Upgrading my computer need some high end advice. heh =)

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[rip|syphonics]

Hey guys....

It's that time again. I've been looking at pretty much everything for upgrades towards my old Blackbird 002 PC. I'm pretty sure my case is large enough. My 2 biggest questions are with my liquid cooling, and ram choices.

Does anyone know if my Original liquid cooling system from my Blackbird PC setup might work on any new graphics cards/processors??? I guess what I'm asking... do all the liquid cooling systems fit all PC parts as a standard?

My second question about ram would pretty much be what should I get.

Here are some of the components if thinking of buying.

Rampage III Black edition Motherboard
Intel Socket 1366 I7 Extreme Edition-supports turbo boost tech 2.0
Geforce GTX Hydro 590 Nvidia graphics card. 
Some ideas on ram.... Corsair Xms3 Tr3x6g 1600c9 xms3 tri, or Corsair Vengeance ram, Kingston hyperX Duel channel DDR3 2400mhz, or Patriot Extreme Performance Viper II sector 7 ram. I really have no idea what to buy. I understand latency smaller numbers = better.... But for over clocking etc etc. I just have no idea. laughs

Do you guys think I need that powerful of a processor? or any of that stuff. I wanna be able to play Battlefield 3 among other games for at least 3 to 4 years. before having to do any major rebuilds, or perhaps small ones along the way. Etc adding graphics cards. Should I just buy reg graphics cards, and ignore liquid cooling all together?? I don't know. If my old equipment works I might as well use it right???

Any who hope you guys can help. Thanks

Chris =)

[Daitoku]

I just recently built my comp.  Didn't drop 3k on it or anything, but here goes:


Case - Cooler Master HAF932
Power Supply - Corsair 750HX
CPU - Intel i7-2600k
Heatsink - Noctua 6 NH-D14
Mobo - ASUS Z68 P8Z68-V PRO
RAM - 8GB G.Skill DDR3 12800
Graphics - EVGA GTX 570

I cannibalized my HDD from old comp, bought new optical drive at Best Buy for like 40 bucks.  Was in a pinch.  Otherwise, all told, was around 1400.  Can get second gpu to SLi later.  Only hiccup so far is heatsink has trouble interfacing with mobo.  Mobo can't see fan speed.  Apparently the one I got was missing a cable, so perhaps don't buy from that link, but it's a reference point.  Can go from there.  Hope this helps.  Heatsink is a monster.  Huge, can't have RAM with high heatsinks themselves, but it sucks heat away.  Tested against awesome liquid cooler, performed better in some tests, same as liquid in others.  I personally don't trust liquid inside my computer, but that's just me

[rip|syphonics]

Okay this is my build inc to an @$$ KICKING near you. hehe

Cooler Master Haf X blue edition
intel core i7-2600k sandy bridge 3.4ghz(3.8ghz boost)
AsRock z68 extreme 7 gen3 lga 1155 intel z68 hdmi sata Ggb/s usb 3.0 atx intel motherboard
G skill sniper series 8gb (4x4GB) model f3-12800cl7d-8gbsr latency= 7, 8, 7, 24
Noctua nh-d14 120mm & 140mm sso  cpu cooler. This things massive. Hope it fits...
2 maybe 3 EVGA 03g-p3-1584-ar geforce gtx 580(Fermi) 3072mb 384-bit gddr 5 pci express 2.0x16 hdcp ready sli
2 ocz vertex 3 - max IOPS edition vtx3mi-255at3-240g 2.5" 240gb sata III mlc internal solid state drive
lg black blueray drive sata model uh12ls28 oem lightscribe
silverstone st 1500w atx 12v 2.3 & eps 12v sli ready plus silver certified pfc power supply
Artic silver 5
I might pick up a creative sound blaster x-fi titanium fatality professional sound card 70sb88600002 7.1 tell me what you guys think? I still have my older fatality card.
I'll also be adding some older drives for storage/i tunes etc.

Im using a g15 keyboard, g-series Logitech mouse, for music/gaming I'm using my new Astro A40 headset WHICH ROCK!!!
I'll be upgrading my monitor in the future, with perhaps 3 screens? who knows.... hehe

All in all thanks to Jack Digity for spending his Friday night helping me make these choices. your AWESOME BRO. =)

If you guys think I'm missing something or should change/adding/delete please let me know. I'm very excited

[rip|syphonics]

This goes out to any tech savy people who might be able to help me with my current build. The specs in my previous post are what I have purchased for my current build.

First issue...

