Show Us Your Rig [4]

[Britton30]

Just added the Gigabyte Osmium to my rig.

Loving the mechanical switches. First experience with them and they do not disappoint. I would have preferred MX Blue as opposed to Red, but whose to say I won't pick up an additional keyboard soon?

What is it?

 

[ZaLiTH]

Yay! Got my upgrade... What a nightmare getting it to work though. Lol. The smallest and simplest of things can be a real pain in an inappropriate place..

Anyway, as promised.. Pictures attached below.

I'm thoroughly impressed with my 'new' (to me anyway) motherboard, a sexy MSI 990FXA-GD65 v3.0. Pretty sweet stats on this board too. Like 8x USB2, 2x USB3, 6x SATA3 (with no SATA2), dual PCI-e 16x (that don't drop to 8x with SLI or CrossFire), and I think it also supports all the x4 and x6 AMD chips too....

The board didn't have the CPU heatsink mounting bracket attached when it arrived and I couldn't find any screws that would fit it, so I ended up steal the mounting bracket backplate and screws from my old XFX 750a board. Then when I finally got everything connected, I installed it in my case.

Well, let's just say I could've saved myself a lot of sore fingertips and foul language by testing it open on my desk first.... It simply wouldn't boot. Motherboard lights came on and the heatsink fan started spinning, but no POST, no BIOS, no beeps, no video output, just nothing. After removing it all from my case again, and setting up a makeshift testbed, I resorted to swapping out the CPU for my older x3 710.

Now here's the funny part... When I picked up my Zalman heatsink, the x4 975BE came out with it.

It looked like it was in properly and it didn't fall out while I was fighting with the heatsink backplate (which went on for about 4 hours), so it was the last thing I thought of checking!

Anyway, I sat pulling wire for about 2 hours to get all the cables where they were happy without being in the way of anything else... And now I have a new PC. I must say though, I love the sideways facing SATA connectors, all my drive cables are hidden nicely with a small loop to the right of my drive bay, completely out of sight... I'll post benchmarks and stuff when I get back into Windows, I'm still in Linux downloading drivers at the moment.

 

[essenbe]

It looks real good, ZaLiTH. I know you'll be pleased with it. These things can make you pull your hair out and kick things across the room can't they? They can also make you say some words you don't normally say. But, that's the fun of it, right?

 

[ZaLiTH]

It looks real good, ZaLiTH. I know you'll be pleased with it. These things can make you pull your hair out and kick things across the room can't they? They can also make you say some words you don't normally say. But, that's the fun of it, right?

Ah yes, most definitely.. Followed by the thrill of booting up a new PC and running every benchmark app one can find in their installs folder.

 

[kbrady1979]

Just added the Gigabyte Osmium to my rig.

Loving the mechanical switches. First experience with them and they do not disappoint. I would have preferred MX Blue as opposed to Red, but whose to say I won't pick up an additional keyboard soon?

What is it?

It's a mechanical keyboard. Most who have used them will never go back to a regular membrane keyboard. Mechanical keyboards are sold based mainly on what type of "switches" the keys have under the keycaps. The switches are what actuates the keystroke. The most common are Cherry MX Blue, Black, Red, and Brown.

I personally went with a keyboard with Cherry MX Brown switches, and I liked it immediately. It was pretty spendy, but for how well they work, the features and how long they last, it was worth it!.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...@ Lady Fitzgerald, I really dread turning my pc on after iv'e been adding hardware as i'm always convinced something will go wrong lol. Touch wood though nothing ever has yet. As others say though it gets easier the more you do

Well, my fears just intensified. I got my LSI 9211-8i yesterday, read the directions on how to install the driver and knew even less than I knew before I got the thing. From what I'm reading, I have to install the driver as part of the Windows 7 installation process. I do NOT want to have to do that again (especially dealing with the M$ updates again) so I fired off an email to LSI asking if that was necessary and, if not, how to install the stupid driver. Until I hear back (they said it takes up to 48 hours for a response and I don't know if that means 48 any day hours or 48 business day hours), I'm dead in the water since I don't want to load and configure any more programs (I have only security related programs installed right now) if I'm going to have to do it all over again.

I am going to change out the fan on the CPU cooler today. Changing out the fan can be easily done without removing the cooler (thank God!; the only way to remove the cooler is to remove the MOBO and that would take a few hours to R&R since so much stuff is in the way and would have to come out first). However, the graphics card has to come out (again!) for me to be able to get to (or even see) the CPU fan header so I'm going to have to lug the boat...er...ship anchor back to the washing machine so I can see what I'm doing without killing my back (if I don't kill it lugging the ship...er...battleship anchor around).

