The New AMD Building Thread

Thanks, Russ.

 

NP! Glad to be of help!

 

Well Folks,
My AMD 7750BE/Gigabyte 790GX Build is complete and final. I've done all the twiddling and fiddling with it I'm going to do until it's time for a Phenom II. I've spent some time playing around with the AMD Overdrive and the controls for the ACC. I actually got it to boot at 3.7GHz, at less than 1.50v and run windows. Still, I would need a larger CPU Cooler as it idles in the mid to high 30s and gets past 50C under load. Still, on a positive note, it didn't crash!

I still have an awful lot to learn about AMDs, as this is the first one I ever built for myself! My total cost for everything, minus my hard drives (I already had them) was $527 including Tax and Shipping. I've since added a Scythe "Kama Bay" fan that takes up 3 of the 5 Optical Drive bays. I only use 2 ODDs anyway and it does a great job of supplying more cool air to the memory and CPU cooler.

How did my choices work out? The Cooler Master Centurion 534 is a great case, although I did add a new rear Silverstone 120MM 53 cfm, 1200 rpm Blue LED fan and moved the one that came with the case to the front to better cool the HDDs as an intake. I also added a Silverstone 80MM adjusted to 1200 rpm, to the side cover as an exhaust and the Scythe Kama Bay 33 cfm, 850 rpm fan as mentioned before.

The GigaByte MA790GP-DS4H is everything I expected and more, combined with the 7750BE and 4GB of Corsair Dominator memory, all worked together as expected. The CPU cooler is the new Freezer 64-Pro which has a re-designed fan and is much quieter than my old Freezer 7 Pro was on the E6750. I have to mention that Kool & Quiet has it all over Q-Fan, as speed changes are almost instant. The CPU temp goes up and the fan speed goes up instantly with it! It all works to keep everything nice and cool.

The only problem I ran into was the two Lite-On DH-20A4P-04 ODDs. One was so loud that it actually would drive you out of the room. The other Burned one disk and it was a failure. I replaced them with two Pioneer DVR-116DBKs, and one of them developed problems in less than a day. That's three ODDs in less than a week! LOL!! Since I've only had to replace one in the last 3 years, and that one still had 3 days left on the warranty, three in less than a week seems a bit high. Since the replacement worked fine and Newegg told me to throw the defective one away, I decided to see if I could repair it. I was pretty sure that it had a bad connection where the IDE socket is soldered to the interface board as if I unplugged it and plugged it back in again, it would work for a while and then crap out again. I've burned a dozen DVDs with it, all scanned at 95% Quality with Nero, so I would say it's fixed! LOL!! So now I'll keep the new one for a spare!

So far I've had no issues with the on board HD-3300 graphics, and I can't wait to get my Sceptre widescreen back, as it's out getting a new screen. I finally wore the old one out after more than 2 3/4 years, mostly 14-17 hours of daily use! For my $100 I get all new guts including a new S-PVA/MVA panel to replace the old one. I should have it back this week! I can't wait!

The bottom line, is that I love my new computer. It does everything I use a computer for, and is mostly better or as good as my E6750. My games look and play better, and DVDs look stunning. My encode times have gone down, and in spite of having two more fans, it's quieter than the E6750 was. The fans move plenty of air, and the cooling is top notch! At $79.99, the case w/460w PSU was an absolute bargain! It's tool-less and has features that aren't usually found on cases in this price range. Everything except the front panel controls was a single plug in. I even had my choice of AC-97 sound or HD sound on the same cable. It just plugs in! It really looks sharp, and the Kama Bay fan perfectly matches the look and color of the case. Since I was on a budget of $650 total for the build, and I wanted my widescreen fixed, I shopped very carefully, without giving anything important up. I wanted a NZXT Lexa Blackline, but it and a decent PSU would have put me over my budget, so I wisely chose the Cooler Master Centurion 534 instead. A very happy choice as it turned out!

Oh! It was also a very happy experience for me as well. I've wanted to do a serious AMD build for about 3 years now, and I've finally done one! I am so glad I did!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

I don't remember any problem with speedstep and fan speed not being instantaneous. Run a stress test on my system for instance and the fan speed instantly jumps to full.

