Step by step - How to build/SSD setup/WC setup

Re:Step by step - How to build/SSD setup/WC setup (i_cruz)

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:43:56 GMT

Thanks for the guide!

Cheers!

IC

Re:Step by step - How to build/SSD setup/WC setup (mikotan)

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:51:17 GMT

Update:

added chronics guide to the links section.
Aside from like 2-3 of the links the rest are broken.
Will work to hopefullly find some of the links again.

Re:Step by step - How to build/SSD setup/WC setup (stev3)

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:12:56 GMT

I think the mods must have missed this thread. This is BR worthy imo .

Re:Step by step - How to build/SSD setup/WC setup (mikotan)

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:13:00 GMT

Watercooling (Buying) guide and Faq link

Useful Links

Simple i7 Overclocking Guide for dummies
- A guide by chronic for the beginner and the lazy. Its not in depth like Shansmis, but it will help the laymans understand things better. Great job and thanks chronic.

Guru 3D downloads Page
- For most of the tools you will need for testing such as realtemp, atitool, Prime95.

Bios Template for X-58 and Classified
- A Bios template that you will fill out to help us trouble shoot your woes.

Max Base Clock Strategy Guide

List of Compatible PSUs for the X58

Classified Briefing on Running Low Vcore and VTT settings to achieve 4.2 OC

EVGA X58 FAQ

Windows XP Install Step by Step

Memory Frequency Guide

EVGA SPD Utility for X58 Classified!

BIOS Flashing Guide :: USB Stick BIOS Flash for X58 SLI...

EVGA X58 Classified Briefing

i7 Batch Tracker

X58 Classified Issues

i7 Overclocking Strategy
- An informative guide by Shansmi.

x58 i7 Voltage Guide
- Informative guide on the voltage settings in the Bios.

BIOS Changelog for Classified X-58 w/NF200

Re:Step by step - How to build/SSD setup/WC setup (mikotan)

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:10:45 GMT

"RAID0, also known as data striping, is set when you want to improve your disk performance. It works by dividing the files to be written on disk into several chunks (called stripes) and saving each chunk on a different drive.

If your RAID system uses 128 KB stripes, it would divide our 200 KB file into two 128 KB chunks (the rest of each stripe, 28 KB, would be left empty). If our system were using 32 KB stripes, our 200 KB file would be divided into eight 32 KB chunks, and the system would send four chunks to each hard disk drive.Basically what we do on RAID0 is to put the hard disk drives to work in parallel.

The total disk capacity on a RAID0 system is the sum of the total capacity of the two hard disk drives. So if we use two 80 GB hard disk drives, our disk system will have 160 GB capacity. So if you want to build a high-performance system, consider buying two disk drives with smaller capacity and configuring them as a RAID0 system instead of buying one high-capacity hard disk drive."

There are other RAID formats such as Raid 1 (backup), Raid 5, Raid10, Raid0+1, JBOD.

How to set up a Raid Array:
- Creating a Raid array on the X58 is very easy.
- Connect the 2 or more HDD/SSD drive to the BLACK Sata ports
(Red sata ports are JMICRON, you want the ICH10 to run your raid array)
- Go into your Bios
- Set you drives to "RAID" -> save and reboot your PC
- Press "CTRL + I" to go into your raid configuration
- Pick the two or more drives you want to raid and follow instructions.
- Congratulations you have just set up a raid array.

How to setup a Raid array with SSDs
- First you want to update your SSDs firmware, this will depend which you bought.
- You then want to use HDDclean to completely wipe both drives
- Then just follow the above guide and you have made a RAID with SSD

SSD Tweaks (thanks goes to Tony on the OCZ forums and all who contributed):
- In windows open regedit.exe, type "regedit" in run.
> start
> type "regedit" in the search box
> regedit.exe will pop up in the search box hit it to open it.

- Disable Superfetch
- navigate to Hkey_local_machine\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet \Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters
   - right click EnableSuperfetch
   - hit modify and change 3 to 0 and hit "Ok"

- Disable Prefetch
- navigate to Hkey_local_machine\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet \Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters
   - right click Enableprefetcher
   - hit modify and change 3 to 0 and hit OK

- Go back 1 folder to memory management
- We want to enable LargeSystemCache
- We want to set SecondLevelDataCache to the size of the Level2 cache on your CPU
- You edit this in decimal mode...if you have 4096KB level 2 cache on the CPU just set 4096 in decimal and hit OK.

