Aaron's Big Ll64 Upgrade

[wtf8269]

Okay, pretty much all of my friends are looking to upgrade in some way shape or form withen the next month or two. The way I usually get such good parts is not so much that I'm rich, but that I'm able to sell my parts to friends that wish to upgrade and I put that money with a little bit of savings towards new parts. Well that's what's happening now, and on a very large scale. I'm selling my CPU, motherboard, RAM, video card, my old Barracuda, and my 15gb iPod that I no longer use. What do I have planned?

-AMD Opteron 144 (http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80100-R) or 146 (http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80101-R). (Should be a blast to overclock.)
-DFI RDX200 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136165). (Runs 4 dimms at 1T!! Slow USB 2 speeds but I don't use USB 2 much. No SATA-II either but I'm happy with my Raptors)
-2gb (2x 1gb) Corsair XMS 2-3-2-5 PC3500 DDR1 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145594). (No more value RAM for me!)
-ATI x1800 XT 512mb (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102624). (Still $600 at Newegg but should be $550 or so by the time I get it.)
-Sunbeam Lian Li Edition (http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=137&products_id=3227). (Because the first channel on my Enermax stopped working, and my fans pull too many watts to double them up on one channel. This one has 20w per channel, plenty to double up.)

http://www.geocities.com/gothfreak826/Christmas_05_Upgrade.jpg

Obviously the top is my Christmas list, how I'm going to put all this new hardware to use. That $368 savings is as of 11/7/05. I earn about $24 a week or so. Plus it looks like I'm going to be helping family out with leaves, which is another money maker. Things are looking pretty good. I'm as giddy as a school girl.:toast:

[djbbenn]

Looks great, simular in hardware to what I want. Except I think I will have my Sandy for a while, untill M2, then comes Orleans or Windsor. :) Good luck. :toast:

-Dan

[wtf8269]

Thanks man, I was thinking about waiting until M2, but too many of my friends are wanting to upgrade right now. Plus I hear 939 will still be around through 07. That and it's looking like the fastness of this new setup won't wear off for quite some time. Plus I'd like to have one last big upgrade hoorah before I need to start putting money towards a car.

I'm still jealous of your CPU by the way lol.

[djbbenn]

Yeah it gets hard to keep up with new stuff. But 939 will be plenty good a year from now. DDR2 is not any real advantage now. I try to go through a up grade cycle, and that usally happens a few months after all the new stuff is out and price has droped. ;)

Thanks, it is very sexy. (still paying it off though lmao. :laugh: )

-Dan

[wtf8269]

Ordered a 146 and the Sunbeam, the 146 came with free 2 day shipping.:rockout:

Half of my RAM ($75) and my iPod ($150) should be sold in the next week or two at which point I'll order the Corsair XMS or DFI RDX200.:cool:

[Solaris17]

keep us posted will ya sexy beast of a sys...(drools on his case..ZAP!!,,,,?!...SOB!!!)

[wtf8269]

Lol yeah man I will. The system should be complete sometime shortly before Christmas probably. It's going to be a long grueling wait.:banghead:

[zAAm]

Damn wtf8269! That's some pretty nice hardware you got listed there! I envy you... sigh. ;) My friends are as poor as I am so I can't sell anything. lol! And considering the hardware prices here are exorbitant it's difficult to upgrade...

[wtf8269]

Lol, thanks man. I've got $188 right now after buying that stuff last night, and Jason bought my Barracuda today after school. I'm thinking I'm going to buy the RAM next, because that DFI should go down in price once other Crossfire boards are out.

[wtf8269]

Got the Sunbeam today, the LEDs are so bright I can't really look at the front of my case head on lol.

Fans turned down:
http://www.geocities.com/gothfreak826/turned_down.jpg
Fans full blast:
http://www.geocities.com/gothfreak826/full_blast.jpg
Close up:
http://www.geocities.com/gothfreak826/close_up.jpg

[zAAm]

Same with my HDD and Power LEDs wtf8269. They're both 10000mcd white LED's, so they're pretty bright. I run them at half voltage just so as not to light up my whole room when I keep my PC on through the night! I finally got my blue transparent perspex sheet for the window btw. It's been like a year, I've almost forgot about it lol. Looks pretty good now. When the cathode is off it looks totally black, like the rest of the case. Pretty sweet. No digicam atm to take a photo though. :( And you let us know when you get that hardware eh? That'd be awesome! And benchies as well...

