First-time PC Builder - Need helpful tips & a couple of answers

[Dreaming]

Raid on the IP35 Pro (cos I've done it meself )

1. Boot into bios.
2. Go down the settings I think to advanced configuration, onboard devices, change mode from IDE to Raid.
3. Reboot, press ctrl+I when prompted to do so
4. Create your raid array

No worries though - this is all explained comprehensively in the manual and it's pretty straightforward and hard to get wrong. One thing that may be worth doing (may not be depending?) is if you set the raid0 stripe to be 95% of the disks, the last 5% or so you can create a raid1 array and stick your documents in there. In vista it is as simple as going start > username > select all > copy > new folder (in D: for sake of argument) > paste. Windows automatically redirects your default save directories so there's no worries there.

[2Cold Scorpio]

Raid on the IP35 Pro (cos I've done it meself )

1. Boot into bios.
2. Go down the settings I think to advanced configuration, onboard devices, change mode from IDE to Raid.
3. Reboot, press ctrl+I when prompted to do so
4. Create your raid array

No worries though - this is all explained comprehensively in the manual and it's pretty straightforward and hard to get wrong. One thing that may be worth doing (may not be depending?) is if you set the raid0 stripe to be 95% of the disks, the last 5% or so you can create a raid1 array and stick your documents in there. In vista it is as simple as going start > username > select all > copy > new folder (in D: for sake of argument) > paste. Windows automatically redirects your default save directories so there's no worries there.

Thanks for telling me how RIAD works with the IP35 Pro. I actually didn't know you could use part of the disks for a RAID 1 setup as well; although its not something I'll likely do (I backup using Norton Ghost pretty religiously, and soon I'll start using an external hard drive as well), it is something worth remembering as I may implement such a thing down the road.

One question though...is there anything you have to do during XP w/SP2 and Vista's installations to make RAID work (loading drivers, having ot do any configuration, etc.)? Or will setting it in the BIOS as outlined above enough?

[Pob255]

I have to point out a couple of things here.
The Raidmax Smilodon is a butter fly case, which is very easy to open and install hard ware in. (I looked at it for a friends first build, however I did dismiss it as it's only got a single 80mm rear case out put fan)
It does have 2 80mm side fans, one over the cpu and one lower down on a swing out arm. The lower fan should be level/below the graphics card so it might be an idea to flip it over so it sucks out rather than blowing in (although I'm not sure if it's set to suck or blow as standard)
Ther's some nice pics of the case and how it opens on the newegg website here
(the other reason I dismissed this case is that you cannot use the front USB ports when the door is is closed which is silly)

The butterfly design should make installation much eaiser, I'd still sudgets fitting the cooler to the motherboard before fitting it to the motherboard tray/door as the push pins can be a bit tricky the first time you use them. (you can use the stock cooler that comes with the cpu to have a practise first wipe off the paste and have a go at fitting it without the cpu in the slot)
The main reason for doing this off the motherboard tray is so you can look at the underside to see if the pins are through correctly and locked in place.
But you'll be able to screw in the motherboard before putting in the memory in with ease. then put in the graphics card and sound card.
Put in the hard drives and optical drives and floppy (I tend to work top to bottom when putting in drives) PSU last, even though theres plenty of room in that case with both the doors down the extra working room can be good esp if you put a drive in the very top.
Also as the case have 4 HD slots behind the 120mm fan I'd use ether the 1st & 3rd or 2nd & 4th slots for the two hard drives to leave space around them don't stick them in two slots next to each other when you don't need to.

Do the wireing last and don't be afraid to unplug everything one or twice to get it neat. cable management is an art form not a science.

[pp05]

Have any floppy with sata drivers closeby and get ready to hit f2 or whatever buttons it offers you. Certainly if your board has silicon image sata controller you will need to.

[2Cold Scorpio]

That was one main reason I got that case was because of how well it opens up and how easy it is to install components (and it just looked cool, IMO). Yes, not being able to use the ports with the door closed is silly, but that door will likely be open most of the time when I'm doing intensive tasks anyways to maximize airflow. As for hard drive slots, I'd actually been thinking of using 1 and 4 to that the 120mm intake fan can still pull plenty of air into the case (most notably in the direction of the video card). I'm replacing the rear 80mm outtake fan with one that should move more air (an Apevia 4-light fan), and will use the old outtake fan as an intake fan on the right side where an empty fan slot is (which blows more or less on the floppy drive). As far as the swing-bar fan goes, I would think setting as an outtake fan would be counter-productive due to warm air rising, and col air sinking, and its below another fan already blowing air in; I would think it would really just be spitting out the cooler air coming in from above. It owuldn't hurt to try both, though.

Is there anything else I oughta know? Commonly made first-timer mistakes that can easily be avoided, etc.?

[pp05]

Make sure you set your hard disk to boot from sata if sata is what you have bought,and also remember to connect power to gfx card if it requires a molex connector. Otherwise it might sound like an ambulance.

[Thorsson]

RTFMs. Take it slow. And get the CPU/HSF right.

[2Cold Scorpio]

Make sure you set your hard disk to boot from sata if sata is what you have bought,and also remember to connect power to gfx card if it requires a molex connector. Otherwise it might sound like an ambulance.

They are SATA drive,s yes. Do you set them to boot from SATA from within the BIOS (as in, switiching it from IDE mode to SATA mode?), or is this a seperate step?

RTFMs. Take it slow. And get the CPU/HSF right.

