Aug 30, 2011
Even more photos. Did some cable management on this batch.
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@wesurii-haru-blog
Even more photos. Did some cable management on this batch.
More photo time!
I think after all of this I should re-manage my cables in my case :/
Photo time!
The Upgrades Are In!
Alrighty, so if you happened to see the upgrade plan post you'll know that I ordered upgrades and waited ever so patiently for them (not) to get here. They finally arrived Tuesday afternoon. So, look forward to pictures some time soon! :3
Oh, I just realized I never really listed all the parts going into this build. Well here ya go.
The Doom Tower:
Case: Cooler Master HAF 922 CPU: Core i7 2600k Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD5 RAM: Corsair Vengeance 1600 GPU: nVidia GTX 470 Fermi XLR8 Performance Edition Sound Card: Creative X-Fi Fatality Disk Drive: LG BluRay Burner x10 PSU: Corsair 750tx (750W) HDD: WD Caviar Green 1TB x3
Upcoming Parts:
HDD: WD Caviar Black 1TB CPU Heatsink: Hyper 212+
He just lays there. Mocking me. That little bastard.
Gigabyte GA-EP43-UD3L Sold
In case you missed the headline (how the hell...? nevermind) I sold my older gigabyte board on ebay. And it sold for a hefty bit more than I was expecting. Hey, for a first time sell, I got it good me thinks. So, what am I going to do with an extra $50? More upgrades!!
I can hear my friends again: "Ok, I thought we went over this already." Yeah, we did. But turns out there's still a few things left to be changed. But hey, you can be happy because that's only two items and $120 (coming from my paychecks) down the line.
Now that I've turned this post into another upgrade plan, here goes:
For cooling my Core i7 2600k:
Hyper 212+ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065
At $28.43 this will be a perfect budget heatsink.
Note: Yes, I'm scrapping the H80 idea. Why? Because someone enlightened me about wasting my money on stuff I don't need to. Therefore, I'm going with the Hyper 212+.
Second! A better hard drive.
Western Digital Caviar Black http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533
Here's where all of that other 120 dollars are going to ($90). A faster hard drive.
Anyway, selling my old motherboard puts me every little bit closer to finishing my plans for upgrades. Yay me!
insanelygaming:
Hadoken To Open - by Nicko Gibson
Hahahahhahaa
hahahahahaha
Awesome
Lunar Eclipse! 12-21-10
Assorted awesomeness :3
Upgrade plans!
Some of my friends would probably have a cow if they saw that title. Well, sorry friends, it's time. I'm getting really tired of under-performing, budget, problem parts. Before you say, "what you have is good enough." hang on a big ol' minute. I'll tell you why it's hard to live with these parts.
First of all, failing and dead RAM. Yes, I've had it a lot with these OCZ Gold 1066 modules. My first set was ok. The second set had a dead stick. The third set has a failing stick. Not only that, I've wasted hours upon hours clocking the poor things trying to figure out why my ram was stuttering. Turns out they just weren't built to last at the speeds they supposedly can stably do.
If that's not irritating enough, the overpriced Thermaltake Bigwater 760is liquid cooling system I got is also not very good. One of the main problems is that it was built to fit in two 5.25" drive bays. Therefore the parts it comes with were built to fit a small space and therefore are not of high quality. None of the parts are exchangeable without a lot of hassle. It would be better to buy a do-it-yourself (diy) kit. Other disappointments: the nozzles on the tubes don't close properly when disconnected meaning it leaks like crazy! The waterblock it comes with is cheap and barely manages heat from my Core 2 Quad at 60C. To top it off the stock fan for the radiator died within a month. I should have saved myself the trouble and just got a Corsair all-in-one instead.
As for the motherboard and processor, they're fine (sort of). The Core 2 Quad is certainly dated now. It's a little slow when it's not overclocked and does not have the handy features Intel's core i series provides such as turbo boost (this is like an auto overclock that meets the demands of applications) and multi-threading (actual multi-tasking). The motherboard? Well Gigabyte's GA-EP43-UD3L was a nice budget board for 2009 but now it's pretty dated too. I really didn't have any other problems with the board, but it doesn't have the things I really want now.
So what do I want? When will I be happy? Will I ever be happy?
Well, that's hard to say yes to with what I have now. And that doesn't necessarily mean I'll be happy with the upgrades either. However, I can assure you that I've learned enough to make better decisions with my next purchases.
Now, let's get to the actual upgrade plans, shall we?
