Pkekyo's Stealth Desk

[GeekySole9354]

How many SATA cables do you need?

[Pkekyo]

ALL the SATA cables!

On a more serious note: Eight ports on the motherboard, so I need at least eight cables

[Guest andyysplash]

ALL the SATA cables!

On a more serious note: Eight ports on the motherboard, so I need at least eight cables

 

That logic right there! Does the same hold true for PCI-E slots and graphics cards?

[Pkekyo]

Well, to a certain extent. If I could do it within my current budget? Fuck yes.

To be fair, the only real reason I bought 64GB worth of RAM was that I wanted to fill all the slots on the motherboard
Have never broke the need for more than 30GB of RAM to this date.

[Pkekyo]

Also - When you have harddrives that need connecting, it's somewhat of a requirement to have some cables with which to connect them as well.

[Guest andyysplash]

Also - When you have harddrives that need connecting, it's somewhat of a requirement to have some cables with which to connect them as well.

 

Your signature is very fitting in this context

[Pkekyo]

Let's just say, it's there for a reason

[Pkekyo]

I ordered a single cable from Komplett.no the other day...
When I saw the size of the box when I picked it up at the post office, I got excited and thought they might have thrown in a freebie - but alas, no. So much for that "Eco-friendly" shipping they advertise



From another retailer, I also got an EK 400mm reservoir, another couple fittings "just in case", some screws and a Bitspower Flow Indicator... Figured it would be nice if the computer shut itself off in case of a leak.



Looks like I'll be playing with Plastidip later today, then hopefully I can get building tomorrow

[GeekySole9354]

Yay, plasti-dip!

[Pkekyo]

Black reservoir is black! Leaving the stencils on there as I let the Plastidip cure overnight.
Dipping the fan accent rings were less so of a success.... Will have a look at that in the morning, might go with paint instead for those.

[GeekySole9354]

Stealthy

[Tearass]

Black reservoir is black! Leaving the stencils on there as I let the Plastidip cure overnight.

Dipping the fan accent rings were less so of a success.... Will have a look at that in the morning, might go with paint instead for those.

 

Yay for painting!

[notenoughtv]

When you remove the paint the plastidip will come out as one piece. Unless you plan on cutting the stencils out

[Pkekyo]

Right. I got the rig together and running...
However, it is unstable as a bitch and a half, and I could use some help trying to find the source of the issues, as well as a solution.

First of all, I initially couldn't install windows until I reduced the clock speed of my RAM to 1600Mhz.
Second, the rig has a real hard time of slightly overclocking the CPU, leading to a seemingly infinite loop of reboots, the longest of which lasted for about half an hour or so. Basically, I have not been able to make a clock stick consistently.
Third, once I finally got Windows installed, the RAID array basically crapped itself and became "not recognized".The individual SSDs also no longer showed up in UEFI.
Fourth, UEFI is reporting that my RAM DIMMs are 1333MHz DIMMs overclocked to 2400MHz. Is this normal, or perhaps just an eccentric feature of the Kingston RAM?
Fifth, I don't even... There have been so many whoopsies and ding-dongs, I've forgotten most of them during my ragefits and near-heart attacks.

Now, the common factor in this all seems to be the motherboard, but it's been nearly a decade since I had to troubleshoot anything to this extent, so I don't feel all too interested in jumping to assumptions.

[Guest andyysplash]

Right. I got the rig together and running...

However, it is unstable as a bitch and a half, and I could use some help trying to find the source of the issues, as well as a solution.

First of all, I initially couldn't install windows until I reduced the clock speed of my RAM to 1600Mhz.

Second, the rig has a real hard time of slightly overclocking the CPU, leading to a seemingly infinite loop of reboots, the longest of which lasted for about half an hour or so. Basically, I have not been able to make a clock stick consistently.

Third, once I finally got Windows installed, the RAID array basically crapped itself and became "not recognized".The individual SSDs also no longer showed up in UEFI.

Fourth, UEFI is reporting that my RAM DIMMs are 1333MHz DIMMs overclocked to 2400MHz. Is this normal, or perhaps just an eccentric feature of the Kingston RAM?

Fifth, I don't even... There have been so many whoopsies and ding-dongs, I've forgotten most of them during my ragefits and near-heart attacks.

Now, the common factor in this all seems to be the motherboard, but it's been nearly a decade since I had to troubleshoot anything to this extent, so I don't feel all too interested in jumping to assumptions.

The likelihood of those being separate problems is very low, but there could well be a problem with your ram. Another problem could be with your BIOS. Are you using a hardware raid controller or the motherboard controlling it?

[Pkekyo]

Intel RAID on the SATA 6GB ports on the motherboard.

[Pkekyo]

Tried modifying some clockspeeds again. Back to an asinine amount of failures to boot.
Got it to boot again on two separate instances, it reduced the "Target Speed" for the RAM to 1333 MHz, and under the "DIMM POST" option, they are listed as running at 1066MHz.

Somewhat anticlimactic, to say the least - for eight sticks of 2400MHz RAM.


