Needing Abit of advice

[thrappuccino]

Well, recently upgraded to a new and improved PC that I am very happy with. But now needing to spice it up a bit. Been running it default spec's since I put it together and need a little help in how to fine tune her. I am not to knowledgeful will the inerds of the PC suchas the Vcore and voltages. Don't want to frick anything up with me trying to learn it on my own.

Here is a roundup of the components I am working with at the moment.

Abit AN7 nForce2 Ultra 400
Athlon XP 3200+ 400fsb
Gigabyte 6600GT AGP 8X
Thermaltake Volcano 11 Xaser Edition
1GB Kingston HyperX PC2700 (2-2-2-5) 512 x2
Thermaltake Silent PurePower 420W
WD 80GB SE 8MB

Let me know where I should head with these goods...

[danrok]

To start, download CPU-Z. You can get the latest version here at AOA:
http://files.aoaforums.com/code.php?file=2219

The file is from here:
http://www.cpuid.org/cpuz.php

This will allow you to easily see how your CPU and memory are set-up. This is the tool most overclockers use.

Once you've done that let us know what CPU-Z reports. You can always post-up a screen shot.

[Exile69]

Uh oh. Return that memory ASAP and get some DDR400 (PC3200). It should be around the same price.

[thrappuccino]

I hope this works.... I think I attached the screens on my CPU and Memory from CPU-Z

[IMG]C:\Documents and Settings\Rithrall\My Documents\My Pictures\CPU Shot.JPG[/IMG]

[IMG]C:\Documents and Settings\Rithrall\My Documents\My Pictures\Memory shot.JPG[/IMG]

[thrappuccino]

Here is a retry for the photo...

[Exile69]

See how your CPU is running at 200Mhz FSB? Well, you want your RAM to run at that same FPS. With PC2700 RAM it's set to run at 166Mhz, so it's bottlenecking your system unfortunately. PC3200 RAM is set to run at 200Mhz and should ensure the best performance possible with that processor.

[danrok]

At the moment you are using a memory divider. i.e. memory and FSB are not in sync. FSB is 200 MHz and memory is 166 MHz.

On Athlon XP systems it is better to run them at 1:1 to avoid any loss in performance.

You need to get them at the same speed of say 166 MHz and then gradually increase them together.

Hopefully your memory may run at something close to 200 MHz. You'll need to discover the upper limit by making small speed increases and testing for stability with each change.

You can always increase the vcore voltage. You should be safe up to 1.8v with good air cooling.

[QSDT]

Hi we have similar systems you will need at least DDR400 as everone is telling you. Also get the latest Bios as it solves the problems the AN7 has when you change the multipliers but 11.5x still won't work but the rest do. I can walk you through the Bios setup if you want.