Note to Paul and Others

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bill Anderson
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Bill Anderson

A couple of weeks ago or so I rebuilt my computer based on Paul's
recommendation of a P4C800-E coupled with a Northwood P4 and 2x512MB
PC3200 DDR memory 3-3-3-8. And I struggled to get it to work right.
Boy did I ever struggle. The new mbo doesn't like SCSI. Not at all.
Not a bit. Not even a little bit. But finally I gave up trying to
make the board do what it didn't want to do, bought myself a new IDE
CD/DVD burner to replace my SCSI CD burner, bought myself an S-ATA drive
to free-up an IDE plug for the new burner, figured out how to trick the
system into accepting my other SCSI devices, and finally finally finally
got everything running. Finally.

And you know what? This is a GREAT system I've got. I mean I upgraded
from a P4T-E with a 2.8 Ghz P4 (yes, really, 2.8, don't argue) with a
gigabyte of RDRAM, which really should have been a fast system as it
was, but this new system -- golly! At long last I can surf the web as
I've always wanted. No delays of any consequence. I have a high speed
cable modem connection and holy cow, I just click on a link and there I
am. It's incredible!

I play few games anymore, but a few days ago I loaded the new Myst game
-- Myst IV. In the old days games with video were choppy, but now
everything is smooth as can be. It's like watching TV. I have an ATI
All-In-Wonder 9600 XT video card.

And speaking of that, editing video, which I do on a pretty regular
basis, has become so fast and easy.

I know it's not just that I've gone from a 2.8 Ghz processor to a 3.2
Ghz. That's not a huge increase in clock speed. The performance gain
I'm experiencing has got to be due to more than that. The new memory
running in dual channel, linear? I dunno. I dunno. But I sure am a
happy camper. Very, very happy.

Thanks to Paul and the others who helped me through this!
 
To be honest..

If you didnt have broadband before then that is what your seeing different.

I had a p75 on my network a couple of years ago, and it could open up
webpages as fast as my axp3200+ ..

Granted some might try to compare the two as equal but hey.
 
rstlne said:
To be honest..

If you didnt have broadband before then that is what your seeing different.
Click to expand...

I've had broadband for at least a couple of years. But thanks for the
comment anyway.
 
Bill said:
And you know what? This is a GREAT system I've got. I mean I upgraded
from a P4T-E with a 2.8 Ghz P4 (yes, really, 2.8, don't argue) with a
gigabyte of RDRAM, which really should have been a fast system as it
was, but this new system -- golly! At long last I can surf the web as
I've always wanted. No delays of any consequence. I have a high speed
cable modem connection and holy cow, I just click on a link and there I
am. It's incredible!
Click to expand...

I'm truly amazed that this kind of system speed makes any difference
at all to web surfing speed. I have a P4-2.4G P4PE running side by
side with my P3-800 P3V4X on a broadband connection and I don't notice
any difference at all when surfing. Nor would I expect to ... internet
delays must be at least an order of magnitude greater than delays due
to system speed (or lack).
 
Sorry Bill, but it sounds like there are issues with your P4T system... I
suggest you try a fresh install or work through the usual virus / scumware /
DNS / IP / Gateway config issues that can cause this.

- Tim
 
Bill Anderson said:
A couple of weeks ago or so I rebuilt my computer based on Paul's
recommendation of a P4C800-E coupled with a Northwood P4 and 2x512MB
PC3200 DDR memory 3-3-3-8. And I struggled to get it to work right.
Boy did I ever struggle. The new mbo doesn't like SCSI. Not at all.
Not a bit. Not even a little bit. But finally I gave up trying to
make the board do what it didn't want to do, bought myself a new IDE
CD/DVD burner to replace my SCSI CD burner, bought myself an S-ATA drive
to free-up an IDE plug for the new burner, figured out how to trick the
system into accepting my other SCSI devices, and finally finally finally
got everything running. Finally.

And you know what? This is a GREAT system I've got. I mean I upgraded
from a P4T-E with a 2.8 Ghz P4 (yes, really, 2.8, don't argue) with a
gigabyte of RDRAM, which really should have been a fast system as it
was, but this new system -- golly! At long last I can surf the web as
I've always wanted. No delays of any consequence. I have a high speed
cable modem connection and holy cow, I just click on a link and there I
am. It's incredible!

I play few games anymore, but a few days ago I loaded the new Myst game
-- Myst IV. In the old days games with video were choppy, but now
everything is smooth as can be. It's like watching TV. I have an ATI
All-In-Wonder 9600 XT video card.

