Building an Affordable "Skulltrail" System

[Psi*]

That is a "Universal 64 bit PCI card".

I have to punt with this ... I don't understand why the card does not at least show up as some mystery device without a driver.

In Device Manager, right click on any component & select "Scan for Hardware Changes" to see if it shows up.

I am also wondering about bios plug n play option ... but this is getting beyond experience, at least remote control like this.

One of the regulars posted something about audio & sound cards recently. Maybe you can attract his attention ... I'll look for his post to figure out who it is.

 

[Hawke]

That is a "Universal 64 bit PCI card".

I have to punt with this ... I don't understand why the card does not at least show up as some mystery device without a driver.

In Device Manager, right click on any component & select "Scan for Hardware Changes" to see if it shows up.

I am also wondering about bios plug n play option ... but this is getting beyond experience, at least remote control like this.

One of the regulars posted something about audio & sound cards recently. Maybe you can attract his attention ... I'll look for his post to figure out who it is.

I've tried everything I can think of, I was reccomended by Creative labs to try another PCI slot - the problem with the D-5400XS motherboard is that it only has 2 PCI slots and the graphics card is overlapping one of them (thanks for helping out)

I have trawled through the net and have come accross this forum which makes me suspicious of the Sound Blaster X-Fi.

I may decide to return the card to Amazon if it doesn't work soon (otherwise its £65 down the drain - should have gone for a PCI-E card which would have been an additional £20 and most likely minus the fuss)

 

[Psi*]

2Tire2Tango started this thread ... http://forums.techgage.com/showthread.php?t=5237. Maybe if you sent a message directly he might have an idea or bless it a dead end.

 

[Kougar]

You probably have already tried this, but I'd suggest wriggling the PCI bracket around, I've tested a few cases where the notch in the PCI bracket didn't align fully with the motherboard tray causing it to not seat fully.

That said, if the card doesn't work in one slot and is seated flush with the PCI bracket (where the screw is used to lock it in place), it could be a BIOS setting... Is the card shown in the BIOS or start up screen? You might save your current profile and use BIOS defaults just to see if it would come up.

Since the card doesn't seat properly, I'm not sure a PCIe card would either since those should be at regulation specified intervals. It's always possible ya might've just had some really bad luck and gotten a bad card though, too...

 

[Rob Williams]

Hmm, this is a tough one. I've never run into an issue with a PCI card just not working in the past, so this is a bit strange. I'm not familiar enough with PCI slots, but the fact that the site shows extra support for PCI 2.2 and 2.3 under Vista makes me curious... could there possibly be a limitation inside of XP? What I'd do if I were you, is download a Linux Live CD, specifically Ubuntu, and boot up and see if the card is detected and working. If it is, then it's a Windows issue.

http://www.ubuntu.com/ (I'd recommend the 9.10 beta)

As far as I'm aware, support for Creative cards isn't superb (but the driver -is- in the official Linux kernel, so it can't be too bad), but if it's working in the machine, Ubuntu should pick it up no problem (when in the OS, go to System > Preferences > Sound... it would be available under the drop down and should be called Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi or something similar).

That's about all I could personally recommend. I know I fall back on Linux a lot, but it really is perfect in situations like these. I've had a lot of questionable hardware, but booting up with Ubuntu would tell me quickly enough if it was indeed the hardware or a software issue.

 

[Hawke]

I did see in the BIOS that a PCIe slot is populated, but nothing was there mentioning a PCI slot being populated.

Thanks for the responces, I will have to return the card back to Amazon.

I bought the card because I am starting to get fed up of the IDT drivers corrupting/refusing to work when windows logs into an accound (meaning I have to uninstall the IDT driver and High Definition Audio package, switch off the PC, and reboot it to re-install it)

Out of curiosity, has anyone using a D5400XS motherboard installed Windows 7 yet?

 

[Kougar]

Can't say I have... I personally prefer Intel chipsets, but you will never catch me using an Intel motherboard.

If the card isn't detected at all then either it wasn't seated enough to make a connection, or it was a bad card.