[wtf8269]

Well the 146 should be here Monday, but I'm waiting until I get the DFI and the Corsair XMS before I even run it. But hopefully I should be able to get everything up and running withen a month.

[Solaris17]

^SWEET!:eek:

[wtf8269]

Today was a good day:
http://www.geocities.com/gothfreak826/opty1.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/gothfreak826/opty2.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/gothfreak826/opty3.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/gothfreak826/opty4.jpg
:rockout:

As I said, I'm not going to use her until I get my new stuff, but she sure is pretty.

Do you guys think I should go ahead and buy the RDX200 or should I get the RAM when it comes back in stock? I'm leaning towards the RAM, because right now the RDX200 is the only Crossfire board out so I'm thinking it will go down in price once other Crossfire boards come out. Whereas the RAM will probably stay around $300

[djbbenn]

Do you have a PCI-E card that you can put in the RDX? If not, if you get the ram, at least you can use it. Plus the RDX will come down in price when the new boards come out, they always do.

I don't know how you can wait to get that Opteron in there... I would have that sexy thing in there quicker than anything. Run some benchies and the get to work. :) Congrats. :toast:

-Dan

[wtf8269]

Well I was going to put it in but I forgot my Thermalright is a bolt on and the stock cooler is a clip on. I don't want to keep taking the Thermalright on and off because it'll scratch the core of the heatsink and worsen it's contact. And I would have had to take out the motherboard entirely and change the bracket to put the stock cooler on so I pretty much said fuck it.

I don't have a PCIE card I could use, but I have a PCI one I could use. It wouldn't be pretty but it would work. Hmm...

[Solaris17]

dude i whant full benchies or ill beat you up...and part that beast out...your a lucky fellow and i whant some spoilage scores or else!!!:p :mad:

[wtf8269]

dude i whant full benchies or ill beat you up...and part that beast out...your a lucky fellow and i whant some spoilage scores or else!!!:p :mad:
Lol keep your pants on. I have some pretty crappy ram right now and I wouldn't be able to get the full potential out of this thing right now anyway.

[Velocity]

w/c that biatch and oc it to hell and back lol... (drools over your new system lol, at my house im still runnin p4... but that comp reminds me of the 939 rig i built for my dad) good job

[wtf8269]

Nah watercooling is too expensive for me. Plus I don't want to risk the leaks. I get near watercooling temps with the setup that I have right now anyway. Good news is my friend is going to buy 1gb of my RAM probably sometime today so I should be able to order that Corsair XMS as soon as it comes back in stock at Newegg.:rockout:

[Pheonix_789]

Yeah it gets hard to keep up with new stuff. But 939 will be plenty good a year from now. DDR2 is not any real advantage now. I try to go through a up grade cycle, and that usally happens a few months after all the new stuff is out and price has droped. ;)

Thanks, it is very sexy. (still paying it off though lmao. :laugh: )

-Dan

Ah yeah it is.... I believe the fastest DDR2 is 1Ghz (500mhz) which is faster than DDR1 even though I have seen DDR1 at a max of 700 mhz (350mhz). DDR3 should be avaible someday.....then we might be able to take full advantage of Hyper memory lol not that I would every get a hyper memory card:laugh:
X1800 xt is a good card but you wont be able to take full advantage of the 512Mb Memory well maybe having two of these cards would be sweet! Crossfire Gl......

[djbbenn]

Ohh there is DDR2 that is way faster than DDR1, but that certain DDR2 costs a ridiculus amount. But average DDR2, like 5400 and such is no adavantage, only in price really...

-Dan

[wtf8269]

Sold 1gb of my RAM. I now have $287. Just need to wait until thursday for the Corsair XMS to come back in stock.

[Solaris17]

:D ...memberbenchies or ill slp u 2wice

[wtf8269]

Argh! The damn Corsair XMS won't come back in stock!. The ETA is today's date and no luck so far.:banghead:

Their west coast warehouse I think closes in about 4 hours from now and the east coast one in about an hour so I hope it happens sometime soon.

