The Official PC building thread -3rd Edition

It looks like ONLY the reset switch was sticking. Something that will probably never be used. I'm gonna slap the front face back on, and see if it still works properly. Then, i'll consider calling up CM Sucker is sure quiet! Even with the front and side panel off, it barely lets out a slight buzzing sound. Very efficient design. Picked it up for 30$ too

M$ should be ashamed. The Windows 7 Home premium disc came in its case upside down! The data side had grit and foreign materials on it. As well as a scuff mark. I kind of chuckled about it. Apparently it works though, so no big deal.

Which is exactly why backing up discs should not be discouraged!

 

Oman7,
Yes, that style of case cools very well. It's very similar to my Centurion 534 and almost exact in cooling. Your HDD bays are N/S, while mine are E/W. Other than that and mine having 1 more Optical drive bay, they are identical in every other respect! They are very quiet cases! If you feel the need to replace it take a look at the Centurion 534. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119106
Probably wouldn't do for you as there are only 3 E/W HDD bays and 1 N/S. You are absolutely right about how quiet they are too! I have 5 case fans in mine, and even with the cover open, it's still very quiet, and it's only 2.5' away from my right ear, and the front (where there's two fans) is only 1.5' away. I can hear Oxi-II, Which has a higher speed 80mm in the back, while I'm sitting right in front of mine! Oxi-II is about 30' away from mine, and is a bit annoying to listen to. I'll be replacing the 80mm and the 50mm I put on the southbridge heatsink with something that moves as much air, but quieter!

Happy New Year,
Russ

 

I put the face panel back on. Something about the design(or faulty switch) causes the reset switch to fowl up. Perhaps the area on the face panel is ever so slightly pushing on the reset switch. Something tells me they wouldn't make a mistake in the design though. It probably is a faulty switch. I'm just gonna deny the reset switch power, and be done with it. The switch is so small, a person requires a friggin paperclip to push it anyway. She'll never use it!

Running perfectly without the reset switch Now to install all of those wonderful drivers.

 

It's always the simple stuff that baffles us. Good on you Oman7 for figuring it out. INSTALL away....

 

GM,
This is just an example of something simple that can throw you a curve! Many Dell computers have an OS Install Mode in the setup. You have to set it to that Mode whenever you install an OS. After install is complete, it will not boot up until you turn the Install OS Mode off! Drove me crazy on my Dell Dimension 3000! Like you say, it's always the simple stuff!

Happy New Year,
Russ

 

^ sounds like another reason not to buy dell to me

Congrats oman7, glad you solved your problem. My next move is going to be getting new sata cables, try something simple as I've done just about everything else lol.

 

Windows 7 surprised me. Where my GTX 260 Nvidia card would run normally at first startup, her Ati 4200 Onboard could not run either aero or Max resolution at all. I thought that windows 7's video drivers were more universal than that. Ah well. Problem solved with Ati drivers 9.12 Audio is good enough on the Asus monitor, picture looks good. Seems to be running smooth. But I can't get it online yet. She still has to clear out her office. Which is all fine and good. Gives the board and other components time to fowl up before activating windows 7. I can just see activating it, and have the Mobo go out. I'm sure M$ would look at me funny installing their OS on another board Sure is a shame they don't simply allow 3-5 Pc's on one key...Like a few of my programs. E.g. Rebuilder.

 

I'll be busy later, If you know what I mean So...

Happy new year AfterDawn

 

Happy New Year everyone.

 

Haha same back Happy New Year all!

 

Happy New Years all!!, this may be the year i update my PC and then again maybe not. BTW is/will Windows 7 going to give me any problems if i load it? DVD burning software conflits etc?

 

When windows 7 first hit the web, I embraced the change almost fully. I had a secondary running xp, due to a printer issue. But that problem has been resolved. And i've been burning discs throughout. Virtually zero coasters that were not my on fault I would give windows 7 an all around 95% efficiency score. Almost no troubles. When people complain about software error, shouldn't they be pointing their fingers at the source? Before my last reformat, I had a problem with more than one piece of adobe software. Their PDF reader(Version 8) which I suppose is outdated. As well as Photoshop. I believed it to be due to a common file that both programs used. I have my reasons for reformatting I do it fairly regularly...

 

byebye intel SSDs

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3702

 

Yeah but is the interface SATA2, SATA3, miniSATA or what?

 

sadly bottlenecked by sata 2 but this is pre production. And its amazing to see it topping the intel x25-e slc drives, with this only being mlc.another superb ssd review by anand. IMO he is the best ssd reviewer that I know of on the web

 

Well then, I'll just buy up a half dozen of those bad boys

I'll likely be buying 2 or three SSD's come tax return time. Not sure which ones yet. But I have time to weigh price/performance/Capacity options For my OS drive, its gonna need to equal at least 150Gb. And that is rapidly becoming small. I'll likely choose the best rated meeting my criteria, and raid 0 them I don't worry so much about a raid failure. I reformat close to once a month anyway. I'll also be buying the retail Windows 7 Professional or ultimate. Haven't decided which yet...

 

Deadrum,
After carefully studying the article, I get the impression that there will at least be a Sata 6.0GB/s model, because they indicated in the article that all that was holding it back was the lack of a Sata 6.0GB/s on the motherboard. Since some of the new motherboards are just now incorporating Sata 6.0, as they call it in the specs, to new motherboards, I guess we'll have to wait and see what SandForce does with the technology. Truthfully, I think it's what SandForce has been waiting for, perhaps even the reason for the delays in the Vertex 2, getting to market! As near as I can figure it, The Vertex 2 should benefit from the Sata 6.0's ability to move data faster internally, especially considering there should be a pretty good increase in the overall bandwidth! Like I said, time will tell!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Well I have very little experience with SSDs but I've noticed an interesting pattern. A single SSD is just fine on SATA 3.0Gb/s even with other regular HDDs.

It's when you use multiple SSDs that SATA 3.0Gb/s becomes a bottleneck. When I buy my first SSD it WILL be going in as a purely OS drive and probably on SATA 3.0Gb/s. When the technology catches on more I will make the transition to SATA 6.0Gb/s but not until multiple drives are within my budget.

I know a lot of Windows users reformat as a regular ritual. But I make an active effort to keep my Windows installs clean and tidy. I've been running the same copy of XP-Pro on my server rig for 2 years straight now practically 24/7 and it runs and benches like the day it was new.

I tend only to reformat when a hardware change calls for it. Even then it's usually as simple as cleaning out the old drivers in safe mode and installing the new ones. There have very few times where I have felt the need to reformat.

 

I'm afraid I can't answer that question in a thread like this one. Yes, it's despicable. It's not something I plan on doing forever. Finances...

I think i'm leaning toward Professional. I can't see myself using Bitlocker or the other languages pack. They should have put something more tempting on the ultimate version. E.g. Naturally speaking software Theirs doesn't do too bad. I think Dragon Naturally speaking was at least a little better though...