Will SSD work with this motherboard?

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TheNiceGuy

Golden Member
Dec 23, 2004
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Is your old computer now disassembled? You could have used it to load the Windows DVD onto a (large) thumb drive or SD card (assuming you have an SD reader). Any other computers with DVD drives available to you now?

The laptop DVD drive isn't of much use without an adapter, and clearly, you can't mount it in the desktop case. But if you want to go that route, the adapter is a slimline SATA adapter, and is usually about $10 in the U.S.

The IDE/SATA adapter is a possibility - never tried one, so I can't say whether it will work. But judging from reviews, I'd say there's a 50/50 chance it won't work:

http://www.amazon.com/IDE-SATA-Adapter/dp/B000RK89M4
http://www.amazon.com/Ultra-ULT40322.../dp/B001TJ9P98

By the way, does your power supply have SATA power cables? You'd need them if you were to use a new DVD drive.

I didn't dismantle the PC yet, typing from it now. I have a USB w/r and an 8gb SD card I use with my GoPro. Is this the preferred way?
http://digiex.net/guides-reviews/gu...ws-7-windows-vista-usb-stick-memory-card.html
I'll figure something out for the DVD drive. Do the new ones use the same two SATA cables (small duplicate-ended red cable one for data, larger SATA/molex ended one for power) that my HDDs use? If so, I have plenty.
EDIT:
I'll get this adapter for the laptop drive. The physical mount isn't critical for me. My PSU appears to have a nice molex-> whatever that 4-pin power connector is called. And Ill get a kick out of not throwing something perfectly good in the trash with a vintage hacker image and saving a bit of money on a new drive:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/エスエージェー-スリム...1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1365001740&sr=1-1
 
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Termie

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2005
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I didn't dismantle the PC yet, typing from it now. I have a USB w/r and an 8gb SD card I use with my GoPro. Is this the preferred way?
http://digiex.net/guides-reviews/gu...ws-7-windows-vista-usb-stick-memory-card.html
I'll figure something out for the DVD drive. Do the new ones use the same two SATA cables (small duplicate-ended red cable one for data, larger SATA/molex ended one for power) that my HDDs use? If so, I have plenty.
EDIT:
I'll get this adapter for the laptop drive. The physical mount isn't critical for me. My PSU appears to have a nice molex-> whatever that 4-pin power connector is called. And Ill get a kick out of not throwing something perfectly good in the trash with a vintage hacker image and saving a bit of money on a new drive:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/エスエージェー-スリム...1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1365001740&sr=1-1

You could use either of those methods. That little adapter for the slim DVD drive is pretty interesting. I've never seen one like that, nor have I ever used a that tiny power cable coming off of the PSU. If you want to try the DVD drive approach, it will certainly be more straightforward that putting Windows on an SD card. Let us know how it goes!
 

TheNiceGuy

Golden Member
Dec 23, 2004
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Hi guys-
Just wanted to give you all an update. After all the usual drama, and a bunch of work, I've managed to get the system together, and appears to be working well. The DVD adapter was delayed (just arrived today), haven't got to try it yet. BTW, spent hours on the SD card solution, and it ended up not working. Until I found the official Microsoft tool, which was very slick and worked perfectly.
http://images2.store.microsoft.com/prod/clustera/framework/w7udt/1.0/en-us/Windows7-USB-DVD-tool.exe
I thought my last video card was oversized, and that new technology would surely have reduced GPUs to a more reasonable size. Nope! This new card is HUGE. I felt like I was installing the front end of a car into my case. Nice looking card, has 'shock absorbers' too. Could probably cut the price in half if they got rid of all the gorgeous packaging and vanity features.
For a couple of reasons, I installed everything together (including GPU) at the beginning. Then, in this order: W7 from USB (disconnected LAN cable); then attempted installing all the required drivers (and only those) you mentioned; hooked up LAN, and updated windows; origin and BF3, then BFBC2.
I got a couple of error messages along the way, which seemed to sort themselves out. IIRC, a "MOM.exe - .NET Framework Initialization Error", which went away after updateing all important and a couple of optional W7 updates. There was also a Catalyst Control Center error which also went away after updates.
The one Error that never resolved was trying to install the VGA drivers for the MB. It gave me a "This computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing the software." Error message right at the beginning of the build, and continued to do so at every step, every install attempt, and continues to do so now. And I tried both the large and small versions. Any ideas?
As for the goal, BF3 appears to work generaly well, although the graphics are a bit rough. I set everything to "ultra", "1680x1050 60hz", joined a low ping server (about 29 IIRC). Not very smooth at all, and in aircraft, the ground would have huge blocks suddenly turning dark shades and then reappearing.
What additional settings in game should I change? I tried 'Lock the frame rate to monitor' setting and it seamed to smooth out the game play a bit.
Anyway, thanks again for your help on the build.