 

Yes, but it's no where's near as linear, either up or down. Speedstep is at best annoying, and somewhat hurts performance results when benchmark testing! That's why we always tell people to turn it off when running benchmarks.

Besides I thought that I was discussing Kool & Quiet vs Q-Fan in performance. I don't think I said there was any problem with Speedstep to begin with! In my eyes, Kool & Quiet is superior to Q-Fan. In all fairness, there's quite a bit more to Kool & Quiet's workings as more information is used to determine fan speeds than with Q-Fan. I've only managed to get the CPU Fan running at it's max of 2200 RPM once. That was before I got done working out the fan arrangements and adding the Kama Bay. I haven't seen it go over 2000 RPM since In spite of drawing more power with a 95w chip vs my 65w E6750, all my case fans run at 1200 RPM, except the Kama Bay, which is 850 RPM, and the overall cooling is much better than it was with my P35/E6750! The New Freezer 64 Pro has a quieter fan than the Freezer 7 Pro, doesn't spin as fast at maximum speed. It moves 5 CFM less air, yet manages to cool better. The Freezer 64 Pro maxes out at 52C while stress testing with Orthos, a full 10C less than the than the Freezer 7 Pro managed with the E6750 under the same Stress Test conditions. While the case fans may help some, Kool & Quiet does the rest!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

The Freezer 64 Pro is the same cooler as the Freezer 7 Pro with a different mount, I'm near certain. The MX-2 will help a few degrees, but I think you're getting similar results because the voltage increase you used for the E6750 was higher than what you've used for the X2 isn't it?

 

Sam,
Essentially they are the same although the base of the 64 is slightly larger and it weighs a little more, and the fan is about 40% quieter!

As far as the voltage goes, the higher voltage was true of the original E6750, but the new one only required 1.425v for 3.55GHz. I have the AMD set to 1.47v, as read in Everest. I guess that the fans, general airflow within the case and any other factors just all work well the way I have things set up. As soon as I finish this post, I'm going to add an inside duct to the lower side fan to see if I can cool the NB/Video better.

Update on the duct! It works! 2C cooler on the NB/Video cooler! CPU maxed out at 47C running Orthos for 20 minutes, and the NB/Video was right behind it at 46C. Outstanding!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

INFO FOR FIRST TIME BUILDERS

Hi Guys, Finally got some time to post about my build, I did say before I was gonna do it on the PC Build thread but I might as well do it here as just about everybody that visits the PC Build thread also visits here, besides it was an AMD build and with mostly Russ's help it's only appropriate.

As everybody here already knows this was my first build, doing a first build is no big deal to most on threads like this, but when you know absolutely nothing techie it is. I know my explanation of my adventure will most likely be boring to most, but this post is not aimed at them, I want to explain to many people like myself that I would never venture or even comprehend that doing a build would even be possible to people like myself, I want to explain in the best way I can in the most novice way what is involved in a way most of us computer dummies can understand.

If you never used a computer before for anything it's a no brainier, use a PC for a least a couple of years to get the basics, and at least in the second year do a lot of reading, googling for info and most of all find a good forum with good people, there are many out there that are decent, some ok, but mostly bad, use your common sense and pick out good people, as a computer dummy do not give up on rude impatient people that want nothing to do with novices, and just because of that do not stop asking questions, sooner or later you will find a good person that will have the patients do deal with you providing you do as your told, don't be lazy, don't make your helper do everything for you, you will run into big problems with the advanced computer people they use a lot of acronyms, you will get lost in them, you can google most, just be aware even info on googling many times after reading an explanation you can still be lost, don't be afraid to ask your a helper again, explain you tried but still don't get it, this is just plain common courtesy, a helper will go further out of his or her way knowing you at least gave it a shot, and don't forget about the old please and thank you. I always start with that, as a last resort with really rude people I do not hesitate to type in they can kiss my behind, just don't ever be a smart ass at first, other wise you will get unloaded really quick and rightfully so. After years of joining and reading different forums my final choice was AD, and hey I'm not kissing ass here either just because it's my forum, that is not my nature, it's my choice cause it deserves it, sure you will find creeps here also that you will find them anywhere you go, but these people know their stuff and some will go over and beyond, and if you can find a handful your lucky, with AD I have.

