The PROBLEMS...

Ok, it's been up and running for a week now. I have been enjoying a 100mbps connection (over my 50mbps wireless I used previously). And have been gaming the hell out of Half-Life 2 Ep 1. I am getting really great framerates with this one. 150's and higher at max resolution and 8xAA). I plan on breaking the rig with Crysis next week.

I did have problem when putting this monster together. They were minor issues in my mind, but in fairness , I am posting them so maybe someone else will learn from my mistakes.

1. The first problem I had was during posting. I did NOT post succesfully the first time. (many people do not) My error was of the " I have been at this for HOURS and I am too tired to think straight even with this sugar and caffine coursing through my veins" variety of error. I was getting a 7F error (FDD Error). I checked all the cables, spend alot of time switching out cables. Cried a little (just kidding). Finally I woke the hell up and actually looked closer at my bios.

Well since I do not HAVE a 3.5 inch floppy drive , and the bios said I did, the 'puter was looking for it and telling me, "Hey Goober, wheres the drive?" After about 45 minutes of wasted time I changed the bios so no 3.5 was to be "looked for". Learn Grasshoppers from the stupidity of men.

2. After that debacle, I had another drive issue. My WD 750 Caviar was making a "clicking sound" every time it was accessed. (I know, oh crap). Well, I thought I was smart by putting th OS on 1 drive and everything else on the other. So when the drive did actually fail (and it did a day later) not big deal right? WRONG. I put some NVIDIA program needed at boot on the second drive I never figured it out but it had something to do with Nvidia networking. I tried everything I could find on the web about it. I even got thisd error after completely removing the defective drive.

NVIDIA BOOT AGENT 231.0528
PXE-E61: MEDIA TEST FAILURE, CHECK CABLE
PXE-M0F: EXITING NVIDIA BOOT AGENT

Anyway because this was on the failing drive I could not start windows (not even in safe mode It would not go past boot. SOOOOOO I had to re-install windows from the get go. GEEz. ( also had to call Microsoft to get a new keycode cuz I have installed the one I had over 5 times). WD is sending a new HD to me now. Its a cross shipment so I am not too entirely pissed although there goes another half a day. I is important to remember that with all these components its likely you will get 1 bad one. Thankfully the bad one I had was not critical to finishing the build. My 250GB is a Seagate Barracuda if anyone is taking notes.

(no its not loaded)

3. Zalman installed the wrong way. Remove, clean arctic silver off with prebought cleaner and surface pre treat (YAH!), reseat cooler ,NP 15 minutes. Blame it on the caffine and nerves....(BTW, this is the WRONG WAY...)

This is the right way...

4. WHY THE HELL DOES MY ETHERNET CONNECTION NOT WORK. OK this pissed me off. I could not get my TE adapter to connect. I had the system running fine on a wireless connection so how come when I attach the cable I get nothing? ARRRRGGG. Well a quick call the EVGA and we tested the ports by routing a ethernet wire from one port to the other , green light , hardware is good. Checked the ethenet adapter with a ping CMD, its working, so whats the hassle?

( a quick side note, EVGA should be considered in every build for no other reason than they are excellent in customer support, I have called the numerous times and I always speak with a competent , clear speaking (English is first language) , helpful person. And hold times are reasonable. add that they now have 24/7 support and its a no brainer. For fun call ASUS and ask thier customer support a simple question , you will get a stupid answer. Ask me about the time I asked if the new MOBO could support tri-SLI, its a funny story)

Anyway after hours of playing with my network settings, I fixed it. This again was something I should have done right off. I HAD reinstalled the latest drivers off EVGA website , but I failed to do something every NOOB forgets. I REINSTALLED THE DRIVERS OVER THE EXISITING ONES!. DOOH!. Well after realizing what a stupid mistake I was making, I UNINSTALLED THE DEVICE, THEN REINSTALLED THE LATEST DRIVERS AND VIOLA! WORKING ETHERNET..........OH WELL.

4. The final problem occured during the latest updates I am making. These are purely cosmetic changes (going U/V , cable wraps, decals you know the artistic fun stuff all first time builders go overboard with) suggestions welcome!

Anyway I used a different molex cable to attach my case fans power with. It was shorter and neater. BUt then on power up the fans would barley spin. Sometimes I even had to push them!. Well turns out the cable was not the 4 pin variety but only a 3 pin. So there was not enough power for the fans. I figured this one out in about 3 minutes, but it still counts a a mistake.

Thought this was Funny. Its the mess I have to clean up. I got all this out before my network problems, I INTENDED to wire up the room nice and neat, so much for that. Look intimidating, but its not. Cable ties are your best friend.

