I built my new computer....

[deadnight]

I finally got the hardware for my newcomputer from newegg.com yesterday. A big server case with a transparent side panel. (I mounted 2 blue florecent lights inside, looks cool)
p4c800 deluxe asus motherboard. (works perfectly)
3 ghz p4 processor with hyper threading.
geforce fx5900 ultra (256 mb)
1 gig of kingston ddr pc3200 ram.

The ram is faulty. When playing games after about 5 minutes I get a blue screen error saying that their is an error on a memory address on my ram. It's happened multiple times and seems to keep happening on one of the same 4 memory address each time. I then downloaded a memory diagnonstics utility, loaded it to a floppy and ran it in dos.. That reported memory errors on the same 4 address as I mentioned above.
So the RAM is going back. Unfortunatly newegg wont replace my ram until they recieve the faulty ram which really sucks. All I have is 2-128 mb pc100 chips laying around to replace it while I wait for the good stuff to return.

During the short amount of time I am able to play games I get excellent framerate. I took off from chicago ohare airport with all settings maxed and project ai traffic loaded. I averages about 18 fps, then once I got away from that area it went up to a solid 25 fps (locked at 25) Then of course the computer crashed as normal.
If I turned the framerate lock off I have no doubt that I would get at least 40 fps in 'normal' areas.

But anyways, no games for me for about a week.. I don't even want to try playing a game with only 256 megs of pc100 ram.. ughh

[deadnight]

Hmmm, nevermind all that.. I confirmed that it actually isn't a problem with the RAM itself, but the way it was setup in the bios..... I think.

I had it set in the bios to auto-detect, I went in their and manual set it... Been running flight sim for about 2 hours straight without a problem.

I SCORED 4760 on 3dmark03!!!! My old computer score was 917... hehehe I'm loving this system. Thanks to everybody that gave me help when I was picking out he hardware for this system.

the asus p4c800 deluxe is a nice motherboard.. Automatic overclocking.. I can have it manually overclock to what I want just by changing some settings in the bios alone. The auto-overclock is overclocking the P4, 3.0 ghz to 3.07. the 800 FSB is overclocking automatically to 803.. Not much of a difference but It's working. I don't see any reason to manual set it to overclock anymore that it is right now.

I'm using a HUGE server case with a transparent side panel.. I have 2 blue florecent lights inside of the case which looks cool. I belive the case model is Lian-LI 75 if I remember correctly.

Anyways, this is just too cool.

[Tchkinjiu]

........  How much did that cost?...
I'd have to say around... $2,500's?
  Thats a damn good computer you have there.

[deadnight]

Everything was purchased new except for my souncard and hard drives. I kept those from my old computer. Without counting those it was $1,904 exactly.(well, with shipping and handling added in) I think shipping and handling was $58. I ordered it from Newegg.com.
Not a bad price..

Here are a couple pictures of it.  8)

[KnightStryker]

Looks Good man!

Hey, I am about ready to place an order with newegg but was wondering if you liked how they did things, ie shipping speed, any problems you have had with your order? The credit card is ready to go but id really like some info from someone who has dealt with them.

Thanks

[swanny338]

premod case... looks good, clean up the wires  ::)

[deadnight]

Ughh... something must be wrong with my keyboard...

I wrote out a whole message and all my text disapeared.. went to the edit menu and was no option to 'undo'.. strange..

Anyways, I'll write it again.

I had no problem with newegg really. I paid for the 2 day shipping and an extra $3 for them to put a rush on it. It didn't get sent out in the first day though because their was a problem with them verifying my billing address.. So they refunded the $3. They emailed me every couple hours letting me know the status of my order which was nice.

The only problem I would have had is if I would have had to return the ram. They wont replace anything until they receive what needs replaced in the mail. I would have had to go about a week without ram for my computer.

I'm still not entirely sure if the computer is running fine yet though. I'm going to keep it running all day today and see if that damn memory dump error occurs again.

Yeah, I need to figure out a way to clean up the wires inside of the case. It's so big It's hard to hide them anywhere. I'm going to get out some of those tie things I ordered soon and see if I can clean it up.

[swanny338]

maybe use some heat shrink tubing to hide those wires. of course doing that takes much time... u have to take the molex connectors off. I am thinking of just wrapping all my wires in ducttape or something, cause i am lazy...  ::)

[deadnight]

Yeah, I saw some pictures of computers that had tubeing around the wires. I might end up doing that eventually.

The fan on this video card is loud.. At first I thought it was a wire touching a fan blade making alot of noise, after verifying that that wasn't the case I'm pretty sure it's the fan on the video card. I don't know what it is with fans on nvidia cards but they have always been a problem for me. My old geforce ti 4600 fan sounded like it was going to quit working. It was always making grinding noises and stuff.

This geforce fx5900 requires so much power a cord from the power supply plugs directly into it. I'm guessing it's to run the fan on it. When that fan starts spinning while playing games I can feel my whole desk vibrating a little.

[deadnight]

Ok, the RAM is going back... I got 2 errors with memory dumps in the last few hours..  these are the errors I got during the dumps..

PFN_LIST_CORRUPT

PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

After looking those error codes up I am now back
to believeing that it is a problem with the ram.

Both errors indicate that their is something wrong with the ram according to the information I dug up. Plus I ran a memory diagnostics tool which found errors on the chips.

I emailed Kingston to see if they will send me replacements directly instead of getting replacements from Newegg.com. Hopefully Kingston will send me some without me having to send the faulty chips first. I doubt it though, they would need to verify my address and who I am...

[swanny338]

that sucks... u shoulda gotten OCZ RAM  ::)

[deadnight]

Yeah, it really pisses me off. Also, I paid for 2 day shipping with newegg... if I return that ram they will only ship it fedex express. It's kind of crap, they should return it with the 2 day shipping. If I new I was going to have this trouble I wouldn't have paid extra for the 2 day shipping. I'm expecting a reply from Kingston tomorrow.. If they will not replace it directly then I'm going to call newegg and have a talk with them.

3-4 days to get the ram to them, they said 2-3 day processing time, then 3-4 days for them to return the ram. I was considering sticking 2 sticks of 128 pc100 ram I have lieing around from an old compaq in my computer but just realized my motherboard doesn't support it. So I might have no choice.. Going to have an inoperable computer for a few days.

I wasn't too sure what kind of ram to get.. The kingston ram I got was damn expensive so I figured I wouldn't have too much of a problem with it. I should have done a little research on the ram before I ordered.

[swanny338]

my OCZ kicks ass  :)

http://www.svc.com/ocz4001024eldcpe-k.html

[deadnight]

Damn, that is only about $10 more than my Kingston too. Well next time I'll know better. The only way to get a refund on this ram is to pay 15% restock fee and they wont pay for the shipping to get it back to them. That would be about $35 plus shipping and the cost of the new ram.. I'm dead broke allready.   The replacement I will get better not be faulty. I won't pay a damn restocking fee if that is the case and it has to be refunded. The first thing I'm doing once I get the replacement is running a memory diagnostics on it.

[swanny338]

good plan...I am thinking about gettin an AMD Athlon XP 2500+ strange... going from a 2600+ to 2500+.. but the 2500+ has a Barton core and i can over clock the hell outta it  ;D