Antec P180 Vs mATX XFX Extreme PC build log

uberpixie

Finally got the parts yesterday, my friend and I decided that it was time to build again.:D



I put together a new quadcore gaming rig, while my mate wanted to do something a little different and picked up one of the last XFX extreme PC kits, socket 939, that were on sale on komplett.


My shopping list:

http://www.komplett.ie/k/shoplist.aspx?mode=receive&si=489107&su=7BDAB005-1FB3-4EEB-B66C-A19AEF51A7DE

Not exactly a very exotic build.



All in all the inital build went fairly smooth, CPU cooler,(Artic freezer 7 Pro) refused to go on properly the first few tries, but got there in the end:rolleyes:.

Took me an hour or so to fit the basic parts and another good hour and a half to rewire everything properly.

Finished result:
http://www.box.net/shared/l0iaonuqla


Overall I am happy with the P180 as a case, it's a bit of a challenge to build in (i'm glad I have small hands), but the result was worth it.

(door hinges on the case are weak however and the side panel is a pain in the hole to put on and off)

Airflow in the case is spot on, with the CPU cooler blowing straight out the back.

However the fun of course soon began after the windows install.

Machine started to blue screen whem running windows update. It would go through Company of Heroes gfx stress test no problem, but then blue screen doing a windows update?

Updated the BIOS: didn't fix it. (I also found out that when you update the BIOS it will claim bad checksum on reboot evert time, until you go into the bios and reset all your settings:mad:)

Eventually I disabled ASUS's fan control in the BIOS and set the ram timings by hand and added a little extra voltage to the RAM and she now seems stable.

Just played DiRT straight for 2 hours without a crash, so I think I am going to get away with it. (DiRT looks teh sex)

Overclocking: barely touched. I did as a trial run, set the FSB to 333 and windows reported the CPU as running@3Ghz. Will get back to some mild overclocking at some stage.

Mobo: Disappointed with the ASUS software included as I expected: it's ****e. I also had to disable ASUS Qfan, but at least speed fan does the trick. Not too happy that I has to tweak and mess about with the BIOS to get it running stable.

My mate build is much more exotic.

http://www.box.net/shared/cbj6qjan6t
http://www.box.net/shared/pl3zitz828
http://www.box.net/shared/tj064qrfus
http://www.box.net/shared/mrcpxj6ti9

in his kit he got an X4200, 2 gig twinmos ram, mATX case. He also picked up a X1950XT for €185 which is a bargin.

However the only thing komplett DIDN'T include was the socket 939 reference cooler:mad:.

Needless to say my mate wasn't a very happy bunny, especially after a ****e day at work.

We went back to the kit listing and saw that they lsted the OEM chip and not the boxed version as expected when you buy a kit.

So he is going to hold off until the weekend to pick up a socket 939 cooler and go at it.

Will update with pics of his build when I can.

awhir

Nice one man.system is looking good.that ussaly happens to allout of people(unstalbe ram timmings).i allways custom set up my bois when i do a build.them p180 are a bitch to work in and even more for cableing .

good choise on parts also.

uberpixie

awhir wrote:

Nice one man.system is looking good.that ussaly happens to allout of people(unstalbe ram timmings).i allways custom set up my bois when i do a build.them p180 are a bitch to work in and even more for cableing .

good choise on parts also.

Ram timings were prob a part of it, however anytime I enable ASUS Q fan, the system blue screens.

(enabled last night, blue screened on starting of windows)

When I first had the issue, I did a search of Asus's forumn and found a guy with the same mobo who would get a blue screen when Qfan was enabled when he was installing windows!

Sounds daft, but it seems to be true, for me anyhow.

UPDATE: 3dmark06 scores: 97001@ stock (2nd run gave 96480)
10038@ CPU 3.0Ghz, RAM 1111 Mhz

Did a mild bit of overclocking last night and a quick 3Dmark06 run.

Don't hold much faith in synthetic benchmarks, but the rig seems to be running the way it should.

And it's also bit of an ego boost having a benchmark telling you, your new PC is faster than 88% of all other PCs tested, 90% when clocked mildly.
(I'll put my E-Penis back in my pants now before I poke an eye out:D).

Doubt I will be running it clocked, the artic cooler is fine, but gets a little loud when you throttle it up. Prob would have to get a tuniq level cooler for proper overclocking, but I'm happy to be running at stock.

Be a while yet before a game comes out where I will need to overclock to run it properly.

Anti

Nice build man. Could do with a small bit of cable tidying, but still looks nice. Your mates case looks identical to the scan isotope ones. Fantastic things to work with, if you dont mind cutting yourself to bits the whole time off the sharp metal.

uberpixie

Anti wrote:

Nice build man. Could do with a small bit of cable tidying, but still looks nice. Your mates case looks identical to the scan isotope ones. Fantastic things to work with, if you dont mind cutting yourself to bits the whole time off the sharp metal.

