Need technical review of my computer

[simonton]

Hi. I just assembled my first computer about a week ago. I was surprised I managed to have the system stable with no assistance, however i'm sure there is a problem lurking somewhere waiting to strike. I am hoping someone kind enough will be able to help me ensure that my system is healthy and running as it should.

I will provide any system information, logs, registries, data, and specifications if you will help me go over them to make sure everything is normal.

Please and thank you!

 

[WR2]

CASE: Sunbeam Transformer
MOBO: EVGA nForce 750i SLI
CPU: C2D E8400 Wolfdale
MONITOR: Acer X223Wbd Black 22" 5ms Widescreen LCD
DISK DRIVE: ASUS Black 18X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA DVD-ROM
HARD DRIVE: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 500GB 7200 SATA 3
PSU: Antec NeoPower 550w PSU
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)

What video card did you end up getting?

 

[WR2]

Have your AV/Firewall/AntiSpyware all set up?
Some good (free choices) are:
AV = AVG Free - (Avast! Home Edition also a good choice.)
Firewall = Zone Alarm Free Firewall - (or Comodo Firewall Pro)
Anti-Spyware = Windows Defender - (Adaware is an alternative)

Do you have a bootable rescue disk yet? If not look into BartPE or UBCD4Win
Or How to Create an Emergency Windows Rescue CD

MemTest86 First tool to test your system. Let it run overnight and check your RAM. Get the Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO (.zip) and burn it to a CD/DVD for a bootable test disk. ImgBurn works great for ISO burns.
If you have a USB Flash Drive (thumb drive) you can get the Pre-Compiled EXE file for USB Key (Pure DOS)

CoreTemp and CPU-Z are utilities you'll want to have.

3DMark 06 is probably the best known benchmark you'll want to run.

 

[simonton]

First of all, thank you very much for responding. Much appreciated.

How did you know my.... oh well

I have network protection, I ran prime95 for 2 hours with no issues, I have coretemp and cpu-z, but I haven't ran memtest86. I'll be sure to do so.

I ran 3dmark 06 and had a score of 10,100

I got the 8800 GTS 320mb OC, which is about a year or two old. In my old case it ran at about 80c on load for a year. Now it only runs at about 65c. lol

My system has never crashed, nor frozen, nor have I had any video corruption bug with the 750i.

I'm guessing everything is fine... although... in nvidia monitor, it says my cpu voltage is 1.6v.. is this normal?

Also one of about 4 programs says my computer only has 3gb... the other 3 programs say 4gb... the one thing that says 3gb is my dxdiag

 

[jerreece]

If you're running windows XP or Vista 32bit, only 3GB of your RAM will be viewed/used by the system.

To use 4GB or more, you'll need a 64bit Operating System.

 

[B-Unit]

LMAO, either A) you are WR2 posting in disguise or
B) you posted a 'Rate my build' thread before you bought your parts.

Either way, WR2's second post pretty much wraps up the important stuff. My only modification would be Windows Defender AND Ad-Aware, cant have too much adware protection, no one suite will catch everything.

Also, if you intend to overclock, be sure to grab Orthos or Prime95 to do stress testing. 8-12 hours to prove your OC is stable. At stock speeds, 2 hours is plenty. Grab ATITool if your gonna OC the graphics card.

EDIT: Just saw the voltage comment, get CPU-Z and verify your voltage, 1.6v is WAY too much for a E8400. You want to not exceed ~1.35v without extreme cooling (read: water or phase change)

 

[simonton]

But, coretemp only reports 40c idle temperature for my cpu.. i don't understand... wouldn't my computer shut down at 1.6v?

How do I change my voltage! I'm scared because i never even touched any voltage settings!! : ((

(BTW, why the hell would I post under WR2... ? Oh, i forgot i previously posted parts i was buying..)

 

[simonton]

I just checked with cpu-z... it says it's only at 1.224 is that still high?

 

[shortstuff_mt]

No, that voltage is within spec for the E8400.

 

[cjl]

LMAO, either A) you are WR2 posting in disguise or
B) you posted a 'Rate my build' thread before you bought your parts.

Either way, WR2's second post pretty much wraps up the important stuff. My only modification would be Windows Defender AND Ad-Aware, cant have too much adware protection, no one suite will catch everything.

Also, if you intend to overclock, be sure to grab Orthos or Prime95 to do stress testing. 8-12 hours to prove your OC is stable. At stock speeds, 2 hours is plenty. Grab ATITool if your gonna OC the graphics card.

EDIT: Just saw the voltage comment, get CPU-Z and verify your voltage, 1.6v is WAY too much for a E8400. You want to not exceed ~1.35v without extreme cooling (read: water or phase change)

Another good stability tester is LinX, which is based on the Linpack benchmark. It crashed in 10 minutes on my system when Prime95 was stable until over 10 hours (though Prime95 would crash eventually - around the 20 hour mark usually). Now mine is stable with both Linpack and Prime95 for >10 hours.

Oh, and 1.224V is fine. Spec is 0.84 - 1.3625V IIRC.

 

[fatcat]

CJl,

Do you run both applications at the same time to test you system stability ?