It's not just acronyms you need to learn, hell I still can't comprehend most of them, but enough to get by, pay attention on how these people explain things, you will get info about every conceivable kind of parts for PC's on what they are, what their for and how and why they work. You will get a lot of info on crappy parts and good ones and don't forget their will be different opinions, that's just human nature. Your head is gonna spin on all the different parts and different ways to build, don't let that get you down, just keep on reading, little by little things start coming together in your head and by asking questions you will go further.

Don't forget, I am in no way or ever will be a geek on this subject, I always try and to use the old USA baseball term, I have been in the dugout for years, after joining and reading these build threads with help I'm finally at bat, if that bearded guy upstairs can help me reach 2nd base some day that would be my milestone even though I will be just as pleased standing on first, something I never thought I could achieve, 3rd base you will find some guys here, to me that's a Russ, Sammy and some others in this category, reaching home plate, well that's MIT stuff, I'm not even gonna touch that.

If and when you get to bat, than yes I think you can give building PC a shot, but just remember, if you know nothing about electronics like myself do not and I repeat do not try it on your own, seek some guidance, if your lucky enough to have somebody guide you physically your in great shape, or at the least by phone even though the latter can be frustrating and time consuming to both you and your help, as a last resort doing it by mail or forums will take forever, but you better choose one of the options cause unless your rich and have the time and patients of jobe you will screw things up.

I was lucky enough to get great advise on my build with these AD building threads and really scored big time finding somebody like Russ who helped me to no end at more ways than one, this is what I meant if your lucky enough to find and pick someone that's compatible to your kind of thinking, than your off to the races, I was able to hook up with Russ by phone and mail as he picked out most of my parts about 90% of them a couple things I picked on my own, he knew what I was interested in and what my needs were, actually my build is almost exactly like his, he's a little more advanced in parts but mainly almost identical, I was lucky because his build was the kind that really meet my needs plus the big option of him helping with mine because is was almost like a blueprint when I had questions and that was a big help.

You can also say I kinda cheated on my first build but that's ok, I was lucky enough to get help from a guy named Boris, he works for some corporate outfit that fixes and maintains other corporate PC's and does repair work on PC's on the side, I meet him thru his sister that I knew, when I was looking for a computer repair man when our PC broke down, he has fixed our problems during the past couple of years which was a God sent to us, cause we use to get ripped by people like bestbuy or other PC repair shops, their prices were always unbelievable, stick a gun to my head why don't you.

I was surprised he offered his help which I jumped on no charge, I did kind of wonder why, well because he never actually built a PC on his own using parts from places like newegg, he uses them for repair parts but never a complete build, he did laugh at me, why do you need all this fancy stuff he would say e.g. like a better cooler etc. don't forget he's eastern European anything fancy to them is wasting money, they are fine with the basic's, you have to understand the eastern European mind, I'm of Ukrainian decent myself that came here when 2 years old, even though I'm an old broken down retired 60 year old construction worker my parents mind set was just like his but that's another story.

I was invited to his basement, it looked like a PC junkyard, and I'm not downgrading that, I thought it was cool, I layed out all my parts and we went to work, I have to admit he kind of took over a little bit, I really wanted to place every single part on my own, he thought it would be best if I closely watch on some things e.g. the mobo and the CPU, the motherboard and the processor to those that don't know like I didn't for a long time, figuring out how the mobo was applied on my own would have taken me a long time to figure out, don't forget, the instructions mostly were not pictured, reading about what hardware goes where and you don't know the proper names what certain screw are called or those brass inserts that separate the mobo from the side of the case I would have been lost on my own amongst many other things, I always said I'm a show me guy not a paper instructions reader, I'm just so grateful Boris was with me.

