New Rig - WIP

[biff]

Keep an eye on the NB temps. With such a little heatsink not getting the airflow from the stock C2D cooler it might get a little toasty.

[misterlarry]

Alas, work has reared its ugly yet inevitable head again and I've been away for a few days. I'm still waiting on my new XP Pro 64 OS. I've been upgrading since my very first version of Windows, and I'm just not prepared to go through loading every version (that's if I could find all the discs) to get up and running with the new rig.

I'm also thinking of doing a dual boot with Linux. I'll check the Linux thread to see if I can determine which is the best one to go with. I've partitioned my boot drive to 300 GB for XP and 200 GB for Linux. Just waiting for my delivery now.

[omgwtf]

Mmm, i love seeing that Ups/Purolator truck driving by my building, love that smell of unpacking the parts..can't wait for my next rig...

[misterlarry]

Well I just couldn't wait for Purolator, so I finally got XP Pro 32 loaded on. Imagine my surprise when I found all the OS files on D:\ instead of C:\.



It doesn't really matter I suppose as everything will be wiped when I install XP Pro 64 (I think).

The Bios is currently F7 and my mobo revision is 2.0. The computer info shown by Gigabyte's info program is way off - showing the cpu as a P3 and only 2 GB of ram. CPUZ correctly ID's the cpu and shows 4 GB of ram, but as DDR2 6400, instead of 8500. CPUZ also shows the E8400 as using a multiplier of 6 @ 2.0 GHz and occasionally jumps to a multi 9 @ 3.0 GHz.

Right now, I'm more dazed than confused. So back to the drawing board, and of course any help provided is, as always, greatly appreciated. If I can provide more info, just point me in the right direction. Thanks.

:help:

[Cardboard box with DSL]

The jumping is because Speed Step is enabled in the BIOS, all it does is lower your clockspeed (and heat) when your computer is idle.
As for the Ram, thats probably a BIOS setting as well, I bet your ram speed is currently set to auto instead of 1066mhz which it should be at.

[misterlarry]

Flashed Bios to F8b using @bios, no problems so far at all. Set memory multi from Auto to 3.20 and CPUZ still ID's memory as 6400.

Haven't found the "speed step" feature yet in bios. Where should I look?

Right now, I have 2 x 500 GB (showing 470 max) Barracudas, and as I said my sys files are currently installed on D:\. When my new OS shows up, I'm thinking that I should be able to just install it on C:\ without any glitches (am I naive, or what?). I expect it will be a few days before the OS shows up, so I would like to play around a little bit.

[misterlarry]

Here's my starting point. I'll do this over again once I install XP Pro 64. Just wanted to see where it sat. This mobo will not recognize the Crucial Ballistix as DDR2 8500. Some programs show 4 physical GBs of ram and others show 2 GBs. Even CrystalMark showed 4 GBs on one pane and 2 GBs on another, and the wrong speed also. I might take sswilson's advice and cut it back to 2 sticks when I start benching in earnest; just to see what it shows and try to get it as stable as possible.

[sswilson]

This mobo will not recognize the Crucial Ballistix as DDR2 8500

That's normal. There is no such thing as PC2 1066 in the spec. It's all "overclocked" memory. You need to set the ram speed manually.

[SugarJ]

Originally Posted by misterlarry

Flashed Bios to F8b using @bios, no problems so far at all. Set memory multi from Auto to 3.20 and CPUZ still ID's memory as 6400.

Haven't found the "speed step" feature yet in bios. Where should I look?

Most memory manufacturers now set the SPD to report lower timings/speeds so their memory will work with more boards at standard voltage (1.8v). Use Ctrl-F1 to get into the advanced bios to set your timings and memory voltage(probably +.3 or .4).

Speed step - EIST (enhanced intel speedstep technology)

[low351]

Nice Misterlarry, color me Green with envy.

I second the comment on the thermal paste, the idea is to use as little as possible, you ideally want metal on metal contact with the past filling only the minute gaps. If your temps are okay though I wouldn't bother redoing it all.