My new Gaming Rig...

[sygnus21]

So how's the new system coming along???

 

[AstaLaVista]

I hope I can get it done by tomorrow night and then start installing the OS and software by Sat morning.

I also have to install the OS and software for my neighbors so it may take me half a day to do all that

In case you guys don't see me perusing here Friday or over the weekend... call the Paramedics and Fire Dept. :D

 

[smarteyeball]

lol

 

[AstaLaVista]

Well, I am extremely down to say the least, my friend just called me to let me know that he's not going to be able to help me buil my rig tonight and that the weekend seems gloom.

I'd promise my neighbor I would give him the old pc tomorrow and even though he told me he was in no hurry, I talked to him yesterday and when I told him that he was going to have it tomorrow, he was as happy as a pig in, well... you know

Being that being a patient man is not one of my fortes nor virtues, I was wondering if there is an Idiot-Proof guide to Custom Built a PC.

Don't get me wrong, once the PSU & Mobo are hooked into the pc case with all wires from it plugged... I can pretty much install everything else but, my issue is, I am weary of plyggin in the wrong psu/mobo cable into the wrong slot. I know, the book should help me but, the book is not ment for the layman (is: Not user Friendly).

I may come down later on and delay this until next week but for now... I am jonesing since I have put this off this whole week.

 

[sygnus21]

Being that being a patient man is not one of my fortes nor virtues, I was wondering if there is an Idiot-Proof guide to Custom Built a PC.

Those manuals you get with the hardware is a good start :D. We can help with software. If nothing else there's always the tutorials here. The BIOS settings might be tricky from here though. Post a link to you motherboard, and see if it has an on-line manual, if so, link.

What is it that you don't understand about PC building?

 

[AstaLaVista]

Well, I think that part of the tough parts are already done, it is about 11:25 PM and my back hurts so I'll post more tomorrow. If nothing else, this has helped me tremendously. I am beat to hell but I am also happy that I have surpass this little hurdle.

The plugging of wires and cables is next (tomorrow) and that's part of what I was most afraid off. Installing the CM V8 cooler was a mother (I can laugh now but it got me fuming for a long while! )

Thanks everyone

sygnus21, the mobo is an EVGA 780i SLI FTW so I am hoping the Bios will be similar to my old EVGA 680i SLI mobo, otherwise, for sure... I'll be on my laptop asking for help! :D

 

[smarteyeball]

Being that being a patient man is not one of my fortes nor virtues

lol, what's patience?

Does the mobo manual gave any pics you can follow? Also don't forget to use the motherboard risers / spacers when installing the motherboard. ie DON'T screw the motherboard straight to the case.

With the PSU plugs, it's kind of hard to put them wrong way. Generally each plug has either a notch or a clip that 'locks' it into the motherboard port. The little clip on the plug hooks onto a lip on the port. If it requires too much force, chances are it's around the wrong way.


Your PSU will have an 8 pin ATX cable. There will also be a 24pin plug for powering the motherboard.

With the Power Switch, Power LED, HDD LED they should be labelled on the mobo. If you get these back to front, the worse that can happen is that they don't work.

There also the front USB headers and firewire. DONT mix the USB and firewire up!

 

[sygnus21]

Good luck buddy. See you tomorrow. BTW...I got a new toy too. Finally retired my 19 inch Dell CRT monitor for a HP 22 inch widescreen LCD . Man I gotta say FEAR 2 looks AWSOME on this thing, especially in widescreen. Very nice monitor for the price. $259 (US)

Amazon.com: HP W2207H 22-inch Widescreen LCD Monitor: Electronics

 

[AstaLaVista]

smarteyeball, thanks for those pics, they are much clearer than the pics in the manual and they work better. I did use managed to plug it the main wires (mobo & cpu) correctly and you are correct... they are fool proof

Now, the main front wire connectors, they usally have a main color (red, green) and white or black, am I correct to believe that the strong colors (red, green blue) are the positive (+) and the white and black should be the negative (-)?

Also, is it recommended to plug each fan into 1 wire slot or can I combine 2 or ever 3 fans and connect it into 1 wire slot to save having a bunch of cables lying around the board and/or case?. VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION TO ME

The only thing that I think I am not going to do are those Advance Thermal Chambers that the PC case comes with...

