PC not booting :(

[ddrueding]

Nice page...very useful.

 

[Handruin]

Nice page...very useful.

I read about this guy on reddit.com. He did it as a side project because he wanted something like this for himself and then eventually quite his day job and now works full time on it. He gets revenue if you build your PC config through his site and then click the "buy" link that leads to the reseller of your choice. Places like Amazon, newegg, etc give him kickbacks for the referral link. He's also very open to suggestions/improvements, so if you like it and feel it's missing something crucial, contact him. I don't know the guy, but I do support his idea and I do find his website useful for cases like being discussed here in this thread.

 

[mubs]

What about sending money, having someone from SR buy the parts you need from Newegg or Amazon, testing them, and then shipping them to you? Or would that be prohibitively expensive or just problematic? It really sounds like your options are terribly limited buying locally.

jtr, a sweet soul here at SF has already offered to do that without my asking

The issues are customs, whether I'll actually receive the stuff or it'll get pilfered on the way in, and warranty support (not that local warranty is any great shakes), and overall time taken. Still it's an option I haven't completely ruled out.

Thanks for the idea!

 

[mubs]

Please continue to post, just understand that Merc and I consider the reviews on Newegg and the like completely without value. It isn't that they are occasionally right, or contain some kernel of truth, they are simply useless. I'm willing to bet that the bad pins referred to were user error during install, and the bad ram slots were in fact incompatible RAM.

Quality control from Intel, Gigabyte, Kingston, Crucial, etc has gotten so good that I never see DOAs anymore. Never. In your case the most likely cause of failure would probably be bad handling during the last mile or a vendor boxing up a returned product as new (also known as pulling a "Frys"). These are why I buy from Amazon directly.

Thanks DD, I do understand the limitations of online reviews and the fact that disgruntled users tend to vent more than satisfied ones (I acknowledged this in an earlier post). My point simply was that it can indicate potential problems, and I need for my setup to be right first time (like my previous build was. I obsessed over that one too).

 

[mubs]

Philip from PCPartPicker put together a great website to help select components. See if it helps with your builds:
http://pcpartpicker.com/

That was interesting; thanks Handy. If I decide to get the parts from the US, I'll see if I can use it.

 

[Handruin]

That was interesting; thanks Handy. If I decide to get the parts from the US, I'll see if I can use it.

Even if you don't buy through US distributors, that site has reviews and part compatibility checking.

 

[mubs]

I'm actually looking at the RAM compatibility lists at the motherboard mfr's websites, Handy.

Do Z77 boards handle 4 DIMMs well? There seem to be very few compatible options to get 16GB with 2 DIMMs. Many more options using 4 DIMMs of 4GB each. Is there anything to worry about here?

Thanks.

 

[mubs]

What speed memory is it worth buying for a Z77 board with i5-3570k? Coug did say 1600 MHz. Does TurboBoost also use higher memory speeds automagically?

A google search indicates the following are available here at the following speeds, all with XMP (local price shown in $):

4x4GB at 2400 ($365 - not worth it), 2133 ($187), 1600 ($127) - all G.Skill

2x4GB at 1866 ($79), 1600 ($64) - Corsair @ 1866 & 1600, G.Skill @1600

Local prices are ~ 50% higher than Newegg, except for the fastest 16GB which comes at a 74% premium. I don't need RAM that fast anyway.

 

[LunarMist]

1600 is fine. Any decent intel- based board should handle 4*4GB if RAM is not overclocked.

 

[ddrueding]

1600 is fine. Any decent intel- based board should handle 4*4GB if RAM is not overclocked.

seconded.

 

[mubs]

Cool, thanks.

Any preference for Corsair over G.Skill? I'll check on their local warranties meantime.

 

[mubs]

I'm close to ordering these:

MBd: Asus P8Z77-V
CPU: Intel i5-3570K Retail Box
RAM: G.Skill F3-12800CL9Q-16GBZL(XMP) 4GB x 4 16GB kit

SSD: undecided at this time. I talked to the local office of Ingram Micro, one of the distributors for Intel here, and they claimed the 520 Cherryvale was available. I got the name of an authorized dealer and will call tomorrow for pricing on the 520, 330 and 320 series ~ 120GB.

Case and SATA optical drive already ordered. I'll reuse the other parts (HDD, cables, PSU) from my current dead system.

If I'm making a mistake anywhere, please let me know.