______

Okay I'm writing this after dinner. I go to check see if the ram is in stock. It is. I'm giddy as a school girl. Fill out the order form, everything is awesome. I click submit, and it reloads the same page. I'm like, "Wtf?" So I click submit again and then I get this:

Error: Insufficient quatity. Your item is not in stock.

I'm just like "FUCK!!":banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

[Solaris17]

^ dude that blows....are you going to wait?...send them an e-mail and say hey wtf?...when is this goin to be instock?

[wtf8269]

Ordered an x1800 XT 512mb from Zip Zoom Fly. It's $700 but my dad paid the difference between the $580 Sapphire that I was going to get on Newegg and this true ATI on Sapphire. Told you he was a computer nerd.:pimp: Anyway I also ordered the RDX200 off Newegg. I'll get all that put together then whenever the Corsair comes back in stock I'll order that and see what kind of OCs I can get with this Opteron.

Can I get a w00t w00t!:rockout:

[djbbenn]

Awesome, lots of pics. :)

-Dan

[Solaris17]

WOOT!! :rockout:

[wtf8269]

http://www.geocities.com/gothfreak826/XT1.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/gothfreak826/XT2.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/gothfreak826/XT3.jpg
She's a thing of beauty. I'll tell you what she's heavy too. Heavier than my x800. That white part I thought was plastic, nope, metal. Just waiting on my RDX200, should be here withen the next hour. Ordered the Corsair today too.:toast:

[djbbenn]

Very nice... very jealous too. Congrats... :toast:

So the whole cooler is metal?

-Dan

[wtf8269]

Yeah the only thing in the entire cooler that's plastic is that clear duct over the fan. I'm excited to see what kind of temps I get. And what kind of OCs too.:rockout: I won't be able to OC the Opty until I get that RAM which could be as late as next week with Thanksgiving and all.

Figured I'd edit this instead of posting again:
My friend is coming over after dinner and we're going to put everything together and reload Windows. I'm backing up my files as I type this.

[djbbenn]

I take it that you got your board now? I want lots of pics. :)

-Dan

[Solaris17]

I take it that you got your board now? I want lots of pics. :)

-Dan

yes 12 pics.

[wtf8269]

Lol yeah I got the board. I'm having a hard time installing Windows though actually. The thing either has a hard time recognizing my hard drives, or something goes corrupt while loading the files for the insallation. It will boot to CD just fine, but after it formats and loads the drivers then reboots it won't go to the installation. I'll get it working though. Just a matter of time.

I quit last night at about 11:30 in favor of going to bed. Once I get home I'll have all Thanksgiving break in order to work on it. I decided not to take pics because I wanted to get started installing everything.

The ammount of cables on this board is insane. There the 8pin and the 24pin connections are right by eachother lol. It's like a frickin power cable for like a washer/dryer going to the board.

I'm in my Intro to Engineering class right now, we're doing some gay little pop-up paper turkey thing. Got it done so I thought I would give you guys an update. I checked the shipping on my Corsair and it's going to be here Friday.:rockout:

[zAAm]

I found that whenever you find it difficult to install Windows, underclock the CPU a notch and the RAM and most of the time it'll run better. My brand new 900MHz Thunderbird did the same thing so I ran it at 800MHz and it installed great and was totally stable at 900MHz thereafter... ;) I'm VERY VERY jealous of that setup you're getting wtf8269! ;)

[wtf8269]

Yeah I'm still having problems. Everything runs smoothly when it's reformatting and installing the setup files. But it just sits and hangs on a black screen when it tries to load the actual Windows Installation. Any ideas? Anybody?:confused: :cry:

[Solaris17]

i had this alot when i was trying to install after i built this...try the folowing..it will take hours though.......down load deriks boot and nuke make a floppy or cd (you bust burn it as an iso image) and put the disk in the drive and boot....it will come up and just press Enter this will autonuke any drives......now my xp disk wont do it so i have a windows 98 disk to help me...what i do is i put my 98 disk in and boot it i make it format my drive...thats right drive dont format the other one....then i install 98 and right after it finally boots i put in my xp disk and hit "new installation" it installs xp brand new and it boots with no problems...this is a long process but its the only way I after i had that problem could do it....if you dont feel like doing that....try taking out your x1800 and see if it will boot with that out.