 

[Rob Williams]

Out of curiosity, has anyone using a D5400XS motherboard installed Windows 7 yet?

I haven't, but I don't imagine you'd have much of a problem. I'm with Kougar in that I'd rather not use Intel boards for various reasons, but the company's drivers are kept up-to-date, and its chipset installer is an all-in-one that basically covers all of its chipsets... even on notebooks. Intel offers Windows 7 drivers for that board, so I assume there will be no issue there.

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Sea...s&ProductProduct=Intel®+Desktop+Board+D5400XS

 

[Hawke]

Can't say I have... I personally prefer Intel chipsets, but you will never catch me using an Intel motherboard.

If the card isn't detected at all then either it wasn't seated enough to make a connection, or it was a bad card.

The card was seated correctly - I loosen the screw holding it and used a flashlight to see the PCI slot - I pushed it in again with some force to the point the motherboard started to bend slightly- still no avail, I gather it was a bad card (it is in the process of being sent back to Amazon) - looking around on various sites and forums, it seems to me that the quality of Creative Labs hardware aren't that great (my brother owned a Zune, only lasted 6 months before it started to malfunction)

 

[Psi*]

... - I pushed it in again with some force to the point the motherboard started to bend slightly- still no avail ...

... so it sort of of does a slow snap as it seats into the socket. Not to keep questioning your ability to insert a card, but remote control-wise it is difficult to tell if I feel what you feel!

Intel motherboards, I have an Intel "bad ax" aka D975XBX ... and I have to say that it has been a constant hemorrhoid from day 1.

 

[Hawke]

But to be fair to the motherboard, it hasn't all been that bad, I have had nothing wrong going with it, it has provided for all uses, from basic E-mail to advanced gaming and programming and the CPU tempratures are quite good (bar the holes to mount a LGA775 type heatsink but that can be fixed with bolt-ons).

I got till the 20th of november to send the sound card back, and I have installed a chipset device software from Intel and I am curious to see if that will make any difference

 

[Hawke]

I tried putting the sound card back in, and this time the monitor did not show up and it messed the BIOS up a bit after I took it back out (thankfully it recovered as it restored the original settings otherwise I wouldn't be writing this message now) - so looks like the soundcard is really a bad card

 

[Psi*]

I think *that* was the smoke test & fortunately no smoke. Send that one back ASAP, try a replacement as I think I would.

 

[Hawke]

I think *that* was the smoke test & fortunately no smoke. Send that one back ASAP, try a replacement as I think I would.

I just hope it isn't the PCI slot that has been damaged somehow

F****ing IDT drivers has screwed up - - - YET AGAIN!!!
Have to uninstall them, switch off the machine, turn it on and re-install it and wait, this happens sometimes when I log onto Windows, it could be a hardware problem or the drivers do not go well with XP
I could upgrade to Vista (have resevations about that) or wait some time before Windows 7 has been ironed out a bit more with some hotfixes and a service pack

 

[Hawke]

Audio sorted a long time ago, very new question:

I am looking at the possibility of upgrading to dual Xeon E5472 (which is 3Ghz and takes full advantage of the Skulltrails 1600Mhz FSB), I have seen Xeons for sale made by HP, IBM etc, will purchasing Xeons that are manufactured by someone else work on the D5400XS motherboard?

Also, though I should bring the attention of another Xeon based gaming machine I found by accident on eBay (I hope it is ok to post an eBay link here, not advertising it as such but showing that others have made a "Skultrail" based on the Xeon i7)

It is based on the Supermicro X8DA3 motherboard, and looking at the Supermicro website, almost all their motherboards can be used for extreme gaming, video editing, programming etc, and the best thing is that they don't use FB-DIMMS, I think in future, when my current rig dies, the next motherboard will be from Supermicro when *ahem* octo-core xeons will exist - well I allready have an eATX case with the current system

 

[Kougar]

Audio sorted a long time ago, very new question:

I am looking at the possibility of upgrading to dual Xeon E5472 (which is 3Ghz and takes full advantage of the Skulltrails 1600Mhz FSB), I have seen Xeons for sale made by HP, IBM etc, will purchasing Xeons that are manufactured by someone else work on the D5400XS motherboard?

