Just Finished new Build Need Help!

[toostrike]

Hi-

My first Build and it F-NG posted.Excuse the french fellow pc dudes,but what a great feeling:)It took 5 hours,but I had some issues,and I still have some questions.The first issue I had was installing the Coolermaster Hyper 212 plus.Installation was easy,but applying Artic Siver was somewhat a challege.You have to pack the gaps on the HS,and get it flush without air pockets.The chip was easy.I applied a thin layer on the entire chip,so you could see the writing on the chip.Finally,I used the line method on the heatsink,and bolted her down.After I got it to post.I messed around in the bios for 15 minutes.My core idle temp was 32 degrees.I only had it on 15 minutres ,so I'm not sure that was long enough.I used an Antec 900 for this build.I also knew before hand that wire management was going to be an issue.I pre-drilled some holes.I did not have an extender for the 8 pin power plug.Having a bottem mounted PSU I drilled a hole a little beyond the psu to run the 8 pin power plug.I had another hole drilled in the upper corner.I had to go underneath the mobo,after I routed behind on the top,But only had 3 inches after coming back in the case ,under the mobo,and get it connected.What a pain in the ass.It took me 45 minutes to connect this wire.The sleeving on the PSU is not that forgiving.I took out the rear fan to get my paws in there,and bend it without trying to crack the board.I will defintely get an extender and redo some cable management.Everying else went smooth.

Here are the parts I have in the case.I have some questions,and will number them in order of concern.


Antec 900

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor Model HDZ955FBGMBOX - Retail

GIGABYTE GA-MA790GPT-UD3H AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7 compatible RR-B10-212P-G1 120mm

CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 .

EVGA 01G-P3-1158-TR GeForce GTS 250 1GB 256-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card - Retail
AMD Gift - Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Coupon - Retail

LITE-ON 24X DVD Writer Black SATA Model iHAS424-98 LightScribe Support - Retail

Rosewill RC-401-EX 10/ 100/ 1000Mbps PCI-Express Gigabit Low Profile Network Card - Retail


(2) Western Digital Caviar Black WD7501AALS 750GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive -Bare Drive

(1) Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive


G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ - Retail

Nippon Labs Black 1.44MB 3.5" External USB 2.0 Floppy Drive Model USB-FLPPY - Retail "LOL"I still cant believe I need a floppy drive,but I need it to load SATA drivers into XP Pro.



1. When I mounted the Motherboard in the case I only had 8 nylon washers.I have one hole without a washer,but the board is properly mounted on all 9 stand-offs.Should I be concerned?

2.I have 3 Sata drives.On the Motherboard they have Sata 0 and Sata 1,and then they have Sata 2-6 on another bank.I connected the 2- 750GB drives to Sata 0,and Sata 1.I connected the 320GB dive to Sata 2.Do those connections sound correct..I also have a burner.How should I set up the boot order in the bios?Should the DVD burner be connected to Sata 0,and then 1,2....?

3.I still  need to figure the bios out.How do I load all the drivers?I am using xp pro so I download the sata drivers for the hard drive.I'm wondering about the sata dvd burner.Should I just go to Gigabyte,and update all the drivers after I install the os.?

4.I have 2 fans hooked up to the HS.One fan is connected to the cpu fan header.The board has 2 sys fan headers,but I hated to run wires across the board.It as 1 a 3 in Power fan heaer.I connected the other 120 there.Is that ok?

I have not started the PC since I did the bench test,at that point the post was done outside the case. I still need to see if all my drives work,and everything works with the parts in the case.I have alot to figure out in the bios.Its all new to me,as a newbie.


I stiil need to figure the bios out.How do I load all the drivers?I am using xp pro so I download the sata drivers for the hard drive.I'm wondering about the sata dvd burner.Should I just go to Gigabyte,and update all the drivers after I install the os.?

Here's some pictures.Still working on cable management!



http://img715.imageshack.us/i/img0044td.jpg/

http://img413.imageshack.us/i/img0043hi.jpg/

http://img535.imageshack.us/i/img0056jq.jpg/

http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/7826/img0055le.jpg

http://img534.imageshack.us/i/img0048vu.jpg/

http://img534.imageshack.us/i/img0076w.jpg/

http://img441.imageshack.us/i/img0075y.jpg/

http://img413.imageshack.us/i/img0074ge.jpg/

[Sartre]

1. Should be no problem

2. Sounds OK. Do you plan on running them in RAID? Put your DVD burner in the last SATA socket. I like to create a small system partition (~25-30GB) so the OS files are always at the front of the disk. I place my movies, music and programs on other separate partitions. YMMV.

3. For XP I find it easier to install in IDE mode then enable msahci in device manager(set it to boot), reboot into BIOS and enable AHCI, then boot into windows and install the AHCI drivers from AMD.

4. Your CPU heat sink has 2 fans?

[toostrike]

1. Should be no problem

2. Sounds OK. Do you plan on running them in RAID? Put your DVD burner in the last SATA socket. I like to create a small system partition (~25-30GB) so the OS files are always at the front of the disk. I place my movies, music and programs on other separate partitions. YMMV.

3. For XP I find it easier to install in IDE mode then enable msahci in device manager(set it to boot), reboot into BIOS and enable AHCI, then boot into windows and install the AHCI drivers from AMD.

4. Your CPU heat sink has 2 fans?

The Heatsink. I love it.I  have it set up for push and pull. The back exhaust is fairly close to pull fan to get the heat out.The nice part is the fans are interchangeable,so you can swap them out,and if ones goes bad,You have a back-up still working.Any 120's will work.

