Build log: (\/)0n0L17(-) II & HAL 1.0

L31mr0d

Ok I'm pretty close to getting all the parts for my next 2 rigs. I've been sourcing parts and lurking in the shadows on tech forums since march, waiting for people to selll of their wares cheap.

The rest of the guts of these PC's i'm getting from hardwareversand.de. I should be ordering them in the next week or so.

I've always been a one PC man, but after a spell of problems with my last pc I realized its always handy to have a second one around for debugging, internet researching and backup.

My second PC i'm building, "HAL 1.0" serves a few purposes, its going to be my fileserver PC, a PC for gamepad oriented games (i.e. 3rd person, sports, racing..etc), my better halfs PC and a media center.

So now onto the juicy bit, the proposed specs for both:

(\/)0n0L17(-) II:
CPU QX6700 w/ Tuniq Tower 120 w/ Scythe Sflex 12cm fan*
RAM 4GB Kit Mushkin HP2-6400, CL4
Mobo eVGA 680i-A1*
GFX eVGA 8800GTX*
HDD 2x320GB SATAII RAID 0 w/ XP, Vista 64bit, ubuntu*
Sound XFI Fatal1ty w/ Sennheiser HD555's*
PSU OCZ 700w GameXstream*
Optical SATA DVD ROM 18x*
CASE Antec P180b*
Screen 19" BenQ TFT*
Mouse Logitech MX610 Left-hand*
KB Saitek Gamers Keyboard*
Cooling 5 x Scythe Sflex 12cm fans, Zalman 6 fan controller*

HAL 1.0:
CPU E6420 (or better?) w/ Zalman CNPS8000
RAM 2GB Kit Mushkin HP2-6400, CL4
Mobo Asrock 939NF6G
GFX eVGA 8800 GTX*
HDD 1 x 500GB WD SATA2 w/XP or Vista 32bit
Sound Onboard w/ Logitech Z-5500 5.1 speakers*
PSU Corsair 520w
Optical SATA DVD RW 18x*
CASE Lian-li PC-V300*
Screen 42" Hitachi 1080i Plasma*
M&KB Logitech Cordless Desktop S510
Cooling 2x12cm Tricool fans, 2x8cm Papst fans, Lian-li TR3 fan controller

*These items have already been bought and are waiting to be installed

There will also be 2 x Logitech Cordless Rumblepad's and a WD external 250GB HDD.

The majority of my current sig rig (i.e. raptors, cpu, ram, mobo, gfx) will be getting sold off as well so PM me if you are interested before I post them up for sale on adverts which will be in about 2 weeks.

I'd like opinions on the setup and any ideas about it. As I get more stuff I'll take more pictures and post them here. Once it is all set up I'll begin benching and posting OC results.

SwampThing

the x-fi fatality in your sig kit - what's the damage?

L31mr0d

not damaged at all, although I won't be able to use any of its D3D features when I move to Vista, as only OpenAL is now supported

But i'm guessing you want to buy it off me. Sorry i'm not selling it, just the CPU, mobo, ram, raptors and gfx..

woops! just realized I have my 8800 GTX in my sig. Sorry I'll change it, the gfx card i'm selling is a 7900 GTX 512MB. Please keep any offers to PM's though. This is a WIP thread so i'm looking for opinions and ideas mainly.

hopeful

I have a Zalman CNPS8000 that I only used for a month if you haven't already bought one.

L31mr0d

hopeful wrote:

I have a Zalman CNPS8000 that I only used for a month if you haven't already bought one.

*in teh most whiteboy attempt at a lil jon impression* Yeaaah!!!

I was going to get it from hardwareversand for €30.66. I'd be interested in getting it off you though (the missus might get to go for that walk along malahide beach after all :rolleyes:) PM me with how much you are looking for it.

