First installation ever!

[B.Calhoun]

Well i just installed another stick of 512mb ram for a grand total of 1 gig. Im pretty happy i didnt mess anything up as it was my first time installing some hardware. (not much but something none the less)

At first when i took out two screws in the back off take the side of the case off i thought i didnt get ll the screws because it was kinda tough to pull that sucka off. But i got it eventually and then it took me almost 10 minetes to stick the ram in its slot. I couldnt put both ends in at the same time so i kept getting stuck. Well i got it in and in my system specs it reads that i got 1 gig now. So im happy


What was your first time like? Did it go smooth?

PS- it took me about 25 mins all together from bringing my computer downstairs to pluging it back in.

 

[Kristafon]

My first time was putting in a network card. I put it in the wrong slot becuase i didnt know how top open up a new one

 

[lePobz]

first mod was a 25mhz overclock to my 486 sx25 (25mhz) doubling its speed up to a grand total of 50mhz - that was the day after I got it, back in 1993. In 1994 I bought a 14.4k modem and installed that so I could surf the rather small, frameless and pointless interweb. Guess it's like lego

 

[B.Calhoun]

Im kinda mad now tho because im still getting very bad 3dmark03 and aquamark3 scores, also my fps range from 40-70 in CS:S on 1024 res with high everything else but no AA or AS (the other thing whatevr it is). Which should be better.

And i know its something do do with me not properly uninstalling my drivers corrertly before i installed 4.9 cat. Anyone know how to COMPLETELY REMOVE ALL DRIVERS THAT ARE AND EVER WERE on my computer?

I have to go now, but when i get back home ill run the video stress test on CS:S, and ill update you all.

 

[Asus]

Im kinda mad now tho because im still getting very bad 3dmark03 and aquamark3 scores, also my fps range from 40-70 in CS:S on 1024 res with high everything else but no AA or AS (the other thing whatevr it is). Which should be better.

And i know its something do do with me not properly uninstalling my drivers corrertly before i installed 4.9 cat. Anyone know how to COMPLETELY REMOVE ALL DRIVERS THAT ARE AND EVER WERE on my computer?

I have to go now, but when i get back home ill run the video stress test on CS:S, and ill update you all.

1. What is your 3Dmark2003 and A3 scores?
I bet your 3dMark2003 score is somewhere between 5500 and 6000. If you OC your 9800 you will get a better score. Should put it over 6000.

2.I get 60-100 FPS range average on my 6800GT at 1024x768 but of course that is with AA/AF. CSS is not the Counter-Strike you knew. It has heavy use of shaders and other DX9 graphics. This was on an Athlon 64 3800+ and they get 70FPS avg on the 9800XT 256MB card.

3. I'll probably be getting battlefront too.

 

[Mr. Redundant]

my first time was assembling pieces I bought from local retailers and putting it all together, took me about an hour or two, from opening the case to installing everything (mobo, hd, vid card, ram, sound card, drives) and getting it up and running in windows 98.

congrats on "popping your modding cherry" hehe
buying and assembling your own systems is always cheaper and better.

 

[Gajdycz]

upgraded from a tnt2 to a ti4200 2 years ago. 21/2 hours, and bloody fingers, i was ready damnitt

 

[m3ta1head]

i upgraded from a ATI RAGE 128 to a mx440 2 years ago, hell yeah

 

[B.Calhoun]

1. What is your 3Dmark2003 and A3 scores?
I bet your 3dMark2003 score is somewhere between 5500 and 6000. If you OC your 9800 you will get a better score. Should put it over 6000.

3. I'll probably be getting battlefront too.

3Dmark03 score: about 3700
aquamark score: 13,500

These are very bad scores i know. And about overclocking ive heard many good and bad things about it so im kinda shakey about how to do it, or if i even should.

And Ill see you on the battlefront Asus

 

[Malfunction]

Yeah, installing a stick of RAM is really easy, all you need is a Philips screwdriver and the hardware. It's just a matter or placing the stick correctly so both little clamps snap into place.

 

[Malfunction]

3Dmark03 score: about 3700
aquamark score: 13,500

These are very bad scores i know. And about overclocking ive heard many good and bad things about it so im kinda shakey about how to do it, or if i even should.

And Ill see you on the battlefront Asus

When you run 3DMark and Aquamark, are you setting your AA and AF card settings to application controlled? When I first ran 3DMark, I had all of my 6800's options on the highest, and didn't understand why I was scoring 3600 with my system. Then I set everything to the lowest quality and to Application Controlled, and boom, I was scoring 10,600, or something similar. The same thing with my brother's PC. He was only scoring in the 2000s, then we ran it with the lowest settings and he was scoring like, mid 5000.

