Intel "Coffee Lake" Builders Thread

[moonbogg]

Actually, its more like 25-28 years, as I didn't start using Windows until 3.1 in the early 90's. I still have the install disks.

I remember those old windows versions and all my games were on 3.5" discs. Before that I played games like Styx with the brand new 5" floppy computer my uncle bought us. I thought windows was so futuristic because it talked to me and games like megarace seemed straight from 100 years in the future to me. I used to be young once, I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JgSjDYHqqI

 

[PeterScott]

I thought windows was so futuristic because it talked to me and games like megarace seemed straight from 100 years in the future to me.

Windows seemed like a step backwards after my Amiga.

 

[StinkyPinky]

What do you mean "reuse" window installs? Surely not plug in your new hardware and hope your old windows install boots up?!

 

[AdamK47]

What do you mean "reuse" window installs? Surely not plug in your new hardware and hope your old windows install boots up?!

Windows is suppose to do that now. Has been able to boot up on different hardware for quite a while.

 

[Crono]

That's what I'll find out and do a fresh install if need be. It was getting late and my curiosity got the better of me. I was thinking: my USB 3.0/3.1 drivers appear to be from M$ despite my taking everything form the Asus site (although 2 things were driver-less until Win Update), which may be the cause?

Delete/remove it in device manager, reinstall using driver downloaded from ASUS.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Windows is suppose to do that now. Has been able to boot up on different hardware for quite a while.

I would never trust that. Perhaps I'm old fashioned.

 

[TheF34RChannel]

Delete/remove it in device manager, reinstall using driver downloaded from ASUS.

If only there was an Asus driver I would...

 

[Crono]

If only there was an Asus driver I would...

It's probably included in the chipset driver, if either Intel or ASUS provides it. In any case, removing and then running Windows update may fix it. Can't hurt to try before trying a reset or full wipe.

 

[TheF34RChannel]

It's probably included in the chipset driver, if either Intel or ASUS provides it. In any case, removing and then running Windows update may fix it. Can't hurt to try before trying a reset or full wipe.

It's a known issue that Microsoft keeps overwriting Asmedia drivers since last spring. Annoying! I've set update back to exclude driver updates,which gets changed with every update grrr.

Tried a different USB drive and it works fine. Then the other one and it didn't work but it does in other ports... Weird, I'll see if the drive works after a wipe.

So far using the previous install works flawlessly. No issues.

 

[RichUK]

LOL, that's hilarious. Also, I'd never reuse a windows build like that myself. I was surprised once that it just booted with a new board and CPU, but I was like "screw that". Gave me the creeps so I reinstalled.

I've used the same windows build from Z170 -> Z270 -> Z370.

No issues here.

Just uninstall drivers and let windows reinstall if there's any issues.

Windows just dynamically adjusts itself nowadays, so I don't see the need to muck around with fresh installs all the time, especially when the chipsets are so similar (going from AMD to Intel or vice versa may surface a few challenges, though).

 

[Ferzerp]

Amazon now claims I’ll have my cpu Thursday. That gives me time to finish up my tube bending.

Right now I have a bend with a lot of stress on it. I’m thinking maybe that taking a heat gun to it with it mounted to relieve that stress may be a good idea, but this is a first time for me so I’m not sure.

 

[Slappi]

I was about to start putting my 8700k system together and have a quick question for anyone familiar with ASUS MBs. I have the Asus Z370 Strix-I board and I noticed they just released 3 new bios yesterday but I'm not sure which one to pick. They are 0411, 5426, and 0426. Anyone have a clue what's going on there and which one to pick?

Thanks!

 

[Crono]

I was about to start putting my 8700k system together and have a quick question for anyone familiar with ASUS MBs. I have the Asus Z370 Strix-I board and I noticed they just released 3 new bios yesterday but I'm not sure which one to pick. They are 0411, 5426, and 0426. Anyone have a clue what's going on there and which one to pick?

Thanks!

Always check Overclock.net and/or ASUS' forums. They usually have descriptions there of the differences.

