My trip down i7 road.

About a month ago I had the opportunity to upgrade my Q9550 E0, EVGA 750i SLI F.T.W. and Corsair Dominator XMS2 to i7 for free.


For free? Well, sell my old kit on to buy CPU and RAM, trade the Raven case for an ASUS P6T SE and move back to my CM 690 (which I was planning to do anyway).

So, I got the trader lined up, contact details sorted, meeting time sorted, items agreed on.
Moved my components over to my CM690 in preparation:


Pretty nice build, only lasted 2 days lol.

Sold my components to a friend and built him a system.
Comes to meet time and he's a no-show, phone him up, he says hes still on for the trade he just forgot. Agree to meet next day. Doesnt show, phone him up again and hes says he no longer has the motherboard - but will offer me some dual channel DDR3 . . . awesome.

So, im left with a bunch of parts that dont really amount to anything and only enough capital to take a serious step backwards. And that was what I was seriously considering, Uni was starting in 2 weeks and I needed my system up running and tested.

Uncle gives me a ring - "fancy building me a computer? my old Dells gone down the crapper. Ill give you some cash at the end of it." Its a start, not gonna get me upto the intended i7 but possible back where I was.
Other Uncle give me a call - "I need a hand fixing my house up, will pay you per day." Sorted
Not the kinda guy who needs cash to help my family out but wasnt going to say no at this moment in time.

5 days later Ive built the system :

He likes it.
And Ive got enough together to fund the motherboard myself.
So, in back in business. Had been reading around a lot and decided the Gigabyte UD5 was the obvious winner.
Put in my order for:
i7 920 D0 retail,
Gigabyte UD5,
Patriot Viper 1600MHz.
+Next day delivery.

Wasnt quite finished at my Uncles house so continued working there whilst waiting for the components, which arrive 3 days later.

Start the build


Board out and it all looked very nice. The colour scheme looked less horrible in person.



RAM + CPU in, seated correctly, no hickups.



Feeling some brand loyalty, got caught up in the moment lol.



Prolimatech in, had some issues with the fans though:



Only just managed to weave the fan clips in through the heatspreader, and lost some blood doing it.
First problem and thought it was a pretty glaring one, little dent in my Gigabyte joy.



Rest of the system went together well and was looking good.



Lights everywhere - seemed a bit overkill.
Boot the system up, install Windows, start checking for stability - all seems good. Happy BIGBC

Shame about what happened in the beginning, but looks great now

That really is a nice colour. The Gigabyte board and the Patriot RAM. I was gutted to have to send mine back =(

Loving those close up shots of the mobo though! Look awesome =) Glad you got the build sorted =)

CRASH!!!
What happened ? seemed to be giving great temps and performing well when it was working.
System kept crashing, hanging, BSOD etc. I was starting to feel like my i7 just wasnt meant to be.

Start some serious troubleshooting, 6 hours later Im non the wiser. crash doesnt seem tied into any of the usual hardware.

Get in contact with a friend who recently got an i7 system and arrange to meet up to check out the CPU/mobo then got some much needed sleep.

Next day I meet up with my friend and start messing about with the hardware.
My CPU works in his system.
His CPU makes no difference to my system.
His mobo (EVGA X58 SLI LE) fixes my system.
My mobo in his system gives him the same headache.

So, it would appear its caused by the motherboard. On dissasembling the systems to put his back together and pack my UD5 away for DSR return I notice the bottom of my CPU :




Notice the pin marks ? Well thats a first in my experience. But not only can you see them, but look at where they are. Dont see anything wrong ?
Ive highlighted where the contacts are missing in red, and where theyve doubled up in blue:




Not impressed. Check my mates CPU and the same marks are present.
So its a dodgy socket ?

Next day decided to trek down to OcUK and get things sorted.

With that number of missing contacts and doubled up contacts I was surprised it booted at all, and left my CPU intact. Felt really bad about whacking my mates CPU in there considering the potential for damage. He was alright with it though (people trust me a tad too much lol) and we tested his and it was all fine. Which reassured me that my CPU was undamaged.

