Core i7: Now or Later?

[The_Real_DeaL31]

yet another person asking if they should upgrade now is the worst time, ill say it again, with am2+/am3 getting stronger catching up to intel I7, the prices will keep dropping, its best to wait through the storm man

 

[Fitseries3]

use one stick in the green slot farthest from the cpu.

jump cmos and unplug psu. replug, switch cmos jumper back to normal and boot.

if that dont work check the other cmos jumper on the back pannel.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I haven't tried jumping the CMOS so I'll do that. By the way, the Power LED is flashing rather fast and the IDE light is solid.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

A single stick in the last DIMM worked. It is POSTing now and made it to a "disk read error."

So, what's that mean? RAM incompatible? Maybe a BIOS update?

 

[Fitseries3]

mine did that the first few posts. its fine i think. you can update the bios to the february one if you want.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

So should I go ahead and put the rest of the sticks in? DIMM 1 3 5 or DIMM 2 4 6? BIOS update first?

 

[Fitseries3]

always in the green slots.

set dram voltage to 1.65v in bios first.

 

[kid41212003]

If you're running the memory at 1600MHz, raise the QPI/VTT to 1.25v

 

[FordGT90Concept]

1.65v with all three sticks in the green DIMMs worked. Now I think it is pissed off at my floppy because even if it is told not to boot from it, it still gives a boot failed message.

Any who, time to get drivers...

 

[Fitseries3]

use usb flashdrive to flash bios if you do. dont do it any other way.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

The BIOS update mentioned removing B Floppy--maybe that would help. Rather, I think I'll use the cable that came with the mobo. The one I am using now has two FDD hook ups so it might be causing problems.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

So, the problem wasn't the floppy at all. I disabled JMicron and JMicron is the chip running both the FDD and IDE drives. Turned that on and things finally look good. I tried to do RAID0 on the JMicron chip and skip using the Intel chip altogether but apparently the JMicron chip can't do IDE and SATA RAID at the same time. The RAID array is going on the Intel chip.

Now I just have to make a floppy with Intel SATA/RAID drivers and I should be good to go.


Last I checked, the CPU was idling at 30C with stock cooling. Not too shabby. I think I went a little heavy on the Arctic Silver 5 though (more like very heavy ).

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Extension of last problem: Intel ICH10R in RAID mode does not show any hard drives/volumes Windows can detect. I can't install OS unless I disable RAID and change it to just ACHI or IDE mode. JMicron is set to Native IDE (other options are RAID + IDE and Disabled).

I have already set up the RAID volume via ctrl+i but that volume isn't registering on the Standard CMOS page of the BIOS.


Edit: Going to try BIOS update. It mentions something that could be causing my problem:
"Make sure legacy mode only be enabled in IDE mode."


Edit 2: The BIOS update didn't change anything but I did figure out what the problem was. I was telling Windows to load the SATA AHCI driver instead of the RAID driver. It is formatting now and, so long as there aren't any stability issues, I should be home free (YAY).

Also, with the side panel back on the case, it now idles at just under 40C. About the same as the Athlon 64 4000+ and Opteron 180.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Well, last I saw, it was just past the dialogs for installing Windows. I went to do some other stuff and go to check on the computer to realize it is back to square one:
-power LED is flashing
-it is showing error code 8.8. (ehm, it doesn't change from that).

I tried what worked before by removing the other two DIMMs of memory and it made no difference. I will try clearing the CMOS but I doubt it will help.


Edit: I can't help but think this has something to do with botched up suspend state crap. This is reasonable because I am using a 1-2 year old Enermax Liberty that wouldn't support the suspend state the X58 and Core i7 do. In any case, it is starting to piss me off. If you know where to permanently disable all forms of suspend, I'd be happy to hear it...assuming I can get to the BIOS to change it.


Edit 2: I unpluged the power cable, cleared the CMOS, and plugged the power cable back in to discover the system dead. The only sign of life is a light comes on by the first PCI Express x16 slot. Before, there was that light and another light over by the IDE header. The light by the IDE header is now out. I have no idea what is wrong now as the system is entirely unresponsive beyond that one light.


Edit 3: I cleared the CMOS again and it finally jumped out of it (back to C7 error). I went back to the one stick, changed all settings (especially the memory voltage and everything having to do with suspend states), and it finally made it to the Windows desktop. I will try putting the other two sticks of memory in and hopefully that will be the end of my problems.


Edit 4: I put the other two sticks in and I'm right back to the beginning of this post (8.8. error code, flashing power LED). I'm getting under the impression that this OCZ Gold isn't compatible with the motherboard.


Edit 5: I think I finally found the culprit: one of the sticks is bad. Either that, or the mobo gets bitchy running on tri-channel. Naw, it has to be the stick. Only when it is in does it do 8.8. It doesn't even reach C7 when it is in there.


Edit 6: Back to square one. 8.8. and only the two sticks that worked before went in. Come to think of it, i think the only connecting thread here is that it only happens when software orders a restart be it Windows, or a device driver installing. Hard restarts and powering off/on don't have any issues. So, question is: what is going back to Newegg? The even more serious question is should I change to a different motherboard (Asus or Gigabyte)? I think I'll try a few things to prove it is not the memory...


Edit 7: All three sticks are in and this post is made from the Core i7 computer. I think it works perfectly fine so long as it is not shut down. It can restart over and over but if I shut it down, I have to clear the CMOS in order to get it to boot again. So, what needs to go? Motherboard or power supply? When I go to bed, I'll try to remember to run memtest to prove it isn't the memory.

 

[Fitseries3]

WOW!

wtf. problems galore.

achi mode never works for me.

raid wont show up in the bios. its still there though.

vista and 7 will see the raid without any more drivers. xp will not. you'll need the ich10r raid driver for xp to see the raid in order to install the os.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I finally got it figured out: The Februrary BIOS are to blame. I reverted back to January (initial release) BIOS and it's finally running like it should.

It's all updated and ready to roll.

The DRAM is running at 1066 MHz though, shouldn't it be at least 1333 MHz or does it automatically adjust the memory speeds like it does with CPU multiplier?

 

[Fitseries3]

auto adjusts.

odd... feb bios works better for me.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Hmm, epic fail here. Could have to do with the memory or power supply but yeah, just happy it is sorted. Time to put it to work. XD