Ok, my brother has an HP a1710n. Which I updated his power supply to a Rosewill 550 Watt. Updated his Graphics to an HD3870 512 PCI-E. I tried to upgrade his ram, which is PC4200 533 Mhz. There is 2 sticks of factory 512 MB memory. I purchased 2 Gigs of Kingston Ram to upgrade with. Which is also PC4200 533mhz. If I put all 3 gigs in the system doesnt boot to OS.. Which is Vista Home. But it does boot into the BIOS which is does see the ram. I've tried booting into safe mode and everything loads, but then it freezes. I'm at a loss. He also claims his graphics.. rather FPS aren't all that they should be. I know the processor isn't the fastest.. And I think its bottlenecking the video card. I think the motherboard is defective in some way... Reason being it acts short of sluggish doing anything. I have a simular system and don't have these problems. I was thinking of Buying a new Motherboard and processor to upgrade his system more. Thing is I'm not sure what to motherboard to get. I'd like to update him to an AMD 6400+. I'm also unsure of how to do this since HP doesnt give program disks. Only the "Restore Disks". Do I have to have the OS disk to update the Motherboard and Processor? I need someone smarter than me Specs AMD 4200+ Windows Vista Home HD 3870 512 320 Gig Western Digital HD 550 PSU
try with only 2GB in. more RAM = more stress on memory controller also Rosewell and PSUs... it's a ----ty combination you're probably better off with the lowend stock PSU that came with the computer, just letting you know. and for the record no need to install the OS again for a CPU or memory change, but usually for a board swap it's a must.
2 gigs works fine, If I take the factory ram out. Weird.. Anyways what would you recommend for a psu? The stock 300 watt didnt seem to want to run the card. Also, i'm wondering if the crappy Motherboard would handle the 6400. He has been looking at a new computer from Dell. I know its cheaper to build your own, but it has a payment plan. What do you think of Dell? This is what he e-mailed me. "With this discount coupon the price is $600.00 Shipped". Something to look into or just update the processor in the old one? he's unsure on what to do and so am I obviously. It's frustrating. He buys a new card expecting to get good fps and is dissapointed. I was thinking of telling him just to buy the Dell. The processor alone is around $250.00. Take that into consideration and that is about half the price of the system. And I think Dell actually gives you the OS disk unlike lame HP. PROCESSOR Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 (8MB L2 cache,2.4GHz,1066FSB) OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition MEMORY 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs HARD DRIVE 320GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache OPTICAL DRIVE 16x DVD+/-RW Drive FLOPPY & MEDIA READER Dell 19 in 1 Media Card Reader IEEE 1394a Adapter
Is the computer configured for duel channel? If so make sure that you don't mix the factory and new ram. Edit: I just noticed that you're thinking of going with dell, personally I would advise against it. I haven't purchased a computer from dell since the Dimension 4600 series so they could have changed but there support is outsourced ----, and the upgrade options are terrible if you don't want to buy from them directly.
I'm at a stand still. On one hand I dont want him to buy the processor and still not have the proformance that he wants. Maybe it's something else holding back his GPU, I dont know. He had a 7900GT installed and he isn't getting anymore fps in games with the 3870. I think his 3dmark06 score was 7400 or so. So I figured I would update the PSU and Ram... since it was cheaper than the processor.. But it's still the same. Only thing left is the processor and motherboard. On the other hand he can buy a pc that really isnt that expensive. I also checked to make sure his pci-e was set in the bios and used cpu-z to make sure it was @ x16. I also set all his settings with the ATI control panel to proformance. Considering the processer is about $175.00 and a good cpu cooler for about $50.00. Might as well double it and get a new pc?
I have a DELL dimension9200 , with a few extra on it . A bit custom build in a way . And i love it and it runs really good. Dr!ver.
that's because the 3870 isn't THAT much more powerful of a card unless you start jacking the settings up a fair bit more. that said also screw updating the CPU, CPU performance doesn't matter that much except in RTSes. a core 2 duo at 1.86GHz(on par with the 4200) will get roughly the same FPS as a c2d @ 3GHz. http://www.benchzone.com/page.php?al=8800G...caling&pg=8 take a look. and let's not forget nVidia's claim that CPU performance doesn't' matter a ton http://bp1.blogger.com/_sQn4NnL59dw/R9mOlu...00/pcbudget.jpg http://bp3.blogger.com/_sQn4NnL59dw/R9mOuO...0/pcbudget2.jpg admidtedly the source up there is a bit biased but... there is some truth. what game are you struggling in? the most demanding game on the market is crysis and the 3870 walks circles around it in that. sup com is a bit of a CPU guzzler I'd say though. if you absolutely need a new CPU/board though... stay with your current CPU, overclock the sucker to new speeds. depends on the revision of athlon x2 it is(I'm assuming it's AM2 based it's relatively new and scales better if it's 939 chances are you're SOL in this regard) just overclock the sucker. you'de have been going to throw it away regardless might as well push it to near it's limits. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813138059 or go the crazed intel route... a core 2 duo(Pdc is similar just less cache, roughly 5-15% slower than c2d in games) clock that sucker to 3Ghz http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819116036 http://www.newegg.com/Produ going into BIOS, going to hardware settings and setting the FSB to 333 and maybe bumping the cpu voltage up a tad if necessary. Could even be done with the POS stock cooler or so I hear.
