Building Machine

M4v3r1ck · Post by **M4v3r1ck** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 1:35 pm

So I received most of the parts for the new machine and sat down starting to piece them all together. A couple things that I'm dissapointed with at first thought. Foremost is the RAID idea.

I bought 2 320gb drives thinking that I was gonna go either with a RAID1 or a RAID0, but for the life of me, I can't get the raid going. My motherboard has 4 serial raid options that come with it, but I have tried to fiddle a bit with them, but no luck. There is an Asus EZ Backup, Intel ICH7R Southbridge RAID, a Cross-RAID and aJMicron RAID. I tried the Asus EZ Backup RAID option, but each time I tried it, it would say that no hdds were detected. On the mb there are some EZ Backup serial slots (1,2) to plug the drives into, but no workie. I'm thinking that I may have to flash my bios? I dunno. If I hook up the drives into the standard sata ports on the mb they are detected. I went ahead and installed the OS onto the drive thinking that if I wish, I may try and hook up the RAID option at a later date. Another thing that I am disappointed with is that the cables for my PS were supposed to be LED (or so I thought). But apparently I am mistaken or not enabling something. Again, not a big deal.

I have to download all the programs and such. I am still waiting on a couple 120 mm fans (LED to take advantage of the clear sided case) to ensure cooling. The monitor was on backorder also, so until it arrives, I'm still using an older CRT.

So all in all, even though it is still in the early stages of the new era for me, I'm somewhat satisfied although the raid thing is bothering me. What the hell would I need 640 GB of disc space for? I should have just bought one of the drives if I knew I was gonna have troubles with the raid thing.

Post by **KrAzYdAvE** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 7:53 pm

Sounds like lack of documentation to me!

Generally in the BIOS there is an option to enable the raid controllers.
Enable both of them at first until you figure out which RAID controller the drives are on.

Save those settings and exit...
While it's booting up you'll then usually see some type of RAID controller screen and it usually says to press a sequence of keys to get into the setup of that. Usually Cntrl+I or Cntrl+S...
Use the pause button on the keyboard if it's too fast for you to catch it.
Its in that setup that you choose which drives to make members of your RAID arrays.

M4v3r1ck · Post by **M4v3r1ck** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 9:40 pm

Will I be able to do that even if I have already installed XP onto the drive?

Also, presently in XP it is only picking up one of the drives. They are both hooked up to a sata slot on the motherboard. Both drives are being shown in the post screen. The only jumpers on the back of the drives are for speeds. Or so I believe that is the case.

I will play around some more with turning on the raid controllers.

Post by **KrAzYdAvE** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 12:04 am

you may have to initialize the drive in windows... but that won't matter because once you do get your RAID working you'll have to reinstall windows anyways and you won't need to...

As for what you said about needing 640gb... you probably won't, but on a RAID 0 the read speeds are faster, which means things like map changes etc are faster, but the write speed takes a slight hit.

M4v3r1ck · Post by **M4v3r1ck** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 2:08 am

So I set up the raid option in the bios and managed to get to the raid menu in dos ( where i could create a raid0 system) and I did, but when I exited out of that particular dos program my machine started taking considerably more time between things. Ended up re formating and reinstalling winxp. Figure that I will just have the two drives going as non raids. I just have to figure out how to install the other one so winxp sees it.

I'm probably being paranoid, but being as I still don't have the 2 120mm case fans in, I don't want to leave it running too long or tax it too much for fear of the thing getting too hot. My cpu temp hovers around 40c and the mobo temp has been as high as 42c. I've opened up the side for the time being and have a small fan blowing on the mobo. Maybe a little too paranoid?

Post by **KrAzYdAvE** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 10:55 am

not really too paranoid... but your temps dont seem too high even at their highest.

If you just want to run two drives, go into your control panel, administrative tools and click computer management.
Then go to the disk management section and see if your drive is showing in there. It may pop up automatically asking you to initialize the drive, but if not just right click on it for the options.

Don't forget to format it either!

M4v3r1ck · Post by **M4v3r1ck** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 2:38 pm

Thanks KD. I was able to format it and set it up through the disk management option you suggested.

Now I just have to get everything installed and updated. Then I can see how the system works for games.

Post by BD » Sat Oct 07, 2006 4:00 pm

With the size of todays games, and as many as you need to have installed to be able to play with your homies, 640 is about right.

Post by **KrAzYdAvE** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 12:51 am

ROFL!
Awesome avatar!

M4v3r1ck · Post by **M4v3r1ck** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 9:52 am

Heaven forbid should everything go smoothly. About 1 week ago while starting my cpu it hung up and I was forced to hit restet button. Then I selected 'boot to safe mode' after 2 tries booting normally failed. I was successful at booting into safe mode and once it was booted, I restarted normally and things were okay. This morning I went to boot my machine and the same thing happened. It hung in the middle and just sat there. It gets to the point where it has the winxp logo in the middle and the progress bar underneath, then just freezes. I restarted and tried to boot to safe mode, then restarted into normal mode but it didnt work. I tried to reboot to the last known good configuration but again it froze. Any ideas?

Post by **Rico** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 1:14 pm

Same thing happened to me. Turned out to be a crappy PS. Bought one from PC Power and Cooling, and it's been great ever since.

Death_Dealer[CotC] · Post by **Death_Dealer[CotC]** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 2:49 pm

I have had similar problems due to PS being bad.

Post by **Neophyte** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 3:16 pm

Rico wrote:Same thing happened to me. Turned out to be a crappy PS. Bought one from PC Power and Cooling, and it's been great ever since.

PC Power & Cooling are like the business class of power supplies! Highly reliable, and highly priced. I second the nomination if you can swing it Mav.

Consumer PS's like Enermax, Cooler Master, Thermaltake, or Antac are good. Designed to last 2 - 3 years and meet all the PC design spec's. They make a good second place if money is tight. Or as a stop gap until you can get a PC P&C.

M4v3r1ck · Post by **M4v3r1ck** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 6:41 pm

Neophyte wrote:
Rico wrote:Same thing happened to me. Turned out to be a crappy PS. Bought one from PC Power and Cooling, and it's been great ever since.
PC Power & Cooling are like the business class of power supplies! Highly reliable, and highly priced. I second the nomination if you can swing it Mav.

Consumer PS's like Enermax, Cooler Master, Thermaltake, or Antac are good. Designed to last 2 - 3 years and meet all the PC design spec's. They make a good second place if money is tight. Or as a stop gap until you can get a PC P&C.

My PS is an Ultra 550W sli ready one. Im really hoping it isnt my PS but I will have to keep an eye on it. I am able to once again boot to windows. The only change that I could remember doing that may have effected it was updating the video drivers to the latest ones. So I uninstalled them in safe mode and rebooted and it finally took me to windows. From that point I loaded the default drivers that came with the video card. It seems to be working for the time being. Hopefully that was it, but knowing my luck it won't be.

Maybe i should be more optimistic?