1.- It was sort of a PITA to get them out

2.- It will be 3 times as much PITA to get them back in now that the cables are all crossed out and everywhere

The installation of the CM V8 cooler was as stressful as anything I have done before, usually and for the most part, you screw the, well, screws clockwise, it took me quiet a few times and smoke breaks to figure out that I had to go Counter-Clockwise to be able to set the screws in the cooler plates. After this, I had to unscrews the motherboard to place the COOLER's back plate in the back of the mobo, and this was another fiasco all in itself but I finally got it going .

Then, and for the 3rd time, I had to unscrew the board to be able to instal the I/O Shield, I felt like an Idiot but happy at the same time... is that even possible?

I am taking a break now writting this and I am going to proceed to make my back ups and finish the other OS installation for the neighbor before I proceed to do mine.

sygnus21, glad you got a new toy, fear 2 is just awesome on a 22", mine only does 1680 x 1050, hurt me more and tell what Res can yours do?

Another issue I am having is that my laptop keeps loosing connectivity with my wireless and it is upseting me to an extreme, good thing the Comcast crew will be here on Monday and I can finally get rid of this AT&T DSL crap I am using.

Thanks for all the help fellas

 

[smarteyeball]

Now, the main front wire connectors, they usally have a main color (red, green) and white or black, am I correct to believe that the strong colors (red, green blue) are the positive (+) and the white and black should be the negative (-)?

Yep. For example my Power LED positive is green and the negative is white. My HDD Led is Red and negative is white. Power switch positive is orange, negative white etc.

Also, is it recommended to plug each fan into 1 wire slot or can I combine 2 or ever 3 fans and connect it into 1 wire slot to save having a bunch of cables lying around the board and/or case?. VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION TO ME

Do you mean a 3 pin fan plug into a 3 pin mobo slot? It depends on what current that particular plug can handle and how much multiple fans will draw. It's not a good idea to have more than one fan per port. Multiple fans will run slower and tax that particular port unnecessarily. It's not recommended.

If these are case fans and it's a cable management issue, you can either power the fans with molex adapters or grab a fan controller.

it took me quiet a few times and smoke breaks ... I felt like an Idiot but happy at the same time... is that even possible?

Lol, that sounds very familiar

I don't want to rain on your parade, but be a little prepared to pull the mobo out and re-seat the cooler if you discover the temps aren't all that great Building your own rig from scratch is a hell of a process, but it's definitely worth it in the end :D

Oh and FEAR 2 @ 1920x1200 x2 AA +Vysnc on a 24" looks good too

 

[sygnus21]

sygnus21, glad you got a new toy, fear 2 is just awesome on a 22", mine only does 1680 x 1050, hurt me more and tell what Res can yours do?

Edited since smarteyeball answered all your questions except this one of course -

It'll do 1920 x 1080 but I have it set at it's native resolution of 1680 x 1050. That's good enough for me as I kept my 19 inch dell at 1280 x 1024.

Good luck in finishing up your new toy

You beat me to it smarteyeball! :D

 

[AstaLaVista]

Also, is it recommended to plug each fan into 1 wire slot or can I combine 2 or ever 3 fans and connect it into 1 wire slot to save having a bunch of cables lying around the board and/or case?. VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION TO ME

Do you mean a 3 pin fan plug into a 3 pin mobo slot? It depends on what current that particular plug can handle and how much multiple fans will draw. It's not a good idea to have more than one fan per port. Multiple fans will run slower and tax that particular port unnecessarily. It's not recommended.

If these are case fans and it's a cable management issue, you can either power the fans with molex adapters or grab a fan controller.

Ok, let me explain better since I see I didn't make myself understood here (its casual ). As an example, my case brings 2 rear fans + 1 fan in the back og the mobo, all this fans have 4 big female/male prong/couplings/connectors (the ones you hook up to the PSU and not the mobo). For cable managment purposes, would I be able to hook up 1 fab connector to the back of the other fan conector to the back of the 3rd fan connector and theb connect this to 1 connector from the PSU or will I be better off connecting each fan to a single PSU wire?

it took me quiet a few times and smoke breaks ... I felt like an Idiot but happy at the same time... is that even possible?

Lol, that sounds very familiar

I don't want to rain on your parade, but be a little prepared to pull the mobo out and re-seat the cooler if you discover the temps aren't all that great Building your own rig from scratch is a hell of a process, but it's definitely worth it in the end

Believe, as many times as I have had to do so already, I could do that with my eyes close now.