 

[Britton30]

Thanks for the info Kelly, Osmium sounded like a medication of some sort.

Andre your system looks good. Steve and I have learned the hard way to always set up a new system and test it before putting the board in the case, it's easier to slap on a lot of cables too.

 

[ZaLiTH]

Changing out the fan can be easily done without removing the cooler (thank God!; the only way to remove the cooler is to remove the MOBO and that would take a few hours to R&R since so much stuff is in the way and would have to come out first).

And of course all the cable management getting every back in where it belongs afterwards. Lol. I've spent a good few hours on that today...

...so I'm going to have to lug the boat...er...ship anchor back to the washing machine so I can see what I'm doing without killing my back (if I don't kill it lugging the ship...er...battleship anchor around).

It's amazing how much weight all the little extras add hey..? Between GPUs, nice big CPU coolers and HDDs, suddenly a PC case becomes a hefty box to move around.

 

[ZaLiTH]

Andre your system looks good. Steve and I have learned the hard way to always set up a new system and test it before putting the board in the case, it's easier to slap on a lot of cables too.

Too true, think I've learned my lesson now though.. I didn't have nearly as much stuff in my case when I originally got my XFX board, so I haven't actually worked on building or rebuilding any PC in ages. I'm somewhat out of practice. Looks like you've got a nice little test bed layout there, my desk hardly ever has enough space to do things like that properly (and I was too lazy to remove my PSU, so I just plonked it next to my board today when I did that).

I'll be redoing all this again pretty soon, I made a plan for a Corsair Graphite 600T the other day, which I'll be getting at month end. At least I'll have a ton more space in the case to play with though.

 

[Terronium 12]

What is it?

You've already been given the explanation, now how about some pictures?

Go here.

 

[Alsisgevat]

Gratz Zalith, looks awesome

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Andre,
Great job on the new mobo. The rig looks wicked !

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Lady Fitzgerald,
How's the raid card driver issue going. I'm wondering are you using this for the additional sata ports like I do or are you setting up a raid array?
It makes sense that the driver needs to be installed first to set the raid before the OS install but if you're just using it for the ports maybe you can load it after and be fine?

 

[ZaLiTH]

Thanks you guys, it's running beautifully at the moment hey.. Been testing out a few of my favourite games this evening and they're pretty much all running that little bit smoother now.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Changing out the fan can be easily done without removing the cooler (thank God!; the only way to remove the cooler is to remove the MOBO and that would take a few hours to R&R since so much stuff is in the way and would have to come out first).

And of course all the cable management getting every back in where it belongs afterwards. Lol. I've spent a good few hours on that today...

...so I'm going to have to lug the boat...er...ship anchor back to the washing machine so I can see what I'm doing without killing my back (if I don't kill it lugging the ship...er...battleship anchor around).

It's amazing how much weight all the little extras add hey..? Between GPUs, nice big CPU coolers and HDDs, suddenly a PC case becomes a hefty box to move around.

Well I've got that ugly 120mm CPU fan swapped out with this 140mm fan:

This is how it looks installed (btw, if you look closely, you can see the fans are actually running):

That is one heck of an aesthetic improvement over what was in there:

The old fan's frame and impeller were made with cheap looking plastic and the impeller color didn't match my case fans (there I go being anal again). That nickel plated steel surrounding the fan just flat looked tacky and out of place (the fifties called and wanted their chrome back?).

Except for the CPU fan itself, cable management wasn't an issue. The only other cable involved was the PCIe cable going to the GPU card. I've had that card in and out of the case so many times, I can almost snap my fingers and it will jump in and out by itself.

The fan cable was a bit of a pain, though. It was insanely long (16"-18" or so; I didn't bother to measure it since I was too busy being mad at it). I had to fold it back on itself a couple of times, check to see how it fit in the case, then try again several times until I finally got it right, then use twist ties to secure it in the folded shape. Cutting the cable and crimping on new pins (I think I still have some knocking about) would have been easier but the fan has a five year warranty and, being the cheap, old bi...broad I am, I didn't want to blow it. The bundle hides under the CPU cooler and above the GPU card and can't be seen.

