Have my new Sandy Bridge

Hi everyone. Yes I have cleaned my case and the fans best i can.

I am going to need a little advice here. I have been all afternoon putting my new sandybridge together but am now having some trouble getting it to boot.

The MSI manual is useless, no troubleshooting page. when i power up i get two very short and quick beeps, then about 6 seconds gap and another quick beep.

My HDD light stays on, even with no HDD and the lights light up on the keyboard. I tried swapping memory around and even removing my graphics card but still the same.

hope i don't have a bad cpu or motherboard. I am posting this on my laptop, so maybe a little slow. Thanks.
 
Very strange, it's now booting. I did remove a pci card but don't think it's that. Then I removed the power to the ide to SATA converter. Maybe that or just a bad bios.

Well I am now up and running but still have the error noise. Looks like will have to pop over to MSI forum and ask them.

Will uploaded a picture in a while.
 
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Right i have my new sandybridge setup and working but am trying to find out what the error is, i keep getting at boot. Will see if any help on msi forum.

I think the sand killed my old pioneer IDE DVD-RW drive. It's now dead. Lol

First would like to say a few things i'm not to keen about. I don't think the freezer 13 is as good or easy to clean as my freezer pro 7. Not saying it's no good for cooling, just a pain.

Suppose nothing uncommon here but trying to connect all HDD lights and switches, plus the front panel, were so fiddley and a right pain. They just keept coming off.

The PCIEx1 slots are far to close to the graphics card slot. If you buy a meaty graphics card, then you can't use the PCIEx1 slot.

Anyway I have few pictures. I am not showing my case, as I don't have all the fancy lights, most of you have on here. My computer is practical. If you want to see the case I have, then see here. http://www.geek.com/articles/xyzcomputing/thermaltake-soprano-vb1000sws-20050228/

This was just with the motherboard in and with the main cables.
STA41989.jpg


And all done. This was before my DVD drive died though. :)
STA41992.jpg


Will at some point, redo them tests i did on my Q6600. My new setup does feel more snapper and quieter than my old setup.

Nothing like having a bit of sand in your computer. :D
 
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Right. I have found out that the beeps and what i though were error codes, are normal.

Just asked on MSI forum and they linked to a documnet that explains all.

It's all to do with this New EFI. Because I am so used to the old bios, you would think it's a error but not so on the new bios.

Still should not have beeps though, for no reason.

Here is the link, posted on MSI forum.

http://www.ami.com/support/doc/AMI_Aptio_4.x_Status_Codes_PUB.pdf
This may help others out who though the same as me.

That should help save a lot of RMA's to OCUK. :)

Arhh!! the sand is getting everywhere. :D
 
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Just a quick post in regards of your SATA cables. As a precaution; you should try to keep them as straight as possible or no more than a 90 degree bend if you wish to maintain data integrity. Some may say 'oh it's fine' but with this PC, in 4.5 years i've never had a single HDD problem with six sata drives connected.
 
FMTopfan said:
Just a quick post in regards of your SATA cables. As a precaution; you should try to keep them as straight as possible or no more than a 90 degree bend if you wish to maintain data integrity. Some may say 'oh it's fine' but with this PC, in 4.5 years i've never had a single HDD problem with six sata drives connected.
Click to expand...

Hi. Thanks for the advice. The red SATA cable you see in the picture, I did use on my old setup with no problems.

I must say though, that it's not easy, not to bend the cable, as the way they are on my motherboard, is not the best setup.

Thanks anyway.:)
 
Well I have done my first test but have done them on default settings to start. I have not changed anything from the setup. All I did was install new motherboard drivers.

For some unknown reason, cpu free benchmark 2.2 will no longer run. Even on XP. Did download again but it just won't run. I will do a few more and one with it overclocked. when I get round to it.

So only 3dmark and Novabench i'm afraid. My new setup did better in the novabench test than my q6600 but a bit lower than my q6600 on 3dmark.

See Pictures below.

2600kNovabenchtest.jpg



3dmarkstestresultdetails2600kdefault.jpg



3Dmarkteston2600kdefaultsettings17-01-11.jpg
 
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That benchmark for CPU in CPU Free benchmark is poor at giving you an idea on CPU performance since it can't utilise all cores whatsoever. Whilst it was running it could only use one core at a time. I tried the old trick of TaskManager of unselecting the last 3 cores and reselecting them but made no difference. On my setup (in sig) it scored an unrealistic 21.52 secs.

For comparison with friends, I use AIDA64 Extreme Edition for a multitude of tests, or use the comparisons of Futuremark 06/Vantage/11 where it splits up graphics/CPU performance for direct comparisons. Or you can use CineBench/Prime to really stress the 2600k.

To show what difference a better GPU would make - as I have a QX6700 which was a step up from your 6600 - I found an bench from beginning of 2011 with 10.11 drivers that scored 95,445 here. I'm getting a new system this week (2600k-based) and will certainly score much better.
 
I didn't realise that CPU free benchmark can't use all cores. It don't matter now anyway, as I can't get CPU free to work with a 2600k. Maybe thats why it no longer works. Not coded for it. Tried AIDA64 and can't find any tests, only test stats they seem to have done. It's not really free though. I have run the CPU test on CineBench. See my next post.

I think most can work out that, on 3d marks, it's my graphics card letting me down.

So am just using, 3D mark, novabench and CineBench now then.
 
First I have done a CPU only test with CineBench on default settings. Only the one test. Today i wanted to lower the CPU multiplier to 3Ghz, and compare like for like with my Q6600. Found out that i can't lower it. So can't test with that setup.

What I did do, is disable turbo boost and hyper threading. This is as close to running at q6600 spec, as i can get it. See pictures for results.

Novabench with TB and HT disabled.
NovabenchtestwithHTandturbobostdisabled.jpg


TB and HT disabled.
3dmarktestdetails2600kwithnoturboboostorHT18-01-11.jpg




TB and HT disabled.
3dmarktest2600kwithnotirboboostorHT18-01-11.jpg




CineBench CPU only test, with TB and HT disabled.
cinebenchtest2600knoHTorturbobost18-01-11-1.jpg


CineBench default settings.
cienbenchdefaultsettings18-1-11.jpg


My last test will be when I get round to overclocking. That may take a bit longer as I have not used the new bios much. Plus testing.

Hopefully upto about 4.80.
 
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