EDIT: Oh and if anyone else has any of the other items i haven't bought yet (i.e. mATX LGA775 mobo, 2GB DDR2 RAM, modular PSU...etc) feel free to send me a PM, I might be interested.

awhir

nice rig man lol love ur names like start treck or sumtin lol

IgsTer

lol yeah whats the names mean?

very nice rigs doh mate..would love to have either one...is this hardwareversand place better than komplett?

L31mr0d

awhir wrote:

nice rig man lol love ur names like start treck or sumtin lol

I like to give my rigs names. Like the way car owners will name their car.

The first name is obvious, (\/)0n0L17(-) is leet for monolith, referencing the black monolith of knowledge from 2001: A Space Odyssey that my black P180b looks like. For my wifes PC I wanted to pick a name in keeping with the 2001 theme, HAL is the name of the computer aboard the space station in 2001 standing for Heuristically-programmed Algorithmic Computer.

Also Igster, I haven't bought from hardwareversand yet, but i've heard good things from other people, and their prices can't be beaten this side of the US

awhir

L31mr0d wrote:

I like to give my rigs names. Like the way car owners will name their car.

The first name is obvious, (\/)0n0L17(-) is leet for monolith, referencing the black monolith of knowledge from 2001: A Space Odyssey that my black P180b looks like. For my wifes PC I wanted to pick a name in keeping with the 2001 theme, HAL is the name of the computer aboard the space station in 2001 standing for Heuristically-programmed Algorithmic Computer.

Also Igster, I haven't bought from hardwareversand yet, but i've heard good things from other people, and their prices can't be beaten this side of the US

wow thats the nerdiest thing i have ever herd :eek:

SwampThing

L31mr0d wrote:

not damaged at all

I actually meant how much were you looking for it, you know, 'what's the damage there boss?' Ah, never mind, you're not selling anyway.

i've been reading about replacing the fan in the Tuniq with a Scythe 120mm fan. Which speed should I go for - 800 rpm, 1200 rpm or 1600 rpm?

Thanks.

Anti

Dont even bother with a sflex. The following fan is quieter, and will puhs more air.

http://www.pc-look.com/boutik/Prod_Xilence-Case-Fan-120-mm-68-CFM-21-dBA-Red-Wing-XPF120.R__11196_en.html

And its cheaper too, and comes plain or in 3 led colours. I use them on my rad. And i cannot hear them

L31mr0d

SwampThing wrote:

I actually meant how much were you looking for it, you know, 'what's the damage there boss?' Ah, never mind, you're not selling anyway.

i've been reading about replacing the fan in the Tuniq with a Scythe 120mm fan. Which speed should I go for - 800 rpm, 1200 rpm or 1600 rpm?

Thanks.

lol, I said that with my tongue in my cheek. Anyway get the 1600rpm Sflex and put it on a fan controller which will allow you adjust the speed. I've never used the xilence fans so you could try them out also I guess.

...and awhir, you became a nerd yourself the moment you put your pc spec in your sig. Now give that bad boy a name and proclaim your nerdiness

IgsTer

lol kool...had alook there..stuff looks good and cheaper than what ya get on komplett..when it comes to buying ill have to make a hard decision

L31mr0d

Ok some pics of the setup at the moment. I have my sig rig hooked up to the plasma at the moment. All the pieces for the 2 computers are still arriving and i'm waiting for some items on hardwareversand to become available again before I order.

Here's a picture of the wife playing some flatout 2


A picture of "Just Cause" on the 42" plasma. It's probably the most underrated game to be released in a long time


The setup as it stands atm. Have to use my crummy old PS/2 keyboard as Spiderman 3 doesn't like my USB Saitek


The quad core QX6700


The eVGA 8800 GTX I bought from a guy in the states


This is the remote i'm going to use with the HTPC. The lian li case has no front bay slots for IR remotes so I had to get a PCI transceiver


The eVGA 680i


Proof of it being the A1 revision


This is the CNPS8000 I bought off hopeful


Its a little dusty but nothing a can-o-air can't fix


First picture of the PC-V300, got this very cheap from peats as it was their display model. Would of prefered it in black but beggers can't be choosers I guess.


