New to PC's Technical side, need advice

[XSin]

Hey all, I needed some advice regarding my Rig, I'm fairly new to hardware issues and generally just know enough about computers to tweak things and get my games running.

So my girlfriend built me a rig at the start of the year, specs to follow and I've just installed another RAM chip and wasn't really expecting much improvement, just saw them at a good price and was meaning to do it along the road to getting a new GPU anyway.

The thing is I could swear my computer is running slower now and I wanted to get advice on how to alter cpu speed and power supply distribution to see if I can get it back to normal but didn't want to jump straight in for fear of blowing the whole thing up.

So I have:

AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 2.80GHz

8Gb DDR3 Ram (just put in a second 4GB chip, made sure they were both 1333Hz)

Nvidia GeForce 9500GT (aiming to swap out for a 400 series or similar when I have the money for it and a new case since current one is kinda small)

ASUS M4A87TD EVO Motherboard

660W Power Supply

Running Win7 64bit


So really I was wondering, how do I alter the hardware settings while making sure everything stays cool (don't care about noise) and also I know you should never take the heatsink off your CPU unless you have thermal paste on hand to reapply so I haven't taken it off since it was built in Feb 2011 but should I be getting some to reapply anyway by now? Is that a regular maintenance thing?

Any and all help appreciated

 

[changerofwayz]

Use you bios to alter fan settings and CPU clock/voltage settings. You can also use a program called cpu-z to double check your cpu and RAM speeds. What motherboard do you have?

Thermal paste can last years, I know with my old rig I didn't reapply any paste for 3 years and my temps remained the same.

 

[XSin]

edited in the motherboard

 

[MrTub]

I really must recommend that you stay the hell away from 400 serie.
They are loud, hot and is power hungry like a fucker.

So I would recommend that you either buy the new 7xxx series from AMD or you wait for 6xx series from Nvidia.

Even if you do not want to buy 6xx serie I would wait cause you can expect a price drop on the 5xx serie.

If you have the original heatsink (for the cpu) then you can give up on overclocking it.

 

[XSin]

I really don't have the money to grab anything more than $250 USD and thats pushing it. When I'm looking for an aftermarket heatsink is it finding one that matches the moidel of motherboard or the CPU?

 

[changerofwayz]

Yes usually the coolers will state what cpu sockets they are compatible with. For the GPU can you not push your budget slightly to get a GTX560Ti? They run very cool and are good value for money in terms of performance.

 

[MrTub]

I really don't have the money to grab anything more than $250 USD and thats pushing it. When I'm looking for an aftermarket heatsink is it finding one that matches the moidel of motherboard or the CPU?

Can you use coretemp direct download link [http://dl.installiq.com/download/downloadpop.aspx?shortname=coretemp&a=13307&f=CoreTemp]for to cheak your temps? it might be possible that the cpu is downclocking itself cause of overheating.


Coretemps website [http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/]

 

[XSin]

I really don't have the money to grab anything more than $250 USD and thats pushing it. When I'm looking for an aftermarket heatsink is it finding one that matches the moidel of motherboard or the CPU?

Can you use coretemp direct download link [http://dl.installiq.com/download/downloadpop.aspx?shortname=coretemp&a=13307&f=CoreTemp]for to cheak your temps? it might be possible that the cpu is downclocking itself cause of overheating.


Coretemps website [http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/]

Grabbed the app, it's running at 34 degrees celcius, is there other info I should be looking at?

 

[MrTub]

I really don't have the money to grab anything more than $250 USD and thats pushing it. When I'm looking for an aftermarket heatsink is it finding one that matches the moidel of motherboard or the CPU?

Can you use coretemp direct download link [http://dl.installiq.com/download/downloadpop.aspx?shortname=coretemp&a=13307&f=CoreTemp]for to cheak your temps? it might be possible that the cpu is downclocking itself cause of overheating.


Coretemps website [http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/]

Grabbed the app, it's running at 34 degrees celcius, is there other info I should be looking at?

idle temps are not useful =) could you play a demanding gsme for perhaps 10-15 and then check your highest temp?

And btw did you cheak your motherboard instruction manual so you put the second ram chip into the right slot?

Since otherwise it's possible that you are only using single channel instead of dual

 

[XSin]

I had a look through the manual and it actually doesn't list anything about the Hynix 4gb chip, just 1 and 2 gb. It does have a listing for the Kingston 4gb chip I started with though. I'm pretty sure it's installed correctly, although the manual isn't very clear on it. Since the chips are the same size I've installed them into the channel A slots.

Also in the system management screen it lists my computer as having 8gb RAM so does that mean it's working?

Running a workout for my comp now, will bring back core temps

EDIT: Had a HoN replay going, TF2 idling for hats and 2 blurays playing for 15min, ended up at 60 degrees on all cores

 

[MrTub]

I had a look through the manual and it actually doesn't list anything about the Hynix 4gb chip, just 1 and 2 gb. It does have a listing for the Kingston 4gb chip I started with though. I'm pretty sure it's installed correctly, although the manual isn't very clear on it. Since the chips are the same size I've installed them into the channel A slots.

Also in the system management screen it lists my computer as having 8gb RAM so does that mean it's working?

Running a workout for my comp now, will bring back core temps

EDIT: Had a HoN replay going, TF2 idling for hats and 2 blurays playing for 15min, ended up at 60 degrees on all cores

Well you have two different lanes for ram, example I need to use

A1 B1 (or something like that) for to get dual channel, otherwise I would use Single channel (Which means in your case I would still have 8gb ram but you get half the bandwith if I rememeber correctly)

So it might be possible that you are using (example) A1 & A2 when you should be using A1 & B1.


I downloaded your motherboards user manual from asus and you should be using Dimm_A1 & Dimm_B1

Which means the First and second ram slot from the left

 

[XSin]

I think I have it wrong then, although my manual seems to be saying A1 and B1 are first and third but I'm gonna check the markings inside now.

It's currently in first and second so I guess I'll change it.

 

[XSin]

Well I've changed it to first and third, what's an easy way to check if they're operating properly in Dual Channel?

 

[MrTub]

You can use this program:

http://www.cpuid.com/downloads/cpu-z/1.59-setup-en.exe


And cheak the memory tab and it should show which channel

 

[XSin]

says dual, so I guess it worked?

 

[MrTub]

I guess so Have you noticed any "speedup"?

 

[XSin]

not a lot but the things that are slow are mostly due to my GPU so cant do much about that, I don't have a lot of really intensive games, mostly just got this RAM in anticipation for Skyrim xD