- Next some tweaks to speed up vista and its write cache
- Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\FileSystem
- Right click on ntfsmemoryusage and set this to "2" to increase the file cache

- Now we move to services
- Go to start menu -> control panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services
- Scroll to Superfetch and make sure its "disabled on startup"
- Next we need to stop Indexing of drives.
- right click on your Disk in "my computer" and click properties
- uncheck "Index this drive for faster searching" (SSDs are fast enough =P)
- while your here go to "defragment" and uncheck "Schedule defragment this drive"

- Now we gotta enable Write cache on the SSD
- go to Device manager and right click on your drive
- go to policies and check "enable write caching on disk"/"enable advanced performance"
- Lets disable System restore too (I created my system restore file on my raptor seperate
from my SSD raid)
- Disable your pagefile, if you must have pagefile, reallocate it to another drive.
- Go to system properties click on "environment variables"
- Move the writing of temp files to another drive as well (i.e. TEMP F:/Temp instead of C:/TEMP)

- type cmd.exe and run your dos
- while in dos type powercfg.exe -h off
- These tweaks should help your SSD go a loooooong way.

- lets also move our IE and firefox cache and temp files to our other drives!
- For IE, go to internet options -> General tab -> "temporary internet files" -> Settings
- set your desired box size (i use 75mb) then click "move to folder" and point IE to the cache folder you made on a different disk
- For Firefox, Open a new tab and type "about:config" in the address bar and hit Enter
- Right click anywhere on page and from context menu select "New" and "String"
- For string name, type in "browser.cache.disk.parent_directory" (without the quotes)
- For string value, type in the path to where you want to move your cache directory. IE D:\FF_cache if D is the drive and the folder you created is called FF_cache.
- Restart Firefox

Which SSDs should I buy?
- Intel X-25m G2 (Pricey but top notch performer!)
- OCZ vertex      (A tad cheaper, decent performer)

SSD Myths?
- They slow down fast?
- Hell no... youll have to put it to through a crap load of read/write/deletes
- when used and tweaked right this wont happen for a long time!
- You can get over 1gb/s read/write!?!?
- Yes and no.
- ICH10 maxes out at 650mb/s on your board. Thus it is recommended to just raid 2 SSD
- If you have a PCIE raid controller and a junk load of time.. you can Raid 16x drives.. lol
- They use up less power?
- Definitely
- No moving parts = less heat and less energy wasted in transfer.
- Prices are going down?
- decent enough more and more people are moving to SSD and production cost are
decreasing.
- A great investment?
- Probably one of the best investments you can make into a PC is getting an SSD!

Interesting Reads on SSD:
The SSD anthology: http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531
The SSD Relapse: http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3631

Step by step - How to build/SSD setup/WC setup (mikotan)

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:09:07 GMT

There are 3 guides here. Rig setup --> Raid and SSD --> WC and links.

Will gradually work on these set of faqs. For now bear with this as i get my thoughts and notepads settled. I originally wrote this guide for the 790i and 790i ultra as a guide for people new to building their own rigs. Now I think theres a need for the x58 as well.

Sometimes even the most experienced of us can forget certain things.
I made this little step by step process originally for myself, since i do forget sometimes. But I figured I might as well share it. Hope this helps.

First here are a couple things you will need to prepare for safety and checking.
- Lavalys Everest (benchmarking/monitoring - not neccessary)
- memtest86+ v2.01(MUST - youll find out why)
- LinX (Needed testing for stability - take care when testing with this)
- Prime95 (MUST - try to run a 10-16hr prime stable)
- OCCT (I usually run OCCT first before i run a Prime 95 torture test)
- Realtemp - (check your temps)
- Drive Sweeper (YOU DEF NEED THIS - from guru3d.com)
- CCleaner (I love this nifty freeware! and im sure you will too)
- Auslogics registry defrag (Great freeware - you dont need this if you use SSD)
- Auslogics HDD defrag (Still good, just dont use it on your SSD)
- GPU-Z (nifty program to check your video cards)
- CPU-Z (a nifty program to check your voltages and settings)
- ATI tool (for testing video)
- Furmark (again a tool for testing vga cards)
- EVGA precision (a great tool)
- Latest bio in a floppy or 'bootable' USB flash drive (I prefer bootable USB drives)
(a simple google will find you these programs, guru3d.com also has them)

when you start constructing your tower,
Start with:
- 1x graphics card
- 1x 2gb ram stick in 2nd dimm slot from your CPU
- proccessor w/ heatsink (DO NOT FORGET YOUR THERMAL GEL!!!)
- install all your fans
- 1x SATA DVD drive
- 1x HDD or SSD (or 1x raid)
- 1x floppy drive for bios and raid updates (not needed if you plan to use a USB drive)
- Do not forget to check that you plugged in everything right before powering up.

