Tweaking PC performance.

[Chrysamere]

I've recently assembled a build and it is as follows. (Windows Ultimate 64 bit)

AMD phenom X6 thuban 1055t 6 core processor @ 2.8 ghz.

Twin Frozr II MSI Radeon HD 5830.

Corsair 650 TX PSU.

GA-890GPA-UD3H Motherboard.

Corsair Dominator DDR3 1600 Memory (2 sticks) 4 Gigs.

Western Digital Caviar Black 64 MB cache 1 TB hard drive.

Cooler Master HAF 932.

I've installed the latest motherboard drivers from gigabytes website, the latest drivers for the hd 5830 from MSI's website..

I can't see my HD 5830's temperature from the catalyst control center..

I would like any helpful links on where I can get the proper programs to monitor my temperatures for all of my parts, cpu, psu, gpu, hdd, ram, mobo... if possible..

And also are there any benchmark programs which I can use to test out all of my parts to make sure they are running well? and where can I see if my ram is running at 1600 and not say at lower speeds because I heard some people had those problems..

Thank you so much.

 

[Sean W.]

Temp monitoring program: Clicky

CPU Overclocking how-to: clicky

Graphics card overclocking how-to: clicky

CPU stability testing program: clicky

GPU stability testing: clicky

GPU overclocking program: clicky

CPU benchmark tech-forums thread read and follow directions: clicky

download and post screen shots of the CPU, Memory and speed tabs: clicky

 

[Chrysamere]

Thanks Sean I'm looking into those right now...... BUT I'm a little worried about the hard drive, every single part is SILENT except the hard drive, I'm currently downloading fifa online from ea-sports and the hard drive LED is blinking as it downloads, and you can hear small but noticeable continuous pig snorting noises or vibrations from the hard drive.. is this normal? or is the hard drive damaged/dying? ( I just got this hard drive).. any program to test that?

 

[Sean W.]

ive never used this program and dont really know much about testing hard drives, but i think this program is good at checking the Hard drive for problems...

CLICKY

 

[Chrysamere]

Okay here are the screenshots..

CPU, jumps to 2.8 ghz per core when doing something.

Imageshack - cpusa.jpg

Memory

Imageshack - memoryt.jpg

Speed

Imageshack - speedqx.jpg

Temperature (these look super low to me, is this normal? or is it a false reading?)

Imageshack - temperaturesv.jpg

I think I also have a problem with the memory chips, they work perfectly except in BIOS when I was exploring I noticed it said something like Memory side slots running at 1333 mhz... I know it's supposed to be running at 1600.. and when I tried to access it I saw the limit being 1333 and the rest were un accessable.. how do I make it 1600 since it's the norm for this memory?

Edit: JUST NOTICED IT, in the memory screen shot it says channel # single? I have 2 chips running at slots 2 and 4..?? isn't it supposed to be dual channel? how do I enable it?

 

[Muffin Man]

CPU, jumps to 2.8 ghz per core when doing something.

Imageshack - cpusa.jpg

it's supposed to do that, because you have "amd cool 'n quiet" enabled in the bios. if you want it to run at the full speed all the time, you can just disable it.

Edit: JUST NOTICED IT, in the memory screen shot it says channel # single? I have 2 chips running at slots 2 and 4..?? isn't it supposed to be dual channel? how do I enable it?

post a screenshot of the "mainboard" tab from cpu-z.

 

[Chrysamere]

Here's the screenshot.

Imageshack - mainboardg.jpg

 

[Muffin Man]

hm, i thought it would show the rev. of your board, guess not.

the earlier rev.'s of your board (1.0 and 2.0) would have you place 2 sticks in either slots 1 and 2, or 3 and 4 to run in dual channel.

the latest rev. of your board (2.1) would have you place 2 sticks in every other slot (either 1 and 3, or 2 and 4) to run in dual channel.

you can physically check the rev. of your board by looking at the number that's printed on the edge on the bottom-left hand side of the board itself.

i guess i forgot about a simpler way though, just look at the color of your ram slots. put your ram in either both the blue or both the white slots, that should enable them to run in dual channel.

 

[Sean W.]

it should be slot 1 and 3

 

[Chrysamere]

The same color slots worked out... I have another minor issue or so I think it is..

I play mafia 2 and for half of the game it was running beautifully except during the movies you would see clipping in the middle of the screen sometimes.. then during the second part of the game after 6 hours of running it began lagging everytime i pan or scan the view while driving and stuff..

benchmarking on mafia 2 turns up same results, everything maxed out 1280x1024 is 51 fps average at the end always..

Also remember I mentioned the 1333 ram in the bios? well I manually changed it by setting it to 800 mhz and it became 1600 which is it's norm.. I changed the timings to it's normal to 9 9 9 24 and such and it's dual channel now, but somehow windows loads up slower by a few seconds now... and I think it might be the cause for mafia 2 lag?? any ideas? I know I'm asking a lot of questions but it's just that this is my first build and I'm worried about it working perfectly 100%