First Build.... Great Success!

[joenewbie]

Ok so in spite of all the panic attack issues I had yesterday in waiting for UPS to deliver, they've done so and in just 5 nerve wracking hours, one of which I'll detail further, I have the rig below built, minus mechanical hard drive, that's forthcoming from UPS still.

I was overconfident and closed up the box before hitting the power button on... I got the monitor all set up keyboard and mouse attached and was ready to.... wait, I hit power and nothing is happening. Double check the PSU switch is on... oh no... now what.... 20 minutes later I was analyzing the cables from the PSU only to find one that said CPU on it.... yup, one non attached cable and the whole thing seemed like it was DOA. So now, being forced to take off the water cooling radiator, for the second time, a process I really hope I don't have to repeat anytime soon, as it seems two of the screws don't even want to work with the radiator anymore, I got that wire plugged in and was ready for try number two. Suffice it to say I didn't seal up the box this time before hitting the power button.

I'm writing this from the new rig now while waiting for windows to continue their updates. Great success and after I get all the updates and whatnot working I'm going to run a stress test of some sort to see how well this machine handles high loads and what temps I get. Anyone recommend software to help me in that? Thanks in advance and I have to say all in all for my first build, it was a good experience.


Case: Corsair Obsidian Series Black 550D Mid Tower Computer Case

PSU: Corsair CX750 Builder Series ATX 80 PLUS Bronze Certified Power Supply

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD5H LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K Quad-Core Processor 3.4 GHz 4 Core LGA 1155

Liquid Cooling: Corsair Hydro Series Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler H80i

Additional Fans: Corsair Air Series SP120 High Performance Edition

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800)

Graphics card: MSI NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Graphics Card N660 TF 2GD5/OC

Sound card: Onboard

Hard Drive(s): Boot: Crucial m4 256GB 2.5-Inch (9.5mm) SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive CT256M4SSD2
Data: Seagate Barracuda 3 TB HDD SATA 6 Gb/s NCQ 64MB Cache 7200 RPM 3.5-Inch

Optical Drive(s): Asus 24xDVD-RW Serial ATA Internal OEM Drive DRW-24B1ST

Monitor: Asus VS247H-P 24-Inch Full-HD LED-Lit Monitor

Wireless Adapter: D-Link DWA-552 Extreme-N Wireless PCI Adapter

Keyboard: Logitech Wireless Illuminated Keyboard K800

Mouse: Logitech M570 Wireless Trackball

Speakers: Logitech X-140 2.0 Speakers

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit (OEM) System Builder

[RickyTick]

Congrats on your build.

For stress testing, look at Prime95 and FurMark. I've also used OCCT in the past too.

[joenewbie]

Congrats on your build.

For stress testing, look at Prime95 and FurMark. I've also used OCCT in the past too.

Ok I've got Prime95 up and running, it's been up for about an hour with the CPU at 100% and the CPU temp at a cool 58.7 to 60.3C, not bad, let's see after 12 hours though. How long would you recommend running a test like this? I'm currently not overclocking but I'm considering bumping it up a little later, thinking around 3.8 or 4.0 from it's normal 3.4.

[RickyTick]

I know some people like to run it for several hours, but it just doesn't seem really necessary to me. If your cpu runs at 100% for an hour with no problem, I'd call it good and move on.

[joenewbie]

I know some people like to run it for several hours, but it just doesn't seem really necessary to me. If your cpu runs at 100% for an hour with no problem, I'd call it good and move on.

Yeah, had some interesting glitches lately but I'm not sure what caused it. I suspect the gigabyte software that is made to optimize the clock speed, when I upped the clock speed and then ran the Windows Experience Index I got the bluescreen of death multiple times in a row. Windows did a self repair in the way of a rollback to a setpoint and when I was able to, I adjusted the clock settings to default. Don't know if that was it for sure because I've been doing minor tweeks to optimize the SSD drive, like disabling the page file so not sure what the cause was but it seems to be back to normal so I'm not going to sweat it, unless it starts happening again.