Oh and FEAR 2 @ 1920x1200 x2 AA +Vysnc on a 24" looks good too

Bastid... you couldn't leave well enough alone could you! :D

sygnus21, glad you got a new toy, fear 2 is just awesome on a 22", mine only does 1680 x 1050, hurt me more and tell what Res can yours do?

Edited since smarteyeball answered all your questions except this one of course -

It'll do 1920 x 1080 but I have it set at it's native resolution of 1680 x 1050. That's good enough for me as I kept my 19 inch dell at 1280 x 1024.

Good luck in finishing up your new toy

You beat me to it smarteyeball!

My next project is to hook up a 2nd monitor to feel the pleasure that the rich and famous gets to feel everyday... its going to be a while before I can do that though.



P.S.: excuse my horrible grammar, well, more than normal but, typing on a laptop, while on my bed is not that simple :O

 

[AstaLaVista]

Well, the thing gave me a scare, well, truth be told, I am still scare but I digress. First test and sounds came howling down on me, the rig wouldn't even post and I got the dreaded C1 error. Took dimms 2 & 4 out and same thing, took dimm 1 out and left dimm 3 on it and I am on the bios but, the reason I am still scared is caused the Bios doesn't want to show my dvd rom nor my 2 hard drives. I am about to change the voltage on my Ram to specs and see if that fixes the issue with the C1 error and if it also will show that I have hard drives and rom install.

Somehow, postint the blow by blow of what's happening, calms me down... thanks fellas for lending an ear.


I have another big question:
I have my new Velociraptor 160GB set as the first HDD boot (clean, no OS yet) and the 750GB HDD (I had my old dual boot xp/vista x64 on the other pc) and the 2nd hdd in the order and when I went to the bios, it started as if it was the first boot... is this normal when the bios doesn't find an OS? I find this logical but want to make sure.

Oh and I guess you have figured out by now that making some changes on the bios (ram voltage among others) worked.

Yet, another question:
Is it normal or extrange that Vista did not ask me for the New MOBO Cd and everything was installed all on its own? with XP, I recall having to install the mobo cd to get access to the ethernet and other components but this was not the case with Vista... why?

 

[smarteyeball]

You beat me to it smarteyeball! :D

lol, sorry mate. It's annoying spending time posting a reply onlt discover some other bugger has jumped in in the interim

Somehow, postint the blow by blow of what's happening, calms me down... thanks fellas for lending an ear.

...or an eye, lol

I have another big question:
I have my new Velociraptor 160GB set as the first HDD boot (clean, no OS yet) and the 750GB HDD (I had my old dual boot xp/vista x64 on the other pc) and the 2nd hdd in the order and when I went to the bios, it started as if it was the first boot... is this normal when the bios doesn't find an OS? I find this logical but want to make sure.

Yep. The idea of the boot order is that if it doesn't find data on the first device, it goes progessively until it finds boot data. Although if the blank HDD is the fiirst in line, it should at least be checked first.

For cable managment purposes, would I be able to hook up 1 fab connector to the back of the other fan conector to the back of the 3rd fan connector and theb connect this to 1 connector from the PSU or will I be better off connecting each fan to a single PSU wire?

Since they are molex to PSU and not to the mobo, you should be able to daisy chain them off one plug as you described. Three fans from one plug would draw the same as three plugs. However keep that in mind if you plan to add other devices to that rail. You dont want to overload the rail.


Keep it up mate, you're doing well

Bastid... you couldn't leave well enough alone could you! :D

Then perhaps I shoudn't mention that I'm currently using and LCD projector with a screen size of about 130" ?

To soften the blow - a) I'm only borrowing it and b) it's only a 1024x768 native. On the plus side, I can play Crysis and a few other PC killers at max settings. All in real lifesize :D



EDIT:

The ethernet drivers may be pre-installed. I'm not sure about your chipset. Check the device manager for any errors. I'd install the chipset drivers anyway.

 

[sygnus21]

You beat me to it smarteyeball! :D

lol, sorry mate. It's annoying spending time posting a reply onlt discover some other bugger has jumped in in the interim

That's ok...We'll just pretend you're speaking for me

EDIT:

The ethernet drivers may be pre-installed. I'm not sure about your chipset. Check the device manager for any errors. I'd install the chipset drivers anyway.

Agreed - Install the chipset drivers anyway, but go on-line to check for a newer version first.

