Help With New Set up!

[JeSu]

Hey, this Saturday just gone I bought:

AMD Dual Core 3800+ Manchester

Asus A8N-SLi Premium

Asus Extreme N7800GT

Now this was expensive but my first new pc in some 5 years so well overdue!

I've noticed the good points of this mega buy but now I'm having some problems...

They seem to be related to playing games. I play CS/CSS/Q4/COD2/BF2 in all of these games the computer will randomly hang, meaning I need to restart it, its not happend much in CS but does all the time in the others, I can't play a game and exit normally, it lasts random amount of time but will eventually die on me :/

Another Problem I'm having is with the CPU, I'm using the Ai Booster that comes with it all, but If I try to put the MHz to over 250 and press apply the PC restarts and is still on 250, this is capable of 380 no?

One thing thats playing in the back of my mind is the fact I only have 512 memory, I will be hopefully increasing this tomorrow but I'm sceptical that will solve it all.

What I'm hoping I can get are any answers from people who have had similar/same probs as me.

Recomendations for drivers for my parts, and most of all, how to get my CPU up to atleast 350.

I am new to all this, so if anything I have said is a bit stupid pls dont abuse me for it, help me with it

Thanks in advance to anyone offering up some help, as you can imagine knowing this machine should pretty much destroy these games and not being able to is bloody annoying!

J

 

[Eguy]

Well the first problem is that you have a gaysus motherboard, but I assume your stuck with that so forget it.

Second, don't use AI Booster. Overclock in the BIOS if your going to do that.

Third, are you running the latest graphics drivers? The Premium seems not to like the 7 series

And fourth which I think is the problem, what kind of PSU do you have?

Try those options..

 

[FragTek]

What it sounds like is that you're pushing your OC too far with AiBooster as it is.

When you "put the mhz over 250" i'm assuming you're talking about the FSB? If this is the case depending on your memory and cpu being a good overclocker this may be a completely unstable overclock for you. What you need to do is start from the bottom (ie. 200mhz FSB) and slowly work yourself up in 10-15mhz increments until the system hangs then back it off 5-10mhz. If the system is windows stable after this then run a 32mb SuperPi just to test for beginnining stability. If you can pass this test then you need to start up Prime95 and let it run a large FFT torture test for 8+ hours to check for complete stability.

The amount of RAM you have more than likely isn't the factor holding back your overclock as much as the type / speed of the RAM you have. What exactly are you running for RAM? If you cheaped out in the RAM department you can kiss a good overclock goodbye.

I suggest you start with the basic overclocking guide so that you may grasp a bit more knowledge on overclocking before we go any further. This sounds like the reason your computer is locking up in games randomly. An OC pushed to the point of instability will bite ya in the ass every time.

Check out the A64 oc'ing guide here: http://www.sysxtreme.com/showthread.php?t=310

Cheers mate, post back with any more questions you might have!

Welcome to :anisx: by the way :wavey:

 

[JeSu]

Hey lads.

First off, I really am new to this, so if I get tedious with my constant "wtf"s and questions, pls bare with me and remember what its like to be clueless I've been put off 3 forums already since saturday cause my lack of knowledge led to me being abused

@Eguy:

The mobo came highly recomended to me, but yes, It's here to stay so I need to get the most out of it

I ventured into BIOS, and I actually found the right menu etc, I pumped up the CPU to 320 I think it was, it restarted as if i hand't and was back to 200 (yes I saved )

Only Drivers I've been able to find was the latest from the NVIDIA site (was ATI man before so this is a whole new ball park for me). As I understand it my diver is "81.98" if that makes sense?

My PSU isn't the best, but I forgot my card on sat so had to sacrefice it, I've had my eye on: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Hiper.html (all 3 are the same, diff colours) Would that be sutable?

@FragTek:

I've highlighted the MHz I was refering to on this pic: http://www.ispirit.co.uk/aibooster1.jpg

Having seen that, can you suggest why I can't get to 350ish? This is after all capable of 380 yes?

My Memory is 512 Corsair 400.

Im not to bothered about over clocking as such, just getting this machine to run at its best.

Thanks for the welcome and I hope you can help this noob

 

[bloodthirst]

if eguy is right about the psu, id look at a tagan range of psu's much stronger

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Tagan.html

 

[Raging]

a hiper psu is just fine,i own one myself and highly reccomend them.

and i would reccomend you to get one asap as cheap psu's are not good.

ai booster why? lol,overclock in the bios its the best way as said.

