New build finished...advice needed

fozzybear · 10 Oct 2009 at 09:15

Just managed to finish a new build after many a month. It's a goodish value build imo.

Asus M4A785TD-V Evo (£71)
Patriot G Series AMD 4GB (2x2GB) PC3-10666 1333MHz (£71. A bit of a shot in the dark but seems to run well enough)
500GB WD Caviar Black (bad value buy really. Should've spent the extra on Samsung F3 1TB)
Athlon II X4 620 CPU (£71 elsewhere on special offer yesterday)
LG GH22NP20 22x DVD±RW
OCZ ModXStream Pro 600w PSU (got for £52 if I remember correctly).
LG M227WD 22" TFT (although mine seems to only have 1 HDMI)
Razer Diamondback (£27. Ended up with a green one as the red one was £8 more! Got a Razer Goliathus Omega Control Mat as well)

Although the drivers are on a disc that came with the motherboard, i'd really like to get the latest ones. Am I right in saying that I can get ALL of these directly from the AMD website? I don't really want to get them from the ASUS site as they're probably out of date.

Also, at post, my RAM is saying 1066 rather than 1333 and it also seems to be running in single channel. I've got one stick in A1 and the other in B1. I've got RAM settings on AUTO.

Finally, whats the best 'stress test' so I can fully test things out?

Franksi · 10 Oct 2009 at 09:36

Have you tried putting the RAM in A1 and A2 to see if it runs in dual channel? Are your slots colour coded?

What speed does CPU-Z say your RAM is at? You may have to change the RAM voltage...

fozzybear · 10 Oct 2009 at 09:51

Franksi said:
Have you tried putting the RAM in A1 and A2 to see if it runs in dual channel? Are your slots colour coded?

As in this pic. I'm sure it said in the instruction manual to put one in A1 and the other in B1.

What speed does CPU-Z say your RAM is at? You may have to change the RAM voltage...

Not sure. I'm not at home at the moment. I'll have to check later and have a fiddle.

reflux · 10 Oct 2009 at 09:55

The only mobo drivers on the AMD site will be for the chipset itself, because that's the only part they're responsible for. You'll have to get the rest from Asus, or if you want the most up to date ones, directly from the manufacturers of each motherboard component.

fozzybear · 10 Oct 2009 at 10:01

reflux said:
The only mobo drivers on the AMD site will be for the chipset itself, because that's the only part they're responsible for. You'll have to get the rest from Asus, or if you want the most up to date ones, directly from the manufacturers of each motherboard component.

So, on the AMD site, if I go to:-

Component catagory: graphics
OS: Vista 64bit
Product line: Integrated/motherboard
Product model: radeon HD 4200

Will that driver not be fine for the onboard graphics?

McstylisT · 10 Oct 2009 at 10:36

Hi , Great build there.

If that is the exact on-board graphics adapter your using then yes. If not then you'll ruin it.

The other settings regarding the memory you can correct via the bios , by simply setting the marketed timings and voltages. Hopefully it will run at its supposed speed no problems.

As already mentioned the drivers need to be obtained from Asus. Believe it or not once you actually get on there site its pretty good they way you load up all drivers for your mobo. You'll have all the latest editions on there with some luck. Possible your already using the latest.

With regards to stress tests , I like Intel burn test and linx. They test the system enough for stability. Many use Prime95 as its really stessful on the system and will find any slight instabilities. But i find it over kill as you will never expect to use a pc for that level of usage. But its your choice to give them a try and work out which one works best for you.

Best of luck

McT

reflux · 10 Oct 2009 at 10:41

fozzybear said:
So, on the AMD site, if I go to:-

Component catagory: graphics
OS: Vista 64bit
Product line: Integrated/motherboard
Product model: radeon HD 4200

Will that driver not be fine for the onboard graphics?

Yes, because the onboard graphics are part of the chipset. Thus the software is provided by AMD.

fozzybear · 10 Oct 2009 at 11:15

I think i'll just get everything off the Asus website to be safe.

I'll also check things regarding the RAM later on. I'm pretty sure I saw in CPU-Z that the RAM was running in single channel. We'll see.

fozzybear · 12 Oct 2009 at 11:43

I've got the RAM running in dual channel but still can't get it to run at 1333 instead of 1066. I've tried looking for the voltage setting in the BIOS but all I can find is something that lets me increase voltage in small increments. The RAM is running at 1.5v when it should be at 1.7v.

Any ideas?

I forgot to add that its running 7-7-7-20 which is how it should be.