Opteron 170 & DFI LanParty UT CFX3200-DR - Journal

KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
edited May 2006 in Hardware
Hi

I really enjoyed prime's thread - so I thought I would start my own experience. Being fairly new at this it may help others and also hopefully show my experience with this new DFI board.
Delivery man arrived at 9am - (he thought I would like to play with it!) :)

My CPU had the following code - any good?

OSA170DAA6CD
CCBWE 0609FPAW

Some Photos - had a major headache with the CPU Cooler - missed threading a bit of it through - it was not clicking down! (hope I have not damaged anything already) :banghead:

IMG_0993.JPG


IMG_0997.JPG
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Comments

  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited April 2006
    What heatsink is that you are using? It doesn't look quite like anything I'm familiar with in the pic of it mounted on the mobo.
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited April 2006
    Its the Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited April 2006
    Great, I'm looking forward to see how it performs for you. It looks like it should perform well. BTW, don't ditch the retail hsf that came with your 170; with an upgraded fan they perform real well and would make a great backup in case you have problems with the Freezer or build another rig for someone.:)
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited April 2006
    This is going to be a great thread! Enjoy your new system!
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited April 2006
    Yes, am still on going, taking it nice and slow, will post a few more pics soon, got my VGA cooler on now, VF900 on the X1900 XT, went smooth. Since its never been powered - the memory did not need cleaned at all.

    The biggest thing is the Antec P180 case with the power at the bottom, will be good for cooling - but it requires pen and paper first and engaging the brain.

    I am building it into the case first, I know many do not do this and test it out of the box first - but I don't feel like I bond with my machine unless its chaos and heartache!
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited April 2006
    My god the day has flown by - am going to get refreshed with food and water before I close my eyes and turn it on!

    Some pics for you from earlier. Shortly I will detail what I do and problems if I come across (if any!)

    First things first .... BIOS and updating it.....

    IMG_0998.JPG


    IMG_1000.JPG
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited April 2006
    Oh - if anyone is thinking of getting the P180 case with this motherboard - just be aware that it needs a floppy power connection for crossfire near the PCI Express port 1 - this can be a nightmare when your power supply is below, coupled with a fairly short power cable...... makes a mess of tidy cabling, I am connecting it for nice stable power to my board.
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited April 2006
    :mad: Oh dear, no power .... turn it on - nothing happened.

    Have checked just about everything, so tomorrow - fresher than now hopefully. Will pull it apart and start from the very basics - will it power?

    Am devastated its not working, hope its not a hardware fault, really hate returning anything as its normally hell to do.

    I am not sure if the power supply is working or if some cable is loose, even tried to power with button on mobo - nada.
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited April 2006
    Man, I hate that when that happens to me. :( Look for the obvious first, like power cables not connected to all the connections on the mobo. If that is OK, then I would think that unplugging the psu from the board and then jumping it on the ATX connector to see if the psu powers up would be the next step.
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited April 2006
    Am not sure what you mean by jumping on the ATX connector.
    But I am pretty sure that barring a major error - I have either a dead PSU or dead mobo or possibly both, I was struggling to find a way to test the PSU - as I have no other items it could connect to really.
  • deicistdeicist Manchester, UK
    edited April 2006
    you can short out 2 of the pins on the ATX power supply to get it to power up. It sounds destructive but it's exactly what the motherboard does when you push the power button. You need to connect pin 14 & 15 on the big 20 (or 24) pin power connector. Just use a short length of wire or something. More detail can be found here:

    link
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited April 2006
    To make things easier, it is the only greeen wire to any black wire. Then just have a fan plugged to any connector.

    If the PSU tests good I would recomend disconnecting all drives and accessories from the board. This means just the CPU (make certain the HSF is plugged to the appropriate header), RAM, vid card and the ATX and P4 power cable. Disconnect the extra floppy power cable as well as the front panel connections. Then use the start button on the board to test. Watch the LED's at the rear of the board to see if any light up.
  • deicistdeicist Manchester, UK
    edited April 2006
    mtgoat wrote:
    To make things easier, it is the only greeen wire to any black wire.

    Ah yeah, I'm color blind so that didn't occur to me :D
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited April 2006
    Thanks guys - will look into it, cannot wait to finish work so I can go back and make sure I did not do any errors - will try mobo - cpu and power supply - failing that a short cry, then I will test which is broken....
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited April 2006
    This may be a good time to consider changing your stratagy on how you go about new builds. It is exactly why it is actually faster and easier to test as you go. I always test the basic setup outside the case the add HD's, ROM drives and accessories one thing at a time as I go. Then I put the board, CPU, RAM and vid card in the case and retest before hookong anything up to the board. And after I am satisfied it is working in the case add things one at a time and test as I go just to be sure. It is usually the dumbest little things like something plugged the wrong way or place that keeps a new build from working. I know as I have done it all so many times in the past! :doh:
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited April 2006
    Yes, learned my lesson, will follow that plan instead, .... guess the overclocking is on hold till we get the startup beep.
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited April 2006
    OK some news....

    took everything out - seems (touch wood) to work OK

    so I put the motherboard back in the case and checked the power LED which the mobo has (v helpful) it was OK.

    screwed it into the case - checked again - no LED....hmmmm

    So i unscrewed and checked - light ok

    screwed everything back in - light still OK.