Yeah could do with just a little more tidying, I am still fiddling with the fans a little and will try pickup a fan controler tomorrow, so I won't be going too Nazi on the cables just yet.

My mates case is exactly the same as the Scan Isotope.
Comes with a Foxconn Nforce 4 motherboard and an FSP 350W Psu.

I take it you worked with one before? Only the outer case is metal, vast majority of the inside is plastic, so sharp edges shouldn't be too much of an issue?

awhir

maby anti likes felling the out side of cases /

uberpixie

Update:

My mates build has gone completely tits up:mad:.

After he spent a large protion of yesterday buildings his rig, he discovered that the motherboard will not power on.

Tested with a spare PSU, spare processor. Nada.

So it looks like back to komplett for an RMA for the entire kit.

He is pissed off to say the least....

Looks like he might be building a full on monster after all, komplett are well out of stock of that kit and well I doubt he would find a replacment easy.

My build has remained stable thankfully.

As fan noise was driving me a bit demented, I decided to get a fan controller and stop using speedfan.

Was looking for a basic Zalman MFC-1
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=303859

Peats had none in stock, which is a shame as they had it listed as €3 cheaper than Komplett.

So I went into maplins a picked up an iCute iGaurd for €50.

A gamble, but it paid off.
http://www.box.net/shared/8zunx8hzzq

Will control x4 3 pin fans and comes with x4 temperature probes.

It's a no frills controller, but does the job well.
(very quick to detect when a fan drops to zero RPMs and scream about it)

Only have the rear case fan and the CPU hooked up, no temperature probes as of yet.
(The other 3 case fans are Antec Tricool fans and are set to low and are so quiet they dont need to be throttled)

Only hicup I had:my CPU cooler has a 4 pin fan connector.

Thought I was boned

However my mate did ask the question, "well really what do you need the 4th pin for anyway?".........

And well you don't need it.:D

You do have to hack the right hand side off the 3 pin pass through cable going into the fan controler to fit the 4 pin connector, but as long as the first 3 pins out of 4 on the CPU cooler fan are in place the controller will throttle it just fine.

(my reference cooler was a very willing guinea pig)

After that you just disable the halt on errors screen for the Bios (it no longer can see a CPU fan and whinges about it) and you are golden.

uberpixie

Finally decided to fit a few temperature probes.

As the probes consist of two cables running parallel,it was looking like they were to be all kinds of cable mess.

My mate donated 1m of it which was enough for 1 probe, bought another meter of it today in Maplins to do a second.
(cost €2.79 for 1M x 3.5mm)

http://www.box.net/shared/dlu0b0habz

As you can see from the picture, the heat shrink wrapped probe is much neater and well worth the 15 mins wrapping the probe and then heating over a candle to shrink the wrap:).

I put in 1 probe to give me a rough case temp reading and another to monitor the exhaust heat from the CPU.

http://www.box.net/shared/e28uoeefld

The exhaust heat probe does give me a good idea of what the temps for the CPU are.

35 degrees or so means I am mid to low 50's, once the exhaust heat probe reads 38+ degrees I know I have hit into the low 60's for CPU temp.

I also did a little fan shopping. I was using a donated amber series Akasa 120mm as an exhaust fan, but the motor made a low ticking noise when I was throttling it.

Picked up a sharkoon silent eagle 120mm out of peats and I have to say the fan does live up to it's specs.

@1000 RPMs, CFM of 32 and noise of 19 decibels. A very quiet fan, much quiter than the Akasa amber series or the Antec Tricool fans that came with the case.

Will play around with the fans over the next few days. Will see how well the tri cool fans throttle with the contoller.

The Tricools have a much higher CFM rating to the sharkoons when you raise the RPMs. I am thinking the sharkoon, since it is so quiet at full speed, might make a better intake fan and use the tricool as an exhaust as I will porb need the extra CFMs for gaming and the extra noise shouldn't be a problem when gaming as I won't hear it:D.

My mate in the mean time is actually thinking of keeping the kit and just source a new Matx socket 939 mobo and take a hit of €60 or so on it.

So I might have pics of a working XFX extreme PC build in action just yet.

uberpixie

Well my mate got his new Asus m-ATX board to replace the DOA foxconn one that came with the kit.

He took a hit on the knuckles to the tune of €60, but it now works.

XFX extreme PC.

Amd64 X2 4200+ Socket 939
2 gig pc3200 ram cas 2.5
X1950XT 256mb
74 gig raptor x1
250gig maxtor x1
Seasonic 420W PSU

http://www.box.net/shared/qi03hvnloz
http://www.box.net/shared/51mdn60hrp
http://www.box.net/shared/3bmocm2j75

He still has a bit of shamming and blinging it up to do, but thankfully it came right for him in the end.