After the mobo was applied things really speeded up after that, he carefully let me do many plug-ins with explanation and gave extra help inserting the hardrive, ram, and the DVD-writers, he didn't like the self locking slots, to fancy for him even though to me they looked and felt tight, he still made me screw them in, to fancy for him I guess lol. the CPU he made me watch even though that looked easy just don't make a mistake with that, just a little mistake with that and a hundred bucks is right out the window, I ordered the wrong cooler for the CPU, it was a cooler for Phenon models which mine was not, that was ok cause we used the stock one besides Russ helped me later on getting the proper one. Besides Boris was kinda happy to use the stock one, he hates non factory coolers, said their a pain in the ass, and they are I'll get to that later. I applied the paste and he applied the fan cooler, it was pretty easy, now all the hardware was in. But now came the hard part.

Now it was time to load up windows and look at the so called bios, let me tell you something, even if you are electronics savvy and you know nothing about the bios, you are out of your league, if you are somebody like me there is absolutely NO WAY your gonna figure that out on your own, you better have help cause you don't know what you might run into, and we did run into a problem, for some reason we could not get past the Verifying Pool Data screen, I don't know if I can explain this right but I'll try, first he thought my hardrive was bad, a 250gb WD, luckily he had a box of brand new 160gb WD's, he installed the 160 and it would work, he than took out the 160 and tried the 250 again, no-go, got stuck at the DMI screen again, he than put back the 160 and again no-go, he opened another 160 it was a go, than took it out and re-inserted it again and than again no-go, he than took another 160 and it was a go, we could go past the DMI screen, than he left it in, but decided to install my 250 as the secondary hardrive and both worked and that's the way we left it.

We went nuts over that, we still could not figure out why that was happening, hey you guys chew on it for a while lol. It's ok cause I wound up with two hardrives something I kinda wanted anyway I just ordered him another one.

We finished with windows, loaded the drives for the mobo and CPU I think it was and we were done, everything was working like a charm, even Boris admitted, damn this thing is fast in his broken English kind of way, we were kinda tired, we started at 5pm and finished at 11pm, I thanked him big time and he said thanks also cause he said he had fun, at home I still had some modifications to do on my own with some extra fans as Russ has suggested and he told me which cooler to get.

The next day I started to do all my applications, like windows updates, anti-virus, anti-spyware software etc. Of all the PC's I ever owned e.g. loaded up all the window updates took at least 2 hrs or more, this sucker loaded up in 40 minutes, all 120 of them, I was amazed, on top of also not having to get rid of all the that crap store bought PC's come with, that was a huge plus, of course after I loaded my anti-virus (AVG) and my spysweeper things slowed down just a little but I expected that, everything still runs superfast, maybe not by you guy's standards but for sure mine, many of you guys have better boards, CPU's, overclock etc. that's another day for me.

By the time the weekend came my new cooler came in, I already had the extra fans, this is where Russ came thru for me big time, I got Russ on the horn, I had the PC on the table with the side panel off and my little anti-static wristband on, I was on my own so to speak and chancing nothing other than having Russ on the phone.

Let me tell you Russ stayed on the phone with me for a couple of hours, un-installing the stock CPU fan was a little nerve racking, installing the new one was big time nerve racking, and don't laugh, Russ laughed enough for everybody here, it took me an hour to get that sucker on, first I know how delicate the CPU is, I was sweating bullets, I had to get a headband cause I was sweating drops on the mobo, it wasn't from heat, it was from nerves, I could not get that sucker aligned properly, I would hook up one end and every time I tried to hook up the other end the than the other end would come off, I had Russ on the Speakerphone he was laughing his ass off, you dirty dog lol.

No matter he finally got me thru it, don't forget what I said before, explaining things over the phone is not like having somebody next to you, he also guided me on how to install the extra 3 fans, switching the back fan to the front, replacing the back fan with the one I ordered along with the extra side fans, I had a hell of a time trying to figure out which wires got plugged in where even with Russ on the horn, trying to explain what wires get plugged to where on the phone was a trip, we went back and forth a dozen times at least before I figured out where he was talking about, my wife in the background screamed you must be driving your buddy mad cause by now she was pissed at all the questions I was throwing at Russ lol. Russ just hung in there laughing and got me threw it finally, I plugged everything back and it ran like a charm, man I thought I was the s@#t.

