Author Topic: conroe and an upgrade (Read 1099 times)

Krusty · « **Reply #30 on:** April 23, 2007, 11:42:49 AM »

Thanks for the tip, Fulmar!

Krusty · « **Reply #31 on:** April 23, 2007, 12:27:25 PM »

Fulmar, check the prices again. I think that they were still entering them into the system. The 6700 is now down to 230 or 320 or something. Much lower than the 530 listed earlier today.

Also, the 2MB/4MB options are almost identical in price to each other, now!

Irwink! · « **Reply #32 on:** April 23, 2007, 01:00:56 PM »

The 6700 is $348 as of about 5 minutes ago. Glad I didn't order one @ $510 a couple of hours ago!:D

Krusty · « **Reply #33 on:** April 25, 2007, 03:13:27 PM »

Well the CPU passed the budget committee, but for now the RAM did not. Perhaps in a few weeks I'll pass that bill through the committee again.

Going for the 6420, if I can. Only $20 more than the 6320, and seems quite a bit better, for that $20.

Krusty · « **Reply #34 on:** April 30, 2007, 10:27:12 AM »

Ordered one E6420. Hope to get it by Friday so I can install it on the weekend. Or Thursday so I can install it for FSO... Let's see if the extra $2.99 "rush" is worth it

Fulmar · « **Reply #35 on:** April 30, 2007, 10:55:34 AM »

The rush usually works. I've done it before at Christmas time. Like I just placed a order two weeks ago (pretty small, no rush order). I ordered it Sunday night, it was processed Monday and shipped on Tuesday. Rush should allow you to get it shipped by Monday.

Krusty · « **Reply #36 on:** May 05, 2007, 08:15:27 PM »

Well I got it and put it in. It was pretty straightforward. Sims with the latest add-on packs loads the main menu in less than 60 seconds, and the neighborhood loads also in less than 60 seconds (VERY fast), and the FPS over that neighborhood was very smooth.

Also tried it out in Aces High briefly. Sitting in the tower at a field with 6+ fires raging, I noticed higher FPS than I normally get. Will have to wait for an actual sortie to see for sure.

Slight problem, though:

I started up first time and noticed BIOS listed it as 2.13GHz, not to be confused with the name the chip has associated with it, which has the suffix "@ 2.13GHz" built into it, but in the actual speed area it said 2.13GHz.

However, going into WinXP it lists it as 2.05. I double checked BIOS, it lists it as 2133MHz.

So I went back into XP and fired up CPU-Z.

Can anybody help me here? What's causing this to happen?

Fulmar · « **Reply #37 on:** May 05, 2007, 11:43:34 PM »

I have mine currently at stock settings. It appears your FSB is clocked slower than what it should be. You'll need to check your BIOS settings to see whats up and what the settings are.

Here is my CPU-Z

Fulmar · « **Reply #38 on:** May 05, 2007, 11:45:36 PM »

Also you'll want to download the Dual Core Patch for Windows (sorry don't the link). It helps running both cores in games and apps. It does not come with the standard Windows updates. I remember when I installed Windows the first time. Installing SP2 in about 5 minutes made me giggle.

Krusty · « **Reply #39 on:** May 06, 2007, 01:54:32 AM »

I think there's a line I can put in boot.ini to tell windows I've got 2 cores. Have to look it up.

Anyways, hrm... strange, my bus SHOULD (ideally) have defaulted to 1066MHz.

I'll see what my BIOS lets me tweak.

Kermit de frog · « **Reply #40 on:** May 06, 2007, 03:36:49 AM »

E6400's multiplier changes from 6 to 8 so that affects FSB speeds as well.

Krusty · « **Reply #41 on:** May 06, 2007, 11:37:26 AM »

If the multiplier changed, we'd be seeing a much larger FSB change, I think.

I did some checking, was writing down what my BIOS had listed (not too much available on this mobo -- not really meant for OCing so the options are limited).

I had earlier enabled "Spread Spectrum" thinking the description of it in the manual was worth trying. Couldn't hurt, right? On a hunch I set it back to disabled (default) and viola! The problem is gone!

Let that be a tip to those in the future!

Fulmar · « **Reply #42 on:** May 06, 2007, 12:57:02 PM »

Interesting Krusty, I was going to ask you to check if Speedstep was enabled which lowers the CPU clock speed to whatever is computer needs to be the most efficient, but this didn't make sense because the increments of lowering the CPU clock on Speedstep are even numbers and usually larger increments than what you saw on your CPU-Z.