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Out of depth on self build.

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Hello,
I have been suilding my own pcs for a while and the physical plugging together is no problem. With my latest there are too many new technologies and I could use some help in finding out whether they are coupled together in the optimal way. The specs are (using Belarc)
Operating System
Windows 7 Professional (x64) Service Pack 1 (build 7601)
Install Language: English (United States)
System Locale: English (United Kingdom)
Processor a
3.50 gigahertz Intel Core i7-2600K
256 kilobyte primary memory cache
1024 kilobyte secondary memory cache
8192 kilobyte tertiary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (4 total)
Hyper-threaded (8 total)
Main Circuit Board
ASUSTeK Computer INC. P8P67 PRO Rev 1.xx
Serial Number: MT7012K02004635
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 1305 02/11/2011
Memory Modules
8174 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory
Controllers
ATA Channel 0 [Controller] (4x)
ATA Channel 1 [Controller] (4x)
Intel(R) 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 2 port Serial ATA Storage Controller - 1C08
Intel(R) 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 4 port Serial ATA Storage Controller - 1C00
Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller
Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
Drives
2564.41 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
1858.82 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

KINGSTON SV100S264G [Hard drive] (64.02 GB) -- drive 0, s/n 08AAB0020598, rev D100811a, SMART Status: Healthy
SAMSUNG HD501LJ ATA Device [Hard drive] (500.11 GB) -- drive 1, s/n S0MUJ1KQ112459, SMART Status: Healthy
ST31000524AS [Hard drive] (1000.20 GB) -- drive 2, s/n 9VPBR7S7, rev JC45, SMART Status: Healthy
WDC WD10EARS-00Y5B1 [Hard drive] (1000.20 GB) -- drive 3, s/n WD-WCAV5N247288, rev 80.00A80, SMART Status: HealthyMultimedia
Display
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 [Display adapter]
TEC TL4291RW [Monitor] (41.9" vis, s/n FZ073A040598, March 2007)
Bus Adapters
AP8115FN IDE Controller
Intel(R) 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller - 1C26
Intel(R) 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller - 1C2D
NEC Electronics USB 3.0 Host Controller (2x)
NEC Electronics USB 3.0 Root Hub (2x)

Communications
Edimax nLite Wireless USB Adapter
Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Other Devices
VIA 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller
HID-compliant consumer control device (2x)
HID-compliant device (8x)
USB Input Device (4x)
USB Input Device (Logitech Download Assistant)
HID Keyboard Device (2x)
HID-compliant mouse (2x)
Generic USB Hub (2x)
USB Composite Device (2x)
USB Root Hub (2x)
Generic volume shadow copy
Please can anyone tell me how to find out whether its all working together in the best possible way?
Thanks
Krakenmoth

More about : depth build

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Quote:
Please can anyone tell me how to find out whether its all working together in the best possible way?


So you already bought it and you want to know if it's working correctly?

Or, your going to buy the parts and build it?

Or your going to buy a pre-built with these specifications?

Sorry, my psychic skills aren't very good, need more information to answer your question.

Why 4 different hard driver of 4 different brands??

geekapproved said:
Quote:
Please can anyone tell me how to find out whether its all working together in the best possible way?


So you already bought it and you want to know if it's working correctly?

Or, your going to buy the parts and build it?

Or your going to buy a pre-built with these specifications?

Sorry, my psychic skills aren't very good, need more information to answer your question.

Why 4 different hard driver of 4 different brands??


+1. I'm still trying figure out what you're buying because there's so much text...

That's what happens when one asks vague questions, hm?

This is my current kit.

I have never used SSD; I put the OS on it. I have acres of storage space, mainly as legacy stuff, and I'm thinking along RAID lines, one day.

The mobo can support 6Gz sata access ... I didn't think much of the manual which comes with the board and I've therefore no idea which sata port I'm using with which hard driver - there are3 different colours of port and I've no idea which goes with which for the fastest throughput.

I bought a nice new shiny GTX580 - I'm not convinced the graphics are so much better than my old card but they damn well ought to be - and that's the whole problem - given this kit, is there any way to work out theoretically how fast/responsive it should be; and if it isn't doing as well as the theoretical, then how can I make it better? Despite the money put into this rig it doesn't - IMO - work so much better than my last built 3 years ago.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
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Well what exactly are you using the computer for, and what was your previous PC's CPU and GPU? I'm assuming at least some games if you went for the GTX 580. The 580 is the best single card GPU for 1920x1080, hands down. If you're running at a different resolution, your results may vary.

