Just looking before I leap...new PC final thoughts.

[GARoss]

Looks like you are home free!!

I don't know how much you intend to do with cable management, but I'd think your first task would be to ensure you don't have any DOA parts--before you spend any time tidying things up just right only to find out you have to regroup or send something back.

Front panel connections, fans, and drives and you are ready.

I'd say you are within an hour or so of FIRING IT UP!! Which we all want to see.

Got a question about fan wiring. I ran a power line from the PSU (has three 4 pin male connectors) to one of the female 4 pins of the front fan (shown in the 2nd pic) then connected the far end to the female 4 pin of the rear fan (the rear fan also has a LMH switch for fan speed & has only one 4 pin connector). But, then I see a connector on the MB for "PWR_FAN". Wouldn't you know the front fan wire's length is just right to go there. So, I think it's either or, but not both. That is just the large 4 pin or just the smaller 3 pin into PWR_FAN but not both; or is it?

Once this is settled I'm ready to fire it up! ...I mean... !

As suggested I'll tidy up once everything is proven OK.

 

[GARoss]

Here are some pics of the Solo's suspension HDD mounts with front fan removed (white paper added to improve photo quality). SSD on bottom is mounted to sliding tray. Other sliding tray mounts have been removed to improve fan ventilation.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Got a question about fan wiring. I ran a power line from the PSU (has three 4 pin male connectors) to one of the female 4 pins of the front fan (shown in the 2nd pic) then connected the far end to the female 4 pin of the rear fan (the rear fan also has a LMH switch for fan speed & has only one 4 pin connector). But, then I see a connector on the MB for "PWR_FAN". Wouldn't you know the front fan wire's length is just right to go there. So, I think it's either or, but not both. That is just the large 4 pin or just the smaller 3 pin into PWR_FAN but not both; or is it?

.

Not sure I am following you, but:

Female connectors on fans generally go directly to male connectors on the motherboard. You have 3 males on the motherboard, only one of which has 4 pins.

Any 3 pin fan should work on any of those 3 connectors.

If you have a 4 pin fan, it has to go to the 4 pin connector IF you want the rpm monitoring to work. You could probably get a 4 pin fan to work on a 3 pin connector, but you wouldn't be able to monitor rpm.

The fan connectors on the mobo are effectively equivalent--you use the ones you can reach (ignoring any rpm monitoring issues and excluding the CPU fan, which should go to the CPU fan connector).

You can also connect fans directly to the PSU, bypassing the motherboard, by using the Molex connection--if your fan has that Molex connector available--and I see that the Nexus fan does.

If you do use a Molex, you can still monitor RPM if the Molex wiring has a single spare (probably yellow) thin wire--connect it to the rpm sensor pin on a 4 pin motherboard header.

Not sure I answered your question. Perhaps you can restate it?

 

[GARoss]

Sorry. I'm probably making this more complicated than it really is.

The front fan has 3 connectors; a male & female Molex connection & a small 3 pin. The more I think about it I believe the 3 pin is connected to the MB & the remaining male & female Molex connections are to bridge power to the rear fan. But, I want to be sure.

So, my question is which one is used for power? The 3 pin of the front fan will fit to the MB + the rear fan can also connect to the Molex connection of the front fan. If that is the case, I wouldn't need to run a cable from the PSU.

But, I can also run from the PSU & connect with a female Molex connection of both front & rear fans.

Another possibility is the small 3 pin of the front fan is plugged into the MB & a cable from the PSU is plugged into one of the Molex connections of the front fan, then the end is plugged into the rear fan's Molex connection. I don't think that is the case, but ...?

Just a little confused.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Sorry. I'm probably making this more complicated than it really is.

The front fan has 3 connectors; a male & female Molex connection & a small 3 pin. The more I think about it I believe the 3 pin is connected to the MB & the remaining male & female Molex connections are to bridge power to the rear fan. But, I want to be sure.

So, my question is which one is used for power? The 3 pin of the front fan will fit to the MB + the rear fan can also connect to the Molex connection of the front fan. If that is the case, I wouldn't need to run a cable from the PSU.