[joenewbie]

Interesting development and I don't get what this is about. I have my SSD as my main drive, yet, in the "safely remove hardware" options I have the option to safely remove it. I really don't even want that as an option.... I thought that safely remove deal was specific to USB devices. Suggestions?

[joenewbie]

Interesting development and I don't get what this is about. I have my SSD as my main drive, yet, in the "safely remove hardware" options I have the option to safely remove it. I really don't even want that as an option.... I thought that safely remove deal was specific to USB devices. Suggestions?

I still haven't figured out how to fix this if anyone knows I'm all ears because I just know at some point I'm going to select the wrong device and disconnect my SSD/Boot drive on accident.

[RickyTick]

I still haven't figured out how to fix this if anyone knows I'm all ears because I just know at some point I'm going to select the wrong device and disconnect my SSD/Boot drive on accident.

Which sata port is the SSD connected to? Did the user's manual specify which port to use?

[joenewbie]

Just figured this one out actually... If you go to devices and the storage controllers there is an option to untick it so it won't show up as ejectable. I wasn't even aware that existed till I was playing around with it. I do have two controllers that are identical because my external backup drive is also seagate so it uses the same controller. I just unchecked them both and will figure out which is which later and fix it because to make it take effect you have to reboot. I don't use the backup drive constantly so it's no biggie to not have to "safely eject" it. Next time I connect it I'll keep it connected till I figure it out.

[joenewbie]

Ok, after the install of the 3gig data drive, I reconfigured the fans while I was in the case.

I took out the top fans and put the sound dampening back, I turned over the PSU so it would draw air from the bottom rather than from inside the case and added a fan to the bottom adjacent to the PSU, an intake. Changed out the stock fans on the front of the case, and played with the wiring setup to make sure everything was out of the way and well placed.

To summize, the PSU is now drawing from under the case and exhausting it's own heat out. I have 3 intakes, 2 front, 1 bottom... and only 1 outgo... the push/pull of the i80. I figure there wouldn't be a problem getting air out of the case no matter what because the PCI slot covers are grated to allow air to escape.

So now I'm running Prime95 to stress test and see what the temps get on the chip. Ran it for an hour and it was floating around 64 to 66 degrees, now I opened the front of the case, took the sound dampening cover away from the fans... they normally only draw on an angle around it, and let it run now for another 15 minutes, the temperatures are about the same, I'm surprised it made so little difference, maybe 1 degree tick lower.

I guess my question now is, considering that temperature would it be wise to add fans to the top again to exhaust or is this acceptable? I mean I like how quiet it is with all the panels and sound dampening on, but I also don't want to stress out about heat.

Oh, and while Prime95 is working the chip/cores, nothing in this stress test is working the graphics card at the same time... would that make a huge difference in the case?

[RickyTick]

Yeah, the video card can generate a good bit of heat. Have you looked at OCCT? I seem to remember that it stressed it all at once. I could be wrong.

[joenewbie]

Not sure where to post it so I'm doing it here because my components are all listed in the first post.

I'm having an issue where there is a loud electrical sound that comes through the speakers, a buzzing noise that lasts maybe 2 seconds, and it's completely random. At first I thought it was tied to youtube videos but now it's happening when my browsers are all off and I'm playing a game. I suspect it may be the speakers but then why would it effect the screen, like my mouse doesn't move while this buzzing is happening. Any thoughts? Any diagnostics I can run to check out potential electrical issues?

[zburns]

Most likely a poor electrical connection somewhere in the sound system wiring. Next it could be a component failure in the early stages, in which case, the 'length of time for the buzzing will lengthen'.

If it is a loose connection, gently 'wiggle' one at a time any wire involved in sound including those from the computer case to the speakers; separately open the case up, again, wiggle 'close to a connection' point any wire concerned with sound.

[joenewbie]

Most likely a poor electrical connection somewhere in the sound system wiring. Next it could be a component failure in the early stages, in which case, the 'length of time for the buzzing will lengthen'.

If it is a loose connection, gently 'wiggle' one at a time any wire involved in sound including those from the computer case to the speakers; separately open the case up, again, wiggle 'close to a connection' point any wire concerned with sound.

