Re: P5GDC-V Deluxe build

Ihatefishsauce wrote:
On Jul 13, 10:38 am, Paul <nos...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Ihatefishsauce wrote:
Hi. Just joined this group because I need some help.
I have a P5GDC-V Deluxe (sat in garage for about two years until last
week)
I just got my order from Newegg:
2 WD Caviar SATA2 320GB drives
2 sony DVD burners
2 GB RAM
Mitsumi floppy/integrated with media reader (SDC, etc.)
Intel 560 3.4 Ghz P4
Ultra Xconnect 500watt power supply (waiting on the 20-24 pin power
cable from them)
here is the burning question, since SATA is a new thing to me:
I want both drives to be separate (C, D)
I want to put DVD burners (IDE) on separate IDE channels
How exactly do I do this? What steps do I take first. Can someone
explain how to do this up to and including loading the OS which will
be.........XP Pro!
Thanks to all the smarter than me people.
The P5GDC-V Deluxe has one IDE port on the Southbridge, and two IDE
ports on the 8212F. Personally, I would place both DVD burners on the
Southbridge interface, as that is likely to be the most seamless way
of using them. Less hassle if the DVD burners ever need a firmware
update and so on. Booting from them, should also be easier on the
Southbridge. (I'd feel more comfortable putting IDE hard drives
on the 8212F.)

The BIOS defaults ("Standard IDE", "Enhanced Mode") should support
installation without pressing F6. To do that, you'd want a WinXP
SP1 or SP2 install disk, as they have a PCI address space native
Microsoft driver in them. If your install disk is original WinXP,
you can use a tool like Autostreamer, to make a new install CD that
includes one of the two service packs.

For the SATA drives, just plug them in.

You don't need to use the adapter for the 20 pin power supply. The
20 pin should plug into the 24 pin connector. You can see the
commonality of pins between the two of them, in these docs. The
pictures here, are of the cable ends on the PSU. The pin 1 end is the
same on both connectors.

http://www.formfactors.org/developer/specs/atx/ATX12V_1_3dg.pdf
>> http://www.formfactors.org/developer/specs/ATX12V_PSDG_2_2_public_br2.pdf

Paul

Well, I am almost at the point where I can power the pc up. However,
there is just one more thing that I must do that I gotta admit is
beginning to confuse me greatly. I have connectors on this
motherboard for the following fans (from manual): 4-pin CPU, 3-pin
PWR_FAN,
3-pin CHA_FAN 1, 3 -PIN CHA_FAN 2. I thought that connecting them
would be a slam dunk. apparently not. I have connected just the CPU
fan --that was the easy one! The pc case has room for a 120mm fan and
6 80mm fans. The real question is, which fan plugs into what above
connectors? What is this PWR_FAN? from what I have read, it is for a
connector coming from the power supply? The power supply doesn't have
a connector like that (Ultra X-Connect 500W 20 pin - kinda old, but it
should work). So, what fan plugs into what mother board connector?
And for the remaining fans, just give them power from a Molex
connnector? If so, how far can I split one Molex connector to power
the remaining fans? They are just regular fans, not those RPM
controllable ones (Enermax UC8-EB for all 80mm ones and a Scythe S-
Flex SFF21F for the 120mm one (which is positioned in the back of the
case next to the i/o strip as a "blow" fan. This fan hookup is
totally confusing. Can someone please tell me in plain language how
to hook them up to my P5GDC-V Deluxe?

Now, for the final question. Once I am ready to throw the switch,
should I enter the bios immediately and configure, configure,
configure? I have the original Cd which says "P5 series intel
925/915 chipset series support cd rev 78.14" and I hope that it is
not outdated since this motherboard sat in my garage about two years
in the original box. When would I put the cd in? after the OS is
installed? Would it be this order:

1. after build is complete, power on pc and enter bios
2. configure devices or make sure that they have been automatically
configured
3. exit bios and flash to newest one (??)
4. install OS
5. Run as us Chipset support CD 78.14?

HELP!



Each of the fan headers, appears to have a full set of three pins.
Which means, if all you want is to run cooling fans, you have three
3 pin headers to use with three fans. A PWR_FAN header is typically
used for a PWR_FAN connector from a power supply, for RPM monitoring.
If you don't have one of those, the header can still be used to
power an ordinary fan.

