Just posting this since a lot of people come around looking to do similar builds and ask what works and what doesn't.
Ordered an E6400, Freezer 7 Pro, Gigabyte DS3, 2GB PC6400 Buffalo Firestix, Sapphire X1950XT, and an FSP 500w Blue Storm PSU last week from Newegg. Came in today. Reusing my case, 2 Western Digital SATA HDs, IDE DVD and CDRW drives, floppy drive, soundcard, and ethernet card. Salvage from my previous S754 64 3000+ build.
Build: It went pretty smoothly. Only a few minor issues.
- The motherboard was smaller than I expected, smaller than my old Asus K8V SE Deluxe, and my motherboard tray didn't have the appropriate screw holes for the outside edge which meant some flexing when plugging some things in.
- Didn't realize my main mobo power plug (20+4) needed to be put in 4 pin first then 20 (due to a little ridge on the 4 designed to sit below the 20.) Because the plug is towards the edge of the board (not so supported as mentioned above) and the clip didn't want to come off it was a hassle.
- HSFs are huge these days. I can't imagine if I had gone for the even bigger Scythe Infinity. Trying to get my mobo tray back in my case was a feat of angles.
- I actually plugged my floppy drive cable into the drive backwards proving that no matter how many computers you've built you can still be an idiot.
Post-Build: All that said my system powered up and POSTed no problem. No issues with memory or anything. My board came with the F7 (latest official) bios. As for post-build issues..
- I had run the SATA driver disk setup from the CD prior to taking apart my old box. Yet when trying to install XP (slipstream SP2 disc) it just gave me an error. Luckily I have a second computer which I got the latest drivers off the web from. Once again proving that you have to be insane to try to build a new box without a spare computer lying around.
- I'm not entirely sure if the whole JMicron/SATA/IDE thing is running at 100%. I've heard people have had problems with it and sometimes copies seem to take longer than I think they should, but it might be in my head.
- The only drivers that work for my video card are off the CD, even the latest drivers off the Sapphire site for my card don't recognize it. And the CD installs so much trash I didn't need or want to see going by. Redownloading CS:S now and will install BF2 later to see how it does. (10924 3DMark05 score with everything at stock fwiw.)
Overclocking: No big story.
- OC'd to 400FSB without issue. Increased my vCore to 1.350, +0.1 to FSB and MCH, and that's it. Oh, and put my ram +0.3 to hit the 2.1v specs.
- Temp was sitting at 45C idle at stock (CoreTemp/TAT). OC'd it's sitting at 50C idle, got up to 57C running a single prime torture test. However I've only got two 80mm case fans, intake on the side near the vid card and exhaust at the back for CPU venting. I've got 2 more 80mms coming in for front intake and to replace the fan at the top of my case (which is the one now doing CPU exhaust). Once I get the other fans and the thermal compound cures a bit hopefully the temps should drop a bit. Though to be honest I'm not entirely certain my HSF is seated perfectly as it's the first time I've used the 4pin mechanism and I didn't walk away entirely confident. We'll see how it goes.
- I'm still at 5/5/5/15 timings as those were stock spec, sometime later tonight I'll probably go and try to knock them down to 4/4/4/12. Seeing as how Firestix are supposed to be D9s I imagine I should be able to, even if I have to put another 0.1 voltage to get it.
Summary: E6400 was a week 32. DS3 came with the latest official F7 bios. Buffalo Firestix booted right up on the DS3 (though like all RAM at lower settings). Freezer 7 Pro fit on the board. OC'd to 400FSB 1:1 with no problems. I'm stuck waiting for the X1950XT to have proper driver support. Despite the FAQ on xtremsystems for the DS3 saying the FSP PSU had issues with the DS3 it's fine. I was owned by a floppy drive cable.
Ordered an E6400, Freezer 7 Pro, Gigabyte DS3, 2GB PC6400 Buffalo Firestix, Sapphire X1950XT, and an FSP 500w Blue Storm PSU last week from Newegg. Came in today. Reusing my case, 2 Western Digital SATA HDs, IDE DVD and CDRW drives, floppy drive, soundcard, and ethernet card. Salvage from my previous S754 64 3000+ build.
Build: It went pretty smoothly. Only a few minor issues.
- The motherboard was smaller than I expected, smaller than my old Asus K8V SE Deluxe, and my motherboard tray didn't have the appropriate screw holes for the outside edge which meant some flexing when plugging some things in.
- Didn't realize my main mobo power plug (20+4) needed to be put in 4 pin first then 20 (due to a little ridge on the 4 designed to sit below the 20.) Because the plug is towards the edge of the board (not so supported as mentioned above) and the clip didn't want to come off it was a hassle.
- HSFs are huge these days. I can't imagine if I had gone for the even bigger Scythe Infinity. Trying to get my mobo tray back in my case was a feat of angles.
- I actually plugged my floppy drive cable into the drive backwards proving that no matter how many computers you've built you can still be an idiot.
Post-Build: All that said my system powered up and POSTed no problem. No issues with memory or anything. My board came with the F7 (latest official) bios. As for post-build issues..
- I had run the SATA driver disk setup from the CD prior to taking apart my old box. Yet when trying to install XP (slipstream SP2 disc) it just gave me an error. Luckily I have a second computer which I got the latest drivers off the web from. Once again proving that you have to be insane to try to build a new box without a spare computer lying around.
- I'm not entirely sure if the whole JMicron/SATA/IDE thing is running at 100%. I've heard people have had problems with it and sometimes copies seem to take longer than I think they should, but it might be in my head.
- The only drivers that work for my video card are off the CD, even the latest drivers off the Sapphire site for my card don't recognize it. And the CD installs so much trash I didn't need or want to see going by. Redownloading CS:S now and will install BF2 later to see how it does. (10924 3DMark05 score with everything at stock fwiw.)
Overclocking: No big story.
- OC'd to 400FSB without issue. Increased my vCore to 1.350, +0.1 to FSB and MCH, and that's it. Oh, and put my ram +0.3 to hit the 2.1v specs.
- Temp was sitting at 45C idle at stock (CoreTemp/TAT). OC'd it's sitting at 50C idle, got up to 57C running a single prime torture test. However I've only got two 80mm case fans, intake on the side near the vid card and exhaust at the back for CPU venting. I've got 2 more 80mms coming in for front intake and to replace the fan at the top of my case (which is the one now doing CPU exhaust). Once I get the other fans and the thermal compound cures a bit hopefully the temps should drop a bit. Though to be honest I'm not entirely certain my HSF is seated perfectly as it's the first time I've used the 4pin mechanism and I didn't walk away entirely confident. We'll see how it goes.
- I'm still at 5/5/5/15 timings as those were stock spec, sometime later tonight I'll probably go and try to knock them down to 4/4/4/12. Seeing as how Firestix are supposed to be D9s I imagine I should be able to, even if I have to put another 0.1 voltage to get it.
Summary: E6400 was a week 32. DS3 came with the latest official F7 bios. Buffalo Firestix booted right up on the DS3 (though like all RAM at lower settings). Freezer 7 Pro fit on the board. OC'd to 400FSB 1:1 with no problems. I'm stuck waiting for the X1950XT to have proper driver support. Despite the FAQ on xtremsystems for the DS3 saying the FSP PSU had issues with the DS3 it's fine. I was owned by a floppy drive cable.