Your second sentence above is correct.

I'd think of each fan independently of the other.

Take the front fan. Connect its 3 pin to any 3 pin fan header on the mobo. You're done with that fan.

The only reason you would need to pay attention to that fan's Molex's is IF you wanted (or needed) to daisy chain ("bridge" in your terms). As you say, you COULD connect the rear fan to the front fan's Molex. That's a daisy chain and fine, but it's normally not done UNLESS you must do it---you've got 14 fans and not enough headers, your cables are too short, etc.

Likewise, think of the rear fan in isolation. If it is 4 pin and you want to use rpm monitoring, it has to go to a 4 pin on the mobo. If it is 3 pin, it can go anywhere, most likely the nearest connector. But you COULD daisy chain to the front fan Molex if it made the case neater, your wires are too short, whatever.

The only reason the Molex's are there is to give you an alternate way of connecting or to daisy chain. Some people like to use Molex for all fans and there's nothing wrong with that.

Some fans don't come with a Molex.

You may find that the small female 3 pin connectors on some fans are keyed the wrong way for your motherboard male 3 pin header. The keyway forces you to install in only one orientation. You can't rotate 180 degrees because the keyway blocks you. In that case, you instead use a Molex.

You have to get out a magnifying glass to read in the manual which side of the mobo fan header is ground and then connect the appropriate (black) wire from the female fan connector.

 

[GARoss]

I think too much! Will do 2nd. The connector is slotted & can only connect one way.

Time to fire-up! I'll start BIOS to get the correct HDD (AHCI) setting & check things; then install Windows 7. Prey for me!

 

[GeneO]

Sorry. I'm probably making this more complicated than it really is.

The front fan has 3 connectors; a male & female Molex connection & a small 3 pin. The more I think about it I believe the 3 pin is connected to the MB & the remaining male & female Molex connections are to bridge power to the rear fan. But, I want to be sure.

So, my question is which one is used for power? The 3 pin of the front fan will fit to the MB + the rear fan can also connect to the Molex connection of the front fan. If that is the case, I wouldn't need to run a cable from the PSU.

But, I can also run from the PSU & connect with a female Molex connection of both front & rear fans.

Another possibility is the small 3 pin of the front fan is plugged into the MB & a cable from the PSU is plugged into one of the Molex connections of the front fan, then the end is plugged into the rear fan's Molex connection. I don't think that is the case, but ...?

Just a little confused.

This is giving you the option of power your fan from either a motherboard header or a molex connector. If you use the molex, it allows you to chain something else of of the molex. However, you should not power the fan off of the MB header and try to use the molex to power a second fan from it. It is not meant for that. Only power one fan off of a MB fan header.

BTW the fact that the MB header is labeled PWR_FAN because its speed is not controllable through the BIOS like other MB fan headers (power supplies control their fan speed internally).

Looking good! Nice drive isolation.

 

[GARoss]

So far so good! It took an hour to get Microsoft product key fixed. Main problem was I didn't have the LAN driver installed yet so no internet connection could be made. The pre-downloaded LAN driver couldn't install because it thought the OS was 32 bit. Once it was pointed to the 64 bit driver, it worked.

I'll need to change the rear fan to a separate Molex connector & get the older HDDs plugged in.

On to other driver installs. So far so good!

 

[GARoss]

Looks like success! The included pic is my final wiring. There are 4 SATA wires & they are hard to hide at the bottom. They do not interfere with air flow, however, though it looks like they would in the pic. I tried to install BIOS from Gigabyte (mb_bios_ga-p67a-ud3-b3_f3.exe) but failed because Win 7 is 64-bit. :huh: What's the deal?

I'm about to test E: & F: drives & will button everything up once I'm satisfied everything is OK & see how quiet, quiet is!

BTW, I did do a Win 7 backup on F:. Can I just select which software I want to transfer/re-install? I'll start on that tomorrow.

Thanks everyone!

