Re: !!! HOLY FUCKING BATMAN, BATMAN ! !!! ;) Was Re: Building Skybuck's Dream PC, Early/Preemptive Report :) was Re: How to connect 7-in-1 floppydrive/smartcard reader ? (asus a8n32x-sli)

Wow,

I am now computering behind my new pc.

Quite frankly I am speechless.

Even playing the old quake3 arena demo is an amazing experience...

I am very impressed with the X-Fi Elite Pro soundcard and the surround
sound speakers and I have only given them a 1% test run and I am
already impressed !

The system is also super super super super super powerfull.

Right now I am simply formatting my second 500 GB harddisk...

I can simply play games, I can run nvidia's demos like Nalu and Mad Mod
Mike and the system doesn't even break a sweat hehe.

I am also downloading battlefield 2 demo so I can go play that soon.

Now back to how I get it all working:

Let's see I have to dig in my brain where I left off hmmm let's see.

Well let's just start with the main complaint at beginning of this day.

The system was incredabily noisy... and still is somewhat (maybe it
will be less when case is closed but I dont think so...)

Anyway the noise is now reduced like many times.

Here is what is going on and what happens:

1. The graphics cards make a lot of noise during boot time and in the
bios...

I had a little bit of trouble installing the drivers for my two 7900
graphic cards.

The Nvidia drivers simply do not support it yet. At least not for 64
bit windows.

Also the xfx drivers on the disk don't support it.

Fortunately XFX has new drivers 83.91 on their website... their 83.90
on cd dont work for 64 bit.

So thank god XFX had up-to-date drivers or maybe it s a hack I don't
know but I am very glad with them because as soon as I installed those
drivers they noise went down 4 times or so...

The next big noise maker are the two papst 92 mm fans which are cooling
the harddisks...

I connected them to the cpu_fan2 and north bridge fan headers. They
made a hell lot of noise and I didn't install any "cool and quiet"
drivers yet... maybe those only for the processor.

Also I didn't setup the bios properly I guess.

So what I did was I connected both 92 millimeter fans to the special
extension cable that came with the seasonic power supply.

This is a very nice feature. The power supply reduces the voltage so
the fans are now nearly quiet.

So the noise is reduced quite a lot but it could still be better.

I think the 120 millimeter fan is still producing a pretty load humming
sound.

Also the fan of the cpu is probably causing some sound.

Now that the fans for the harddisks are spinning lower the harddisks
have also become a little bit warm... but nothing alarming.

I also ran the system without the 120 mm fan and without the 92 mm
fans... that doesn't seem smart to me...

The harddisks went up in temperature after 20 minutes or so... and I
started to get worried a little bit. So far it seems my hunch that they
need a littttle bit of airflow seems correct.
Though the harddisks haven't been used a lot yet... unless you think
formatting is intensive... but I don't think it is. The thruth is I am
still a little bit worried because the power supply might not be too
intelligent... or maybe it is intelligent... it has some temperature
readings according to the manual. Maybe later I ll change them back to
connect to the motherboard. Because now I have enabled "q-fan control"
in the bios.

That reminds me I have a new little problem.

The bios report 4 GB installed but it says only 2 GB can be used ?

That's strange... I'll have to look into that later. For now I am quiet
happy and statisfied... but ofcourse I want what I payed for lol.

Anyway formatting 500 GB takes pretty long... like 2 hours or so. I
wonder if it's really necessary... windows also offers quick format but
I don't know if that's safe with an unformatted harddisks so I decided
to play it safe and simply format it completely just this once ;)

I also managed to install a little firewire port... Because the case
already has a large firewire port but no small firewire port...

So the cable of the firewire extension module was long enough... but
just barely ;)

I also tried installing the game/midi port with extra usb ports... I
already have enough usb ports so I dont need those... but maybe I could
need the game/midi port... However my audio equipment has so many
modern inputs, it makes me wonder if old midi port is still used hehe
:)

Anyway it was possible to even connect the midi/game port... but I
didn't feel comfortable with it... It would have to go around the
graphics cards and then under them and then the cables would teach the
heatsinks and heatpipes of the motherboard and the graphics cards... So
that doesn't seem smart/safe to me. So I decided to leave the midi port
out.

