Help with bios

[lucuzade]

Hi everyone. I'm new and would really appreciate some help. I've just recently upgraded my rig to the following (items marked with star are new)

Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit*
Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.66ghz
Asus P5Q PRO motherboard*
2gb RAM
Palit Nvidia 9800gtx+ 512mb PCIE Graphics Card*
1TB Samsung Hard Drive*

This is the first time I've really properly set up a new system needing to have the BIOS configured from scratch. As a result I've left most of the values to their default or auto. Including all of the RAM, CPU frequencies etc.
I thought that'd be fine but running my new 64bit Vista the performance seems a bit fuzzy around the edges compared to 32bit vista and really what I expected. For example GTA IV goes very jerky at times. I've tested it on 32bit and it's not as bad...Do I need to optimize my bios for 64bit or does it simply require more RAM than I currently have? I also get occasional freezes in Vista where i must wait a couple of minutes before I can even move the cursor. I also get errors when booting from most discs (other than the vista discs) for example UBUNTU discs won't boot to the operating system and Hiren's boot CD loads with line after line of indecipherable symbols. These all boot fine on other PCs.

I suspect this has something to do with me setting up the BIOS. So could anyone be able to talk me through their recommended BIOS settings? I have heard the Auto settings are a bit rubbish for my motherboard. I haven't got a real interest in overclocking but if it is a very simple procedure, especially if I need to change the RAM and CPU frequencies, I'd be very open minded to getting a little bit more performance out of my hardware. I would be really grateful for any help or suggestions however small!

 

[Shnur]

First off, I'd say to get 2 (4 if you can afford 50$ XD) more gigs of RAM at the same speed as the ones you have now.
Then make sure you have the latest drivers for your system (go check Asus.com for motherboard drivers since the ones provided with the board are often outdated), and nVidia.com for graphics.
Are you using the latest Ubuntu build?
As for overclocking, you can always check the forums in the overclocking section and see how to do it, pretty easy and safe nowadays.
Also, patch everything, from Vista to GTA

 

[lucuzade]

Thanks for your reply shnur! Yeah my next priority is definitely the RAM I think, as soon as I have saved up I'm going to get as much as I can (I was planning on getting 16gb which is the max the mobo supports but it only has 4 slots and as far as I can see 4gb sticks are extortionately over priced so that seems like a no go). I have absolutely everything completely patched and up to date (bar Ubuntu which is 7.04). Which is why I'm very confused. The booting issues seem like something deeper could be wrong. I had a bit of trouble with power supplies when I first upgraded. Could anything have been damaged by lack of power or a surge?

 

[Shnur]

64-bit system eats more RAM at my experience than 32-bit, so starting with a RAM upgrade and tell how it is, GTA 4 is extremely badly optimized; eats too much resources for no apparent reason.
Get the latest Ubuntu version since you have some new hardware, I had a similar problem with a non-recognition of hardware... What I've just checked, it's versino 9.04
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
What kind of power supply are you using?

 

[lucuzade]

Yeah I did wonder about the RAM thing it makes sense what with each word being twice the size. Although GTA 4 says its supposed to be optimized for 64-bit though so I reckoned it shouldn't be a problem, guess its probably a marketing stunt.
I don't run Ubuntu very often but I may download a newer version at some point.
I'm using a Win-Power 700W power supply now. But originally I had a 400W one of the same make. Things ran a bit sluggish then and my graphics card kept saying it needed more power. So I idiotically experimented with hooking up 2 power supplies to my system. To cut a long story short I must have knocked a wire out whilst powering up because I managed to blow my new 1tb hard disk by sending all the power its way (I got a replacement on warranty thankfully =] ). I'm wondering if that, or the lack of power at the beginning could have damaged the motherboard causing it to run slow. I did have the same booting problems with the afore mentioned CDs straight from the box though.

 

[Shnur]

You can't really damage a board by giving it less power, if the voltages are ok, about +-10% (and that is same in all PSU) the board should be fine, the thing that would blow up is your PSU since it'd be asked too much power than it's able to give.
The brand of your PSU is unknown to me, I would recommend you get a quality PSU that is able to keep up with all the power you ask for. OCZ, Corsair, Cooler Master, Thermaltake, Antec are all reputable companies, stick with them for a PSU. Start adding another 2 GB (or how much you can afford) of RAM and it should fix your issues. GTA IV is a failure in porting, do you have similar issues with other games? Like anything that's very demanding, you can download demo's of games like HawX and check it.