Eric The Tech Guru

Just now, Eric The Tech Guru said:

The BIOS version you want to have on your Motherboard is version F20 or above.

 

You can find it here - http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5497#bios

 

That being said, check power supply cables, make sure you have the 20+4 pin connecter and the 12V rail connected to the motherboard.

 

Do the fans spin up? Does the monitor light up at all when it first powers up?

That being said, I'd recommend physically troubleshooting before doing any bios changes.

1 minute ago, jakon72 said:

Tried both, neither worked.

The BIOS version you want to have on your Motherboard is version F20 or above.

You can find it here - http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5497#bios

That being said, check power supply cables, make sure you have the 20+4 pin connecter and the 12V rail connected to the motherboard.

Do the fans spin up? Does the monitor light up at all when it first powers up?

9 minutes ago, jakon72 said:

My friend and I both just bought i7 7700K's for our new builds and we're both having the same problem. The computer turns on and lights for GPU, H100i, and Z170 Gaming 3 mobo turn on but neither of us can get our displays to work properly... I've seen some talk about the 7700K not working properly with Z170 series boards, could this be what's causing our no signal issue? I also had an issue where the computer would boot, wait a few seconds then do these long beeps. So I did the logical thing and started trouble shooting the RAM, I found that when I used slot 1, and 3 I would get the beeps. I put the RAM in the 2 slots closest to the CPU, booted and had no beeps. This is when I encountered the no signal on either of my monitors issue.

 

My H100i, PSU, GPU, HDD and SSD's are all from my previous pc so I know they work.

 

My specs:

Gigabyte Z170 Gaming 3

Intel i7 7700K

16GB DDR4 2400Mhz Corsair Vengeance

1TB HDD

120GB SSD

240GB SSD

MSI GTX 980 Twin Frozr

CM 600W PSU

Make sure you've plugged your monitor into your GTX 980, not your Motherboard.

It seems like something that's hard to mess up but you'd be surprised what happens when you're excited about a new build.

On 12/19/2016 at 9:59 AM, MG2R said:

Engineering sample CPU.... How did you get a hold of that?

You can buy them on ebay for cheaper than the official releases once a product has launched.

On 9/9/2016 at 9:12 AM, Jeffy said:

Damn!  It is beautiful. can I see it with lights on?

It doesn't have lights

However, I have put some new keycaps on it from my Varmilo VA 87 M cause the ABS blank caps felt really sickly smooth under my fingers.

https://goo.gl/photos/1GuGJHDW7TbGx1BN8

On 3/13/2016 at 9:14 AM, scottyseng said:

 

The Blacks, Blues, and Greens (Well, they're Blue now) have a issue where if the drive runs into a error, it tries to fix it. In the time it spends trying to fix it, it makes it look like the drive isn't responding...so the RAID controller will kick it off the array. If you have RAID0, that's instant death of the array.

 

The Red, Red Pros, and all of the enterprise drives have special RAID ready firmware that pretty much gives up on the error (and reports it) if it can't fix it in time.

 

Yeah, RAID0 would give a speed boost, but I'd heavily push you towards buying a small SSD first. You'll really notice the speed gains then. You also won't have to deal with the RAID controller slowing down your boot time.

I believe this is only true when running a hardware RAID with a dedicated RAID controller. If you use a software RAID in windows or in something like MDADM on Linux, you don't have this issue.

4 hours ago, creativecasemod420 said:

can anyone give me some advice on which ssd to run on a msi b150i? I have a m.2 just looking to have the fastest ssd model out as of 2016. also looking for the 2016 graphic cards but haven't found any and being new to pc gamer I am finding it hard to find anything at all and almost nothing on youtube for the information I am looking at. ive never even built a pc before till last nite and now after 4 months of learning im questioning the build. especially since I was so tired I ordered the wrong case ,not wanting to pay return shipping I went forward with the build and feel completely dissatisfied with it. hopefully performance is or will be good , I was overwhelmed on graphic cards alone.

Generally the best M.2 SSD's out there right now are the Samsung 950 Pro series. I've got a 512GB 950 Pro series in my Asus Maximus VIII Gene, and it does the job very well.

The actual read speeds for me are in the 2300-2500 MB/s neighborhood.

Writes aren't performing well for me for some reason, but I've got to work that out myself

So I've posted before but I've kinda made a bunch of revisions to my server.

Hardware

CASE: Fractal Design Define R5 (windowless)

PSU: Corsair RM650

MB: Asus M5A78L-M

CPU: AMD FX-8350 Black Edition

HS: Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo

RAM: 24GB DDR3 1600MHz

OS SSD: Samsung 850 Evo 250GB

HDD: 6 x 4TB Western Digital Caviar Red

Software and Configuration:

OS is Ubunbu Linux 15.10:

Using Zsh as my shell with 'norm' theme.

