but also for gaming on a single monitor. I used to stay up to date with games when they hit the shelves, but now my comp cant keep up with the demand requirements so I stick to old school games. Most games i was able to run 1440x900 res until about 2008, and its just gone downhill since.

1. Question about the memory: the chipset supports 8gb of 667mhz ram, or 4gb of 800mhz ram, which is better for gaming? I bought the 800 thinking that would be best, but that ram is cheap and i can replace it if needed.
   
2. Question about the graphics: Can a chipset that supports DDR2 memory still support a graphics card that uses DDR3 memory? Or does it have to stay consistent?
   
3. Question about CPU: Will it be necessary to underclock the processor after its installed to match the 1066mhz max capabilites of the chipset? The ram is max at 800mhz, so would i need to even underclock to 800??? Or does it not matter to underclock it because the engine will only work as well as the fuel you put into it? (nice metaphore huh?)
   
4. Obviously with the new parts i purchased i plan on reusing the dell tower, and chipset. The cpu is overkill because later down the road i may replace the mobo to match the cpu capabilities. Same with the 600w power supply. Do you think this will be a good setup? Anything you would change?

 

[Billy.]

No help? I know there's some pc techies in here...

 

[Mr. Jollypants]

1. You'll get a performance gain on the 800mhz ram. Will it noticeable? Probably not, depending on what you'll be doing.
2. You'll be fine. The memory on the GPU is separate from the motherboard. Don't worry about it.
3. No need to overclock, if you want to overclock, get an aftermarket cooler, other than that, no, no need for overclocking.
4. Only thing I would take a look at, is the monitor. It says it's 720p, but the resolution is 1980x1080, which is 1080p. I would've maybe gone for a name brand power supply.

 

[Billy.]

1. You'll get a performance gain on the 800mhz ram. Will it noticeable? Probably not, depending on what you'll be doing.
2. You'll be fine. The memory on the GPU is separate from the motherboard. Don't worry about it.
3. No need to overclock, if you want to overclock, get an aftermarket cooler, other than that, no, no need for overclocking.
4. Only thing I would take a look at, is the monitor. It says it's 720p, but the resolution is 1980x1080, which is 1080p. I would've maybe gone for a name brand power supply.

1) sweet. the most memory intensive thing will be games with large worlds and maps. i'd like to max out the details and objects on the screen if i can at a decent frame rate
2) that's what i thought, but i played it safe and went with a card that was DDR2. oh well. down the road i'll know better and get something newer
3) not overclock, underclock. slow the cpu down to the speed of the ram and mobo. i'm assuming its not necessary, but would it at least help cooling?
4) it doesnt say 720p, i assumed 720. max res is 2560x1600. rosewill is not a namebrand? or you mean dynex (from best buy). the rosewill had good ratings on newegg so i went with that

thanks for the input

 

[Mr. Jollypants]

1) Games with large world and maps, you want bigger memory on the video card. This allows for more storage, and better draw distance (How far before the game starts to insert objects into the world). With that setup, you'll be able to do medium-high settings, I doubt you'll max most modern games with that video card.

2) It was an older card, make it one of the first things to upgrade, and make it soon. Video cards are already into GDDR5 mainstream (GDDR6 is on the market but not as much market share)

3) No. Let it run stock.

4) Rosewill is NewEggs house brand. Dynex can suck my d**k, what a joke of a brand. Corsair, CoolerMaster, Enermax, Antec are all great and high class brands, these, you get what you pay for.

5) The monitor can handle upto 2560x1600, but the image is being compressed to fit on a 1920x1080 resolution.

6) That power supply is over kill, a 450W would've been perfect. You system, at peak, should only be using 250W.

To be honest, I'm not sure your video card will be able to play modern games, at a high level. On games like Mass Effect, on high, it was averaging ~22FPS at a low resolution, and ~15FPS at 1920x1080.Crysis with the card, at medium, is unplayable.

 

[dj_hallucn8]

The motherboard in that Dell may max out at 4 gb of ddr2 but that is plenty, gddr3 1.5 gb or higher will play just about anything at max settings, I hope that processor you got can be used with that motherboard, the sockets are the same but the board may not be able to handle the fsb the processor produces, hope it all works out.

 

[Mr. Jollypants]

The motherboard in that Dell may max out at 4 gb of ddr2 but that is plenty, gddr3 1.5 gb or higher will play just about anything at max settings, I hope that processor you got can be used with that motherboard, the sockets are the same but the board may not be able to handle the fsb the processor produces, hope it all works out.

Oh, what people who have no idea what they are talking about will say

 

[dj_hallucn8]

Oh, what people who have no idea what they are talking about will say

Umm ok, so first off, I'm Microsoft certified & have my own business repairing computers, I'm also a technet subscriber, so I don't know what I'm talking about, hint the sarcasm? I did some research on his model Dell E500 & it doesn't exist, i need the real model number or service tag to get the correct specs for it if Billy could provide that, if I remember correctly the fsb for the processor is limited to 1066, the new processor has a fsb of 1333, it may or may not work, a bios upgrade may make it possible.

 

[Mr. Jollypants]

Umm ok, so first off, I'm Microsoft certified & have my own business repairing computers, I'm also a technet subscriber, so I don't know what I'm talking about, hint the sarcasm? I did some research on his model Dell E500 & it doesn't exist, i need the real model number or service tag to get the correct specs for it if Billy could provide that, if I remember correctly the fsb for the processor is limited to 1066, the new processor has a fsb of 1333, it may or may not work, a bios upgrade may make it possible.

