View Full Version : New Build + Rebuild underway
So I've ordered the last list of parts for my new build, and will also be doing a rebuild on my old system.
So here's the new system specs (parts in Blue I already have)
ASUS M4A79XTD-EVO Mainboard
AMD Phenom II X4 955
Titan Fenrir EVO cooler
4GB DDR3 OCZ Platinum 1600mhz
Coolermaster 960 II Case
ASUS Radeon HD5770
OCZ StealthXstream 2 600W PSU
Seagate Barracuda 500GB X2 in Raid
2TB Samsung F4
1TB Hitachi
Liteon Bluray BD-ROM
Liteon DVDRW DL
Hipoint Internal Card Reader
Windows 7 Professional 64bit
Artic Silver 5 thermal paste
A few piccies for now... More when the rest arrives tomorrow or Weds.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q6/HecklerUK/Misc/NEW%20PC%20Build/IMG_0018.jpg
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q6/HecklerUK/Misc/NEW%20PC%20Build/IMG_0019.jpg
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q6/HecklerUK/Misc/NEW%20PC%20Build/IMG_0020.jpg
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q6/HecklerUK/Misc/NEW%20PC%20Build/IMG_0022.jpg
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q6/HecklerUK/Misc/NEW%20PC%20Build/IMG_0024.jpg
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q6/HecklerUK/Misc/NEW%20PC%20Build/IMG_0025.jpg
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q6/HecklerUK/Misc/NEW%20PC%20Build/IMG_0026.jpg
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q6/HecklerUK/Misc/NEW%20PC%20Build/IMG_0028.jpg
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q6/HecklerUK/Misc/NEW%20PC%20Build/IMG_0029.jpg
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q6/HecklerUK/Misc/NEW%20PC%20Build/IMG_0030.jpg
More pics to follow of the rebuild when I do it... thought better to clutter up one thread than have 2.
Adding another ASUS Radeon 5770 in 2 weeks, gotta wait for another payday before ordering it.
watercooled
01-11-10, 13:25
looking good
where is the other 5770 ?
EDIT: haha same time
that will be awsome dude
looking good :D
quite a nice board there
Nice, hope you're pleased with it so far :)
the rig is similar to mine at the moment :D (good choice)
you just have more storage and additing an additional 5770... I dont have the cash till after xmas now.
looking good dude if your lucky there might be a profile in the bios for 3.7 stable on the chip cant remember if i wiped it when i reset the cmos lol
Great pic's keep them coming.
looking good fella, get benchmarking when your done and post results!
looking good dude if your lucky there might be a profile in the bios for 3.7 stable on the chip cant remember if i wiped it when i reset the cmos lol
I wasn't planning on taking it that high to be honest. If it will sit at around 3.5 for the next few years and keep temps under 50º I'll be more than happy with it.
Got the order despatched email from aria earlier this afternoon... so now I am in the hands of sh*tylink. :(
What's the essential list for benchmarking and testing for stability these days? It's been around 7yrs since I last did some serious overclocking and tweaking... and that old system lasted me 5yrs and only went kapput when old radeon 9700 pro dropped the fan... and I do literally mean dropped the fan. the blades fell off and I think some bearings got into other parts because after replacing the fan on the GPU the system never booted again... MB fried.
I wasn't planning on taking it that high to be honest. If it will sit at around 3.5 for the next few years and keep temps under 50º I'll be more than happy with it.
iirc it should do 3.5 on stock voltage, i could keep it at 55 under 100% load at 3.7 and when oc-ing id advise using prime 95 for stability and hw monitor to monitor temps
What's the best way to OC it, it's unlocked and I have 1600mhz memory. So should I raise the FSB, the multiplier or a combo of both?
