The (new) Official PC building thread!

Hey all if anyone cares I finally have my problems sorted with my Gigabyte EX38-DS4 board!
I took all USB and SATA connectors out of the board, jumpered CMOS and set everything in setup to optimized default. Only Video card and a stick of memory in. I was able to boot up with the CPU clock control enabled whereas I couldnt even turn it on previously at stock let alone OC something.
After adding 1 item at a time (boot drive 1st) 4 HDD and my 3 internal USB devices nothing failed and I was happy. Played with the clock speed finally and even got a little OC boost. I ran Everest and CPU-Z checks, I thought I was set! Planned on running stress tests after I finished up.
I hooked up my 2 Optical drives http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106070
and everything died and reverted back to stock settings. It was the Liteys all along for some weird reason not playing with the board and keeping me from manual clock settings.
I've used the burners for a few discs, and they booktype and burn well but a little noisy. Anyway, strange that they all worked fine given the problems it sent me.
There is a happy ending even! A week after I built this machine I told myself "Self, I wish I'd have put these Litey SATA ODD's in your older AMD OPTY & ASUS machine and put your IDE BenQ 1640 and 1650 in your new build" I did that, and the Asus board loves those offending drives while my new board loves the Benqs.
Now Everest shows between 30-35C on all 4 cores running 3.36MHz (420x8, stock is 333x8). I boost CPU volts about .04v to 1.24v so I think that is fine. I really havent dug in and seen how far it'll go; only seen how far I could push without setting that CPU voltage, then bumped it up to get her running.
Has anyone ever had problems like this?

 

Not specifically, I mean I don't even use a CD drive at all at the moment, but I remember someone saying using two drives on the same channel seems to mess with the stability of Asus boards a while back, so IDE connectors do presumably have something to do with the stability of motherboards, presumably still the case.

 

shaffaaf,

I never said anything like that so I guess it's not my post you're referring to!

I wouldn't go so far as to call it a Myth! Many companies do things like that all the time. Totally useless stuff that really shouldn't be built. Very good in the "rah rah" department, but of little real use or value because the cost is too prohibitive. Companies do that all the time just to show their prowess, more often when they are going through change or difficult times. Just to have their name out there for everyone to see so they are perceived as doing all right and to spook their competition! Asus should have spent all that money on developing the Striker Extreme II instead! It would have been a much more intelligent project to spend all those wasted big dollars on!

As of 3 January 2008, Asus has been in the process of restructuring its operations. The company will be split into three distinct operational units: ASUS, Pegatron, and Unihan. The Asus brand will be used solely for first party branded computers. Pegatron will handle motherboard and component OEM manufacturing. Unihan will focus on non-PC manufacturing such as cases and molding. In the process of restructuring, the highly criticized pension plan restructuring effectively zeroed out the current pension balances. Previous employee contributions were returned.

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Deadrum,

Hell yeah! I care! LOL!! Glad to hear things are looking up!

Are you by any chance running RAID? Because if you are or are set up for it later using the settings in the bios, Sata Optical drives are not supported in RAID and can cause all sorts of grief because of that. No Conflict with the IDEs though! That's one of the reasons I continue to use PATA. I plan to use some sort of RAID in the near future so that's another reason to skip the Satas!

sammorris,
I personally think the different channels for optical IDE (PATA) drives are a myth myself. I've never seen any difference in performance either way and I've never had any problems with them on Asus MBs. I have seen 2 drives that didn't like one another (weren't compatible) that wouldn't run on the same channel, but that's it!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Decent motherboards like the P35-DS3R have isolated sets of ports anyway so you can use S-ATA ports without worrying about the RAID. Personally I think RAID is best left to a proper RAID card.

 

IDE ODD's are all I have and have ever used and all I have at the moment. always 2 drives per IDE cable. master and slave configuration. that applys to every make and model mobo I have ever had. never had a problem.

I never have used a SATA ODD, not that I won't in the future as IDE becomes obsolete but if the mobo has IDE, they might as well be used for ODD's and save the SATA's for HDD's. ODD's don't really benefit from SATA, where the HDD's can.

deadrum,

glad to hear you got it all figured out and things are looking up. must be one of those fluke deals with your ODD's. good luck. I for one want to see what that Q9450 is capable of.

apparently your asus mobo isn't particular about which ODD interface you use where as your gigabyte mobo is. all that matters is that you got everything sorted and all is well.