The next night I called Russ again and he helped me with all the new bios settings, because his system was almost identical to mine that came pretty easy even over the phone, just don't forget, I would have never done that on my own, that is something I might never do on my own, I wanted to give an overclock a shot just a little, Russ said Fred it sounds like you are really happy with the speed your getting if so don't mess with it, point taken. He helped me download some heat info sites that gave me heat information on different parts of the PC and explained how to use them, he asked to check the temp by hand, everything was cool on all sides, I felt no heat anywhere, everything was running cool and most of all even with all those fans on the PC was quite as hell, I had to take a close look to make sure the fans were running and that was important to me, I hate noisy PC's.

I just have one exhaust fan to install Russ recommended that just came in today and will call him again on the weekend. The outcome on all this, again this post is really meant for people like me, and believe me for the longest time I never thought I was capable of doing something like this, but don't forget I had help, I say I think I will still need help again to put another one together which I will in the future, now that I did some and saw a lot it will be easier the second time, maybe the third time I would attempt it all by myself with maybe phone or e-mail help if needed, I was always scared to do this, never thought it could be done by someone like myself, because the guys on the PC building and AMD thread is why I gave it shot, they gave me the confident's, never again will I EVER buy a store bought PC, as scary as it was it was also a delight, actually this PC really is not for me, it's for my kids cause I screwed up theirs trying to install extra ram and they are elated with it, my daughter didn't think I was gonna pull it off, I could see she was proud just didn't mention it lol, my son is coming home for short early spring break this weekend, he can't wait to see it, he has built several at RIT with instructors there of course, I want to show him Dad is the s*#t now.

Before I go I want to apologize for this lengthy post, I really want this aimed at people like me, I wish somebody wrote a post likes this when I first had a thought about making a build I think it would have put me at ease little, cause believe me, if I can do this anybody can just read everything I wrote read carefully.

And last I want to thank everybody that helped me here at AD, that didn't make me feel stupid with all my so called stupid questions, of course Boris for his big help, but most of all Russ that spent so much time with me on these threads, e-mails and the phone, besides gaining his knowledge I also gained a great new friend, THANK YOU RUSS AND EVERYBODY ELSE.

 

Fred,
As far as I'm concerned, you hit a home run with your build! Very entertaining too! LOL!! I do want to point out my chief reason against playing with overclocking. The computer is for his Daughter, who's computer died a horrible death in the middle of a memory transplant! She needs it badly and since it wasn't going to be overclocked anyway, best to leave it be!

Don't feel so bad about the Daughter's computer Fred, I just went 6 rounds with the same model, and you have my sympathy! They do make the memory almost impossible to get at. Even if you unplug everything, there are still wires in your way. It also has some of the sorriest memory sockets I've ever seen. Cheap does not do these sockets justice, so it wasn't entirely Fred's fault as it took me 6 tries to get the memory properly seated! I didn't get any smoke, but I sure got a lot of loud beeps the first 5 ties! So take heart Fred, it wasn't anything you did!

Russ

 

I quite agree creaky. I had a good time reading that and it made me feel all good inside to know that we (Russ and Fred's friend really) got him thru that and he has a GREAT new computer.

Good on you Fred.... Keep up the learning and be sure to wear those wrist and head bands to prevent unnecessary leakage.

...gm

 

I remember you using auto fan speed control on the Intel, is it perhaps more agressive on the AMD? (Even if the cooler maxes out at a lower speed, and therefore noise level, does it ue a higher speed for the same load?)
If not, then the bigger block size of the AMD chip must help considerably - only makes sense, as look how hot the Athlon XPs got with their tiny footprint. It's either that, or your case is cooled better than the last one...
Man, I remember back to when I used to get temperatures like yours.... haha. hen i remembered, when I ran one X2 in only the bottom slot and my CPU at stock clocks, I practically did!
One thing I do find myself critical of Gigabyte for is the chipset coolers. Apart from the incendiary P5N-E SLI, Asus do seem to do a better job - the coolers on the Maximus II and Rampage Formula are giant - then again, they're so giant and heavy, they practically turn the boards into a U-shape.
I can't help but notice the X48T-DQ6 has a wider northbridge cooler than my DS5. I wonder if I'd have better luck with voltage increases with that board, without needing a ludicrous side fan.