As far as how many fans, the basic idea is to establish a front to back
airflow. The exhaust fan on the back helps do that for you. When you
have a large number of fans, it becomes difficult to figure out where
the air is going, and what is really getting cooled. When a case has
many, many fans on it, it can be hard to figure out what to do with
them all. (On one of my cases, I used more than the minimum number of
fans, and air was actually blowing backwards through the weakest fan.
Balancing multiple fans is loads of fun.)

If a fan is not doing anything, its presence is still an issue. The
hole the fan leaves, still affects the airflow. For example, if just
the exhaust fan on the back is hooked up, all the other fan holes
become intake vents. And that may not put the airflow where you want
it.

On one of my cases, with a side fan, I removed the fan and covered the
hole with *** aluminum (auto body repair, lightweight). The air
leak it causes, would reduce the cooling my hard drive is getting.
So you have to plan a bit, whether to use the fan, or remove the
fan and cover the hole.

For a well cooled case, if room temp is 25C, the case internal temp
should be no more than about 32C to 35C. If it rises much higher,
that makes it harder for the CPU cooler to do its job. And with
stock Intel fans that sense the air temp, the Intel fan will speed
up and become noisy, if the internal case air is too hot.

Many BIOS items have nice default values. You may have to adjust something
on the RAM, to get error free operation. If the computer is stable in
the BIOS, your next step is running a standalone memory tester like
memtest86+ (memtest.org). In two complete passes, zero errors would be
the desired objective. If the computer is not error free at this point,
there is no point installing an OS, as the OS files could be corrupted
as they are stored on the hard drive. Memtest86+ can boot from a floppy,
or you can burn a CD with the program - the program is self-booting.

You may want to disable any peripheral chips you aren't using. Disabling
storage controllers, can help reduce the boot time (important when doing
a lot of reboots when first setting up the computer). Other than that,
I recommend reading the manual and its BIOS section, item by item, and
deciding for yourself, what needs to be adjusted.

The driver CD is for after the OS install. For the OS to install, if the
storage devices are connected to the Southbridge, there might not be
any driver needed, to get them recognized. WinXP SP1 would be the minimum
version I would recommend for that. SP1 will help with SATA drives, and
with drives over 137GB. (You can slipstream a release CD, to incorporate
SP1 and prepare a new installer CD. I think I used AutoStreamer for the
job a couple years ago.)

The OS runs graphics in a default VESA mode, a Microsoft driver is used
for the hard disk, and the other peripherals at that point, might not have
any driver loaded. When you install the driver CD at that point, you
get the opportunity to install things like NIC drivers, which might not
be on the OS CD. Also, the chipset drivers (Northbridge and Southbridge),
help with getting Device Manager to recognize stuff properly. It is not
possible to install the driver CD, before the OS is there, so the order
of install is fixed in that sense.

As for flashing the BIOS, you check the CPUSupport web page, the
type of your processor, and the required BIOS release. That tells
you the minimum BIOS version required. The label placed on the top of
the BIOS chip, should say what version was flashed at the factory.
Check the Asus download page, for the change log, as to what was
fixed in each BIOS.

http://support.asus.com.tw/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx?SLanguage=en-us
http://support.asus.com.tw/cpusupport/cpu_support_right_master.aspx?type=1&name=P5GDC-V%20Deluxe&SLanguage=en-us&cache=1

These are the release notes for 1011. Since it updates the BIOS internal
driver for the ITE8212, that might be a good reason to do a flash upgrade.
The "option ROM" provides INT 0x13 support, giving the ability to do
basic read/write at the BIOS level. That is how the OS starts to boot,
even though the OS drivers aren't loaded yet. So if your plan is to use
the IT8212 for booting, I'd flash upgrade before doing anything else. If
you can survive with just the Southbridge, the need to flash upgrade
might not be as urgent.

[ 1011 ]
----------------------
1- Support new CPUs. Please refer to our website at: http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx
2- Update ITE8212 option ROM
3- Modify CPU fan low limlt speed to 800 RPM
4- Fix that the Boot time is too long If there is no CD in CD-ROM while connected to ITE controller

In terms of interfaces, you have one IDE and four SATA on the Southbridge.
Those are the interfaces I'd use first. If I had a single IDE CDROM and an
IDE hard drive, I'd put them on the same cable and connect them to the
Southbridge port. Then, I wouldn't need to press F6 during the install
and install a driver for them. Once the Southbridge is full, you can
move to the IT8212, but would need a driver installed by F6, if you plan
on actually booting a hard drive while it is connected to the IT8212. If
the drives connected to the IT8212 are only for holding data, then a driver
can be installed, after the boot disk on the Southbridge has booted.

HTH,
Paul
.