Chameleon Posted January 17, 2013 Share Posted January 17, 2013 (edited) HP-P7 1446 http://www.staples.com/HP-Pavilion-p7-1446s-Desktop-PC/product_989660 I bought this PC about 2 weeks ago or maybe a little more... Just wondering if there are any tips or tweaks I can do to make it run at optimal speed/performance... It shows different options for the GPU the one I bought has the Trinity Quad-Core A10-5800K.. Thanks! Edited January 17, 2013 by -=Chr0n=- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ol Smoke Posted January 17, 2013 Share Posted January 17, 2013 It seems to be quite well setup as a standard PC. It is running a 64bit OS so the only thing I would do is run a memory allocation test to see how much RAM it is using. If it shows that 4mb of RAM is being carried on just loading the OS, then I would up the RAM to 16MB. Unless you are running a RAM eating program such as a graphic drawing CAD or video processor, then 16MB should do you well. The more open RAM you have, the less the system has to lay off into a disc cache. This is your swap file. The first thing I always put into a system is another disc drive for my back up drive. Usually 1/2 the size of the main drive. Then use a program to do incremental backups of your main drive every week. You could also install another drive the exact size of the original and run a raid system as your back up. Set the raid to be a mirror and you will never have to worry about losing any data. Both drives will be exactly the same. So if the main drive dies, the mirror takes over and all you do is put in another similar drive and it starts up again. I am not a big fan of AMD and their bogus speed tests, so I don't know anything about them. I have always used Intel. The first step to get your new system up a little better is to get the hardware drivers updated. The drivers could be over a year old by now. Especially the video and audio. The motherboard manufacturer should have updates on their website for the chipset and maybe the audio and LAN. The one thing you might want to do is check the temperature in the cabinet when online gaming. There are cheap remote thermometers out there for that purpose. Other than that, it is a nice system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chameleon Posted January 17, 2013 Author Share Posted January 17, 2013 (edited) Thank you so much... How do I run a memory allocation test? I would like to find that out for sure.. And would an external HDD be okay for the backup, I don't know how to do the raid thing hehe.. I am also not a huge fan of AMD I also like intel, but this one came right in my budget hahaha.. Also how do I check the temp when online gaming? Sorry for asking so many questions, I just really don't know lol Also what about the GPU, is that sufficient or would I benefit more from buying a separate GPU as apposed to the onboard? Edited January 17, 2013 by -=Chr0n=- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jefke Posted January 17, 2013 Share Posted January 17, 2013 That cpu got and gpu in it and that gpu blows away the intel version => just saying, considering my guess is the pc also will be used for gaming The gpu is called 7660D is I remember correct (but like I said, it's a gpu in the cpu => inside that A10) The performance of that cpu is about i3 last gen (sandy bridge) and current gen i3 (ivy bridge), which I might add is enough for most people (in high end games it can cause some problems, but that's about it) The price range is also about the same, so in THIS CASE AMD is is actually the better choice => in lower budget computers and HTPC I always go with AMD because the build is more balanced that way (in my opinion) -Are seperate gpus better, of course they are. But it depends what you do with your rig and what you demands are. Also I dunno how it all works, but doesn't opening the case ruins the warranty. Haven't bought an OEM pc in years though, so not sure - Don't worry about RAID. That's actually not a valid backup method (useful, but NOT a backup) It only covers one reason why you should backup: hardware failure, it doesn't protect against erasing by accident and stuff like that. Backup on external HDD is fine as long it's regulary done (how much depends how crucial the data is) -RAM,although smoke got a point, I wouldn't be worried about (I don't even have my swapfile enabled). You got 8gig of ram, which should be enough and makes the use of the swapfile already small, even with the fact it's shared memory and your gpu can (and does) use it. -Temps can be fairly accurate (it's not 100%) checked using software like: core-temp, speccy. If you don't have second screens you might want to let it log instead of checking the temps while you play (play 30min with a program like core-temp logging and after that check the log). