Hello All,
After previously asking for commentary, (http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=29&threadid=789379), I finally bought, built, and allowed the monkey to throw the switch on my new computer. Its comprised as follows:
Intel Pentium 4 CPU with stock 1.6 GHz of the 'A' series (aka 1.6a)
Abit IT7 mainboard using the Intel 845E chipset w/Highpoint HP374 Hot-Swappable RAID
Corsair XMS2700 DDR, 512MB in single-stick form
Gainward GeForce4 Ti4200 Ultra650 Golden Sample w/128MB DDR
Western Digital 80GB 7200 RPM drive with 8MB Cache
Lite-On 40/12/48 CD Burner
LG Electronics 16X DVD-ROM
Microsoft Internet USB Keyboard & USB IntelliMouse Optical
ViewSonic PS790 19" monitor
I decided to wait and see how the onboard LAN/sound worked before investing in something I may not need. I spent two days, 2-3 hours each assembling these components into an Antec 1035B SOHO case with Antec 350W PSU.
This morning, I let the monkey throw the power and quickly got into the Phoenix/Award BIOS. Inside the BIOS, I discovered the WDC 80GB drive on IDE1 was not being detected. This drive was sitting in a generic removable caddy, and so thinking the caddy was the problem I connected an older WDC 20GB drive to IDE3. I set the boot options to Floppy-->HDD0-->ATA133RAID, saved and exited. BTW, the CDRW (M) and DVD (S) were detected on IDE2, which was comforting, and the initial BIOS boot tried to interpret my CPU as being a 1.9 GHz P4. I cannot complain, but I wanted to install an OS, first, before being a happy overclocker!
Upon booting again, the hard drive on IDE1 continued to not be detected, but the older WDC 20GB drive on IDE3 was detected. In fact, the HighPoint BIOS stalls for an expected <CTRL><h> to setup the device it detected, but not setup in its BIOS. I configured it to be the first device on the RAID controller to boot and continued on. The system rebooted one more time and started to boot from Floppy, of which I had a Win98 Boot Floppy sitting in that FDD.
I was able to FDISK, Format (/s), and install Windows 98 First Edition without any real problems. That install was a very stripped down install to just make sure things would boot. The install went really fast compared to my old Pentium2 running at 400 MHz. Once satisfied, I popped in my Windows XP Professional CD in the Lite-On drive and proceeded to install XP. All went well, except one of the USB hubs did not have the necessary driver(s). The Abit mainboard CD did not contain the necessary driver(s), and pointed to their website. Their website simply claimed they did not have the driver(s) available, yet, and to check back. I did not care as long as the USB ports the keyboard & mouse continued working.
Upon the completion of the XPpro install, I started to install some of the other goodies. Its amusing how XPpro looks at the IEEE1394 ports as being 'network' related, hehe. The default Microsoft nVidia drivers allowed for a left-side overscan when pumping my rez to 1600x1200, but this was corrected after installing the Gainward drivers. I had absolutely no problems installing the Abit/Intel-provided drivers for the LAN and sound. I have not, yet, connected speakers, but the LAN worked like a charm.
As a side note, the XP OS also detected several VIVO-related devices, and those drivers, although not 100% qualified by Microsoft, installed without a hitch. I'll spend some time in the next ouple of weeks testing the components, both on-board and add-on. BTW, I did solve the mystery of the hard drive not being detected on IDE1. It seems that this new Western Digital drive does not cooperate fully with the Phoenix/Award BIOS. Is the jumper is position for Master Drive in a M+S setup with no Slave drive present, nothing is detected. Initially, I thought it was the caddy, but it wasn't. I yanked the jumper altogether (thus making it a single-drive only configuration) and the BIOS detected it immediately.
Now, the next couple of days I'll be doing a fresh install of XP on the 80GB drive. I'll also try to take some screen captures if anyone is interested. If there are some fellow IT7 owners using the 1.6a processor please feel free to give me a buzz at email in the sig. For now, signing off to go get ready for work (booo!!!).
