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**Yawgm0th** · 02-01-2005, 12:14 AM

Re: Newbe needs Help with Ram Configuration and Setup

Everything should work fine if you assemble the system properly. You can worry about any sort of tweaking later.

However, I'd just return most of the hardware since it's mostly a waste of money. An LGA775 system is a bad choice in and of itself, and the RAM is a colossal waste of money for someone not overclocking. At the very least, return the RAM and get something cheaper, because you won't be making use of that RAM. Newegg has an excellent return policy. The only money you've truly wasted thus far is whatever it costs to ship the RAM (and anything else) to La Puente, California.

**terc** · 02-01-2005, 01:07 AM

Re: Newbe needs Help with Ram Configuration and Setup

Originally posted by Yawgm0th

Everything should work fine if you assemble the system properly. You can worry about any sort of tweaking later...

The only money you've truly wasted thus far is whatever it costs to ship the RAM (and anything else) to La Puente, California.

Naw, I will keep it all if it will work. I was worried about the ram not working correctly but if it will then great.

I am in the process right now of putting the system together. I will be to the tweaking stage in a few hours. When I decided to go with the parts that I did I was planning for FUTURE as well as immediate needs. It may look like a waste of money NOW but if you look down the road a year or so from now I think that I made a good descision getting the parts that I did.

I was mainly worried that the ram wouldn't function correctly with the system I am building now. Though like I said I will be to the tweaking stage in a few hours. If you or anyone else can give some tips on that I would appreciate it.

Thank you for your response and concern.

**terc** · 02-01-2005, 10:34 PM

Re: Newbe needs Help with Ram Configuration and Setup

Originally posted by Yawgm0th

However, I'd just return most of the hardware since it's mostly a waste of money. An LGA775 system is a bad choice in and of itself, and the RAM is a colossal waste of money for someone not overclocking. At the very least, return the RAM and get something cheaper, because you won't be making use of that RAM. Newegg has an excellent return policy. The only money you've truly wasted thus far is whatever it costs to ship the RAM (and anything else) to La Puente, California.

Can you give me more input as to why lga775 is a bad choice? My understanding is that LGA775 was specifically designed for the prescott while the older 478 was hacked so that it would work.

I did get the system together. I need to tweak some things and the wiring but it boots and correctly identifyed the amount of ram and the hardware that I installed in it. That is BIO'S did, I haven't installed the operating system yet. I am running diagnostics on the hard drive at the moment which when complete I will then install the operating system and partition the drive and all that. Not in that order but it will get done.

I wanted a 3.2Ghz HT CPU and decided on the prescott after learning that it has the new SSE3 instructions that new software will take advantage of, which will then push it ahead of the northwood when that happens. I was directed to the LGA775 due to power and performance issues that the 478 has trouble with.

Please go into more detail on your comments. I would like to hear why you say what you did.

Thank you.

**Amd_Lover2004** · 02-01-2005, 11:15 PM

Re: Newbe needs Help with Ram Configuration and Setup

He was trying to say that you could have saved money and gained proformance in games by going with an Athlon 64 system.
AMD's are usualy better in games and almost everything but video rendering and video editing.
I dont want this to become another Intel vs AMD thread so I will leave it at that.

**terc** · 02-02-2005, 02:15 AM

Re: Newbe needs Help with Ram Configuration and Setup

Originally posted by Amd_Lover2004

He was trying to say that you could have saved money and gained proformance in games by going with an Athlon 64 system.
AMD's are usualy better in games and almost everything but video rendering and video editing.
I dont want this to become another Intel vs AMD thread so I will leave it at that.

Oh, Ok. I understand now.

Right, AMD is fantastic for games. I am not a gamer and did not design the system I built, am building around games. More for business and web design, audio editing, video editing, flash, programming and multimedia design.

I chose the core I did based on that. Did loads of research and read the benchmarks and studies.

Right, and this thread is NOT suppose to be about that at all, AMD vs Intel etc..