[djbbenn]

Your setting up a raid right?

-Dan

[wtf8269]

Yeah, I'm setting up RAID. The board came with the RAID drivers disk that you use when you press F6. I've got that, the hard drives are recognized by the setup. It formats the drives, preloads the installation, reboots great. Then the part where it's supposed to show the Windows loading screen then go to the installation. I just get a black screen and it hangs there for an eternity.

[djbbenn]

What controller are you using? I heard the ATI one has lots of problems and you should use the
sil3114 controller.

-Dan

[wtf8269]

I'm using the frist two ports. So I'm assuming the first set of four or two are controlled by the chipset, or are they all controlled by the Silicon Image chip?

[djbbenn]

Ones down the bottom I believe are controlled by the Silicon Image chip... not to sure as I don't have the board, just what I have read. Also I heard there are new raid drivers on the DFI web site.

-Dan

[wtf8269]

Alright, I'll try the new drivers and see what happens. I have nothing to lose. Except a $200 motherboard, $700 GPU, $190 CPU, two $180 hard drives, $130 PSU.:ohwell:

[djbbenn]

If anything, just don't set up a raid yet... I'm sure you can live without it for a little bit. And I highly doubt you will lose all that lol.

-Dan

[wtf8269]

Yeah me either, and I thought about just running without raid and seeing what happens. But even if that works, that doesn't help my RAID any.

Edit: I took a look at those drivers, and I don't think any of those are for the floppy drive. They look like they're all for after Windows is installed.

[djbbenn]

Yeah but at least you can figure the board out a little more. There should be a new bios out soon, and I'm sure that will help with somethings. The new drivers might help too, but I would just set it up a single drive, have a little fun, then tinker with the raid a little. Instead of sitting there ripping your hair out wonder why it isn't working.

You need the F6 drivers.

Well I'm out I think, it's lightning here, so...

-Dan

Edit: Here. (http://us.dfi.com.tw/Upload/Driver/Sil3114_1205.exe)

[wtf8269]

Well I tried the new drivers, they didn't help. Actually, they were worse. The hard drive didn't even get recognized with the new ones.

Meh...:ohwell:

[Solaris17]

personnaly dude i wouldnt even bother with raid....but it works for some ppl i guess i like my hard drives the way they are 120gig for Games and other programs like flash or photoshop and my 40gig For windows cd burning programs java Flash players srvice pacts...(basically important things directly related to windows in some way) but im sorry to here that dude i would just use one drive and test that baby out!!!!

[djbbenn]

Raid always seems to be buggy as hell on new DFI boards, I know with my board the raid caused a lot of problems at first. Just got to give it some time for some fixes, it's a brand new board remember.

-Dan

[wtf8269]

Yeah, that's not going to stop me from trying though. I remember hearing that DFI boards don't like Corsair ValueSelect RAM, so I grabbed some of my dads Apacer RAM and I'm testing to see if that fixes it. It probably won't, but I can dream.

Edit: Tried the other ram, no success. Tried using ports 5-8 as well, no luck there either. It wouldn't even recognize it as a raided set of drives. So I just decided to install it on one drive and I ended up getting a disc error.

[wtf8269]

You know, I'm starting to think that maybe my CPU isn't compatible and I need a BIOS update.

[Solaris17]

compatible w/ the board..? you mean u didnt chek?.....id grab a bios update ASAP

[djbbenn]

If it wasn't compatiable the board simply wouldn't post. Thats the way most boards act, so I would say it would do the same with that. There shouldn't be any compatability issues, but might as well try, I think there is an updated bios out now.

-Dan

[wtf8269]

If it wasn't compatiable the board simply wouldn't post. Thats the way most boards act, so I would say it would do the same with that. There shouldn't be any compatability issues, but might as well try, I think there is an updated bios out now.