Ooo that would suck I mean these speakers are less than 2 months old. I use onboard sound for the system. I wonder if I plug the output in the front I/O if that makes a difference. Gonna try that. But this is disconcerting because the sound sounds like a power surge of some sort. That's not what's going on though I have a battery backup that conditions the line.

[zburns]

What is the volt-ampere rating on the 'battery backup' ? ?

Your problem definitely sounds like a loose connection. If the sound system interconnect cables have anything remotely described as a 'connection' , then any one connection that is loose or a separate wire (when part of the sound system) is still connected 'but loose', that is a possible source.

Will say it differently. Assume a wire within the sound system, or a loose component in a socket or not plugged in all the way is loose -- any 'sound system' component that 'fits within these descriptions can be the problem source.
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The simplest source of the problem is a loose connection right the speakers, either outside the speaker or inside the cabinet but probably at the female side of a speaker plug.
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[joenewbie]

http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BE750G

That's my battery backup. The speakers do have their own power connection, checked, no problem... female connector for the speakers is the Mobo sound port so let's hope that's not it. Strange thing about these speakers though, one of the speakers has it's own inputs for headphones, but it also has the mic port but it's not plugged into the mobo mic port, it only goes into the speaker one... doesn't seem like that should work... and it doesn't.

[zburns]

Point # 1: I just removed a five inch thick post for fear I was going to just confuse things with you. I am very strong electrically. The situation you have is pretty simple to diagnose, MAYBE. The circuitry is simple; but that does not mean you should mess with it unless you have some basic electrical training.

Point # 2: Because the power supply is common to both speakers (please correct me if this is not the case), my guess is that the problem lies somewhere within the power supply circuitry. So I would suggest you return it and get a replacement. Assuming your supplier has a technician familiar with the power supply, he may be aware of the problem and can walk you thru it over the phone.

If this was my rig, and, if there was a component failure inside the speaker power supply, I would return it, for several reasons. Main reason is you do not know the history of that particular model. I would just want a product off the shelf that worked 'perfectly' the first time ! !

Obviously, you should be certain you have wired things up correctly according to the manufacturer's or suppliers written instructions. Here again, if you follow the instructions and it does not work, return it for a fresh component (s).

As far as the wiring between components, you can still look for loose connections; no harm in doing that.

[zburns]

Your battery backup woke me up about 2am ! Regards the two noise spikes, have you considered that the battery backup might be responsible. If not, you can prove it by simply bypassing the battery back up and still see if the noises occur. The noises could be the battery backup providing response to a spike on the 208 volt (if you are in the US) power line.

I point out that the PSU in the computer case has all kinds of voltage and current protection, including overcurrent protection and overvoltage protection. I will check your psu specs right quick after I finish this post. It could be that the battery backup is somehow providing an 'extra' protection that is not needed and, therefore, shows up as the two brief sounds.
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Just checked the PSU specs at this URL: http://www.corsair.com/en/cx-series-cx750m-modular-atx-power-supply-750-watt-80-plus-bronze-certified-modular-psu.html Look at the bottom of the page, see 'Features' and you will then see this spec: 'Over-voltage and over-power protection, under-voltage protection, and short circuit protection provide maximum safety to your critical system components' Note: Short circuit protection is 'overcurrent' protection.
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I am curious as to what 'deficiency' in the power line brings about the 'battery backup'. Any power company in the US provides a form of 'overvoltage' and 'overcurrent' protection as do the circuit breakers (overcurrent) in your home. When I first saw 'battery backup', I just assumed 'more than normal power failures'.

If the battery backup is there for 'extended power failure', and, if you take the battery backup out of circuit and the noises go away, I would leave it that way. If you have a power outage, you can always quickly hook up the battery backup to cover the power outage.

I have to assume that the computer psu manufacturers know the 'rules' the power companies nationwide go by, and, those rules determine the overvoltage specs and overcurrent specs of the computer psu.
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Anyhow, try the system without the battery backup and see if the noises disappear. Hope this helps ! !

