Congrats.

BTW, another 6600 gt is not that expensive and you'll be set for some time. That will give you a higher 3dmark03 score if you wish. Keep in mind though, that this will help most other games except fs2004. You will see a drop in fps should you use SLI in fs2004.

If you need any help with the BIOS, just ask. I have the same mobo (actually, I have the premium versian of the A8N-SLI, but the only difference is the digital SLI switch as opposed to the interface card SLI switch).


Quote:

Thats probably because that game isn't very CPU intensive/dependant. You would notice the fps drop if you played a game like half life2.

I know the mobo has some protection routines, but resetting its own settings is not one of them, at least on my mobo.

It could be AI NOS doing something fishy. AI nos is the feature that auto overclocks. I turn it off due to it being unpredictable at times.

I would also flash the bios with a newest bios. That usually fixes small problems with the bios'es that mobo manufacturers find after they have shipped the board.

Hope this works out for you. Don't mind the beta label as I've never had any trouble with asus beta products, still follow all the usual precautions though like googleing the beta versian to see if other reports problems.

I've heard a lot about venice CPU's and asus mobo's, but my dual core runs fine, so thats all I'm worried about.

I just built my new machine with an

Asus A8N-E NF4 Ultra
with AMD Athlon 64 3200 939 Venice
and a Leadtek 6600 GT.  
(detailed spec in sig)

I would Appreciate any tips on maximizing the performance.  Keep in mind, However, that I only have stock cooling in an Antec SLK 3700 case with 350W P/S.

Joe

Hi Again, I meant to mention the fun we had flying in CFS2 years ago chief 


Video Card:
Basically, without going to third party software, Leadtek supplies "Winfox2" with the 6600GT you bought. It's a pretty easy to use overclocking util  for that card.

Just bump it up to 550/1100 for the GPU/RAM speeds and see if it handles it. At the first sign of display problems or excessive heat, back it off. Mine operates at 550/1150 without any problems.

CPU:
The CPU's have top-locked multipliers, so you can only speed them up by increasing the Front Side Bus speed.

Again, aim for say a 10% overclock and you may do it without causing any overheat problems.

You should do a bit of research on the subject before attempting an overclock though, and make sure you understand what changes you are making and why. It's not that complex, but CPU, Front Side Bus and RAM speeds have interwined relationships that need to be understood.......................

.......or  you could just fire up the overclock util that asus supplies with the motherboard and crank it up......

Your CPU has a 10x multiplier chief, which is gonna make the math easy.

Your Front Side Bus speed should be 200mhz standard.
10 x 200mhz = 2ghz cpu speed.

If you O/C'd 10%, that would mean the math looks like this:
10 x 220mhz = 2.2ghz cpu speed ......... = 3500+ speed in AMD's arbitrary "P" rating.

The problem is that either the CPU or the RAM may not handle the extra 10% speed without some problems or other adjustments needed. Heat and instability are the most common issues, as you see from what I've written above.

The RAM may get unstable first....... that is unless you have quality or overclocking ram fitted already. Including high spec ram in systems like our's is therefore desirable from the begginning, so money isnt wasted on a second RAM purchase. I see your RAM is 2.5-3-3-7 PC3200, which is good. I'm not familiar with the brand. It may go as high as 220mhz...... you'll probably have to drop the timings to 3-4-4-8 or similar, maybe not.

There is much you can do to get good system performance without overclocking chief, and a thorough understanding of your mobos BIOS is a good place to start. Configuring BIOS correctly can make a lot of difference. I try to disable most auto configuration choices and then I set the PC up manually in BIOS, with a notable exception being resource allocation (IRQ's) which I leave on Auto, mainly because modern mobo's do a good job of this on their own. This way, I'm able to shut down features and resources I'm not using (which is a lot).

I only run programs that I'm using, nothing autoruns, auto updates or auto anythings , I will hack a program to death or delete it before I'll let it autostart. I make a single exception though, and that's my internet firewall which is software, I leave that enabled in startup, lest I forget to start it.

The direction of airflow is up to you and your fan placement.

The usual ATX Tower case design attempts to assist the throughflow of fresh cool air by using thermal convection (? if that's the right word).

Air is typically sucked in at the lower front of the case and expelled at top rear. So, Lower case fans should blow in, and upper case fans blow out, this is typified by the PSU fan (top rear) which should be blowing OUT. (if it doesn't, reverse the fan in it's mount.)

It's up to you how you ventilate the case, convective assistance is more efficient is all.

Ambient air temperature makes all the difference in temperature readings, so you can't compare my "winter" temps with your "summer" temps for instance. I think your temps are fine.

The coolest case is an open one, so open it up in the really hot weather. It will run considerably cooler. I can only close my case for a month or two here because the rest of the year is so hot, that my case temps rise sharply if the covers are on.

It gets very hot here, even with the air conditioner on in the room, ambient summer temps are very high, like 34*C, and the higher the ambient temp is, cooling solutions really struggle.

I have a side vented case with a draw cone, but it's still not good enough, my pic demonstrates my only successful solution to date.