Also the com port extension module has a way too short cable... It's
impossible to connect with two dual slot graphics cards ;)

Well com port is quite old... both my mouses are usb anyway.

So I dont really need a com port any more.

A big SIGH is with CD driver discs. I can understand why they still
deliver those cd's with the products... it's mostly for people who
don't have internet or are too lazy to download up-to-date drivers.

For me I had little choice anyway... most of the drivers on the CD
probably don't support xp 64 bit... or have bugs and are out of date
etc.

So I spent quite some time downloading all the new drivers and
installing them one by one.

I am really statisfied with that. It went very well I must say.

The last driver I installed was the x-fi elite pro driver.

I simply first wanted to install all system drivers like chipset
drivers etc. I also lost my pations with the noise from the graphics
cards so I was desperate to install those drivers but the cd's drivers
didn't work as mentioned above.

Ofcourse the very first thing I did after windows xp 64 bit installed
was to download all the new critical security patches.

Actually before that I get a little bit frustrated because I wanted to
transfer files from my old PC to my new PC via the new gigabit network
card in the old pc etc...

The network card is the 3COM 3C2000T and didn't come with any drivers.
Also 3Com's support is terrible... their software is shitty...

All I wanted was a fucking windows xp 32 bit driver... and here I was
downloading cd's getting all kinds of crap installed... they asking me
for personal information etc, etc, etc, etc. I am still fucking pissed
as those pissers... because the card is still not working. Somewhere it
says like it needs PCI 2.2 or 66 mhz or something so I dont know if my
old pc and the new card will ever work together.

So I wanted to do everything via the safe local area network... but I
get really pissed and said to myself... nope, *** it... I am just
going to connect the internet directly to my new pc lol.....

Yesss.. that was a wise decision because that made everything a whole
lot easier and smooooooth =D

No need to transfer everything double etc... Bless thez internet eh ;)
Lovely >D

Oh yeah.. that reminds me... I still have to search for a BenQ driver
for my windows xp... the drive is working but installing a
new/specialized driver etc seems wise.

The bad thing is probably that the cd's that came with the products
have all kinds of other additional software.

It would be nice if I could download the latests versions of those
software products as well... but that doesn't seem really possible.

I don't plan on using that anyway any time soon because I have lot's
and lot's of stuff to do. Like re-install/re-download all kinds of
handy tools and software which I am used too... and ofcourse
configuring windows xp 64 bit a bit more to get more performance...
which is kinda funny because this system is not breaking a sweat what
so ever ;) but still... having all the *** running in the background
is going to kill the performance sooner or later just as it happened
with xp 32 bit ;)

Well what more can I say let's see.

Creative should have placed a warning somewhere like so:

"Before disconnecting/connection (reconnecting) the ad-link make sure
the speaker system is off or on standby"

Orange Led = ON
Red Led = OFF

I saw the orange led and thought it was on standbye... but it was
actually on !

And when I plugged in the first green plug into the slot numbered with
a 1 I could hear the speakers go crazy a bit... like electricity was
leaking into it or something.

I didn't sound too safe... so it's better to turn the spearker set
off/on standby ;)

Oh yeah one more thing to write about:

AMD's Cool and Quiet seems kinda weird/strange... I am not sure if the
system is now really more quiet... maybe it is or maybe it's not...

But the weird thing is I can hear some kind of fan/noise frequently
spin up and then spin down again... The sound is like a 1x speed cd-rim
is spinning up and then spinning down... so it seems strange to me.

I don't think this cool and quiet is really necessary... or maybe it
is.. I am not yet sure... Maybe cool and quiet cools the cpu a little
bit extra for longer life... I don't know about that.

I still have an open case so I can hear every little sound and this
spinning up and spinning down does sound kinda cool but also strange...
I definetly need to test that some more in on/off state to figure out
if it's a good thing or a bad thing noise-wise :)

Now on-to-the-monitor as promised.

Well the glitter effect is still very visibible.

Furthermore VGA/DVI doesn't matter that much I think, but I am not sure
because the graphics cards are now super cards so I can't compare it to
the old cards... the image quality is the same though at least in
windows. The only difference is that I can now go to full 1900x1200
which I have on right now... that's kinda nice. Because first it was
only 1900x1024 or something like that.

Also the 64 bit HP drivers for the monitor seem better than the 32 bit
drivers from the CD because when I installed those drivers in 32 bit
xp... they didn't show up.