I just need/needed some help heard some things about this forum and thought maybe I could get some help configuring the system.

I will probably play games on it also but that isn't the purpose of the system.

Thank you for enlightening me about what he/she? meant and for your response to my thread.

**Yawgm0th** · 02-02-2005, 09:28 PM

Re: Newbe needs Help with Ram Configuration and Setup

Originally posted by terc

Oh, Ok. I understand now.

Actually, what he said isn't entirely what I meant. I would have recommended AMD for any system other than video encoding, but LGA775 is still a fairly bad choice, unless you really want to spend a lot of money. Not only does Prescott work fine on socket 478, but I wouldn't recommend Prescott unless you're positive you're going to be using a lot of SSE3-based programs, which I doubt. Northwood will actually perform better in a lot of situations, socket 478 is cheaper, and Northwood will run cooler (which is desirable whether or not you're overclocking). The only reason to go LGA775 is for some of the faster CPUs and for PCI-E. Unless you're going to be using one or the other, it's a waste of money. An 800MHz FSB 478 boards will go from $0 after rebates to $50 without rebates, unless you want a good OCing board, which is about $80-$140. A LGA775 will go for $55-$105, rebates or not. Closer to $150-$200 for the good OCers.

In any case, you seemed to have missed some things in your research. Like I said, Prescott works fine on 478, and it wasn't "hacked" to work with it. More importantly, you've purchased extremely overpriced RAM that you can't make use of with overclocking. You probably blew about $100 in that area. More, if you consider that there advantage of DDR2 isn't significant enough to justify the cost (except for overclocking, again), and oftentimes isn't an advantage at all.

In any case, money wasted or not, the system should work fine, like I said. If you're happy with the RAM and wasted money, then keep it and be happy with your system. I still say either return it, or do some overclocking. At the very least, try to run it at some better timings. With 4-4-4 RAM, you would have been better off going with socket 478 or any AMD K8 platform, regardless of the application in mind. Those latencies are going to kill you if you don't overclock or reduce them, either of which you should be able to do.

**terc** · 02-08-2005, 02:45 PM

Re: Newbe needs Help with Ram Configuration and Setup

The sysem is up and running. It works well and all the benchmarks I ran put it exactly where it should be accoding to all the other reviews and benchmarks on the net for similar systems.

On the 3d Modeling and audio/video endcoding benchmarks I ran it beat out all the systems in it's class from both AMD and Intel as well as some higher rated chips from both companies. 3dmark and SiSandra 2005.

I tried to get better latency for the ram but the system became unsatble at anything lower than 4-4-4-10. You do have to remember that the ram I got is DDR2 Pc2-5400 675Mhz ram.. Yes 675Mhz, from kingston. This ram is designed for higher latency but has higher bandwidth which compensates for the higher latency.

My mobo and cpu can not handle that high speed I realize but according to the benchmarks the ram is rating right about where pc4200 533mhz ram would be at lower latency and has higher bandwidth which is noticed by the benchmarks. SiSandra 2005 Lite, Pcmark 03 and 04, aquamark...

The system may not be the fastest on the block and it is NOT a gaming machine which is ok because I did not design it for games. I may have spent more money than I should have but so far the system is a hell of a lot faster than the one it is replacing. The video card did come with Pain Killer and it runs perfectly on the system so I guess games will run pretty good with it though that isn't it's purpose.

I took care of the extra heat of the prescott by installing an additional 120mm fan in the case and installed a Gigabyte Rocket 3D Pro cooler which combined with the 3 other fans in the case keeps the temps between 32C Idle and 54 to 56C top bore going all out of hell with average around 37 to 42C regular use though most the time is under 38C. That is for the CPU

The main board is consistant between 38 and 42C which isnt bad for air cooling.

The computers main use will be multimedia creation and webdesign. Yes I do use SSE3 software which when benched the system I built blows away all the competition in it's class and many in higher class as well. That is with SSE3 enabled software, not a lot out yet but for audio encoding which I do a lot of it kicks ass.

