Intel P4 vs AMD

@all

Just got the new motherboard installed today, still working out the kinks...has all kinds of RAID setups, but the biggest downfall of it is that it requires all four mem slots for dual channel mode (I have three used now). Which means I'll have to wait til Jan to get another 512 stick. Unlike my nForce 2 board, which could run dual channel with either 2,3, or 4 sticks. Quite the bummer actually.

I'll post some scores here shortly of the current setup.

Unfortunately, Windows will always have a "ghost" if you will, pagefile. Even if you disable it, Windows will show itself using one. True, having 1-2 gigs of RAM will keep Windows from using the pagefile. Since it's only used when opening files too large to fit into the system memory. Those that have 4 gigs of system memory may have run into the little issue of XP not seeing the last gig of ram...this is due to the pagefile being enabled. Those running 2003 as their desktop, have nothing to worry about...and x64 supports more than 4 gigs as well, in fact up to 128gigs!!!

The new NQC specs for SATA drives take down the Raptor for sure. Plus, with the new density configs they are coming out with, Raptors will be a thing that some had the fun to play with...but for the price, SATA is the way to go.

 

Morph416

Can you identify your motherboard and memory? I'm betting that it needs only a pair? It probably alternates between channels 1,3,2,4. If you're having difficulties booting, then try only one slot(slot one) until you get everything installed, including an updated bios. Once that's done, then shut everything down and add the second stick to (I'm guessing) slot three and it should all boot.

 

@ rugripper

Here is a link with another interpretation of pagefile usage and optiminztion.

http://www.petri.co.il/pagefile_optimization.htm

 

The link was largly geared toward systems with low memory. Kind of old school.
Sophocles has memory for plenty of programs and a swap file.
If he adds a few more gigs he could add a virtual drive for apps.

Thats why we need 64 bit so we can go with large virtual drives for video editing someday.

 

@ 64026402

It shows that Sophocles has 2 Gigs dual channel Corsair XMS DDR 400

and rugripper has 1 gig ocz el platinum kit[2x512]

It never hurts to explore different avenues.

 

I would definately keep a HD page file with 1g of memory.

 

@Sophocles

It's the Soyo Dragon KT880 2 v2.0. The Ram config uses dual channel in one of either three setups.

Channel A (slots 1,3), channel B (slots 2,4), or with all 4 slots filled. Basically, only dual mode when an even number of slots is filled. The performance decrease isn't that much to cry about, it's just a bummer that the mode isn't set to function with only three slots like the Gigabyte board is.

The board runs very well, booted on first start up...no issues. Set the system specs manually including all voltages, FSB settings...core frequency. Just had to disable a buttload of options since I am not using any Raid setups, or mass storage devices. The board officially supports up to 12 devices internally. 8 on the IDE channels, and 4 SATA...all native. I am only using 4. I'll eventually put all the devices on their own channel.

Going to install Sandra and give it a few test runs. I'll post the results.

 

To Sophocles,

I have a few questions regarding your motherboard. Does yours have the fanless cooling system as shown on the current A8N32SLI Deluxe? I assume that this is for the chipset only? What CPU cooler would you recomend for An Athlon 64x2 4400+ on this MB? Will my PNY Optima PC3200 memory be good enough for this setup? I plan to make the new one 2 gigs and I can get this memory now for a reasonable price. Would I be better off with 2 1Gb sticks or 4 512s (I have 2 512s now)? I understand that there is faster memory available. Would my new system benefit from this or would it be unsupported and just run at 400Mhz?

Thanking you in Advance,
theonejrs

 

Well, so much for the Sandra results. They couldn't have been more off for this board.

Temps were read wrong, no BIOS information (all said "to be filled in by OEM) even though BIOS Agent read the info. Temps didn't jive with Speedfan, or BIOS readings...said all memory slots were full, when only three are...even mentioned that some services were disabled, when they weren't!! Hadn't tweaked them yet.

 

Morph416

I'd like to see the results anyway, just as they are.Messed up results are the most fun to analyze. Now your specs are especially interesting.

 

wow thats alot to change page file....easier to take two 250gb hard drives like i did,put them in raid 0.then put windows on 20gb partition and make little logical drives out of the rest....my speed is amazing....boot from windows and back again in 3 to 5 seconds cant ask for more.....gameplay is unreal on this bad boy....i guess when you dont have much hard drive space you have to worry about the page file....i couldnt be bothered....lol...peace

 

theonejrs thats my mobo,

i would go with watercooled unless you want to hear a racket...lol...i have a asus star ice hs\fan and it keeps this 3700+ real cool about 37c idle about 45c loaded gaming for hours but then again i have this hs running at 5000 rpms and screaming all day...peace

 

rugripper,

The main reason for losing the paging file on the HD is that memory is a thousand times faster than your Raid 0. This speeds up the page file and speeds up the computer.

 

rugripper


What 6402 said.

No hard disk configuration can match the speed of memory only. I don't really need to disable my paging file because Windows doesn't use it that often on a system with 2 gigs of RAM. I disable it from time to time see how much it takes to crash my system and it takes quite a lot. For example, Nero is a RAM pig and so are de fragment application. I ran Nero, diskeeper, and surfed the net at the same time without crashing.

 

oh thats funny soph...crash that bitch...lmao...so really disabling pagefile with 2gb or even the 1 gb i have is sort of senceless then.thats what i thought.i heard there making a 1mb kit with a cas of 1/1.5 timing of 225 which is unbelievably fast but so is the price of them.here they are:

 

rugripper


If the price would come down I'd get one of these to install windows and for the paging file.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/12/05/hyperos_dram_hard_drive_on_the_block/

 

When posting your benchmarks also include your memory bandwidth.

 

hey soph,

that ram drive is awesome....never saw that before...im wetting my trousers just looking at it....lmao....thx for teaching me imaging,its pretty kool.....hows that geil though? pretty sweet huh?....peace

 

rugripper

Just imagine an 8 gig RAM drive with windows and your paging file on it and everything else running on three 74 gig Raptors in a RAID O. LOL