maplenet2

Ya that's a steal, but the problem is finding a good dual socket 1366 mobo or a barebone z800 or similar workstation computers on ebay or thrift stores. Most barbones are like $400+ and the good dual socket mobo's go for $150+, plus you have the hassel of configuring your own parts to work with the system. The time and money (performance price ratio) put into getting a 1366 build to work will not be worth it. It would be better to get a e3-1230v3 or even the 4790 at this point. Unless you can find a z800/t5500 at your local thrift store, 1366 is kind of out of the question. But ty anyways!

Oh wow, that's pretty cheap! I was actually look at the E56XX xeon's on ebay. I was researching some dual socket 1366 boards the other day, I'll take note of that! ty

Ya, I found out that most boards already support some instructions xeon cpu's use. So microcode is most likely not a problem. But since my p21 board uses a g31 chipset, I got skeptical and just included it in the description of the project just in case. But thanks for the heads up!

(Warning: Not the actual project name. I can't think of one really..) Background So I'm a very inquisitive person who wants to try and toy around with anything and everything that peaks my interest. When it comes to the "personal computer", I like to broaden the intended use of the computer and push its limits to the next level. My first ever personal computer that I've built for myself was an old Core 2 Duo E4500 machine (which was back in 2008). I can talk days about this machine because its lasted me till end of 2013 until I upgraded to an 8-core FX 8350. But throughout the years upgrading my socket LGA775 machine, I've accumulated many spare parts. I thought about tossing them or selling them on craigslist/ebay, but I recently found out about a LGA771 to LGA775 mod. Now this mod takes cheap, yet powerful LGA771 Xeon processors (that some happen to be more cheaper and powerful than Core 2 Quads) and converts their use to a compatible LGA775 motherboard. Incidentally, I happen to have 3 (possibly 4) compatible motherboards for this mod. I've done my research and found out that this mod is usually successful if done following the guide, but I wanted to take it a step further. I wanted to see a price to performance advantage over this mod if this mod were to be used today. Now Ebay has recently become my best friend, though I still speculate on ordering stuff through Ebay, my recent experience has over turned my view on the website. A detailed guide of the mod can be found here (LTT version by harrynowl can be found here as well). Project Objective This project was intended to first see if the mod will work, but I've been given a more practical objective with this project. My plan is too see how much of a price to performance advantage I can gain with the cheap used parts I plan on utilizing, and (if possible) see if this mod is an option for an alternate personal computer. Project Plan First Phase of this project is getting it to actually work. Here are this list of essential computer parts I will use to test this project: Xeon e5420 (bought used from third party seller on amazon for ~$11) LGA771 to 775 Sticker (bought from ebay for $5, includes 4 mod stickers and 4 Xeon stickers which is pretty cool) Motherboards: ECS GF7100PVT-M3 (v1.0) MSI G31TM-P21 MSI P43 Neo Patriot G Series DDR2 2x2gb PC2-6400 800mhz (PGS24G6400ELK) NVIDIA Geforce GTX 550 ti (EVGA) I will be doing some hard mods, like cutting up my motherboard sockets, and soft mods which require me to add some microcode. NOTE: Some parts will might change in the future to better adapt the project Second Phase is testing phase. The setup will be inside a Thermaltake WingRS 201, and not an open air test-bench, to simulate real-world use. I will benchmark the computer parts individually (except graphics card) and measure usage as well as temps. The programs I will use are: Cinebench 7-zip Compression Benchmark Aida64 (trial) PassMark (trial) Adobe CS6 After Effects Rendering Adobe CS6 Premiere Rendering Adobe CS6 Encoder Encoding City Skylines Team Fortress 2 Minecraft Planetside 2 I plan on getting results from multiple control builds before testing the xeon mod. So before the xeon mod, the boards I use will run the tests using a Pentium E6300 (unfortunately I sold my e4500 already, which I am sadden about). I will also create some theoretical control builds on PCPartPicker and other benchmark websites Third Phase is crunching the numbers. All the results I get from the testing will be written down on a spreadsheet and carefully calculated to match a performance to price ratio. My plan is to create a point-based system for each individual test. The points will be compared and see how much of an advantage the xeon mod has over the control build and theoretical builds on PcPartPicker. But to be clear, I am still finalizing a practical way of rendering a point system into this part of the project. I haven't exactly finished this step of the project. I was actually going to make a post on how I should do this part. So if you have any suggestions, please comment or pm me. Fourth Phase (Project Part 2, if successful) I hope to find this project a success. Again, my objective is to see if utilizing cheap xeon processors is an option for building a computer. If this is more of a success than I hope to imagine, I want to see if I can create builds utilizing this mod. This is all theoretical, and I maybe overthinking all of this, but this fourth phase is more of personal understanding of the results of the project. Conclusion Since I am but a mere-college student who runs on low allowance and financial aid (currently unemployed), this project will be in the point of view of a person with little to no money. The process of the project will be documented and later submitted to LTT build log forum. This project is mainly a hobby of mine and I wish to broaden my strategies of computer building. Though this will not be as much as a financial gain, I hope to learn at least a thing or two about computers. Even if I don't learn as much as I already know, I hope to gain more experience with building projects (since this will kind of be my first big project). I also hope to interact more in the LTT community for I have never done this before. I hope you all would enjoy this project that I am doing and maybe be inspired. But if you don't like it, that's cool, I accept constructive criticism. So what do I guys think of my project? Any comments about anything, suggestions you can make to contribute to this project, or questions about things I didn't make clear (I'm sure I missed a lot), please comment below. Thank you for reading through this long and painstaking post!

