The Official PC building thread -3rd Edition

Well...I'm having a doozy of a day LOL! I got my second machine back up and running. Installing some BD authoring capabilities, and moving back and forth between the two.
Installed a PCI-E Lan card, in one of the X1 slots. Oh yah, now I can really get some stuff done LOL! I installed it, booted back into windows lasted about 2 minutes, then the whole system froze. Powered down. Powered back up, and on attempting loading OS, it said the OS was missing. If I had a nickel for everytime...LOL!
I finally got into the bios, and it wasn't acknowledging the Velociraptor(OS), or another one of my Storage drives. My thoughts are that something may be wrong with the Sata 3 ports, or the NEC chip in general. NOT good!!! I don't know that the other drive was indeed the other on the NEC chip, But I would nearly bet on it. I'll know if it does it again.
I installed the LAN card right on top of the CMOS battery. So I made sure that it was properly seated, checked the sata cables, on the board and drives. Now it appears to be running fine. Hopefully just some strange fluke. I guess time will tell.
Now to try and run my Lan, FINALLY LOL!

 

Meh, I found XP easier for connecting two computers. Windows 7/Homegroup is a prick to say the least. Its not behaving anything like the tutorials. Its like it automatically joins, so I don't have to do it. And yet, I can't seem to share the root of a drive or folder. It never asked for the home group password either. Me and Lan's don't get along...

 

Oman7,
Talk to Sam. I think he has had an XP network. Not 100% sure though!

So, what do you think about my 2500 NB and HT link frequency? Still running great!

Russ

 

Good job russ Thats some serious numbers. My poor Phenom 940 is idling at 42C. And the 965's stock fan is running at 3500rpms. Which isn't max, but I believe its close. Which is fine, 3.5Ghz is probably all the 940 is ever gonna see. It has 4 ram modules, making any higher clocks nearly impossible
I feel like my head is gonna pop with this Homegroup BS! I would think it generally all automatic. Really jumping through some hoops on this. I'd like to just start fresh now from square one, but I'm not even sure how I'm gonna do that now

 

Oman7,
I kept on reading and so many people claimed that you can hit 2600MHz with the NB, but I wasn't sure what to do with the HT Link frequency. I tried it at 9x, so I said, "What the Hell", and bumped it to 10x as well. I wasn't surprised by the Memory Bandwidth, but I was sure surprised by the SuperPi 1M score. I may try and up the FSB another 7MHz and see if it will now run at 3.6GHz, but I'm going to wait at least a week and use it the way it is. So far there's been no issues at all. I did get a scare before when the Power went out. I was laying down with the lights off and suddenly the computer shut down. I had no idea that the power went out until it came back on and my Amo lit up and the Laser printer did a stir. I thought Oops, back to the drawing board again! LOL!!

What kind of case do you have for your computer? If you can give me a link, I may be able to make some suggestions to help your cooling. I'm generally pretty good at that!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

This is my secondaries case. Disregard the mobo, and PSU. They are no longer employed in it. The mobo is now my brothers HTPC
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856167009

 

For the Win7 networking, what is it you're trying to achieve? Networking two PCs together isn't especially hard assuming you're using a proper network, and not just a crossover.

 

Oman7,
No wonder it's running warm. The airflow blows (no offense)! Rear fan has an 80mm opening and a 120mm fan. Try putting an 80mm blowing in, in place of the air duct. The AMD cooler will like that. You could install a fan in the front, also blowing in, but I don't think that will help at all. The case's airflow is really bad! It's like the eMachine in many ways, but it's really only good for stock speeds. Even a better CPU cooler won't help very much. There's just not near enough airflow. A strong 80mm in place of the air duct will help the most as it pretty much will blow air right into the AMD cooler's intake.