Kartman
After previously asking for commentary, (http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=29&threadid=789379), I finally bought, built, and allowed the monkey to throw the switch on my new computer. Its comprised as follows:
Intel Pentium 4 CPU with stock 1.6 GHz of the 'A' series (aka 1.6a)
Abit IT7 mainboard using the Intel 845E chipset w/Highpoint HP374 Hot-Swappable RAID
Corsair XMS2700 DDR, 512MB in single-stick form
Gainward GeForce4 Ti4200 Ultra650 Golden Sample w/128MB DDR
Western Digital 80GB 7200 RPM drive with 8MB Cache
Lite-On 40/12/48 CD Burner
LG Electronics 16X DVD-ROM
Microsoft Internet USB Keyboard & USB IntelliMouse Optical
ViewSonic PS790 19" monitor
I decided to wait and see how the onboard LAN/sound worked before investing in something I may not need. I spent two days, 2-3 hours each assembling these components into an Antec 1035B SOHO case with Antec 350W PSU.
This morning, I let the monkey throw the power and quickly got into the Phoenix/Award BIOS. Inside the BIOS, I discovered the WDC 80GB drive on IDE1 was not being detected. This drive was sitting in a generic removable caddy, and so thinking the caddy was the problem I connected an older WDC 20GB drive to IDE3. I set the boot options to Floppy-->HDD0-->ATA133RAID, saved and exited. BTW, the CDRW (M) and DVD (S) were detected on IDE2, which was comforting, and the initial BIOS boot tried to interpret my CPU as being a 1.9 GHz P4. I cannot complain, but I wanted to install an OS, first, before being a happy overclocker!
Upon booting again, the hard drive on IDE1 continued to not be detected, but the older WDC 20GB drive on IDE3 was detected. In fact, the HighPoint BIOS stalls for an expected <CTRL><h> to setup the device it detected, but not setup in its BIOS. I configured it to be the first device on the RAID controller to boot and continued on. The system rebooted one more time and started to boot from Floppy, of which I had a Win98 Boot Floppy sitting in that FDD.
I was able to FDISK, Format (/s), and install Windows 98 First Edition without any real problems. That install was a very stripped down install to just make sure things would boot. The install went really fast compared to my old Pentium2 running at 400 MHz. Once satisfied, I popped in my Windows XP Professional CD in the Lite-On drive and proceeded to install XP. All went well, except one of the USB hubs did not have the necessary driver(s). The Abit mainboard CD did not contain the necessary driver(s), and pointed to their website. Their website simply claimed they did not have the driver(s) available, yet, and to check back. I did not care as long as the USB ports the keyboard & mouse continued working.
Upon the completion of the XPpro install, I started to install some of the other goodies. Its amusing how XPpro looks at the IEEE1394 ports as being 'network' related, hehe. The default Microsoft nVidia drivers allowed for a left-side overscan when pumping my rez to 1600x1200, but this was corrected after installing the Gainward drivers. I had absolutely no problems installing the Abit/Intel-provided drivers for the LAN and sound. I have not, yet, connected speakers, but the LAN worked like a charm.
As a side note, the XP OS also detected several VIVO-related devices, and those drivers, although not 100% qualified by Microsoft, installed without a hitch. I'll spend some time in the next ouple of weeks testing the components, both on-board and add-on. BTW, I did solve the mystery of the hard drive not being detected on IDE1. It seems that this new Western Digital drive does not cooperate fully with the Phoenix/Award BIOS. Is the jumper is position for Master Drive in a M+S setup with no Slave drive present, nothing is detected. Initially, I thought it was the caddy, but it wasn't. I yanked the jumper altogether (thus making it a single-drive only configuration) and the BIOS detected it immediately.
Now, the next couple of days I'll be doing a fresh install of XP on the 80GB drive. I'll also try to take some screen captures if anyone is interested. If there are some fellow IT7 owners using the 1.6a processor please feel free to give me a buzz at email in the sig. For now, signing off to go get ready for work (booo!!!).
Kartman