- last edited on by
ROGBot
Hi everyone i just wanted to share with you my new build and a little back story on what i have learned through this build.
Just a little preview.
So a little back story. I build my first gaming rig in 2010. It evolved through the years and served me well until about 2 months ago. I noticed that it was having problems keeping up with newer games.
New case, new card and cleaned up.
Then it happened... the bug, the urge to go bigger, better faster. I did my do diligence and scoured the forums and blogs to plan a new build. After searching, reading and comparing all of the latest and greatest hardware settled on two builds: The FX 8350/ Crosshair V Formula-Z or the I7 4670k/Hero. My plan was to piece the new build together by Christmas. So the day came for me to make the trip to Microcenter and pick out the first pieces. I walked in with every intention of getting the AMD combo... But Microcenter had a great deal on the 4770K/ Hero bundle. As i was looking at the Hero box my eyes were drawn to the VI Forumla. I had seen pictures of that sexy board, but I was not prepared for the "tightening of pants" effect it would have on me. But i fought the urge and and pulled the trigger on the Hero along with a good closed loop cooler. So I walked out of the store with this strange feeling that I made a mistake. I opened my car door and sat down in the seat. I tried to shut the door, but i just could not do it. So i walked the hero back in and went to find the board that was singing that sweet siren song. As i turned into the motherboard isle, i made eye contact with my salesman. He looked at me, cocked his head slightly, squinted his eyes and then put on a big smile when he realized why i was back. He turned from me reached up and grabbed the board that was to be the foundation for my new rig.
That was a good day.
I got everything home and I just could not let those beautiful parts just sit in their boxes. So pulled 860/III Formula out of the Taji and re-installed it back home in the Antec. Hooked everything back up and it fired up with no problems. So i got to work installing the 4770K/VI Formula, Coolmaster Seidon 240M and 7970.
As i was installing the last screw for me cooler, my old computer just shuts down. No blue screen, just off. I think to myself "Please don't be dead." I try to turn it back on and it doesn't post. Sh!t. So i go through the connections everything looks good. Still no post. I pull two stick of RAM. Still nothing. Move them over to then next slots. Success! But it only sees 4GB of the 8GB. This is the computer that got me through school and had so many programs (mostly IDE's and their ilk) installed on it that it would shut down as soon as it booted to the desk top with a low memory error (disabled pagefile). Best i can tell is that the memory controller let go as only one slot would recognize a DIMM. So I pulled the PSU, the SSD's, RAM and started the transpalnt.
Sooo close.
I transfer the RAM over, pop the SSD's into the hots-swap bays along with the HDD's and start on the PSU. Of course since it is an older PSU it does not have a four pin for the motherboard. No big deal, I had seen a 1000w single rail 80 bronze for $99 to get me by till I got a better one. The next day I went and picked it up. got home wired it all up.... and it lives!
Here is the part where I almost lost my mind.
So it seems that Haswell has a problem with Sata II Sandforce controllers. As in trailer park "I beat you cause I love you" type of problems. I booted the computer of my Sandisk OS SSD once just to see if my original install would work. It did but, it blue screened as soon as I tried to open a program. No big deal right. So formatted my game drive and tried to do a fresh install of 7 Ultimate. The installer kept giving me all kinds of problems with partitioning the drive and would not install. So i tried to install on my OS drive. No go either. So then I tried installing on them in raid 0. I got it to install but it would hang every time at the "Windows is setting up your desktop for the first time" screen. I was filling out at this point and kept at it trying to install and trying my Google-Fu on the issue. I burned a whole day on this. The next day i pulled a 2.5 drive out of a old laptop and windows installed perfectly. That's when i finally figured out the problem, Haswell is in compatible with my drives, with a little help from the web. So back to Microcenter I go. I picked up a Samsung 840 EVO, went home and 15 mintues later I was installing drivers.
What a great drive
So the system is running great, I do some bench marks and they are reasonable. But... That damn bug was still there biting me. Daily I was checking stock on the 7970 I purchased because I really wanted to do a CrossFire system. Everyday the count was going down. I was checking other store in the state, they were going down too. I was getting worried that they were not going to be restocking them at this point. The stock at my store was down to 1 card on a Thursday night after close. So i was there when they opened and snagged the last one.