Funny thing about the 680i. I bought it off someone in the states who got it sent to them as an RMA. He then sent it to me without opening it (i.e. it still had the plastic wrap on the box). When I get it I open it to find ONLY the motherboard inside, no cables or manual. The guy has been kind enough to contact eVGA about it and they are sending out the cables now.

But just for peoples knowledge, if you are buying anything off someone and they tell you its an RMA, tell them to open it and check all the cables and manuals have been included first.

Anti

Check your EVGa 8800gtx. They have a very poor build quality on the metal. Mine was cracked open in a few places. I dont know if it was EVGA specific or for all cards. Also check for metal shards too.

awhir

wow man i thought you were in college but ur married god times go fast.

i remmber when conzy was helpin me and you with overclocking lol , not so long ago.

god ur set up is looking very nice man.

L31mr0d

Anti wrote:

Check your EVGa 8800gtx. They have a very poor build quality on the metal. Mine was cracked open in a few places. I dont know if it was EVGA specific or for all cards. Also check for metal shards too.

??? Can you explain a little more, do you mean the heatsink is bad? What do you mean by "cracked open"? Why would there be any metal shards?

Plus the 8800 GTX is second hand. Its been used by someone on some tech forums in the states that's really big into the highest end hardware. His last rig had something like 16GB's of RAM and a load of cheetah drives in a RAID0. I'm confident this is working perfectly from other peoples reviews of him (he's the flaccus of their forums ) but i'd still like to know what these problems you are talking about are.

Anti

Yeah the metal heatsink. Mine had bits of metal hanging off it, like flakes. And the hsf the metal was crasked open. Only 1/2mm deep, but enough to warrent a RMA

L31mr0d

I guess thats the benefit of buying 2nd hand. You get someone else to test and RMA it for you then you can buy the working version. I'm a strong believer now in buying as few components 1st hand as possible. I've found people on tech sites want to keep their good rep and account a lot more than big companies want to keep you as a customer, so they are less likely to screw you or not give you a refund should the hardware break as soon as you get it.

I've calculated that i've saved over €1500 so far buying components 2nd hand for this build alone.

L31mr0d

Ah crap it anyway... looks like hardwareversand has discontinued the motherboard I wanted for my HTPC, the "Asrock 939NF6G"

So I need a little help choosing a replacement. Have a look at the list of mATX mobos on HWV here and see which one looks the best.

Note, I need room for a 8800GTX and a RF PCI card.

awhir

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/6VLnrB5jRzrw4r/3/articledetail.jsp?aid=9297&agid=667

mena be the bussiness.

L31mr0d

awhir wrote:

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/6VLnrB5jRzrw4r/3/articledetail.jsp?aid=9297&agid=667

mena be the bussiness.

man just went through the whole list of mobos looking for reviews. I was edging towards the Abit Fatal1ty one, but I think I will go for that Gigabyte one instead. The Fatal1ty one didn't have enough room for the 8800 GTX and a PCI card.

Plus i've read nothing but good things about that Gigabyte Q965

L31mr0d

Ok well i'm one step closer to getting this thing finished.

Anti bought my old DDR RAM off me this weekend, and is having nothing but success with it, whereas I am running into brick walls

First off I have to explain that I still have 4 packages for this HTPC and gaming build rig in transit somewhere around the globe, I have a fan controller being returned to Italy as they sent the wrong colour, I have a guy in the US getting eVGA to send him out all the cables for my 680i as the sealed mobo he sent me had no cables in it. OCuk in england is presently sending out a replacement DVD drive as they sent a IDE instead of the SATA one I ordered, and i'm waiting on HV in Germany to ship out my order as BOI seem to be sitting on their hands instead of sending them the money that has already left my account.

All in all your average computer build :rolleyes:

Well I didn't want to keep Anti waiting for his RAM, and I needed something to kick me into ripping apart my perfectly stable PC, so I went about backing up the files on my PC.