Let's start with the motherboard. Without having to spend 500 dollars I think I've found the perfect motherboard for me. That's the Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD5. http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3909#ov
Looks nice, right? You'd be right. Not only about it's looks but about it's design. The first thing you might notice is the full black finish. Nice. Then we have all the essentials: sata 3.0 and usb 3.0, DDR3 RAM sockets, Intel's 1155 CPU socket (for sandy bridge CPUs), and a built-in RAID controller. Now let's focus on the amazing things about this board: 2 PCI-Express 2.0 slots for up to 2-Way SLI, a 20 phase power design, built in graphics with up to 800MHz frequency (not that I'm going to use that, but it's there), Dual BIOS (in case one gets offed), Touch BIOS (for changing BIOS settings without having to use the keyboard to enter BIOS on start-up), dual CPU power technology, and a really good looking stock heatsink system for the board's chipsets. To top it off there's a TON of utilities and bonus features that come with this board. Check the website for more detail.
Why does all that matter? Well, my gigabyte GA-EP43-UD3L doesn't have built in RAID, 20 phase power for better power delivery, that killer stock heat-sink, built-in graphics, DDR3 capability, and especially faster sata and usb ports. Overall, it's a better board that really packs a punch. I think it will meet and exceed my expectations for a motherboard, even with it's price: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128513&Tpk=ga-z68xp-ud5
Moving on! Intel's 1155 Core i7 2600k Sandy Bridge CPU. Link: http://ark.intel.com/products/52214/Intel-Core-i7-2600K-Processor-8M-Cache-3_40-GHz
We're about to head into Q4 of 2011 here and this CPU was released in Q1. Sure, it's a few days old, but it certainly surpasses my Core 2 Quad. The Core i7 2600k boasts 3.4GHz stock speed with a turbo boost frequency of 3.8GHz. That's not all though. It's an unlocked processor allowing for an overclocking edge without having to force it. We're talking an easy 4.0GHz overclock (not that I will or need to, but hey it's an option :3). With it's 4 cores and 8 threads this processor can achieve actual multi-tasking whereas the Core 2 Quad couldn't. At 280 dollars it will be seriously hard to pass up this processor: http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0354587
Next! To be honest I've had a lot of trouble picking out RAM for this upgrade. I want high performance gaming RAM that won't crap out like my OCZs did. Thing is, I need it to be reliable more than I need it to be fast; however, I think I've found just the kind of thing I would need: http://www.corsair.com/memory/intel-memory-solutions/core-i7-dual-channel-kits/vengeance-8gb-dual-channel-ddr3-memory-kit-cmz8gx3m2a1600c9.html Corsair's Vengeance kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9)
The modules are designed for 1333Mhz performance which is fine in and of itself, but are rated for 1600MHz speeds, which is even better. And I was originally just looking for another 4GB solution, but this pack even beats my expectations by going to 8GBs. Once again, perfect. Priced at 61 dollars with over a hundred perfect scores I think these Corsair Vengeance DDR3 modules will do the trick! (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233144)
Lastly, a different liquid cooling solution is in order: the Corsair H80 CPU cooler (http://www.corsair.com/cooling/hydro-series/hydro-series-h80-high-performance-liquid-cpu-cooler.html)
You might have already said, "Well, that'll sure save some space." and you'd be right. All I need to liquid cool really is my CPU. Perfect. What about it's performance? I can vouch for that. A friend of mine got an H70 and it kept his CPU temps down to nearly 26C! No problems so far. I've also read the H80 is slightly better for having a revised pump with customizable fan profiles. I didn't even know anything was wrong with the H70's pump, but hey if it's even better then I'm in! Priced at 102 dollars (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181016) that's a deal hard to pass up.
All of that said: about a month down the line and 713 dollars later this plan will be complete and I can do a proper review on all of the new parts. Look forward to it! Because I know I am! :3
Let's review!
1. Gigabyte's GA-Z68XP-UD5 motherboard
2. Intel's 1155 Core i7 2600k Sandy Bridge CPU
3. Corsair's Vengeance kit code-named CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9
4. Corsair's H80 Liquid Cooling System
Nice.
RAID troubles
I took out the RAID controller from my computer yesterday. Results? Optimal. Seriously, optimal. Why? Well, have a seat for a minute. I originally wanted to RAID 0 for gaming. For those who don't know/forgot: it's basically where you combine two or more physical hard drives (the storage devices in your computer case) to make a single virtual hard drive. Specifically, data is split between the hard drives in the array. These pieces are called "blocks." More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID
Anyway, the idea (for me) was to shorten the amount of time it takes to load things from the hard drive(s). And this would be possible (I thought) if I could use two hard drives to send data to the RAID controller at the same time where the data would be rejoined and used by the rest of the system. There's a few other things to keep in mind as far as RAID performance goes though.
