My Latest Gaming PC Build - Details

What I Built (5/22/06)

Prices are after rebates.  Oh yeah, and don't forget a floppy drive.  I didn't order one and I had to run down to the local CompUSA to get one, since it's still necessary for a few things (BIOS updates and such).  You may also need to buy a copy of Windows XP.

Things I Learned

(Make any and all changes at your own risk.  I'm simply describing what I did, not what you should do.)

Setting up RAID on the A8N-SLI

This is a little tricky, and there's a few things you have to do to get it right.

1. Enable RAID.  The first step is to turn on RAID.  See section 4.4.3 in the user guide that comes with the motherboard.

2. Create the array.  See section 5.4 in the user guide for all the details.  In my case, I chose striping (RAID0) with a stripe size of 128k (best performance).  With the two 200GB drives I got, it gives me 372GB of usable space.

3. Create a special driver disk for Windows XP.  The Windows XP installer won't recognize the array without special drivers.  It's easy enough to create, though.  The CD they give you with the motherboard is bootable.  Boot off of it, stick in a blank floppy, and choose the "NVidia XP RAID Driver" option (I think it was #4 on the menu).  It'll put the drivers on the floppy.

4. Take special steps when installing Windows XP.  When you're ready to install XP, place that driver disk in the floppy drive.  Then boot off of your XP install CD.  Watch the bottom line of the screen closely; you'll see a prompt that tells you to hit F6 to install a third-party or SCSI driver.  Hit F6.  It won't appear to have seen your keystroke, but it should pick up the drivers off the floppy correctly.  You'll be prompted to install them.  Select the first one in the list (nForce driver or some such), then hit 'S" to get back to the list and select the second one (NVidia Storage Manager).  Be sure to install them both.

5. 'Drivers not certified' errors during Windows install: turns out these drivers aren't WHQL-certified, so they cause a bunch of warning dialog boxes to pop up during the GUi part of the Windows install.  I had to click 'Proceed anyway' about 15-20 times, and in my case, it worked.  However, there are reports of more dire problems.  See this thread for all the details:  http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=50659&hl=

Updating the BIOS

ASUS had a slightly newer version of the BIOS on their website (1014) vs. the one that came from the factory (1013), so I updated it.  There's a couple things you need to do:

0. Update the NVidia Chipset Driver first.  This is required before updating the BIOS in some cases.  I used the utility CD that came with the motherboard and installed the chipset drivers once Windows was installed, and everything was fine for the BIOS update.

1. Create a bootable floppy.  On another Windows machine, format a floppy with the 'Make system disk' option.

2. Copy AWDFLASH.EXE onto that floppy.  This may be found on the utility CD that comes with the motherboard.

3. Copy the new BIOS onto that floppy.  Go find the latest BIOS for the motherboard on the ASUS website, download it, and copy it onto that floppy as well.  In may case, it was named A8NSB014.BIN.

4. Have a second (blank) floppy ready.  You'll want this so you can back up the old BIOS version during the update process.

5. Nifty trick during the update.  When you go to perform the update, you'll follow the instructions from ASUS.  One little annoying thing they don't tell you about, though: during the process, you'll be asked if you want to save the current version.  However, when you create the floppy as I've described above, there's not enough room on it to save the backup.  So, what I do is when I'm prompted for the filename to save the current BIOS to, I enter B:\A8N-SLI.BIN .  By use B:, DOS will prompt you to 'Insert a diskette into drive B: any press any key when ready.'  Take out the current floppy, sitck in a blank, and press a key.  The utility will back up the current BIOS onto that blank floppy.  When it's finished, you'll see another message that says 'Insert a diskette into drive A: and press any key when ready' (this message might get truncated on the screen, but you'll see the first part of it).  Put the other floppy back in and press a key, then continue on with the update.

Recovering the BIOS if you Screw it Up

If you mess up the BIOS, see section 4.1.4 in the user guide -- you can recover it from the utility CD, or from the backup floppy you created.  I haven't tried this myself.

Playing with DRAM Settings

I bought this spiffy Corsair Twinx2048-3200c2, which allows more aggressive timings in some cases.  The Serial Presence Detect (SPD) chip sets the timings to very safe defaults, but Corsair certifies it to much more aggressive timings.  Here's what I changed:

* Set Overclock Profile to Manual first to make this value changeable.
** Set Timing Mode to Manual first to make these values changeable.
*** Also known as Command Rate.

You'll sometimes see shorthand for these tuned values as 2-3-3-6 or 2-3-3-6-1T @ 2.7V.  The values are CL-TRCD-TRP-TRAS.

For the Command Rate, 1T seems to be fine.  I have seen reports that if you're using 4 sticks instead of 2, that you'll need to use 2T.  Also, be sure you have a good power supply, as a weak one may cause problems.  Proper cooling is also important.

Making these changes had a significant impact on performance.  With the default settings, Memtest86+ reported 1767 MB/sec.  With the tuned values, it reported 2061 MB/sec, a 16.6% increase.  Not bad.  I ran Memtest86+ for several hours to make sure there were no errors.  If you have problems, you may need to back off some of the changes.  I have seen reports of some people needing to set CL to 2.5 instead of 2.