Edit: quick search shows 0426 in their forums, but not the other two (probably beta variants for specific testing reasons):

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?96800-Strix-Z370-UEFI-updates-UEFI-0419-0426

You can always ask there.

 

[Slappi]

Always check Overclock.net and/or ASUS' forums. They usually have descriptions there of the differences.

Edit: quick search shows 0426 in their forums, but not the other two (probably beta variants for specific testing reasons):

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?96800-Strix-Z370-UEFI-updates-UEFI-0419-0426

You can always ask there.

I was reading the same forum and it looks like the 0426 is the latest and the 5426 variation is the same with the exception of MCE being enabled by default.

 

[TheF34RChannel]

USB 3.1 Asmedia issue fixed for that specific drive as well now after installing official Asmedia drivers. 0 issues with the old install now.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Placed a preorder at B&H for an 8700K. I figure it will be awhile and I can cancel if I change my mind or find it elsewhere. I'm thinking about the Asrock Taichi Z370 - any thoughts?

I'll probably reuse 16 GB of Corsair DDR4-3000 RAM I have in a Ryzen box now (I'll give that box a spare 8 GB of DDR4-3000 I have in the interim) until RAM prices drop, then I'll get some faster RAM and maybe 32 GB. I'll probably also stick with my 980 Ti and wait for Volta (or the 1080 Ti refresh if NVidia does one soon) as well. I haven't decided if I'm going to put a third generation of build in my Cosmos S case or if I want to move to a new case. I like the new Cosmos case but not sure I want to pay $300 for a case. MAYBE if I had gone x299, I'd be more willing.

 

[TheF34RChannel]

Placed a preorder at B&H for an 8700K. I figure it will be awhile and I can cancel if I change my mind or find it elsewhere. I'm thinking about the Asrock Taichi Z370 - any thoughts?

I'll probably reuse 16 GB of Corsair DDR4-3000 RAM I have in a Ryzen box now (I'll give that box a spare 8 GB of DDR4-3000 I have in the interim) until RAM prices drop, then I'll get some faster RAM and maybe 32 GB. I'll probably also stick with my 980 Ti and wait for Volta (or the 1080 Ti refresh if NVidia does one soon) as well. I haven't decided if I'm going to put a third generation of build in my Cosmos S case or if I want to move to a new case. I like the new Cosmos case but not sure I want to pay $300 for a case. MAYBE if I had gone x299, I'd be more willing.

Only a few thoughts: 3000 is on the low side.

There won't be a Ti refresh (go Volta )

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Only a few thoughts: 3000 is on the low side.

There won't be a Ti refresh (go Volta )

Oh, I know 3000 is on the low side. I think it will be OK until RAM prices drop and I get a better feel for the higher speed modules and compatibility with whatever board I pick. It is hard for me to swallow paying over $400 for 32 GB of DDR4-4000 RAM. Even 16 GB is over $200. Ouch.

I'm leaning towards the Asrock Taichi but the Asrock Pro Gaming model looks great as well. I was thinking about adding a 10 Gbps switch to my core network and the Pro gamer already has the 10 Gb NIC.

I had heard the Volta was delayed until the May/June timeframe and people were thinking MAYBE NVidia would push another 1080 refresh out the door in time for the holidays. At any rate, my 980 Ti should be fine until then. I don't seriously expect to have an 8700K in my hands before Thanksgiving and won't be shocked if I change my mind and go with a 7820 or 7900 instead.

 

[TheF34RChannel]

Ah makes sense yes @IndyColtsFan! I don't think Volta is delayed because AFAIK a date hasn't been announced previously?

Yes to the switch!

 

[Aikouka]

Hm, I don't know if I should be a bit worried... but I got everything built, and I'm noticing some small problems.

