What have I got here?

Question

Hello All,
 I am a new to this forum and recently purchased a preconfigured Compaq GX5050 Gaming Tower. It has a MSI MS-7025 board and loads of other neat accessories....what should/could I do with this thing?
Thanks in Advance,
                      GX5050 Gaming Tower
Athlon 64 3800.
NVIDIA 256MB DDR GeForceFX 5700
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
200GB 7200RPM WDC Serial ATA hard drive.
1gb-2X kingston hyperX KHX4000/512R
16X DVD±R/RW
16xDVD-ROM  
MSI MS-7025 motherboard
Enermax 470-Watt power supply
              Keith

Answer 1

1) What is the idea behind memory timings and what should I be sitting at with my system?
Read out the spd data of the inserted modules with i.e everest home ed or sisoft sandra.
Set the following for best performance (if you have it in your bios version):
Fsb spread spectrum=disabled
Agressive timings =disabled
cas -trcd-trp-tras values according to the spd readout for 200mhz/DDR400.
(can also be read out with the newest cpu-z (http://www.cpuid.com)
Set the vdimm voltage manually according to the ram manufacturers spec of it.
This as auto use jdec spc for voltage and not all modules follow it
and should use manual setting.
Set the max memory frequency from auto->200mhz , to have it locked at 1:1
Finally try to run memory with 1T command rate (if they support it , most do at DDR400))
A mix of 512/256 modules is not recommended in a dual ddr based system.
Always use same module density and dimm layout (e.g 512 MB 64x64)
2) I would like to get over the fear of flashing BIOS and read stay away from the windows flash. Also I am without floppy
Don't attemt to flash bios before it is verified if this rig use custom oem compaq bios , or MSI retail bios .
3 I have a 200gb wdc ata hard drive, with a C: partition of like 190gb NTFS and a 3.5 gb fat32 partition with a system recovery image on it.
a) can I use my wxp pro disc (from my latop) th boot and partition the hd, and what would be a good breakup of the C drive.
Before you trash your compaq prefabricated hd , use the compac utility program
to create recovery cd/dvds .
Recovery image can be a good deal to have on prefabricated machines (either on the hd itself or on cds/dvds)
You can use your other xp cd and make a new install , only if it is not
an oem version and tied to hw/bios and you have a valid serial number to use(not oem serial).
OEM xp cds and recovery cds have special xp licence keys and is very often tied
to the spesific hw or bios or hidden partition data .
b) I also have partition magic 7.0..........should I use that instead.
Partition magic 7.0 i don't know about .
But i use version 8.0
as this is the one supposedly compatible with ntfs5.1 and windows xp.
...