Vitalix

Yup, jumped on it! for $360, couldn't beat it! The standard 7800GTs were going for $340 at the time. The DFI won't run on an OCZ 420? I know the DFIs are power hungry, but I though the good PSUs powered them pretty good, even if under 500W. Is that a myth? Or a YMMV thing?

You know what, maybe I'll put my money where my mouth is. I have the following rig I use that's mine: NZXT Lexa Case OCZ Powerstream 420W eVGA NF41 SLI mobo (NF4) eVGA 7800GT AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 1GB (2x512) OCZ Platinum EL Rev 2 (TCCD) I still have the stock HSF on there b/c I wasn't sure which route I would go. The mobo won't OC above 250FSB safely (have to clear CMOS every time). Presently at 240HTT. Voltage doesn't seem to make much of a difference to X2 series. Memory has plentyof headroom. TCCD won't take more than 2.8V, but thaz OK since it will hold a high FSB. Right now, at stock, the CPU idles at about 25C, and at load (Prime95 for a while) it hops up to about 47C. So mebbe I'll just sell my mobo and get the DFI Lanparty SLI board. How much can I expect the temps to drop with water cooling? How much would I expect to spend for a good (not top end) WC system?

That's the thing, I really have no idea of what to get! I guess I can pick a case that will cater best to a water cooling system. I can't buy anything yet until I sell a couple extra rigs I have (wifey can only take so many). The budget would depend on what I could get for the rigs (can I post them here? Is that against forum rules? One of them is a gaming rig which I think some people on the forum may appreciate). I would like to try a DFI Lanparty SLI mobo (never used one), OCZ Vx memory (or a Winbond variant that uses the 3.5V that the DFI can provide), open on the video but very partial to the 7800GT's. The OCZ Powerstream 420W I have. Not sure if I will be able to swing SLI. What would you recommend? From what I've read, it's best to use 1/2 inch tubing, but I'm not extremely versed in thermodynamics.

Hey guys and gals, I'd like to try my hand at a water cooling system. I've never assemebled one, so I really don't know what parts to get, if it's better a la carte buying different parts from several vendors, or a prepackaged kit. I'd like to get a DFI board, some vx memory, and see how high I can pump the HTT. I don't have any components yet except an OCZ 420W powerstream (not sure if power is a factor for the water pumps). I'd like to incorporate this item too (why? Cuz it looks pretty. I like pretty.) Thanks in advance as always!

Unless you're getting one from a friend for $35, I'd spend a little extra for the 6600GT. 6600GT is still a nextgen card and has 8 pipelines, if I'm not mistaken. The 52/62 will be obsolete with the next generation of games (unless you play at 800x600 without any details at all - and if that's the case then go XBOX or Playstation!).

I built a Terminator SFF (ASUS) for my wife with the exact same setup. I actually had to unplug the card reader when installing XP, and then plug it back in when I was done installing Windows. The first install, it made the OpSys drive H!

Great to hear! I know it's really frustrating having to go through what you've been through the last 2 days. I've been there!

The txtsetup.oem file is used differently than the typical INF and sys files for windows drivers. That file only works at boot. I use that F6 prompt fairly often building servers at work, and always with a floppy with that file. I'm not sure how nLite would slipstream that. I've never gotten it to work otherwise without a floppy. The SIS drivers you mentioned have a FloppyImage folder. Is that where you got the txtsetup.oem file to slipstream? That file (and its matching resource folder) should be all that's needed from a floppy standpoint, but unfortunately I cannot help with nLite. Just had to do the same with an Opteron board.

How about BIOS revisions? Have you tried stepping up or down a level? I'm not extremely familiar with nLite, but did the F6 feature work when installing XP from scratch? Is there a txtsetup.oem file on the floppy when you first tried? Also, how did the Linux attempt go? If Linux can't find it, there may be a problem with hardware. You've tried both SATA connectors, right?

What is the motherboard? I know that some have 4-8 SATA slots, and they have different controllers. 1-4 for example, may be controlled by a Promise RAID chip, and the other 4 could be an onbard HighPoint or something. Have you tried using a different SATA plug or group? Kinda strange that your HD and floppy went at the same time. U don't think that when the IDE HD went it zapped the rail on the PSU do you? Maybe enough of a zap that the SATA drive is picked up but not enough that it actually functions correctly. Try throwing Linux (any newer flavor) on there and see if it is picked up. Linux is pretty automatic with hardware.

Yes, USB will be slower. Typical ATA or SATA speeds are 100-150 MB/S. USB2 tops out at 60MB/S (480Mb/sec). For a single drive in USB2 tho, the difference will not be dramatic. It's when you get into RAID arrays that you notice a significant difference.

Try taking it out of the case, put it on its static bag, connect all the conectors, and turn it on. I just had this problem, and what was happening was the bottom screws on my Big Typhoon heatsink were actually coming into contact with the case. When I put it on the static bag, it fired right up. It was then I noticed the scratches on the case from the screws. At least this way, you can rule out a grounding problem if it boots consistently. What happens when you take out all the memory? When you boot, it should start whining. If not, try clearnig the CMOS. Make sure the CPU is in, fastened, and not overheating.

I know this sounds a little silly, but the good PSUs I have used have all been pretty heavy. All of the cheapies that come with most cases weigh about a pound. The Antecs, OCZs, Thermaltakes, etc all weight about 4-6 pounds. I guess it's not a confirmation of quality, but that's one thing I have noticed about the higher end power supplies.