The next post will come in about a week. This will show the final build ( I hope) After I have had a chance to make it PURDY (pretty). I have about 50 bucks in "fancy schmancy do-dads" coming today or tommorrow. So hang tight , you get first looksees in a few more days.

Coming next.....

THE FINAL PRODUCT

Which direction is your Zalman facing, I assume it pushes air and not pulls???? I have never owned one, so I could be wrong, but it looks like it is backwards.ch5richards

It was the wrong way, I had corrected it since these pics were taken, nice eyes man!

I also have added some UV fans and cables.

More pics soon.

XIPO

Tomorow find out about posting and power up!.

Then on to special effects...

WOOT

Xipo

Just built a similar rig for 1500.00

See it here.

http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=26255430

Also no need for 4 GB if your XP only vista can handle that and I would not use Vista yet.

XIPO

I bought the 780i.

1. has pci-e 2.0 for the future dx10 .

2. will be compatible with penryn and future processor (more so that the 680i).

That being said you can get the 680i if money is tight. This board was my first choice! Sli boosts your gaming only a little bit right now, but developers are going to start coding for SLI and crossfire in the near future so you want to calculate that into your decision. I love my 780i. Check out the build here. The gigabyte is a nice board too, but no SLI then. The 780i OC's well as does the 680i.

http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=26255430

The Part Everyone hates....

The Wires.

What a mess. This is a hard part. The mess here is the front panel connectors. Power button, LED's and and USB Firewire. Its worth noting that the Audio For this board is AZEALA not Ac97' . The Case comes with a double headed cable for either situation. But don't cross them up or you could fry things. Thje manual for the case and MOBO are again your best friend here.

Power cables and Data cables need to be hooked up for Each drive HDD and FDD. I went Sata on alot of drives , this makes another huge difference when dealing with the wires. SATA is smaller and more flexable on both the power and the data.

The modular cables also made this much easier to deal with.

I used zip ties from the hardware store (coloered for effects) To get these wires tamed.

Getting there.......

Now the big Moment..........

The Main Event

The GPU (AKA Geforce 8800GTS (G92) 512.)

I am sure we can all go on and on about 1 card versus another. There are lots of places the argue this point besides here. My reason for going with this one.

1. I WAS going to buy a 8800GT, but the price was right for this one and I had extra cash, not enough extra for the Ultra though :)

2. I like EVGA , customer support is great (try calling them you will actually talk to someone in about 5 minutes, who knows what they are talking about.)

3. I liked the sticker (just kidding) you can't see it anyway when its mounted on the board. An I am not installing mirrors to see the sticker.

4. Its got great performance and if something better comes along I upgrade though EVGA setup program (shameless EVGA plug)

Here is the badboy

This card is HUGE. I could only fit it in the slot I wanted by REMOVING the easy "tooless" expansion slot dohicky. I had to unscrew this thing for the case to get the card inserted. The USB connections are at the end of one of the PCI 2.0 slots. It might be in the way on an SLI's rig. We will see in the future. Its a tight squeeze none the less.

Here a close up of just how much space this takes up.

The Zalman Part 2 (sounds like a bad movie sequel)

The "cool" cooler was a bit of a drama up till now. So why should anything change? The Heavy (450g) Zalman went on the CPU with a nice tight seal. I could almost feel the Arctic Silver spreading out. The metal bracket attaches from one side of the mounting bracket to the other. It took a bit of pressure to get it down , and screw it in. I tightened it down flush and only with the last 1/4 turn did the fan not wiggle from side to side. I kept the power cable disconnected for the time being.

I don't care what anyone says about this cooler versus any other (including water cool). This thing looks great. It works well and its quiet. I barely hear any of the fans in my rig.

UP Next....

Mounting the MOBO.

This is a fairly easy part but you need to be mindful of your surroundings. You are handling a large piece of expensive hardware with corners to dent , transistors to bend, and lots of surfaces to scratch.

So BE CAREFUL.

The standoffs are simple to use. This case has a letter system to tell you where to put the standoffs. A=ATX b+BTX. Since the 780i is a ATX case I mounted the screws in the "A" holes. (simple right). EVGA recommends using a minimum of 9 standoffs. There are 9 standoff holes on the board.

I used a sharpie to mark off the holes so it would be easier to identify the exact standoff locations. I had all the standoffs in the holes, marked them, then removes the ones not marked.

It was much easier to put in the screws with the case on its side , I didn't lose any and they went in easily.

And its in...