Well, like me he plays Team Fortress 2 and Counter - Stirke Source. I get around 60 - 125 in TF2 with my 3870 1024x768 all high settings. He claims he gets 15 - 40. Thats with playing @ 800x600 with all the settings down. We get about roughly the same in CS:S as TF2. Pretty much the only difference in our systems in he has the 4200. I have the 4400. I personally tried the 8800GT with my system and it ran horrid. No more than 80 fps in any game. Thats why I switched to ATI. I'm unsure what to do. I was thinking the faster the processor the more he might get out of his card. Since source games seems to be cpu hogs. I probably should tell him to just wait and save his money. But like most of us we want more power. I had him check his video cards speeds and they are as follows. 776mhz GPU 1126mhz Memory Clock temp was 40 C.
there's something not right there. I had a newcastle Athlon 64 3000+(2.0Gghz but less efficient per clock and ona slwoer bus with single channel RAM) and I never had that low of frames even with a 9250 and 412mb RAM. sure as heck didn't have that with a 7800GT and 2GB RAM with the same CPU. also tested with a 1.6Ghz Celeron in source with my 8800GTS, frames were fine. not as high as with my c2d but still tolerable. what's he in a 2000 man server? I'm thinking his issue is software related. reinstall windows. also the 8800GT512mb SHOULD be faster than the 3870s FYI. not by a ton but still faster. also why such low resolutions? those cards SHOULD be able to handle the game fine at a fair deal higher res. 3870 is faster than xenos and RSX and the xbox 360 and PS3 have no issues at 720p/1080p.
I know the 8800 should be faster We both have PC issues, but i'm fine with mine. I thought upgrading them things would help him. Because something didnt seem right. All he has is them lame HP restore disks that he had to create. I had him run 3dmark06 & VirtualMark. Just for ----s and giggles. I personally would like to see him move away from the bug ridden HP. Score 7609 3DMarks Date Mar 19, 2008 21:16 CDT OS Microsoft Windows Vista CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Processor clock 2164 MHz CPU Speed 2205 MHz Memory 3072 MB Motherboard manufacturer ASUSTek Computer INC. Motherboard model NODUSM3 Multicore 2 Processor Cores FSB 200 MHz Graphics card ATI Radeon HD3870 Graphics card vendor ATI Technologies Graphics memory 512 MB Core clock 388.0 MHz Memory clock 564.0 MHz Driver name ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series Driver version 8.471.0.0 He also stated during the CPU test. It went frame by frame. It barley moved. I told him thats normal for lower end cpus. I also had him check his Card temp and he said it was 57 C.
that's normal for higher end CPUs as well. just letting you know I get like 1FPs a second if event that.
Thank you for the help xlink. Soon as the day period is over i'll rep you again. Against my better judgement hes buying a new motherboard and processor. He has promo codes from Newegg. He also has an Xp --- OS disk he didnt tell me about. That was on his old PC. Even tho his current OS is Vista. He can use the XP for his new motherboard right? And just format the HD? ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard $129.99 AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 125W Dual-Core Processor $149.99 with code OR AMD Phenom 9600 Agena 2.3GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 2MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 95W Quad-Core Processor $189.99 with code will either of these be better than the setup he has? i'm about ready to disown him.
the athlon would be faster in pretty much every game. phenom is a flop. and I'll be blunt I'm intel biased now. I went for the equivillent of an x2 5600+(opteron 165 @ 2.8Ghz) to a c2d @ 3.6Ghz... nice 70% gain right there. at this point I don't see why anyone would buy a $150+ CPU from AMD when you can get a $60 intel board and a $70 CPU and get a moderate amount more performance for less cash. still think the wisest choice is to reistall your OS first since that's free and your CPU should probably be fine in full seriousness. My old opteron 165(think athlon x2 but with more cache) didn't even break a sweat while doing CSS at any clock speed. i mean your numbers are out of line. Assuming the CPU is the bottleneck 100%, then that's way off. As for what I think of dell... they have the highest failure rate in the industry. All I'm saying. FYI q6600s are worth around $200 now, not 250, and quads don't really do much over dual core CPUs in games. THe exception being supreme commander, but even in that resource hog a high clocked dual core CPU does fine
I can suggest Intel. Like you hes kind of bias.. but torward AMD. What would you recommend for a processor and motherboard? I personally like the looks of the E8400. Just something that will whopp the crap out of the 6400 without overclocking. He doesnt have the cooling or the space availible for it. He only has one 120mm case fan in the rear for exhaust.
