new system pics!

[NateS]

• Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 processor
• Scythe Ninja Plus (rev B) heatsink
• eVGA 122-CK-NF68-AR nForce 680i motherboard
• Corsair Dominator 2x1gb DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) ram
• Corsair CMXAF1 ram fans (haven't arrived yet)
• nVidia GeForce 8800GTS video card
• AuzenTech HDA XPlosion 7.1 DTS encoding sound card
• 74gb Raptor HDD
• Antec NEO HE 550w PSU
• Antec P180 case
• Pioneer slot DVD drive

Just got all this assembled late last night. Took pics and went to bed, haven't powered it on yet. Can't wait to get off work!

The case is awesome! Makes it easy to route cables. The install is more work, but the finished product is better. I have two other builds (with much older hardware) using this case and they run super cool and quiet. Upper compartment HDD bay removed for airflow. I may put the optional 120mm fan there depending on case temps. Pretty sure they will be fine without it.

The Scythe Ninja barely fits. The northbridge fan is too high, so I had to shift the Scythe fan up 3 heatsink fins. There is about 2 millimeters between the top of the fan and the case side. A perfect fit! I couldn't put the Scythe fan on the ram side of the heatsink because thats where the Corsair ram fans will go when they arrive. The northbridge fan does blow hot air directly on the CPU, but I think the three 120mm fans in the area can handle it. Atleast the northbridge blows toward the case exhaust.

The mounting bracket for the Scythe Ninja had to be cut so it didn't hit these motherboard components.

This motherboard has the 8 pin extra power connector way up above the CPU, near the mosfets. The 8 pin connector from the PSU just barely reaches! It is quite taut. It goes around my sound card and under the video card, blocking the other PCI slot. If the sound card was longer or I had more PCI cards, I'd probably have to cut the cable and solder on an extension to make it longer. It would probably be a better fit if the soundcard wasn't in the lowest PCI slot, but I wanted maximum airflow for the video card.

I could have turned the PSU over and the 8 pin power cable would have about 2 more inches of slack, but then the modular plugs would be at the bottom of lower compartment. I wanted them at the top so they block minimal airflow.

Its a bit scary installing everything like this before seeing if any of it works. That never works. I still do it every time though!

 

[thrawn86]

woot another p180 h'er

god jesus, is your ram fast enough? I don't think you can run 1:1 without water lol. Speaking of that, how is your chip clocking so far?

 

[NateS]

I haven't got to power on the system yet! I had to stop late last night once I got everything installed. If I had tried to power it on I would've been working on it through the morning!

From what I've read, the mobo can handle high FSB speeds, 500+ mhz. They were saying that you get a bigger performance increase running the ram as fast as possible than with 1:1.

 

[trudude]

Nice build. I have a very similar setup to you however I am holding off on the video card purchase until I have a good idea about R600 performance. If you are overclocking on that machine get with me and lets compare results.

 

[keldegar]

I have a very similar build as well.

specs in sig.

I wanted the scythe ninja, but I didn't want to have to modify it to fit. Ended up getting the AS Freezer Pro 7 and it does a wonderful job.

Why did you remove the middle drive bay? for cooling?

I have a scythe sflex 1200rpm fan on my intake, I left the lower intake empty. the case airflow is so awesome compared to anything i have used before.

I wanted to ask, is the serial # of your 8800gts on the card? I already sent in my UPC for rebate and forgot to write down the serial # incase I want to step-up to a GTX. I want to know if the serial # is on the physical card.. so I don't open her up for nothing.

Thanks, and really nice rig!

 

[aybdude42]

nice fit on the scythe. good lookin rig!

 

[NateS]

Thanks!

Fired her up last night. Beeeeeeooooop and shuts off. You guys really let me down! Look at the pics above and tell me whats wrong! First one to guess gets a cookie*.

Anyway, I fixed that, then turned it on... and it shut off after about half a second. No beeoop this time. Turned it on... shut off. On, off, on, off. Wtf. On, off, on, off, on... on! Sweet! Got to bios and found the ram running at 800 and 1.9v, and CPU at 1.29v. Bumped them to 2.2v and 1.32v. I've rebooted a bunch but haven't turned it off but hopefully the on/off problem has gone away!

Still setting up the machine, so no overclocking yet.



* There are no cookies.

 

[clayton006]

Forget to plug in the Power to the video card?

 

[thrawn86]

Thanks!

Fired her up last night. Beeeeeeooooop and shuts off. You guys really let me down! Look at the pics above and tell me whats wrong! First one to guess gets a cookie*.

Anyway, I fixed that, then turned it on... and it shut off after about half a second. No beeoop this time. Turned it on... shut off. On, off, on, off. Wtf. On, off, on, off, on... on! Sweet! Got to bios and found the ram running at 800 and 1.9v, and CPU at 1.29v. Bumped them to 2.2v and 1.32v. I've rebooted a bunch but haven't turned it off but hopefully the on/off problem has gone away!

Still setting up the machine, so no overclocking yet.



* There are no cookies.

You, of course, also checked voltage rails and temperatures, right? right?

also, look up the mobo beep codes in your manual.

 

[NateS]

Forget to plug in the Power to the video card?

Bingo! Woops.

thrawn86, ahh nope. I have a multimeter though, I'll have to do this tonight.

 

[clayton006]

Bingo! Woops.

thrawn86, ahh nope. I have a multimeter though, I'll have to do this tonight.

Yeah I did that to my 7800GTs when I first set them up... I freaked out for about a minute until I realized....

 

[oneshot]

Looking good. Gonna have that exact same setup except different PSU and I am getting a GTX instead of the GTS.

How soft is the metal on the Ninja plate? Easy to cut/file if you don't have a dremel?

 

[thrawn86]

Bingo! Woops.

thrawn86, ahh nope. I have a multimeter though, I'll have to do this tonight.

Unless you want to be super ultra accurate, just use the BIOS or speedfan.

 

[annaconda]

Damn, thats not good.

 

[NateS]

keldegar, yea the drive bay is removed because thats where air enters the case. Theres still another drive bay at the bottom on the case. Not at home right now, but I think the serial number is on a stick on the card. I also remember seeing a number hand written on the card, like "176" or something.

Unless you want to be super ultra accurate, just use the BIOS or speedfan.

Yeah. I think I read also that the voltages you get with a multimeter will be different that those you get while under load. The best way is to check two points on the actual motherboard. Sounds like a good way to slip and fry everything.

oneshot, the metal isn't soft. However, I found I could use a sanding wheel (versus a cut off disk) to take off a considerable amount of metal so you should be able to file it down with a bit of elbow grease.

 

[NateS]

god jesus, is your ram fast enough? I don't think you can run 1:1 without water lol. Speaking of that, how is your chip clocking so far?

I'm still in the installing phase after a setback that required reinstalling everything from zero. However I have the ram running 1:1 with the CPU with a 1066mhz FSB no problems. CPU temp is at 39C.

Power on/off problem seems to have gone away.

Damn northbridge fan is pretty loud. Might be better once I have the case side on.