The (new) Official PC building thread!

any of the above mentioned mobo's will do. here are the features I like on the rampage formula and why I chose it:

firstly and most important to me: the bios. I'm an OC'er as most of you know

second: the included supreme II audio card.

third: the 3 usb headers. I had to have 3 and explained why in my previous post.

forth: the large heatsinks. I didn't want to be required to add NB, SB fans.

fifth: the 7 mobo controlled fan headers. most I have seen on any mobo. I'm using 6 of them.

and sixth: the LED poster. I could take or leave this but it does look cool and gives you an error code in the event something goes wrong.

I'm hooked on modular power supplies now and won't use anything else for my own builds. neat and tidy. there's enough wires in a computer case already without having a bunch of unused power connectors to tie up and stuff out of the way.

ok that's my reasoning and preferances. if anybody finds it useful great. if not, then no skin off back.

 

abuzar: I'm running my fan at it's highest, which is about 1500 RPM. But it still stays at 34-35C. Could it have anything to do with my high system temperature (which is about 46-47C)??

 

Your system temps are your northbridge temps. How hot is your room?

 

abuzar1..I looked at that board it doesn't have enough PCI16 SLOTS, only 1, I prefer 2 along with 2 PCI, and the rest what ever. Everything else looks great. Got another MOBO U CAN suggest

bigwill68..I use AVI ReCOMP, Auto GK, ConvertX, CCE, Quite a bit. As well as D/Ling, Plus Rip about 6 to 10 DVDs a day, all at the same time I've MAXed out my 2.66 quite a bit
I noticed quite a difference in the Quad Core 2.44 when I built a unit for my Son-In-Law. It was definetly 3 times faster on a one to one basis.
How about U there bigwill68, Got a suggestion on a good MOBO

 

Rick, why do you need two PCI-16 slots? Those are used for graphics card. You aren't a gamer, so you shouldn't need more than one.

 

rick,

tell us what you want/need. for example do you want to be able to control your case fan speeds through the mobo? how many SATA and usb connectors do you want/need?

 

abuzar: Thermometer reads about 78-80F in my room...I know, it's hot.

 

Then that's why your temps are high. 9C over room temps is not that bad, considering your room is so hot.

 

abuzar1..TV card Plus Video card

Mort81..The more external USB the better I can get by on 6 SATA, with 1 IDE.But prefer 8.See right now I've got 6 and using them all, I've got an IDE HDD on one of them. I know I can add a USB card, But I don't really like doing that, on an older system I had to add an IDE CARD, that was OK
I've got a lot of external crap internet Telephone, 2 printers, 2 HDD, Macrovision Killer
Don't need fan controls

 

I think TV cards use regular PCI, no?

 

Yeah, I checked and I didn't find any x16 PCI-E TV cards. I found PCI, USB, and x1 PCI-E. You should be good.

 

Hey abuzar, really quick, there are three different torture test options. Which one should I choose?

Thanks for all your help, by the way.

 

mrk44,

I never see any temperature change between 2.66 and 3.5GHz. The temps stay about the same. It was the same way with my E4300, very little temperature difference between OC'd and not!

rick5446,
The GA-X48-DS4 would be your best all around choice for that CPU, and if you did decide to overclock it some day, it has almost the same bells and whistles as the Rampage Formula. I know because I downloaded both manuals and compared their sdjustments and settings. You will find that overclocking very much affects Encoding times, so it's something to give a thought to in the future, even if just a mild OC! Also the Q9450 is reported to run very well in that MB and X48-DS4 is all ready for the next generation CPUs, making it more future proof. The GA-P35-DS3R is a great MB but not near as future proof and the X48 chipset is better with that CPU!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

OK, I tried to OC...I enabled OC in BIOS, changed FSB to 375 x 8 for 3GHz, set voltages to auto to optimize them.....and my computer rebooted a couple times, disabled the OC, and went back to default clocks when I checked in BIOS again....
Can anyone tell me what happened?

 

mrk44,

First thing you need to do in this instance is go into the setup/PC Health and see what the CPU and Memory Voltages are at. It took me +4 to hit the stock memory voltage of 2.1v I'll bet at least one of them is too low! I would set the CPU to about 1.32 or around there. My rule of thumb is that I don't exceed 1.35v, no matter what with the 45nm chips! No comments please, troops! It's just my rule of thumb, and I stick by it!

Then you go down to the memory and change the memory from auto to manual and set the first 4 settings to your memory's timings, like mine is 5-5-5-15. Set the memory multiplier to 2.0 for now and boot it up! It should boot right up at those settings.

BTW rick, you can confirm the new voltage settings without having to go into windows. When you save the changes and the computer re-boots, just hit the delete key to get into the setup again at the post. All the changes you made you set will be confirmed in the set up and you can see if you need more memory voltage and let you know if you have to raise the voltages anymore. Don't be afraid of the red flashing thing. It's not an actual warning other than as a message. It takes me a +5 setting to get a hair under 2.2v, which is overvolted by 0.1v. The Dominators run barely warm to the touch anyway and they don't feel any hotter at 2.2v! I have an occasional re-boot problem and I figured I would try it with a little more voltage on the memory and see if it repeats itself again. If that doesn't work I'll lower the memory back to 2.1v and increase the CPU voltage up one click. I had been lowering it one click at a time and then using it. I'm at 1.30-1.44v. I suspect I may have to raise it just a bit.

Anyway, give that a try and I'm sure it will boot right up!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

hey ppl

as some of your prob know my pc died recently. I was about quite old so i'm bothering spending any money on it.
I'm now looking to getting one of mates build me a new one.
I'd like to get a few ideas off you guys as to what spec I should have on it. My budget is about £500-£600.
I want it to be fast, big ram, good graphic & sound cards, used for home computing, downloading games, music, etc

 

theonejrs: My memory voltage is already at 2.1v and my CPU was at 1.30v. And I think you were talking about this earlier...should I set the memory multiplier to 2.0A, 2.0B, 2.0C, or 2.0D?

And by the way, if it doesn't post, will it go back to default settings and turn on again? I don't wanna screw anything up here.

 

mrk44,

2.0B should be the 1066 bootstrap!!

You can't hurt anything so don't worry about it. If it doesn't boot it will reset the cpu and memory to Auto, that's all! Give it about 1.32 on the CPU volts and it should boot unless you have more than 2 sticks of memory in it! Be sure the CPU plug is plugged into the MB!

Best Regards,
Russ