• This ASRock board (Professional Gaming i7) is a bit annoying in that since it couldn't boot the first few times as I hadn't inserted the Windows installer much less installed Windows. Now, whenever it boots, it complains that it failed to boot a few times in the past, and it makes me wait for 10 seconds while providing options. I assume it's supposed to be a sort of help mechanism like how Windows will come up with that screen if you fail to shutdown properly, but it won't go away.
• My memory (DDR4-4000) is stuck at 2133. Setting it to Auto or manually to the XMP profile doesn't work.
• If I install the Intel WiFi drivers, the computer freezes during the installation. All other necessary drivers have been installed (audio, GPU, 10Gb NIC and chipset).
• There don't appear to be any BIOS updates apart from a beta update that fixes CPU voltage issues.
• I get the feeling that one of the hard drives might be bad, but I'll have to run some scans. I just keep hearing this slight chirp that sounds like it's from an HDD.

I'm currently running a memory test, but I haven't found any failures yet. I'll have to run some HDD tests next. What do you guys use to test yours? I've always used HDD Tune Pro's full scan, but the tool isn't free, and unlike MemTest, HDD Tune's free version is pretty worthless for modern systems. I also feel a bit wary paying for HDD Tune Pro when they only give you a small free upgrade window, but they only upgrade every two years anyway.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Windows seemed like a step backwards after my Amiga.

I still have a large Commodore collection - Vic 20, C64, C128, Amiga 2000, and Amiga 3000. If my office weren’t so crowded with all my other stuff (PCs, consoles, home automation stuff, networking equipment, etc), I’d still have them all set up. I’m the original owner of all except the Amiga 3000, which I bought a few years ago. The Vic 20 was my first computer and my parents bought it for my brother and I in 1981.

As excited as I am for a new machine (and hopefully a quick arrival of an 8700K), those were the days and I’d go back in a heartbeat. As Moonbogg said, I used to be young once - it was an exciting time to be a kid in the 70s and 80s.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Hm, I don't know if I should be a bit worried... but I got everything built, and I'm noticing some small problems.

• This ASRock board (Professional Gaming i7) is a bit annoying in that since it couldn't boot the first few times as I hadn't inserted the Windows installer much less installed Windows. Now, whenever it boots, it complains that it failed to boot a few times in the past, and it makes me wait for 10 seconds while providing options. I assume it's supposed to be a sort of help mechanism like how Windows will come up with that screen if you fail to shutdown properly, but it won't go away.
• My memory (DDR4-4000) is stuck at 2133. Setting it to Auto or manually to the XMP profile doesn't work.
• If I install the Intel WiFi drivers, the computer freezes during the installation. All other necessary drivers have been installed (audio, GPU, 10Gb NIC and chipset).
• There don't appear to be any BIOS updates apart from a beta update that fixes CPU voltage issues.
• I get the feeling that one of the hard drives might be bad, but I'll have to run some scans. I just keep hearing this slight chirp that sounds like it's from an HDD.

I'm currently running a memory test, but I haven't found any failures yet. I'll have to run some HDD tests next. What do you guys use to test yours? I've always used HDD Tune Pro's full scan, but the tool isn't free, and unlike MemTest, HDD Tune's free version is pretty worthless for modern systems. I also feel a bit wary paying for HDD Tune Pro when they only give you a small free upgrade window, but they only upgrade every two years anyway.

Maybe install HD Sentinel to get health readings across all drives?

 

[PeterScott]

I still have a large Commodore collection - Vic 20, C64, C128, Amiga 2000, and Amiga 3000. If my office weren’t so crowded with all my other stuff (PCs, consoles, home automation stuff, networking equipment, etc), I’d still have them all set up. I’m the original owner of all except the Amiga 3000, which I bought a few years ago. The Vic 20 was my first computer and my parents bought it for my brother and I in 1981.

As excited as I am for a new machine (and hopefully a quick arrival of an 8700K), those were the days and I’d go back in a heartbeat. As Moonbogg said, I used to be young once - it was an exciting time to be a kid in the 70s and 80s.

I saved for a year to buy my first computer: C-64, and a cassette tape drive (after selling my ColecoVision). I still have an Amiga 1000 and 1080 Monitor packed away. I went Wintel in 1993, but it will never have the impact those early days of computing did.