Bastid... you couldn't leave well enough alone could you!

Then perhaps I shoudn't mention that I'm currently using and LCD projector with a screen size of about 130" ?

To soften the blow - a) I'm only borrowing it and b) it's only a 1024x768 native. On the plus side, I can play Crysis and a few other PC killers at max settings. All in real lifesize :D

Hmmm...Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned my new toy

 

[MrNeeds]

Well, the thing gave me a scare, well, truth be told, I am still scare but I digress. First test and sounds came howling down on me, the rig wouldn't even post and I got the dreaded C1 error. Took dimms 2 & 4 out and same thing, took dimm 1 out and left dimm 3 on it and I am on the bios but, the reason I am still scared is caused the Bios doesn't want to show my dvd rom nor my 2 hard drives. I am about to change the voltage on my Ram to specs and see if that fixes the issue with the C1 error and if it also will show that I have hard drives and rom install.

Somehow, postint the blow by blow of what's happening, calms me down... thanks fellas for lending an ear.


I have another big question:
I have my new Velociraptor 160GB set as the first HDD boot (clean, no OS yet) and the 750GB HDD (I had my old dual boot xp/vista x64 on the other pc) and the 2nd hdd in the order and when I went to the bios, it started as if it was the first boot... is this normal when the bios doesn't find an OS? I find this logical but want to make sure.

Oh and I guess you have figured out by now that making some changes on the bios (ram voltage among others) worked.

Yet, another question:
Is it normal or extrange that Vista did not ask me for the New MOBO Cd and everything was installed all on its own? with XP, I recall having to install the mobo cd to get access to the ethernet and other components but this was not the case with Vista... why?

firstly asta, the hard drive with no OS'es installed will automatically go to the next hard drive with an OS installed, but it does it so quickly it seems that it hasnt even checked the first one
secondly, vista has most of your Mobo drivers pre-installed on there, im sure vistas size is just drivers for people who cannot be bothered looking for them, but none the less, they are there, but chances are the drivers are about 2-3 years old, also this is dependant on your chipset, i know vista doesnt like installing Nforce chipsets, i know mine was a royal pain to install, but i had the mobo drivers on a cd and it worked, also the ethernet drivers are dependent on the chipset as well, my ethernet ports are Nforce Gigabit ports and would not work on fresh install, needed the drivers for it to work, but again as soon as i installedmy chipset drivers, it also worked.

 

[AstaLaVista]

Well, I guess I was lucky (for once ) since it installed w/o much fuzz, I did went ahead and install the latest chipset, audio & video drivers nonetheless as I had downloaded them a couple of days ago just to make sure I was up to date

I am in the process of installing all my other software, and I am going to be bringing all my available data from the other drive slowly and then, clean the 2nd drive for storage, data & backups but, I won't do so until 100% sure everything works. As soon as I am done, I am going to use Acronis to make a system restore and clone just in case.

Next step is to find why the system didn't want to post with the 8GB's install, I had to pull 3 dimms out in order for it to let me get into the bios and, as of right now, I am installing everything with only 2 GB's of Ram. Another thing is to find out why the bios is only reading my ram at 800Mhz and not 1066Mhz but, I'll deal with that later as well and perhaps I will get into EVGA's ear for that.

So far and with the sides of the case open, my EVGA GTX260 seems to be running at the same temps it was running before, perhaps just a few degrees lower but nothing espectacular, I am hoping that once I close the case completely and the 230mm fan starts to blow cool air, this will change... I have to go find out what are the idle temps for the card to make sure I am where I should be.

The CPU, on the other hand, has lower its temp tremendously, close to 10 degress below from where it was with the other case, so I am hopeful that once closed, it will lower itself even more and I can start with the Overclock process.

Not much gaming for me in the next couple or few days but happy as pig on... well, you know!

Again, thanks so much for lending help and coping with my nags.

 

[sygnus21]

Vista X64, hence, the 8GB's

I would seriously do some research if you plan on using 8gig of memory, especially if you plan on overclocking. If all of your Dimm slots are filled with memory you could wound up straining the MB's memory controller, which in the long run will damage/degrade the MB.

More from Corsair - AN806: Memory Upgrade Resource Guide

For users opting to use four memory modules, referred to hereafter as “4-up”, there are many considerations. First, 4-up places a greater electrical load on the memory controller than 2-up. This increased load can result in instability if the BIOS is not tuned or tweaked to compensate. The user should make certain that their motherboard BIOS allows adjustments to the memory controller voltage. Additionally, users should be certain that their motherboard is capable of cooling the memory controller as it will generate more heat with 4-up and the increased voltage.