My Asrock Motherboard will not boot up while having all memory slots filled. Using slots A1, and A2 work just fine. A2, and B2 will not allow the system to boot up at all. My post code shows 45, which is not in the book. I visited the Asrock web sight for any current information on the problem. It seems that perhaps its maybe a motherboard issue or maybe a Bio's issue? A couple people with older boards removed the metal screws that hold the motherboard and replaced them with plastic ones. Any idea if I should bother? The problem seems to be the memory slots being so close to the processor. My Heat sink actually covers one of my ram sticks. That's how close they are. So in the end should I just send it back to new egg, and get another???      the board is a Asrock z68 extreme7 gen3, I've read about the problems with there extreme 4 boards as well.

Second issue...

Okay I bought two OCZ Vertex Max IOPS SSD's 6BG 240gb HD's. In Bio's I changes my hd settings to Raid/HTCP so the bio's would be able to recognize my Raid0 configuration once created. Rebooted into hard drive Raid creation mode. named the raid0, picked the 2 drives for raid0, set them to 128bit, and saved. I've pretty sure all worked out. The drives were created in Raid Zero. Bios also picked them up.  placed the windows 7 cd into the cd drive, and started the installation. During hard drive setup, it recognized my raid0 configuration. I started the install. Once install was completed I changed my bios to boot under my raid zero drives. Nothing happens. It tries to boot but gives me a message can't find device. I'm not sure what else to do. bios seems to recognize everything.   If any one can help, I would be very happy.


Thanks Chris K, Aka Syphonics =)

[rip|bonuspoints]

Wait are you going to overclock the CPU? The only reason to buy the "K" series chip is to overclock. It has a unlocked multiplier, they expect you to other wise your wasting money. Also a 1500 watt PSU is overkill for 1 580 GTX. I recommend a 1200 unless your going SLI. I run 3 580 GTX's OC and CPU OC with a 1500w

About your ram issue, that sucks to hear. Maybe Asrock was not a good choice. It seems like Asrock was trying to step up their game but you can only polish a sugar coated turd so much. I have never really been a fan of their products and I was hoping that they changed but perhaps not. I recommend Gigabyte, ASUS, EVGA.

As for the raid issue. You setup the raid then changed the bios after win 7 loaded. I think that is the issue. If windows loads with your raid config why change the settings after?

[rip|buzinator]

re: the ram problem ... have you verified all sticks of ram are ok? (ie, the a1+a2 config always works, no matter what sticks are used?)

[rip|bonuspoints]

So the ram is 2 or 4 sticks? Remember if this is dual channel and 2 sticks you can either load it in red+red or black+black. If you have 4 stick good luck. My experience filling all dimm slots isnt good, add overclocking to that and you have yourself more issues.

[rip|buzinator]

Good Q ... he said 8GB but then also said (4x4GB) ... but the mobo supports either config anyway.

I would try testing the stuff out of the case if possible. just sit the mobo on a cardboard box or something insulating, plug in the cpu, ram & video, hook up the cooler & PSU and see if it will boot like that, just sitting in the open.

If it does, then probably the back of the mobo is shorting on the case...but repeat all the ram stick permutations to be sure.

[rip|syphonics]

4sticks, 4gigs each equaling 16gigs total. =)

I'm going to OC everything I can processor, Graphics cards, and memory.

I ended up turning off a couple items in Bios which were suppost to increase the speed of my Harddrives etc. I turned them off, and my system booted up like a charm.

once I had my internet up, and working I headed straight to asrocks bio's updates etc etc. After updating I reinstalled my ram. Everything booted up normally, and is readying as 16gigs of ram. I only have one thing left to fix that's my sound card. It doesn't pickup at all. Funny to say though I'm using my Astro headset threw the card which seems to be working fine. Any reason why the software cd tells me it doesn't find any soundblaster hardware installed in my computer??? =)

in the end thanks for the help guys. it means alot =)

[rip|buzinator]

I wouldn't even bother with the sound card CD ... I'd favor hitting creative's website and grabbing the most recent drivers they have posted there.

Glad the bios updates and tweaks helped, very cool.

I'd love to see some HDTune data from that SSD RAID you have there

[rip|syphonics]

I'm looking for a little SSD help. I need to upgrade my firmware from 2.08 to a current firmware patch which is 2.40.02

I'm using 2 OCZ vertex 3 max iops drives. I've downloaded the firmware patch, and have tried to update my hard drives. When I start the program it instantly recognizes the 2 ssd's. I click to update the ssd's, it looks like there being updated. numbers are shifting. Once finished I check for the version number which still says 2.08. any idea if that numbers suppostto change? I can't tell if I've updated or not.

Let me know if you guys can help.

Thanks Chris =)

[rip|buzinator]

My instinct is that you won't be able to update them while they are raided. Maybe consult manufacturer knowledgebase?