Frustrating problem on new build

Hey guys.

Ok so a friend of mine wanted to build a pc capable of playing games, he's hurting for cash so it was never gonna be a Crysis beater.

I helped him order what the best I could find for the money he had, unfortunately this meant getting some low end stuff.

This is what we got.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+ Brisbane 2.8GHz Socket AM2
Elitegroup A780GM-M3 MOBO
2gb Kingston DDR2 800
Broadway Com Corp P4-OKIA-550-RB 550W ATX Power Supply
500GB Segate SATA HDD
NEC DVD drive

All went well, XP 32 bit with SP3 installed and updated.
All correct and up to date drivers installed.

Everything worked well until we tried to play a game, we stuck with the onboard ATI HD3200 graphics for now until he can afford a card, he only wants to play Sniper Elite, doom 3 and COD 2 for now, he's new to games and wants to start off with some older games I said he should play.

Now, the pc I built him should have no issues running any of these games, but it does, lots of frame drops, at times Sniper Elite running everything on low will drop to 10FPS (educated guess)
So I thought maybe the onboard graphics don't work properly, I've had that happen a few times, so I take an old ATI X300 and try it, same results, I figure maybe the X300 is only 8x pci-e so might not do the job, so I take my old ATI X1950 Pro 512mb, same thing happend, I figure maybe that card is nearly toast (given it runs on idle at 75C), so last ditch effort I take my boys ATI HD4850 512mb fully operational, 3 month old card.
Same thing.

I switched the ram slot thinking one of the dimm slots may be faulty, same results.

I'm to the point where all I can think of is the MOBO is just a bad one, could any of you please shed some light before we take any more steps.

Thanks in advance.

 

I have a similar system: AMD64 x2 5400+ and an AMD780 chipset motherboard. I have never used the onboard graphics card, but I do know that both CoD2 and Doom3 are actually somewhat graphically intensive games, even with the in-game settings turned down. But this doesn't explain why the X1950 or the HD4850 video cards couldn't handle things. I ran an X1950 with 2gb DDR and my x2 5400 on a different motherboard and had no problems with Doom3 at mid-high settings (I never tried the highest settings). This was a couple of years ago with an X1950 AGP video card. Anyway, I know personally that the CPU, motherboard, and RAM should be plenty to run these games (I'm not familiar with Sniper Elite though) if a decent video card is used. The X300 is probably a bit weaker than the on-board video, but the X1950 and HD4850 should play these things fine. So- I'd start looking at some other components and BIOS settings and system temperatures. One thing that has me thinking is the power supply. I looked it up via Google and it is a VERY low end model. At under $30 for a 550w PSU, we know immediately that this could very well be the cause of your issues. The PSU is perhaps the most important component in any system build and really should not be skimped on. Since the entire PC runs on electricity, and all the electricity must pass thru and be processed by the power supply, a cheap unit can bring an otherwise decent setup to its knees. Just because the PSU turns on the system, doesn't mean it's working right or supplying the needed juice at acceptable levels. I understand the need to save money, but a quality 400w unit would be plenty for the rig specs and wouldn't cost much more. Here's some decent PSUs at Newegg, none are over $50 (before S&H), and some even have rebates and free shipping:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703017
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817194037
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371023
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104954
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153023
Also, I'd check all the data connections, power connections, make sure all cards and memory sticks are firmly seated. Take a close look at the capacitors on the motherboard. If they are not completely perfectly flat on top, and even slightly popped outward, then they are starting to fail. See the pics below.

Normal healthy capacitors look like this:
http://tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:l-O3uyAZWlRbFM:http://www.hardware-one.com/reviews/msi6309/images/capacitor.jpg http://www.fotosearch.com/bthumb/GLW/GLW137/gwc118050.jpg

Leaking/popped capacitors look like this:

http://tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:Y5WuxQTQI_nreM:http://www.op911.net/photos/story/capacitor.jpg http://tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:n6qnVlzrMn1XaM:http://i.ehow.com/images/GlobalPhoto/Articles/2162895/BadCapacitor01-main_Full.jpg

Sometimes bad capacitors won't actually have the crud leaking out the top as in the pics above, but if the top of the capacitor is not PERFECTLY flat, then it is failing. Even a very, very slight 'popped' top is bad news.

Anyway- I hope this helps! Good luck, and let us know how things go....
:-D

[dlb]

 

Hey, thanks for the reply, I never really gave the PSU any thought considering he was gonna be using on board. You really think it could be that? I told him when we ordered it that it should supply the power needed but I wouldn't give him a guarentee as to how long it would last, he accepted that.
It has 2 x 18A 12v rails and 550w, I honestly thought that would be more than enough, I have less than that in mine and I have 3 HDD's and the X1950pro and the Antec 900 with 3 x 120mm fans and 1x 210mm fan on a 500w single 12v rail.
Not arguing but could you double check the specs you read? PSU's are not my strong point lol
Although I guess it's possible the PSU is a lemon eh?

As for the caps, I'll have to look at that.

Edit: Link for PSU: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817162020&Tpk=Broadway%20Com%20Corp%20P4-OKIA-550-RB%20550W%20ATX

One other thing I did, I downloaded a benchmark test, PC test I think it was called, I couldn't get 3d mark cos it would have taken hours to d/l on his connection, but the test ran and showed no signs of struggle more than it should have, in a comparison test it stood almost eye to eye with mine with both using the same video card, Mine was a little hight due to a 6000 cpu and faster ram.
I've built god knows how many puters and have never had this issue, the only time things like this have happend is when the video card is simply too weak.
Oh and Sniper Elite is a lot less graphically intensive than Doom 3 or COD 2, great game, looks horrible even on full spec. Honestly, I think the onboard HD3200 (which I believe to be the equivelant of the 2100) should run Sniper on full excluding Anti Aliasing/strophic, I've ran it on high on much less a machine.