The hard drives. They need to be nearly (if not entirely) identical to achieve optimal performance. Different hard drives with different RPM speeds, cache, or bandwidth could impact how well the RAID array is going to perform. Ok. Already got that covered. I'm using two Western Digital Caviar Green 64MB cache 7200RPM drives rated for 3GB/s. Annnd, they are identical down the exact model number: WDC WD10EARS-00YB1.
Well how about block size? Block size is how much data is going to be fitted within a block or section of the hard drive. According to a few sources I was reading changing the block size to around 64KB could drastically reduce the loading time from the hard drives. According to other sources changing the block size could also be a problem. Too large and it will take longer to read. Too small and it will take longer to read. In my case, the RAID controller would only allow me to use 512Bytes as the block size. (I tried 4KBs and that wouldn't even boot) Then it's too small? hmm. Maybe.
HD Tach (http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public/index.php?request=HdTach), on the other hand does not think so. On the RAID I was getting an average read speed of about 110MB/s. Off the RAID (I am using one of the two identical drives) I'm getting about 80MB/s. Data was being read faster on the RAID. Well, if it was reading faster on the RAID then why did it perform so poorly?
What's the deal? Why are things working better off the RAID? I have yet to find out. I suspect it has something to do with the RAID controller I'm using. My RAID controller: Highpoint RocketRaid 2300 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115029&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Hard+Drive+Controllers+/+RAID+Cards-_-HighPoint+Technologies++Inc.-_-16115029
Conclusions: Regardless of the cause of poor performance on the RAID I'm recommending against trying RAID 0 for gaming. At least, not on a Highpoint RocketRaid 2300. Maybe others have had more luck with this, but it may be better just to leave the whole RAID idea alone.
RAM problem #2 The Case of Being Unable to Shutdown
After removing the bad stick of RAM from computer, I've come across another urksome problem. This time the problem is not being able to shutdown my computer. How odd, right? One would think, "Sure, a RAM problem causing a computer to be unable to boot, but shutdown? How in the world?" Yep, it couldn't shutdown.
How was the problem fixed? Simple. I asked overclock.net's forum and the matter came down to my RAM timings. Link: http://www.overclock.net/intel-memory/1037615-problem-shutting-down-ram-voltage-problem.html#post13807375
RAM timings basically tell the RAM when to store, process, and release data. I won't go into detail about what those timings are as I keep forgetting all the specifics myself, but if you're curious go here: http://www.overclock.net/intel-memory/9981-ram-timing-explained.html
Anyway, normally my OCZ Gold 1066MHz RAM is set at 5-6-6-18. In this case simply changing the CAS Latency (the first number of the four) fixed the problem. So now my timings are at 6-6-6-18 and the computer can shutdown properly. Why is this so? Well, as I was told: with high performing RAM comes ware and tear. Since I've used the RAM for several years, it can no longer perform as fast as it could (the first number, the CAS Latency, has a big impact on on how fast the RAM performs). However, I can deal with the RAM being only slightly slower.
Now if only I could replace the module that went bad...
The Case of PC Stuttering
Run-time problems with RAM can be tricky to diagnose. Not dead RAM because if the RAM is dead the computer simply won't start. The issue here is failing RAM. In this case, failing RAM causing PC stuttering.
What's PC stuttering? It's when one's PC abruptly and abnormally pauses for a very short time interval, say maybe a few milliseconds. How can we tell? Sometimes, it may not show at all, but when stuttering happens it can be seen through the display on a monitor. What does it look like? It may appear differently for others, but on my computer it happened about every half a second. In other words, every half a second some animation or moving visual (like in a game) would quickly pause and continue as if nothing happened. This occurance led me to believe I had mis-clocked my RAM in my system's BIOS. (For those who don't mess with the system BIOS or don't know what it is, don't worry about it). So a few days ago I was hanging with James, playing some video games on my PC and I noticed the stuttering getting worse. It's really annoying! I stopped playing and started reclocking the RAM. This went on for around three hours before I ran across a program to test RAM while looking at forum posts about improper RAM timings. I ran the program and it returned over 200,000 errors because of failing addresses. So, I tested each RAM stick individually to see if one in particular was causing all of the errors. Turns out, my fourth stick of RAM was the culprit. I had a feeling at this point that that RAM stick was the cause for all of my stuttering. I removed that along with its pair and left the other two sticks in. Then I rebooted the computer to find the stuttering problem was fixed! No more stutter!