30 DVD's later and a full 250GB external HDD and I had all my disks free.

I then installed the 680i, QX6700, 8800GTX and 512MB of PC2-4200 RAM I borrowed from work until my HV order arrives.

It all booted fine, although I have to admit the boot time is slower than my DFI Expert. First off I went into the BIOS to check it out and set some defaults. Again, the BIOS is dissapointing in its features compared to the DFI. Also, they couldn't of possibly put the 8-pin power connector in a more awkward location (more on this when I post pictures later) Also as I don't have my cables yet i'm using the ones from my DFI still.

Its still a WIP inside so I closed it up, it is good enough to boot off and at least get my OS's setup.

For my setup i'm dual booting Vista 64bit and XP 32bit. The best way to do this is to install XP first and then Vista, as the Vista boot manager will pick up previous versions of Windows, whereas XP will not pick up Vista.

My HDD setup is 2 x 320GB WD SE16 drives in RAID 0 split into 3 partitions: 140GB for XP, 280GB for Vista, and the rest as storage.

The XP install went fine. I streamlined the 680i drivers onto my minimalized version of XP using nlite, all in all the format and automated install takes around 10 minutes.

Next I went to install Vista 64 bit... the first install went fine, it picked up my RAID 0 without needing drivers, but I got my first BSOD when I restarted it after an update, and Vista went into an endless cycle of BSOD and reboot.

I've tried Vista 32bit to no avail. So i'm currently running diagnostics on the RAM to see if it is broken, as BSODs usually mean hardware problems and corruption.

More updates with pictures when I get home and upload them off my working XP partition

Anti

I had similar problems with vista, i just reinstalled my nvidia drivers and did a restore reinstall.

The ram is now sitting at home running memtest in windows with my own timings, as the ones you sent me kept giving me a bsod. Probably coz i have a custom bios and not the ocz andy one you had. 300mhz 1:1 2.92v

Best ram i have ever bough

SwampThing

L31mr0d wrote:

My HDD setup is 2 x 320GB WD SE16 drives in RAID 0 split into 3 partitions: 140GB for XP, 280GB for Vista, and the rest as storage.

Living on the edge there, eh L31mr0d? It's a little like 'one out, all out'.

L31mr0d

SwampThing wrote:

Living on the edge there, eh L31mr0d? It's a little like 'one out, all out'.

:mad: "Its Clobberin time"

If one more person feels the need to pointlessly remind me of the "dangers" of RAID 0 I won't be held accountable for what i'll do.

People latch onto the fact that a RAID 0 will double the chances of disk failure without actually realising that in real world statistics, if the chances of my drive failing in the next 5 years is 1%. Having 2 drives in a RAID 0 makes that now equal to 2%

So I have a 2% chance that one of my drives will fail before it has reached its lifespan. I think I can live with that.

RAID 0 doesn't stress the drives anymore, or increase the likely hood of drive failure over a normal set up. It is purely just doubling the chances of failure as you are doubling your number of disks.

Oh and I also have a complete backup strategy in place should either of the drives fail. All I would ever lose with a HDD failure would be my OS and program settings.

Anti

Best you take that muskin outta your sig too

SwampThing

In your best Scouse accent, repeat this until it has the desired affect -
'Calm down, calm down, alrighte, alrighte!!'

We've 'discussed' this before L31mr0d - I do in fact agree with you - but I thought I'd get a rise outta you and I did!

It's nice to see that passion rise to the surface once in a while!

L31mr0d

Anti wrote:

Best you take that muskin outta your sig too

done truly am sad to see that rig go. I'll be posting up the raptors, DFI expert and the lapped opteron 165 on adverts in a few days. Lets hope they go to as good a home as the ram i'd like to see someone get at least 3Ghz out of that opteron, its temps where good enough under air, that if it was under water it would definitely be possible.

EDIT:

SwampThing wrote:

In your best Scouse accent, repeat this until it has the desired affect -
'Calm down, calm down, alrighte, alrighte!!'