You could get something like this and place it in your CD/DVD locations. Is this what you mean?

I actually just used that motherboard in a build, but my friend took it before I could mess with it. If the memory is set to auto-detect, make sure that the speeds match what your memory is (you can check on the website for your RAM). If your RAM is rated for 2-2-2-5, and your BIOS picks it up as 2.5-4-4-7, for example, then manually go in and change the speeds to what is rated on the website. Also change the memory command rate to 1T from 2T, which is what motherboards will load memory as for safety reasons. You'll notice a considerable increase in performance, about 15-20%, just from the 2T to 1T change, particularly with AMD which is much more sensitive to memory timings. There are some other tweaks, but they are very minor in terms of real world performance, unless you want the highest scores in benchmarks.

Do you plan on overclocking, or just fastest stock settings?

I meant if your fire it up. Your machine won't boot. You will not lose any data if you simply unplug it. The Ghost approach should work, but I would back up critical data just in case.

I agree with Memnoch's list above. I also heard that Silverstone makes a good PSU, but have never owned one so can't say. One thing you may want to look for (mostly cosmetic) but if you have a window on your case, you probly want to get a PSU with braided lines (air flow and appearance), like this one. I have to admit, I was a little scared buying this PSU b/c it was under $100, but so far it's rocking my space-heater/Prescott 3.4GHz with two 250GB Seagates in a RAID1 and a X800XL AGP card. Runs Prime95 stable for 24+ hours and played through COD2, FEAR, and Far Cry (all at high settings) through a 5 hour marathon without a hiccup. No problems in 10 days at least. Fluctuation on rails is under 2% so far. It's branded TR, but it's really a Thermaltake. Got the Big Typhoon HSF on that rig, and let me tell, that thing is a MONSTER! From experience, I can recommend without a doubt OCZ, Antec, and PC Power and Cooling (BIG bucks, really for high end CAD workstations and servers). I built a couple machines with this year with: OCZ Powerstream 520W - AMD 4200+ X2, 7800GTX, two SATA drives RAID0 - rails solid Antec Truepower 550W EPS - Dual xeon 3.0GHz @ 3.9GHz, Matrox RT200 + 256 Parhelia, 4 SATA drives in 2 arrays - rails solid OCZ Powerstream 420W - AMD 3800+ X2, two 6600GTs, 2 SATA in RAID0 - rails solid. I have PCP&C (850W) coming in for a workstation build (2 dual core opterons - not mine - I wish!), can't wait to check it out!

Hey guys, Has anyone setup a server system on a USB pen drive? I know Linux can run form them, but can Microsoft? TIA as always!

Not without a third drive. As soon as you unplug a drive, ALL your data is gone. Burn essentials to DVD, or offload to a USB drive in the interim. There is no other way.

You can, but that is called RAID-10 or RAID 1+0, which striping plus mirroring, but now you have 4 drives (two for the stripe and 2 for the mirror). RAID5 requires 3 drives or more, but keep in mind not many RAID controllers support the XOR function for RAID5, usually those controllers are for file server usage. RAID controllers that support RAID5 will be more expensive. The downside of a RAID0 array (two drives combined into one) is that is one blows, ALL of you data is gone on both drives. The upside is that RAID0 is lighning fast on the read/writes (especially if you have more than 2 drives). The best bet is really RAID1 (mirror). The write speeds are slower, since the controller has to write to 2 places, but read speeds are as fast as a 2 drive RAID0 b/c the drives are identical and the controller can read from both drives at the same time (the data layout is same on both drives, so that controller can prefetch from the second drive while getting from the first).

Here's a good comparison of many of the newer cards from a gaming persepctive. Here's another good tool for CPUs, so you can compare apples to apples with whatever apps you use the most.

Well, there are many PSUs for under $30 that 22A on the 12V rail, but how do they behave under a load? For at least 2 of my friends, their video card problems and system stability issues immediately disappeared when they got OCZ and Antec PSUs. Immediately. No other tweaking required. They had stock PSUs that came with their Aspire and Rosewill cases. They did not blow up or anything, just didn't have enough juice to consitently fire up a 6800GT and a X800XL while keeping the rest of the overclocked system rolling. They have no isses now (they got the OCZ Powerstream 430W and the Antec TruePower 550). Most people hate spending that much on PSUs, but it saves a lot of tweaking time when the system is acting funny and all the stats and temps look normal.

Check with Newegg. If you RMA, the will typically send you another one, same one. If it's within 15 days, you get hit with a 15% restocking fee, but they will refund your money. For ANY gaming rig with high end video cards and even a little bit of overclocking, a $100+ PSU is required. Otherwise it's like buying a Corvette with a 4-cylinder engine. There's a chance that any PSU can blow and take your system with it, but high-end PSUs are much less likely, and you see their volts stay solid at 12V, 5V, and 3.3V with fluctuations of maybe 0.1V on any rail. I built 2 systems of my friends who requested Aspire see-thru PSUs (about $60) and you see the rails hit as high 12.6V on the 12 rail. That is still under the 5% limit, but I am more comfortable with 12.1V as my max. You'll see system instability if the rails are unstable, with high end equipment at least.

I have to add eVGA to the nVidia list. Lifetime warranty as well and outstanding support and pricing. I have a 7800GT which works great! Quick question: what will you be using this rig for? If you plan on gaming, your best bet would be to go AMD if you're building from scratch. Do you have the motherboard or processor yet?