What's the best way to OC it, it's unlocked and I have 1600mhz memory. So should I raise the FSB, the multiplier or a combo of both?
well the board doesn't like fsb and wont go higher than 218 so id just up the cpu multiplier to 17.5 and that should give you your 3.5 like i said it should do that at stock voltage around 1.35v (http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBUQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FCPU_mul tiplier&rct=j&q=cpu%20multi&ei=cOPPTO6_MsSOjAfrsbSpBg&usg=AFQjCNGuyG5Ygn7Aa5y7jz3zT39bcCcN-g&cad=rja)
More Piccies :)
Had a very welcome delivery this morning around 11am, no visible damage to the packages... proper citylink van and delivery driver in their uniform.
So without further ado... let the pics commence.
Coolermaster 690 II
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q6/HecklerUK/Misc/NEW%20PC%20Build/IMG_0031.jpg
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q6/HecklerUK/Misc/NEW%20PC%20Build/IMG_0034.jpg
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q6/HecklerUK/Misc/NEW%20PC%20Build/IMG_0035.jpg
Must admit that I'm disappointed that none of the case fans are PWM, so that's on the list of things to replace in the future. There's a spare PWM header on the motherboard, so a splitter cable is need to run 3 replacement fans. Gotta measure to be sure but looks like a 120mm rear and 2x200mm front/top.
The rest of the bits... 2x 500GB seagate barracuda for a raid setup. 2GB Samsung F4 (will also be adding a 1TB Hitachi from my old system). Liteon Bluray BDrom that's actually for my HTPC, so swapped that for the SATA DVDRW earlier, also adding an IDE Liteon DVDRW with dual layer as that one is region free. Highpoint internal mem card reader, MS 360 jpypad because I'm sick and tired of games developers that can't be bothered to support gamepads unless it's one of these... and it was on offer at £16.99.
The mouse is for the rebuild of my current system as my Aunt is still using a ball mouse. Already got a basic keyboard to go with it... and finally some artic silver 5.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q6/HecklerUK/Misc/NEW%20PC%20Build/IMG_0033.jpg
I also had this turn up at the same time... which I won in the comp last week.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q6/HecklerUK/Misc/NEW%20PC%20Build/IMG_0032.jpg
Hard drives going in, I really like the easy installation of these drives.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q6/HecklerUK/Misc/NEW%20PC%20Build/IMG_0037.jpg
Installed the DVDRW and USB mem card reader. 2nd DVDRW will be installed when I strip down the old one... which will be when this one is complete.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q6/HecklerUK/Misc/NEW%20PC%20Build/IMG_0040.jpg
Motherboard and almost everything installed and hooked up. Vid card is currently in use on my main system so will be swapped over shortly. Done some basic cable management, will tidy that up more when I'm finished.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q6/HecklerUK/Misc/NEW%20PC%20Build/IMG_0039.jpg
So all the hardware is here and most of it is installed... I am just waiting on the software. I ordered a couple of copies of Win 7 Pro upgrade packs last week through the software4students site... and it's not arrived yet. So I'm kinda stuck in limbo until it does... I'm cheating a little this way, upgrade the Vista machine to Win 7 pro, which frees up the license.. reuse that license and then upgrade to win 7 pro again... sell vista + license. :)
Didn't realise that this case has a SATA hot swap dock on the top too... so BONUS. :)
Really chomping at the bit to get this going now...
What version of raid would be best? Would prefer to mirror the data in case of failure as I require backups of my website, and other personal stuff (photos of my late brother and so forth). But the last raid setup I had was done by an old friend... so I've never actually done one from scratch myself.
I have always been skeptical of AMD for some weird reason..however, this is one fine rig emerging!
just a question..is it only necessary to use a heatsink like that on high end rigs? or is it beneficial regarless?
Thanks,
Marc
The better the cooling, the lower the temps and the quieter you can run the fan.
I remember having the coolermaster aero 7 and then the jet 7 on my old barton core 2500+ which was overclocked to 3200 and beyond... yet idled at around 38-43º with the fan turned down really low so you could barely hear it.
I'd still got the massive copper base to it in my desk, and I swear that little heatsink is heavier than the titan fenrir I've got for the new rig.
Still no delivery of the software today. :(
According to them it was sent on Friday... I should have gone for the direct download instead of the physical product. But I want to be able to give my aunt an actual product rather than a burnt disc.
