AndrewGirdler.co.uk - PC Technician

Using & Understanding EVGA Precision

2011-04-13T14:21:00.000-07:00

EVGA Precison is an Overclocking tool for Nvidia Graphics cards. If you're not sure if your graphics card is an Nvidia Model, Read our CPU-Z or GPU-Z Articles. Precision allows you to adjust the clock and fan speeds on your graphics card with the aim of getting extra free performance. It is one of many utilities like it available for free which are capable of doing this.

On the left is a readout of the current stats for your graphics card. The Temperature displayed first is the temperature of the core of the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). This should be kept below 100C under load as beyond this the core can be damaged. (The card will normally switch itself off at ~115C). The Usage Graphs the current utilisation of the Graphics Core, and the fan speed graphs the percentage of the maximum at which the Graphics Card Fan is running.

A Graphics card has different clockspeeds for different situations. It has 2D (desktop use) and 3D clocks. The 2D clocks are usually lower than the 3D as reduces the power consumption of the card, which in turn reduces the heat and therefore noise of the machine. There is little to be gained by adjusting the 2D clocks (besides perhaps small power savings) so Overclocking usually focusses on 3D clocks.

The 3D clocks are displayed on the right. You can adjust the speeds up by moving them towards the right.

The reason overclocking works is because every chip made is different. Some are able to run at very high clock speeds others at lesser ones. If you set the clockspeed too high your graphics card will start making mistakes. You will see this as crashes, locks, weird flashes, infinitely stretched objects or blocks all over the screen. When overclocking your aim is to find the point just before the graphics card starts making mistakes. Consider each speed seperately and raise it by a few megaherts at a time.

To check the settings have taken use GPU-Z (in the sidebar).

To test for stability at each speed, Use RTHDRIBL (in the sidebar) or Unigine heaven (in the sidebar).

Once you have found speeds you are happy with, click Apply at Windows Startup and close the application.

If you need any help, feel free to comment, ask a question in the bar on the left, or email me at inbox@andrewgirdler.co.uk

Using & Understanding CPU-Z

2011-04-13T13:45:00.000-07:00

CPU

CPU-Z gives you a huge amount of information about your CPU, as well as well as your Motherboard, Memory and Graphics. It is available as an installer or as a stand alone .exe file.

The front page allows you to identify your CPU, as well as what socket it uses to connect to the motherboard. The clock speed tells you the current clock speed of the chip which is equal to the Bus Speed times by the Multiplier. The amount of Cache is also shown, Cache is a very small superfast set of storage that stores the data being worked on by the CPU at any given time. More is better. Below this the number of Cores is also shown, as well as the number of threads. Some chips use a technique called hyperthreading to put 2 threads through one core at once.
From this you can establish that my chip here is Phenom II 965. It's a Quad Core, and I've Overclocked it to 3.925GHz.

Motherboard

On this page you can find your motherboard information. It can be useful to type the "model" into google to find more information or to look for drivers. Also on this page is the Chipset, the chip which connects all the devices of the computer together. The BIOS version is also shown, along with the Graphics Interface, or slot, used for plugging in graphics cards.

Memory

Here you can identify not only how much RAM you have, but what type of ram (SDRAM, DDR (1,2,3)) whether it's running in multi channel mode (pairs of sticks), and what speed of ram it is. DDR stands for Dual Data Rate, so the value here (523MHz) would be doubled when looking to buy RAM. You can see here I have 4GB of 1066MHz (roughly) DDR2. The Timings displayed below are only particularly useful for those who are overclocking their RAM.

SPD

On this page you can see a breakdown of the modules of RAM in your machine. The drop down box shows you how many RAM slots there are. The information there shows the size of each stick as well as it's rated speed, manufacturer and part number. It can be useful to google this part number when looking for more ram of the same type. Below this you can again see a breakdown of the timings as well as voltage required for each speed. This can be useful if you are having stability issues.

Graphics

Finally the Graphics tab helps you to identify your Graphics card, as well as the amount of RAM it has. For more Information on your Graphics Card, Take a look at our GPU-Z Article.

