The Official Unofficial Frau Kaleun Destroys The World* Thread

[kiwi_2005]

Originally Posted by Jan Kyster

Don't listen to this sissy!

Common sense is all we need.

Better safe than sorry besides they only cost a few bucks, already shes had one issue with her hdd and no one is mentioning best to wear an anti static strap just to be safe. Cowboy techs! Also avoid when working with hddware any clothing that's wool, & standing on carpet they both create static. If wearing an anti static strap too uncool, then as mention touching a metal part will kill the static, temporary.

[Arclight]

Yeah, always grab on to a radiator for a moment. That, and make sure I don't touch any contact points or circuits to begin with.

[frau kaleun]

Well, I have the board in the case all nice and secure. Found a little rubber "foot" or bumper that I must've had left over from some bit of furniture or shelving, it even had a little rubber peg on one side that fit very nicely into that dicey corner screw hole on the board. Was able to pare it down small enough so that it fits between the board and the chassis and provides support just under that corner without having to screw it into anything.

Now just waiting on the PSU which should come today, if so I can take a spare kb, mouse & monitor home from the office and try it out this weekend.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by CaptainHaplo

To make it power up you will need a CPU in the socket. Don't even have to have the fan, but I wouldn't advise that. Seat the fan anyway, just dont use any thermal paste since its a quick test.

Nothing else should be needed. Mem, graphics, etc will all check during post - but if you get that far then you already know the board is likely ok so they don't need to be in.

Power on, watch for the cpu fan to stay spinning and powered. If it does, don't worry about POST beeps, just run it for a good 60 seconds and keep your eyes and ears open for smoke or odor. If you get that far, you probably are good.

If you are good - don't forget to go back and apply the thermal paste!

Thermal paste was pre-applied to the fan, so it was stick it in there and then do or die.

Turned it on, it ran and beeped like crazy, fan spinning fine. I let it run for a minute and no smoke or sparks or burning smells. I think I'm good.

Thanks for all your help so far, guys! Now comes the fun part... adding memory! Plugging in expansion cards! Seating all the drives! And best of all... CABLE MANAGEMENT!

But first... dinner.

[FIREWALL]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

Thermal paste was pre-applied to the fan, so it was stick it in there and then do or die.

Turned it on, it ran and beeped like crazy, fan spinning fine. I let it run for a minute and no smoke or sparks or burning smells. I think I'm good.

Thanks for all your help so far, guys! Now comes the fun part... adding memory! Plugging in expansion cards! Seating all the drives! And best of all... CABLE MANAGEMENT!

But first... dinner.

I think my blood pressure dropped a few knotches after reading this post,

I have a gutt feeling it will be smooth sailing for you on this project.

Treat yourself to a couple of your favorite cocktails, put your feet up, and relax.

Hard as it maybe get , a good nites rest and, give it a fresh start tomorrow. If you have tv in your bedroom turn it on low volume and pick up a book your working on.

With dinner and a couple of cocktails in you and the above. Saturday will be here before you know it. Friday has been a full and successful day. Why spoil it now frau kaleun .

I know you'll have great news for all of us tomorrow.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by FIREWALL

I think my blood pressure dropped a few knotches after reading this post,

I know you'll have great news for all of us tomorrow.

TBH I don't know if I'll do anything more this weekend - tomorrow's jam-packed and Sunday will be everyday chores like laundry and groceries. But I can take it really slow now, because finishing the new build will eventually mean pulling some parts out of the current rig, which I'm not planning to do yet. I'll probably leave that until I have plenty of time to do all that and then get the new computer set up in the old one's place, which will mean moving a lot of stuff off my desk and getting all the cords and cables sorted and then putting everything back. That's a big job and not one that I can do in fits and starts if I have to be stepping over and around a lot of piled up stuff just to manage my normal workday routine. I have a whole network of shelves and hutches built up over my desk and everything will have to come off them so I can pull the desk out enough to work behind it. If I don't clear the shelves I end up with a constant stream of disgruntled action figures raining down on my head while I'm trying to work.

But I am taking off work the week of Labor Day, plus I'll have the weekend before and after. That was when I was originally planning to get it all ready to go anyway, so I'm actually ahead of schedule. And that will be a long stretch where I can make an ungodly mess in here and not have to worry about getting everything all put back and out of the way so I can find my work shoes the next morning.

[FIREWALL]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

TBH I don't know if I'll do anything more this weekend - tomorrow's jam-packed and Sunday will be everyday chores like laundry and groceries. But I can take it really slow now, because finishing the new build will eventually mean pulling some parts out of the current rig, which I'm not planning to do yet. I'll probably leave that until I have plenty of time to do all that and then get the new computer set up in the old one's place, which will mean moving a lot of stuff off my desk and getting all the cords and cables sorted and then putting everything back. That's a big job and not one that I can do in fits and starts if I have to be stepping over and around a lot of piled up stuff just to manage my normal workday routine. I have a whole network of shelves and hutches built up over my desk and everything will have to come off them so I can pull the desk out enough to work behind it. If I don't clear the shelves I end up with a constant stream of disgruntled action figures raining down on my head while I'm trying to work.

But I am taking off work the week of Labor Day, plus I'll have the weekend before and after. That was when I was originally planning to get it all ready to go anyway, so I'm actually ahead of schedule. And that will be a long stretch where I can make an ungodly mess in here and not have to worry about getting everything all put back and out of the way so I can find my work shoes the next morning.