 

Mort81,

I doubt that it has anything to do with the motherboard, regardless of who made it! On my Asus P4P800 SE and the P5P800 SE, both had a problem with my IDE optical drives. One was a BNG and the other an Emprex. The computer would only boot up if the Emprex was the slave. CS wouldn't work either. It would just hang during the addressing and just sit there with the cursor blinking for 10 minutes or so before finally booting up unless the Emprex was the slave. If the Emprex was used by itself, it worked either way! I certainly can't fault my Asus MB for that. They did work correctly on a BioStar TForce 6100 AMD Board though, but then it's different hardware too! Maybe a change in Firmware might have helped too! Who knows!

The people today that build computers know very little compared to the knowledge it took just to get a CD-Rom to play a CD back in the old days! And today you usually don't really need to know anything, what with Plug and Play. You install the drive, XP installs it and it usually works! In the old days we used to have to use a text editor and create files with all the drive parameters and paths, all in perfect DOS Syntax and install them in the Config.Sys and Autoexec.bat or the computer wouldn't even run!

Look at all the different memory incompatibilities with different motherboards today! There you have to fault the motherboard for the most part, at least as far as good memory goes. More than likely it's the bios and a future flash will fix it! Memory has to adhere to some pretty strict rules just to meet the present standards!

To me it's amazing that a computer even runs! LOL!! Given all the different component manufacturers, and all being pretty much left alone and yet they're expected to conform perfectly to the standards of the day. Look at all the companies that nVidia went after for claiming their video cards were compatible with SLI and weren't! I wonder how many people blamed their MB because their SLI wouldn't do what it was supposed to do!

Consider what just recently happened to me, where I was ready to send my MB back to GigaByte because the general consensus was there was a problem with the Northbridge! Even after I asked about the possibility of the problem being caused by the bios flash, back to F-10 from F-11, they all suggested that I try flashing it back, but I doubt any of them thought it would do any good. To me, it was simply worth a try! Turns out it was something in the F-10 bios causing the problem. Had I just gone ahead and sent the board, I could just as easily been having an adventure just like cincyrob had, right now!

You just never know for sure what hardware will cause problems. By saying that the Asus MB was less particular than the Gigabyte to my mind's eye means that perhaps Gigabyte adheres more closely to the set standards than Asus does, and is less forgiving because of it! It just depends on how you want to look at it!


Best Regards,
Russ

 

made about as much sense as that. I was not bashing anybody or anything. I was only going by what Deadrum said.

I get tired of asus getting put in there everytime there's a problem with a mobo. asus still has the biggest share of the market and there is a reason for that. asus makes some of the best mobo's out there, if not the best. too bad everybody can't afford a top end asus intel based mobo. they would never use anything else. I'm glad you GB fanboys are happy. you don't know what you are missing. yes my attitude sucks today!

 

Yes Russ, nice link..

sammy I'm not sure how funny it is that a company is loosing market share... We all know it's a fact of business when someone (in this case DFI & GB) builds a good product that is superior/cheaper/more efficient or whatever the reason is that steals those shares.... Are DFI & GB stealing the UPPER end ASUS products or just the lower end ASUS products or maybe even a combo.. Also is it due to the nVidia chipset?? I've got lots of questions that I need to research obviously and I hope you're asking some of the same questions...

We all know how much you LOVE ASUS but you shouldn't let your bad fortune taint everyone else's experience!! There's plenty of people that have had good luck with them... heck there's even plenty of people that have had good luck and bad luck with GB!! lol. I haven't heard a lot about the particulars of the change that is taking place in the buyers market but I would venture a guess that the TRUE (REAL) OC'er is still using ASUS or DFI...

I'm still on board with a DFI purchase if it comes down to it... I just want to try something different... I'm funny that way... now that's funny...

I think all this "bickering" over who makes the best mobo is quite silly, especially among grown men. As you all know there will always be preferences when it comes to retail products... DOESN'T matter what it is....

NOW why don't we just get back to helping and guiding the less fortunate like myself when it comes to BUILDING a PC not which motherboard we/you like better!!!!

Sorry for the RANT like post but GEEZ haven't you guys had enough???

....gm

add: this applies to all NOT just sammy... i took his quote and it seems completely directed at him...

 

Whatever, ASUS, Gigabyte, and DFI all suck!

Intel boxed motherboards rock my world!!!