If you need any help, feel free to comment, ask a question in the bar on the left, or email me at inbox@andrewgirdler.co.uk

Understanding Task Manager

2011-04-13T05:02:00.000-07:00

Task Manager is a fundamental application built into Windows, it is a powerful tool that allows you to understand exactly what's going on in your machine.

Opening Task Manager

There are a few ways to open task manager, on any OS you can right click the start bar and click "Start Task Manager / Task Manager". You can also press Ctrl-Alt-Del in XP or Ctrl-Shift-Esc in Windows Vista/7

Applications

The Applications page lists at a simple level, which programs are actively running and interacting with the user with a graphical interface (i.e. have their own window). Right clicking on an application lets you do a few useful things including "Switch to", "End Task" or "Go to Process".

Processes

The Processes page lists every Process (application or part of an application) running on a machine. It also lists the CPU time they are using and the amount of RAM they are working with. You can use Process Explorer (link in the sidebar) to get more information on each entry. If you are running 64bit windows, then any 32bit applications will be marked *32. If a Process is broken, using alot of ram, or you think it shouldn't be there, you can right click on it and "End Process". You can also change it's priority up and down so it gets more priority over other processes (Set Priority) or you specify which CPU Cores the process can run on (set Affinity).

Performance

The Performance tab is very important for inspecting the overall status of the machine and is useful in understanding why you may be getting slowdown in normal desktop scenarios. The Boxes at the top graph your CPU usage. There is a box for each core (or virtual cores). When idle you want total usage to be less than 10%, if it is higher you should look into which process/es are causing it, and switch it/them off in msconfig.

The boxes below show Memory (RAM) usage. Ideally when idle you want your ram usage below half of your total ram (Total Physical Memory). Windows 7 will "Cache" the rest of your ram (filling it with things you may want so they load quicker) but it does release this RAM back to you if you open a new program. If your ram usage goes over your Total Physical Memory then your machine begins to use "virtual memory". This means that it now uses your Hard drive (which is incredibly slow) as more RAM. This is very undesirable and will result in your entire system slowing down. If this occurs you should immediately remove processes that use a lot of ram or get a Ram Upgrade.

Networking

The Networking tab simply graphs the active network connections on your machine. It tells you the speed as well as the utilisation of the networks which can be useful when troubleshooting network connections.

If you need any help, feel free to comment, ask a question in the bar on the left, or email me at inbox@andrewgirdler.co.uk

MSConfig: Startup Program & Service Control

2011-04-12T17:32:00.000-07:00

How to start MSConfig
On XP
- Click Start > Run
- Type MSConfig
On Vista/Win7
-Type MSConfig in Start Search Bar

How to use MSConfig

MSConfig shows you all the programs that start up automatically when your machine boots. The two most important categories are Startup and Services

Startup Tab

In the "Startup" tab, you can disable programs by removing the tick from the left of them. This stops the program starting with the computer, It can still run, but only when you click it's icon. Not all entries should be removed though (while you *shouldn't* be able to stop the machine booting) it is best to leave the entries for drivers enabled (such as Nvidia, Realtek etc). If you don't know what something is, Google it, use Process Explorer (link in the sidebar), or leave a comment below and I or someone will try to figure it out.

What to Switch

If an entry has no Manufacturer or Unknown and is a random string of letters, it's best to switch it off. Auto Updating entries for Java or Adobe software can also be happily switched off. Finally, use your initiative, If it's something that you know you don't need at startup, switch it off, if it's something that needs to be running for something to work (like Dropbox for example) then leave it going. It's also good to look at the command section because the folder it's in may tell you a bit about what it is.

Services Tab

In the Services Tab it is essential to click the "Hide Microsoft Services" tickbox for normal use. Removing Microsoft services can stop your machine from booting. Approach Services with the same approach as Startup, And remember of course that if anything breaks you can always switch it on again.

The Benefits

The advantages of removing these programs are manifold. With fewer processes comes lowered RAM usage, quicker boot times, a snappier desktop, less startbar clutter and a generally happier machine.

If you need any help, feel free to comment, ask a question in the bar on the left, or email me at inbox@andrewgirdler.co.uk