-Dan
Yeah, that's what I told my dad. But he didn't believe me. I'm really considering just about anything right now. I just can't figure it out. I can't even get a single drive to boot. I'd call DFI if it weren't Thanksgiving day. Oh well, atleast I get my RAM tomarrow. Not that I'll be able to use it any time soon.

I checked for BIOSs also, and there are two on the site, but they both say first release. One is a larger file than the other. Do you think I should try flashing to the larger one in case mine doesn't have it?

[zAAm]

When does it give you a disk error? When posting, installing or going into Windows?? What other signs is it showing with the single drive as opposed to the RAID?

[djbbenn]

The bigger bios file will be a .exe form that makes it's own disk, the other is just a bios.

Do you have the sata set up properly in the bios?

-Dan

[wtf8269]

Yeah I do. I've read the directions numerious times. Everything works fine until after it loads the setup. Like I've said, it will recognize the drive, format the drive, load the installation files on there, then tell you you need to remove the floppy disk because it's going to restart. Then after it restarts it's supposed to go into the installation. Well instead of loading that it just give me a black screen, sits there, and stares at me.

When I try single drive now I just get a BSOD somewhere along the line. It varies. So considering it seems I've pretty much figured out how to setup a RAID configuration better than I can setup a single drive configuration on this board, I figure I might as well stick to getting that to work.

I guess atleast there will be a lot of food and stuff today to get my mind off of this.

Edit: Alright I tried booting without the Windows CD since it's mostly on the hard drive at this point. Since I did that it tells me NTLDR is missing. Which I know means that it doesn't have anything to boot to. So it seems to me that it's not even actually effectively loading anything to the hard drives. Or am I wrong here?

[Solaris17]

that sucks :ohwell: punch it in the face


have you wiped the drives after every failed attempt or do you try to install again over the old files?

[djbbenn]

Have tried starting a thread on the DFI forums?

-Dan

[wtf8269]

Yes I've reformatted everytime.

No I haven't but I figure I might as well. I have a friend I met on here that has a DFI NF4 that is running RAID that I could ask for help but he's not online right now and I'd rather not call him during Thanksgiving. And since I can't call DFI right now I suppose I might as well register and post on their forums.

EDIT: Bitchin! They've got a BETA BIOS that they say has solved people's SATA problems! Might as well give that a shot.

2nd EDIT: I flashed to the new BIOS. Still having the same problem. My mom is yelling at me to clean my room and shower before verybody gets here for Thanksgiving so I guess I'll have to do that before I can post on DFI-Street.com.

[wtf8269]

OMFG I'm serriously going to kill something!!:banghead:

I've posted here (http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31843) on DFI-Street.com and I've tried everything they've suggested but no cigar.

[wtf8269]

:respect: :respect: IT LIVES!!!:respect: :respect:

A guy suggested I run 2.8v to my ram and it worked!! I just installed the X1800XT drivers. I'm so excited. I'm soooo staying up all night working on this.:rockout:

[djbbenn]

What voltage was it running at?

I want pics now... give me pics... and benchies...

-Dan

[wtf8269]

It was running at 2.65v. Lol no benchies or pics for a long time. I'm going through hell trying to get all these drivers to work. I keep getting errors out the ass. My friend tells me this is all worth it once it's working, but I'm starting to think DFI (or atleast this board) is a piece of sh!t.

[djbbenn]

But I want pics now. :cry:

New board too... give it sometime, the bioses always suck at first.

-Dan

[wtf8269]

Argh, every single driver on the DFI disk gets an error when it's trying to install.:mad:

[djbbenn]

What kind of drivers are you putting on? And what type of error?

-Dan

[wtf8269]

The drivers off of the DFI disk: chipset drivers, RAID drivers, LAN drivers, etc. Usually they'll say something like "Catostrophic error", "Fatal error", or "The server has made an exception".

[djbbenn]

Try getting the drivers off the DFI site.

-Dan

[wtf8269]

Yeah I tried that earlier thinking I had a bad disc or something, but I got the same errors.

[wtf8269]

Well this post is coming from my new computer. A guy on DFI-Street suggested some chipset drivers of ATI's site and that did the trick. Just need to install some software, do some updates, then overclocking here I come!:rockout:

[djbbenn]

Pictures!!! :laugh:

Get some stock benchies in there too first.