We've 'discussed' this before L31mr0d - I do in fact agree with you - but I thought I'd get a rise outta you and I did!

It's nice to see that passion rise to the surface once in a while!

yeah I thought as much *flame off*. It's just one of those myths that somehow a RAID 0 damages your disks in some way that makes them more vunerable to failure that really irks me. Its like the way people spread around the myth that AS5 is conductive, when in fact it isn't. It is slightly capacitive, but what isn't? I mean dust can be capacitive.

Or that somehow swans use their wings to break your arms? Who have you ever heard of, even anicdotally, getting their arm broken by a swan? I mean come on? :rolleyes:

SwampThing

I was mauled and horrifically disfigured in a totally unprovoked attacked by a moor hen when knacker drinking during my first rag week. As a result, I can see why swans get this bad rep.

Anti

If the raptors are sata i might take them, And also the the cpu too. You have a better stepping then what my 170 ish so i might take that too. If the price is right ofcourse

L31mr0d

Anti wrote:

If the raptors are sata i might take them, And also the the cpu too. You have a better stepping then what my 170 ish so i might take that too. If the price is right ofcourse

i'll pm you. Can you get raptors that aren't SATA? They are the ADFD revision that came out this year. With NCQ support (removing the PATA to SATA bridge) and the 16MB cache.

You should of given me a shout when you where picking up the RAM. Oh and there are flood warnings for Swords for the next few weeks

Anti

Hahah. Oh man. It took 2 hours to drive out and back that day. Traffic was fecking nuts.

KamiKazi

lol, just last week i bought a lian li v300.
bought the abit fatality motherboard, havent tried overclocking it yet

L31mr0d

KamiKazi wrote:

lol, just last week i bought a lian li v300.
bought the abit fatality motherboard, havent tried overclocking it yet

yeah that one was on my list, I liked the HDMI out on it, but as i'm not using the onboard VGA it was wasted on me. Also the PCI slots where set up weird. Post some pictures of your build, i'd like to see how you set it up.

KamiKazi

ill post up pictures in a week or two when im changing the fans on the front, installing a fan controller and replacing the cd/floppy drive covers with mesh.

Inspector Gadget

I just came across this thread, and I noticed one small thing - the number on that motherboard you couldn't find (as it was discontinued) made me curious, and as I suspected, it's a socket 939 (AMD) board? You might have been disappointed trying to shoehorn an E6420 into that?

Gadget

L31mr0d

Inspector Gadget wrote:

I just came across this thread, and I noticed one small thing - the number on that motherboard you couldn't find (as it was discontinued) made me curious, and as I suspected, it's a socket 939 (AMD) board? You might have been disappointed trying to shoehorn an E6420 into that?

Gadget

well spotted, I usually like to throw at least one error into my logs to see if people are actually reading them or not. Completely unintentionally in my last log I had installed my fan controller in upside down in one of the pictures. It took a few weeks for someone to actually point it out.

I ended up getting the Gigabyte Q965 which is mATX and LGA775.

L31mr0d

The DFI removed from the case *sniff*


Side shot with the Tuniq and TR still attached.


The eVGA 680i installed


Picture showing the milimeter of clearance between the top fan and the Tuniq


The 8pin power connector location. Why they didn't locate it beside the 24pin power connector I'll never know.




Showing the clearance (or lack of) between the NB heatsink and the Tuniq fan. I actually had to install the Tuniq fan last and just rest it on the NB heatsink. The top screws for the Tuniq fan aren't fully screwed down because the fan is touching off the NB heatsink


Another shot of the lack of clearance. I've yet to recieve my NB fan from the buyer I bought the mobo off in the states which is why it isn't installed yet.