Best Regards,
Russ

 

My new Lan card allows me to use either regular ethernet or Crossover. It automatically detects and corrects if necessary. I've tried following one tutorial without success. And its made to be extremely simple. So I'm not sure where I screwed up. The tutorial suggests having both computers set as public, and then changing them to Home. Why... not sure, but I entertained the idea to no success. There was obvious connectivity to both pc's. They knew each others names, but I would try to access folders from either end, and access was denied. Each PC gave a password, never needed to enter it. Never had to click join, basically, the tutorial just simply didn't work the way it was supposed to. I'm sure I've done something wrong, but I'm not sure what.
If I could simply start fresh, then perhaps I could get it sorted. I would like to delete every record of my ever trying the connection, and start completely fresh. Not sure how to do that.
I'm so newB to LAN. I don't even recall how I had XP working properly. But it sure didn't involve a near headache LOL! I've likely done something wrong though...

Russ,
You're probably right about that exhaust fan. Though the opening is more like 90mm. Though the small holes really don't help. And actually, I have a 120mm on the side beneath the cpu's air duct. I had my brother-in-law mod it. Wasn't a perfect job, but it looks ok with a grill on it. It helped to cool the GPU, and cpu once upon a time. If I can get a proper fan for it (maybe the 1200 Scythe), than it'll do better. The way its current fan is, it sounds horrible. Spawn of a blow dryer LOL!

 

Omega: You haven't answered the question. How are the PCs connected?

 

NOW, I have an orange ethernet crossover cable connecting from my Main pc and it's rosewill PCI-E Lan card, to the ethernet port on my secondary machine. Leaving my primary with its main Ethernet port for internet connection.
I probably just need a good night sleep, and a clear head in the morning. I'm pretty embarrassed about this LOL! I suppose were all new at some time though...

 

Crossover networking then, and what are you trying to achieve exactly? Network sharing files? Internet connection sharing?

 

I want the secondary machine, to have access to everything on the primary. Printer if possible, internet IF possible. Basically, the primary is sharing its resources. And likewise, the primary will have access to the secondaries HDD's, ODD's, etc.
Appreciate it sam

 

Mmm, this is doable with crossover networking, but is lots of faff involving connection sharing, adapter bridging and so on. It's 100 times easier just to use a network switch instead of horrible crossover.

 

This type of switch? I currently own it though its slower than the other.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833122029

Although I should probably consider a quicker one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833122140

 

Yeah that will do fine. I actually own a GS605. Just beware that all GS600 series switches can only sync gigabit when cold. If you plug a new device in while the switch is powered on, it will only connect at 100Mbps unless you reset the switch.

 

Ok. Good to know. So I'm gonna use the switch tomorrow instead of the crossover cable, which apparently I will never use again. Unless I'm connecting to XP machines LOL! I do vaguely remember now setting it up. It was slightly more technical, but it did work at least.

So if I give the switch the main router/modem connection, then connect both pc's, then run the connection wizard, I should be able to setup the home network properly. Definitely not tonight. I feel brain fried LOL! Diets all screwed up today too...

Thank you much sam. Big help. I also read up again about Routers and switches. I think I have a slightly better understanding now.

This guy knows what he's talking about eh LOL!
http://www.cisco.com/cisco/web/solu...d_offices/what_is_a_network_switch/index.html

 

If your internet connection goes into the switch, no setup is necessary. The PCs will automatically get IPs and internet access, as well as be able to connect to each other. All you need to do is set up the file and printer shares. Remember, switches are invisible to other networking devices, as far as your modem's concerned, both PCs are plugged straight into it.

 

Good good. That means my brothers PC is nearly setup the same way. In fact it is! He'll be tickled to know he can access the other PC!

 

Here's an interesting link I came across on another Forum. How to make your own thermal paste. The main ingredient is very fine diamond dust. Apparently Diamond dust conducts heat much better than silver! They give all the particulars on what ingredients are needed, and show some tests.

http://inventgeek.com/Projects/DiamondGrease/overview.aspx

Give it a read. I may try this myself.

Russ