New build done, need some expertise

[madwire3]

hello all ive lurked on this site a bit and decided after days of searching and finding little help on my build thought id just ask, so heres what i recently built

case- coolermaster haf 922 blue "love this case, only mod ill be doing is adding one switch to the exterior for the top and back fans, light control"

mobo- gigabyte super 4 Ga-A75-D3H

processor- amd A8-3870 Llano 3.0ghz
cooler- coolermaster hyper 212 evo (temp hovering at 2 celcius right now)

ram- gskill ripjaws x series 1600 4 x 4gb (16gb total)

psu- CORSAIR Gaming Series 600W

hdd- seagate barracuda 500gb

os- win7 and later ill add another hdd for my linux addiction, hate dual boot (wei is 5.9)

and some cheapo multi drive, overall basic system but wow is it a quick one and soooo easy to add more , might add a couple gpus later on if i get bored with the integrated graphics but for now its more then enough, rocks world of tanks at around 35fps plenty good enough for me... i read the ram is supposed to run at 9-9-9-24 so i set that in bios but is there something else i need to set specific for this ram? for now i just want to get everything to optimal "factory" settings so i know things are stable, im new to building and a lot of the talk is foreign to me like latency and such


so yeah, what else should i check/adjust for the ram and apu? i do plan to overclock but gotta read a lot more before i attack that, seems like a lot to mess up so im taking my time, thanks in advance guys and gals, pics below

the guts

temporary spot while i installed all the sophware and such

and the window veiw

 

[Raiddinn]

Are there any holes in the case under where the PSU sits?

It is ideal for most PSUs to be mounted with the air intake hole facing down rather than up.

In my Lian Li case, there are air intake holes directly in the case under the bottom mount PSU rack and there are feet that keep the computer high enough off the ground that air can flow under the case, in it from the bottom, and right back out the back.

I realize that you probably don't want to do without seeing the glow inside the PSU, however, it does fight the natural motion of air. The air above the PSU will be warmer from the internal components and warm air generally wants to rise, but the PSU intake fan would pull it downward.

It probably won't make a difference with the system as you have it setup right now, but if you added a graphics card or something it could make quite a large difference.

Also, I don't think you need to worry too much about manually setting RAM timings and things like that. The difference between super fast RAM and super slow RAM when translated to practically all software performance is pretty much 0%.

The computer does a surprisingly good job of managing that stuff without help, too.

Also, I feel the need to point out that the settings that something says on the package isn't necessarily "optimal". If a stick of RAM says 1600 on the package, that doesn't mean that it will work more optimally at 1600 as compared to, say, 1333.

Indeed, the higher you go over 1333, regardless of what the package says, the more likely you are to experience RAM problems.

Also, in case it matters, 1 drive with Windows and windows data on it + 1 drive with Linux + linux data on it is not a good idea if that is what you were thinking to do.

It is a much better idea to have both OSs on the same drive and all the data on the same other drive.

If you format the 2nd drive with NTFS or Fat32 then most versions of Linux will still be able to read it, so all the data would be available to both OSs. If you set it up so that Linux data is stored on the Linux drive, then the Windows install won't be able to read it.

Additionally, the drive most likely to fail is the one with an OS on it. If you put both OSs on one drive, then you don't risk losing data if either OS causes the whole drive the OS is on to lose all its data. You just reinstall the OSs and all the data is still there.

As long as you install Linux last, the Grub Boot loader will be the one used by the computer and it is superior to pretty much all Windows boot loaders anyway (and it comes with useful stuff like MemTest86+ installed automatically).

Not sure why you hate dual booting and want to have two different OSs anyway, but I just wanted to throw it out there that maybe you hate dual booting because of the way you setup the boot and data drives.

I dual boot Windows 7 (first installed) and Ubuntu (2nd installed) and it is 100% painless.

If you install Linux and the Grub boot loader before you start OCing (suggested), it is really nice not to have to keep taking a MemTest86+ CD in and out of the drive all the time when you are trying to fine tune the OC. You will want to do a RAM test with MemTest86+ after each OC change and having it built into the boot process is golden. That is something you won't ever get with the NT boot loader.