I am going to do a test right now as I type... I will pivot my monitor
which is quite a unique feature for this widescreen monitor to see if
it finally works... because in 32 bit xp it didn't work... maybe it
needs special software...

Well first I copy&paste this text just in case anything weird happens
;)

Siiiigghhh.

Well I just pivoted the monitor... and nothing happened. So I had to
turn my head 90 degrees to be able to read and use it etc.

So I don't understand how to get the pivot/vertical thing working...

I'll have to check into that some more... Maybe it needs special
driver/software or maybe I need to enable some windows xp option or
something ?

The manual probably didn't explain it properly otherwise I would known
by now...

Or maybe I need to explore the cd some more... or their website...
however I don't think any other software is there anymore.. oh well.

Quake 3 played pretty well...

I also noticed a "sync option" in game options...

So quake 3 does have a sync option.

I think the motion blue is now a tiny little bit less... but still
visible...

The graphics did definetly improve a little bit.

I also set com_maxfps to 500 just to see what the frame rate would be
at everything high and at resolution 1600x1200 since quake 3 demo
doesn't support 1900x1200.

The frame rate was I think 400 fps second since it was flickering a
bit... between 399 and 400 or something...

I do have a slight headache probably of too little sleeping.. but they
humming sound is also annoying me at the moment. (The case is on a
wooden table...)

Maybe the wooden table increases the noise that's also very believable.

Well I have no energy to close the case anymore or to try anything
else.

So I'll leave that for tomorrow.

Well the format is still not complete it still has like 33% to go or
so... I can't tell because the format program of windows xp has no
information expect a green bar...

Oh well.

It was kinda cool to see the green lights of the big rack lit up as
soon as x-fi elite pro drivers were installed.

Windows xp 64 bit does not detect x-fi elite pro soundcard so you won't
have any sound via the card... you really need the drivers to have
sound ;) :)

Or you would need to use the audio drivers/onboard audio... I haven't
even tried those yet...

Maybe I'll try those as well to compare against the x-fi.

All-in-all it's a pretty impressive dream pc.

I think the sound is going to impress me the most as well as the
graphics and the performance of cpu actually just everything lol.

I already love dual core...

There is zero lag and zero stutter what's so ever. I can simply work
with browsers or whatever and have tasks running in the background.

Totally wicked ! As expected ofcourse ;) :) =D

Well time for me to sign off.

Actually I noticed a little bug in my own udp file transfer software...
the tabs are invisible... yeah I used this software to transfer a file
across my little network.

I have file sharing disabled because they warn it's unsafe and I don't
trust it and it's gamble technology sometimes it works... sometimes it
doesn't ;) At least that was my experience with it.

At least with my own udp file transfer I know exactly what's going
on... I can see the local interfaces/ip address... and ofcourse check
the sub net masks on both computers via windows to check if they
match... and the only other thing needed is a working ip/udp stack...
so no tcp/netbios/or any other crap needed ;)

What did surprise is that windows xp 64 bit actually claims that the 10
megabit lan connection is bad or almost unusuable.. or something.

It does this because in reality it's a 1000 megabit connection which
can also work as 100 or 10 megabit...

But I don't see any need for windows xp 64 bit to start dissing the 10
megabit connection.

10 megabit is just fine to transfer files.

Transferring the demo with my own software just took under 2 minutes.

The demo was 50 megabyte... So that's not a lot.

So I rather have a faster lan connection in the future... so I will
have to look into some more about this problem I am having on my old pc
with the new nic as mentioned above...

Most demos nowadays are 1 gigabyte or so... ofcourse I can simply
download them from the net... and I will have to do that anyway since
they not on my old pc anymore...

Though I still have some iso's which I would like to transfer like...
civilization 3 conquest... hmm hmm hmm... oh goodness... jummy... just
thinking about playing that game on my new ultra pc is fucking great =D

Yup... next weekend I will kick some major ass as usual... but this
time it will just be "ultra" ass kicking that's all. With a little luck
and a good strategy... and many cities I might even be able to take on
3 or 4 players all against me at the same time hehehehe awesome.

Well I am gonna take it slow...

Actually when I was busy building my system ofcourse I did everything
slow.. and when there was I problem I simply started singing:
"Step by step, Oh baby" :):):) lol.