The SSDs are really great as boot drives, and for storing one or two programs (I put Office 2010 on mine) that could benefit from increased read speeds.

You should be able to switch the SATA plugs around after you read the manual, and all you need to do is go to the BIOS and set the boot order up again. However, you won't gain any speed unless you have a SATA III device that is plugged into a SATA II port; SATA II in a SATA III port does no better than a SATA II in a SATA II port.

Usage - mainly for RPG gaming - I was trying to indulge in a certain amount of future proofing. The last rig had a Radeon 3750 card and an Intel DualCore E2??? 1.8Gz (memory fading!), but I do like a good graphics card and some power so...

It would appear that the SSD is only Sata II; However one of the HD is Sata III - a 1Tb WD Caviar drive so would it be better to install the OS on that?

The manual, IMO, is somewhat under-informing and in b&w. The mobo is an Asus P8P67 Pro acquired as an overclocked bundle with an Intel Core i7-2600K. I feel this thing should be blitz fast but it ain't.

I will see if changing the port makes any difference.

Any other ideas?

Thanks

PS My monitor's native resolution is 1360x768, and that is the resolution I set most games at - should I change it in games to 1920x1080? If I set the Windows 7 screen resolution to 1920x1080 I can access icons/toolbar etc

You should be noticing a huge difference in your gameplay, unless your game doesn't support the newer tech/software (DirectX, etc.). DirectX 11 makes a pretty huge difference in the appearance of games thanks to tessellation. The i5-2500K is the best gaming CPU out there, and the i7-2600K is basically the 2500K + hyperthreading.

You will experience a massive decrease in performance going from the SSD to the HDD. SSDs have much higher read speeds than HDDs.

WD's SATA III drives are a gimmick - the drives don't have high enough platter densities to even max out the SATA II bandwidth. The fastest consumer hard drive out there is the Samsung F3 1TB.

How nice it is to have my queries answered - thank you.

Hyperthreading is another novelty for me - I loaded Asus SmartDoctor (as the GTX is also Asus) and noticed it indicated that I could hyperthread my GPU. Under my usual premise "try anything once" I ticked all the boxes and boy, what a mistake that was so I backtracked rapidly.

The games I'm playing are Fallout:NV / Two Worlds II / Witcher 2. I ran F:NV on the old rig and it's just as dour on the new one too, but that is F:NV for you. Oblivion I also have loaded and don't see any noticeable difference. Is that maybe because it isn't using DirectX 11? Can you suggest a game which would showcase the potential? Or is there any software which could produce benchmarks? How can I establish whether this rig is doing the best it can?

I'm begining to sound like a cracked record ... I would just like to be able to point at X so I can say this is why it didn't feel right - even if X is my imagination!

Enough rant

Thanks for the tips




Krakenmoth said:
PS My monitor's native resolution is 1360x768, and that is the resolution I set most games at - should I change it in games to 1920x1080? If I set the Windows 7 screen resolution to 1920x1080 I can access icons/toolbar etc


You should just leave it at its native resolution. It'll be fine.


Quote:
The games I'm playing are Fallout:NV / Two Worlds II / Witcher 2. I ran F:NV on the old rig and it's just as dour on the new one too, but that is F:NV for you. Oblivion I also have loaded and don't see any noticeable difference. Is that maybe because it isn't using DirectX 11? Can you suggest a game which would showcase the potential? Or is there any software which could produce benchmarks? How can I establish whether this rig is doing the best it can?


Witcher 2 is a good game to test the DX11 features on. You can always revert to real-time framerate counters like Fraps and benchmarks like the Ungine Heaven and 3DMark benchmarks (all 3 have at least a free version).

If your old GPU was good enough to play the games stutter-free, then you won't see any increase in smoothness (once you get above 60 FPS, you can't see a difference). However, you should be able to keep that smoothness as you increase the detail, antialiasing (AA), and anisotropic filtering.

geekapproved said:
Quote:
Please can anyone tell me how to find out whether its all working together in the best possible way?


So you already bought it and you want to know if it's working correctly?

Or, your going to buy the parts and build it?

Or your going to buy a pre-built with these specifications?

Sorry, my psychic skills aren't very good, need more information to answer your question.

Why 4 different hard driver of 4 different brands??



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