Hi, I'm Michael! Lets just say that the small form factor machines are thee best! Traditional desktops can get a bit clunky and can waste a lot a space. Sure they give the appearance of machine superiority if you have a powerful machine, but if it's small and packs a punch, it automatically is way better than any big machine (conditions may very). Watching the review of the Zotacs ZBOX already impressed me with the kind of engineering they manufactured in such a small machine. I just love the dedicated Nvidia GPU they selected for the machine, perfect for 4k streaming (not necessarily for intense gaming, 1080p is fine). I also love how they made room for two 2.5 drives, perfect for storing all the games and movies for home theatre PC. If I ever win the machine, my plan is to replace my original plan for a theatre PC for my parents. Originally I was going to order a used 1st Gen i5 for a used SFF BTX desktop that a friend gave me. Was going to power it up with 4gbs of ECC MEM @1066mhz and a gt 740. They have a 4k tv and I am unsure if it's even going to work for them, but that's the only cost effective solution I have for their streaming/light gaming needs. I also plan to use it to play some steam games whenever I'm in town. To be honest, the real reason I want the machine is to take it apart and mess with it as much as possible. I love hardware, and seeing how it works and stuff is the best. But a giveaway is a giveaway. Good luck to the lucky winner!

Oh alright. I am also used to installing OS frequently and fortunately that the computer I installed XP on is just my secondary computer, so I have no files to lose. It's just inconvenient if I can't get it to already boot, or give me an option to choose which OS I want to boot. If I can't get it to work, I'll just start over and re-install windows in that order. Thanks

When I go to the boot menu, It only shows my SSD, not the partition.

Is it possible to install Windows XP Pro 32-bit on my existing SSD that contains Windows 7 Pro 64-bit on two different partitions without any harm to the existing OS? Well let me rephrase that. I just installed WinXP on the same harddrive that my Win7 is installed on, but in another partition; did I damage the Win7 OS? If not, how can I boot to my Win7 because it keeps booting to my XP. I don't have the slightest clue why I didn't think before installing XP.

Alright thanks! I am still skeptical, but it hasn't shown any problems yet.

So I have one 2gb ddr2 Hynix HYMP125U64CP8-S6 AB-C and a 1gb ddr2 RM1GB484CA-53EC running on a ECS 945GCT-m in dual channel. Well, that is what cpu-z says. Both memories are running in 667mhz at a cas timing of 5-5-5-15 (20) at 1.80v. CPU-z is saying that the Hynix memory can run at 667mhz with 5-5-5-15 (20) at 1.80v. Since my MOBO is old, it assume the memory is identical and automatically sets it as dual channel. Is this safe for memory to run like this? Should I switch it out? Because I cannot set the channels to single channel mode unfortunately.

Vessel Username: maplenet2 Favorite Vids: Gigabyte P34W Gaming Notebook - https://www.vessel.com/videos/DkWN4qqW1 5K Nvidia GeForce Titan X SLI Performance Benchmarks - https://www.vessel.com/videos/JemZ8O7Hy PS: Vessel is pretty cool I guess, but I'd prefer you guys to stay on YouTube. Unless something terrible happens on YouTube, then switch.

I'de love to, but the PSU is old and god knows where the receipt is And if I did have the receipt, I can't RMA it anyways, I opened the PSU already and voided the warrenty.

Yeah, try updating drivers. And did you modify your ram clock speed? Default operation speed is usually at 1333 mhz which is safe with your ram, but if you want to make the speed stock, you need to properly match the timings with the stock speed. Some improperly timed ram can cause BSOD. Oh and make sure your ram is properly placed in the sockets too.

So I have a Ultra-V Series Power supply (ULT-500P) and its not booting up my test computer correctly. When I plug all the connectors into my motherboard respectively and press the power button, the fans spins briefly (both the power supplies and the cpu's/case fans) but then it suddenly stops. I have tested the computer with another power supply and it boots, and I have also tested the Ultra PSU with other various computers and it does not boot. I am sure that the PSU is at fault (Mem, CPU, etc is all fine). I also tested all of the connects on the power supply with a multimeter. All of the connectors are at their respectable voltages. I am sort of lost at this point and I don't know what else is wrong with the PSU. Is there anything else I should take a look at? I already opened the PSU and cleaned it, and I checked all of the capacitors and they are not bulging. But I am sure that there is something else in the PSU that i did not check yet. Test Computer Specs: MOBO: Intel DG965SS CPU: Some Dual Core Celeron thats old, i forgot MEM: 4 x 1gb DDR2 Corsair Value Select @667Mhz

use this: http://www.piriform.com/recuva/download/portable EDIT: but if the file is overwritten due to use overtime, you cant recover it