Drives are configured in RAID 10 using MDADM, 12TB:

Usage:

Backup and media storage for household. Running Plex Media Server on the server as well, using the 8 cores for transcoding media for everyone in the household.

Data usage:

Backup:

No offsite or onsite backups, running only redundancy.

Primary desktop documents do have Backblaze backup running continuously though.

I can add photos of the actual system in a bit once I open it up again.

Thanks!

- Eric

EDIT 1 - Performance Photos:

No Zsh here because root user and not my normal user.

23 hours ago, d3rF. said:

Looking pretty sweet!

You say the building was a pain, why is that? 'Cause of the tiny place to get everything in it's place?

 

Still doubting what case i'm taking for my next build. First idea was to take the Air 540, but the more i look around on the net, the more convinced i get for the Air 240. Always used to have full towers, but something small this time, would actually be cool. 

 

 

I'm getting significantly higher temps in the 240 than I was getting in the 540...

I wouldn't recommend it if you can help it...

9 hours ago, westonb27 said:

Looks awesome man! I love it. Aside from the cable management, where there any challenges building in the 240? and how's the speeds on the new SSD? I've heard that one of your sata ports gets disabled when you have the M.2 SSD in there. Is that true?

Thanks! I'm loving it.

The hardest part is closing the windowed side of the case. My model came with what I now know was a screwed up bottom screw, so I had to apply a lot of pressure and force with a screw driver to close it, so that'll be a pain when I have to open it for servicing. The cables I've got for my PCIE power protrude a good amount out of the side of the card, so it presses a ton on the windowed door, making it bow out a bit at the bottom, but I minimized as well as I could.

The SSD is giving me solid 2500MB/s sequential reads with somewhat disappointing writes around 550-700 MB/s. My BIOS is really the limiting factor of boot times, cause I have Asus's auto-overclock turned on, but the SSD runs nice and smooth.

I'm pretty sure there is a sata port that gets disabled when the m.2 is put in, so I just skipped the top two sata ports and haven't had any issues.

Thanks!

- Eric

Got Win10 and all my stuff installed, got the NZXT CAM software to set up my lighting.

Going with a breathing red for now.

Enjoy!

More Photos (with lighting):

Let me know what you think!

- Eric

UPDATE #3!!!!!!

Hey guys, so I got my case and NZXT Hue+ lighting in today and did the whole build.

I've got a bunch of before / after shots of the old case to new case.

I'm going to be doing some better photos of the new case once I've got windows installed and everything set up.

PHOTOS:

Old Build:

Here are the new parts:

Here's the two cases next to each other:

Everything excluding a few fans and that mobo fit inside the new case:

The teardown of the old case was the easy part, the building inside the confined new case was a pain:

Those cables made it freaking impossible to close the front panel, also the cards have no screws or anything to hold them in place

I've got everything powered up now but I'm gonna do some mods with lighting and stuff before posting new photos.

Let me know what you all think of the build so far!

- Eric

4 hours ago, westonb27 said:

Looking good! What are your plans for the SSD? I was going to get the 512GB but went for the 256GB because of the price.

I'm gonna be using it as my system drive and maybe have a few games on there.

I've got a 1TB 850 Evo to use for larger games and other critical files.

Then I've got a 6TB Raid 0 array for media that backs up to my 12TB (24TB in Raid 10) local server.

The write speed increases on the 512GB was such a boost I couldn't really justify purchasing the 256GB paying like the same $/GB without getting the same performance.

Update #2

Unpackaged the 950 and the Mobo and mounted the 950 on it.

Took a ton of photos cause my lighting was better this time and I had cleared off my desk a bit.

Gallery incoming, let me know what you think of the photos this time around.

Thanks for following!

- Eric

I've got a pair of reference 980tis in my air 540 with a good inch and a half of space between the end of the card and the two fans I've got in the front.

I think it'd be a tight fit with fans but it might fit, the reference 980tis are 10.5 inches which works out to around 267mm.

Update #1

Got some new parts in today, I had my 950 from a few days ago but never posted photos.

The Asus Maximus VIII Gene has joined the family and is lookin fine.

Also the Corsair branded red sleeved cables showed up. I was gonna go with some cablemod cables but they're highly unavailable here in the UK (at least I wasn't able to find them with an hour of searching) so I defaulted to corsair's branded stuff. I would have liked to have some red/black with the sleeving, but I had already made the purchase so it was a little too late to change my mind.