 

Sam,
I did play around with the MB headers and the fans for a bit, but this is the first build where I've made use of all but one of the headers. I don't use the SYS2 Fan, and it's control is turned off in the setup. I tried it with the front fan, but I think they are designed for faster turning fans. My rear, front and lower side 120mms are all 1200 rpm fans. The Kama Bay is 850 rpm and the 80mm Silverstone is set to 1200 rpm, and is the only adjustable fan in the computer. The fan in the Freezer 64-Pro is 300 rpm slower than the Freezer 7, at 2200 rpm vs the 7's 2500, and seems to run about 300 rpm faster than the 7, yet manages to run cooler. As I said, I ran Orthos for about 20 minutes and the highest the CPU got was 47C, and the NB/Video was 46C.

Doing the same test with the E6750, I would see a maximum of 62C. This one is 15C lower. I've noticed this before with Oxi as there's no AC in the front of the house. The CPU idle temp is normally a little higher at idle, but as the temps go up, both AMD's seem to cool better and don't get near as hot under load as the Intel's do

The duct I added was one of the 80MM CPU air ducts that come with most cases. It's mounted to the lower side fan on the top rear corner, and seems to help lower the NB temp 2 or 3C.

I do agree with you on the heatsinks. I haven't figured out what GigaByte has in mind with the smaller heatsinks on the less expensive MBs, but the Heatpipe coolers for the NB and the VRMs on this one work extremely well, and are barely warm to the touch, and no where near as warm as the standard heatsinks get. The Kama Bay Fan acts like a wind tunnel, as it's enclosed on all 4 sides, and helps cool the memory, supplies cool air to the CPU cooler and the VRMs. It basically is a duct 5" x 5.75" x 6" deep, and is perfectly in line with the CPU cooler. When you look in the front of the Kama Bay, you can see all the way through the CPU cooler to the rear of the case. The center hubs of both fans line up perfectly dead center to each other when you are looking through the front.

With this build I decided to install a quiet fixed 1200 rpm Silverstone FN121-BL 120mm Blue LED Case Fan for the rear. It's 53 cfm is more than enough airflow, and it's very quiet. I don't like the lower side intake fan, as it doesn't seem to do much of anything, and the external louvers have such a shallow angle, that they don't allow enough airflow through them. I guess if you had a video card in it, it should help cool it. Still, with the duct I added, it now does something useful! LOL!! Overall, I'm happy with the cooling!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Don't forget your freezer 64 pro is new. My Freezer 7 started at 2500 max, then sped up to 2700 after a few months.
The reason for the low temps in your system are that AMD's chipsets are more power efficient than Intel's.
As for AMDs generaly being cooler running chips than Intels, that's rather a sweeping statement, and to be honest, I don't believe it.

 

Sam,
What I mean by that sweeping statement is the two I have do not get as hot as any of the Intel's did. I think that 47C is extraordinary with Orthos running like that. With the E6750, the CPU temp would get to 62C under the same conditions. Oxi hits 52C in a much warmer room running Orthos, and it only has one 92mm case fan!!

Rus

 

Then there's something else at work here. There's just no way for a 95W chip overvolted to produce less heat than a 65W one overclocked by the same amount. I'm not saying I don't believe you, but presumably the way your system is set up now is much better than the Intel system, be it the better base on the cooler, better thermal paste, a more suitable case, less internal heat (you've removed your 7600 in favour of integrated right?) and better fan placement, but to say the 95W 7750 runs cooler than the 65W E6750 just isn't right. What's more, you're also comparing an older chip, broadly saying the AMDs run cooler than the Intels makes even less sense compared to the X2 7750's rival, the E5200, as that only uses 50W instead of the 65 the E6750 uses (and by the way, the E5200 is a faster chip than the 6750)

 

Sam,
All I can say is that I've told you everything I've done to it. I installed the Freezer 64-Pro with the same MX-2. In fact, it comes pre-applied on the 64!