The following guide below should be followed in order.
- Update to Latest or stablest bios first (this is your choice)
-When updating the bios you must clear the CMOS before and after you update.
(Turn off PSU, press the CMOS reset button, wait a couple secs, turn your PSU backon)
(Remove power, move jumper, remove battery, press on/off button for 10secs, reassemble in reverse order.) (one way to check if you've really cleared the CMOS is by entering the bios and checking if the date has been reset to something like January 1 2000 or something like that)
- Manually set your memory (RAM) timings and voltages in the bios!
(Set according to factory settings of your ddr3 ram)
- Memtest86+ ram stick #1 in Dimm slot (verify with 3-5 passes)
- Once ram stick#1 passes test remove that ram and place ram #2 in the same slot you tested
- Memtest86+ ram stick #2 in Dimm slot (same verification)
- Memtest86+ ram stick #3 in Dimm slot (same verification)
- Memtest 86+ All sticks of ram at the same time (just for safe measure, again 3-5 passes)
- If both sets pass good for you.

If everything passes at this point congrats. Your ram is good and you dont have any bad dimm slots.

- Ready your Raid array. (Please read post #2 on how to set up a raid array)
(Skip this step if your not using Raid)
- install OS of choice (My personal suggestion is Windows 7 x64)
- Don’t forget to turn off auto update
- Once you are done with all the mumbojumbo dont do anything yet.
- Reboot your PC into Safe mode
- Once in OS (Safe mode), Use driver sweeper (from guru3d.com) to clean all the crap drivers windows installed - Make sure that its thoroughly cleaned. This might require a couple of reboots back into safe mode. What you want to see in driver manager is "VGA Adapter" not "GTX285"
- Install drivers for GTX200 card#1 after cleaning crap drivers
- install other drivers 1 by 1
- DO NOT install Certain 'unneeded' nvidia utilities
- Install all the drivers you can find here on Evga

A tried and true method to setup SLI (this is useful for updating drivers as well).
Start with only 1 graphics card, make sure to turn off windows autoupdate and auto new hardware search.
1) use driver sweeper in windows (downloadable from guru3d.com)
2) boot into safe mode
3) driver sweeper to make sure once more (usually there are files that remain)
4) install drivers for 1 card only (make sure you only have 1 card plugged in)
5) boot back into windows normally and check device manager
6) plug in the second card with the SLI bridge
7) boot into safe mode and install the drivers for that card (not really needed)
8) reboot and check device manager in windows normal
9) enable SLI
NOTE: It is recommended to test your VGA cards 1 by 1 before setting SLI

You should be good to go without problems, until you try to OC anyway.
When you OC remember to take note of your settings every time and do so slowly little by little! KEEP A LOG BOOK!

I’ve followed this setup meticulously for 3 790i boards, around 6 x58 rigs and have had no problems aside from a dead FDC controller on 1 board... I dont really use floppies any more anyway... So if this doesnt work for you... then you prob are unlucky with a busted board or part or something... or you didnt follow what I said and you just kicked yourself in the...

Good luck!

Links for when your in trouble:

EDIT2 (some extras i thought might help for the wondering):

Note1: Do not start your PC with USB/firewire/or any form of external device aside from your mouse or keyboard. External devices such as HDDs not only cause slow down for the bios, but also may cause a freeze on startup. Hook em up when you get into windows and you shouldnt have a problem. This goes for ALL mobos and all laptops.

Note2: People seem to not realize this but.... Windows XP DOES NOT support quad SLI!

Hardware (with links)

CPUs:
1) i7 920 D0 (nuff said)
2) w3520 (its ok i took the plunge and my 920 was better sigh..)

Heres a list of ram ive personally used on the X58 classi board that has worked and ive OCed:
1) Mushkin 6GB (3x2gb) ddr3 sdram 1600 (PC3 12800) - 998691
this is why i love mushkin ram =P

2) Corsair 6GB (3x2 gb) dd3 sdram 1866 (PC3 15000)

PSU:
List of Compatible PSUs for the X58

Some suggestions for heatsinks and gels (and others):
Thermal 120 xtreme
megahalem
Noctua NHU12P (comes with 2 fans!)
Arctic Pro 7 Heatsink and fan isnt too bad....
Arctic MX-2 (good thermal grease for the clumsy. I might switch to this myself)
Arctic Silver 5 thermal gel
Scythe Fans (quiet and good airflow) (I use these fans on everything)
Noctua Fans (quiet and good airflow) (likewise I use these in combination with scythes)
Scythe fan controllers are nice. They have a Card reader + fan controller combination that I use on all 3 of my towers.

Liquid cooling:
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=5152
http://www.realredraider.com