Off-Topic > Off-Topic - Tiny Core Lounge

I just inherited a "new" computer...

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Leee:

--- Quote from: Rich on October 09, 2025, 10:33:28 PM ---Hi Leee

--- Quote from: Leee on October 09, 2025, 04:28:02 PM --- ... There are three 8GB sticks of ram (24 GB by my math) but both Win10 and Tiny Core 15 report only 12 GB. ...
--- End quote ---
I was recently gifted a retired machine that had a Corsair 16 GB RAM module
installed. Both 64 bit Windows and Linux reported 4 GB. Looking up the specs
for the motherboard revealed it supported 16 GB, but only when installed as
two 8 GB modules. When I replaced the Corsair with two 8 GB modules, the
machine correctly reported 16 GB. So you might want to check what RAM the
motherboard supports.


--- Quote from: Leee on October 09, 2025, 05:32:41 PM --- ... Although, if I can "lean it up" a little (a lot) it might be quieter and less power hungry. ...
--- End quote ---
The CPU governor might help there. Check  /lib/modules/$KERNEL/kernel/drivers/cpufreq
to see if there's a driver for your CPU.

--- End quote ---
Hmmm.... coincidentally, these are also Corsair memory modules.  I haven't yet got the full specs for the mobo, though that's next on my to-do list after I check the overall power draw.
I did verify the BIOS is up to date.

Rich:
Hi Leee
That reminds me, it's possible the BIOS may have a
setting for balancing power against performance.


--- Quote from: Rich on October 09, 2025, 10:33:28 PM --- ... Both 64 bit Windows and Linux reported 4 GB. ...
--- End quote ---
The BIOS also reported 4 GB.

Leee:

--- Quote from: Rich on October 10, 2025, 08:37:02 AM ---Hi Leee
That reminds me, it's possible the BIOS may have a
setting for balancing power against performance.


--- Quote from: Rich on October 09, 2025, 10:33:28 PM --- ... Both 64 bit Windows and Linux reported 4 GB. ...
--- End quote ---
The BIOS also reported 4 GB.

--- End quote ---

Yes, the BIOs has a setting for balancing power vs performance and I've set ti to the lowest power option.  I also pulled one of the Nvidia cards and two of the case fans - it's much quieter now but still drawing about 95 watts at idle (4 times what another tower I have, of similar vintage, draws).  One of the remaining fans sounds a little iffy, but of course it's not a duplicate of one of the ones I've pulled.

The BIOS on this box reports those 8 GB RAM sticks as 4 GB each, so I suspect I just have to find the right setting in the bios and beat it into submission.

So far no joy on the graphics cards, but I'm only just getting started on that.

Leee:

--- Quote from: gadget42 on October 09, 2025, 07:18:22 PM ---near the bottom of this webpage is a bottleneck calculator that has your gpu available in the drop-down menu.

https://pc-builds.com/cpu/049/amd-fx-6100

however, in the "compatible gpu" listings much earlier on the webpage it doesn't list the GeForce GTX 550 TI

the calculator shows the gtx550ti being a bottleneck but doesn't give any option for a pair of them(sli-bridge?)

this might also help:

https://www.gpumag.com/nvidia-sli-and-compatible-cards/

with regards to the ram, the labels/stickers on some sticks show the total for a matched set
(and sometimes the actual part number will call them out as a 2/3/4 piece set)

so you've probably got three sticks of 4gb

coincidently, or not... now working on 3 machines for a friend(a T6600 cpu laptop, a A6-7310 cpu aio, and another all-in-one with an i3-7100u) fortunately they are quite clean and just need some ssd upgrades and perhaps some additional ram.

above all else, have fun!

--- End quote ---
Regarding the GPU cards: as this is a "spare" computer, the graphics "bottleneck" isn't really an issue for me - I'm not looking for phenomenal performance so much as I just want to be able to use my 1920X1080 monitor at its full resolution.  Right now, it's showing my desktop at some generic lower resolution.  Sure, It would be nice to be able to watch full screen videos occasionally but, really, if this mobo had pretty much -any- on-board graphics (which it doesn't!) it would probably be fine.  I know the mobo was designed for gamers, who are fully expected to install some sort of high end graphics cards but FFS couldn't we at least have a vga port on the board!?

Anyway, I've pulled one of the cards - and yes, they did have a little bridge thing between them.  As expected, bringing it down to just one card had no effect on the display output.  It's really just down to driver/firmware to get the graphics working right.

Regarding the RAM:  It looks you are exactly right.  Each module (Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1866C9) is marked "8GB (2x4GB)" which I took to mean that "each 8GB module had two 4GB RAM chips on it".  That still seems to me to be the only correct way to interpret that label and there's a pretty little heat sink obscuring the actual truth.  Only by googling the part number and getting to look at the actual retail packaging did I come to suspect that it is as you described.  I guess, since it came to me for free, I don't get to bitch about it too much but there's no way that it's ok for each module to be marked that way.

patrikg:
On some PC there are a lot of memory slots, so you can seat them so the banking will be correct.
Depending of how the simm/dimm are built. How many chips and the chips storage capacity.

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