17 replies to this topic

[shane_vt87]

Hey all, Ive just built my first PC and id just like to get a few oppinions on the hardware ive used. CPU- Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Motherboard- Gigabyte X48-DS4 RAM- 4Gb DDR2 Corsaire dominator PC8500- 1066MHz Video Card- Sapphire Radeon 4870X2 2GB DDR5 PSU- Antec TruePower Quatro 850W Case- Antec 1200 HDD-750 Samsung 7200rpm sata Monitor- 24"Wide Acer OS- Windows XP 64bit Also coould any1 recommend the best version of ATI catalyst to use at the moment. I tried 8.8 but it had major stability issues with vista 64 bit and caused me a lot of trouble. Ive since gone back to Windows XP 64bit and am using Catalyst 8.5 which came with the video card. Should i stick with my XP 64?? or go back to vista 64??? Thanks every1

Edited by shane_vt87, 08 October 2008 - 03:41 AM.

[Troy]

Hi Shane,

I would go with Vista x64, myself. That system looks like a screamer, once you get your driver issues sorted, you should be getting great performance from it.

It looks like Catalyst 8.9 is now out, here's the link to Vista x64 drivers.

Have you tried installing the display driver only? The whole catalyst suite?

Cheers

Troy

[shane_vt87]

Thanks alot for your post Troy. At the moment im running Xp 64 on the machine. The ATI catalyst still doesnt run proporly, but atleast i can play games. On Vista 64 when ATI catalyst closed i couldnt open any games or programs and I would get MASSIVE system lag!! I know im not getting maximum performance out of this hardware yet, still trying to work the kinks out,...not too bad for a first build though. No i havnt tried just installing the video/display driver, ill try that. You may be able to answer this question for me: As i stated b4, the CPU i have is an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550. But both windows XP and Vista dont recognise the processor. Windows XP recognises it as an "Intel Pentium Xeon Processor 2.83GHz" and in Vista it shows as "Unknown Device" in the device manager. Is this normal?? Is there a driver that ive fforgotten to install???? I installed the Intel Processor ID tool but it tells me that my processor was released after the software so the software cant detect it.... This problem really has me stumped....havnt been able to find anything in the forums about this... SO yeh, i dont think that wondows is using the hardware to its capability at the moment, if any1 has any ideas, plase post them, all input is greatly appreciated . P.S.- Im NOT HAPPY that you cant run Crysis on "Very high" on XP!!! (i was running Crysis on Very High while Vista was installed, looked amazing......when i could the catalyst suite to work...)

Edited by shane_vt87, 10 October 2008 - 03:37 PM.

[Tokamak]

Ive included a link to a recent test of some crossfired 4850s, published on Thursday (9th Oct). They seemed happy with 8.8 (admittedly its not crossfire in the same sense as an X2 board.)

The thing that springs immediately to mind if you are suspicious of your cpu is the motherboard bios. Did you use the one that it shipped with or did you grab a recent one from here?

Oh, and did you OC the quad? Does is recognise it as the right cpu in the bios / POST text?

Just in case (apologies if Im teaching my grandmother to suck eggs here) here is a tutorial to flashing bios on this kind of gigbyte board.

[shane_vt87]

Thanks for your reply Tokamac, Yeh the first thing I did when i noticed Windows not detecting the CPU proporly was flash the mobo bios with the latest version from the gigabtye website, didnt change anything. But other than that, YES the mobo is detecting the right CPU, the multiplier/clockspeed are all correct. Thats why i am stumped...ive never dealt with a QuadCore before, like many people out there this is all a learning curve for me. The catalyst version im using at the moment is 8.5 (came with the GPU). Trust me, it HATES WINDOWS VISTA 64!! It still isnt perfect on XP64, but its bearable. Ok, ill try 8.8 then, i know 8.9 is out, but ive heard of people having problems with that too. No i havnt OC the Quad. Im not confident messing around with the FSB and CPU voltages, so ive just left it alone. I was thinking of OC the Quad to 3.0GHz. Would the stock heatsink handle this???? Thanks Every1

Edited by shane_vt87, 11 October 2008 - 05:00 PM.

[Troy]

Hi there,

The stock heatsink would be able to handle it, but I would strongly consider upgrading, as the quad would be running rather hot, even though it is only a relatively small overclock.

For your CPU verification, have you downloaded CPU-Z? What does it report?

And the "Very High" setting that is unavailable in XP, is because XP does not support DirectX 10 - but Vista does. Selecting "Very High" will enable all the fancy extras DirectX 10 adds to the game, but only available within Vista.

Just because you've heard of people having problems with Catalyst version 8.9, is no reason not to try it yourself. Make sure you have the x64 edition of the drivers. Make sure to fully uninstall the old drivers before installing the new ones.

I look forward to your next update.

Troy

[shane_vt87]

Thanks again Troy for your reply, I will download CPU-Z and try that (ive been away for the week with uni). Based on the performance im getting at the moment in games such as crysis its certainly only a driver issue. ATM in crysis im playing in "High" (Windows XP 64) getting around 60fps with AA and AF at their maximum at 1600x1200. As for the cpu heatsink, is there any in particular that you could recommend that come with the fan??? I was thinking of purchasing a "Xigmatek HDT-S1283". I found a shop online that sells it for $42 (Australian). Will i have to remove my motherboard from my case to remove the old heatsink/install the new 1??? Is there a function in Windows where i can check the cpu temperatures? Thanks for your input.