Thanks for all your help!

 

[Mercutio]

I think the Asus board might be a problem, given how fucking hard it is to get an RMA from them in the USA. Maybe the Mumbai office is better in that department.

 

[mubs]

I haven't heard good things about Intel's RMA either (with my limited knowledge), but then, Intel's products may not need RMAs like other mfrs' do.

Asus seems to have a pretty good repair setup here. They've contracted it out to a local outfit whose walk-in facility is ~ 10 miles from where live. Of course, a board that has to go to the shop every now and then is of no use to me.

Would you suggest the Intel DZ77RE-75K board instead? Other Intel boards seem to skimp here or there.

The two biggest fish here seem to be Asus and Intel. Buying any other brand (Asrock, Gigabyte) may be a risk.

 

[Mercutio]

Personally, I'm not convinced you need a US$200+ motherboard in the first place.
I'm also going to say that Intel's enthusiast-series boards are an unknown quantity to me. I've only seen a couple systems built with them. They seem like quality product but they probably ARE compromises compared to other enthusiast products. Intel just isn't that Enthusiast-friendly.

 

[mubs]

I need the SATA ports and some PCIe slots, Merc. I took a good look at the Asrock H77 Pro4-M, but it seems to have audio issues, and I'll have to buy a sound card for that, which brings its price close to the Asus P8Z77-V anyway.

Another reason for a bit more expensive board is that hopefully it'll be put together better. The whole idea is to not have any RMA events.

 

[ddrueding]

IIRC, ASRock is just ASUS' lower spec'ed brother.

 

[time]

And Intel-branded motherboards, of course, are actually Foxconn.

 

[mubs]

The die has been cast.

I have a shiny new retail boxed i5-3570k in my hands. Plan to use the provided HSF; looks adequate to me.

The motherboard (Asus P8Z77-V) has been paid for; expected Monday. Compatible G.Skill 16GB (4GBx4) RAM and new Seasonic 560W Gold Certified PSU expected either Saturday evening or Monday.

I decided to buy a new PSU rather than reuse my 6.5 yr old Seasonic, which I'll use as a spare. The new Antec 550 Earthwatts that hasn't been used (save for testing if it was the PSU or MB that died in my old system) I will try to sell on a local buy/sell website.

I haven't looked at the CPU yet. I know they no longer have pins underneath and are bald like a baby's bum, and it is the socket that noew has pins. I presume the installation method hasn't changed, though. Install MB, install CPU, install CPU HSF. I'm just leery of bending delicate pin sockets.

I plan to insert one dimm at a time and run memtest 86+ to verify that it's good. Once all 4 pass, I'll stick all 4 in.

I'm skipping the SSD; too risky right now for me. I'll use a spare 250GB HDD as the boot drive.

I plan on dual booting XP and Win 7. So I'll install XP first. If I am able to use my legacy app and hw in an XP VM in Win7, I can knock off the XP installation.

More later. Thanks.

 

[mubs]

Anybody know which way the fan blows in the HSF of a retail boxed 3rd gen i5? I'm planning the airflow in my case.

Thanks.

 

[CougTek]

Top to bottom and the fan rotates clockwise IIRC.

 

[mubs]

Thanks Coug.

Wondering if I should usean aftermarket HSF instead. Any suggestions? Not fond of super tall / heavy ones.

 

[ddrueding]

Unless you plan on continuous max load I wouldn't worry about it. How high will the ambient get?

 

[mubs]

Ambient will be between 85 and 90 F. A cool system will have a long life. It's one reason my now dead system lasted > 6.5 years.

 

[LunarMist]

Is it in the garage or something like that?

 

[mubs]

I live in the tropics. The a/c is on in the bedrooms all night about 360 days a year, and on in the afternoons till late evening in the living areas about 340 days a year. My electricity bill is astronomical. My PCs are in the living areas.

Am planning to move to a cooler city middle of next year.

The Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO seems to be a decent cost-effective HSF. Maybe I'll get it. Unlike the retail HSF where the fan is parallel to the motherboard, the fan is perpendicula with the Evo. Two fans can be used in push-pull config, directing the flow towards the exhaust fans in the top of the case.

 

[ddrueding]

I have a bunch of the "horizontal" heatsinks. One of the thoughts against them is that the components around the CPU on the motherboard could use some cooling themselves (MOSFETS, other power handling bits, RAM, etc). So lately I've been going with larger top-down designs myself.