From this I conclude that failing addresses on RAM can be cause PC stuttering. Simply removing the module with failing addresses can fix the problem.
If you think or are not sure that you could be having RAM problems, you may want to check out the program I used to test my memory called memtest86.
Link: http://www.memtest86.com/
Go to the download page on memtest's website and download the "ISO for creating a bootable disk (windows - zip)" if you are using windows or the linux edition if you are running linux. Then grab a CD to burn the ISO to. (Windows 7's disk burner works fine for this. Just double click on the ISO and burn it to the disk.) The program is only 675KB large or less than 1MB so you won't need a large CD for it. Then put the CD in your CD drive and reboot. The program should run at boot and automatically run. If the program generates errors, there's a good chance you have bad RAM.
Wesley
Mid-Tower of Annihilation: The Creation Story
This is originally for my group "Die-hard Progressive Builders" on overclock.net, but what the hell I guess others can read it too.
I started my build (my first and only personal build) several years ago. Around that time a friend convinced me to stop buying pre-built computers from local stores and build my own. After all, one could build a comparatively priced PC that works better than pre-built machines of the same era. Since then I've had a goal to build the best PC I could while still going on a budget.
My job was unstable, my income low, but my parents allowed me to stay at home. School was busy, but I always seemed to find time for building my computer. These things allowed me enough freedom to begin the build. However, I had no idea where to begin with my build. I was told Micro Center was the place place in town to find parts for a computer. That was a good lead. But when I went to the store I didn't know the first thing about components I would need. There were parts everywhere but I didn't know what to get to accomplish that goal of building something stronger than the last store-bought piece-of-under-performing crap I got from Office Depot on special sale! Basically, it was like sky diving into a forest without any destination and no clue where to begin or how to navigate out of the forest while hoping for the best.
Keep in mind, my income was low, so I had to go performance on-a-budget. Lucky for me, I met a uniquely understanding person who started me off down the right path. Curiously enough, the gentleman I met was Asian and not even part of Micro Center's staff. (Hooray for Asians!) He showed me a great performance budget motherboard to start off with: a Gigabyte GA-EP43-UD3L rev. 1.1 priced at about $90. Perfect. Then he showed me performance RAM. This stuff wasn't cheap. I didn't really go on a budget here. He told me, "if you want performance, buy these." as he showed me a pair of OCZ Gold PC-8500 1066Mhz RAM, 2GB a piece, priced at $110. (Once again, keep in mind this was a few years ago) I didn't like the price, but I like the suggestion. More so, I liked the thick gold-colored, heat-sinked appearance of the RAM modules. I trusted him on this and bought a pair.
At this point I was a few hours in and the man had to leave. Or he was getting sick of me asking for help. Not sure. Regardless, damn!
So then it was time to get a processor. "Who am I going to ask?" (do I really need to say I said? Look, there are quotes.) blah, blah, blah, I found a guy. We settled on a Core 2 quad Q9550 as that was about the best the time had to offer. Again, not really budget, but it was, and still is, certainly worth the $200! "Now I'm broke. Looks like I'll have to wait till next paycheck."
Jump ahead to my next paycheck. "Ok, that covers the core components. Time to finish this thing!" haha Not. I hit up Best Buy this time. A high performing budget machine (actually, scratch the whole budget thing. I realized by this point I had to dish out some money) requires a good power supply and case. I ended up getting a 750 Watt Corsair power supply ($120, thanks for helping me pay mom!) and an Antec 900 gaming case ($50 now that's budget!). I wish I would have realized then how small that case really is! Oh wait, I forgot to mention that I bought a crappy Pioneer disk drive that wasn't even SATA (forget I mentioned that). "Time to put this thing together!"
I began work on my machine. Grab the case, put in the motherboard, screw it down, forget to put in some screw sockets, take the board back out, put in the sockets, put the board back, screw it down (again), read the motherboard manual, put in the CPU, get scared because of the pressure the socket bracket puts on it, realize its ok (phew!), put in the RAM, struggle with the power supply ("too many damn cables! What do I do with them?!"), slide in the disk drive and hard drive, connect all the headers, power, SATA, etc., stand it up, stare at it, admire it, and check the time. HOLY CRAP ITS MIDNIGHT AND I STARTED AT 5PM!! "Ok, time to turn it on!"
I dig out some periphrials and an old graphics card (an ATi x800 go ahead and laugh, I am too) from the basement and hook em up. *Click* (I push the power button) The computer starts. YAY!!! I watch the flashy logo screen and the post-logo, device screen. By now I'm really excited that its working.