I think you made a very wise decision. I know getting that new rig up and running is an exciting and hard to resist feeling at any age.

But, doing it half arsed and having to empty shelves again so, you can pull out desk and get at computer to find out what wasn't plugged in tight or what ever.

I want you, even with small setback that you overcame To know that great feeling of accomplishment all us selfbuilders feel the first build.

And you'll definitely know your rig better than if some shop did it.

And they've made mistakes that a member posted here and he didn't get so much as a sorry about that. He since has become a self builder starting , with upgrades and then plunged in and, like yourself built a new one.

We'll and I will look forwards for updates around Labor Day. ...

Regards FIREWALL

[frau kaleun]

Thanks.

One thing I can do is uninstall the voice/fax modem from this rig and take the card out and put it in the other one. I only keep it as a a backup in case my hi-speed service goes out... it's through the phone company so a dial-up account is thrown in for free and I like to have that option available just in case. In the new rig the card will sit at the bottom of the board just below a gfx card, one of which I have free and can put in place but I'd rather get the little card in there first since with the bottom-mounted PSU trying to squeeze it in between that and the gfx card later doesn't look like much fun.

But for now it will have to wait, was out all day yesterday and am still playing catch-up today on normal household chores. Ugh.

[frau kaleun]

I now have all the expansion cards in the new case... backup dial-up modem, sound card, and both gfx cards. I've been uninstalling the ones that came out of this rig and removing them bit by bit. Got the old HD4650 back in this rig, which is the card that came preinstalled on it, and reverted back to the onboard audio so I can still listen to Ludwig for the time being.

Also got the memory sticks in. Now it's just drives and cable management, for which I'll need some additional accessories, and making a decision on extra fans. Oh and whether or not to stick something like extra USB ports into one of the 3.5 slots. Then I think I'm done with the hardware business.

And now, a question:

I need to know how to set up the Crossfire on the dual 5770s in the new rig. There are two of the little "tabs" on each card where a Crossfire cable could be used to connect them, but I don't know if that means I use both cables I have (one came with each card) or just use one of them.

I have looked on line and can't find anything that answers the question definitively. One thing says you need one cable for each card being connected, which would mean I use both cables and both sets of "tabs."

Another source has a picture showing only one Crossfire cable connecting the two cards.

None of the documentation I have for the 5770s answers the question either, the pictures in the manual I found online for them makes it look like it should only be one Crossfire cable but then it also shows BOTH power cables being plugged into the same card, which is not only physically impossible as far as I can see but is also contradicted by written instructions found elsewhere.

So - I iz cornfused.

[Arclight]

You only need 1, but some claim having both bridges connected gives a minor performance boost.

Basically 1 bridge per pair. If you had 3, I guess you would have a bridge from the center card to each of its neighbors.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Arclight

You only need 1, but some claim having both bridges connected gives a minor performance boost.

Basically 1 bridge per pair. If you had 3, I guess you would have a bridge from the center card to each of its neighbors.

Thank you. Sounds like you could do one or both, one is probably sufficient but two doesn't hurt anything. I guess that explains all the conflicting info I found.

I still can't get over the picture in the manual for the card that shows two power cables plugged into one card. After seeing that, I didn't really want to trust anything else that it said.

[Arclight]

Been reading a bit as well, and it's indeed rather confusing.

What it comes down to though, is that 2 bridges provide more bandwith than 1, so technically it can't hurt and should improve performance (at least in cases where 1 bridge would not provide enough bandwith).

Some report issues with 2 bridges though. If you experience something like "texture flashing" or general instability, try running with 1 bridge and see if that solves the problem.

[frau kaleun]

Well, that's good to know.

I figure I'll start with two and see what happens. If nothing else having both of them hooked up will give me one less little piece of something that I have to stow somewhere.

[frau kaleun]

Okay, another question!

For a couple of the case fans I want to use a variable airflow/RPM fan that will push more or less air depending on what's needed at any given moment, since the mobo already has headers in place that will allow this. It recommends connecting the rear (exhaust) fan that way, but I would also like to have an intake fan that does the same.

My choices are: the front intake fan, which pulls air into the case over the HDD bays, or one of the side fans that will pull air in over top of the PSU and onto the GPUs.

The HDD bay is sideways, although vented, if that matters. I don't know if that would mean that the extra potential air flow coming in that way would be advisable, or just wasted in terms of what it does for the rest of the interior. And I do like the idea of a side fan that would potentially push more cool air over the GPUs when needed.

Either way there will still be a fan in both spots (and a total of two blowing in from the side), I'm just curious as to which spot would be most advantageous for a variable fan.

[Arclight]

To the best of my knowledge, most if not all boards only feature a 4-pin PWM connecter where the CPU fan is supposed to go. Aren't you normally forced to use a fan controller for normal 3-pin fans?

That said, Arctic Cooling has fans that feature PST (PWM Sharing Technology), which is fancy bullocks for having both a female and male PWM connector on the same cable, allowing you to daisy-chain PWM fans. I've got one of their fans with another PWM fan on the CPU cooler, both RPM controlled.

At any rate, I'd go with the side-fan. It probably takes its cue from CPU temp; seems the side-fan is in the best position to help aleviate that. Also ensures that you have sufficient cooling over the HDs at all times, which don't have any other form of cooling otherwise, unlike a CPU or GFX card.