Yay CrossFire!!!
Now at this point I knew needed a better PSU than the Coolmax zu-1000b, not that it is a bad PSU, I just wanted better for my build. I also knew that I wanted to max my RAM to do a RAMdisk for the games I play most. So back to Microcenter I go. Ok at this point i knew some thing was going to go wrong so I prepared myself for the worst. Little did I know that i was going to be making two more trips to Microcenter that day. I picked up some Crucial Ballistix Elite. Like pretty good RAM, good reviews online and high ratings. So i gave them a shot. I bought 2x16GB (2x8) Kits along with a CoolMaster V1000, Sundblaster Z soundcard and some random other things.
\
MMMM new stuff
So I installed the the kits and she posts. I go into the UEFI to change the XMP profile after clearing the CMOS. I get in and my as I am moving my cursor down to change the setting, the cursor freezes. I wait and wait and wait then it shuts down. Starts up then shuts down again. Damn it! So I pull the ram and start trying them in pairs. Sure enough, on bad stick. ARRGGGG! so I take that kit back and get another one. Go home, install that kit same thing. Test the pairs again sure enough another bad stick. SERIOUSLY!
The first of the bad sticks.
So before making another trip to Microcenter I look up prices one Newegg and Amazon to see if i can't price match some kits. Found Dominator Platinum 1866 cas9 for $210. I go back and sure enough they price matched Amazon. Put them in and they work just fine.
So I am pretty happy with were i am at right now, but I am thinking about doing a water loop on the cards. So there you have it. Thought i would share my experience with everyone. Bottom line is check your PSU/ MOBO compatibility and Sata II SSD's with Sandforce controllers do not work with Haswell.
Just a little preview.
So a little back story. I build my first gaming rig in 2010. It evolved through the years and served me well until about 2 months ago. I noticed that it was having problems keeping up with newer games.
- CPU: I7 860
- MOBO: Maximus III Formula
- RAM: 16GB GSkill Sniper 1600
- GPU: 7970
- SSD: 2x Sandisk Ultra Sata II 120GB (1x OS, 1x games)
- HHD: 1.5TB & 2.0TB WD Sata II Green
- PSU: Corsair TX 750
New case, new card and cleaned up.
Then it happened... the bug, the urge to go bigger, better faster. I did my do diligence and scoured the forums and blogs to plan a new build. After searching, reading and comparing all of the latest and greatest hardware settled on two builds: The FX 8350/ Crosshair V Formula-Z or the I7 4670k/Hero. My plan was to piece the new build together by Christmas. So the day came for me to make the trip to Microcenter and pick out the first pieces. I walked in with every intention of getting the AMD combo... But Microcenter had a great deal on the 4770K/ Hero bundle. As i was looking at the Hero box my eyes were drawn to the VI Forumla. I had seen pictures of that sexy board, but I was not prepared for the "tightening of pants" effect it would have on me. But i fought the urge and and pulled the trigger on the Hero along with a good closed loop cooler. So I walked out of the store with this strange feeling that I made a mistake. I opened my car door and sat down in the seat. I tried to shut the door, but i just could not do it. So i walked the hero back in and went to find the board that was singing that sweet siren song. As i turned into the motherboard isle, i made eye contact with my salesman. He looked at me, cocked his head slightly, squinted his eyes and then put on a big smile when he realized why i was back. He turned from me reached up and grabbed the board that was to be the foundation for my new rig.
That was a good day.
I got everything home and I just could not let those beautiful parts just sit in their boxes. So pulled 860/III Formula out of the Taji and re-installed it back home in the Antec. Hooked everything back up and it fired up with no problems. So i got to work installing the 4770K/VI Formula, Coolmaster Seidon 240M and 7970.