Then the screen reads "FAILED TO BOOT: NO OPERATING SYSTEM"
"CRAAAAAAAAAP. I forgot to an operating system!"
"But wait, I'll just grab that spare Windows XP SP2 disk! Whoo hoo!" (Once again, let's laugh but this time for the fact that Vista and 7 were out and I didn't have either). Ok, I installed XP and got it running. Well, the computer still performed better than my previous store-bought-crap. "But seriously, I need some better parts to replace that crappy graphics card and periphrials."
Several weeks pass. I get another paycheck. "Time to get myself a graphics card!" By now I've learned about the awesome online parts store Newegg.com. I order an ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics card ($170 still got some budget attitude left in me). I put it in the computer. "Whoo, that's waaaaay better than the X800!" At this time I didn't know what really good graphics are, so this was enough to impress me, a lot.
Several more weeks pass. I get a Razer Lycosa keyboard (cool) from Micro Center ($100 did I say budget earlier? My bad.) and a simple laser mouse (oh nevermind, maybe I'm still on budget.). More time passes. I get Crysis and enjoy playing that, although at this point my comp's still not good enough to handle the final boss stably. "But I'm still impressed with the build!"
Then after a month or so I start to miss the thrill of building a computer. Its already built, but I just really loved the idea of building it. Could I do it again? Not likely. "Then what do I do?" Welllll, my friend (the one who convinced me to start building my own computer) convinces me to start overclocking. Not gonna get into that story right now. But I did get my Core 2 Quad to 3.4GHz stably. That distracts me from building for a while. Then a couple months later I get the feeling again. "There's gotta be something else I can do with my computer!"
(Congratulations you've made it past the prologue haha this might be one of those stories where the prologue is actually longer than the story though so chin up!)
"I got it! Upgrades!" Yes, upgrades. So many upgrades. Oh, the upgrades! (You see my friends don't understand my obsession with upgrading and find it to be quite excessive. I can hear them complaining already.) Where to start? Damn... hang on...oh, I got it (not yet, but I'm typing this anyway...ah, there we go!) The liquid cooler. I was sick of my CPU not being able to handle Crysis's final boss fight without locking up from the heat, so I got a liquid cooler to manage it: The Bigwater 760is (didn't realize it was one of the over-priced low-end ones, but hey this is a learning experience, right? Besides it still got the job done). Cool, but several weeks later, I was still feeling the feeling again.
Once again, my friend convinces me (go figure) to get a Cooler Master HAF 922. Thank god for that case! I still have it too. It really helped with the whole BILLIONS OF POWER CABLES thing. "Its starting to look good!" But here comes another problem. "My fans are blue and the front 200mm case fan is red! AHHHH" So, I got red case fans, including another 200mm (I even replaced the thermaltake fan on the liquid cooling radiator, which was failing anyway). By now, my friends were thinking of how snobbish I was becoming. But no matter! Let's just go ahead and get a blu-ray drive! (If you couldn't tell by now, I gave up on that whole budget thing. I think I was up to about 1.5 grand by now.)
"Oh, I could really use a better mouse." So I got a Razer Naga. "And a better keyboard." (A Logitech G110, which is WAY better than the Razer Lycosa mind you.) "And why not a fan controller?" "And a RAM cooler!" *Insert line about friends response here* Moving on... Here comes the big one: A nVidia GTX 470 to replace the ATI 5770. (Budget? Really?! Also, nVidia for (the rest of my) life!)
Where to go from here...hmm oh yes, 4GB more of RAM! (That's 8GB) But wait! I'm not done yet! Three more hard drives! A raid controller! (RAID 0 with two 1TB WDs) A PCI Slot fan! A TV card! A sound card! A better monitor! Better speakers! Tablet! Games! What am I at now? 3 grand? I dunno, I forgot. :D
"OK! OK! JUST STOP!" Yeah, its probably getting too long huh? "YES!" But, but... "NO BUTS!" Alright, just an outlook on where to go from here. "UGGGH"
So anyway, this is getting pretty long. And if anyone's read up to hear and liked it I thank you. That pretty much sums up all the changes made to my computer so far, as it is. But don't think its over! I'm bound to get bored soon! (Although, I do need another job right now... damn!)
Ideas on what to upgrade next:
-Liquid Cooling system? (a D.I.Y. [do it yourself] loop most likely)
-Another RAM module? (to replace one of the bad ones)
-Modular Power Supply?
-New core components?
-Suggestions?