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Looks like success! The included pic is my final wiring. There are 4 SATA wires & they are hard to hide at the bottom. They do not interfere with air flow, however, though it looks like they would in the pic. I tried to install BIOS from Gigabyte (mb_bios_ga-p67a-ud3-b3_f3.exe) but failed because Win 7 is 64-bit. :huh: What's the deal?

I'm about to test E: & F: drives & will button everything up once I'm satisfied everything is OK & see how quiet, quiet is!

BTW, I did do a Win 7 backup on F:. Can I just select which software I want to transfer/re-install? I'll start on that tomorrow.

Thanks everyone!

I would emphatically NOT try to flash the BIOS unless I was having specific problems known to be fixed by an updated BIOS. You're better off you failed. All I can guess is that you had the wrong BIOS. What BIOS are you running now? I think it is shown in the overclocker's area and on the post screen.

Not sure I understand your last question, but you will have to reinstall ALL software. Your "backup" (whatever it was), won't do you any good other than for personal data if it was included in the backup.

Get Windows updated, get antivirus going. Confirm defrag is turned off for your SSD. Confirm alignment of the SSD. Check System Restore config as it eats up a lot of space. Probably turn off hibernation to save space on the SSD if you don't use hibernation.

You done good!

When you get it buttoned up, run something like Wininfo32 to get your CPU temps, drive temps, and fan speeds.

You should be able to look at fan speeds in the PC Health area of the BIOS. You might want to set the alarms there to sound if they fail.

 

[Dave76]

Agree with the above, especially the SSD checks.
Check your BIOS version, no need to update unless you have issues that you can't fix any other way, so it is best to leave that as it is. An un-successful BIOS flash will leave your motherboard unusable.

I would make the System Restore size smaller than default.

With 8GB RAM I would make the page file smaller as well, keep it on the SSD, reduce the initial size to 1024 and max 2048.

Let us know if you have any crashes or issues related to RAM, with 8GB RAM you might need to make a small CPU integrated memory controller voltage bump.

 

[GARoss]

Get Windows updated, get antivirus going. Confirm defrag is turned off for your SSD. Confirm alignment of the SSD. Check System Restore config as it eats up a lot of space. Probably turn off hibernation to save space on the SSD if you don't use hibernation.

Apparently, Win 7 recognizes the SSD & it isn't on the defrag list - see pic. I don't believe this needs to be turned off.

I use Microsoft Security Essentials for antivirus which is up & running.

"Confirm alignment of the SSD" - I'm not sure what this is. Doing a Google to find out.

Check System Restore; on or off?

I was using hibernation before after being idol 30 minutes.

BTW - my main storage HDD isn't working! I've tried various combos but it appears to be dead. I'm pretty sure I have a back-up stored away. I hope so! Don't know how else to check it.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Get Windows updated, get antivirus going. Confirm defrag is turned off for your SSD. Confirm alignment of the SSD. Check System Restore config as it eats up a lot of space. Probably turn off hibernation to save space on the SSD if you don't use hibernation.

Apparently, Win 7 recognizes the SSD & it isn't on the defrag list - see pic. I don't believe this needs to be turned off.

"Confirm alignment of the SSD" - I'm not sure what this is. Doing a Google to find out.

Check System Restore; on or off?

BTW - my main storage HDD isn't working! I've tried various combos but it appears to be dead. I'm pretty sure I have a back-up stored away. I hope so! Don't know how else to check it.

Verify the alignment for a SSD using the following commands from a prompt:

Diskpart
List disk
Select disk n (where n is the number of the SSD)
List partition

You should see a result like this:

Partition 1 Primary 59 GB 1024 KB

The offset has to be divisible by 4.

In this case, 1024 is the offset and is divisible by 4, so you are good to go.

Re defrag: you just want to be sure that C is not being defragged.

Re system restore; you want it on. Go to control panel/system/system protection and poke the "configure" button to see how much space is devoted to it. You can move the slider to change the setting. A setting of 10 GB should allow at least 10 restore points. How many you want is personal choice, but in the real world you rarely want to restore to a 2 week old point. Usually, you want to restore to one no more than 3 or 4 days old. I use a setting of 8, but it's up to you. If you had a real small SSD, you'd probably want to keep it quite low.

