Best Core 2 Series Desktops-Results and Specs

[Eddie D]

[/QUOTE]

Check your BIOS and post the setting your are having a question with. I'm still on 404 and Mykhals board came with 603 so We'll get you set up.

The overclocking message is a minor (major?) ASUS annoyance. You might try replacing the the mother boards battery but it wont make much differance. Basicaly its sending up the message during post that "Overclocking has failed" and the truth of the matter is nothing has changed at all Don't select "Load Defaults" as that will reset the BIOS to the factory settings, just hit F1 to "Enter Setup" and then hit F10 which is "Save Current Settings". Your basicly popping into BIOS to keep it happy and then immediatly exiting without changing anything. I've had 3 ASUS boards do this and other than being annoying its nothing to worry about (well unless your in the middle of actually overclocking things ) If its at random then its a glitch If its happening every single time that somethings possibly amiss in BIOS. The longer the board sits idle seems to increase the chance of seeing the overclocking failed message, I also havent ruled bad minor power surges even though everything is on a UPS - I have TERRIBLE power spikes.

[/QUOTE]

The update put me at bios version 704. These are my setting in this order as I see them.

The dram timings are
5
5
5
15

cpu ratio control = auto
c1e support = disabled
cpu tm function = enabled
vanderpool tech = disabled
execute disable bit = enabled
max cpuid limit = disabled
intel speedstep = disabled

the only setting I dont see is for PECI

Im not even sure what that setting is for, but then again I havent checked the manual yet.

The system is running fine as is with only the overclocking error, keeping my fingers crossed.

Let me know if there is anything I should look for.

Thanks for all your help
Eddie

[sunburst79]

Check your BIOS and post the setting your are having a question with. I'm still on 404 and Mykhals board came with 603 so We'll get you set up.

The overclocking message is a minor (major?) ASUS annoyance. You might try replacing the the mother boards battery but it wont make much differance. Basicaly its sending up the message during post that "Overclocking has failed" and the truth of the matter is nothing has changed at all Don't select "Load Defaults" as that will reset the BIOS to the factory settings, just hit F1 to "Enter Setup" and then hit F10 which is "Save Current Settings". Your basicly popping into BIOS to keep it happy and then immediatly exiting without changing anything. I've had 3 ASUS boards do this and other than being annoying its nothing to worry about (well unless your in the middle of actually overclocking things ) If its at random then its a glitch If its happening every single time that somethings possibly amiss in BIOS. The longer the board sits idle seems to increase the chance of seeing the overclocking failed message, I also havent ruled bad minor power surges even though everything is on a UPS - I have TERRIBLE power spikes.

[/QUOTE]

The update put me at bios version 704. These are my setting in this order as I see them.

The dram timings are
5
5
5
15

cpu ratio control = auto
c1e support = disabled
cpu tm function = enabled
vanderpool tech = disabled
execute disable bit = enabled
max cpuid limit = disabled
intel speedstep = disabled

the only setting I dont see is for PECI

Im not even sure what that setting is for, but then again I havent checked the manual yet.

The system is running fine as is with only the overclocking error, keeping my fingers crossed.

Let me know if there is anything I should look for.

Thanks for all your help
Eddie

[/QUOTE]

That all looks good to me. If you don't have field for PECI don't worry about it

You might try a fresh battery in the MOBO it may help the overclocking message go away.

[sunburst79]

Will this Memory be ok?
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

Newegg has sold out of the CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) - $109.00

Looks good!

[sunburst79]

Will this Memory be ok?
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

Newegg has sold out of the CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) - $109.00

Looks good!

[wakeangel]

I've been lurking on this thread since last summer and I've finally taken the plunge and built a quad system. I had one mother board issue. I got an Asus P5b vm-se that had some issues so I RMA'd it and got the Asus P5kc instead. After building the system I screwed up transferring data from the old drives to the new ones and then it turns out one of the IDE pins on the old system drive was bent. After doctoring that I managed to get all the data from it to the new drive and then it's off to the races. However, I've been getting DAE errors pretty regularly even after doing everything in the trouble shooting thread. And this is happening on a session with just a few audio tracks. Anyway my specs are as follows:

cpu: Intel q6600 2.4 gh
ram: 2 GB of Corsair twin2x2048-8500c5 1066
mb: Asus P5KC 1333 fsb p35 chipset
1 Seagate Barracuda sata/300 320GB HDD (system)
1 Seagate Barracuda IDE 320 GB HDD (Audio) This was the system drive for my old computer. I bought in September.
1 Seagate Barracuda IDE 80 GB (for samples and video, I do some video editing as well).
ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT (it has an onboard fan but it's pretty quiet)
Memorex DVD/CD drive
Atec Sonata III case.
1 generic PCI USB card
1 D-link wireless PCI adapter.
Windows xp home
PT le 7.4
MBox

The only other question I have is about the ram timing. When set on 1067 the timing reads 6.5.5.9. When I changed it to 5.5.5.9. I had two memory dumps. However, after changing it back to the auto settings it seems to be working just fine.