 

[TheF34RChannel]

Hm, I don't know if I should be a bit worried... but I got everything built, and I'm noticing some small problems.

• This ASRock board (Professional Gaming i7) is a bit annoying in that since it couldn't boot the first few times as I hadn't inserted the Windows installer much less installed Windows. Now, whenever it boots, it complains that it failed to boot a few times in the past, and it makes me wait for 10 seconds while providing options. I assume it's supposed to be a sort of help mechanism like how Windows will come up with that screen if you fail to shutdown properly, but it won't go away.
• My memory (DDR4-4000) is stuck at 2133. Setting it to Auto or manually to the XMP profile doesn't work.
• If I install the Intel WiFi drivers, the computer freezes during the installation. All other necessary drivers have been installed (audio, GPU, 10Gb NIC and chipset).
• There don't appear to be any BIOS updates apart from a beta update that fixes CPU voltage issues.
• I get the feeling that one of the hard drives might be bad, but I'll have to run some scans. I just keep hearing this slight chirp that sounds like it's from an HDD.

I'm currently running a memory test, but I haven't found any failures yet. I'll have to run some HDD tests next. What do you guys use to test yours? I've always used HDD Tune Pro's full scan, but the tool isn't free, and unlike MemTest, HDD Tune's free version is pretty worthless for modern systems. I also feel a bit wary paying for HDD Tune Pro when they only give you a small free upgrade window, but they only upgrade every two years anyway.

Honestly, I'd start over with the entire Windows install. As for the RAM; getting anything over 3200 to run requires not XMP but manually settings and lots of tweaking of the SA and VCIOO and that is if your specific IMC can handle 4000 - i.e. sadly we can't expect high frequency memory to simply run on everyone's machine. I think your drives are fine, by the way.

 

[Aikouka]

Maybe install HD Sentinel to get health readings across all drives?

I'm currently running HD Tune to run a full scan, but I can try that afterward.

Honestly, I'd start over with the entire Windows install. As for the RAM; getting anything over 3200 to run requires not XMP but manually settings and lots of tweaking of the SA and VCIOO and that is if your specific IMC can handle 4000 - i.e. sadly we can't expect high frequency memory to simply run on everyone's machine. I think your drives are fine, by the way.

I am tempted to start over. I did do one thing that I prefer not to do... connect the PC to the network during the install. Frankly, I hate when Windows starts mucking about with my drivers as I'd rather install my own. I really dislike how much Microsoft has hidden things away from the user. I updated a few machines to the latest version of Windows, and the process is frustrating for anyone that just wants to know what's going on. On multiple machines, I've seen it just stuck at "Preparing to install 8%" for at least half an hour. It only seems to do anything if I just reboot the system and force it to go through the update process again.

Eh, everything I've read states that I should simply set the BIOS to use XMP, and it will work. Hardware Canucks reviewed a different version of the memory, and they stated "This memory kit comes in clocked at DDR4-4000 19-23-23-45 with a 2T command rate. It requires 1.35V - up from the 1.20V default - which is identical to other enthusiast-oriented memory kits, and it's impressively low given the very high frequency. This is all programmed into the single XMP 2.0 Profile, so enabling these settings is as simple as toggling the XMP option in your motherboard's BIOS." When my hard drive test is done, I'll pull the memory and test it in another computer.

As for the drives, the noise appears to be coming from the HGST Deskstar drive that I have. I own a few of these drives (mostly in my server), but apparently, prior to this one, I've only owned the older variants (64MB cache vs. 128MB cache). The Amazon reviews have complaints about chirping noises on the drive. It wouldn't really bother me if it chirped while the drive was active, but it's not doing anything... or rather, I'm not actively using the drive. (I haven't checked to see if Windows is using it for whatever reason.) I'm mostly just looking for a quicker drive for storage of games. I'm using a 1TB M.2 drive for the games that I play more often or care about loading speeds.