[joenewbie]

It's stopped doing it, the only thing I did different is I adjusted the antenna on my D-Link DWA-552 Extreme-N Wireless PCI Adapter at the back of my case. Three antennas were all pointing straight up, now I spread them out like I would had I realized they were bunched up. Suddenly it's not making that noise anymore, so it might have been some kind of interference. But we'll see, I won't feel comfortable till it doesn't do it for a whole week.

[zburns]

Hi joenewbie,

This forum has had little discussion regards wireless routers, particularly the way they work. Obviously you are using a wireless router for 'internet service'. The alternative is an Internet provider such as Charter, Comcast or others, provided your facility is wired for cable. Otherwise, an economical solution is a wireless router, assuming, the community has wireless Internet service.

Your router has three antennas. Essentially, they are independent of each other. Whatever wireless transmitter, you are getting a signal from, has to be from an antenna that has a 'vertical orientation' so that transmission signals are in a horizontal or 'flat' pattern parallel to the ground.

Explanatory note: [ If the transmitting antenna was horizontal (it is not) instead of vertical , then the circular radiation pattern remains perpendicular to the long dimension of the transmitting antenna, and, approximately 1/2 the signal goes into the ground or reflects off pavement; therefore, the transmitting antenna must always be vertical - not horizontal ! ! A vertical mounted transmitting antenna emits a circular radiation pattern and will cover a large circular area of a community. A large city will have lots of 'vertical mounted transmitting antennas]

In your building, walls, floors and ceilings can 'reflect' the incoming wireless signal, so that the direction of the strongest part of the signal is not necessarily lined up with the horizontal (flat wrt ground) radiating signal . When you adjust your three receiving antennas, one of them will get the strongest wireless signal and the other two lesser strength signals (assumes three antennas are not parallel to each other). The one that receives the strongest signal is the one 'most close to being perpendicular to the incoming signal'.

Since you had the three antennas initially lined up (essentially parallel to each other) side by side, all three were close to receiving 'equal intensity signals' which is not the intent of the device, and, you were probably switching back and forth between the three antennas (for the strongest signal), and the noise you were getting came from the electronics in the router as one antenna switched 'on' and one of the other two antennas switched off.

Label the antennas, 1, 2 and 3, all lined up vertically, essentially parallel -- but not 100 % parallel, just very close. You had two (antennas, for example, 1&3) out of the three antennas essentially parallel to each other and they switched back and forth causing the audio problem! (If you moved the computer case slightly, then the pairing of the antennas combination may have switched to antennas 2 & 3 or 1 & 3 -- and caused the audio noise). The electronics will pick the antenna with the strongest signal. If they are all essentially vertical, the electronics will switch back and forth depending on the 'margin of error built into the electronics'; the electronics will choose the antenna with the strongest incoming signal, and reject the other two antennas -- point being that the WiFi device antennas should not be parallel to each other or even close to parallel.

You position your antennas in a random fashion; any one, of the three antennas, does not have a relationship with the other two. Whichever antenna is receiving the strongest signal is the antenna you 'automatically' are using. There are instruments (meters) that will tell you the direction or position to set an antenna at, but that meter will be somewhat expensive -- and not necessary. (remember inside a home or building, walls, floors and doors can cause reflection of the of the transmitted signal. Theoretically, doors opened or closed, computer case position, etc. may affect which antenna is being used. (A signal strength meter would help the operator maximize the position of one of the three antennas; but it would be a little expensive. Trial and error probably works fairly well.)
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Here is a url for an Asus router: It opens up as a large frame showing 15 photos of the Asus wireless router. The reason I am showing this is the many different orientations of the three antennas -- sort of emphasizes the fact that each one of the three antennas are independant of each other. Here is the Asus url: http://www.asus.com/Networking/RTAC66U/#gallery (I am not showing the Asus as being better than the D-Link. Asus has the best photo.) Another point about the Asus versus the D-Link, is the D-Link is installed in the case; Asus, I assume, connects up via a case rear panel female connector .