How good is my computer for gaming?

[Evil_HAF]

I just built this pc and im still kind of new at it but what are my limitations with this set up
HAF 932 case
AMD phenom x4 9950 be 2.6
biostar TA790gx 128m mobo
7 gigs ram
segate sata II 500 gig HD 3.0
2 xfx 5770's vid cards crossfired
windows 7 64 bit
3 dell se197fp lcd's
850 w power supply
To me this system is running slow what is holding it back? i did a 3dmark and the score didnt impress me and my windows 7 score rated my pc at 5.9 how can that be? Thank you for any input you can provide and i wil provide further info to you all

 

[bnot]

I'm sure 5.9 is the highest any hard drive (exept ssd) can get

 

[Alvin Smith]

I am sure you meant 8GB RAM ... How many sticks?

 

[aberchonbie]

bnot is correct on the hard drive score.. the windows experience index is determined by the lowest scoring portion..

how are the 5770's in crossfire running? thought they fixed eyefinity for crossfire? btw, you should see better performance as ati drivers mature..

 

[deadlockedworld]

You know that by clicking on your experience score it breaks it down into subsections for you, right?

 

[victomofreality]

I'm running the 250 version of your hdd and it scores 5.9 so thats probably where your score drops.

A WD raptor would probably raise that score for a better space to cost ratio then an ssd. But the drive you have now will perform just fine.

 

[Alvin Smith]

BUT the guy says his system is running slow ! Perhaps he is right ? Looks like a fairly snappy config, to me. I wonder if some component is "stepping down" ???

CPUs "step down" when they get too hot ...

MEM steps down when it is not inserted in the (exact as specified) correct slots to enable full dual channel operation.

GPU cards can step down (dramatically) if they are not in a 16X slot or if the card is not hitting all the x16 lines.

Heck, I dint chk the mobo specs but he could even be doing something silly like running off integrated graphics. (ok, prolly not).

There's lot's of things can bog you down, that's all I'm sayin'

= Al =

 

[Aneesh@4GHz]

I'm sure 5.9 is the highest any hard drive (exept ssd) can get

A 10000 or 15000RPM HDD SCORES MORE! (WD VelociRaptor)

 

[Evil_HAF]

thank you for the responses maybe its the ram config. Yes its 7 gigs not 8 one of my 2 gig ram sticks was faulty and geil wont give me a replacement (long story) so i had a 1 gig stick around and stuck it in the slot. I do have a cpu cooler Cooler Master Hype N520 so that isnt a issue my cpu never goes over 40c and im thinking it might be the hard drive.I heard the velociraptors are fast.Cant really afford one at this point. The eyefinity dont work for me as of yet due to the dp to vga adapter issue. Im waiting for this one i ordered to arrive so i can test it.

 

[deadlockedworld]

Pull the 1 gig stick out and just use 6 gigs of ram. You don't need the extra ram, and the odd number wont run quite as well. Especially if the 1 gig stick is clocked differently-- it would slow the rest of the ram down..

 

[Alvin Smith]

BAD !!! BAD BAD BAD !!!

Must be matched pairs in alternating slots (sometimes must start w/slot furthest from CPU)

SO ... 2GB in slots 0 and 2 ... 1GB (matched pair) in slots 1 and 3 ...

Must be matched pairs in alternate slots! BAD!! BAD BAD BAD !!!

= Al =

 

[Alvin Smith]

He'd prolly actually be better off with just 4GB as a single matched pair (2 stix ttl)

 

[Alvin Smith]

Also ... While we are on the subject ...

Each stick in a given matched pair must be the same capacity AND TIMING ...

Both pairs must have the same timing and same branding helps !

=

 

[Evil_HAF]

dual channel will run faster then all that? maybe thats why its slowed down

 

[Alvin Smith]

Would be very easy to try ... I hear you don't even need a screwdriver, anymore.

= Al =

 

[requiemsallure]

what was the model number on the geil chip? i bought some knowing they had a fault, however i did some research and found out that overvolting the ram chip fixed it.

Yes dual channel will run faster than single channel RAM.

 

[liquidsnake718]

5.9 is still the highest rating windows vista and 7 can give, for some reason I still dont know why they havent updated this old rating scheme.... as for your system, biostar is decent, but there are more capable mbs out there. As for your GPUs you should have gotten a 5850 at first and then bought a second one a bit later so youd have an even better machine with 5850's in crossfire! Your machine is good enough however.

 

[Alvin Smith]

what was the model number on the geil chip? i bought some knowing they had a fault, however i did some research and found out that overvolting the ram chip fixed it.

Yes dual channel will run faster than single channel RAM.

I'm showing my (relative) lack of benchmarking experience, here, but the real question is . . .

How noticable is the diff between single and dual channel operation ? I am guessing it is definately "a perceptable difference".

= Hmmmm =

 

[Alvin Smith]

BTW ... don't forget to double check tour cpu (and other) temperatures ...

... Don't forget to reseat your GPU card ... snap that puppy home !

... in addition to verifying DUAL CH operation ...

... ALSO ! Go into "disk properties" and de-select "drive indexing" . *DO*!

= DO =

 

[Evil_HAF]

the ram i bought is this one set from new egg http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16820144074

 

[requiemsallure]

Apparantly this ram is considered quad channel ram. not sure about any such thing, however i was unable to find out if it was dual or what exactly it is. you said one of your RAM sticks was dead? Did you consider RMAing with newegg. did the computer just not start or did it shut off after a while/freeze up and you eliminated it through trial and error, or was it just not recognized when inserted?

Also i do not remember where but in tomshardware i read that multiple sets of dual channel ram accually run a bit slower than a single set I.E. ( a set of 4GB X 2 ddr2 RAM will run faster than 2GB X 4 ddr2 RAM) you would think that single channel RAM would be affected the same way?

@ Alvin Smith

between dual channel and single channel RAM the improvement isn't substantial about 4-10% (usually arount 5%) hit in performance, but this really depends on your FSB. I've not researched farther into this yet. not too noticeable if at all but it really depends on what you are looking for. (this is all based on old sources i havent found anything that tests single channel vs dual channel anytime recently. jan 2008 was the latest i've found anything on this subject.) nowdays the performance difference might be larger though due to DDR3 and everything. Evil_HAF doesnt have to worry about DDR3 though as his board only supports DDR2.

 

[Evil_HAF]

no i realized the ram was bad when i got bsod and neweggs rma wont go past 30 days so i contacted geil and they want me to send all of the ram back to them when i informed them it was only 1 faulty stick...so much for there lifetime warrenty

 

[Evil_HAF]

MEMORY METER
Your Motherboard - Brand / Model Name: Biostar Group / TA790GX 128M
Your CPU: AMD* Phenom X4 9950
Your Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series
Detected Memory Modules
CapacitySpeedCAS Latency2 GB666 MHz5-5-52 GB666 MHz5-5-51 GB666 MHz5-5-52 GB666 MHz5-5-5

 

[Evil_HAF]

might be the ram issue messing me up

 

[requiemsallure]

I would say it is likely, does your computer bsod as your booting up or a little while after windows has booted? if it is the latter if you could put the Geil stick back in take a look at your RAM voltage, that RAM is rated for 1.9V - 2.5V so long as you do not go above 2. if you can when you put the Geil stick back in, increase the voltage a bit (to about .1 higher than it is, without exceeding 2.5V) see if that stabilizes it.