System built - How do I know its working up to par

[dinkydo]

Hi again all!! '

After getting advice from some of you guys here, I bought all the parts and put it together yesterday...... and it actually worked on my first try!!!!!!!!!

My only question is this.... My championsonline game works a lot better than it did over my previous system, but how do I know everything is working as fast as it should?

My 955be quad cpu says 3.2ghz, my ram says 1600, the video card is a factory OCed card. My cpu temps idle at 27c and my video card idles at 48c.

If anyone has some suggestions how to tell if its working as well as it should, that would be great!!!

Thanks in advance!!

 

[BroHamBone]

Hi again all!! '

After getting advice from some of you guys here, I bought all the parts and put it together yesterday...... and it actually worked on my first try!!!!!!!!!

My only question is this.... My championsonline game works a lot better than it did over my previous system, but how do I know everything is working as fast as it should?

My 955be quad cpu says 3.2ghz, my ram says 1600, the video card is a factory OCed card. My cpu temps idle at 27c and my video card idles at 48c.

If anyone has some suggestions how to tell if its working as well as it should, that would be great!!!

Thanks in advance!!

Download one of those benchmarking tools? 3dmark, furmark, um.. whats some other ones guys? Anyway, it will compare your stats vs other top computers....

well, i guess as far as working as well as it should. Im pretty sure its doing fine.......?
Run games maxed out and see what seems to be a comfortable setting for your computer to handle w/o any lag,artifacts, etc.

 

[dinkydo]

Sadly the only game I have right now is championsonline... and since its new and "doesnt officially support windows 7" the performance to me is a little suspect, doesn't seem as high as I would think it should be.

I will give 3dmark a try and see how that goes. At the very least I'm happy the cpu idles at 28c or so, lol. I think the bf is jealous, he's already complaining how much he spent on his and mine runs better!!! :lol:

 

[dinkydo]

I just got an 11822 in 3dmark... with a "common" system getting 17000 with less ram, and a nvidia 295 video card, and an i7 920 processor....

On the CPU portion of the test I got literally 1-2fps.... seems wierd to me.

 

[tecmo34]

1-2 FPS on the CPU test is pretty normal in my experience with 3dMark. It is about the processor power not GPU power. What video card are you running? On my old Rig with a Q6600 & 9800GTX in SLI and I got around 12000 on 3dMark Vantage. I'm getting 21000 now with my system when I was at stock. I won't worry about your score, it doesn't seem to Be low.

 

[dinkydo]

an XFX 4890 extreme. I figured it would be fine at 1900x1200 gaming.

turning a few things off I can get 12,500 but thats it. Also that test is with AA off and AF off.

 

[dinkydo]

also, I did see according to 3dmark that my ram is set at 1333 for speed. the ram I bought was 1600 speed *possible 1800 if oced* I am not familiar with ram speeds/timings or how to increase them.

When looking at my ram timings in my bios, they aren't the same either, no clue if that is how it should be. The first one is something like 9/9/9/7/few other numbers.... the second says 2/2/3/4/other numbers.... Always seems like things don't run quite as well as they should for me,

Also running win7 RC

 

[dinkydo]

1-2 FPS on the CPU test is pretty normal in my experience with 3dMark. It is about the processor power not GPU power. What video card are you running? On my old Rig with a Q6600 & 9800GTX in SLI and I got around 12000 on 3dMark Vantage. I'm getting 21000 now with my system when I was at stock. I won't worry about your score, it doesn't seem to Be low.

With the other information I've given so far, do you still think my numbers are acceptable? I just want to make sure that the money I spent was well spent and that I didn't get a sub-par part.

 

[obsidian86]

well it seems a lil low on the score have you updated all the drivers?

 

[dinkydo]

yes, new CCC drivers, directx, everything updated according to windows update.... not sure what else would need updating.

 

[obsidian86]

have you ran burn in tests ?memtest86+ prime95? and monitoring app hwmonitor cpuid an gpu-z?

 

[dinkydo]

nope, I wasn't aware of any of them. Should I do that, will it show me if anything is "bad"?

Also, are they free?

 

[obsidian86]

they totally free and they help a lot figuring a sytem out

 

[obsidian86]

you using the standard cpu cooler ?

 

[dinkydo]

yes, like I said my idle temp is about 28c and when I play games I think it got up to 37-40c

 

[obsidian86]

thats a bit of headroom atleast but first run memtest it the longest to run usually whole night then prime95 test and use hwminitor to check temps

 

[dinkydo]

ok, I'll give that a try tonight and see what happens. I'll report tomorrow morning

 

[tecmo34]

Review these links....

11,000 seems pretty reasonable for your CPU and GPU for 3DMark Vantage... 3DMark Vantage, granted some maybe running the 4890 in Crossfire, as well.

If you are running 3dMark 06, than they do look low.... 3DMark06, granted some maybe running the 4890 in Crossfire, as well.

 

[dinkydo]

yes its 3dmark06 at 1900x1200. Like I said, I have no clue what the timings in the bios means but I would have assumed they would be the same, being the same type of ram from the same package and all. Guess we'll see what happens with the tests.

 

[dinkydo]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231259

this is the ram I have btw and the motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131402

the first dram spot in my bios reports near the 8-8-8-21 timings, but the 2nd slot reports way off like I said... 2-2-4-10 I think, I'll have to double check when I get home from work.

I just checked the QVL for the motherboard and *sigh* I dont see my ram on there, would that most likely cause the lowness of my score?

So many things to think about and no way to know, how do you guys put up with it all :lol: now I know why the bf is cranky when he comes home from work, :lol:

 

[tecmo34]

yes its 3dmark06 at 1900x1200. Like I said, I have no clue what the timings in the bios means but I would have assumed they would be the same, being the same type of ram from the same package and all. Guess we'll see what happens with the tests.

Please rerun your 3DMark06 at default settings and not 1900x1200. All the scores I listed at are at 1280x1080 (I believe that is the default settings). You will see a higher score by doing so and will allow you to truly benchmark, since that is what major (if not all) scores are based on. I would have said that earlier but I guess I missed the part about running the test at 1900x1200.

 

[dinkydo]

I have done that already as well, it does raise the score to about 13100, would that be more in line with what I should have? I'm sorry I'm a paranoid nut-girl, :lol:

I'm still reading about the RAM right now... seeing if I missed something :lol:

 

[dinkydo]

ok, well I ram the memtest and I got 0 errors. I did "set" the frequency of the RAM from "auto - running at 1333" to actualy saying "1333" and at the default resolution on 3dmark06 I got 14000.

Is that more in line with what I should be getting? or still low?

 

[tecmo34]

Here are two 3DMark06 scroes... with what looks to be similar systems
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=11364558
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=11522645

I would just make sure you have latest drivers for your video card and you Win 7 RC is updated. I personnelly think your systems is running fine with your scores. The bigger question is how is it performing for you in the games you play. If you are setting everything to max and getting good frame rates 30+, that is really all that matters on how well a system performs.