Microsoft Certified, wow, congrats. What about Cisco certs? CompTIA?

You claim your a Technet subscriber, awesome. So, you get access to learning materials, and evaluation software.

I run my own business building custom workstation, high performance gaming computers, and medical computers.

But, besides that, let's break down what you said.

The motherboard in that Dell may max out at 4 gb of ddr2 but that is plenty, gddr3 1.5 gb or higher will play just about anything at max settings, I hope that processor you got can be used with that motherboard, the sockets are the same but the board may not be able to handle the fsb the processor produces, hope it all works out.

You said:

The motherboard in that Dell may max out at 4 gb of ddr2 but that is plenty

That motherboard maxes out at 8GB. Not 4GB, that you claim, here:

may max out at 4 gb

You also claim, that 1.5GDDR3 will play just about anything at max settings.

gddr3 1.5 gb or higher will play just about anything at max settings

This leads me to believe you know absolutely nothing about what your talking about, when you claim that memory allows a video card to play certain settings, not the actual processing power. The memory size allows bigger textures to be loaded into the memory, but this makes no difference if the processor cannot keep up. Again, showing amateurish comments, because you'd know that manufacturers put big memory onto low end video cards (Like Billy's) for attractiveness, not actual performance. The ONLY difference when a customer will see performance gains with larger memory on the video card is at high resolutions (1920x1080 and above).

I hope that processor you got can be used with that motherboard

5 seconds of searching and I found what CPUs the chipset works with (G965 is the chipset, Broadwater is the code name).

the sockets are the same but the board may not be able to handle the fsb the processor produces

The processor runs at what the motherboard supports, the CPU will not be running at it's peak performance, but it WILL run. Exact same thing happens with memory, you can install memory that is faster than the motherboard supports (As long as it's the same socket/slot), the memory only runs at what the motherboard supports.

Hope you learned something today.

 

[dj_hallucn8]

What ever man, you f**king win, he wanted info so I thought I was helping but you seem to have it all under control.

 

[Mr. Jollypants]

What ever man, you f***ing win, he wanted info so I thought I was helping but you seem to have it all under control.

Damn straight I do

 

[JiuJitsu_greg]

Sounds like a big mess.

 

[253eg]

Nah. One dude was all up in here waving his big internet penis around. Another dude thought his was bigger and they had a contest to see who's internet penis was the biggest. Someone always gets butt hurt in the end.

 

[Mr. Jollypants]

Nah. One dude was all up in here waving his big internet penis around. Another dude thought his was bigger and they had a contest to see who's internet penis was the biggest. Someone always gets butt hurt in the end.

Oh right, and the guy who constantly tries to grow his internet penis comes in and tries to act like he doesn't.

 

[253eg]

No way man, mine already big enough for myself

 

[Billy.]

wow. didnt intend for anyone to have a pissing contest or anything. thanks everyone for their input again, even if not everyone agreed, it still helps me in my homework and research.


update:
so in the process of updating drivers and software, i downloaded a little tool called ATI OVERDRIVER. well, when i rebooted my comp it freaking crashed like a b***h, windows blue screen style

after 2 days of trying to run it in safe mode, which continued to fail, and trying to boot from backup disk, i was finally able to find the stupid driver that was causing the error. i had to install windows onto my slave drive, boot from it, go into my primary drive, delete ATI OVERDRIVE and the drivers, and reboot from the primary drive. voila!

i will be installing my new hardware today and doing some updates again


i believe i will need to update the bios. currently its 1.0.2.22. can anyone give me some pointers... this is uncharted territory

 

[Billy.]

oh yeah. and so unfortunately my latest research shows that the CPU that i bought will NOT work with my chipset (p965). that really sucks, now i have to get rid of this one and find one that will work

anyone need an e8400?

im now looking at the core 2 extreme x6800. factory unlocked, 2.93ghz. 1066fsb, 4mb L2, which will work with p965. any other recommendations?

oh yeah, and to DJ, it's a E520 dell. btx case

 

[dj_hallucn8]

oh yeah. and so unfortunately my latest research shows that the CPU that i bought will NOT work with my chipset (p965). that really sucks, now i have to get rid of this one and find one that will work

anyone need an e8400?

im now looking at the core 2 extreme x6800. factory unlocked, 2.93ghz. 1066fsb, 4mb L2, which will work with p965. any other recommendations?

oh yeah, and to DJ, it's a E520 dell. btx case

I'm almost afraid to say anything because jollypants will whip out his Internet d**k again, bios update can be downloaded from the Dell website in the same place you get drivers for your model, it should be a file you can run while in your OS, make sure to not run any other software while performing the update, it will reboot when it's done, & I was right about the processor not being compatible, after looking up your model the chip you are looking at would work great, sorry that your thread got jacked for some bullshit.

 

[Billy.]

yep found the bios update, as well as several others i didnt know about, including some urgent ones like for the chipset. after i installed the new ram sticks, the old bios and cpu-z are reading it as 533mhz ram, which is concerning because its 800mhz. im hoping when the computer boots back up from this update it will register correctly. next is the graphics card...

 

[Billy.]

thinking outloud... would the bios read the new ram as 533mhz because the old pentium 533mhz processor is still installed? thus limiting the system to 533...?