Some photos for y'all. I'm new to this so please be kind. I'll have better photos for the actual build log cause my desk will be clean.

Samsung 950 Pro 512GB M.2 SSD

Asus Maximus VIII Gene Motherboard

What's in the bag?

CABLES!

Thanks for watching, I'll keep you guys up to date when the rest of the parts show up!

- Eric

10 minutes ago, raendeu said:

<snip>

Wow, I know what mouse and headphones and desktop wallpaper you have, maybe a shot of the keyboard? xP

Just now, westonb27 said:

If they're reference then you should be fine. I've seen a lof of SLI'd reference cards in the air 240.

Okay, yeah I had found some too, just gonna be a pain to wire up the front I/O and the power cables will be tight :/

Just now, westonb27 said:

I'm planning on using the same AIO cooler too actually. Which 980 Ti's do you have? I've seen similar radiators fit with the reference blower types but I'm not sure about anything else :p

They've got reference coolers on em, I think they're Zotac but I don't remember.

Just now, westonb27 said:

Sounds awesome! I'm looking to build using the same case and motherboard. :) Can't wait to see the updates. I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of performance you get from the NVME M.2 SSD.

~Wes

Thanks :D

I'm hoping for the fabled 2500/1500 MB/s Read/Write so I guess I'll just wait and see.

I'm going AIO on my liquid cooler cause there isn't too much room in that case to fit 2 full size GPUs and tubing, so hopefully the rad will fit okay xP

1 minute ago, ICantThinkOfAnyGoodName said:

???????????????????

Doubleshot is a method of printing the legends on keycaps, so there isn't really any point in having blanks doubleshot. Also doubleshot molding doesn't work very well with PBT, so I don't think such a thing as doubleshot PBT blanks exists.

Otherwise it's a really nice kb tho.

Ah, I guess they were doubleshot if I had text printed on them but I didn't elect to have any text on them, so they're just PBT blanks :P

Thanks XP

Figured it's about time I join the club.

I've had this guy since July of 2015, it's a WASD v2 barebones with doubleshot PBT blanks on top of MX Cherry Blues.

10 keyless, just the right size for me.

I've also got a WASD Code with MX Cherry Clears, a Logitech G910 Orion Spark with Roamer G's, and a Corsair K65 old school with MX Cherry Reds, but it's in UK layout and I like US/ISO layout.

What do you all think?

Geeze this is fucking beautiful.

I gotta do a custom hardline build sometime, but I feel like I'd end up having to drain and refill it a lot cause I take my cards out every once in a while for some reason or another...

Hey everyone!

I've been floating around the forums for a while now and always love watching build logs, but I've never really done a build log myself.

I decided now would be as good a time as any to document a build I'm doing.

I'm currently an expat living in London with my parents, and this summer I'll be moving back to the USA for work and then to start college there in the fall.

My current rig is in a Corsair Air 540, which as you may know is a huge case. It'd be a pain to ship it to the US, and it would also take up a ton of room in a dorm room, so I decided to go for a Micro ATX build in the Corsair Air 240 instead.

Here's the part list for the build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($411.88 @ OutletPC) 
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler 
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VIII GENE Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($208.99 @ NCIX US) 
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($124.00 @ B&H) 
Storage: Samsung 950 PRO 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  ($327.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($399.98 @ OutletPC) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($104.89 @ OutletPC) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($104.89 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Video Card (2-Way SLI)  ($649.99 @ B&H) 
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Video Card (2-Way SLI)  ($649.99 @ B&H) 
Case: Corsair Air 240 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($89.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair 850W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($164.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $3237.58
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-31 09:40 EST-0500

I'm moving most of the stuff from the old rig into the new one, the only new parts being the case, motherboard, and 950 pro.

For case fans, I've got 6 of the LTT edition Noctuas, only 3 or 4 of which I'll be using in the new configuration. Some I've got for static pressure, and others for airflow, I'll work it out later.

The 950 Pro just showed up today so I'm pretty excited about that. The rest of the parts should be trickling in this week.

Also got some red cables for my PSU to go with the red/black build. I'm trying to think of something to do about the green lights on my GPUs, I've seen people sand the green coating off of it and make them white, so I might try something similar and make them red if I can.

As far as monitors go, I'm currently using 2x1080p cheap-o AOC monitors, and a nice Asus PB278Q, 2560x1440p 60hz monitor for media production and such.

I'll be posting updates once I've got all the parts and then again once I start construction. Gonna try to do it in a day because I don't like to be without my rig for too long.

Thanks!

- Eric

This build is absolutely fantastic...

I never realized how beautiful a PC can be when you put in that much effort.