I was wrong, I had received a delivery but only for one of the copies of Win 7 Pro... but I got both invoices, so hopefully the other shows up tomorrow.
Tested the system bios and hardware monitoring shows at stock everything the CPU is at 32º and the MB at 25º.
Just done a Raid 1 setup and it's now installing windows.
I've had to install the nVidia 9600GT in it for now, purely because I need to keep this one running at the same time in case of problems and I don't want to be messing around uninstalling the 5770 this evening.
Once up and running, I'll transfer over everything I need to from this system.. which is a good 200GB of stuff (not counting the 1TB drive I will swap or the 750GB I need to transfer everything from to the 2TB in the new one).
If everything goes to plan, tomorrow shall be spent installing the essential software, steam games and so forth. Then I shall run a few benchmarks at stock speeds, before having a look at the overclocking side.
David, there are some profiles stored in the BIOS, do you know which profile is which?
Went through a whole palaver to get it installed.
Turns out the version of Win 7 Pro I bought is upgrade only... no problem I thought as it says that you can do a full install.
It refused to activate, so I bypassed it and tried to do it manually online, then through the phone activation. Each time it gives an error... Phone MS activation support (luckily a freephone number) and they were useless. First mupper wasn't listenign to what I was saying at all, each time he asked me to do something I did it and told him I'd done it... and he ignores what I say and tells me he's waiting for me to do it... idiot.
Then he gets bored and fobs me off onto some one else who tries to tell me I have a corporate license that won't work at all and I need to go back to the vendor for a "proper" version.
So I come back to this PC and do a 30 second search on the problem and find that it will only work if I install Vista first and then upgrade... Cue some choice words from me about idiots and so forth.
So back to the new build, install Vista, activate it and then do a clean install of Win 7 from that...
Why they make it so hard I don't know... what about people who have had a hard drive failure, they have to reinstall an OS they don't want just to install the one they do.
Why they can't just ask for the product key of the previous OS along with the new one I don't know.
It now means that I can't sell on my Vista license as I will need it should a reinstall be required.
I should have just paid full price for it, instead of getting 2 copies of this upgrade for the same price through the software4students site.
The problem is that the old system is being reinstalled with Win 7 and passed along to my Aunt... who lives 300 miles away, I was planning on giving her the install disc in case of any issues, and now I can't.
So I was thinking that I upgrade my HTPC from W7 HP to W7 Pro and use the retail W7 HP on my aunts new PC instead. If I need to reinstall the HTPC I can do a Vista/Win 7 install.
Currently running at 3.52ghz (10% overclock) and seems stable.
David, there are some profiles stored in the BIOS, do you know which profile is which?
off the top of my head i don't if you could get a pic it might help but usually i use the first and last profiles
wonderlust
04-11-10, 11:50
Went through a whole palaver to get it installed.
Turns out the version of Win 7 Pro I bought is upgrade only... no problem I thought as it says that you can do a full install.
It refused to activate, so I bypassed it and tried to do it manually online, then through the phone activation. Each time it gives an error... Phone MS activation support (luckily a freephone number) and they were useless. First mupper wasn't listenign to what I was saying at all, each time he asked me to do something I did it and told him I'd done it... and he ignores what I say and tells me he's waiting for me to do it... idiot.
Then he gets bored and fobs me off onto some one else who tries to tell me I have a corporate license that won't work at all and I need to go back to the vendor for a "proper" version.
So I come back to this PC and do a 30 second search on the problem and find that it will only work if I install Vista first and then upgrade... Cue some choice words from me about idiots and so forth.
So back to the new build, install Vista, activate it and then do a clean install of Win 7 from that...
Why they make it so hard I don't know... what about people who have had a hard drive failure, they have to reinstall an OS they don't want just to install the one they do.
Why they can't just ask for the product key of the previous OS along with the new one I don't know.
It now means that I can't sell on my Vista license as I will need it should a reinstall be required.
I should have just paid full price for it, instead of getting 2 copies of this upgrade for the same price through the software4students site.