Well time for a midnight snack... Gotta wait until the ntfs formatting
is done.

Ofcourse I could simply go play battlefield 2 demo right now...

But I rather not risk it... Who knows the graphics might crash... or
the game might crash and take the system down.

I don't think that will happen... but let's face it... it's untested..
..so it could happen... hehe.

As long as I am not sure... I am not taking any chances...

But so far the system seems ultra stable. Since I did run the nvidia
demos.

Actually the first time I ran the Nalu demo it was kinda strange...

I literally was shocked.

Because it was only running like 2 frames per second or so..

I was like: "WTF ?!?!?!"

"I have like two gtx 7900 512 mb graphics cards working in SLI mode..."

"Are you going to tell me my cards are slower than a single 6800 card
?"

"Oh man no fucking way ?!"

But then after 10 or 20 seconds or so the demo run flawlessly at high
frame rates.

I guess the system had to load or cache some textures or so.

That was kinda a funny experience.

If the graphics would have remained running at 2 fps I would have not
been happy... no sir bob ! lol.

I was amazed at the Mad Mod Mike demo.. it ran absolutely super fast
and no freezes/lags or stutter what so ever.

I don't know if these demos work with sli or not... euhm I think I can
enable that in windows/drivers somewhere so it shows if it's working in
sli and what it's doing or something... the drivers actually asked if I
wanted to do that but I said no... I dont want strange things on my
screen... most of the time anyway... later I ll figure it out... for
now everything runs blazingly fast so there is no need really.

However I do have something to complain about.

The demo's only ran in 1024x786... and that's pretty tiny on a
widescreen 1900x1200 which is running in native resolution with
one-on-one pixels if you know what mean ;)

Lol... I know what most people must be thinking... "Are you crazy ?
1024x786 is more than enough I heard somebody already say lol"

But trust me:

As soon as you go widescreen with 1900x1200 you will never ever, never
ever, never ever want to go back to 1024x786...

That seems so tiny now... it's almost ridicilous, seriously !

Ofcourse maybe these demos have a configuration somewhere to up the
resolution but it would have been nice if this could be done
"in-demo"... without having to leave the demo etc.

Furthermore the Nalu demo was quite boring... it was amazing but also a
bit boring at the same time...

And the Mad Mod Mike is pretty cool.. but once you seen it a couple of
times you pretty much done with it...

So no need to go buy a big pc just for those two demos if you know what
I am saying.

I also really like the ultrax keyboard it's delicious to type on...

It's also very quiet...

Like two or three times as quite as a "normal/old style" keyboard.

So if you have any noisy typing neighbours lol... simply give them an
ultrax keyboard and the noise will go down a bit ;) =D =D =D

The background of windows xp 64 bit also looks really nice on my
monitor..

It's blue and silverish.. yeah... everything is blue at the moment and
as I programmer I know why... I read about that once... I actually made
a blue gui in 1998 myself ;)

So I was waaaaay ahead of microsoft at the time lol.

The reason is pyschological... blue is... how do you say
comfortable/relaxed/quiet/easy.

Black for example is the color of death.

The rest of the colors I dont know anymore... Red is probably danger...
etc.

And white is virtue...

Man.. the formatting is still not done. DOH.

I kinda like writing this stuff... it's surprisingly addictive... maybe
it's because of the new ultrax keyboard.

I just like typing to much on it !.

Well..

I must force myself to end this post... STOP IT STOP IT STOP
ITTTTTTTTTTTTTT.

Some day I will write a complete and full but short summation report...
with everything I bought and payed for etc... down to every little
detail. And also performances and experiences... but all that is going
to take so much time... man... I could take as long as maybe 3 months
or maybe even 6 months before I am done evaluating this dream pc ;) !
=D

Oh well we'll see when I release the report... If I ever release...;)
:):):)

I ll try to do it much faster... within a few weeks or so... but don't
hold me too it because I can't garantuee it what so ever.

There is just soooo much to do and test and play and try out etc, etc,
etc,etc, etc.

One thing is for sure.... You can definetly expect more little
reports.. just like this post... everytime I experience something
new... be it good or be it bad =D

Ok that's a nice ending hehehe.

Bye,
Skybuck ;) !!!!! =D

.