IgsTer

nice pics mate..thanks for sharing...

nice pc

DemonOfTheFall

Just as a heads up to anyone using an X-Fi in Vista, You can download "ALchemy" from creative's vista driver page for the x-fi. It allows you to use all the good old XP hardware sound accel featurese that you bought that X-fi for

Fair play to creative for stepping up to the plate and delivering something microsoft failed abysmally at. It has been hacked to provid Directsound support for regular audigys under Vista aswell. Google is your friend for the cracked one though obviously

L31mr0d

Some more pics...

On my last build I was able to install the upper hard drive cage and have the 12cm fan attached to it. But the 8800 GTX is SOOO long that it won't allow this... so, I removed the top plastic guide rails for the HDD cage and pull tied the 12cm Scythe Sflex fan into place. Hopefully this will help a bit in cooling down this radiator... seriously, the Quad core and 8800 GTX are spewing out some amount of heat. I'd hate to think what my system temps would be if I had the HDD's and PSU in the same chamber as them.

nibble

Any particular reason for the fans one after the other.

L31mr0d

nibble wrote:

Any particular reason for the fans one after the other.

There will be a greater negetive pressure with 2 fans meaning more outside air will be pulled through the air filters, also the CFM will be kept more or less constant, whereas with one fan the air pressure would drop off before it would reach the graphic cards intake fan. Thats the theory anyway.

L31mr0d

Ok, well I was fiddling around with the fans in my system there on the weekend as I was getting horrible temps with the QX6700. So I put all my fans onto the fan controller and turned all their RPM's up to max.

My idle QX6700 temps idle at 45'c

I really need to overclock this CPU to get it to at least 3.2Ghz, but at these temps it doesn't seem possible.

So my options are:

A: lap the QX6700 and try some different orientations of the Tuniq, and as a last resort get a higher CFM fan.

B: Don't even bother and just move the e6600 thats going into my HTPC into my main rig and overclock that and leave the quad sitting in my HTPC until a game is released that will actually make use of it.

What dya's think?

Anti

ID lap the cpu and tuniq. I dont understand how the qx is so high. I installed one in a friends pc with a ultra 120 and a coolink 38cfm fan. And the idle temps didt pass 30c. And that was with the crappy paste therm supply with it.

L31mr0d

could be just a bad chip... well i'll probably lap it, then try some different Tuniq orientations as its already lapped.

How should I apply the TIM on the QX? Is it 1 line or 2? As there are 2 Dual cores in it?

Anti

I find the lines a load of crap, it dosent spread properly and leave air bubbles. I find that if you wrap some clingfilm around the tip of your forefinger, and apply the tim to that and just rub it on the cpu it works much better, as you can rub it into any scratches or dips/dents. Thats what i did for my friends QX.

L31mr0d

well frankly i'll try anything at this point. Nothing makes you seriously consider water cooling like an overheating CPU. Add to that my NB is roasting and my 8800 GTX is belching out shed loads of heat and you've got a system itching to be watercooled.

Also, when I read the first part of your reply I thought I was in PI for a second, lol

Anti

haha

SwampThing

I'd like to stick my oar in here, if you don't mind.

It's all well and good pumping lots of 'outside' air into the case, but if you can't exhaust the air at a similar rate and in some sort of 'linear' fashion, the air inside the case will end up swirling around and may in fact reduce your cooling capacity. by linear I mean there ideally should be a traceable air flow in and out of the machine.

A somewhat silly example.
Picture a funnel, wide side facing direction of movement. As the funnel accelerates, the pressure on the air at the narrow end increases and forces more air through. But, at a certain point, a column of air will build up in front of the funnel, causing turbulence and actually reduce the pressure and volume of air flowing through. This has a scientific name but I've no idea what it is.

You've two fairly powerful 12cm fans sucking in air at a rate of knots, but don't have comparative exhaust fans or vents.

Is it possible to make these fans exhaust fans? If you maximise the air flow out of the case, that will create greater negative pressure, thus sucking in more outside air.
Or, weird as it sounds, try the rig with just one intake fan. Sometimes less is more!

It's worth an hours investigation before taking the QX out of the machine, no?