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w00t! new desktop is up and running :)

N

NTB

Diamond Member
My old AMD Socket 754 died last week, and rather than limp it along I decided to build a new rig. Nothing huge, but still an improvement. Finally recieved the case today, so I put it together this evening and am to the point of running Windows Update as I type this. This system represents a couple firsts in my PC-building career: 1st intel box, 1st ASUS MB, and first time using SATA.

Overall, I think it was the most trouble-free build I've done yet. Only problem was that the BIOS reported a memory error when I first tried to boot the sytem. I don't think there actually *was* an error though; it was just the motherboard yelling at me because it was smarter than I was😱 : I have 2-1GB sticks of RAM, and initially (going left to right, if you're looking at the board) I put both sticks in the first two slots: 1 yellow, 1 black. So I pulled a single stick out, and everything worked fine. Switched the sticks out, and that worked. So then I tried plugging them both into the yellow sockets, and it's been working fine ever since.

specs:
ASUS P5B motherboard
Intel CoreDuo E4400 CPU (2.0GHz)
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme heatsink w/Scythe S-Flex 120mm/1600RPM fan
2x1024MB Corsair XMS DDR2-1033
boot drive: 80GB/8MB/7200RPM SATA WD
Storage/video capture: 2x400GB/8MB/7200RPM SATA Seagate
XFX Geforce 8600GT video
WinTV-1600 TV tuner
Soundblaster Audigy sound card
FSP-Group Bluestorm II 500-watt PSU
Sony/NEC SATA CD/DVD burner
2x120mm, 1600RPM Scythe S-Flex case fans
Coolermaster Centurion-534 aluminum ATX case
Windows XP Pro

And yes, I know the RAM is overkill, but I would like to try and OC this rig at some point, and with the faster RAM I know I have at least a little headroom to work with.

Now I get to spend the weekend installing software and getting rid of all the packaging 😛
 
How long did it take you to put it together?

When I got mine, it took about 16-18 hours from the time I started to the time I at least got to the point of having a bootable pc with some entertainment value.

Not everything came at once.

I got basically the box (the cpu, case and all the internals) at about 11am, the monitor came about five hours later.

I built it on my kitchen floor, so I was bent over a bit. I did a reasonable build, in that I didn't bother with great cable management the first time around and I used the HS fan for the case instead, because I was going to have to lap my HS (the base was terrible. I should have gotten a discount on it, it has such terrible mill marks) and didn't have the tools for it. The boxes started to pile up making it difficult to move around and find stuff sometimes. I took my time. It was hot that day and I was sweating.

Once I had it all put together and placed, the first install of WinXP pro went badly. It took a few hours to find out what I needed to do to redo all partitions.

Now that I was sure all parts worked, the second time around, I did it on a weekend I was doing OT at work. I spend about 3-4 hours lapping the HS and CPU. I bought the EasyPCKits lapping kit and just pushed what seemed like for ever. Then, the following Sunday, I took the entire PC apart, to include the PSU, which needed to have the cage put on it, mounted the new HS back plate, got the HS in place (using AS5 for the thermal grease) and got it back together in 10 hours, this time with proper cable management. The case covers don't like to come off once they're on, or go on once they're off. I also added a floppy drive, which I had neglected to install the first time, made sure the USB plate in back was hooked up, made note of which was drive 0 and 1, got it together, booted and realized the power LED didn't light up so I have to pull the cover back off and turn the power led connector around. More struggling with the cover.
 
RAM was total overkill; even with DDR2-800 your ram wouldn't be a limiting factor in overclocking that until you got to 4GHz. So yeah, enjoy. It's a bit late posting for rig critique after the fact, though 😉.
 
Originally posted by: NTB
My old AMD Socket 754 died last week, and rather than limp it along I decided to build a new rig. Nothing huge, but still an improvement. Finally recieved the case today, so I put it together this evening and am to the point of running Windows Update as I type this. This system represents a couple firsts in my PC-building career: 1st intel box, 1st ASUS MB, and first time using SATA.

Overall, I think it was the most trouble-free build I've done yet. Only problem was that the BIOS reported a memory error when I first tried to boot the sytem. I don't think there actually *was* an error though; it was just the motherboard yelling at me because it was smarter than I was😱 : I have 2-1GB sticks of RAM, and initially (going left to right, if you're looking at the board) I put both sticks in the first two slots: 1 yellow, 1 black. So I pulled a single stick out, and everything worked fine. Switched the sticks out, and that worked. So then I tried plugging them both into the yellow sockets, and it's been working fine ever since.

specs:
ASUS P5B motherboard
Intel CoreDuo E4400 CPU (2.0GHz)
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme heatsink w/Scythe S-Flex 120mm/1600RPM fan
2x1024MB Corsair XMS DDR2-1033
boot drive: 80GB/8MB/7200RPM SATA WD
Storage/video capture: 2x400GB/8MB/7200RPM SATA Seagate
XFX Geforce 8600GT video
WinTV-1600 TV tuner
Soundblaster Audigy sound card
FSP-Group Bluestorm II 500-watt PSU
Sony/NEC SATA CD/DVD burner
2x120mm, 1600RPM Scythe S-Flex case fans
Coolermaster Centurion-534 aluminum ATX case
Windows XP Pro

And yes, I know the RAM is overkill, but I would like to try and OC this rig at some point, and with the faster RAM I know I have at least a little headroom to work with.

Now I get to spend the weekend installing software and getting rid of all the packaging 😛
Click to expand...

Just an FYI, it was screaming at you because if you left 1 stick yellow and 1 black you would not have had the benefit of dual channel memory being in effect, thus halving your memory bandwidth. You want to make sure that you always populate the memory banks in accordance with with manual so you make sure you dual the DC effect
 
Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer
Just an FYI, it was screaming at you because if you left 1 stick yellow and 1 black you would not have had the benefit of dual channel memory being in effect, thus halving your memory bandwidth. You want to make sure that you always populate the memory banks in accordance with with manual so you make sure you dual the DC effect
Click to expand...

Yeah, I figured that out 😱. I thought that's how things were supposed to be from the word go, but the manual didn't say anything specific, and the slots are labeled A1(yellow),A2(black),B1(yellow), and B2(black). So I put them in A1 and A2 to begin with.

Nathan
 
Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
why didn't u get the HX520 PSU?
Click to expand...

Why fix something that ain't broke? I've used FSP power supplies for a long time and never had a problem with them.

or a DS3(R)?
Click to expand...

The DS3 thread in the MB forum scared me 😛 Besides, I ordered the rest of the stuff from Newegg, and they don't differentiate between revisions, except setting the oldest one (rev.1.3) apart from the others.

or a 320gb 7200.10 to boot/store? (its just as fast to boot)
Click to expand...
[/quote]

Overkill, at least for now. I prefer to have a dedicated OS/programs drive. I know, I could have split the 320 into logical drives, but oh well.

Nathan
 
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