New Computer Questions

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JFogarty

JFogarty

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Ok, so I just built my new comp: ga7dx+, athalon XP 1800+, ibm deskstar 40 gig 5400 rpms(system), seagate 60 gig 7200rpms(audio). Sony cdrw/cdr.

I'm having some troubles with my hard drives. The best setting I can get them to run on is PIO4. On ata 33 and 66 the run much slower. The whole computer runs like crap on those settings. I can't even get them on ata100. If the IBM isn't capable of ata100, will that force my seagate(slaved to the IBM) to run on ata100 too? Or is this a problem of cables?

Last question, my cpu is running at 1.13 mhz. I know they don't really run at 1.8, but this seems much slower to me. Do I need to play with my voltage settings or something?

REALLY last question: what are safe temperatures for my computer to be running at?
 
1. On most motherboards the best HD BIOS setting is simply AUTO. The motherboard can usually figure it out better than the user.

2. An ATA66 drive will not slow down a ATA100 drive. However you MUST use a 80 wire, 40 pin IDE cable. If you use an older 40 wire cable you will get exactly the sort of performance problems you are describing.

3. That speed is correct. You should not have to play with the voltages.

4. I don't remember the ideal temps, but I believe they are posted at AMDs website.
 
Actually the drive should still run at UDMA/33 with a 40 pin cable, and the performance will be damn near the same as ATA/66 or ATA/100 in *most* cases, including recording (until somebody demonstrates otherwise).

The big problem is that the drive is running in PIO mode, which is definately not good. I agree that you should just set your BIOS up to auto detect drive settings.

The issue may be that one of the drives is not getting along with controller, and this could be forcing it or both of the drives to run in PIO. It could also be that you have a DMA conflict. It could also be that you need updated drivers for the controller.

Can you be more specific about the controller itself?

As far as temps go, expect your CPU to run between 35 and 55C, typically. I also haven't looked up the XP's maximum rating in a while, but it's probably over 75C. The case temperature should be <30C.

Finally, AMD got silly with their naming convention. The 1800 is supposedly equivalent to the P4 1.8Ghz. Sounds a lot like the marketing crap they used to pull with the crappy line of K6, K6-2 and K6-3 processors. Although this time they're probably closer to being correct (even if there are no real fair metrics).

Slackmaster 2000
 
RWhite said:

3. That speed is correct. You should not have to play with the voltages.
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Click to expand...


1.13 is the right speed? I figured it would run a little faster than that...



When I get home, I'll post some more info on the HD controllers.

Another question, could these problems be caused by not getting the 1 pin of the cables in the right slot on the hard drives?
 
Actually, no, the 1800 should run at just over 1.5Ghz.

Let's see here...on a typical 133Mhz FSB the 1800 would run with a 11.5X multiplier (133 * 11.5 = 1.53Ghz). If we take the bus speed down to 100Mhz, we get 11.5 * 100 = 1.15Ghz...which is about what you're running at there, right?

Make sure your system BIOS is setup to auto detect CPU. If you have to manually adjust jumpers, make sure that you have everything set right per the instructions in your motherboard manual. (Don't use my figures above as they may not apply to your configuration)

Slackmaster 2000
 
If you put the cable in backwards (e.g. pin 1 away from the power connector) then the drive won't work at all. It will spin up but it won't be detected by the BIOS and windows will not see it.

Slackmaster 2000
 
Slackmaster2K said:
Actually, no, the 1800 should run at just over 1.5Ghz.

If we take the bus speed down to 100Mhz, we get 11.5 * 100 = 1.15Ghz...which is about what you're running at there, right?
Click to expand...

DOH! It was a while ago that I built it, but thats probably it, I must have forgotten to set the bus speed jumper. I didn't think much of it, because I assumed the defalt would be 133, but that does seem like its running at 100. I'll do that first thing when i get home. I should also stop and get some IDE cable, I suppose.
 
Ok, here's where my dumbass problems were:

I took the 40 pin IDE cable from the CDROM drive and had that on the Hard Drives.

So hard drives fixed.

One dumb switch set to 100 mhz instead of 133 mhz. Processor problem fixed

btw, how do I tell what speed it is running at now?

My CPU is running at 55 celcius, and the case temp is around 30. Those don't sound that high, so i won't get a new heatsink and fan for my cpu yet. The case I got has a side fan, and its a lot quieter than I thought it would be.

Thanks slackmaster and Rwhite, guys like you are the reason this board still kicks ass.
 
I thought the XP's ran at a 266mhz FSB, no?

Also be sure to upgrade the drivers on your MOBO and the Bios. Often times older mobo's are sold as compatable with newer processors but they need the newer bios in order to switch to higher FSB and multipliers.
 
That's with DDR...which actually runs on a 133Mhz bus, just using both sides of the tick...so 133*2 = 266Mhz.

Slackmaster 2000
 
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