[Troy]

Hi again, There is no CPU temperature applet within Windows, of which I am aware. You can try Speedfan, CoreTemp, both are in my signature. That heatsink is a fantastic unit. I have heard of many dramas with the installation using pushpins, but if you can afford (and find) the retention bracket, it would be much better. Although, with the retention bracket, yes you would need to remove the motherboard. Once it's installed, though - you should be seeing some fantastic temperatures. It sounds like your Crysis performance is pretty good - you can't argue with that! Make sure you try the newest drivers as they are released. I would check the drivers page often. Once again, ensure you try the whole Catalyst suite, and then the drivers only, to see if you can notice any difference. I should think the "drivers only" download would be better. Cheers, and keep us updated. Troy

[shane_vt87]

Thanks again for your post Troy, Ive made a few changes to my rig and it 'seems' to be running much better than previously. Firstly ive re-formatted the machine and put Vista 64 back on. Ive installed all the lastest mobo drivers and ive installed the latest ATI Catalyst, V 8.10. I must say that this is the most stable the machine has run to date. No crashing from ATI CCC yet so im fairly pleased and so far Crysis on Very High is running stable at 30-40fps. I also ran 3D-Mark Vantage that came with the Sapphire 4870X2 and the overall score for my machine with everything at stock on the "Performance" test settings was 13500. GPU Score is 13900. CPU score is 11800. Do these scores sound correct???? I thought the CPU and GPU scores would be higher? Are there any settings in CCC that i should adjust to get better performance? Is there any1 reading this forum who has similar specs to me and has run Vantage?? If yes, what did you score??? I should mention that Vista 64 still is not recognising that i have the Core 2 Quad Q9550 installed. Ive downloaded the latest Intel Processor ID but my processor is still undetectable. Also, i ran CPU-Z as suggested and it detected the correct CPU (Q9550 @ 2.83GZHz). However i have a question about CPU-Z: When i ran the test it said that the current clock frequency was only 1.999GHz. Is there a reason for this? Is the machine down-scaling the CPU performance to save power when the machine is sitting idle/not being used for CPU intesive tasks??? I checked the BIOS and it stated that the CPU Core Clock Frequencey was 2.83 GHz, (multiplier 8.5X333), which is correct. Also in CPU-Z i checked the specifications it found for my RAM. I currently have installed 4Gb Corsair Dominator DDR2 1066Mhz. In CPU Z it stated that my current RAM frequency was only 800Mhz. Once again in the Bios it stated that the RAM frequency was 1066Mhz. Ive never used CPU-Z before and im not sure how it is measuring the performance of my hardware so any help is greatly appreciated. When i get home tonight (at work ATM), i will upload screen shots of CPU-Z and 3DMark Vantage. Thankyou to the people who have given there input so far. This is the best that the machine had run to date!

[Troy]

Hi again Shane,

That's great news that your system is running good. I'm at a loss as to why your system is not correctly identifying the CPU, but I am glad CPU-Z is reporting it. Before I comment further on your CPU-Z results, those pictures would be really good for me to see. I'll wait until you attach and upload them before commenting further.

Is the machine down-scaling the CPU performance to save power when the machine is sitting idle/not being used for CPU intesive tasks???

Yes that's exactly on the mark, it's called Intel's Speedstep Technology, and scales performance down when it isn't needed. This isn't anything to worry about at all.

I currently don't have a similar setup to what you have, so I can't comment on your 3DMark results. Do be advised, though, that this is just a synthetic benchmark - what matters more is that you are seeing good performance in your everyday uses (such as playing Crysis).

Cheers

Troy

[shane_vt87]

Hi Troy, Ive attached the screenshots from CPU-Z and ive also attached a screenshot of the Vista device manager where it states under Processor "Unknown Device". Ive also included screenshots of the Memory detection from CPU-Z. It states under "Maximum Bandwidth" "PC2-6400-400MHz". My RAM installed is PC2-8500- 1066MHz, so shouldnt it state in CPU-Z that the Max Bandwidth is 1066MHz??? Thanks for you input again Troy, sorry for the 'Newbie' questions.

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Edited by shane_vt87, 20 October 2008 - 08:44 PM.

[Troy]

Hi there, It does look like your motherboard could do with some "finetuning" to fully realise your memory's capabilities. First up, can you please post a link to your exact set of memory - the manufacturers support page would be perfect. Cheers Troy

[shane_vt87]

Hi Troy,
Here is the support link for the ram i have installed: http://www.corsair.c...pport_tips.aspx,
and product details: http://www.corsair.c...048-8500C5D.pdf

I checked in the bios and the latency timings were set to 5-7-7-24. I went ahead and changed them to the correct timings 5-5-5-15. The bios memory frequency was correct, 1066MHz. Was this the correct thing to do??

Could the memory issue be because i have 4X1Gb sticks installed???
should i change to 2X2Gb sticks.

I checked a few forums and alot of people are having trouble with this exact set of RAM and this Mobo (GA-X48-DS4) complaining that their system is unstable. I have had no stability issues with the memory, i just want the memory to run at its specified SPD.

Cheers

Shane

[Troy]

Hi there, That's great work on the timings - what I was getting at! What does Everest Home Edition report your RAM frequency? I have a feeling CPU-Z may be incorrect, in this instance. Troy

[shane_vt87]

Hi Troy, I installed Everest Home Edition but it doesnt detect the 'SPD'. It only detects the actual phyical memory in my system. Nor does it detect the correct CPU- it detects the Intel Xeon 3360, which is based on the same specs and architecture but is a server model of my cpu. I tried generating a "report" in Everest, but that didnt work. Ive included the screenshots below. Thanks again for your help

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