Building a new PC? Look here first.

[ket]

OK, so heres a question from a rebuild noob.

So once I have put all the hardware together and ready to turn on, what is the order of things to do, and please dont skip minor details you think I should know cause chances are I dont

I assume I boot with the windows CD, and then.......

Boot with the Win CD correct, let it do all its install do-das (easy this, you won't have trouble)

Now, when Windows is installed its VERY important you install some hardware drivers BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE in this order;

1. Install your mainboard chipset drivers
2. Restart if required, then install graphics driver
3. Restart if propted, install sound driver

Thats it really, from there your free to install things in whatever order you wish

[Grump642]

Nightwatch: Does your CPU cooler direct some airflow down onto the voltage regulators? If not, this could be a cause high temps.

[Nightwatch]

Are you talking mobo or CPU temps?

Mobo temps.
Both ASUS Probe II and ASUS AI Suite confirm the same temps.
CPU is quite alright, while writing this, it's 34C, but now mobo is 42C!

yesterday, when I was playing the game, it reached 55C. There is a storm going on inside the PC, yet this mobo temp? Should I believe the ASUS guy who reportedly said it's OK for these mobos?

Nightwatch: Does your CPU cooler direct some airflow down onto the voltage regulators? If not, this could be a cause high temps.

yes, it blows a strong wind on them actually, and there is nearby corsair triple blower fan onto the RAMs.

[ket]

The only way to reduce mobo temps effectively are to invest in some 3rd party cooling paste and heatsinks. I recommend;

2x Enzotech MST-81 MOSFET heatsinks
1x Enzotech CNB-S1 (for northbridge)
1x Enzotech CNb-S1L (for southbridge)
Tube of Arctic Silver Ceramique

That little lot will cost a nice chunk of change, BUT, the heatsinks are made of 100% pure forged copper, and are easily THE finest quality mobo heatsinks known to man. Combine that with ASC and your looking at significantly cooler chipset and MOSFET temps. Probably around 22c idle, 35ish full load. Oh and I advise picking up a small 3pin 40mm fan to attach to your NB HS to make sure it stays cool as it can get rather hot.

[Nightwatch]

Thanks, they are great products. But when changing mobo heatsinks, it definitely voids the gurantee terms and doing so I might actually be helping ASUS, otherwise if the mobo develops a fault due to either the overheating or any other reason (other than my own-doing) then ASUS will replace it free.

I have a triple fan-blower over the RAM modules and they were turning around 5500rpm. I thought that maybe they are blowing the heat from the RAMs onto the motherboard too fast, faster than the speed that the extraction fans are throwing the heat away from the mobo chips, so in the BIOS I reduced the RAM fans, put them on silnt mode, now they are turning about 3500rpm and guess what? Mobo temp is down by about 5C. Idle is 41-42 Almost same as before) but whn on load temps do not go above 50C. A bit more acceptable I guess?

[VINTAR]

Thanks for the post KET. Ill refer to it when im ready. Shouldnt be long now. Just busy sorting out the stolen office pc at the moment.

[ket]

Thanks, they are great products. But when changing mobo heatsinks, it definitely voids the gurantee terms and doing so I might actually be helping ASUS, otherwise if the mobo develops a fault due to either the overheating or any other reason (other than my own-doing) then ASUS will replace it free.

I have a triple fan-blower over the RAM modules and they were turning around 5500rpm. I thought that maybe they are blowing the heat from the RAMs onto the motherboard too fast, faster than the speed that the extraction fans are throwing the heat away from the mobo chips, so in the BIOS I reduced the RAM fans, put them on silnt mode, now they are turning about 3500rpm and guess what? Mobo temp is down by about 5C. Idle is 41-42 Almost same as before) but whn on load temps do not go above 50C. A bit more acceptable I guess?

50c is still kinda hot for a P45. Also, forget about what you "should" and "should not" do in terms of warrenty. Bottom line Asus or any other manufacturer for that matter don't care if you replace their crap stock heatsinks - just don't tell them about it and IF you should need to RMA just put the stock heatsinks back on with some stuff that looks like would of been used by the manufacturer, which is to say, your bog standard white sillicon crap.

[Nightwatch]

You sure have a valid point there.

[VINTAR]

So my plan is to claim for an asus p5q and put that in my rebuild and buy a nice cheap G31 for the office pc. A bit dishonest but hey, this is a recession people

[ket]

^ I'm not sure I follow

[VINTAR]

ket, dont know if you saw my post on the round table, but i had a break in at work and they stole the pc. Still dont know if im going to get a laptop or desktop.

[nandersen]

A colleague of mine has just ordered bits and pieces for a new i7 setup. I understand that he went for the cheapest CPU (is it 920?) and as Asus p6t deluxe v1 mobo with 6GB Kingston RAM. When he gets all the parts we're planning some game tests, including Crysis and STALKER.

As I understand it the i7 is getting a lot of good feedback. Apparently the cheapest model can easily be OCd to over 3.3 GHz and the performance improvements over Core 2 should be significant, not to mention the triple channel memory. I'm planning to buy an upgrade kit (mobo, CPU, RAM) this summer but off course this depends on the "test results"

One thing I read is that a multicore setup with a 6GB RAM kit cannot be used anywhere near its full potential under Windows XP. As I understand it you need Vista 64 bit for that, however, I have my doubts about running a 64 bit OS on a 32 bit CPU. Maybe Windows 7 will turn out to be a good alternative.

[Nightwatch]

As far as I'm aware, i7s can run 64 bit OS, but some early reports suggest that they are not very effective in gaming applications at the moment.
"Some early articles suggested that i7's design is not ideal for gaming performance. In a test performed on leaked hardware, a Core i7 940 compared to a QX9770 showed the Core i7 to be slower than Yorkfield clock-for-clock in two trials, while being faster in two others."

you may wish to check this article on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_i7

It is still the way forward though.

[nandersen]

I don't expect a significant FPS boost compared to some c2d chips but there are other factors that suggest a significant improvement in overall system performance like e.g. faster load times and better multitasking.

[VINTAR]

I remember seeing a comparison between the three i7 processors and the 920, although the lower end processor, actually performed better than the other two in some applications when over clocked. But there is a limit to over clocking the ram because of voltage issues. I think the 920 is a good buy, but i would get the gigabyte x58 mobo, just cause i like the pretty colours

[nandersen]

The OC potential should be another reason to go with an i7. According to some articles I recently read you can easily OC it to a level where it beats the crap out of any Core 2 CPU (OCd or not). At the same time the power management should make it more attractive for desktop. Like having a Ferrari that can run 20 km/L on a highway if following the speed limit.

[audioave10]

nanderson, when you get some comparison test results, please post
what they are and especially with Stalker. It would be nice to know.

[nandersen]

I will

Also, it would be cool if someone could try running STALKER from an SSD

[rockingmtranch]

I will

Also, it would be cool if someone could try running STALKER from an SSD

You mean, like this?
http://blogs.computerworld.com/twenty_f ... throughput
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96dWOEa4Djs&fmt=22

WHOA!