 

[ailevation]

:thumbs: My first was installing a PCI Graphics card, went smooth like the backside of a newborn WITH Babypowder.

 

[Kiva128]

3Dmark03 score: about 3700
aquamark score: 13,500

These are very bad scores i know. And about overclocking ive heard many good and bad things about it so im kinda shakey about how to do it, or if i even should.

And Ill see you on the battlefront Asus

I have the same card and half the ram and I get:

3dmark03: 5800 (rounded because i forget exact number)
Aquamark: 39,000 (rounded again)

and I have p4 3.0c, 512 ddr, stock 9800 pro. So something's definately not right over on your side.

 

[B.Calhoun]

When you run 3DMark and Aquamark, are you setting your AA and AF card settings to application controlled? When I first ran 3DMark, I had all of my 6800's options on the highest, and didn't understand why I was scoring 3600 with my system. Then I set everything to the lowest quality and to Application Controlled, and boom, I was scoring 10,600, or something similar. The same thing with my brother's PC. He was only scoring in the 2000s, then we ran it with the lowest settings and he was scoring like, mid 5000.

Where can i set the application controlled?

 

[B.Calhoun]

I just ran the video stress test on the CS:S beta and my average fps was 54.7

I should be much higher im pretty sure...damn i need to find out how to erase all drivers on my computer.

 

[SAJ]

My first self-installed hardware was an overdrive chip.
Turned my measly 25mz machine into beast , running at .......wait for it..........50mz !!!! heh.
(Was pretty easy though)

PS, Calhoun , your aquamark should be atleast 35-40k, somethings definately up there.

 

[Cyphron]

woo my first upgrade. was about 6 years ago. new video card, went from onboard graphics in my pentium 2 266 to a voodoo 3 3000. great video card. got it right after half life came out and i started wasting my life away playing cs. then i got a new harddrive. upgraded from my 4 gig hard drive to a western digital......15 gig hard drive...alright ya. cost like 100 bucks

 

[Narcolepsy]

I installed a Radeon 9800 Pro in my Dell Dimension 8200. I thought it was going to be easy, but I had never seen the inside of a computer before. When I opened the case, I just freaked out and stared wondering what I should do. In the end, it took me about 2 hours, which seems laughable now, but I had a really hard time pulling apart the molex connectors, I was super paranoid about not touching anything on the new card or the rest of the computer, the sound card's wires were in my way, and I was trying to fend off my antistatic bracelet, which was being a general nuisance.

But it was all worth it, and I couldn't believe it when I started up my computer and...
1) Nothing blew up
2) Device manager listed a Radeon 9800 Pro!

 

[Dr. Freeman]

my first time installing a piece of computer hardware was ram.. back then 32MB ram was a HUGE deal :E
anyway i remember it being a pain in the ass to do because the ram place holder locks were so stiff that i actually cut myself (small cut) while getting those locks to lock in place properly :|

 

[Asus]

I never really did anything on the inside of Computers til I built my Athlon 650MHz, Asus Board and 512MB SDRAM PC100 machine. Used a Diamond 16MB gfx card at the time. I think it had a 10GB harddrive.

I ordered the parts through my Dad's vendor.

 

[Ecthe|ioN]

I just ran the video stress test on the CS:S beta and my average fps was 54.7

I should be much higher im pretty sure...damn i need to find out how to erase all drivers on my computer.

There is an application called "Driver Cleaner" that cleans all traces of your graphic-drivers. First uninstall all the ATI drivers from the "add/remove programs" in the "Control Panel". Next you run the "Driver Cleaner".

You can download the Driver cleaner @ http://www.driverheaven.net/cleaner/

I advice you to read through the site to see how you're supposed to do it.

Good luck Hope it works out for you. Getting lower 3dmarks than expected can be a real pain in the ass..

 

[B.Calhoun]

Well i emailed a tech support guy from ATi and he told me to delete the ATi folder in the C drive because all the inf files are stored there and this would get rid of any drivers that i have installed. Think this is a good idea? After i delete this folder ill reinstall catalyst 4.9 and be set right?

EDIT: well i just ran aquamark3 and i got a score of 37,142 so thtas pretty good right?

 

[B.Calhoun]

Well i emailed a tech support guy from ATi and he told me to delete the ATi folder in the C drive because all the inf files are stored there and this would get rid of any drivers that i have installed. Think this is a good idea? After i delete this folder ill reinstall catalyst 4.9 and be set right?

bumped.

I would normally just go ahead and delete it but i dont wanna mess my computer up.

 

[Asus]

Generally ATI and Nvidia just uncompress the files needed for installation in that folder. Those are not the files in use. You can delete the folder.