Heat and CPU questions - Techies needed!

[Unreal]

Ok, I have these system specs:

AMD Athlon 2700+ XP
1024MB DDR400 MHz PC3200
Gigabyte Radeon 9800 Pro
Windows XP

Just wondering if anyone thinks its wise to upgrade my processor, cause I dont get that good performance that I think I should be getting from my PC....I get jerky frame rates at times in Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy demo and thats the quake 3 engine! I think I should get no jerkyness at all and this worries me about HL2s performance...
Anyone know if formatting my hard drives and installing windows on my slow one and games on my other 7200 rpm one will make any difference?
Also, my CPU runs at 67 degrees maximum...is this too hot? And does heat effect the performance in games? Just wondering cause I could wait till the AMD 64 CPUs come out, but I need to run HL2 at its absolute fullest at around 60 FPS.....
If anyone can suggest any way of getting more power out of my system, please tell me what to upgrade or add.....

 

[crabcakes66]

I got weird jerks in jk3 also (full version) my system isnt much slower than yours. 2600+ 9700pro 1024 pc2100

Im not sure what the problem is.....but i dont think its our hardware.

 

[Unreal]

I also get lower scores than other people with similar spec PCs in the likes of 3dmark 2003/2001, although I did get around 15-20 FPS in the doom 3 alpha....I just cant figure it out...
Dunno if it might be my PC that needs cooling, or that my motherboard is crap - Jetway V400 DA (KT400 Chipset)

Any suggestions would be appreciated....

 

[crabcakes66]

Originally posted by Unreal
I also get lower scores than other people with similar spec PCs in the likes of 3dmark 2003/2001, although I did get around 15-20 FPS in the doom 3 alpha....I just cant figure it out...
Dunno if it might be my PC that needs cooling, or that my motherboard is crap - Jetway V400 DA (KT400 Chipset)

Any suggestions would be appreciated....

Hmm....i would skip the cpu upgrade and buy an nforce2 mobo.....that sounds like the problem right there.

 

[SidewinderX]

UNreal: Make sure you have the latest BIOS and drivers for you're mobo. You cpu is perfectly fine.

Is that 67 degrees Celecius? That's pretty hot.....

If you uprade anyhting, get a Asus ar Abit Mobo based on nForce2

 

[Unreal]

Just as I always thought....

 

[Steven Q Urkle]

got any case fans?
those will help move air out and in to cool.
id say grab a NF7-S its really good, and soundstorm is as good as an audgity2, so free top end 5.1 sound card.
you may also want to pick up a new heatsink like a vantec aeroflow for like 20 bucks

 

[Unreal]

Does sound card affect performance? I have an oldish SB PCI 128.
I thought that I might get better FPS performance with a better sound card....

 

[Steven Q Urkle]

not on the nf7
its got a seperate sound chip on the board so doesnt use up much resources

 

[crabcakes66]

http://www.sapphiretech.com/VGA/9800PROATL.ASP#Model Number

These guys make the best ATI cards.


edit: review of some differant brands

http://www.hardavenue.com/reviews/sapphire9800pro1.shtml

 

[SidewinderX]

Originally posted by Unreal
Does sound card affect performance? I have an oldish SB PCI 128.
I thought that I might get better FPS performance with a better sound card....

Yes soundcard does affect perofrmace. the worse soundcard you have, the more cpu dependant it is (generally), thus lowering fps. But if you get an nForce2, it has onbaord sound, and you don't have to worry about it.

 

[manny_c44]

Make sure you have 8x AGP activated on your mobo.

 

[Unreal]

67 degrees celcius is as hot as the CPU can get, but thats on very rare occasions, but doesnt happen now due to the cooler weather, now its around 58....
Dont know if its worth upgrading the motherboard now cause the new 64 bit CPUs will be here soon and I can get all new componentes for that, possibly even sell most of my current computer.
I also have it on AGP 8X, but for some reason, when I set AGP fast writes to ON in the ATI control panel, it just stays off when I reboot my PC....although I dont remember trying to set it in the bios.....

 

[SubKamran]

Spend $150 on the A7N8X-D motherboard. Amazing benchmark performances...

http://www.googlegear.com/

Or

http://www.newegg.com/

 

[SubKamran]

And another thing:

I've found NO benchmarks that use the VIA chipset...it's either nForce2 or...or...well, everything I've read uses nForce2 now that I recall

For my new computer, I'm not buying AMD but before I made that decision, I had my comp configured with a Asus nForce2 mobo...because that's what every benchmark I read for AMD used!

 

[Pagy]

wow, 67 at load and 58 at idle is WAY too hot.

you are within spec for the chip, but still, you should be looking at well below 50 at idle.

are you overclocked? vcore?
What heatsink? Did you install it?

 

[Unreal]

I got a crap shop to upgrade it, it was a crappy little shop in Glasgow scotland that didnt give me the best motherboard or cooler.
The cooler I have is a q-tec something or other.
67 degrees is the temprature I got before in summer after it had been on for ages whilst playing hours of Planetside.
57 or even 54 in cooler days is the average temprature.
I used to get 54 celcius in cooler weather...

 

[Pagy]

hey if it's stable, there's no emergency

don't get over 70 though.

plus, what program are you using to check it?

try motherboard monitor 5

 

[Unreal]

I`m just checking it whenever I restarted computer, I looked at the Bios reading.

 

[Sgt.Igneri]

BIOS temps are always off, like he said try using MBM 5.

 

[NYHoustonman]

Those temps are high, and, honestly, a new motherboard isn't going to give you killer performance increases. It'll help, but not a ton, and if you are getting slowdowns in any case, it's not gonna be hardware that's limiting you, at least I wouldn't think so. Try and get your temperatures a little bit lower before you go and upgrade your motherboard, at least IMO.