It has been ordered! (Or: Help tycho with his comp)

[Captain tycho]

Yes folks, as of 10:10pm, I have just ordered my kickass rig (well, two of them, one is for my older brother) from newegg.
Now, the parts should be here in a few days, and I'd thought I'd create this thread just in case I run into problems putting em together (since this is my first time). Hopefully, I won't fuck it up.

My rig:
AMD X2 4200+
evga 7800GTX KO (The one with the 490mhz clock speed and massive heatsink )
2x1gb of Corsair XMS RAM
DFI Lanparty SLI DR motherboard
PC Power and Cooling 510watt PSU
Antec P180

Any tips for putting this stuff together, or any oddities with the motherboard/BIOS/etc I should know about before I start putting this together?

[Chris OFarrell]

1.
Get everything neetly sorted out in a large dust free area.

2.
READ the manuals. They normaly have a 'READ THIS FIRST' section that you should check to make sure your not going to make a mistake that can't be fixed.

3.
Ground yourself. A wriststrap grounded to something is good, otherwise constently touch something thats grounded to get rid of any static charge. Modern motherboards and such are rather static resistant, stuff like CPUs are not.

4.
First get the case all set up, all the needed screwdrivers, tools and so on. Make sure you have good light, a small handheld torch is often rather useful. Have a keyboard, monitor and the power cables needed to connect them ready with the case.

Then you simply have to assemble the thing. General order is Motherboard into case, CPU(double check the thermal connections and cooling), memory and video card into motherboard, power supply and motherboard/case connections.

Then your first powerup to make sure the CPU, memory and 3D card are working, check your CMOS settings and so on.

Then you just have to add on all the rest of the cards, HDD's, CD/DVD and so on. Testing as you go. Then when its all in, you can install your OS.

[Ford Prefect]

This goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway: DON'T FUCK WITH ELECTRICITY. Everyone should know that, especially when they're an electronics student but nooooo, he goes and almost electrocutes himself and blows up a computer.

[Mr Bean]

My rig:
AMD X2 4200+
evga 7800GTX KO (The one with the 490mhz clock speed and massive heatsink )
2x1gb of Corsair XMS RAM
DFI Lanparty SLI DR motherboard
PC Power and Cooling 510watt PSU
Antec P180

Soo shinny... Good choice all around. Good luck on that.

[Ace Pace]

I'd suggest putting the CPU into the motherboard before putting it in the case, unless your case is huge it gets kinda hard to work inside it.

[Captain tycho]

Does anyone know if any electronics retailers sell Dell monitors? I would buy off the website, but they want a credit card and don't accept checks, and my card has a thousand dollar limit (I'm buying 2 2005FPWs, one for my brother).

[Arrow]

Yes folks, as of 10:10pm, I have just ordered my kickass rig (well, two of them, one is for my older brother) from newegg.
Now, the parts should be here in a few days, and I'd thought I'd create this thread just in case I run into problems putting em together (since this is my first time). Hopefully, I won't fuck it up.

My rig:
AMD X2 4200+
evga 7800GTX KO (The one with the 490mhz clock speed and massive heatsink )
2x1gb of Corsair XMS RAM
DFI Lanparty SLI DR motherboard
PC Power and Cooling 510watt PSU
Antec P180

Any tips for putting this stuff together, or any oddities with the motherboard/BIOS/etc I should know about before I start putting this together?

Your system is similar to one I just put together, except I went with a 4800+, Cruical Ballistix 2x1gb, the PC Power and Cooling 850 SSI SLI and two evga 7800GTX KOs. I made the mistake of getting a Lian-li case (BTX style, which COOKS the second graphics card), but that problem should fixed tonight - as long as Fedex leaves a CM Stacker 810 at my back door (the Lian-li is getting RMA'ed).

Anyway, the DFI is a bit picky about Ram, especially Corsair modules. Test the board out of the case, with the CPU, one ram stick and one GPU plugged in. Put the ram in the top (farthest from CPU) yellow slot. If it doesn't post, start going down slots until it does. Then, flash to the latest BIOS (6-23-3 official, or 7-04-2 Beta or one of its custom variants). Let the board reboot. If it post, shut it down and install the second stick in the other matching color slot. Note, you'll also need to clear the CMOS after the flash; clearing the CMOS will also help if the system doesn't post. Also, check out dfi-street.com for recommended settings for your RAM - the auto settings suck, and at the very least, you'll need to bump up the RAM voltage to 2.8v. Once you've finished the RAM dance (mine took 15 minutes), you should have a very smooth install.

Oh, and MAKE SURE you plug in all four power connectors - the manual says the molex and mini power connectors are optional, but they're not.

If you go SLI at some point, I recommend using a microchip puller to move the SLI jumper blocks (there are six) - the puller that comes with the board sucks! Also, when I installed the second GTX (after installing Windows), Windows decided to play hide and seek with the VGA signal - had to try different video ports to find the signal; once SLI was enabled in the driver, Windows kept the signal on the default port.

I've only found one oddity with the motherboard. I turn my UPS off in my room at night (the LED on it keeps me awake), and when I power it back on in the morning, the system won't post when I first turn it on - but cycling the power again fixes that. Odd...

Edited for spelling

[Arrow]

Oh, and one more thing - make sure you install the AMD driver right after you finish installing Windows. Otherwise you might run into load balancing issues (programs speeding up, slowing down or just crashing to desktop).

[Alferd Packer]

Your motherboard may have a 24 pin main jack on it. Your power source may have a 20 pin plug, or vice versa. Any local computer store worth its salt will have adaptors for either case(20 into 24, 24 into 20). Don't even think about turning the computer on if the main plug and jack don't match perfectly. That was the only snag I encountered building my new machine, and a jaunt to the my local computer store solved the problem in no time.

Other than that, my only advice is to triple check everything before you power it on. Incorrect wiring can at best make the machine not post and at worst fry your hardware.

[Arrow]

Your motherboard may have a 24 pin main jack on it. Your power source may have a 20 pin plug, or vice versa. Any local computer store worth its salt will have adaptors for either case(20 into 24, 24 into 20). Don't even think about turning the computer on if the main plug and jack don't match perfectly. That was the only snag I encountered building my new machine, and a jaunt to the my local computer store solved the problem in no time.

Other than that, my only advice is to triple check everything before you power it on. Incorrect wiring can at best make the machine not post and at worst fry your hardware.

That's another thing. The DFI wants a native 24-pin powersupply. It might boot with a 20 to 24 pin adapter, but it's not going to be stable. There are lots of threads on dfi-street.com about that.

Edit: That won't be a problem, since the PC PnC PSU is one of best, if not the best, for this motherboard.