New Build - Couple of Questions

baldric

baldric

baldric

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13 Feb 2007
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23
Hi everyone. First post - First build also. Apologies in advance if this post is in the wrong place - couldn't decide on Hardware or Software, and sorry if the questions are too basic for here - scoured the forum, and been Googling for the answers at some length.

Just completed the build - Spec as follows;

Zalman Fatal1ty FC-ZE1 Chassis
Asus P5N32-E SLi nForce 680 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Enermax Galaxy EGA1000EWL-01 PSU
Intel Core 2 DUO E6700 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.67GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
Zalman CNPS9700-LED Aero Flower (Socket AM2/939/754/775) CPU Cooler
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB ST3500630AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2 Dominator PC2-8888C4 TwinX (2x1GB)
BFG GeForce 8800 GTX OC 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Professional 7.1 Soundcard - Retail
Pioneer DVR-111BK 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter - (Black) OEM
Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey
Creative GigaWorks 7.1 S750 THX® Speakers - Retail
Logitech G15 Gaming-Grade Illuminated Keyboard - Retail (UK Layout)
Microsoft HABU 2000dpi High Precision Gaming Mouse - Retail

Firstly, I'd be interested in anyone's comments on the spec.

Having put the pieces together, to the best of my very limited ability, I installed Windows XP. I figured that there wasn't much point in trying to learn a new OS at the same time as trying to build my first PC.

By some sort of luck/magic, the machine appears to work, but here are my first couple of points/questions....

In Windows 'Device Manager', several of the components are listed twice - for example the keyboard, but also the CPU. I assume this isn't normal?

'My computer' is showing 2 Removable Disks (D: ) and (E: ) which as far as I know don't exist.....

The RAM usage seems to rarely drop below 20% at any time......is this to be expected?

Again, sorry if the questions are a bit basic for you guys, but any help would be appreciated.

Cheers.
 
Hi and welcome

The spec is that of a beast. Are you going to be overclocking ?

The two removable drives you have. They are from the Dell 24" monitor and are card readers that are built into it on the side.

Ram usage would depend on what your doing at the time.

and while i undertand why, i would have thought it would be worth moving to Vista at the same time..

but either way

Enjoy
 
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Thanks for the quick reply. That resolves the 'drives issue'

As far as the spec goes - I'm aware that it's more than my ability deserves at the moment. Don't know the first thing about overclocking really, but keen to learn and figured that this machine would give me the scope.

The RAM usage I refer to is displayed every minute or so on the Small keyboard LCD. At the moment for example - as I type this, it's showing 26% with nothing else running except my AV software.
 
might want to look at dropping the 6700 to a 6600, i dont really see the point for 300mhz of the extra cost, not aware that the 6700 clocks any better than the 6600 either.

check task manager see what it thinks is using the cpu processing.
 
Go to Control Panel, Performance and tools, Administrative Programs Computer Management, Disk Management and you can see all the Drives in your pc.
 
Very Nice Rig :)

I too am thinking of the E6700, want the extra multiplier value to aid with overclocking so not to push my ram so hard.
 
hi m8 , it sounds about right on the memory usage on a non-tweaked windows. if you open task manager, click processes> view>select cloumns and tick cpu usage,memory usage,peak memory usage and virtual memory size then ok. you will now see whats using all your memory up( normally your keyboard lcd etc, browser ,explorer exe, the list goes on.. :D )
all i use my pc for is surf n game and can get away with only 5 or 6 services running in administrative tools :eek: .my screen says cpu 0% ram 14%,task manager says processes 19 cpu usage 1%. hope this helps m8 c ya :D
ps nice rig btw ;)
 
mp260767 said:
might want to look at dropping the 6700 to a 6600, i dont really see the point for 300mhz of the extra cost, not aware that the 6700 clocks any better than the 6600 either.

check task manager see what it thinks is using the cpu processing.
Click to expand...


he has already bought the cpu, and is talking about RAM usage not CPU usage.
 
Thanks for everyone's replies. Really friendly Forum. Big help already.

To reply to the points made -

I understand the drive situation now thanks.

I did wonder about the CPU being listed twice because of Dual Core, but I was suspicious as the keyboard and a couple of other things were also listed twice.

I'll keep an eye on the Task Manager re the RAM and CPU usage. The AV software is NOD32, not Norton.. Looks like the biggest users are Firefox, Explorer, NOD and AVG anti-spyware.

Cheers
 
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