RAM/CPU Speed Confusion...

[agentphish1]

Hello-

I've recently started a new job, and I haven't been working on PC's in a while, I've been in the Mac world for about 4 years...

I am a little confused upon a closer inspection of this Dell Optiplex 745 they gave me about a few things that CPU-ID is reporting....

the CPU is a P4 641 - 3.20 ghz
however the Clock speed shown in CPU-Z is as follows:
Core Speed: 2393.9 mhz
Multiplier x 12
Bus Speed 199.5
Rated FSB 798.0

So if it's a 3.2 ghz processor, then why is it only running about 2.3-2.4 ghz?

The ram is confusing me as well... They seem to have installed 3gb...

Slot 1- DDR2 PC2-5300 512mb
Slot 2- DDR2 PC2-4300 1gb
Slot 3- DDR2 PC2-5300 512mb
Slot 4- DDR2 PC2-4300 1gb

Which seems a little odd to me... Wouldn't that mean it's not doing dual channel, and all teh 5300 is scaling back to 4300 and slowing everything down?

The mainboard as reported is Dell Inc.
0HR330
Chipset Intel Q965 Rev. C1
Southbridge is Intel 82801HB/HR (ICH8/R)

Bios version 2.3.1 Date: 5/21/2007

Any help/clarification is appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[aowen416]

Umm, I'm not the most tech savy guy here..I'm usually here for help, but I can take some guesses that others can prove me wrong on later!

The CPU: How do you know that it's a 3.2 Ghz P4 in the first place? Your CPU is definatly clocked at 2.4 GHZ.

RAM- Your laptop will slow down the RAM to 4300.

 

[Atomic Rooster]

Your bus speed and multiplier are off. It should be at least 200MHz with a 16x multiplier.

It should be running in dual channel mode as it has four sticks of memory installed. They are differing speeds, so they will operate at the slowest memory speed of the DDR2 PC2-4300.

I saw this while surfing:

Could it be the Enhanced Intel Speed Step kicking in? Have you try to right click on desktop -> properties -> screen save -> power -> power scheme and select always on. Now is your P4 641 running at 3.2Ghz?

Here's some more info: Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology How To Document

 

[agentphish1]

"The CPU: How do you know that it's a 3.2 Ghz P4 in the first place? Your CPU is definatly clocked at 2.4 GHZ.

RAM- Your laptop will slow down the RAM to 4300."


I know that it's a 3.2ghz proc. because CPU-Z tells me that on the first screen (which is the same place it tells the actual clocked speed)

Secondly, the computer is not a Laptop... it's a Dell Optiplex, which is a Desktop model from dell.

i figured the ram would slow down to the slowest speed, however, I am interested to know why it doesn't seem to be running in dual channel mode according to CPU-Z.

The multiplier didn't look right to me either, 12x200 is too low for 3.2ghz.
The power management switching to Always On didn't change my speed at all...

 

[worshipme]

Have you tried putting the CPU under load? (perhaps encode an MP3 file to WMA) and then checking the speeds. It could be Intel's step speed thingy which is designed to reduce power consumption

 

[Atomic Rooster]

That is odd as the Dell Optiplex 745 supports dual channel operation. It says it's running in single channel on the memory tab in CPU-Z?

Have you tried rebooting after setting it to "Always On"?

 

[agentphish1]

So I changed it the power stuff to Always On then i shut down and went into bios..

I think CPU-Z is misreporting info honestly.

The BIOS says the clock speed is 3.2ghz (as does windows in the system info)
It also says the memory is running in Dual Channel.

There is nothing in there (being a dell BIOS) about the multiplier and such, though CPU-Z reports it at what I stated before, I have to believe that it's being misreported.

But i don't really know what to think...

 

[Atomic Rooster]

That is odd. CPU-Z is usually spot on. Do you have the latest version and can you post a screen shot of CPU-Z?

I just read this on the link I posted for you earlier:

Ensure Enhanced Intel SpeedStep technology is enabled in your BIOS. For Intel desktop boards the Intel SpeedStep technology option is under the, “Power,” tab and labeled, “EIST.” Ensure it is set to, “Enabled.”

If you have that option, see if you can disable it.

 

[agentphish1]

I will post them in a bit.
SpeedStep is currently and has been disabled in my bios.

 

[agentphish1]

Here are the pics

Let me know what you guys think.
Remember
Slot 1- DDR2 PC2-5300 512mb
Slot 2- DDR2 PC2-4300 1gb
Slot 3- DDR2 PC2-5300 512mb
Slot 4- DDR2 PC2-4300 1gb