The problem is that the old system is being reinstalled with Win 7 and passed along to my Aunt... who lives 300 miles away, I was planning on giving her the install disc in case of any issues, and now I can't.
So I was thinking that I upgrade my HTPC from W7 HP to W7 Pro and use the retail W7 HP on my aunts new PC instead. If I need to reinstall the HTPC I can do a Vista/Win 7 install.
1 Regedit and you could have auto activated....
Google Paul Thurrott ;)
That would have saved me installing windows 3 times yesterday... :)
I will remember that when I install on my aunts PC.
wonderlust
05-11-10, 10:56
That would have saved me installing windows 3 times yesterday... :)
I will remember that when I install on my aunts PC.
There have been a few threads on the forum where this has been mentioned. ;)
but at least you are now well practiced in installing windows 7 now ;)
I installed Win 7, went through trying to activate it... couldn't and MS were useless. So I did the double install trick instead.
Got another PC to rebuild over the weekend, well it's actually rebuilt already... just needs software installed.
wonderlust
05-11-10, 11:57
well you can use the trick listed, although it's not strickly allowed by MS, but hey how are they going know?
Well, the other copy of Win 7 Pro turned up at lunchtime, so that's my job this afternoon.. I think I'll do the double install to be safe, I can set it running and then just leave it.
Just done some basic benchmarking with 3D Mark 06 and Vantage... Full tests done on both using Pro editions.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q6/HecklerUK/Misc/NEW%20PC%20Build/benche01.png
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q6/HecklerUK/Misc/NEW%20PC%20Build/3dmvantest01.jpg
No idea how they compare to other similar systems.
I should have done a stock CPU test first I guess. GPU is stock speeds, can't be bothered overclocking it seeing as I plan on adding a second one at the end of Nov.
I suppose the good thing is that the CPU maxes out at 57º whilst still running the fan at 1000rpm, and I'm in a nice and warm room at the moment because the heating was on this morning and the PC is about 4ft from the radiator.
GPU hit 75º and that's the highest I've ever seen it go, you can hear the gpu fan speed up, but it doesn't get that loud and I only noticed it because the 3D mark tests doesn't use any sound. When I checked the CCC panel it had only hit 60% fan speed.
What do you think of those scores?
What do you think of those scores?
they look fine to me little less than i used to get but i did have a faster card and little bit of a higher cpu clock so yeah looking good dude
Gonna reapply some Artic Silver 5 this afternoon, I used the stuff that came with the cooler before as I didn't have any and forgot to reapply it.
Those scores are on stock voltages too.
Might install PC benchmark and see how that fairs... and I could always OC the GPU and see what sort of a difference it makes, this card will go to 950 core on stock volts.
Installed a couple of games... including the dreaded GTA IV that I have been unable to play for 2yrs.
Finally it will run at an acceptable level.
Just shows how badly that game was programmed. Going from a 9600GT to an HD5770 made no real difference at all.
But going from a Phenom 9550 X4 @ 2.2ghz to a Phenom II 955 X4 @ 3.52ghz has made such a difference.
So here's some benchmarks taken from back when I bought it 2yrs ago, when I changed the video card this summer and today when I finally got it working sweet.
3rd Dec 2008
Statistics
Average FPS: 36.55
Duration: 37.27 sec
CPU Usage: 80%
System memory usage: 65%
Video memory usage: 91%
Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1280 x 1024 (75 Hz)
Texture Quality: Medium
Render Quality: High
View Distance: 61
Detail Distance: 100
Hardware
Microsoft® Windows Vista" Home Premium
Service Pack 1
Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT
Video Driver version: 180.48
Audio Adapter: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
AMD Phenom(tm) 9550 Quad-Core Processor
File ID: benchmark.cli
18th August 2010
Statistics
Average FPS: 35.34
Duration: 37.13 sec
CPU Usage: 82%
System memory usage: 80%
Video memory usage: 79%
Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1280 x 1024 (75 Hz)
Texture Quality: Low
Texture Filter Quality: Low
View Distance: 50
Detail Distance: 100
Hardware
Microsoft® Windows Vista" Home Premium
Service Pack 2
Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT
Video Driver version: 196.21
Audio Adapter: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
AMD Phenom(tm) 9550 Quad-Core Processor
File ID: Benchmark.cli
Not much difference as you can see and the game was pretty much unplayable at those settings. I ran just about, but was ugly to look at.