Of course, I'll stand by my earlier statement that it is complete overkill, but that doesn't stop me from buying them either

 

[mubs]

Thanks DD. And your honesty is appreciated!

 

[mubs]

The motherboard (Asus P8Z77-V) arrived a couple of hours ago.

The store shipped it to me since they didn't have stock a couple of days ago when I visited them (authorized retailer). I had asked them to inspect the board before shipping. On Saturday night he emailed me blurry pics, called and said everything looked good, he had shipped the board to me.

First thing I did was inspect the LGA-1155 socket. Sure enough, there is at least one bent pin. I now have to take it to the distributor on Wednesday (Tuesday is a local holiday). Remains to be seen how they'll handle it. Even the disty doesn't seem to stock more than one piece of a model at a time.

Why are things so complicated these days? We never ran into issues like this in the old days with bent pins on the CPU or damaged socket holes. Sheesh.

 

[Mercutio]

That Cooler Master 212 is a noisy POS and the fan they use on it is a sealed design that can't even be oiled. >:|

 

[mubs]

Thanks for the heads up. I did read that the fan is noisy; I will be using another, quieter fan.

 

[ddrueding]

Sure enough, there is at least one bent pin. I now have to take it to the distributor on Wednesday (Tuesday is a local holiday). Remains to be seen how they'll handle it.

I've only ever seen a bent pin on a product bought at Fry's electronics. And that was on something manhandled by some other customer and then returned. Did the board have the black plastic protector clipped over the socket? I wouldn't accept one without that. It also sounds like the entire reseller chain may not be trustworthy. No way to get one shipped direct from the distributor (Ingram Micro or the like)?

 

[CougTek]

Am planning to move to a cooler city middle of next year.

You could move to Gangtok, between the Buthan and Nepal. It has to be quite a bit fresher up there than in the oven where you live. There are northern parts in the West, but I don't think Kashmir is such a great idea with the territorial semi-war with Pakistan.

 

[ddrueding]

If you don't mind swapping countries, Pokara Nepal is one of my top-5 favorites.

 

[Mercutio]

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

Coug might disagree with me, but the land of poutine and Tim Hortons and hockey and fine antlered lasses has it all: Climate AND sanity.

 

[ddrueding]

They have places where it doesn't snow?

 

[CougTek]

Coug might disagree with me, but the land of poutine and Tim Hortons and hockey and fine antlered lasses has it all: Climate AND sanity.

Sanity? They elected Steven Harper, mister I-fuck-the-environment-in-the-ass. He's barely better than Bush. Barely.

They have places where it doesn't snow?

Vancouver and Victoria, in British Columbia.

 

[mubs]

I've only ever seen a bent pin on a product bought at Fry's electronics. And that was on something manhandled by some other customer and then returned. Did the board have the black plastic protector clipped over the socket? I wouldn't accept one without that. It also sounds like the entire reseller chain may not be trustworthy. No way to get one shipped direct from the distributor (Ingram Micro or the like)?

DD, read Newegg reviews; there are a lot of complaints of bent pins right out of the box. I decided to be cautious and inspected my socket before touching anything else. Yes, the plastic protector was on. I think whoever is making the sockets isn't doing a very good job. There are also pics on the net of a GB board with similar probs where the pins actually shorted and killed both teh CPU and the MB.

Asus' warranty policy here is that in the first 7 days of purchase, the disty handles the prob, after that it has to go for service with an authorized repairer. I will be visiting the disty (not Ingram but an Indian outfit) tomorrow. Hopefully I can inspect other boards there and get one that's ok.

 

[mubs]

You could move to Gangtok, between the Buthan and Nepal. It has to be quite a bit fresher up there than in the oven where you live. There are northern parts in the West, but I don't think Kashmir is such a great idea with the territorial semi-war with Pakistan.

Have you been there, Coug? Beautiful. But they have frequent earthquakes / landslides. When I visited there in 2006, I wanted to move there so badly. With global warming a reality, I tell my wife we should move to the foothills of the Himalayas, but she won't come

 

[mubs]

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

Coug might disagree with me, but the land of poutine and Tim Hortons and hockey and fine antlered lasses has it all: Climate AND sanity.

It is predicted that global warming will make Canada a temperate place like the US is now, while the US will turn into a hot, arid, dry place. So Canada would be a good choice long term.