Hardware pr0n...w00t!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...ker/HWPorn.jpg
Well, it gets Sprocket all wet anyway....

New parts arrived yesterday, it was like Christmas in April except for the lack of decorations and insipid music.
Pictured above are the motherboard (Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-9), 4x512MB Patriot HP RAM(2,3,2,5 @1T), Athlon 64 3500+ CPU (90nm Winnie) and an Arctic Freezer 64 HSF.
Not shown are the XFX 6800GT (PCI-e) or the Plextor PX-17SA Dual layer DVD-RW.

Oh boy.

Tomorrow (Wed.) is my day off so I can begin the transformation.
First I have to strip out the Chaintech 754 setup from the Silverstone case and build it into a new box- my brother has bought Sprocket's guts for his boys new PC.
I hope to have all that up and running by tomorrow night.
Then I can begin to reassemble my baby in her new glory.

The first build will be pretty quick and dirty cause I have some more changes in mind- the new Antec P-180 case looks very interesting and I'm teetering on the edge of watercooling again, so I can't (won't) really tart up the wiring till I decide what to do ( the Antec has a completely different layout than my current TJ-06).
The watercooling is more for noise prevention ( which is the entire point of the Antec case) than performance (see no point in OCing this setup really), so the Freezer 64 is just a (temporary) experiment.

Updates will follow as time allows.

Not naked enough. The RAM still wrapped and CPU are still partially covered.

I know you'll say I've seen those things before but...

consider the RAM packaging lingerie :ermm:

the cheap RAM i get leaves nothing to the imagination :snooty:

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Originally Posted by Virtualbody1234

Not naked enough.

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Oh you naughty boy. :w00t:
Sprocket would be happy to treat you to a private "webcam date" (just for you!) and respond to your every desire.

If we could just get the teensy-weenie matter of the credit card settled now....

Damn, That hawt lol Did you order that stuff from newegg?

Damn just drooled all over the keyboard :) Looking fwd. to all the post on the build.Just like looking at a new issue of playboy.(only for the articles of coarse)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by clocker

Oh you naughty boy. :w00t:
Sprocket would be happy to treat you to a private "webcam date" (just for you!) and respond to your every desire.

If we could just get the teensy-weenie matter of the credit card settled now....

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Not a chance! I never pay for that stuff.

wheres the sexy video card :drool:

nice set up clocker....

why not save up and get a FX? :naughty: :naughty: :naughty: :naughty: :naughty: :naughty: :naughty: :naughty:

Where do you guys get the money for this shite?

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Originally Posted by TheCanuk

Where do you guys get the money for this shite?

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I think it's something called work.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Virtualbody1234

I think it's something called work.

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That and his kids are grown and left the nest ! :lol: I'm just a little jealous , don't mind me . :)

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Originally Posted by peat moss

That and his kids are grown and left the nest ! :lol: I'm just a little jealous , don't mind me . :)

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glad that im not the only one jealous.... :01: :naughty: :naughty: :naughty: :naughty:

CLOCKER that freaking rocks dude! 2gigs thats insane and awesome lol great graphics card and cpu...i cant wait to see how it benches man thats awesome!

i dont know alot about building computers, but that sure looks tempting to me. i swear, you guys build computers just to say ah it's slow...at 4ghz...if you over clock that what could it run? 5...5 1/2? insanity.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ApacNTS

i dont know alot about building computers, but that sure looks tempting to me. i swear, you guys build computers just to say ah it's slow...at 4ghz...if you over clock that what could it run? 5...5 1/2? insanity.

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:lol: :lol: :lol:

No

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Nice stup clocker, but one does wonder, will you need all that ram :ermm:

lol people getting Horny from e-penises :naughty: :naughty: :naughty:

Nice enjoy. I'm just wondering if all 4 sticks of RAM will fit w/heat spreaders installed. Looks like a tight fit. Do let us know.

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Originally Posted by jaigandhi5

lol people getting Horny from e-penises :naughty: :naughty: :naughty:

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:offtopic: :swear:

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Originally Posted by Peerzy

Nice stup clocker, but one does wonder, will you need all that ram :ermm:

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Yes, one does wonder.
Prolly not, but now I don't have to read the manual to figure out which slots are which for dual channel operation...just fill 'em all. :naughty:

@Canuk....I mow lawns and shovel snow for change, which I hoard up, Scrooge-like. Newegg was slightly miffed when I paid with bags of quarters,
but they'll get over it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jaigandhi

why not save up and get a FX?

