The (new) Official PC building thread!

Will did you get an answer to your problem? I let the other guys look at this for a while and just had to post something about it. lol. I had an epiphany really. You said that 320 drive was in your other computer and had an OS installed right?? If that's the case then the NEW build will not see the partition with the OLD OS on it if you're using the 320 for an OS drive. (unless it will let you boot from it...which it may not) If you stick the drive in as a slave what happens? It should be recognized as 320 even with the OS installed as long as your OS is on another drive. Are you confused yet?? lol. I've looked at a few of my friends drives that had a similar problem and my computer saw the partitions just fine but I had them in as SLAVE!! Maybe this will answer some questions.

NOW if you just want Win XP to see the drive as 320 then do as abuzar mentioned. You have to use a install disc with at least SP2 on it!! I guarantee it. lol. Had an issue with that before. Had to "borrow" an install disc with SP2 on it to format the danged drive at the FULL capacity. ;D

hth.....

....gm

 

greensman,
Don't forget that fat32 uses an active partition, where NTFS doesn't! That's why a 98 boot disk shows no partitions on any NTFS drives!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

No, they're figures I came up with subjectively. They're not measured using high end test equipment, so for that I apologise, but comparing them myself with my PCs off, and no outside noise, using a few different 'to hand' methods, literally.
As for the anechoic chamber, I know it's proper test apparatus, but 26.3dB at 1600rpm? I'm not sure how that machine's calibrated but from what I remember hearing, 30dB was a whisper. You have to talk at normal volume to be able to hear over the din the FM121 makes at 1600. Don't get me wrong, it pushes a lot of air, but it's not quiet, nowhere near it. It's barely any quieter than my Thunderblade.

The ambient noise is very low in my room, but it's the ambient noise I'm used to. "Peace and quiet" can't be achieved realistically in my room using FM121s, they're just not quiet enough - to get my PC to the ideal noise level it's at now, the FM121s have to spin so slowly (c. 450rpm) that they're not powerful enough to keep my PC cool when playing games.
I seem to remember you saying you had a 60mm fan at 3000rpm to keep your chipset cool, is that right? The 40mm fan on my server's GPU (since removed) was 4400rpm. High, but it was a tiny fan. Nonetheless that bugged the hell out of me and had to be removed.

 

Russ I may have made some incorrect assumptions...lol. But who uses fat32 for normal computers nowadays. Well XP and beyond that is. ;P I hope he had NTFS formated drives, because if NOT then he'll have to, to do what he wants.

sam at least you've tried to use "real world" experience here. I'll be checking out my fans later this evening I hope. Like I said I'm excited about this new build and everything that's goin into it. ;D FANS included you noise obsessed little git....

...gm

 

Most external hard drives, would you believe.

 

sammorris,

I have a 40mm 6 cfm Silenx blowing down into the heatsink!

I'll tell you what! There's over $25,000 of equipment hooked to this thing and the guy that does the testing is so good he can look at the readings on the digital scope and tell you what's wrong! It's also calibrated daily at 7 AM, when he is the only person in the building and no machinery is running! Actually 30dBA is far from a whisper! Even in a quiet room at 2 AM in the country it would be difficult to get below about 18 dBA. normal ambient sound levels around these parts is about 31-46 dBA, except during rush hour where it's as high as 41-52 dBA!

We both know that Aluminum cases have different sound characteristics than steel. I firmly believe that the harder steel cases do better because it's more ridged than Aluminum! You've heard my sound bytes, so you know that my computer is reasonably quite, given the amount of airflow. I couldn't sleep in the room with the computer on when I had just the one Thunderblade installed! With both Silverstones, it's not dead silent like yours is for sure, but it doesn't disturb my sleep either. I also don't need a huge, heavy $60 CPU cooler to keep my temps low. A large portion of the noise it does make once you are 5' or more from the computer is the airflow! I'm going to take a hard look at the case mods they performed at the office and I may well cut the case grilles out and install wire guards instead. The hard part will be the side air vent as it's rectangular.

BTW! Here is a study from Glendora CA on sound levels. Not too hard to figure that the majority of the noise is the freeways, which are now being walled in to cut down the noise! LOL!!
http://shatteredpeace.com/noise_base_level.htm
Loud SOB, ain't it! LOL!!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Yep that's the way one of my SATA drives is hooked up out at work. A back up drive that is removable. Rhino or something like that....NOT in front of me right now....

I'm n00bish here but we were talking about a fresh install of XP on an internal drive on a 320GB drive to be exact. I think that NTFS offers more for the computer user than FAT32 in this case. right or wrong? Like I said....I'm n00bish here. ;P

...gm

 

the side that he had that was showing was the side he was able to wipe clean(it had the old OS on it) the side that it wasntshowing just had some movies stored on it....

he used killdisc like theonejr mention'd and he now has all 320gb.
he has the version 1.1 of this board i think this might be his problem now. it wont recognise the floppy drive. and is have boot problems....he is over at microcenter now tryng to find out if he can get version 2.1 in replace this version he has now... he might have to deal with gigabyte in itself to get that done.

when im ableto order my board (and i want this board also)is there away i can makesure i get version2.1?