Thanks for the advice.I already downloaded all the drivers for the motherboard from Gigabyte's site.I will load them all after a os install.


No. I do not plan on running raid.I plan on partitioning one 750GB drive(30 gigs os/remaider gaming) The other drives will be used for virtual machines,and storage.

For XP I find it easier to install in IDE mode then enable msahci in device manager(set it to boot), reboot into BIOS and enable AHCI, then boot into windows and install the AHCI drivers from AMD.

How do you find this driver?I'm on another pc right now,not the one I built. I went into device manager,and went  to show hidden devices,but I did not see this driver.


One a side note I realize i could have built a machine with better performance.DX11,ATI,I5/I7 ect...I got this video card because I play older games and new games.It was $ 134 dollars.I noticed the Egg just increased prices $20.00 dollars.I will have Less driver issues and can play Crysis on medium settings.Next Year I'll find the sweet spot on a I7 ,ATI ect... for a little more, or the price I paid now.About a grand:) I'm so glad I built this instead of buying some pos HP or Dell.

[Sartre]

Oops... my mistake. I was thinking of Vista. In XP it's called AHCIX86. Check your windows\system32\drivers folder for a file called ahcix86.sys. If it's there as it should, look for ahcix86 in Device manager and set the startup type to BOOT as in the dialog for msahci here:

http://i41.tinypic.com/verlsj.jpg

If you can't find it in device manager, save this as a .reg file and import it:

Code: [Select]

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_1002&cc_0106]
"Service"="ahcix86"
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E97B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ahcix86]
"Type"=dword:00000001
"Start"=dword:00000000
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000001
"Tag"=dword:00000021
"ImagePath"="system32\\drivers\\ahcix86.sys"
"Group"="SCSI Miniport"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ahcix86\Parameters\PnpInterface]
"5"=dword:00000001

After you've enabled the driver or imported the reg file, go to the bios, enable AHCI and reboot.

[toostrike]

Oops... my mistake. I was thinking of Vista. In XP it's called AHCIX86. Check your windows\system32\drivers folder for a file called ahcix86.sys. If it's there as it should, look for ahcix86 in Device manager and set the startup type to BOOT as in the dialog for msahci here:

http://i41.tinypic.com/verlsj.jpg

If you can't find it in device manager, save this as a .reg file and import it:

Code: [Select]

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_1002&cc_0106]
"Service"="ahcix86"
"ClassGUID"="{4D36E97B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ahcix86]
"Type"=dword:00000001
"Start"=dword:00000000
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000001
"Tag"=dword:00000021
"ImagePath"="system32\\drivers\\ahcix86.sys"
"Group"="SCSI Miniport"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ahcix86\Parameters\PnpInterface]
"5"=dword:00000001

After you've enabled the driver or imported the reg file, go to the bios, enable AHCI and reboot.

I don't mean to sound stupid,but I'm still at a loss here.I downloaded the sata drivers for the motherboard and have them in a folder

I cant seem to load them when I try to install windows.I put these files on a floppy disk,and when set up says press f6 to install 3rd party drivers, I try to load these from the" A "drive,but it acts like nothings there,and tells put the driver disk that came with my motherboard


I have spent hours trying to get this to work  with no luck.This is really frustrating. I downloaded the  this. exe files from  Gigabyte's site

Here .exe file

motherboard_driver_sata_amd_bootdisk_m7x_xp.exe


After I unpack.

ahcix86
ahcix86.cat
ahcix86.inf
ahcix86.sys
txtsetup.oem

[absic]

Hi there,

As you are not planning on using a raid array you shouldn't need to install any drivers. In bios, make sure that you have set the onboard SATA controller to enabled and then set onboard SATA controller to Native IDE.

You should then be able to install XP from the windows disc without a problem.

Once XP is installed you can install the chipset drivers from the CD that came with your mobo.

[Sartre]

Hi there,

As you are not planning on using a raid array you shouldn't need to install any drivers. In bios, make sure that you have set the onboard SATA controller to enabled and then set onboard SATA controller to Native IDE.

You should then be able to install XP from the windows disc without a problem.

Once XP is installed you can install the chipset drivers from the CD that came with your mobo.

If you don't enable AHCI when installing, the windows AHCI driver will not be enabled. Then you have to enable the driver manually through the Device Manager before you enable it in the bios or the machine will not boot.

[Sartre]

I don't mean to sound stupid,but I'm still at a loss here.I downloaded the sata drivers for the motherboard and have them in a folder

I cant seem to load them when I try to install windows.I put these files on a floppy disk,and when set up says press f6 to install 3rd party drivers, I try to load these from the" A "drive,but it acts like nothings there,and tells put the driver disk that came with my motherboard


I have spent hours trying to get this to work  with no luck.This is really frustrating. I downloaded the  this. exe files from  Gigabyte's site

Here .exe file

motherboard_driver_sata_amd_bootdisk_m7x_xp.exe


After I unpack.

ahcix86
ahcix86.cat
ahcix86.inf
ahcix86.sys
txtsetup.oem

I can't tell you why it's not reading the drivers but you don't need to load them during installation. Just install with your SATA controller in IDE mode and add the driver later.

After you install XP, add the driver in this file to your windows\system32\drivers folder, double-click the enable-ahci-xp.reg file and reboot. Enter your bios and enable AHCI and reboot again. Windows should load in AHCI mode.

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/9/20/2106747/AHCI_XP.zip

[toostrike]

Its all good   I'm posting on my new rig.I Used N-light,and slip streamed  the  drivers in a bootable disk.I was up and running in ten minutes.I still need to update the motherboard drivers.I used the disc,but only installed a few things.Whats is the best way to update all my drivers?