This was an energency build, the old computer is failing and soon would get to the point of not even booting. The components are failing and it would be cheaper and less time consuming to build a new computer from scratch than to try to repair the old system.

Maybe down the road I will swap out the ram for correct speed for my mobo and go 2 to 4GB instead of only one with the high priced ram. I am very happy with the motherboard, Asus P5AD2-E Premium cost 219.00 at newegg. I will be putting it to good use. The system is a work computer so I will be earning money with it which should pay fo itself in a few months or less which then in a year or so I can upgrade to dual cpu hopefully dual core cpu's and build a devastating multimedia system. I never purchase the newest of the new technology, I let others break it in and discover the weaknesses and make patches and updates to drivers and bios before I touch it. At least 6 months behind initial launch of the technology also by then the prices drop some so I get what others paid higher prices for at a better deal.

The main reason I went with the system I did was because for what I use the computer for webdesign, office suite, macromedia and audio/video in the reviews and benchmarks on the specific software I use and will be working with the 3.2Prescott beat out from only a little to up to 75%+ AMD.
I read 20+ benchmarks and reviews and all gave similar results. Overall the AMD beat out Intel I agree but for the specific use I will be putting the computer too the prescott beat out AMD. This is not AMD vs Intel thread and I am not saying one is better than the other. What I am saying is it depends on what it is the computer will be used for and you should buy for that particular use. Which I did in my own specific case.

I went LGA775 vs 478 socket because originally the 478 socket was not designed for the prescott. The power requirements of the prescott begin at where the 478 theoretically max's out for the northwood. Well prescott work on 478 Socket? Yes but look at all the people including namebrand builders that have had so much trouble with it.

I Decided to pay extra to get a hassle free build being since this was my first and I didn't want to have to deal with anything too out of the way of my newbe computer building skills. I spent an additional 700 to 750.00 going with the prescott LGA775, this was due entirely to the increased price of the motherboard and the DDR2 ram.

I will have this system for a good long while and the older systems I purchased in the past, parts and add-on cards became less and less available as time went on that would work with it. I extended that time with this system going PCI-E vs AGP. As far as I understand the newest cards coming out wont work with AGP and in 6 months to a year will be the price of the high end AGP cards are now more than likely.

Northwood is faster than Prescott I realize. Though I also was building for the future and PCI-E will be the main thing in the coming months to years. If I upgrade the cpu to something with 1024FSB in the future then the ram I purchased will run at 667Mhz which will then greatly improve it's efficiency and speed of the system. Everything is geared to the future with what I built. You can't really look at new technology for the distance when it first comes out, namely there isn't much software available designed to specifically work with it. When more and more software comes out with the SSE3 code then the prescott will take full advantage of it and put everything else in it's place.

This was an emergency build, I was going to build a system in 6 months but was forced to do it now. I work at home and make a living on the internet, I need a computer to do that, can't make money without a computer so whether it is a good or bad choice with what I went with it will help me earn the $$$ which I couldn't do with out it. This system should pay for itself in a few short months or less anyway so whether I paid to much now will be a mute point.

There you go the long and skinny of it.

In 7 or 8 months I will poor 15 to 20 grand into a new setup directly due to this system I built. Then you will be reading many more posts from me on how to do this or how to do that. Like will dual Zalman 7700Cu's fit on the new dual core dual cpu mobo's or whatever will be out by then.

I want to thank you Yawgm0th and Amd_Lover2004 for your responses to my questions. I hope to learn enough about this stuff to contribute more in the forums. Thank you.