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Cause this gets me up and running ( with a less than $800 chip) while we see what the Venice cores are like and if the Hammers come down in price.

Just for you VB, here are the naked RAM modules and the CPU...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...ni-ramchip.jpg
And the 6800GT vid card (I like the stiffening rail they have on the outside edge...this is a long card!)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...r/mini-vid.jpg
Finally, the heatsink installed...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...ni-freezer.jpg
Right.
Time to make coffee and get to work.
Back in a few hours....

hawt and kewl

Quote:

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Originally Posted by clocker

...Just for you VB, here are the naked RAM modules and the CPU...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...ni-ramchip.jpg
...

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:w00t:

Man clocker those latest pictures on page 2 are way cool!

Small update...
My brother's PC (which is actually the "old" Sprocket) is built...in fact, that's how I'm posting right now.

I did install the new Gigabyte board into my case and it POSTed first time up.
All the RAM is recognized and the Winchester is correctly identified (I've read that some boards require a BIOS flash to do this).

The stock fan on the XFX video card is just plain obnoxious...absurdly loud.
I was hoping to hold off until I decided about watercooling, but this noise is unbearable, so I'm off to the store to pick an upgrade.
Not sure which one to get...prolly the Zalman, but we'll see.

Laterz....

What BIOS revision is it? If it's the F2 revision then you should be fine.

Funny thing is that your 3500+ Winchester isn't on the supported CPU list: http://www.giga-byte.com/Motherboard...%20Ultra-9.htm

Mannn that ram looks awesome lol...:drool:

omfg that HS is like a big horny mofo cooler :lol:

and that video card is sexiiiiiii

-stares at the fan- That's a big fan. -stares at it some more- Damn that old 1ghz t-bird coulda used something like that. Poor guy..umm...didn't get any of that heatsink goup on him ever..I don't believe.

that heatsink if fucking huge, damn damn dman, i stared at it 3 times in disbelief. with all that ram you could do w/e you want and then some. how nice is must be.

OMG clocker the ram and vid card are so sexy.

Well, all of the hardware would be far sexier if I could get Windows to install on it.
I'm baffled ( and tired, which isn't helping).

Trying to install the x64Beta XP (which I've been running for the past few months on the old setup, so I don't believe that's the problem...).
All goes well, Windows can see the HDD(s) and will format and load installation files.
I can F8 to agree to the EULA.
When it gets to the reboot screen for the install to continue....it just starts all over again.
No, I am not hitting "any key to boot from CD".

Like an idiot, I have repeated the process maybe 10 times now, but no joy.

My only idea is to find nVidia 64bit SATA drivers and F6 them in, although we have NEVER had to do this on any of our 32 bit installs ( I've sold 7 of these Gigabyte boards in the past few weeks and the trick is NOT to F6 SATA drivers...somehow the board presents the HDDs to Windows without drivers).
Maybe the Beta 64 is different.

Poop.

I did install the Zalman VGA cooler on the vid card and it is very nice (i.e. silent), but I'm not sure it is seated properly.
The sink seems awfully loose ( I've noticed this with the 7-series CPU sinks also) and I might try to shim the hold down bracket to increase the clamping pressure, but that will have to wait till I can get the system up and running.

Double poop.

One ray of light....BIOS reports my CPU temp as 22-24C so far.
Admittedly, I haven't been able to do anything, so the chip is essentially idling, but even so, this is considerably lower than my previous Clawhammer 754 chip ever ran.
I know that the Winchesters run a lower vCore (1.4v I believe), so that, combined with this HSF, should give pretty respectable temps.
I'm still pondering watercooling again ( in fact, I have a bid in on a DangerDen block for the vid card, but the guy is jerking me around so I prolly will have to buy it new), but I'm waiting to see the new Antec P-180 case first.

Anyway, I don't even know why I'm wasting my time thinking of this...getting the OS loaded should be my only priority right now.