EDIT: If anyone else is attempting a similar build, be aware that (on this MB) the GPU must be installed in the PCI slot closest to the CPU. It physically won't fit in the lower PCI because the ATX case power/LED plugs protrude, as well as covering half the SATA2 ports. I also had to remove my HDD drive bay as the stylized GPU case protruded about 1cm too far. Long, thick heavy card that takes up 2 full case slots.

---------------
-P5KPL-CM -E8400 -4850 (512)-[2] 2 GB Pulsar (Umax) RAM
-[2] SEAGATE Barracuda 120GB (7200.7 8M SATAII NCQ)
-[1] SEAGATE Barracuda 320GB (7200.10 16M SATAII NCQ)
-NEC ND-3520A BLK -OCZ EvoStream 600W
-Corega 22" LCD 1,680×1,050 (CG-L22WDG)
-Windows 7
 
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Termie

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2005
7,949
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www.techbuyersguru.com
As for the Intel video drivers, have you actually tried to run your monitor off the motherboard's graphics outputs? It will probably work without those drivers from ASRock.

To resolve the BF3 issues, let's see what kind of GPU load you're experiencing. I would recommend using MSI Afterburner (which may have come with your MSI HD7870), and then run it in the background with the graph open during a game. It will track GPU usage, and you'll want to be around 90% or higher, otherwise there may be an issue with your setup.
 

TheNiceGuy

Golden Member
Dec 23, 2004
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Happy to report the BF3 issues seem to have disappeared after altering game settings ('Lock the frame rate to monitor' and turned off MSAA).
Monitor stayed black when I tried the MB video out. I imagine physically removing the 7870 would allow it to engage? Would it potentially introduce new problems at this point to install the VGA drivers, sleeping dogs and all that?
BTW, unless the DVD drive doesn't run off a SATA cable going into the MB SATA2 port, it appears to be a dud. Powers up fine, but it slowed the W7 system boot time, briefly registered in W7 before locking up the system and requiring hard power off. Subsequent attempts didn't show it up in W7, although it stayed powered and I could open/close it manually.
 

sm625

Diamond Member
May 6, 2011
8,172
137
106
I'm running an SSD on winXP. It is unaligned, and the SATA controller is in IDE mode. Basically the worst way you can set it up. But it still flies. I'm not paying $30 to use paragon's alignment tool, and I'm sure as hell not reinstalling windows just to fix it.
 

Termie

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2005
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www.techbuyersguru.com
Happy to report the BF3 issues seem to have disappeared after altering game settings ('Lock the frame rate to monitor' and turned off MSAA).
Monitor stayed black when I tried the MB video out. I imagine physically removing the 7870 would allow it to engage? Would it potentially introduce new problems at this point to install the VGA drivers, sleeping dogs and all that?
BTW, unless the DVD drive doesn't run off a SATA cable going into the MB SATA2 port, it appears to be a dud. Powers up fine, but it slowed the W7 system boot time, briefly registered in W7 before locking up the system and requiring hard power off. Subsequent attempts didn't show it up in W7, although it stayed powered and I could open/close it manually.

You're using an adapter for the DVD drive, correct? Could be a problem with that.

Glad to hear BF3 is working. You probably need to go into your BIOS to switch to onboard video, but unless you have a use for it, yes, let sleeping dogs lie. ;)
 

TheNiceGuy

Golden Member
Dec 23, 2004
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Good job, thanks Termie, et al. I think we can consider this build officially a success.
I'll look at those upgrade utilities you mentioned later.
BTW, I ran into a BF3 video performance problem. It appears to be a monitor issue called "ghosting" during the game when I move the character even moderately quickly. It stands out quite badly considering the otherwise high graphics quality. Feels a bit hard on the eyes like playing on one of those old 30hz monitors or something.
I used to use a giant 22" CRT until last year, and didn't look for ghosting on the new monitor as there were so many other problems with BFBC2 (online server ping, possible dying GPU, etc.) that I wouldn't have seen it anyway.
Are there any setting or other fixes to reduce this "ghosting" effect?
 

mfenn

Elite Member
Jan 17, 2010
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Some monitors have an "overdrive" or "game" mode that helps reduce ghosting. If those don't help or aren't present, I'm afraid that you pretty much need to get a new monitor.