rec.autos.simulators

The hardware upgrade took about 1.5 hours.  Of course, I spent the next 20
hours reinstalling Windows, programs, games, drivers, etc...  Twice - I run
two WinXP bootable partitions, one for General Computing and one for ***
Only with no external hardware or other junk enabled.

By the time of the RASCAR race I had been up for 34 hours :)

Old System
------------
ABIT KG7
Athlon XP 1800+ (Boxed)
GeForce 4 Ti4400
512MB Crucial DDR2100 RAM Cass-2.5
Windows XP
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Sound Card
Intel 10/100 NIC
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus D740 80GB 7200rpm Hard Drive.
Lian-Li PC50 Aluminum Case.
Antec TruePower 433 Power Supply.
etc... etc... etc...

New System
-------------
ABIT IT7-Max2
Intel Pentium 4 2.53Ghz (Boxed)
GeForce 3 Ti4400
512MB Corsair XMS PC2700 Cass-2
Windows XP
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Sound Card
Intel 10/100 NIC
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus D740 80GB 7200rpm Hard Drive.
Lian-Li PC50 Aluminum Case.
Antec TruePower 433 Power Supply.
etc... etc... etc...

Both systems running bone-stock speeds.  No overclocking anywhere.

Note also the new system is running the RAM in stock configuration, which is
DDR-266 not DDR-333, event though the RAM supports it.

Temps - With stock boxed fan/heatsink - 45c at Idle and 58c when pushed at
100% processor for 30 minutes using Sandra's Burn-In Test.

The only problem I had during assembly was with the AGP slot.  I had the
same problem that others have noted in that it is a real *** to get the
AGP card inserted, and it does not seem to be case specific.  The only way I
could get it installed was the same way others have, and that's to loosen
all the System Board retaining screws, insert the card (it was still WAY
tight), and then***the motherboard back down.  It is clear that the AGP
slot on this System Board is not nailed down at spec.

Stability - Perfect!

On the software side, the USB drivers are tricky and you need to research
this carefully when setting up any system under Windows XP that has USB 2.0
ports.  You can destroy Windows XP if you don't.  Other than that, NO
ISSUES.

After getting it up and running, Windows XP installed, SP1 and all other
updates installed, all system level drivers installed, and getting a
Green-Board in the Device Manager, I imaged the system prior to any further
installation thus having a basic System Restore CD set.

Ok, here come the numbers!

3DMark2001se
-----------------
Old - 8953
New - 10585

Sandra CPU Arithmetic
------------------------
Old Dry - 4229 MIPS
New Dry - 4868 MIPS

Old Whet - 2127 MFLOPS
New Whet - 3099 MFLOPS

Sandra CPU MultiMedia
--------------------------
Old INT - 8446 IT/s
New INT - 9987 IT/s

Old FP - 9337 IT/s
New FP - 12415 IT/s

Sandra Memory Bandwidth
----------------------------
Old INT - 1659 MB/Sec
New INT - 2030 MB/Sec

Old FLOAT - 1584 MB/Sec
New FLOAT - 2027 MB/Sec

Hard Drive Performance
-------------------------
Both pretty much the same at just under 40MB/Sec Sustained Transfer at
larger block sizes as tested with ATTO Benchmark.

Nascar Racing 2002 Performance
-----------------------------------
It looks like I've picked up about 20-30fps +  in NR2002, and it seems to be
more fps stable with a loaded field.  It's hard to tell precisely because
over 100fps the fps meter starts flickering madly in NR2002.  I did see
150fps flash in there at times, and it probably went higher.

Running at 1280X960X16 OpenGL with all options except Anistropic Filtering,
No V-Sync and No FSAA I'm getting well over 100fps at pretty much every
track in Testing mode.

Full-Field, with full forward and rear view (42 car) and all options except
as noted above results in 30-70fps depending on the track, corner, track
conditions, etc...

Never dropping under 30fps under any circumstances is cool :)

All this is about what I would have expected if I had stayed Athlon and went
with the 2600+.

Since the 2600+ is vapor-ware, and I would have had to change motherboards
anyway (the KG7 doesn't currently support the 2600+, and it's not clear if
it ever will), I'm happy with the move.