Off to see the Wizard...

did you do the LBA thing in bios?

i had the same sort of problem copies all the files then when it restarts to do the installation i was getting boot errors, (theres a thread about it somewhere).

i had to go into bios and change some property in your hard-drive settings to LBA, well i think it's LBA

No, I didn't, but I'm not getting any error messages either.
When Windows takes over the install after formatting/ loading files/ reboot, it is apparently losing the HDD and just starts all over.
Honestly, I would welcome an error message- at least then I'd have some idea what's going on and maybe a way to fix this.

I'll talk to our techs today and see what ideas they come up with...a fresh approach might be all that is needed.

Edit: I slaved my primary drive ( the Raptor I'm trying to load to) to this PC.
It is formatted and the installation folder is there and full of files. All seems normal.
I have already recertified the drive and it passes with flying colors so I am discounting hardware problems...as I said, I'm getting no error messages at all.

you could at least try

Saw this too , quote : do you run your sata i raid . if not, don´t install the driver (F6) when install .
some of the driver are in windows. but you allways have to disabled all ata hd (you can do that i the bios) .
is only the raid driver that don´t work.

Hmmm, strange...

After assembly, did you clear the CMOS?
What is the motherboard firmware revision?

Those temps are what I would expect with that heatsink (overkill for the Winchester core).

Check that graphics card cooler before continuing. No need to damage the card from overheating... is there?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by clocker

Well, all of the hardware would be far sexier if I could get Windows to install on it.
I'm baffled ( and tired, which isn't helping).

Trying to install the x64Beta XP (which I've been running for the past few months on the old setup, so I don't believe that's the problem...).
All goes well, Windows can see the HDD(s) and will format and load installation files.
I can F8 to agree to the EULA.
When it gets to the reboot screen for the install to continue....it just starts all over again.
No, I am not hitting "any key to boot from CD".

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I had the same thing, when it reboots as fast as you can remove your Windows cd, it will still go into the next step of installing with the enter your cd key and name shit but will popup and say enter cd, thats when you put your Windows cd back in.

HA!
I win.

Silly me.
Turns out, in BIOS, SATA must be enabled (which it was), AND RAID must be disabled.
I had assumed that if I did not create an array it didn't matter, but apparently it does. I'm guessing that with RAID turned on (?) when Windows begins to initialize the install it looks for an array, not just the nearest HDD, naturally, I didn't HAVE an array for it to find.*
Ickle, wittle Windows got confused. :unsure:

Anyway, problem solved.
Mostly.
Remember when I said I was tired?
Turns out I have been using the wrong disc, too.
I have the latest (and last) BETA build (v.1433), but was using the previous version disc. I discovered this when it would not accept my newest product key.

*sigh*

Oh well, what's another Windows install?
I'll beat this SOB yet.


*An interesting footnote (to me at least).
When RAID was enabled, my new Plextor SATA DVD-RW showed up in the drop down menu for "Boot order" in BIOS. I mean, it showed up by name- "Plextor DVD", in addition to the generic "CD-ROM" option that you always see.
When RAID is disabled, that option goes away and you must set first boot devive to "cd-rom" instead.

Just thought I'd share.

Personally Clocker i wouldnt have gone with 64bit Windows right now, within the next month or the final version will be out (cracked i mean) an ISO to the final is already on the net (which a non working crack included however) so its only a matter of weeks befor eyou could use the final.

Actually P., I've had zero problems with the version I've been running and it's completely legal for one year.
Driver availablity has been the only real stumbling block, and that has been improving quickly.
The plan is to hang in and see what Longhorn turns out to be.
After all, I just squandered a boatload of cash on a vid card- I may as well use it on a 3D eyecandy GUI, eh?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Peerzy

Personally Clocker i wouldnt have gone with 64bit Windows right now, within the next month or the final version will be out (cracked i mean) an ISO to the final is already on the net (which a non working crack included however) so its only a matter of weeks befor eyou could use the final.

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Do you know where such "final" ISO can be found and what it's filename is?


@clocker. It's good to see that you solved the "RAID" problem.

What happened with the video card cooler?

I guess you don't want ot tell me the BIOS revison. That's ok. I was just wondering if I bought that same board, if it would have the original or the updated one. No matter. I can always flash it.