    I have quadtriple checked the screws with the manual and everything - this is just weird.

    So i am quite literally doing one thing at a time, and re-checking, not far off now. I can see a light at the end of this tunnel and we can start OC'ing!!

    PS - my fans put out some air flow with VERY little noise! - cool
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited April 2006
    SUCCESS!!

    Updated BIOS to the latest version - currently doing windows install, seems great so far, changed the VDIMM as it was 2.6 my OCZ runs better at 2.8 according to specs - so thats set manually.
  • maximusbadmaximusbad The Burg
    edited April 2006
    good to hear man, get us some more pics, lol. anyways good work on your first build, looks nice inside
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited April 2006
    Thanks maximusbad - a few more photo's when I get it running good!

    This 1575 southbridge, runs my SATA disks in emulated PATA mode - other people running this southbridge will I suspect have the same, if you change the option - it corrupts your windows install, well at least to me anyway. 2 hours of windows config - down the pan........still its better than yesterday so I am calling today a win!
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited April 2006
    At the present time - you really have to manual setup the RAM - its restarting everytime it hit windows now, if you get this motherboard bear that in mind.

    On the plus side my CPU is running at 23c idle. That at stock, I want some stability at baseline speed first.
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited April 2006
    Ekk - in the BIOS its reporting the PWM Area temp as 127c - I think the temp sensor is broken though.

    I hope so - cos I have no idea what could be doing that - everything else looks ok, still cannot load windows resets everytime it starts to load.

    Installing windows again (3rd time) no problems getting in etc - going to run Prime95 on it and see if it can hold up.
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited April 2006
    OK did 15 mins of prime, tried installing soundcard again - reset, and now we are resetting everytime we try to load windows....again.

    I am a whisker away from get this replaced with a stable DFI NF4 Board. As this is now getting annoying.
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited April 2006
    Well - to keep you informed (mainly me as its probable I am the only one reading this! :cool:

    Its been a hell of a war, but with some great help, I now have all the devices installed and I am currently installing some benchy software, start at stock and take it from there. Results and more pics soon.

    If you get this board DO the following.... Aimed at the new people really

    1) FLASH THE BIOS to the latest!
    2) ONLY have the basics installed - gfx card - one stick of RAM in orange slot furthest from CPU.
    3) install windows and then patch it - together with latest DirectX - dual core hotfix (if needed)
    4) install soundcard (& drivers) then gfx card drivers. Then the rest.
    5) DO NOT unless you really need to, use the ULI drivers. Only causes problems.
    6) Remember - If your not using the on-board sound disable it.
    7) Most people including me have found that you need to add +10C for CPU temps in the BIOS for it to be accurate.
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited April 2006
    Sounds like you are working it out.
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited April 2006
    Yes mtgoat

    its going well - I have just got to stock settings - and I am verifying its stable.
    What Voltage does your Opty 170 run stock and what do you have it set to overclocked?
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited April 2006
    System is stable, I had to up in the BIOS the CPU temp a bit by +6 - somehow 23C idle is not quite right on air. Going to examine more closely this to make sure its perfect - but following that great overclocking guide I am up to 2200Mhz on the CPU pushing side. I was full load at 43C - and I think thats over what it actually was - as this thing runs as cool as a cucumber. So before I go further I am going to monitor the CPU temp in the BIOS to make sure Smartguardian is working right. My CPU voltage is 1.32 at the moment - so that may need to go up to 1.4 when I hit a failure with Prime. But this entire thing is sooo quiet - love it! My Zalman VF900 Graphics card cooler is worth EVERY penny.

    PS - Completely stock I got just over 10000 at 3dmark 05
    PPS - I have not forgotten the pics ... :smiles:
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited April 2006
    I have mine runing @ 2.7 / 1.45v with 41C idle and 47C full load folding under a Thermalright XP-120.
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited April 2006
    Thats great to know mtgoat, I had to sleep (pesky work got in the way) but am back to it tonight!

    How does this processor go at 2.7?? I take it its a world of difference to stock. Also are you running your RAM 1:1 or with a divider??
  • KrazeyivanKrazeyivan Newcastle, UK
    edited April 2006
    Hmm following the great overclocking guide - but I cannot get to 225 FSB.

    I have tested and work - 220 (10x) and HTT Bus of (4x) - this was running at default voltage and ran the 15 mins Prime test fine. But move to 225 and I cannot POST.

    Might be this new board and its need for manual memory timings - I have specified a 133 divider and have clocked the memory at its standard. This is well within spec.

    TCL - 3
    TRCD - 3
    TRP -2
    TRAS - 7

    I have tried more voltage up to 1.4 but no POST. Any ideas?
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