 

Cutting out the stamped grills...makes all the difference in the world...
I wish all grills...were the wire type...I Hate Stamped fan grills...
Cut them out and you will notice the difference...

 

cincyrob,
the revision number of the motherboard has nothing to do with the motherboard's ability to see the drives. If he's flashed the bios like most un-knowing people do and then didn't clear it after the flash, lots of things won't work properly! never upgrade the bios unless you have a need that the newer bios revision fulfills! Upgrading the bios just to have the latest revision is not necessary and in most cases not desirable and can cause problems!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

@theonejr

i dont think he flashed the board at all. we were just reading about the board and alot of people said they had problems wit hthe first version thats all

from what he has told me the only thing he has done in the bios is makesure everything is set where they need be and change his boot order, what boots first( his sata hdd)

 

Glad he's getting it worked out.

btw I was looking at the P35-DS3R NOT P35C-DS3R......I personally don't see the need for having the ability to use DDR3 RAM in the future besides there's only 2 slots and you WILL NOT be able to use both DDR2 and DDR3 at the same time. (from what i read anyway) You or he or me or anyone will be willing to BUILD another system when DDR3 RAM is affordable enough. lol..... ;p

The difference between Ver 1 and 2 from what I've read is ver 1 has the parallel port (for a printer) while ver 2 has more USB "ports". I was gonna say look at the picture at the EGG but they don't have a pic up for some reason.

Went to ZZF and they seem to have ver 1 posted.

....gm

 

cincyrob,

I set my boot order to DVD-Rom, Floppy and then Hard drive. Takes about a second longer but I can boot from anything without having to use the boot menu, which I only use for booting from a usb jump drive!

Be warned as far as the GA-P35C-DS3R goes. Revision 2.0 and above does not have a printer port. It is optional and can be purchased separately. I have one on mine for my old scanner. It plugs into a header on the MB!

See what the difference is here!
http://www.gigabyte-usa.com/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2642

Best Regards,
Russ

 

thats what im doing right now GM. the egg has the P35C version 1 shown.

will just got back from microcenter adn they have the version 2.0 over there and they told him to bring the old one back and they will swap it out for him..

you know i never thought about if you can use both ddr2 and ddr3 at the same time so i guess it really dont make sence to get the P35C unless you were going with that mem...

 

You know that I'm fairly new to this and have my own ideas about stuff. I would solicit Russ for ideas and advice. He's pretty smart even tho he's old enough to be our dad. hehehe. ;P

Like I said I just don't see the need to have a board that will run either DDR2 or DDR3 RAM but NOT both. (Russ am I right here...memory is kinda jumbled...NAM did it to me....lol) jm2c....

...gm

 

Nam huh? what your a month older than me and you were in Nam??????lmao

and no Nam isnt a laughing matter..


i just gotta put in my time and wait till i can get my stuff....lol

 

You know if you think about it even imagining DDR2 ram running along side DDR3 ram is stupid. Obviously if they are to run at the same time then it would have to run at DDR2 speeds. So then it's just DDR2 ram with extremely high latencies!

 

greensman,

It's the same MB I'm using and I love it! Based on the short experience I had with the Rev. 1.0, I would not buy any unless I could confirm that it's rev. 2.0 or the new 2.1!. With newegg, if you click on the manufacturers product page, the revision that comes up is usually what the product they are selling actually is! The fact that Newegg is in the process of replacing the picture would mean to me that you would get at least Rev. 2.0. which is fine! It's about damn time! I've been bitching to them about it for months! Revision 2.1 has more energy saving features!

He_Man,
Be warned that when you overclock and pass all the tests for stability, that you still may have to lower the overclock a bit when folding. Folding is the ultimate PC test for stability as any error at all will prevent the WU's from completing because the computation has to be 100% accurate for the results to be valid! Folding will show any flaw, where Orthos, Prime95 and OCCT won't!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

@Greensman

The problem is fixed last nite when..I got home with the help of (theonejrs) that program he told me to Download (Kill Disc)..Now the system knows it's there now..I was'nt trying to boot from it it's just a back up drive..I had DVD movies on it..I just wanted to clear the drive completely..I brought a new sata 160gb to put the OS on instead..my new case holds 6 hard drives.you have seen it b4 it's the clear see thru case with the blue led fans front,back & side got it from newegg..I'm returning the board tommorrow having problems with floppy boot..I double the bio's number of times..I got a bad board..It's the GA-P35C-DS3R Version 1.1 people saying they have alot a problems with 1.1 released May of 2007 the 2.0 was released Sept 2007 in the united states..i'm going traded back in 4 the 2.0 and hope this works the 2.1 will be out soon..I think there putting them out 4 months apart..lol

@theonejrs

Thanks for the help that did the trick brother..that program you gave me worked fine..

 

bigwill68,

Glad it all worked out for you, and your most welcome!

Best Regards,
Russ