Re hibernation: it takes up quite a bit of space too, but no problem if you want to use it.


Did you get AHCI enabled in the BIOS??????????

 

[ignatzatsonic]

BTW - my main storage HDD isn't working! I've tried various combos but it appears to be dead. I'm pretty sure I have a back-up stored away. I hope so! Don't know how else to check it.

Does the storage HDD appear in Disk Management?

Before I gave up on it, I would connect any other drive you may have and see if you can access it. You need to eliminate the possibility of a bad cable or a bad motherboard port, as well as a bad drive.

 

[GARoss]

Does the storage HDD appear in Disk Management?

Before I gave up on it, I would connect any other drive you may have and see if you can access it. You need to eliminate the possibility of a bad cable or a bad motherboard port, as well as a bad drive.

No to disk management; just C: & E: .

I've switched cables & plug positions on MB, power connectors, too. Nothing.

Both storage drives were the same make & size. Really odd that transfering could mess it up. I mean, nothing was bumped into, took precautions to avoid static discharge, etc. Weird!

Could it be a setting in BIOS?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Not sure I am following you.

You have 1 spinning drive that is not being recognized.

Are you saying that another spinning drive, when connected to the same cables and same port, is recognized?

Regardless, post a Disk Management picture with the "bad" drive connected.

 

[GARoss]

Wow! This is really weird. After my last post I checked Disk Management/Action/Refresh but nothing changed. Then tried Disk Management/Action/Rescan Disks & it appeared! Hallelujah!

On to lots of Windows updates.

 

[GARoss]

Re system restore; you want it on. Go to control panel/system/system protection and poke the "configure" button to see how much space is devoted to it. You can move the slider to change the setting. A setting of 10 GB should allow at least 10 restore points. How many you want is personal choice, but in the real world you rarely want to restore to a 2 week old point. Usually, you want to restore to one no more than 3 or 4 days old. I use a setting of 8, but it's up to you. If you had a real small SSD, you'd probably want to keep it quite low.

Did you get AHCI enabled in the BIOS??????????

I enabled AHCI in BIOS before installing Windows 7. Are we good or is more needed to be done?

See pic of Diskpart. I think it's the same as yours.

Looks like default is 10% of total or 1.26Gb ( C: is 128Gb). " I use a setting of 8, but it's up to you." Do you mean 8Gb?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Your alignment per diskpart is OK. You can also check this way: type msinfo32 into start/search and hit Enter. Then in the left pane open Components, then Storage and go to Disks. There you can see the offset when you scroll down to the relevant drive. You want it divisible by 4.

Yes, I meant 8 GB; that usually gives me about 10 restore points dating back a couple of weeks. You can set it at 8 GB if you want and of course can change it at any time. It’s all a matter of how scarce space is on your SSD and I think you have plans to put some data on it??

You should be done on the AHCI thing. You can check it in the BIOS where it is listed under “SATA controller” or something like that. I can’t remember exactly.

Same thing with hibernation. No problem keeping it enabled if space is not an issue, but I think it takes up 8 GB (same as RAM) in your case.

You should be able to read your BIOS version in the tweaker’s section of the BIOS (MIT or whatever it is called?).

I’d run Windows Experience Index as a check to see that stuff is performing about as expected.

Look in BIOS “PC Health” to see what fans are being monitored and what their speeds are. You should be able to check temps there too.

Or use HWinfo32 to check speeds and temps in Windows, without going to BIOS.
Any readings yet on how quiet it is? My Shuriken fan is normally in the high 800s at idle, but yours might be different based on your internal temps.

 

[GARoss]

Here's HWinfo32 info & Windows Experience Index. ???

Overall this PC is much quieter than the old one. I can definitely hear the rear fan. It has 3 speeds & is set to "HI" per user manual recommendations. Like to turn that down if possible.