Information under the "Extreme Tweaker" tab in UEFI reads as follows:

All Core Target CPU Turbo-Mode Speed: 4500MHz
Target DRAM Speed: 1333MHz

AI Overclock Tuner: Manual
CPU Level Up: Disabled
BCLK Frequency: 125.000
CPU Strap: 125MHz
CPU Core Ratio: Sync All Cores
DRAM Frequency: DDR3-1333MHz
CPU VCORE Voltage: 1.104V [Manual Mode]
CPU VCORE Manual Voltage: Auto

VTT CPU Voltage: 1.050V
2nd VTT CPU Voltage: 1.050V
CPU VCCSA Voltage: 0.956V [Manual Mode]
CPU VCSSA Manual Voltage: Auto
DRAM Voltage (CHA, CHB): 1.560V
DRAM Voltage (CHC, CHD): 1.560V
CPU PLL Voltage: 1.800V
PCH 1.1v Voltage: 1.100V

Granted, these aren't all thge items listed on the page, but the ones omitted are only the ones set to [Auto]

[Guest andyysplash]

 

Tried modifying some clockspeeds again. Back to an asinine amount of failures to boot.

Got it to boot again on two separate instances, it reduced the "Target Speed" for the RAM to 1333 MHz, and under the "DIMM POST" option, they are listed as running at 1066MHz.

Somewhat anticlimactic, to say the least - for eight sticks of 2400MHz RAM.

Information under the "Extreme Tweaker" tab in UEFI reads as follows:

 

Granted, these aren't all thge items listed on the page, but the ones omitted are only the ones set to [Auto]

 

 

Does your motherboard support 2400MHz non-overclocked? Some boards say they support up to 1600MHz and then 1866MHz(OC) and 2400MHz(OC) meaning that it won't run native 2400MHz ram - only that which is overclocked.

[Pkekyo]

Well, fuck me sideways and call me poopshoot-Sally!

Spec sheet for the Asus Rampage IV Black Edition from asus.com:

 

8 x DIMM, Max. 64GB, DDR3 2800(O.C.)/2666(O.C.)/2400(O.C.)/2133(O.C.)/1866/1600/1333/1066 MHz Non-ECC

Now this shit is impressively retarded.
Any idea of how I can go about remedying it?

[Guest andyysplash]

Well, fuck me sideways and call me poopshoot-Sally!

Spec sheet for the Asus Rampage IV Black Edition from asus.com:

Now this shit is impressively retarded.

Any idea of how I can go about remedying it?

I don't know how it determines that your ram has been over clocked on a certain clock speed or not, but the three things I can think of are:

- run at 1600MHz and hope it's fine

- Swap your ram for something lower clocked and overclock it

- Swap your motherboard for one that supports 2400MHz ram

If anyone else has any ideas that'd be great. This is all I can think of right now

[Pkekyo]

Am I alone in feeling it's somewhat pathetic that my three year old $120 USD MSI motherboard that isn't even in stock ANYWHERE anymore handles 2400MHz natively like a champ, whereas this so called "Extreme" Rampage IV Black Edition board shits the bed if I attempt to pass 1600MHz?

Had I known this two days ago before I broke the seal on the RAM sticks I would've sold them, but I don't intend to sell them at a huge loss now to buy something inferior just because they have had been sitting in DIMM-slots for a few hours.

Is there some way to fool this stupid bitch of a motherboard into thinking that the sticks ARE overclocked?

[Pkekyo]

Right. Done some more troubleshooting.

Flashed it with the most recent stable UEFI version for this board (0701 x64)

It appears that under UEFI --> Tool --> ASUS DRAM SPD Information, DIMM_C1, DIMM_C2, DIMM_D1 and DIMM_D2 are being reported as "Abnormal".
Shifting around the eight DIMMs, and only the aforementioned DIMM slots report Abnormal. Pulled the RAM sticks from the C- and D-DIMM slots, and put them in the A- and B-DIMM slots. No errors reported.

Also,the front-USB3 connectors have stopped working. They do deliver power for charging, but the computer does not react when I plug any USB devices like thumbdrives, eHDDs and card readers into either port.
Tested with the front USB3 setup from my other rig, which I know to be functional - same result (or rather, lack of a result).

I'm beginning to lean towards the motherboard being bricked upon arrival.

[Guest andyysplash]

Right. Done some more troubleshooting.

Flashed it with the most recent stable UEFI version for this board (0701 x64)

It appears that under UEFI --> Tool --> ASUS DRAM SPD Information, DIMM_C1, DIMM_C2, DIMM_D1 and DIMM_D2 are being reported as "Abnormal".

Shifting around the eight DIMMs, and only the aforementioned DIMM slots report Abnormal. Pulled the RAM sticks from the C- and D-DIMM slots, and put them in the A- and B-DIMM slots. No errors reported.

Also,the front-USB3 connectors have stopped working. They do deliver power for charging, but the computer does not react when I plug any USB devices like thumbdrives, eHDDs and card readers into either port.

Tested with the front USB3 setup from my other rig, which I know to be functional - same result (or rather, lack of a result).

I'm beginning to lean towards the motherboard being bricked upon arrival.

 

Is it still within any kind of warranty/return policy/repair policy/replacement policy?

[GeekySole9354]

You got any update for us?

[Pkekyo]

Well, yeah... This happened: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/197505-rampage-iv-black-edition-rubbish/

So I RMAed the stuff, and have been sitting here waiting for replacement parts for more than a month.

Last night I got notified that I will be receiving a refund, and could use some advice on what to do with the money here: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/221956-the-leap-to-x99-worth-it/