Something wrong with my homebuilt computer?

[Khanate]

Hi, I'm having some problems with my computer. I built myself, I'll list the problems then what are the components of my computer.

1) Really noisy, and I mean I'm surprised my neighbors don't call the cops after 11pm...

2) When I play world of warcraft I hit between 12 (during raids) to 25 fps (when nothing around) which is kinda low compared to what I asked other people get with similar hardware.

I built my computer myself although I have limited knowledge about computers but here it goes...

My hardware is:

Mobo: NF7-S
Graphic card: radeon 9800 pro 128mb
Ram: Samsung 2x512mb pc-3200 ddr400
Processor: athlon 2800+
PSU: Thermaltake Silent PurePower 480W
I have a 10 cm fan at the back and a 6cm fan at the front (I havent even tested unplugging them tbh)
120g hard drive that HP (the original computer I stole most my components from) gave me with my computer
CD and DVD drive from Hp comp too

What would be common reasons for any of these reasons or would it be a bottleneck component in my computer causing the fps problem?

Thanks in advance,

Khan

 

[PCcashCow]

TH psu can be noisy, as well as 2 opti drives.

Noise can be reduced by a diffrent case, passive cooling, or water.
What kind of heatsink do you have? Thats probably where the noise is comming from most.

As for a 9800pro, your on the right track with your thinking. Im going to assume that you have cas3 ram, samsung usually is, chocked up by the 2800. Try tweeking your card to see if you get any results. I know the 9800 LE I had put out some quality. But that card is on the lowend side now. You could go to the last of the AGPs 7800 GT, Penny wise pound foolish is what my father used to say to me.

 

[chuckshissle]

If you fans are noisy then get them fan controller to reduce the rpm and makes them slower and quiter.

 

[Khanate]

TH psu can be noisy, as well as 2 opti drives.

My cd and dvd have nothing in them most of the time, they shouldn't be running though..

Noise can be reduced by a diffrent case, passive cooling, or water.

Not really in a situation where I can spend money anymore though, sadly

What kind of heatsink do you have? Thats probably where the noise is comming from most.

How do I know what kind of heatsink I have?

As for a 9800pro, your on the right track with your thinking. Im going to assume that you have cas3 ram, samsung usually is, chocked up by the 2800. Try tweeking your card to see if you get any results. I know the 9800 LE I had put out some quality. But that card is on the lowend side now. You could go to the last of the AGPs 7800 GT, Penny wise pound foolish is what my father used to say to me.

WoW is a older game though, I would of expected an excellent card from back then would run just fine no? I can't really afford to spend money on a new card besides the fact my mobo doesnt have a PCI-E slot from what I can recall (ghetto yeah i know).

Any good FAQ's I could read of doing tweekings on my card?

I'm actually not at home with my PC but since I've always pushed back asking for help and I had time I decided doing it now so I can come back to my PC in full force to fix it!

 

[Khanate]

If you fans are noisy then get them fan controller to reduce the rpm and makes them slower and quiter.

I'm going to try unplugging them and booting my PC, if that is the problem I will buy new ones maybe since its not really expensive.

 

[random_foxx]

Open up Device Manager and ensure that drivers are present for everything. Often times, if the Motherboard's chipset drivers are omitted, the entire system will suffer greatly.

 

[Khanate]

Open up Device Manager and ensure that drivers are present for everything. Often times, if the Motherboard's chipset drivers are omitted, the entire system will suffer greatly.

I know I have no little signs that show something wrong in my device manager... should I look deeper than that?

 

[bluntside]

The smaller the fan the noisier they are, I say screw the 10mm fans and just get heatpipes.
Heheeh old VGA 9800pro 8O
Bro you need to get some funds and totally upgrade, but for the average consumer, it kick ass.
Nothing that the Enthusiasts would get :twisted:

 

[random_foxx]

No, if there are no "!"s or similar icons next to anything, then you're prolly okay. Still, never hurts to make sure you have the latest drivers on all your hardware, so check for updates.

Hmm, something else I thought about: I had a computer that was running slow, and I figure out that I had to set a jumper on the Mobo to set the FSB to the proper setting. It's a long shot, but something to check. Make sure all your BIOS settings are set right, too.

 

[Khanate]

Blunt:

Ill try removing my smaller fan then, or both and checking what sound it makes, also the small ones seems realllyyy useless.

About the outdated rig, yeah as much as I'd like to have a mean machine I cannot justify 4 months worth of rent going on my rig

foxx:

I'll investigate with the intarweb to find the whereabouts of this FSB jumper you're talking about and see if its correct or not.

Well I changed mobo cuz my old one was factory locked and haven't bothered to look at this one, I know the screen will be blue, got any tips?

 

[doolittle]

I also had an NF-7 w/ XP2800 and a 9800 pro - was an excellent system.

The first thing I would check is the FSB that was mentioned, get cpuz v1331 from cpuid.com then extract & run it - the XP2800 should be 2075Mhz@12.5x166 if memory serves me correctly. A common problem with nforce2's are it will default to 133 fsb and you have to force the fsb to 166 in the BIOS under "softmenu" cpu - external clock and force it to 166. I don't think NF-7 has a FSB jumper from what I remember, and since you have ddr400@cl3 you should not have any problem at 166/ddr333 settings with timing or anything.

The 9800pro, excellent card in its day - do you know if it is 128Mb / 256bit? If so great job, the 128-bit ones suck and that may be one of your reasons for crappy frame rates. Check out ATItool to get the card info and for OC - here is the quick start guide. I used it and got a 40% oc with a ZM80D-HP and approached speeds of the 6600gt. With the stock fan you should be able to oc it quite a bit, at least 25% or more if you have good case cooling (like a side panel fan blowing on it).

Good luck, that system still has some good life left in it!

 

[mdd1963]

My fan on my own 9700Pro equipped rig is quite noisy in comparison to the one on my 7800GT...

As for performance issues...

chipset drivers, game patches, Radeon drivers...

(I'm not familiar with what typical WOW frames/sec performance is on 9700/9800 class cards with Xp procesors...)