2gb of ram is sort of the standard these days as well mate.

cheers.

 

[JeSu]

As I said, im new to this, I assumed Ai Booster was best cause thats what came with it

Well I get 512mb of Corsair for £15 so I'll be upping that tomorrow

Will look for reviews on PSUs soon.

 

[Raging]

sorry if i sounded like i was having a go coz your new to this

btw you have the latest drivers mate

cheers.

 

[FarFarAway]

You need to follow Fragteks guide mate. Overclock carefully stage by stage and don't wade in at the deep end. A few MHz at a time testing all the way is what you should be doing. Do NOT use a program in windows to OC

The PSU is something you can't afford to skimp on as you need to have rock stable voltages for overclocking.

Read the guide thoroughrally, try that and come back to us when your done

 

[JeSu]

Aye I will.

Think it will be once I secure a PSU tho Wouldnt want to fry anything!

Its funny tho, after posting this thread BF2 played through for an hour or so, but still, I know this PC can go further without even being overclocked, I suppose I was just dreaming when I thought it would automatically run at 3.5GHz ish and rip my games to shit

 

[FarFarAway]

No 3800+ will run at 3.5GHz unless its super cooled by phase or liquid Nitrogen

 

[JeSu]

Give me a rough estimate of what I'm aiming at then

Told you I was clueless haha!

Getting more memory today, will probs order a psu too. Anyone else want to comment on Hiper or Tagan ones?

 

[FarFarAway]

Tagan are excellent. The Tagan SLi easyconn is a great PSU and is modular

I'd get a Tagan

Yeah if you have good cooling (not the stock heatsink) then you're certainly aiming at 2.5-8GHz

 

[Ham]

Probably a little late as youve said your goin to get more memory anyway, but my games used to die on me for no reason. All of them. I upgraded to 1GB (from 512) and now everything is fine. No annoying hangs, no restarting mthe pc just smooth play.

 

[FragTek]

Give me a rough estimate of what I'm aiming at then

Told you I was clueless haha!

Getting more memory today, will probs order a psu too. Anyone else want to comment on Hiper or Tagan ones?

You've already pushed the envelope of your OC with that RAM. As kemp stated no A64's can hit 3.5ghz unless theyre super cooled. I'd say 2.5ghz is pretty darn good for that setup and I'd be very pleased with that.

With a bit of RAM timing tweaking and voltage adjustment (depending on your hsf) you might be able to get 2.6 out of her. I also forgot to mention, don't OC in Windows as you don't have nearly the control of OC'ing in the BIOS and it's much easier to OC to a windows stable yet very unstable overall OC. The BIOS is an overclockers best friend

 

[JeSu]

Thanks lads, you see I assumed cause it was a 3800 that it would be easy to run it at 3.5

I've done some tests of the things that use to take forever with my old one, things like making clips in cs, rendering cs movies in vegas etc are SO MUCH FASTER. I'm well impressed. Just hoping this memory will sort my games out like it did for Ham. I read on BF2 that 512 is the absolute minimum to use so maybe that explains it.

I've installed 3 nvidia drivers, is it possible these could be conflicting?

 

[Tec]

It is possible regarding the drivers. I myself never had any problems with my nvidia setup , i used to just install drivers on top of each other. But in these problematic situations it will be good to clean drivers then installing one driver to make sure its not driver related.

+3800 is all about AMD marketing and usually means performance level rather then actual speed of the c.p.u itself. I ll post a small tutorial if you want to know how to properly uninstall / clean old drivers.

As for BF2 yes its a mem hungry game

 

[JeSu]

If you wouldnt mind posting that tutorial mate would be a great help.

Just got 2x 512 Kingston 400 for £16 each

Will bang them bad boys in and hope thats the game hangs etc sorted.

 

[Ham]

Jesus where'd you get them so cheap?

 

[JeSu]

I've bought most of my parts for last 2 PCs from same place so they know me pretty well, when I went to their stall at the local computer stall on saturday and spent £600. He said hed give us a stick of mem for £16 but we didnt have the cash and he cant do discount on cards so he said drop by the shop with this note.

Anyway, today I went, the lad in the shop took this note to be £16 each not just for 1 so he sold us 2 @ £16

Foolish Foolish Man.