So, took the mobo back to OcUK who were surprisingly happy to help me out. Had heard several horror stories about DSR returns so was expecting some resistance/arm twisting into RMA instead.

Walked out with an EVGA X58 SLI LE after seeing how nice my mates was (and how nice his overclock was) and one of those BELKIN gaming pads.
Got home and started to rebuild:

[Just realised I havent photographed my system since, will have to get on that but my camera is refusing to connect atm. Will edit later.]

madindehead said:

That really is a nice colour. The Gigabyte board and the Patriot RAM. I was gutted to have to send mine back =(

Loving those close up shots of the mobo though! Look awesome =) Glad you got the build sorted =)

Click to expand...

haha, had to send mine back too. What was up with yours ?
I really wasnt a fan of the colours. The royal blue on the heatsinks looked ok.

that is looking cool-now al i need to do is shift my P5e,Q6600 and 8 Gb xms2 DDR2 and i will be joining you on the trip!

Link to your background?

After reading this thread, I decided to have a look at my CPU.

Same marks, some missing, though none doubled-up.

Also got a G/B mobo, though mine is a UD3R.

Do I need to RMA my mobo now as well?

*sigh*

Gerard said:

Link to your background?

Click to expand...

haha, forgot that was up there. Bound to get some complaints.
Erm, I made it, will submit somewhere for you when I get on my main PC.

here you go : http://rapidshare.com/files/293962300/Wallpapers.zip.html
Can only be downloaded 10 times, hope you catch it.

hooFlungDung said:

After reading this thread, I decided to have a look at my CPU.

Same marks, some missing, though none doubled-up.

Also got a G/B mobo, though mine is a UD3R.

Do I need to RMA my mobo now as well?

*sigh*

Click to expand...

Hmm, figured I was just unlucky. Kinda dissapointing to hear of a similar problem.

Does your system seem unstable ? casuing you any issues ? If so then I would test your system with a different mobo first.

Do the board manufacturers make/get made the sockets or are they all supplied by Intel ? Would dissapoint me to hear Gigabyte are skimping on the sockets. Though they do seem to get it right the majority of the time.

Ive not even seen marks like these left before from other motherboards.

Well, I can't even test my system - my PSU went kaput on Tuesday. Only got the system built on Monday. Defo the PSU, as I tested everything with another PSU and it booted fine, but prior to this my m/b wouldn't post. I figured it was the same PSU problem.

Unless this dodgy socket has somehow contributed to the dodgy Corsair TX650? I don't know.

I'm tempted to send the whole lot back to be honest...

On futher inspection in better light - i have exactly the same issue, in exactly the same pin connector positions. Can't take any decent photos but i've checked and double-checked - they're in the same place.

****.

And my old P4 has marks like this, though they are all dead-centre. Every last one.

It's from an ASUS board.

hooFlungDung said:

On futher inspection in better light - i have exactly the same issue, in exactly the same pin connector positions. Can't take any decent photos but i've checked and double-checked - they're in the same place.

Click to expand...

Pretty depressing. Find yourself a PSU to test asap. Dont want to be hanging around for RMA's to find out you have more to do.

Do you have the double contacts too ?

hmm, used C2Q + C2D on boards from asus, xfx, evga, msi and never seen this before. Have looked at P4's in an Asrock too and didnt see it.

Double contacts in same pin positions, missing contacts in the same positions.

I almost fainted when I realised.

I'm for another manufacturer after this - i've (unintentionally) dropped a fortune on this build and it's been one thing after another.....

hooFlungDung said:

Double contacts in same pin positions, missing contacts in the same positions.

I almost fainted when I realised.

I'm for another manufacturer after this - i've (unintentionally) dropped a fortune on this build and it's been one thing after another.....

Click to expand...

Felt the same way. too many things getting in the way, I just got fed up.

If youve got exactly the same issue it sounds like a manufacturing fault

Look at this:

And this:

(Sorry for the crap quality.....)

Was your CPU ok after this?

Presumably, yes, since you now run the EVGA, but now i'm getting paranoid.