Hope that stuff helps in some way.

 

[madwire3]

i knew all that about the psu and airflow when i chose to place it like that for a couple reasons i ignored the upside down route... first its sitting on carpet, second this case is extremely open, has 2 8 inch fans and 1 standard on the case alone then theres one right in front of the rear standard the same size pulling air through the cpu cooler and blowing it directly into the rear fan less then 3 inches apart... not worried about temps with this setup at all , wasnt worried about seeing the blue light on the psu either just placed it so it wouldnt be sucking through the carpet, rather be blowing through it...

as for dual boot... this build is used by me mostly but by my ol lady as well for school, i tinker around in linux mostly she stays in windows, i just mainly want to keep things seperate, i hate messing with partitions when one os is flawless but the other is iffy, havent messed anything up yet but i worry and all that jazz, its not a huge deal ive ran two hdds each with their own os and no issues, was more of a pain to swap back and forth but was more for the peice of mind ya know?

still i understand what ur saying and even with the old system with two hdds i still ended up having dual boots on both hds, playing with different distros, not a fan of virtual boxs so i installed the real deal to get full experience no vm lag or errors,, anyways im rambling...

so the whole 9-9-9-24 isnt a big deal? i think the mobo set it at 11-11-11-27 originally,, worked fine for the few hours it was set at that runs fine now at the 99924 as well..

i tried live cd's of a couple distros they loaded fine and all that fun... the new laptop not so easy, wouldnt take any of the newer releases of ubuntu, kubuntu, mint, or opensuse, i like kde what can i say haha

anyways thanks raiddinn

 

[Raiddinn]

Ubuntu always seemed to do well with whatever hardware I put it on, but that is all I have used.

As for a drive with multiple OSs and a data only drive, I have had to assist with data recovery in here for multiple people who had data + OS on the same drive and never any with data + OS on separate drives. Just sayin.

The data is almost always more important than the OSs, so I generally try to suggest people always keep them apart if possible. It is the worst thing to have your OS crash and kill data you accumulated over decades, like pictures of your kids and things.

IMHO, the partitions are pretty seamless and they have never been a big deal for me when using the Grub boot loader and the partition tools that install Ubuntu.

I like to limit risk to the maximum extent, that's all.

I think the RAM is not a big deal, yes. You can try playing a game with 9-9-9-24 and playing the same game with 11-11-11-27 and seeing if there is any loss of FPS, I am going to guess that there won't be.

I guess I could understand upside down mounting the PSU on carpet. I have mine in an open side of a desk on wood and my bottom filter has nothing on it, unlike my front filters that get horrible pretty quick.

Anyway, hope I helped at least somewhat with the comments.

 

[madwire3]

yeah i feel ya but ive saved many of my lesser tech interested buddys data with good ol live linux usb's or cd's never had loss of data just total os meltdowns on their systems,, good ol windows.. i plan to get a ssd to tinker with later when prices balance back out, plan was to install os on it and data the hdd, not worried in any case of losing pics and such i have multiple backups of all including the good ol 320gb ps3,

currently worn out got a new desk today "that 90$ walmart L shaped desk" not a bad desk at all for 90,,, built it moved old desk cleaned up everything unplugged every wire to everything so i could better track whats plugged in and route things better,,, vacuumed, dusted, full clean up now my tech center is good to go... well as soon as my new chair gets here,,, any minute now i hope. kitchen chair hurts my bum...

lovin it,, the old desk and comp are next to it still, thats my tester machine and downloader.. kubuntu machine...
nice having the space for my laptop as well so i can really super multitask...

thanks again raiddinn

and you got me to not worry so im leaving the ram alone for now...

 

[Raiddinn]

I have a La-z-boy in front of my computer desk. Pro style.

 

[madwire3]

my ol lady wouldnt be cool with that "you spend too much time there as it is" haha