Homebuilt system using Ti4400

[namrak]

**Benchmarks down below**

So my friend asks me to build a new computer system for him to replace his aging PII-350 system. We took an all day shopping spree and picked up these components:
AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (overclocked 140fsb)
ASUS A7V333 mobo (BIOS 1007)
Samsung 256MB DDR PC-2700
ASUS GeForce 4 Ti4400 128MB video card (non oc'ed)
WD 40G 7200rpm hard drive
ASUS 16x/48x DVD-ROM
ASUS 24x CD-R burner
Creative Audigy Gamer
Enermax CS-001 300W MidTower
USRobotics Performance Pro 56k V.92 internal modem
Creative Inspire 4.1 speakers
Viewsonic 19" PF-790 monitor
TT Volcano 7 hsf
Total Cost: ~$1600

After putting the system together and installing the OS, I burned the system in for 3 days running at normal settings. After which I loaded up some benchmarking programs (SiSoft Sandra, 3dMark2001SE, Vulpine GLMark and PCMark2002).
On his non-overclocked system, he came up with these numbers...
Vulpine GLMark = 105.1
Passmark CPU = 4593, MEM = 3159, HDD = 1085
3dMark2001SE = 9939
SiSoft Sandra: CPU = 4229 MIPS and 2122 FLOPS,
MMX = 8412 it/s and 9754 it/s
Mem = 2003 MB/s and 1893 MB/s

With a slight push in fsb to 140 (@1.61GHz) and no overclocking of the video card, I only got a chance to benchmark GLMark and 3dMark2001SE.
Vulpine GLMark saw a slight increase to 108 fps and 3dMark2001SE rose to well over 10xxx marks. I forget the exact number however. Anybody else have similar numbers? I also tried to explain to him the significance of hitting over 10k marks, but he just stared at me blankly. "I don't understand this benchmarking thing?!" I just muttered under my breath...:rolleyes: He just doesn't understand! I'll have to sneak into his place and overclock the Ti4400 later.:D

[cusimar9]

Those are good scores mate, I just did pretty much the same thing, replaced an ageing PII-350 with an XP 1800 (uncanny eh??)

Only difference is I got a Ti4600, and I can't o/c my fsb higher than about 136 cos the coolin on my CPU's pretty ****.

My non-o/c'ed score was (I think) about 9300 ish, but with a bit of tweakin it's gone up to 11216 (http://service.madonion.com/compare?2k1=3350233 ). Tell your mate to make sure he downloads the latest drivers (http://gamershq.madonion.com/news/?newsarticle=200205/2002051306#200205/2002051306), and play with tweaking the memory timings in the BIOS, that's what improved my performance the most.

Respek :t

[namrak]

11216 is very nice for 3dMark cusimar9. Yep, its not bad of a jump from PII-350 to an XP1800. ;) You mentioned memory settings and to be honest, I tried tinkering with some of the settings a little before I handed over the system to my friend. Initially, the memory was set to optimal and everything worked fine. The system became unstable as in wouldn't load up the XP normally or it would kick me out just at the login screen when set to turbo mode. Also, the SPD memory setting was set to 2.5, but when I tried 2, the system became unstable as well.
:( Any quick suggestions there? I'll probably have to hunt down some info on the 'net and actually sit at his machine a little bit.
The display drivers I set him up with are Nvidia's official 28.32s. Didn't want to go betas for his machine.

[cusimar9]

Memory timings depend on the Motherboard and the Quality of memory used. Because 333mhz DDR RAM was so hexpensive I bought the cheapest I could find so I doubt the quality is that great.

On mine, I tried upping all the memory timings, and the system wouldn't even boot. Turning down some of the settings allows the system to live long enough to, say, get a 3DMark score, but crashes under real use. You just need to play with the settings to find what's stable on your system.

On my motherboard I can adjust the CAS Latency, Row Precharge time, RAS Pulse width, RAS to CAS delay, Bank Interleave, SDRAM burst length, SDRAM 1T command and Fast command. To be honest, I don't know what half of that is, but I know they can help a hell of a lot to upping your scores.

Going from the Standard drivers to beta detonator 28.90 upped my score by about 400 points, and tweaking the RAM by about 600 I think.

I've had no problems at all with these drivers, and in fact they fixed a refresh rate problem common to all earlier drivers.

To be honest, if it's not even your PC don't bother over tweaking it - its not worth the hassle to your mate if his PC's always crashing. Update the Drivers, O/C his graphics card, run 3D mark again and leave it at that.

If you want I can let you know all my settings :x