[Unknown XV]

Hey folks, this seems like a pretty awesome forum and I hope I can find some help here. I learn fast but I've only recently gotten into the hardware game, it's fun but sometimes overwhelming figuring out what the cause is of the many inevitable issues that seem to pop up.

Anyhow, there's an annoying occurrence that keeps bugging me when I play a game. Occasionally it will cease to accept input from my keyboard, and, for example, continue on with the last given input. So if I was running, it will continue to run, like the key is stuck, but it's not. It will do this every few minutes, and lasts for a couple of seconds. It seems to become more frequent the longer I play the game.

It's a new computer. I'm on an E2180 Intel dual core at 2.0 GHz, with 2 GB of DDR2 RAM at 667 MHz and a sapphire HD 4830 512 MB DDR3 RAM GPU, on a custom vortex Windows XP 32 bit OS.

It's all on an XFX Nforce 750i Motherboard (I know it was a bad choice because I can't go crossfire down the road, but live and learn right?).

There's also the issue of case ventilation, in specific, my CPU. At first, because I had no case ventilation when I built the computer, my hardware was always running very hot. I checked the temperatures using speedfan. Now that I have proper case cooling, I have a few questions.

First off, why does speedfan take so long to load up for me? On my older, much slower computer, speedfan actually boots up faster. It doesn't make much sense to me. I don't have any conflicting programs running, nothing is different, software wise, from my older PC.

Secondly, what do the readings correspond to exactly? My guess is TEMP1 is the CPU as it's the primary one indicated in the toolbar, but then I have core 1 and 2, which seem to be the cores of the CPU.

So is TEMP 1 just the outer casing of the CPU?

I have these readings on idle:

Temp1: 36 Celsius
Temp2: 33 Celsius.
Temp3: 33 Celsius.
HD0: 35 Celsius.
Core1: 39 Celsius.
Core2: 38 Celsius.

Now these temperatures are pretty good, I think. The problem I have with the CPU is under full load, it shoots up to over 70 celsius which is definitely not right. I'm using the stock fan that came with it. Perhaps I didn't apply it right?

Oh yeah, why does speedfan only display one fan in its listing? I have five fans, two 120mm's, one on the back and one on the front, one 80 mm on the side casing, one on my CPU heatsink, and one on my GPU.

Thanks.

[Trotter]

Have you tried any other monitoring programs, like Everest, to see if they work better for you?

Not every fan is controllable.

[ComatoseClown]

Welcome to the Tech-Forums!

70c is certainly a number you never want to hit, im scared to hit it on my i7....certainly look into some better cooling for the CPU or at least make sure that you put on enough thermal paste and the HSF is seated correctly...as for the input lag, it may be related to the cpu heat......i assume you are using a USB keyboard...you might try a USB to PS2 adapter if you have one handy to see if that helps

[Unknown XV]

Well I'm not sure, but does CPU performance drop if it hits 70 Celsius +?

If so, yeah, maybe it could be related to the hookup. But I do have a USB to PS2 adapter actually, I'll give that a shot and see if it helps.

Oh and also, I was wondering, I'm definitely into gaming, so is my E2180 CPU bottlenecking me atm? I have fair performance in WoW and city of heroes (though my average fps seems to drop the longer I play) but I lag a fair bit in Vanguard on moderate settings.

[ComatoseClown]

well 70c is enough to fry a lot of processors.....and yes, even if it doesn't kill it, that kind of heat that close to the max (which is 73c for the E2180) will certainly cause a lot of hangups and slowdowns.....other than that the cpu and perhaps the 667mhz ram are keeping you down and you should really look into better cooling...i dont think it's the HD4830 at this moment...although you can never have too much graphics power

[Unknown XV]

The Sapphire HD 4830 was the one thing I really didn't go budget wise, for me anyhow compared to the rest of the hardware. I was definitely on a budget for the rest.

So if my CPU reaches 73 Celsius, it can literally fry up? ****, that's bad. I can't even play games at all now even after spending so much cash, just because of the cooling. Ugh. xD

What CPU would you recommend I get to replace what I have? Looking on Tigerdirect, most decent CPU heatsinks are 50+$, so **** I may as well invest in another CPU and be done with it.

Also trotter, I did try Everest, and it still only shows one fan. xD

[ComatoseClown]

if you really want to upgrade, i dont know your budget...but this cpu has one of the better "bang for buck" margins..

Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops

now you can stick with your current RAM...or squeeze a lil bit extra for some ddr2 800 ram like this:
Newegg.com - A-DATA 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

but if i were you i would hang on a lil longer...and make sure that the stock heatsink is installed correctly, and it has enough thermal paste on it.....if you really want to upgrade i might consider waiting for a lil while and getting an i7 or something that would be a huge performance gain with not that much more money invested

[Unknown XV]

Thanks for the advice.

I've heard that most games don't make full use of more than two cores atm, so is a core 2 duo better? I'm only interested in smooth gameplay for games, I'm not into editing or rendering or any of that stuff.

Hmm, I may upgrade my RAM. It's pretty cheap. I'm curious though, in CPU-Z under memory it says that my RAM is single channel, when I have two sticks of it... I'm sure my MOBO is duel channel compatible!

Also I have another issue, with my GPU. Here's a screenshot:

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/s...hill/Weird.jpg

As you can see, the readings are incredible out of whack, and as well, the program is incredibly laggy. It doesn't display sensors either. I'm using the latest drivers for the card.

[ComatoseClown]

do you have the ram in the correct slots for dual channel?....about the graphics card...that does seem a lil weird that it would give that much lag while in gpuz

[Unknown XV]

The correct slots?

This is my first time building a PC, so I didn't know there were correct slots for RAM to be duel channel. I just put them next to each other.

How much of a performance boost does it give over single channel btw?

and yes, it's very strange that GPU-Z gives me this much lag and false readings. It's not the drivers either, it did this before I upgraded them. :S