I'll have all the manuals nearby, a large coffee table to work on, and a good ten hours of being home alone to work (thats the main reason I'm waiting until next Wednesday to start; I should have two days off of work, and the Christmas chaos will be over). Hopefully, thats enough to get the main box together (and hopefully working) so I can clean up all the boxes and whatnot before my girlfriend gets home. And this old computer running to look at my guides and have these forums handy. And lots of coffee. Assuming all goes well on Day 1, the day after will be devoted to installing OSs and moving data back over (unless, of course, I get things working faster than expected on Wednesday, in which case I could at least get XP going ).

[Lee H]

The following guide is excellent and has assisted many people I know in the past ;

Welcome to Corsair :: System Build Logs

All the guide is full of nice images showing how to build an up-to-date PC.

Hope this helps

[2Cold Scorpio]

The following guide is excellent and has assisted many people I know in the past ;

Welcome to Corsair :: System Build Logs

All the guide is full of nice images showing how to build an up-to-date PC.

Hope this helps

Thanks! This could indeed come in handy. I'm also referencing the guide on CustomPC, and a brief outline Bishop from GuildCom wrote up for me. Every little bit helps.

[2Cold Scorpio]

I've used both on mine. There was about a 1 degree difference, the AS5 being slightly better but it's not worth the effort.

I forgot to ask this yesterday, but but does the thermal compound that comes on the Arctic Cooler 7 work as well for overclocking as AS5? Not major overclocking, but I'd like to get the CPU up to 3.0-3.4 GHz or so.

[Pob255]

As Mike said there's not a big differnce between them, still usefull to get the AS5 if you need to reseat the cooler


The reason I said about makeing the side fan an outake is that the 8800gt a) runs hot and b) vents most of the air at the back of the card, while not out of the case.
That side pannel fan should be roughtly at the back of the 8800gt so haveing it as an out take it should suck most of the hot air from it out.

generally speaking you want to aim for even amounts in/out air flow or negitive pressure (more out than in)
As that case stands with 3x80mm and 1x120mm in and only a single 80mm and 120mm (on the PSU) out there'll be positive pressure and that case doen't have a lot of holes/vents for it to escape from, which means your PSU may end up sucking a lot of hot air out of your case which could shorten it's life span (although the antec NeoHE is a good PSU and shouldn't be that baddly effected)

Personally I'd be more worried about the temps on the gpu than the cpu as it does run far hotter than the cpu.

EDIT:You could always try makeing an airduct out of some cardboard to attach the the side fan to help suck air out from a specfic location

[2Cold Scorpio]

I was aware of the 8800GT running hot (largely due to its BIOS, it would seem; the fan never spins full speed; hence why I'll be using RivaTuner ). Though having the arm fan suck hot air off the card might work well...I wonder if that fan can even be reversed i nthe sidearm; I'd have to look. O_o

As for the HSF, staffsMike says the stuff already on it works pretty well, so I think I'll stick with it, and save the AC5 in case I ever need to remount the HSF or (in a more likely scenario) use it on a new HSF down the road when I upgrade CPUs.

[Pob255]

I do like the ACf7p mine is currently keeping my Pentium D * at 34c when idel at half speed (~1300rpm)** which is fine for non-gameing and quite and that's on the pre applied MX1
They are very easy and quick to fit due to there small size and push pins (once you get used to the push pins)

Although if I was to rebuild this PC I'd now go for the Asaka AK-965x3 as it's basically the same cooler but slightly cheaper

Couple of tips with when mounting the ACf7p
Remove the fan, it's easy to detach and reattach once the cooler is in place and that little extra working room on the push pins is good
Work diagonals when pushing in the push pins, they can be a bit tight and a slight struggle to get in and locked sometimes, pushing in diagonally oppsit pins should make them go in a bit eaiser. (I'd advise to start with the one by the heat pipe as that is the most component surrounded pin)


*the pentium D 9xx is 2nd hottest cpu, it's slightly cooler than the 8xx series pentium D

** I control it with a fan controller as my ASRock motherboard seems to have problems controlling it after I updated the BIOS

EDIT: Just checked, 45c under load at 2100rpm which is 2/3 setting on my fan controller which is not too noisey and my standar for playing games.

[2Cold Scorpio]

^^Sounds good Pob Thanks for the advice.

Though now I have another question about the Abit IP-35 Pro; the manual talks about installing a Guru panel and to refer to its manual, but the only uGuru manual I see talks about software, and the only component in the box that isn't the mobo or SATA/FDD/IDE cables is a bracket (like that goes o nthe back of the case) that says USB and has a couple of USB connections and a few other connections on it (Firewire, maybe? I didn't look that hard). It has two large gray mounds on the rear with 3 (I think) cables coming off of it. Is this the Guru panel? If not, am I missing something, and do I need it to use the uGuru software?

[2Cold Scorpio]

Well, I finished my build today, and it POSTed on the first try! I still don't know about the Guru panel I inquired about, but the machine seems to be running fine at about 30c (CPU temp and case temp) in the BIOS (even with at one point during the build the HSF popped out of three of the four holes and smeared the thermal grease a bit! :| And the cables are messy as heck; for the life of me I couldn't get 'em cleaned up; lack of room, I suppose... ). Tomarrow or Monday, I'll setup RAID and see if I can get Windows installed. I wanted to thank everyone that helped me, and still invite any additional advice you guys may have; there's stil la lot of work to do! lol

Also, about what we were discussing earlier about making the crossbar's fan be an exhaust fan...well, I left it at it's default intake for now, but the one right above it attached directly to the window IS an outtake fan by default! And it seems (so far) to work pretty well.