I did this swap purely for asethetic purposes but it turns out the new fan is no louder than the old one even though it running around 20-25 rpm faster (the old fan liked to hover at 666 rpm; mayhap that was the cause of some of my problems?). It also is cooling the CPU better by about 2-4°C. With an ambient of 27°C, it's been idling at 35-37°C for the past two hours. Keep in mind I'm still running the rig without the case sides installed since I don't have the fan power hub buttoned down because I still need to install the LSI card. I would have been happy for the same amount of cooling and would have accepted a bit more fan noise so I'm ecstatic! Doing happy dance.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Lady Fitzgerald,
How's the raid card driver issue going. I'm wondering are you using this for the additional sata ports like I do or are you setting up a raid array?
It makes sense that the driver needs to be installed first to set the raid before the OS install but if you're just using it for the ports maybe you can load it after and be fine?

I still haven't heard back from LSI yet and probably won't for a day or two. I'm debating on whether to start moving (and reorganizing) data to the data drives or not since if I have to do an OS reinstall, I might not be able to relink the document folders on the DATA DISK 1 drive (my name for it) to the user folder on the boot drive and would have to move the data again (although it would be simpler and faster since since it would already be reorganized, consolidated, etc.; I could just set it to copy from folder to folder, then walk away from it for a while). I'm definitely holding off on installing and configuring any more programs (I've got a bunch of them) until the LSI issue is resolved. In the meantime, hurry up and wait?

I'm just going to to use it (I hope) for additional SATA ports and no RAID on the card itself. Besides needing five ports for HDDS, I need a couple for e-SATA ports and two more for the two hotswap bays. I'm praying the card is hot swappable; otherwise, I'll be making some changes in layout (and eliminate one e-SATA port and, possibly, two USB ports). If I ever run anything in RAID, it would two SSDs in RAID 0 off the Intel ports on the MOBO; the existing SSD would then be used to cache DATA DISK 1, using the two Marvell ports on the MOBO.

 

[A Guy]

Congrats Dre

Looks good Lady F

A Guy

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Thanks, Guy!

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Yay! Got my upgrade... What a nightmare getting it to work though. Lol. The smallest and simplest of things can be a real pain in an inappropriate place..

Anyway, as promised.. Pictures attached below.

I'm thoroughly impressed with my 'new' (to me anyway) motherboard, a sexy MSI 990FXA-GD65 v3.0. Pretty sweet stats on this board too. Like 8x USB2, 2x USB3, 6x SATA3 (with no SATA2), dual PCI-e 16x (that don't drop to 8x with SLI or CrossFire), and I think it also supports all the x4 and x6 AMD chips too....

The board didn't have the CPU heatsink mounting bracket attached when it arrived and I couldn't find any screws that would fit it, so I ended up steal the mounting bracket backplate and screws from my old XFX 750a board. Then when I finally got everything connected, I installed it in my case.

Well, let's just say I could've saved myself a lot of sore fingertips and foul language by testing it open on my desk first.... It simply wouldn't boot. Motherboard lights came on and the heatsink fan started spinning, but no POST, no BIOS, no beeps, no video output, just nothing. After removing it all from my case again, and setting up a makeshift testbed, I resorted to swapping out the CPU for my older x3 710.

Now here's the funny part... When I picked up my Zalman heatsink, the x4 975BE came out with it.

It looked like it was in properly and it didn't fall out while I was fighting with the heatsink backplate (which went on for about 4 hours), so it was the last thing I thought of checking!

Anyway, I sat pulling wire for about 2 hours to get all the cables where they were happy without being in the way of anything else... And now I have a new PC. I must say though, I love the sideways facing SATA connectors, all my drive cables are hidden nicely with a small loop to the right of my drive bay, completely out of sight... I'll post benchmarks and stuff when I get back into Windows, I'm still in Linux downloading drivers at the moment.

Looking good. I like the looks of Zalman coolers but I couldn't find one that would work with my CPU and fit in my case. Sigh! At least the cooler I did get sends some air into the semi-dead zone of the 5.25" bays.

Good move benching it. It's so much simpler for first testing it. Beats working in the case, especially if the parts have to be pulled out because something didn't work.

 

[Bungee18]

Just added the Gigabyte Osmium to my rig.

Loving the mechanical switches. First experience with them and they do not disappoint. I would have preferred MX Blue as opposed to Red, but whose to say I won't pick up an additional keyboard soon?

Very nice addition!
Every gaming rigs deserves mek keys.
Enjoy!
Cheers,

J