DS3L Build Notes

[nhobo]

Some notes on a recent DS3L build:

Using 4GB SuperTalent DDR2 800 4-4-3-8 with an E6750 in a Gigabyte Triton case.

One pin of the Northbridge cooler came loose in shipping and it was flopping around a bit. No damage noticed and the heatsink was easily cleaned and reset with Arctic 5. The amount of thermal paste applied at the factory was excessive, but not as bad as I've seen ...

Installation was smooth, except that I forgot to hook up the 4-pin ATX power connector. On an odd note - you'd think a Gigabyte board in a Gigabyte case would be a prefect fit, but the IDE cable supplied doesn't reach the top of the box where the DVDRW goes. Solution: put the DVD one slot lower.

Everything booted up. I fiddled with the BIOS, disabling 'Smart Fan' and 'Fan Warnings'. Upon boot, got a continuous warning signal - disabling Fan Warnings to fix.

To reuse an existing hard drive, I made a backup, then hooked the disk up to the new board. It wouldn't boot, so I ran XP's repair install (boot from the XP CD, select 'install', hit 'R' for Repair) and Windows overwrote itself saving all my apps and settings. Worked great, just a few minor adjustments to make things perfect.

I added a second drive and the machine wouldn't boot -> "NTLDR missing". Swapped the SATA cables, reversing the order of the drives, to fix.

Overclocked to 3.2 at STOCK voltage across the board with the STOCK fan. Runs SuperPI 1M in 16 sec. flat. Stressed with Prime95x2 at max. temp. 60 C. To access memory timings in the BIOS, you have to hit CTRL-F1 at the main BIOS screen. The SuperTalent is running at 4-4-3-8 no problem. Trying undervolting now to see if I can keep the 3.2 OC and reduce temps slightly.

 

[nhobo]

Update:

Undervolted CPU to 1.3 from stock 1.35, 2x Prime95 running smoothly. TAT and Speedfan show 41 C. core temp. at 3.2 overclock, Core Temp show 55 C. Core Temp -> trash can.

 

[nhobo]

Here's another funny note: In the BIOS, be sure to enable "Power on by Mouse / Keyboard". If you don't, and your system goes into power saving mode (even if just screen off!), you won't be able to wake it up.

 

[chookman]

Is this a new build for yourself nhobo? whats all the specs?

 

[nhobo]

Just an upgrade ... the old P4 move down the line as a backup machine, the P3 moves out the door after getting scavenged for parts, and the P2 went in the dumpster after I couldn't give it away.

This is a multi-purpose machine for business, web & graphic design, CAD, photo editing and an occasional race simulator (GT Legends).

Gigabyte DS3L
E6750
4GB SuperTalent PC6400 4-4-3-8
2x WD2500KS
eVGA 7950GTvolt-modded and O/C 700/1600 with Zalman VF-900-Cu
Gigabyte Triton Case
XP Pro
old SB Audigy LS (better than the onboard audio)
Klipsch ProMedia 2.1
LiteOn DVDRW
CDRW/DVD
Logitech G25

O/C to 3.2 (no volts, OEM fan), 18 C. idle (room temp), max. 43 C. at stock volts, max. 41 C. CPU undervolted to 1.3v. Unstable O/C at 1.275v, haven't bothered to fiddle around beyond that.

 

[chookman]

Nice work.
Been looking at getting a G25 for the thrill value, i dont really like racing games as such but i think with a proper wheel and gears i would.

 

[nhobo]

Thanks. I DL'd the GTR2 demo and was flabbergasted running it with a mouse. The version I bought came with GT Legends, which is absolutely fantastic - much better than GTR2. The G25 makes it real. Runs great under C2D with the 7950.

 

[night_wolf_in]

Update:

Undervolted CPU to 1.3 from stock 1.35, 2x Prime95 running smoothly. TAT and Speedfan show 41 C. core temp. at 3.2 overclock, Core Temp show 55 C. Core Temp -> trash can.

ehem. im running my quad in lesser than that. LOL. but thats not the point.

point is. core temp is showing u the right temp. ur speed fan will show u wrong temp. u have to do offset 15C to each core. so if ur speed fan showing 41+15= 56. which is almost equal to core temp.

this problem in speed fan is corrected in the new beta version 4.34

thanks.

 

[night_wolf_in]

sowwy, double stupid post.

 

[nhobo]

Speedfan and TAT show the same temps - Coretemp is way off. Are you telling me that Intel's Thermal Analysis Tool is 15 degress off?

 

[Shadow703793]

^Yes, its a known fact. TAT was not designed for the C2D but rather the Pentium M.

 

[nukemaster]

its off because it can not properly identify the fact that the new core2's(not all.....but all the eXX50's and GO's) use 100c as there TJMAX as opposed the 85 assumed by TAT. This leades to a temp 15c too low.... speedfan has a offset option....so its easy to fix. The new speedfan will have this problem fixed....

 

[nhobo]

I sure hope the new speedfan is easier to use ...

 

[nukemaster]

I sure hope the new speedfan is easier to use ...

What do you find hard to use? maybe i can help, they did not change how you use it in the new version that coming out...

I use it for speed control and monitoring.....