HP, IBM, and others only resell the Xeons. The only company that manufactures them is Intel.

It is based on the Supermicro X8DA3 motherboard, and looking at the Supermicro website, almost all their motherboards can be used for extreme gaming, video editing, programming etc, and the best thing is that they don't use FB-DIMMS, I think in future, when my current rig dies, the next motherboard will be from Supermicro when *ahem* octo-core xeons will exist - well I allready have an eATX case with the current system

Core i7 chips don't require FB-DIMMs, only some of Intel's exotic processors still use those anymore. There is nothing really special about this motherboard, Newegg is full of similar (and quite a few cheaper) dual-socket boards. Technically speaking any board will work for everything you listed, just don't expect to be able to overclock most of them.

The only dual-socket Core i7 board that offers everything and was specifically built for overclocking is EVGA's upcoming W555 motherboard: http://techgage.com/news/evgas_w555_dual-socket_motherboard_redefines_high-end/

You might be waiting a long time for your board to die, when buying high-end usually the PC becomes obsolete before any of the main components fail. I've never actually had a motherboard wear out on me to date despite overclocking every one of them, same for the RAM and CPU especially.... GPU's and hard drives are typically what will wear out.

 

[Hawke]

Well, Xeons are (from what I'm told) are made from higher quality parts than desktop designed CPUs and I was also told that server CPUs last a lot longer, could resist heat and is a lot tougher than their desktop counterparts.

When my Xeons finally give up the ghost which will be a LONG time, I will not be able to get LGA771 based Xeons anymore, and also, by that time, there will be new Xeons that will be far better than even the Xeon i7, perhaps with 16 cores per die, times it by 2 with twin CPU motherboards AND 2 again with hyperthreading

For now, the D5400XS motherboard meets my needs and is good enough

 

[Rob Williams]

To be honest, unless you could get last-gen high-end Xeons at a great price, I wouldn't even look at them. Your current rig is super-powerful as is, so there's just no need. To sink in more money would be a waste and really, if any money was to be spent, it'd probably be better spent on building a new "Skulltrail" with LGA1366 processors. But again, there's little point, unless you specifically needed the extra performance.

The longer you hold off, the better the machine you'll get. Just picture a "Skulltrail" with 12 cores and 24 threads ;-)

 

[Kougar]

To the best my of knowledge Xeons are made from the exact same "parts", although I suppose it is possible Intel could be modifying the silicon ingredients just a little bit during the wafer manufacturing stage to improve them. (Certain high-cost metals are added in trace amounts to improve frequencies the silicon can attain, for instance) The only real difference I know about is that they are tested more strenuously and those that survive the testing tend to be slightly better quality chips on average, because it is paramount to not have any fail in mission critical environments.

That said you won't see CPU's fail, short of someone overvolting them to the point of melting the circuits CPUs will last longer than pretty much every other part of the computer. As long as the system is maintained and cooled properly the CPU will probably even outlast the case it is in.

 

[b1lk1]

To the best my of knowledge Xeons are made from the exact same "parts", although I suppose it is possible Intel could be modifying the silicon ingredients just a little bit during the wafer manufacturing stage to improve them. (Certain high-cost metals are added in trace amounts to improve frequencies the silicon can attain, for instance) The only real difference I know about is that they are tested more strenuously and those that survive the testing tend to be slightly better quality chips on average, because it is paramount to not have any fail in mission critical environments.

That said you won't see CPU's fail, short of someone overvolting them to the point of melting the circuits CPUs will last longer than pretty much every other part of the computer. As long as the system is maintained and cooled properly the CPU will probably even outlast the case it is in.

It has been rumored they are better silicon, but I believe they are just more strenuously binned as you state.

I also agree that CPU's almost never die, I have only killed them due to wreckless use or modification, never under normal use even when overclocked.