The number of modules used can also have an effect on users attempting to utilize EPP or XMP performance profiles. Some BIOS implementations will not allow the selection of these options when running 4-up. Operation in the 4-up configuration is not a defined part of the EPP or XMP standard, and users running 4-up should set their memory settings manually.

(edited from original post)

Bottom line, research the board to see if it has problems with 8 or more gigs of RAM. Unless you really have a need for 8gigs of RAM, I'd do 2x2 2048 (4Gig) and run the RAM at the highest rating allowed by the MB.

But that's me

Beat me to it, I just came from reading a whole bunch of things and this is quiet correct. It seems Corsair doesn't make the dominator in 4GB sticks so it is going to have to be 4 max in order to leave the other 2 slots free.

I am a little baffled though, no where in those reviews they say if using 6GB's max is ok?

You could use 6gig, but unless they make 3gig modules, you're still going to use 4 slots. BTW, there's nothing that says you can't do this, you just need to be aware.

I could buy the matching set of 4Gb (2 x 2Gb) and 1 single of 2Gb but I think I'll stick with the 4GB's only...

Next step is to find why the system didn't want to post with the 8GB's install, I had to pull 3 dimms out in order for it to let me get into the bios and, as of right now, I am installing everything with only 2 GB's of Ram. Another thing is to find out why the bios is only reading my ram at 800Mhz and not 1066Mhz but, I'll deal with that later as well and perhaps I will get into EVGA's ear for that.

Why the change???

At any rate with all dimm slots filled you'll have to manually set the memory settings - voltage, timings, and speed. Note that you very likely (like 99.9 percent) won't be able to run the sticks at 1066MHz with all dimm slots populated. In fact you may even have to drop the speed down to 667MHz for system stability.

With that said, try this.

Set required memory voltage manually
Set memory timings to 5-5-5-15
Try running at 800MHz, if that doesn't work try 667MHz

If all else fails - try running just two sticks (4gig) at 1066, and still set everything manually.

Last question - does your board support 1066 RAM?

Let us know.

 

[smarteyeball]

Hmmm...Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned my new toy

Yes you should have I'd be proud and happy to share my new toy. It looks like a great monitor. At any rate, my temporary use of the projector has come to a halt again and I'm back to my failing Dell...... I just couldn't resist being a little smug while I had the chance. It doesn't happen too often

EDIT: Who beat who this time?

also this is dependant on your chipset,

yep. Some work out of the box and others don't. I had to install chipset drivers for my P5Q Pro in Vista and Seven.

Next step is to find why the system didn't want to post with the 8GB's install, I had to pull 3 dimms out in order for it to let me get into the bios and, as of right now, I am installing everything with only 2 GB's of Ram. Another thing is to find out why the bios is only reading my ram at 800Mhz and not 1066Mhz but, I'll deal with that later as well and perhaps I will get into EVGA's ear for that.

Failing to POST with 8GB is not uncommon. Your best bet would be to boot with 2GB and enter the manufacturers specified voltage and timings. Also, a bit of extra voltage to the NB helps when all 4 dimms are used. However, it's unlikely that you will be able to run all 8GB @ 1066 on manufacturers specs. You have two options: crank up the NB/DRAM volts or run at a lower mhz with tighter timings.

For example, I have 8GB g.skill 8800/1100mhz CL5-5-5-15 1.9v which will run at that speed with 6GB, but as soon as I go to 8GB - FAIL. I tried upping the NB and DRAM volts, but still failed memtest at that speed. Since I don't have any active cooling on my NB, I'm reluctant to push it further atm and probably didn't go far enough.

Since that didn't work, I went the other way with lower mhz and tighter timings. I'm currently running 849mhz 1.82v NB 1.24v @ 4-4-4-12 and have had no problems.

With NB volts, 1.3+ will need active cooling on the NB. 1.4v+ is a no-no unless you have very good cooling.

As for it running at 800mhz, that would be your FSB strap setting. It's probably on auto atm. Easy fixed

 

[sygnus21]

Hey smarteyeball, should he run his memory linked or un-linked?

Page 49 of the owners manual - http://www.evga.com/support/manuals/132-CK-NF78.pdf