28th August 2010
Statistics
Average FPS: 40.41
Duration: 37.41 sec
CPU Usage: 78%
System memory usage: 65%
Video memory usage: 39%
Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1280 x 1024 (75 Hz)
Texture Quality: Medium
Shadow Quality: Medium
Reflection Resolution: Medium
Water Quality: Medium
Texture Filter Quality: Anisotropic x4
Night Shadows: Medium
View Distance: 25
Detail Distance: 31
Hardware
Microsoft® Windows Vista" Home Premium
Service Pack 2
Video Adapter: ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series
Video Driver version: 8.17.10.24
Audio Adapter: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
AMD Phenom(tm) 9550 Quad-Core Processor
File ID: Benchmark.cli
Finally a new card, and a few extra FPS. Managed to raise the visuals a little but overall it didn't help much and the game still looked ugly and lowering the settings made no difference at all.
Then today.. I did this one.
5th November 2010
Statistics
Average FPS: 48.40
Duration: 37.25 sec
CPU Usage: 64%
System memory usage: 75%
Video memory usage: 83%
Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1280 x 1024 (75 Hz)
Texture Quality: High
Shadow Quality: High
Reflection Resolution: Very High
Water Quality: Very High
Texture Filter Quality: Anisotropic x16
Night Shadows: Very High
View Distance: 75
Detail Distance: 75
Hardware
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
Video Adapter: ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series
Video Driver version: 8.17.10.1047
Audio Adapter: Speakers (VIA High Definition Audio)
AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 955 Processor
File ID: Benchmark.cli
Now you might not think an 8fps jump is much, but at one point I had it over 60fps. Then I slowly started raising the visuals. Now I've got almost everything maxed out and it finally looks great.
Can't wait until I get a second 5770 as I think that will put it over the top. Maxed out it's gonna need at least 1300MB video mem.
Added after 7 minutes:
Meant to mention that I figured out why the HDDs weren't showing up properly in HW Monitor.
I have 7 SATA slots on the MB and in the Bios they are grouped 1-4 and 5-7. I had to set 1-4 as Raid so I could install the OS on a Raid 1. But the other 2 drives were in 3 & 5 and only 5-7 was set as normal IDE.
So I swapped the optical drive to 5 and the 2 HDDs to 6 & 7 and put the ESATA socket in 3 and the SATA hot swap dock in 4.
I've got all 7 sockets in use and If I consider adding another HDD I'm gonna have to install it to the hot swap bay on the top of the case. or unplug the ESATA port on the front of the case, which I doubt I'll be using anyway as I don't own anything with ESATA and there's a socket on the rear I/O panel anyway.
I think I can safely say the burn in tests are complete and she's stable @ 3.52ghz on stock voltages.
16x multiplier and 220 mem
Temps are ok too.
Idles at around 30-33º depending on ambient (cores read about 2-3º higher) and the fan speed stays at 1000rpm. Under a sustained load for several hrs it reached 51º (cores reached 58º) and the fan only spins up to 1350rpm
I think there's certainly more room for higher speeds, but I want to keep the system quiet and it's very quiet as it is. So I'll probably leave it for now.
It's so much quicker than my old one, although I have to admit that now I've rebuilt that one and installed a better cooler and upgraded it from Vista to Win 7... it's running much better too.
Couple of new pics as I finally have Xfire.
Top card is the ASUS HD5770 CuCore and the second card is a VTX HD5770.
PC is also stable at 3.63ghz on stock volts and has been running at those speeds for the last few weeks.
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q6/HecklerUK/Misc/NEW%20PC%20Build/IMG_0042.jpg
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q6/HecklerUK/Misc/NEW%20PC%20Build/IMG_0043.jpg
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