Hardware pr0n...w00t!

[Snee]

Very nice setup, but the wraping on the memory did the picture no justice.

OK, you lost me.

On one of the first pages, before you'd built it/put the sticks in?

[clocker]

Geez, that was over 3 months ago.
The only parts from that pic that are still in use are the CPU and a gig of RAM.

Almost a longevity record for Sprocket, actually.

[Storm]

Geez, that was over 3 months ago.
The only parts from that pic that are still in use are the CPU and a gig of RAM.

Almost a longevity record for Sprocket, actually.

wow, ebay must really like you then, all the selling and reselling you're doing

[ApacNTS]

*stares....starts to laugh* yeah im still envious :-p

[clocker]

Hmmm....

I just discovered that since RAIDing the drives my Plextor DVD-RW will no longer burn a disk.
Reads fine, but freezes the PC when trying to write.

This is somewhat disturbing.

I'm wondering if the problem stems from having all my drives running through the nVidia northbridge.

I could break my array and rebuild it on the SI3114 chip which would leave just the Plextor and the Seagate on the northbridge.

Might be worth a try as I have no other ideas ATM.

[lynx]

You could get a PATA drive, I here the NEC one's are rather good.

[Snee]

Hmmm....

I just discovered that since RAIDing the drives my Plextor DVD-RW will no longer burn a disk.
Reads fine, but freezes the PC when trying to write.

This is somewhat disturbing.

I'm wondering if the problem stems from having all my drives running through the nVidia northbridge.

I could break my array and rebuild it on the SI3114 chip which would leave just the Plextor and the Seagate on the northbridge.

Might be worth a try as I have no other ideas ATM.

For what it's worth, I think that'll do it If not, you could try adding a controller card, and put the raid array on that.

The Plextor's a sata drive, right? EDit: d'oh, of course it is

[clocker]

Sorry to say, that did not solve the problem.
RMA City for the Plextor, I'm afraid.

The array on SI3114 is horribly worse than the nVidia setup.
When I get home from work I'll get a screenie to show...I was amazed at the degradation in speed.

I may have stumbled into a install sequence that really speeds up boot times, I'm going to try it again and see if the results are repeatable.
Right now I get no progress bar at startup at all, two of the three boxes from the first group start to peek out and it hits the desktop.

That's kinda nice, really.

Edit:
Here is the RAID array on the SI 3114 chip.

Almost beautiful in a pathetic sort of way....

[clocker]

*up from the grave*

Picking up the challenge from a member of another forum, Sprocket will be morphing back to air cooling beginning this weekend.
In the interest of continuity the Silverstone case will be retained*, but just about all the mods pertaining to the H2O install will have to be reversed/changed.

The CPU HSF will be a Thermaltake Big Typhoon...yeah, yeah, I know, but it's been getting great reviews and seems worth a look.
Worse comes to worse, I still have several other options to employ for the chip cooling.

Haven't yet decided on the GPU solution.
I haven't been particularly thrilled with the performance of the DangerDen NV-68 block, but I only have the Zalman VF-700cu on hand ATM to replace it with.
I wasn't too impressed with it when I first tried it, so another fix must be found.
Seriously looking at a (slightly) modified Thermalright SP-97 socketA sink as the candidate this go-round.

The northbridge will be changed also...not sure to what as yet.

The origin of this change is the stated opinion that air cooling cannot compete with water in performance or quietness.
I'm pretty sure that with identical hardware and settings I can not only better my watercooling performance, but approach (prolly not surpass tho) the same noise levels...after all, even with a totally watercooled rig, I still have six 120mm fans running.

Oh boy.

*This may not be possible, but I'm going to try.
Alternatively, I may move back into a Stacker or (more likely) just cobble into one of the Gateway server cases I have sitting around.

[Snee]

What about one of those NV silencers from Arctic Cooling for you graphics? Some say they work very well.

Or you could try Zalman's 80D-HP, combined with one of those thin 80mm (OP1?) fans they make.