 

Sigh, well I tried to word all my recent posts in such a way that would avoid all this happening again, I guess it didn't work.

 

GM,

You will be a DFI nut soon !!!!
Long time between drinks EH? Guys.
Been keeping up with the thread but have'nt posted for some time as Iv'e been busy with family stuff and my new hobby !!!R/C planes.I'm still learning but have'nt crashed yet.I'm hoping to upgrade the P/C this time next year,(original plan was this year )But hey,this time next year maybe AMD will have something to offer???(Don't hold your breath!!LOL!!!)I'll just be lurking for now!!....All the best guys..
Regards,crowy..

 

Thanks for stopping by crowy, how you doing? A pity you've landed in this debacle, but hey.

 

Hi Sam,good to talk again my friend!!

Hows the weather in your part of the world??
Here is nearly winter so not much rain but frost at night.Temps are around 6-8 degrees c right now at night.Days are around 20 degrees c.(just right.)Anyway enough off topic talk!!

Sam,A Mod will appear soon I'm sure!!!!

 

Weather's not been too bad of late, a bit cloudy until recently but it's relatively sunny today - between 15 and 18C during the day, drops down to about 5C at night. We had temps in the mid 20s last week which was nice...

 

you are so right Russ. i know i bit off more than i can chew doing this.I dont have half the knowledge needed to really understand what is what. the plug in play is very nice and easy.lol but its a good learning experience.

im not sure if its the motherboards fault or not with the memory. just in my case it seems that the only memory that doesnt work is the CRUCIAL 1066 and then thats the single sided mem not the double sided. i could see if the boards had problems with more than 1 specific type of mem then yea you could blame the board.
just look at what the crucial people told me. the 1066 mem is haveing problems with the P35chipset boards. not just gigagybte but ASUS and DFI as well.

to me it seems that with all these different parts needed you are going to have issues with one or the other working together. just like you said russ compatibility is the thing.

i cant say im a fanboy of one or the other board. i have only had 1. well 1 that i have built but i do know i wont ever buy crucial mem again.. PERIOD!!!!

got a email from crucial. my mem was sent out last night 3 day shipping so i should have it all by friday... once again like a kid in a candy store...lol

 

See that's it, normal initiative teaches me to not buy something after I've had a certain amount of grief with it - two premature failures and that brand's out! That would put Epson, Acer/Benq and Asus on that list at the very least.

 

crowy,
Nice to see you drop by mate... I'm afraid to buy a DFI just for that reason.... lol. They're not cheap, which is ok, but I'll have to give them a try sooner or later. Don't be a stranger and drop into the debacle any ole time...

sammy,
NOT picking on you and I stated that. I just want us ALL to see each other's ideas and accept them as they are. We know you don't like ASUS, that's fine and dandy. I don't like BENQ, which is a sin to say in open forum. lol. Anyway with your experiences I can see why, same with Russ. But it doesn't mean they all suxor. Which you've defended in the past. So good for you.

Abuzar,
You're just plain insane!!!

Morty,
Get it fixed!! Bad attitude and GREAT computer don't mix.... hehehe.

Roberto,
You excited yet?? I would be... basically getting to build your computer from scratch again.... hehehe. BETTER luck this time... have you or are you gonna buy NEW RAM?? I think you'll be ok with the Crucial DDR2 800 stuff.... *crosses fingers*

/me steps back for a day or so.... you guys have fun and work it out...

....gm

 

Lol Gm, actually I don't like Benq either...
As for not liking Asus, I'm trying to state the fact that I only dislike their midrange stuff, but it doesn't seem to be getting through,

 

once again russ you take something good about asus and spin it against them.

sam is open minded and i like that about him.

and yes i prefer asus over most, but that doesnt mean i dont like GB, just because i had 3 bad mobos, doesnt mean i wont use them again, or recomend them. hell if they bring a bios and stability like ASUS's at their prices i probably wont look back at ASUS.

they have had a brilliant piece of engineering and yet you slate them for not puting effort into the Striker Extreme II.

once again the Nvidia Chipest causes the instabilities. there is a reason why GB decided not to go there. they are willing not to risk it. and well done to them, but there is a market for it, and these people know about the unstabilities, but SLI is more important, and so ASUS want to capture the market.

You / Your mates shoudl have known about these problems before buying it, if not, then you shouldnt be buying products you dont research first.