**Yawgm0th** · 02-09-2005, 11:23 PM

Re: Newbe needs Help with Ram Configuration and Setup

From your description, it sounds like Prescott, and probably even LGA 775 were the right choice for this system. However,

Originally posted by terc

Maybe down the road I will swap out the ram for correct speed for my mobo and go 2 to 4GB instead of only one with the high priced ram. I am very happy with the motherboard, Asus P5AD2-E Premium cost 219.00 at newegg. I will be putting it to good use. The system is a work computer so I will be earning money with it which should pay fo itself in a few months or less which then in a year or so I can upgrade to dual cpu hopefully dual core cpu's and build a devastating multimedia system. I never purchase the newest of the new technology, I let others break it in and discover the weaknesses and make patches and updates to drivers and bios before I touch it. At least 6 months behind initial launch of the technology also by then the prices drop some so I get what others paid higher prices for at a better deal.

For starters, I wouldn't even think about 4GB of RAM. I'd say 1.5GB is the most you'd want now, and even years down the road more than 2GB will be overkill for anything but servers and really high-end workstations.

As for the dual-core CPUs, you should note you'll need a new motherboard as Intel isn't going to be supporting them with any existing chipsets (well, that's the last I heard, but that could change).

**Amd_Lover2004** · 02-09-2005, 11:56 PM

Re: Newbe needs Help with Ram Configuration and Setup

Originally posted by Yawgm0th

As for the dual-core CPUs, you should note you'll need a new motherboard as Intel isn't going to be supporting them with any existing chipsets (well, that's the last I heard, but that could change).

From what I heard Both AMD and Intel plan on releasing dual core CPU's for existing platforms(s939 and LGA775) with the possability of AMD bringing out a new socket well after Intel's new socket.

**Yawgm0th** · 02-12-2005, 11:51 AM

Re: Newbe needs Help with Ram Configuration and Setup

The socket isn't the issue; it's the chipset. Initially, it seemed Intel's dual-core would work on existing chipsets, but not long ago I read that that plan had changed and a new chipset would come out to support dual-core processors, but I'm not positive of that.

**terc** · 02-13-2005, 02:24 AM

Re: Newbe needs Help with Ram Configuration and Setup

I have heard conflicting stories on this as well. I think that a few of the first wave of dual cores will work with the motherboard I have gone with but who knows. We will see over the next year what happens, I am interested in the Cell chips that will be coming out sometime.

It won't be anytime in the near future I upgrade so it is not an issue for me now. Though I would probably go 2 gig of ram. The only reason one would go with 1.5 or some wierd number that isn't a whole number would be if they had an old mobo that only has 3 slots for ram most I have seen lately have four and that is what my mobo has.

I do lots of multimedia creation, not really a gamer though play every so often, so the more ram the better. Though with the newest revelations in the technology sector and the new chips coming out I will wait and see what comes of it and which ones fly and which ones don't.

When it comes to building my next system I won't have to rush as I did with this one. The only reason I had too was because my main system failed and was about to expire at any moment so I had to rush to get a replacement.

The next build I will sink some serious cash into it, seems like in at least 6 months from now would be the time to get a new computer with all the new chips coming out. Too bad I had to get one now. :( Oh well, it works 2 to 3 times faster at most things than my old system and that is with 41 programs running in the background. Loses out to AMD for games that is for sure but it plays the game that came with the video card pretty sweet with no cutouts or loss of frames. Pain Killer is the game... pretty sweet game but didn't build this for gaming so it wont get much play after this weekend.

Thanks to all your suggestions and feedback, most of it helped a lot.

**Yawgm0th** · 02-17-2005, 01:08 AM

Re: Newbe needs Help with Ram Configuration and Setup

The video card is more important for gaming anyway. It would lose out to the AMD equivelent in many other areas, but for the type of media work you'll be doing, this is a better system.

As for the Cell chips, if they end up being as good as they are supposed to, either AMD/Intel will make a major advance or x86 will die around 2010 or so and be replaced by Cell, which would theoretically be able to run emulated Windows much faster than any existing X86 CPUs (which is really saying something), meaning there's no reason to use anything other than Cell. That's assuming both that it's as good as it's predicted to be and that Intel and/or AMD don't come out with something better.

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