NVidia Network Manager and Firewall Problems

I had all sorts of network problems when I had the NVidia Firewall and NVidia Network Manager software installed.  The network appeared to be working, but I'd get corrupted downloads, interrupted transfers, etc.  I uninstalled the NVidia Network Manager, and turned off the firewall, and things seem to be working much better now.  To turn off the firewall, you can just use the Control Panel - Windows Firewall configuration; turning it off will turn off the NVidia Firewall.

Overclocking the XFX 7900GT

I haven't actually tried OC'ing this card yet, since I'm on a stock cooler.  Also, the card is so stinkin' fast out of the box there's really no reason to overclock it.  However, if you want to, pop in the CD that came with the card.  There's a utility you can install that'll allow you to enable overclocking.  Once you run this, it's a little hard to find:

• Right-click on Desktop
• Properties
• Settings
• Advanced
• GeForce 7900GT tab
• Clock frequency settings (in menu on left)

I clicked the 'Detect Optimal Frequencies' button and it blue-screened my machine, and I haven't messed with it since.

One nice thing: there's also a 'Temperature settings' item on that menu that'll show you the current temperature of the core.  Mine's running at 49°C unloaded.

Without overclocking, F.E.A.R. runs perfectly at 1280x960 with all of the quality settings at 'Maximum'.  (F.E.A.R. is considered one of the heavy-duty games for 3D hardware.)  I don't really think overclocking the 7900GT is worth the risk.  This card, in this machine, will handle any current game you throw at it with ease, using all the stock settings.

AMD's New AM2 Processors -- Worth Consideration?

Should you wait for the the new AM2 processor, or Intel's new Core 2 Duo?  Well, for me, the answer was no.  The one advantage to these new processors is that they will probably drive down the cost of the existing Socket 939 CPUs.  However, as of this writing, the AM2 has been released for about 2 weeks and the CPU listed above is still the same price.

The AM2 will not offer better performance over the current Socket 939 CPUs in most cases, at least not initially.  Its main claim to fame is DDR2 support.  However, even though DDR2 clock speed is higher, it currently supports slower timings, so it wind up being about the same price-performance as DDR.  And, of course, the AM2 CPU will be much more expensive than the current Socket 939 CPUs -- the FX-62 is in the $1000 range right now.  The AM2 is simply not a good investment, in my opinion, if you want to build a good machine on a budget in the next 6 months.

For a really good overview of the AM2, see this article.

Why the AMD 4400+ X2 64?

Because it's the cheapest Toledo-based CPU.  (Toledo is AMD's codename for that line of processors.)  The Toledo core has 1MB of L2 cache per core, vs. 512KB on previous models (4200+, 3800+, etc.)  This makes the 4400+ a full $100 more than the 4200+ -- a price bump I wouldn't normally consider.  However, based on the way I use my machine, I believe I get a significant benefit out of the additional L2 cache, so for me it seemed like the best place to invest $100 for maximum system performance benefit.

As far as AMD vs. Intel, I did look closely at the Intel processors this time.  However, AMD still seems to have a significant price-performance advantage over Intel for gaming machines, in my opinion.  Intel CPUs do have other advantages, such as having more headroom for overclocking in some cases, but for me, the 4400+ was the best choice.

Windows Tuning

• Change the Start Menu delay.  I set mine to 50.
• Set the page file to be 1.5x-2x the amount of RAM you have.  Put most of it on a second drive if you have one.
• Use Autoruns to turn off all services and programs at startup you don't want.
• Use Registry Mechanic to clean up the registry.  Run it regularly.
• Use Diskeeper to defrag.  Run it regularly.
• Check the (giant) list of other tweaks at TweakXP.  (I have tried their utility with pretty good luck in the past too.)

Dual-Core Fixes

If you have problems with games running too slow or too fast, see this article.  There are a few known problems with dual-core CPUs and some applications.  The article has fixes to try.  Here's a summary:

• Cool&Quiet fix: see this article at AMDZone.
• Get the AMD dual-core processor driver update and add /usepmtimer to the end of the "Windows XP Professional" line of your boot.ini.
• Force offending applications to single-processor affinity.  Right-click on the process in Task Manager and choose 'Set Affinity...'
• If all else fails, hide the second core.  Start - Run - msconfig, BOOT.INI tab, Advanced Options button.  Check NUMPROC and set it to 1.

Silent Storm - Case Details

The fan behind the drive cage is nice.  You can also mount a second one on that same rail near the bottom to sandwich the drives between two fans.  This case is about 10x quieter than my old machine -- I will never use 80mm fans again.  This case uses all 120mm fans at 28dBA.  It came with two, and I added a third up front (see below).

The power supply has an unbelievable number of leads coming out.  It took quite a while to get all the cables under control and it's still not as clean as I'd like.  The PS is an Antec TruePower 550W.  That's the stock HSF on the AMD 4400+ x2 64.  The video card is an XFX Nvidia 7900GT.

You can also buy this case with colored cold cathodes in the front in blue, green, etc.  I opted to let the fan have all the darkened-room glory.

With the door closed...

...and with it opened.  Notice the Kama Bay 120mm fan (15dBA, very quiet) in the empty bays.  This in pointing in, and feeds that fan inside the case nicely.  (No making fun of my beige components, I'll replace them with black later.)

USB, 1394, headphone, and mic on the side.  I like the fact that they're up a little higher than my old case -- the carpet got in the way of the USB ports on my old machine.