Desktop

My PC Specs

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My desktop computer is currently the fastest in my house, naturally =D; It is the result of quite a few builds before it.

Since I bought a case and motherboard 6 or so years ago my desktop machine has been rotating parts in and out, upgrading as I went.

I haven’t made a completely new machine for myself since that first case, everything in between then and now has been upgrades, admittedly some were rather large, but never all at once.

From what I can remember, here is the rotations of the last few years:

I’ll highlight my current setup in Green

Case:

  • SuperFlower Black “Xion” Mid Tower
  • Thermaltake V9 Mid Tower (this was the worst case I’ve ever had)
  • CoolerMaster HAF 922 Mid Tower

Motherboard:

  • Abit AV8-Third Eye | Socket 939
  • Gigabyte GA-M56-S3 | Socket AM2
  • ASUS M2N SLi Deluxe | Socket AM2
  • ASUS M4N82 Deluxe | Socket AM2+
  • Gigabyte 890FXA-UD5 | Socket AM3
  • Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 | Socket AM3+

CPU:

  • AMD Athlon 3000+ 2GHz Single Core 64bit | Socket 939
  • AMD Athlon X2 6000+ 3GHz Dual Core | Socket AM2+
  • AMD Phenom II X4 955 3.2GHz Quad Core | Socket AM3
  • AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition 3.2GHz 6-Core | Socket AM3

HDD:

  • Maxtor 80GB IDE HDD
  • Western Digital Caviar SE 160GB WD1600JB | IDE
  • Western Digital Caviar SE 160GB WD1600AAJS | SATAII
  • Western Digital Caviar SE 160GB WD1600JS | SATAII (RAID0 with first drive)
  • Western Digital Caviar Green 750GB WD7500AACS | SATAII
  • Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB WD1002FAEX | SATA3
  • Seagate Momentus XT 500GB with 64MB SSD Caching (2.5″) | SATAII

RAM:

  • 1GB (2x512MB) OCZ Premier PC-3200 DDR-400 Dual Channel 200MHz Effective Clock
  • 2GB (2x1GB) Corsair XMS2-6400C5 DDR2-800 400MHz Effective Clock
  • 4GB (4x1GB) Corsair XMS2-6400C5 DDR2-800 400MHz Effective Clock
  • 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair Dominator TW3X4G1600C9D DDR3-1600 800MHz Effective Clock

Power Supply:

  • Thermaltake TR2 430W
  • CoolerMaster eXtreme Power Plus 550W
  • Thermaltake ToughPower 850W Cable Management

Graphics:

  • ATI Radeon 9600 XT 256MB | AGP
  • ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB | AGP
  • ATI 7600GT 512MB | AGP
  • NVIDIA 8800GTS 320MB | PCIe
  • NVIDIA 8800GTS 320MB (SLI) | PCIe
  • NVIDIA GTX275 898MB | PCIe 2.0

Sound Card:

  • Creative Sound Blaster Live | PCI
  • Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS | PCI
  • Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro | PCIe 1x

Display:

  • Sony E200 Multiscan Trinitron Flat Screen 4:3 CRT Monitor
  • ASUS VW222U 22″ 16:10 LCD 2ms response time
  • ASUS VH242H 23.6″ 16:9 LCD 5ms response time

TV Tuner:

  • Leadtek TV2000XP Expert Analogue | PCI
  • Twinhan DVB-T 878 Digital Tuner | PCI
  • Leadtek Winfast DTV1000T | PCI
  • Leadtek Winfast DTV1000S | PCI
  • 2 x Leadtek Px2300H | PCIe 1x
  • 1 x AVerMedia AVerTV TwinStar Dual Digital Tuner | PCIe 1x
  • 1 x DViCo FusionHDTV Express2 Dual
  • AVerMedia AVerTV Volar HD Nano (A867) Digital Tuner | USB 2.0

Optical Drive:

  • Pioneer DVR-107BK CD/DVD Burner | IDE
  • 2 x Pioneer DVR-109BK CD/DVD Burner | IDE
  • Pioneer DVR-110BK CD/DVD Burner | IDE
  • Pioneer DVR-212BK CD/DVD Burner | SATA
  • Pioneer BDR-206BK CD/DVD/Blu-Ray Burner | SATA

