The New AMD Building Thread

Russ,
Im an avid Mspaint user, as well as Photoshop. Im really trying to make the switch to Photoshop completely, but darn it! Mspaint is soooo user friendly and FAST FAST FAST, that I can't help but use it when im in a hurry, which is most the time BY the way, I use the "Prt Scr" button to take a snap shot. It doesnt work with EVERYTHING thats displayed, but most things. It saves it to the "windows clipboard" in which you paste it into paint, photoshop, etc. "Ctrl V"

Bigwill,
Is this the thread your talking about?
http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/81/156289#4679781

 

@ Russ,

I think it's Prt Scrn for a full window and alt + Prt Scrn to take a shot of the currently selected window. I've never even heard of a screen grabber program. You don't need it as you can do everything in Windows without extra software.

 

Estuansis,
Do you have any idea what you just did for me!!! LOL!!! I had no idea that any window could automatically be cropped! Mspaint is so simple, I never felt the need to look. THANK YOU very much Yes, apparently ALT + Prt Scrn = current window.

 

LOL we're learning new stuff every day.

Yeah FRAPS is my main program for in-game screenies. I've tried using VLC for video screen shots but every time I get a moving mirror image of the video that goes black when I close VLC.

 

i use xfire for ingame

 

Vlc player...Meh...I would try VirtualDubMod, you can go frame by frame. VERY nice when you want that EXACT frame. Im unaware of any players that will do this. However, they're probably out there.

 

Ha ha!!! Im running my secondary right next to my primary QUAD system. Sucker is considerably louder! Its due to a 120mm fan I added myself in the PCI area. Its possible, that its rubbing the grill. QUITE obnoxious LOL! Hmmm, tried loosening the screws. Did not help. I'll look into it

Im installing windows 7 64bit RC on it as well. However, this time, its installing on the WD1001FALS! Should be very interesting LOL!

 

Hey Oman7,
I did some more adjusting in the setup! I increased the CPU NorthBridge Frequency to 11x so it's running a little over 2200NHz. I also set the HT Link Frequency to 2200MHZ. Everything else is the same! I didn't see any particular leap in any of the benchmarks, but I've go a nice fat memory bandwidth. The only real surprise id 3DMark 03. My best before with the default settings was 14692 3DMarks. Take a look at the healthy increase!



I'm going to go back and run it at 1680x1050 and see what it does! Then I'll try it with the AA turned on!

Russ

 

Oman7,
I went back and did the rest of the tests, and I am surprised!

1680x1050 no AA



I got 5245 3DMarks before!

1680x1050 AA



That's pretty amazing to me, as it scores almost as much with the AA turned on as without, at 1680x1050! It's given a healthy boost to the previous score of 7879 3DMarks. It certainly shows that something improves with my changes in the setup. Noticeable improvement in the speed of everything visual too! Windows finishes booting much quicker, and Firefox opens really fast compared to before, when you open it for the first time! I guess it shows that I'm still learning. So nobody yell at me for using 03 please, I use it because it's easier to see progress, either good or bad than it is with 06! It's faster at 06 too, but nowhere's near as much! Me Likey!

Russ

 

Very interesting results Russ! I'm sure you've said it repeatedly now but can you tell me all of your OC settings? I would very much like to replicate this with my own if I can

I'm sure the fact my own is using DDR2-800 instead of 1066 will give me different results for overall memory bandwidth. Can you think of any reason why my 7750 might not run your settings or was it simply a change of voltages and multis? i.e. no memory speed balancing act, etc.

Also, I know this doesn't apply much to you. But what kinds of gains have you seen in actual gaming with these new adjustments? Do you play anything semi-recent that has seen a decent improvement?