As i was installing the last screw for me cooler, my old computer just shuts down. No blue screen, just off. I think to myself "Please don't be dead." I try to turn it back on and it doesn't post. Sh!t. So i go through the connections everything looks good. Still no post. I pull two stick of RAM. Still nothing. Move them over to then next slots. Success! But it only sees 4GB of the 8GB. This is the computer that got me through school and had so many programs (mostly IDE's and their ilk) installed on it that it would shut down as soon as it booted to the desk top with a low memory error (disabled pagefile). Best i can tell is that the memory controller let go as only one slot would recognize a DIMM. So I pulled the PSU, the SSD's, RAM and started the transpalnt.
Sooo close.
I transfer the RAM over, pop the SSD's into the hots-swap bays along with the HDD's and start on the PSU. Of course since it is an older PSU it does not have a four pin for the motherboard. No big deal, I had seen a 1000w single rail 80 bronze for $99 to get me by till I got a better one. The next day I went and picked it up. got home wired it all up.... and it lives!
Here is the part where I almost lost my mind.
So it seems that Haswell has a problem with Sata II Sandforce controllers. As in trailer park "I beat you cause I love you" type of problems. I booted the computer of my Sandisk OS SSD once just to see if my original install would work. It did but, it blue screened as soon as I tried to open a program. No big deal right. So formatted my game drive and tried to do a fresh install of 7 Ultimate. The installer kept giving me all kinds of problems with partitioning the drive and would not install. So i tried to install on my OS drive. No go either. So then I tried installing on them in raid 0. I got it to install but it would hang every time at the "Windows is setting up your desktop for the first time" screen. I was filling out at this point and kept at it trying to install and trying my Google-Fu on the issue. I burned a whole day on this. The next day i pulled a 2.5 drive out of a old laptop and windows installed perfectly. That's when i finally figured out the problem, Haswell is in compatible with my drives, with a little help from the web. So back to Microcenter I go. I picked up a Samsung 840 EVO, went home and 15 mintues later I was installing drivers.
What a great drive
So the system is running great, I do some bench marks and they are reasonable. But... That damn bug was still there biting me. Daily I was checking stock on the 7970 I purchased because I really wanted to do a CrossFire system. Everyday the count was going down. I was checking other store in the state, they were going down too. I was getting worried that they were not going to be restocking them at this point. The stock at my store was down to 1 card on a Thursday night after close. So i was there when they opened and snagged the last one.
Yay CrossFire!!!
Now at this point I knew needed a better PSU than the Coolmax zu-1000b, not that it is a bad PSU, I just wanted better for my build. I also knew that I wanted to max my RAM to do a RAMdisk for the games I play most. So back to Microcenter I go. Ok at this point i knew some thing was going to go wrong so I prepared myself for the worst. Little did I know that i was going to be making two more trips to Microcenter that day. I picked up some Crucial Ballistix Elite. Like pretty good RAM, good reviews online and high ratings. So i gave them a shot. I bought 2x16GB (2x8) Kits along with a CoolMaster V1000, Sundblaster Z soundcard and some random other things.
\MMMM new stuff
So I installed the the kits and she posts. I go into the UEFI to change the XMP profile after clearing the CMOS. I get in and my as I am moving my cursor down to change the setting, the cursor freezes. I wait and wait and wait then it shuts down. Starts up then shuts down again. Damn it! So I pull the ram and start trying them in pairs. Sure enough, on bad stick. ARRGGGG! so I take that kit back and get another one. Go home, install that kit same thing. Test the pairs again sure enough another bad stick. SERIOUSLY!
The first of the bad sticks.
So before making another trip to Microcenter I look up prices one Newegg and Amazon to see if i can't price match some kits. Found Dominator Platinum 1866 cas9 for $210. I go back and sure enough they price matched Amazon. Put them in and they work just fine.
So I am pretty happy with were i am at right now, but I am thinking about doing a water loop on the cards. So there you have it. Thought i would share my experience with everyone. Bottom line is check your PSU/ MOBO compatibility and Sata II SSD's with Sandforce controllers do not work with Haswell.
So I thought i would put so "Artistic" shots up too.
 (Custom).jpg "grassy"){kind=avatar}
That bug bit you hard .. very nice.c.
