AMD X4 Phenom Optimal Set-up / settings

[rimmet]

Hi

Recently become the owner of an AMD Quad Core Phenom 9950 Black Edition CPU and a Gigabyte MA-GA770 Board + 4gb corsair xms2 ddr2.

I currently have 32bit windows xp installed, as I really can't get to grips with Vista. I was wondering if somebody could tell me if they know or have experience of how to set windows up to get the most out of my cpu/board/ram and am I going to see a significant improvement if I was to upgrade to 64bit windows xp?

Thanks for your time and help
Thom

 

[Guzzidom]

I'm assuming you do a lot of video encoding etc (hence the 4 core CPU), the main thing you would get from a 64bit OS would be full recognition of your ram qauntity which would be a help with that sort of task or manipulating large files.
Some programs get more out of 64 bit than others, Photoshop likes it, as do a lot of CAD programs, Crysis gets some extra detail too.
When you say get the most out of your board are you talking about overclocking?, If so just raise the multiplier a notch in BIOS, run a few benchmarks for an hour or so (superpi, Futuremarkmark etc), if all appears to be well start bumping your FSB up bit by bit, at the point Superpi starts to show errors, loosen your ram timings, if it still shows errors, raise your CPU voltage, ditto your Northbridge voltage until stability sets back in.
There's lots of more detailed overclocking guides out there, have a browse.

 

[McPhee]

I'm pretty sure XP64 is really, really, really bad. It certainly was back in the day. AFAIK if you want to go for a 64-bit OS then you should only be looking at 64-bit Vista or holding out for Windows 7.

 

[rimmet]

Hi

Thanks for getting back to me.

I do alot of work on CS4, so as you have suggested moving to xp 64bit might be of help. Do you know if there is a different version of cs4 or does the installer detect whether you have 32bit or 64bit and install accordingly?

I think I may leave the overclocking for a while, until I have read a little more about it, I may also play with my old board and processor before I start on my new one, do I instantly void the warrenty by changing the stock values?

Thanks again
Thom