The older chip I am comparing is a modern 65nm, 65w, socket AM2 4800+ in Oxi, and it's heat characteristics are about the same as the 95w 7750 in terms of temperatures, Despite temperatures in the mid 90s in the summertime, Oxi runs quite cool. I've switched off the Swamp cooler and let the temperature get above 95F/35C, and the highest CPU temperature I got was 48C stress testing with Orthos! And right at 38C at idle! I guess the case ventilation is the key to my 7750s low temps. Very strange as it has positive pressure??? 90 cfm going in with 3 30 cfm fans, and 83 cfm going out with 1 120mm 53 cfm and an 80mm at 30 cfm also blowing out! Maybe I've learned something new! LOL!! Maybe it doesn't have to work as hard with positive air pressure to get the heat out of the case. These are the lowest temps I've seen to date, and I'm not going to fool around with it to try and figure out why!

As far as the E5200 goes, it will overclock higher than the E6750, but at the same clock speed, the E6750 will eat the E5200 for breakfast because of it's 2MB of L2 Cache, vs the 4MB of the E6750. The same thing was true of the E4300 vs the E6750. At the same clock speed (3200) the E6750 was just a hair over a second faster in SuperPi 1M! In fact I posted it!

Right now I'm having Ati driver issues. I've downloaded the latest video drivers from GigaByte, and it now shows 1680x1050, but the screen is all skewed to the left and down and my first row of icons are cut in half and can't be restored to the desktop. The DVD video seems choppy every time the scene pans. I've been reading tons of reports of this on the internet, so for now I've got it set to 1280x768, as that seems to render things properly, and I'll call Gigabyte on Monday and see if they have any answers. If they don't know I'll call Ati! Why is it that Ati always has driver issues? We're talking about DVD Video here, not games or anything fancy. The DVDs play better on a 7 year old compaq laptop I just repaired, with 256MB of memory, than it does on mine! It's not Power DVD 7, as it does the same thing using WMP-11!

Russ

 

Not the case actually, the wolfdale's better architecture over the conroe means that even both at stock clocks (2.53 for the 5200 vs 2.66 for 6750) the E5200 is the better performer in almost all applications.
As for the driver issues, I have never encountered that issue. Which catalyst did you install?

 

Sam,
That's true. I forgot, "Wolfdale"! LOL!!

As far as the Ati problem, I installed the drivers that came with the motherboard, and when I hooked up my monitor, it doesn't see it and has no corresponding resolution for it! No 1680x1050, it topped out at 1600x1200. I also downloaded the latest drivers from GigaByte and tried them. It shows 1680x1050, but when I select it it skews the screen to the left and down. It also cuts the first row of icons in half and you cannot restore them to the screen. That tells me it's the video, not the monitor! I may well have to re-install XP-Pro again just to pick up the monitor! It always showed the make and model in the hardware manager before! Now it just says "Default Monitor"! There's probably a driver that's no longer in the system, because it's looking for one and it was always there before and apparently isn't now! If that doesn't work, the MB is going back, and I'll try once more. Actually, I just realized that Newegg will replace it, so if I don't have answers on Monday from GigaByte or ATi,
I'll RMA the MB and they can pay for shipping both ways!

Russ

Update on the Video! If you move a small window around the desktop fast, it doesn't stay whole! It breaks in pieces. Sounds like a video driver problem to me! No driver for the DVI either. If I plug in both to try to switch back and forth between D-SUB and DVI, Where XP normally starts, the screen goes blank. If I unplug the DVI, it works on the VGA Cable, but totally lacks video acceleration. It's running a generic XP Driver, not ATi's!

JRS

 

The problem is that it is panning, move the cursor to the edge of the screen ad it will probably move (unless panning has been turned off in the driver settings). This usually occurs when the maximum supported resolution for the monitor (as far as the driver is concerned) isn't what the monitor can actually display. To fix this, go into Catalyst Control Center, and then to displays manager, and click detect displays. There may also be an option there about EDID, which should be enabled.

I generally only see this problem when using VGA.