[GaryC]

Got a question about the hard drives.
I ordered the rest of what I need from Newegg yesterday.
Had a small glitch when I was in the checkout process-so I emptied my cart and started over again.
I had intended to get two of the 320 gig drives and one of the 250 gig-that one,for a system drive.
When I reloaded the cart,I was in a hurry to leave for work,and I actually ordered the 160 gig for a system drive.
I'm thinking it's probably okay,but I did notice that the 160 only has an 8 meg cache,while the 250 and 320 have 16 megs.
Is that going to matter any?

[feierabend]

This thread is awesome! SO MUCH INFORMATION!! Thanks to sunburst for keeping up with the build info. I'll be ordering parts next week. I'll be sure to post my results.

Thanks again,
PF

[sunburst79]

Got a question about the hard drives.
I ordered the rest of what I need from Newegg yesterday.
Had a small glitch when I was in the checkout process-so I emptied my cart and started over again.
I had intended to get two of the 320 gig drives and one of the 250 gig-that one,for a system drive.
When I reloaded the cart,I was in a hurry to leave for work,and I actually ordered the 160 gig for a system drive.
I'm thinking it's probably okay,but I did notice that the 160 only has an 8 meg cache,while the 250 and 320 have 16 megs.
Is that going to matter any?

Probably not but I would use it for a system drive before I would use it for a audio drive.

The cache size is a fairly importent contributer to the speed of the newer HDD's.

[Sparklin Marty]

Hey Now,

Earlier than I wanted to start posting on my current quad build, but I have a few questions? Back when I built an Allenstein Clone using an K8V motherboard. The conventional wisdom at the time was to use a small hard drive (40 -> 80 Gb) with the smallest partition as possible for the system drive (around 16-32 GB). Of course, using a second drive for the audio tracks. Was that info a Myth or doesn't it matter anymore and why?

Eddie D - I had the same problem with the overclocking bios error message, but this would only occur if I ran a bootable cd - like memtest 86. Then like mentioned earlier - I did an F10 save and it went away. Is this happening booting from your OS, after a F10?

To the best of my knowledge all boxed Q6600 are Go-Stepping. It's only the OEM versions
that are B3, with the exception being ClubIt.

Also what's the verdict on the upcoming XP-Sp3 release? Has anyone tried the Sp3 Beta RC1?

[sunburst79]

Hey Now,

Earlier than I wanted to start posting on my current quad build, but I have a few questions? Back when I built an Allenstein Clone using an K8V motherboard. The conventional wisdom at the time was to use a small hard drive (40 -> 80 Gb) with the smallest partition as possible for the system drive (around 16-32 GB). Of course, using a second drive for the audio tracks. Was that info a Myth or doesn't it matter anymore and why?

Eddie D - I had the same problem with the overclocking bios error message, but this would only occur if I ran a bootable cd - like memtest 86. Then like mentioned earlier - I did an F10 save and it went away. Is this happening booting from your OS, after a F10?

To the best of my knowledge all boxed Q6600 are Go-Stepping. It's only the OEM versions
that are B3, with the exception being ClubIt.

Also what's the verdict on the upcoming XP-Sp3 release? Has anyone tried the Sp3 Beta RC1?

80 GBs WAS the largest single platter size you could get a couple of years ago The system drive could care less about being partitioned. The OS will only run out of 1 partition at a time. My OS drive was 3 Partitions, XP home, MCE 2005 and a place for Vista if I ever get that crazy

Their have been problems in the past with people running partitioned Audio drives and partitioned Sample drives and having problems. Unpartitioned drives rarely have problems hence my recomendation for unpartitioned drives.

I suspect most of the B3's are gone now and that most of the boxed processers and tray/OEM are G0 at this point also.

I have SP3 BETA sittin right here...I have my a K8V SE deluxe that I just loaded Windows onto and may install SP3 just for kicks and grins. My understanding is that SP3 Beta is pretty much just a rollup of the current windows updates with no major new features.

I would not install it on your prodution machine with out a tested back up at this point.

Hopefully over the weekend I will get a chance to load PT and see if it crashes and burns with SP3-Not that I have any spare time at the moment to do a lot of testing.

The K8V SE Deluxe was supposed to be a Windows Home Server box but seems to have a lot of driver issues after a BIOS update. I loaded regular Windows on it so I could let it run Prime95 for awhile. I had high hopes that Windows Home Server would prove to be a nice "Set and Forget" automated back up system but at the moment it keeps crashing. I'm not sure if its the prerelease software or driver issues between Server 2003 and the older K8V SE Deluxe.