 

Well...I see russ is having a good time

I on the other hand, DARN IT! Windows 7 64bit is a no go. At least not without a full Disk format, and PROPER 64bit Usb Modem support. I don't believe the installation disk gives the option for full format. XP on the other hand DOES. Im figuring at current, that it will finish around 2hrs 45 min - 3 hrs, JUST to format the disk. It is a 1Tb drive after all. I dont normally do this(MUCH encoding to do), especially since I'll be picking up the 500GB AALS this week, and swapping for my brothers AAKS, to see what the heck is going on. If theres something wrong with the AAKS, it'll be going back to WD. It still has 4yrs til the warranty is up. And im 99% sure, that the HDD is causing his bottle neck!

 

I didn't mention the strangest bug of all. I dont know what caused it yet either. The bug, seemed to make windows fluctuate how much space was left on the drive. It would go from 1gb of free space left, to the proper 915gb of free space left. It would bounce all over the place. Rather unusual. Since its both a new drive, and it WAS a fresh install on a 1000Gb drive, as well as NOT having a FULL format, im not sure how to take this. Cause I SERIOUSLY doubt that its a processor or Ram issue. The Drive has just been deflowered LOL, so its probably something to do with it. I truly hope I dont have a lemon. Im gonna run some SERIOUS bench marks on it today. VERY serious!!!!

 

Man I dunno. I'm not much up-to-date on HDDs. All I know is: you get one, it works or it doesn't. I honestly don't see how there can be so much difference between 2 7200RPM SATA HDDs. AFAIK there's not that much variation. Is it because of the firmware on the drive or what? What makes them all so different? Please enlighten me

 

Far too many variables. Cache, size, number of platters, Mb/s, Firmware, etc. Gives me headaches just thinking about it LOL! Can't wait til solid state is perfected.

 

Estuansis,
Actually, I have seen a difference in all the games I do play! Everything to do with the video is faster. I'm sure if I cranked up the video's overclock, it could do 20,000 in 3DMark 03! Not remarkable to the people with top end video cards, but impressive to me for a $44 one!

Before I can give you a sense of direction, based on my settings, I need to know if your memory is EPP memory. I need to know because mine is, and I let the EPP control the memory, memory voltage and memory timings. It works better that way, and I get a wider memory bandwidth!

I'll get my notes and get back with you, just let me know about the memory first.

Russ

 

XFire is what I use for my gaming PC, but I'm not letting it anywhere near my main PC. The game search adds significantly to boot up times, and it has several bugs which interfere with other programs.
Jeff: You don't print screen VLC, that will cause exactly what you said, you click 'take snapshot' in the menu.

Russ: Interesting, but still 3dmark03, so still irrelevant.

Omega: Why not quickformat the drive? That takes 10 seconds instead of 5 hours...

 

Because I wanted it to withstand the first LONG test LOL! Besides, given the bug that occurred in windows 7, I assumed it COULD be due to not having fully formated the drive? I still don't know that much about computers LOL! Usually, I do go quick format, but given its a virgin drive...
Better that a serious problem arise during a long format, than 3 months down the road when the drive is nearly full! LOL! Im gonna run yet another long test on it here in a moment. After I install its mobo drivers, utilities, etc. These large drives still make me a bit nervous LOL. Its a lot of data to lose all at once.

 

I have never full formatted a drive out of the two dozen or so I have owned, not once has that caused me a problem. It's more a test if you suspect the drive is faulty.

 

Thanks for the info. I had a feeling it wasn't necessary. But at least I know there were no problems across the entire platter/s. Now im gonna run the other bench's

 

No problems here, in fact there was just a firmware update which improved ease of installation and overall speed. My 30GB drive is the right size for an OS drive and since I have another (5) hard drive in this machine I offload the page file, and my IE and FFox temp folders to them to decrease writes to the SSD and also to speed things up.

On topic...whats the sweet spot in price and performance now for AMD mobo+CPU. I dont think I want to upgrade to AM3 yet and I need a combo for my 17 yr old son.
I have everything else, i just need that mobo+cpu combo to finish the build. TIA