It also shows that the Ti4400 was hampered by the AthlonXP 1800+.  The
fairly substantial increase in frame rate shows this pretty clearly.

-Larry

The 760 chipset was probably as much to blame as the 1800 itself.  a VIA
KT333 chipset.

However - to go from a 53 CPU to a 184 CPU - one should expect good
improvements - especially when the extra 1Ghz of power ( iirc a 1800+ is
1.53G )

Why didnt you go with an Athlon 2200 which would have worked in your
motherboard?  Would have been a cheaper upgrade with very similar
performance come the end of it

Doug

Unless Abit has stopped developing BIOS's for the board, you can't be
sure.  Besides, it's not Abit who won't suppport it - It's the chipset
they used that simply can't be updated beyond a certain point.

I wouldn't say the video card was "hampered" by the Athlon.  In fact, your
increase in video performance is probably more the result of the
combination of the new motherboard and the much faster CPU.  I'm sure you
would have realized a similar increase in speed with the Athlon 2200.

I made my first PC from scratch on Friday...what a coincidence :)

It was:-

Xp2100+
Asus K7V333
512 DDR 333(2700)
120 GB IBM 7200
GF4 Ti4200
 etc etc

I fired it up and all worked perfect,installations etc etc.
We tried every socket,every component etc etc...all was fine.Elation..!!

Then....
I checked that all the 8 USB sockets were working....they were.

So set about clearing up all the boxes and rubbish,then i stumbled upon the
CD that came with the motherboard.Containing Asus software and USB 2.0
drivers.

So i installed everything i though appropriate and rebooted.

Now only 2 of the 8 USB work,but within Device Manager,all is installed and
working no conflicts.

Your warning makes me think that there is something i should know about USB
2.0...??

Any ideas what i have to do...?

TIA

AD

3dmark2001se
10349

Sandra:

arithmetic:
dhry 4979
whet 2503

multimedia:
int: 9903
fp: 11488

memory:
int: 1919
fp: 1816

Achim

Plus - 150 to spend on a larger hard drive, a bigger monitor, a couple of
good nights out etc etc

Doug

    It is a shame that AMD has been missing release dates, they'd be doing
much better.  But my next cpu will be an amd, I'm still a fan of the
underdog.

rms

Plus I was in a position where I needed to buy a FireWire card and USB 2.0
card.  This took care of it all at one time.

-Larry

-Larry

I'm not even sure _I_ have it right yet (though it appears it's ok) much
less comment on a totally different board.

The IT7-Max2 complicates things a bit in that it uses the USB 2.0
controllers from both the Intel ICH4 South Bridge AND an additional VIA USB
2.0 Host Controller to provide the 10 on-board USB 2.0 ports.

I know the Intel based ports are ok.  I haven't plugged into any of the VIA
ports yet, but I have some pictures to transfer and I'll use it to be sure.

There are definetly no end of documents floating around talking about these
issues, but unfortunately they don't all say the same thing, and most don't
designate whether they are pre-SP1, post-SP1, etc...

It appears to me that Microsoft didn't help this mess much in SP1.

-Larry

Availability, for one.

And you gotta love the P4 mounting system.  It's almost impossible to damage
the processor with this thing :)

I've never broke an Athlon, but I know some folks who seem to do it as a
hobby :)

-Larry

How is your system configured?  Is everything at the bone-stock setting ?

-Larry

When I upgrade a piece, I tend to get the top-of-the-line at the time of
purchase, and my computers 'extremities' tend to transfer through several
machines because of this.  I think it saves money in the long run.

The exception is CPU's.  I usually buy the next-slowest speed available (as
I did in this case) because the 'Processor Tax' has eroded away.

-Larry

The resulting 3DMarks was 11047.

I set it back to normal afterward.  I'm not a huge overclocking fan.

-Larry

But the purpose of me uploading this wasn't to make your system look like
bad bang for the buck or something. I only uploaded this to offer a
comparison since Doug had mentioned such a system. I refrained on purpose
from making any appraising comments.

Although now that you bring it up, my motherboard is one of the first A7M
266's - modern Socket A 333 mobos are quite a bit faster. Maybe your
system... naw, I'm not going to say it :)

My system is not overclocked, btw, but I did optimize the BIOS.

Achim