Finish build my 1st System :) but still have some question

[pecel]

Yeah, finally I build my own system for the 1st time

It's AthlonXP 1800+ that I got from deal @ outpost.com
But I still have some question.

When I check the CPU temperature in BIOS it says 43 degree Celcius.
Is it Hot or not or just normal?

How to check the temperature under WinXP PRO?
Is there any software/program I should use?

also I try to winrar program for 700 meg files, it takes around 5 minute.
I guess it's long coz I have my old system in Athlon Classic 650mhz Slot A and it takes around the same time.

What happen?
What's wrong?
Is it because I use PC133 SDRAM?

Also I want to do Benchmarking in my new system, any good software I should use?

Thanks a lot.

 

[hmsrolst]

For checking temps in Windows, one popular choice is Motherboard Monitor. Search for "mbm5" on Google, and it'll come up.

 

[CubicZirconia]

43 degrees is well within the acceptable range, especially with a stock heatsink.

 

[pecel]

BUMP !!
still need more opinion here

 

[geezman]

As far as the CPU temperature is concerned, 43 degrees celcius is fine. Motherboard Monitor is a nice program for system monitoring. Your can find it here.

To asnwer your question about speed, supply some more information (Motherboard Model, Memory amount, Hard drive etc...) and we may be able to offer some more insight. Also try some benchmarks to better determine speed.

 

[geezman]

Oops!!! Didn't see that you had system information link.

Anyway, From what I can see, the PC133 memory is most likely the cause of any slowness. The Sis chipset is decent, but using PC133 SDRAM with an AMD XP 1800 probably isn't the best way to go.

 

[Scurvy]

I also recently built my own system - XP1700+ on a Epox 8KHA+ mobo, 512mb DDR, GeForce 4 Ti4400. I'm happy.

As for temps, the highest I've seen yet was upon an immediate reboot after gaming for about two hours (RTCW and also some games which bear an uncanny resemblance to N64). Said 44C, so if that's as bad as it gets things are good.

As for performance, if youre not getting what you think you should get from the 1800, here are some troubleshoot possibilities....

1. How much memory are you using? I've noticed that WinXP wrangles down up to 128mb of memory even at idle - I'm no tech guru but what I'm saying is that the OS seems to reserve this much RAM off for itself. It may depend on how much total RAM exists, but 256 is minimum acceptable now.

2. are you sure you jumpered your motherboard correctly for the 133mhz system bus? My Epox board has a jumper and its at 100mhz by default. If you dont rejumper it to 133, the mobo recognizes your CPU as a slower clock speed version and treats it as such.

3. Are you using a board with an nForce chipset? I bought a VIA board of course, but I was looking at nForce before I bought. I seem to remember that you have to use two pieces of DDR if you want the "266mhz" FSB with the nForce boards, and if you only have RAM in the first DIMM slot then it cant do the higher bus speed. For example, if you want to have 256mb total, it would be better to use two 128's than just one 256. This doesn't apply to VIA boards and I submit I'm basically talking out my butt on this point - I just remember from when i was shopping that its an issue.

 

[Scurvy]

Whoa. I didn't catch the PC133 reference either. Yup. You've got a Nascar engine and a Yugo transmission.