Speakers:

  • Generic Stereo Speakers
  • Harmon Kardon 2.0
  • Logitech X-620 6.1
  • Logitech X-530 5.1
  • Logitech Z5500 THX Digital 5.1

Mouse/Keyboard/Gaming:

  • Logitech Cordless Desktop Optical (Y-RK49)
  • Microsoft Wireless Desktop 6000v1 (left key broke on keyboard)
  • Microsoft Wireless Desktop 6000v1
  • Logitech G510 Gaming Keyboard
  • Logitech Performance Mouse MX (M950)
  • Logitech G27 Steering Wheel, Pedals and Gearbox (Currently on RMA)

New Motherboard, New CPU, Problems solved?

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I was down MSY the other day with the intention of getting a new Wireless N Router, however as I was looking around I noticed there was a bunch of AMD 900 series based motherboards (the upgraded version of my current 800 series).

Among them was the Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3, which is essentially the updated version of my 880FXA except I have the the UD5 model which basically is geared more towards Multi-GPU set-ups (SLI/Crossfire). Since I have just the one card, the UD3 was a reasonable compromise considering the $50 difference.

Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3

Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3

 

Anyway I ended up getting it in the hopes that my TV Tuner issues would be solved. Yeah right!

So out with the old and in with the new; well maybe it wasn’t quite as simple as that, but anyway long story short I successfully swapped them out but in the process I managed to lose 1 pin on the CPU (it stayed in the socket) so that then forced me to find a replacement.

 

Naturally I wanted to upgrade in the process so I sought out the highly coveted AMD Phenom II 1090T 6-core 3.2GHz. MSY was my first thought, but they didn’t have any in stock in Australia, then I tried Landmark Computers, apparently they don’t sell AMD. So I tried a couple of local shops – CNET Technology and Centrecom. Nope.

In desperation I searched my usual internet based stores, first I tried PC Case Gear, which had it in stock, and I could also drive down and pick it up. Unfortunately they took too long to process the order, I cancelled and searched for a store that had a shop front with stock.

Eventually I stumbled across Scorptec Computers (Scorpion Technology Computers) which had the 1090T in stock, and also a shop front (closer that PCCG too). So I trundled off to Rowville, about a 40min journey via EastLink, got the processor (exceptional service there too) and I got it installed later that night.

 

Now after all that, one would expect/hope that the problem I sought to seek in the first place would have been fixed. But of course, me being me, it was not.

First boot was fine, all PCIe cards showed up, installed the drivers, no problems.

Then after the reboot, one was gone.

At this point I was 100% sure this has something to do with the use of a 1x PCIe card in a 16x/8x/4x slot so I started to experiment.

Test 001:

SLOT # from CPU Card Installed Result Notes
1 (1x) AverTV TwinStar PCI Bus 5
2 (16x) GTX275 PCI Bus 1
3 (1x) N/A
4 (4x) none
5 (16x) X-Fi PCI Bus 4
6 – PCI none
7 – (4x) DViCo FusionHDTV None/Not assigned No card detected
Reboots 3

As you can see, the Fusion card decided not to work when in the 4x (full length) slot.

Test 002:

SLOT # from CPU Card Installed Resulting Bus Notes
1 (1x) DViCo FusionHDTV PCI Bus 10
2 (16x) GTX275 PCI Bus 1
3 (1x) N/A
4 (4x) none
5 (16x) X-Fi PCI Bus 4
6 – PCI none
7 – (4x) AverTV TwinStar PCI Bus 5
Reboots 8
Day 4, think i’m in the clear

As you can see here, I swapped the 2 TV cards around and strange things happened.

Firstly, the TwinStar card retained the PCI Bus number that it had in the other slot. But what is most interesting to me is the DViCo card now has a new Bus number of 10.

I don’t pretend to understand the way these bus numbers are derived, I have no idea actually, but if they are indeed static per slot, then why did they change ?

 

I guess the most important thing here is that I now have 4 working tuners and I have not seen any bluescreens, crashes or other anomalies I’ve experienced in the past.

 

Once again, here’s to hoping it continues that way!

Until the next problem,

Derryn

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