And speaking of that, editing video, which I do on a pretty regular
basis, has become so fast and easy.

I know it's not just that I've gone from a 2.8 Ghz processor to a 3.2
Ghz. That's not a huge increase in clock speed. The performance gain
I'm experiencing has got to be due to more than that. The new memory
running in dual channel, linear? I dunno. I dunno. But I sure am a
happy camper. Very, very happy.

Thanks to Paul and the others who helped me through this!
Click to expand...

I just wish your SCSI experience had been better. That stuff
really should work, if Asus cared to make interworking part of
their BIOS development plans. Some SCSI cards seem to work
better than others (try the forums of 2cpu.com to find some
adventures in SCSI).

As for performance, what you might be seeing, is a difference
in memory bandwidth. Other than that, going from 2.8GHz to
3.2GHz should be good for a 14% change, and with all of the
throttling used in Windows, you would be hard pressed to see
the difference. I mean, to get some idea of how much performance
computers now have, I ran an old benchmark (Wintune97) and it
has a graphics benchmark. The benchmark runs so fast now, there
is a blur for a second and it is over. Too bad Windows didn't
work that way all the time.

With dual channel PC800 RDRAM, I think a module is 16 bits
wide, so at 800mb/sec for each signal, that is 1600MB/sec per
module, or 3200MB/sec for both channels operating together.
The theoretical speed of the P4C800-E is 6400MB/sec, so
there should be a bit of a difference there. (There are still
overheads to take into account, so the numbers cannot be
compared directly.)

An ongoing improvement in chipsets, is incremental changes in
chipset bandwidth. For example, the SATA on the 875 is sitting
on a 266MB/sec path, rather than on the normal PCI. There are
also faster paths on some chipsets, between Northbridge and
Southbridge, and these can make a difference to I/O. On the
P4C800-E, the gigabit lan interface is on a separate bus,
so that too is a slight advantage.

How is the heat output on your rig ? I have removed the
front grill on my Antec Sonata case, to improve the breathing
ability of the case. Got rid of the filter too. The temperature
inside the case dropped by 6C or so. I also replaced the 120mm
fan in the back, with a fan from a local electronics store,
that is 37.5mm deep (the usual are 25mm). But even with the
front grill removed, the fan is still starved by the resistance
of the aperture in the front of the case, so turning up the
fan doesn't help.

Have fun,
Paul
 
Bill said:
A couple of weeks ago or so I rebuilt my computer based on Paul's
recommendation of a P4C800-E coupled with a Northwood P4 and 2x512MB
PC3200 DDR memory 3-3-3-8. And I struggled to get it to work right. Boy
did I ever struggle. The new mbo doesn't like SCSI. Not at all. Not a
bit. Not even a little bit. But finally I gave up trying to make the
board do what it didn't want to do, bought myself a new IDE CD/DVD
burner to replace my SCSI CD burner, bought myself an S-ATA drive to
free-up an IDE plug for the new burner, figured out how to trick the
system into accepting my other SCSI devices, and finally finally finally
got everything running. Finally.

And you know what? This is a GREAT system I've got. I mean I upgraded
from a P4T-E with a 2.8 Ghz P4 (yes, really, 2.8, don't argue) with a
gigabyte of RDRAM, which really should have been a fast system as it
was, but this new system -- golly! At long last I can surf the web as
I've always wanted. No delays of any consequence. I have a high speed
cable modem connection and holy cow, I just click on a link and there I
am. It's incredible!

I play few games anymore, but a few days ago I loaded the new Myst game
-- Myst IV. In the old days games with video were choppy, but now
everything is smooth as can be. It's like watching TV. I have an ATI
All-In-Wonder 9600 XT video card.

And speaking of that, editing video, which I do on a pretty regular
basis, has become so fast and easy.

I know it's not just that I've gone from a 2.8 Ghz processor to a 3.2
Ghz. That's not a huge increase in clock speed. The performance gain
I'm experiencing has got to be due to more than that. The new memory
running in dual channel, linear? I dunno. I dunno. But I sure am a
happy camper. Very, very happy.

Thanks to Paul and the others who helped me through this!
Click to expand...
The drive of the older system, could pig a system down.
Either by low buffered ram, 5200rpm, spyware,virus, fragmentation, dma
not set up correctly. Then again maybe just better memory bandwith,
making the newer system scream, good luck.....
 
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