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanaraud Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 From my experience updating drivers causes more problems and then I have to roll back. Update graphics drivers if there are some problems. I have 4 gig of RAM and 2gig of video memory=6 in total and never have ran out of it. So 8 should be fine if you don´t start rendering videos\projects. CPUID hwmonitor is nice program also, shows current temps and the highest. So after heavy load on your PC you can check if the max temps went very high. Also you can check Start Manager(on windows RMB click on clock)-> processes\services and in control panel Control Panel\System and Security\Administrative Tools->Services for unnecessary processes, though with 8? cores its not so much of a problem. (NB! On your own risk: You can turn autoupdates to only notify you to not eat your recources in middle of gaming, also defragmentation runs automatically) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jefke Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 From my experience updating drivers causes more problems and then I have to roll back. Update graphics drivers if there are some problems. I have 4 gig of RAM and 2gig of video memory=6 in total and never have ran out of it. So 8 should be fine if you don´t start rendering videos\projects. CPUID hwmonitor is nice program also, shows current temps and the highest. So after heavy load on your PC you can check if the max temps went very high. Also you can check Start Manager(on windows RMB click on clock)-> processes\services and in control panel Control Panel\System and Security\Administrative Tools->Services for unnecessary processes, though with 8? cores its not so much of a problem. (NB! On your own risk: You can turn autoupdates to only notify you to not eat your recources in middle of gaming, also defragmentation runs automatically) Updating video drivers is IMPORTANT but only if you rolling with last gen graphics. Those often get performance boosts in a lot of games with newer driver version.. Same goes for firmware for SSDS. a10-5800k got 4 'cores' which are actually 4 butchered cores, but not going to explain that here because that's techtalked that goes to far ^^ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ol Smoke Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 Thank you so much... How do I run a memory allocation test? I would like to find that out for sure.. And would an external HDD be okay for the backup, I don't know how to do the raid thing hehe.. I am also not a huge fan of AMD I also like intel, but this one came right in my budget hahaha.. Also how do I check the temp when online gaming? Sorry for asking so many questions, I just really don't know lol Also what about the GPU, is that sufficient or would I benefit more from buying a separate GPU as apposed to the onboard? Go to this section of Google. It is all about memory allocation. Select the one can understand best and read about it. http://www.google.com/#hl=en&tbo=d&sclient=psy-ab&q=how+to+do+a+memory+allocation+in+windows+7&oq=How+to+do+a+memory+allocation&gs_l=hp.1.0.33i29l4.1344.10985.0.15047.35.29.1.5.5.0.235.3235.17j8j4.29.0.les%3B..2.0...1c.1.OoeIkbY9f7c&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.41248874,d.cGE&fp=15667442720058dd&biw=1475&bih=819 As far as a backup. You can use a backup program and a separate HDD for that. The temperature thing can be as simple as thermometer placed inside the cabinet. Up near the top inline with the video card. You can also use the MB if it has built in sensors. If it does, there will be a program on the MB install disk or go to the MB website and check for a utility program that has one in it. There will guys come on here and tell you all kinds of stuff about drivers and updates. If I start having a problem with a hardware device, then I check for updates. But...I always read what the update is going to do! ! ! Some updates don't have anything to do with my system. Check the readme files to see what it is going to fix. IF your system has that problem....then update. If not, then don't or do, it is your call. I find that video and audio updates usually fix a game problem, in a new game. But some A/V updates do make things work better. Now if the MB manufacturer has released a new update for the MB, then I do update that one. It usually makes things better. You can PM anytime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chameleon Posted January 18, 2013 Author Share Posted January 18, 2013 Go to this section of Google. It is all about memory allocation. Select the one can understand best and read about it. http://www.google.co...iw=1475&bih=819 As far as a backup. You can use a backup program and a separate HDD for that. The temperature thing can be as simple as thermometer placed inside the cabinet. Up near the top inline with the video card. You can also use the MB if it has built in sensors. If it does, there will be a program on the MB install disk or go to the MB website and check for a utility program that has one in it. There will guys come on here and tell you all kinds of stuff about drivers and updates. If I start having a problem with a hardware device, then I check for updates. But...I always read what the update is going to do! ! ! Some updates don't have anything to do with my system. Check the readme files to see what it is going to fix. IF your system has that problem....then update. If not, then don't or do, it is your call. I find that video and audio updates usually fix a game problem, in a new game. But some A/V updates do make things work better. Now if the MB manufacturer has released a new update for the MB, then I do update that one. It usually makes things better. You can PM anytime. Thank you so much! I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out.. That goes for everyone! This is very helpful... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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