I bought a Dell about 2 years ago and it was my first personal computer. It came with a Pentium 4, 40GB hard drive, 256mb of RAM, and I dont know what kind of motherboard it came with.
The last 2-3 months I've been buying parts from newegg to build my first computer, and I assembled it using a Athlon 3400, Westing 80 GB hard drive, Patriot 512mb RAM, EVGA Geforce FX5500 graphics card, and BIOSTAR K8M800-M7A motherboard. The performance in this computer is DEFINITELY wrong, because it runs as if it has absolutely no RAM, even though the Patriot stick shows up in the system properties.
Does anyone have any ideas of what could be wrong? Could I take it to a local shop and have them try to figure out what is hooked up wrong or isnt compatible?
2006-12-02 08:31:42 · 6 answers · asked by Jake F 3 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
I tried removing the graphics card and using the onboard graphics, and it went too slow to even get anything done. I'm sure the RAM and processor are compatible. Still need to check the settings and drivers. thanks.
2006-12-02 21:47:19 · update #1
Seems like alot of old outdated cheap hardware. I'm not trying to insult you but it looks like your old computer might be faster, aside from it being old. I've never heard of BIOSTAR motherboards, the best is ASUS, GIGABYTE, etc. Try looking at frys.com for computer components.
2006-12-02 08:35:33 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
Alot of people seek out to build their first computer without knowing a whole lot about the individual pieces. Now keep in mind, what you've done is a great stride and you should be proud of yourself.
Biostar Group is a Tiawanese company. Not that they're bad, but not well know.
Although 512MB may seem like enough you may want to increase this to 1GB just to rule out any bottlenecks. RAM is like a playing field. the smaller the field the less amount of activities you can have going on. The larger the field, the more activites you can have going on. In regards to RAM, stick with Crucial or PNY. Crucial actually sells a line called Ballistix which is good. In reference to the mainboard and memory. Right now PC2-6400 is available but rather expensive. PC2-5300 is market friendly. I'm not sure if you board supports this.
In the best case of things you want the following:
Name brand mainboard
At least PC2-5300 RAM
SATA Hard Drive with a big cache
Dual Core Processor (AMD/Intel)
Truthfully buy an ASUS mainboard.
2006-12-02 16:53:02 · answer #2 · answered by Shawn H 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
reevesfarm's suggestion about looking at your BIOS settings makes sense.
One thing that may be slowing things down is your graphics card. Have you tried downloading the latest drivers from NVIDIA? (See the first link.)
You would definitely know if there was no RAM, my friend. You would hear a long beep every other second, either telling you that it couldn't be found, wasn't installed properly, or was faulty.
Do you know what speed RAM you have installed? According to Crucial.com (2nd link), your memory must be either PC2700/PC3200/PC4000 and must be Non-ECC only & Unbuffered only. If you don't have the correct memory, this may be another hold up. (btw, you can use the faster memory as it's backwardly compatible.)
Might I suggest you remove your graphics card and use the onboard graphics, simply to see if that helps matters?
2006-12-02 20:57:04 · answer #3 · answered by micksmixxx 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Check to make sure your ram is PC3200 (or w/e the fastest ram your computer can handle, i'm pretty sure for your motherboard it's 3200, though, it may be 2700). Also, make sure your motherboard does support the cpu type (there are different pin numbers like 939 etc) that you have. Lastly, make sure your CPU speed is correctly registered in the BIOS (a 2.0 ghz cpu won't do you any good if the BIOS thinks it can only run at 1.0 ghz ^_^)
Also, you may want to go to www.TigerDirect.com...they sell barebones kits (really good hardware for cheap that you put together yourself!)
2006-12-02 16:37:17 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
i feel really sorry for u if u cant fix it wasted alot of money maybe u can return the parts and get better ones if u cant figure it out call geek squad or something i dont know how to make a complete sentence okay good luck hope you figure it out
2006-12-02 16:41:19 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Lots could be wrong, but personally I'd start with your bios settings. Make sure you aren't using "Failsafe" settings and go to Optimal.
2006-12-02 16:38:41 · answer #6 · answered by reevesfarm 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