New to AMD Dual Core. Am I doing it right?

[shockwolf]

Greetings all.

I am new to dual core processors and have upgraded to one recently. My new system is:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4800+ CPU
Abit KN8 SLI Nforce 4 chipset Mobo
Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX2 1GB Video Card
Corsair 2GB PC3200 DDR400 RAM

I am running Windows XP Pro with service pack 1. I’m not sure if I’m getting the most out of it though. I should mention that I mainly use it for games and that is where I am only bothered about good performance. The overall 3dMark 05 score was 7137 on 1280 x 1024 res. Does that sound right? I would like to know whether I need Service Pack 2 and whether the 64bit edition of windows is actually necessary. Any other tips would also be appreciated.

Cheers.

 

[wahnula]

shockwolf,

You should most definitely get SP2 (and all other critical updates), as XPSP1 is no longer supported by MS. There are vulnerabilities that are wide open for attack on your machine. If you connect to the Internet you need SP2 period.

When SP2 first came out there were problems on some machines, but those have been addressed and repaired for the most part.

64-bit Windows is totally voluntary, you first need to be sure that all your hardware has WinX64 drivers available. That is the bugaboo about 64-bit, lack of driver support at the moment. If all your hardware is compliant and you want to pony up for 64-bit (it's no longer free) go for it. I'm not sure of the performance gains for gaming, but databases run better and faster with 64-bit OSes.

Since SP2 is free and DX10 on the horizon though I personally would hold off spending any money on a new OS at the moment.

Tony

 

[Ed2020]

I totally agree with Tony's advice. I would add that if I was going for a 64 bit OS then I'd hang fire until Vista has been out long enough to iron out the major flaws and then go for 64 bit version of that. If you're primarily a games player I wouldn't bother with XP64.

Ed Metcalfe.

Please do not feed the trolls.....

 

[shockwolf]

Thanx guys.

So SP2 really does help with security but will it still boost the dual core compatibilty and performance at all?

 

[NoCalAdmin]

it will help performance too. Not just on the CPU state, but overall. Your OS will not have to work through hic cups SP2 addresses and therefore your OS will run smoother.

 

[shockwolf]

That's great thanks!

I'll look into it then. The last time I tried SP2 was a while ago though and the Firewall was a bit dodgy. Even after disabling it, it seemed to still conflict with Sygate which ended up blocking my whole network and Internet access in and out so I uninstalled SP2. I guess I may need to look for another firewall if I install SP2 on my internet gateway PC too. That is unless the windows firewall has come along well since.

 

[Ed2020]

The Windows Firewall isn't bad. I'd recommend ZoneAlarm or Kerio, but the Windows one is perfectly acceptable. Better still get a decent NAT router.

If you're running a third-party software firewall SP2 should automatically detect this and turn of the Windows one. If it doesn't it's easy enough to do this manually.

Ed Metcalfe.

Please do not feed the trolls.....

 

[cdogg]

I would add that NAT and the Windows Firewall protect against "incoming" threats only. It is still a good idea, as you probably already know, to have a personal firewall like Sygate or ZoneAlarm to monitor outgoing traffic too. It's one of the first indicators you will have that you're infected with spyware or a trojan that your antivirus doesn't pick up.

As for performance, there are a lot of factors involved. Make sure you have the latest drivers for your graphics card and other hardware. I'm also assuming you have two sticks of DDR (1GB) running in dual-channel, but if you don't, that could be the cause right there. And finally, there's the hard drive. If you have pulled it from an old system more than 4-5 years old, it could be on its last leg depending on how much use it has seen. You'd be surprised on how much this component means to overall system performance. I'd consider getting a newer drive, or even better, going with a RAID 0 array with a good backup schedule (or RAID 0+1).

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[shockwolf]

I now wish I’d never bothered at all. I installed Win XP Home edition, activated no problems after expecting to have to phone up MS and downloaded SP2. Everything was going ok until I started installing Alcohol 120%. Suddenly it bluescreened and I rebooted and tried it again and the same happened again so I gave up. The motherboard suddenly needed to reinstall some of its drivers and did so but then Windows said it found an unidentified device amongst the Audio stuff. I tried reinstalling the driver for whatever it was anyway and Windows said it was already using the best driver. I tried reinstalling all the mobo drivers and audio drivers again from the CD and there was still this strange device so in the end I disabled it. Then I found that the sound wouldn’t work when I started installing games even though the sound worked fine on the desktop. I figured this must have had something to do with that odd unidentified device problem.

So I thought I’d reformat and try yet again from fresh. At this point the 2 HD’s decided to both lose their partitions and all the data along with them. I am not a happy bunny to say the least. What the hell could have caused this? A virus?

The 120GB HD is almost brand new and the smaller 80 HD for backup (not that, that did much good) is a couple of years old. My Memory is 2x 1GB sticks and one is brand new, the other is a year or so old. I just wish I’d backed up onto my external USB drive too. But one never expects 2 HD’s to fail at once do they?

I’ve just borrowed a friends rather old 30GB HD and it works fine. Slaving the backup 80GB drive to it worked but My Computer says it needs formatting when I try to access it. I’ve attempted to reformat and install Windows on the 120GB and it formats, copies setup files, says it’s successful and will reboot to continue with the installation process. Then it reboots and starts from the beginning again as though it’s not been successful at all. Then when it comes to choosing where to stick windows again it says there is already an operating system there. Well of course! It put it there and didn’t finish it off.

This really isn’t a fun Xmas in regards to my PC. Remember folks; never tinker with computers on Xmas day. It’s very unlucky.

 

[shockwolf]

Ok the thing with the hard drives is a weird one. Not exactly found out what's going on yet and I might start a new thread based on it since it's kind of a different topic. Though I have bought a SATA drive and that is working fine.

So having done that and got on with it you guys are right for recommending me SP2 afterall and I thank you. The results truely are better. I don't know why I didn't realise before but my AMD64 driver couldn't even be installed without SP2. The performance has definatley increased more noticeably so when running 3d mark 05.

Before my score was 7137

Now:

1024x768 Game Tests 11972
1280x1024 Game Tests 11338
1280x1024 All Tests 11273

So again thanx guys.