-Dan

[wtf8269]

Pictures will be awhile, I've got a lot of tidying up with the wires to do. I just kinda threw everything together because I knew I'd have to fiddle more with the wiring. I'll get some stock benchies after I get my updates done and Norton's installed.

I'm gonna set a low goal of 2.8ghz for now. 3ghz is where I'll be satisfied, but if I can I'm going to shoot for 3.2ghz.

Edit: Alright got 2.8ghz no problem. Here's the problem though: my RAM won't go a hair over 200mhz. Even with it running 3.3v. You and I both know it should go well over 200mhz. Any suggestions? I can get it to boot at 3ghz but only with a huge RAM divider.

[djbbenn]

What timings are you running?

-Dan

[wtf8269]

Stock 2-3-2-6.

I've read reviews and although I may not be able to run these timings exactly, I should be able to get something close to what these people did:

1.5-3-2-6 @ 217 2.6v

1.5-3-2-6 @ 221 2.8v

2-3-2-6 @ 225 2.6v

2.5-3-2-6 @ 250 2.8v

[djbbenn]

They're rated for 216MHz, so they should do better than 200, odd... Try switching the slots they are in, I have seen that work many times on DFI's. Play with the command rate/timings too, then tweak them later. And another thing, bios will probably be a little buggy, don't expect miracles.

I wouldn't worry too much on overclocking ram just yet, see what you can get out of just the cpu, then do the ram.

-Dan

[wtf8269]

Yeah, I did some reading on DFI street and I'll figure it out eventually. There's about 30 settings for RAM and it's just going to take awhile to learn them all or get the hang of it. I'm just going to stick with 2.8ghz and PC3200 2-3-2-6 1t for now.

Did somebody say benchies?
http://www.geocities.com/gothfreak826/3dm05.JPG
Card is stock for now, can't find anything that will OC it. Although ATI Tool will detect temps and control the fan which is nice.

[wtf8269]

Well 2.8ghz was unstable. Right now I'm running 2.69ghz with ram at 192mhz 2-2-2-5. I still really have no idea what I'm doing with ram though. I'm sure if I knew what I was doing I could get this RAM way over 200mhz and the CPU would be at 3ghz or even higher.

[djbbenn]

Awesome... ATITool beta 9 will overclock the X1800 series. Give the opteron some more juice to get it stable.

-Dan

[wtf8269]

Alright, did some more reading on DFI-Street and got some better RAM settings to dial in that helped me a whole lot with overclocking. I was able to boot to windows at 3.2ghz, but it was unstable. I'm currently running a 32m Super PI test at 3.1ghz, but I'm running a 1/2 RAM divider so I'm just finding the max CPU clock right now. Next comes the max RAM clock then hopefully a good mix of the two.

Edit: Well as of now I'm running 3ghz 1.63v (300x10), 3x htt, RAM is at 2:3 so 200mhz 2-3-3-8 stable so far. I'm going to post my exact bios settings on DFI-Street in order to get help perfecting my RAM timings and the whole overclock in general. I think it's time I start installing some games now though.:)

[djbbenn]

So the extra voltage helped? Most Opterons I seen at 3GHz+ were at ~1.6V.

-Dan

[wtf8269]

No, I've had it around 1.6v the whole time. These RAM settings are what did the trick for me:

Drive Strength - 3
Data Drive Strength - 1
Max Async Latency - 9
Read Pre-amble - 6.5

[djbbenn]

In you screenie it said 1.45V???

-Dan

[wtf8269]

Yeah it's either because of my mobo being so new, my CPU being so new, or a combination of the two. Anyway got some freaking awesome RAM settings from a friend. I haven't done extensive stress testing but the clocks in my sig I think are probably where I'm going to stay at after working on this all day. I could probably get some tighter timings on the RAM, but that'll be another day.

Edit: Meh back to stock, turns out the timings my friend gave me don't work so well on my motherboard. So it's back to stock for now.

[Underhanded]

Looks a bit like my X Dreamer II.. except its 10x better quality ^^; Is that case quiet? with all those fans.. this freaking X dreamer II only has 2 fans.. and it drowns out my music.

Edit: BTW amazingly SICK rig.