AI7 Owners UNITE!

[Evilsizer]

well guys, problems AGAIN.

i'm thinking this mobo or some component keeps faultering? right now - only video card, psu/cpu-heatsink-fan/ram is on the mobo.

i cannot get into the bios. it hangs on the logo screen.

maybe a corrupted bios? i have another ai7, i'm going to switch bios chips and see if that helps.

have you tried clearing the cmos first?

 

[Beginner]

yep, tried many times even removing the cmos battery

looks like one of the ram sticks is bad, they're are not a matched pair. when i remove the stick it boots fine, when i put it in, pc hangs at post screen.

i'm working through this right now. i really should have planned this better.

 

[Evilsizer]

that sucks...

 

[Beginner]

i'm trying very hard to keep my composure, i had it running with both sticks and then all of a sudden it wouldn't boot anymore. it took me hours to figure out it was the ram.

 

[Evilsizer]

memtest one stick at a time... are you pushing the mem too hard?

 

[Beginner]

bad stick failed memtest at stock speeds and timings. i have the other stick and its running fine now.

that bad stick was corrupting my windows install after a couple of restarts. i also ran seagate tools on the hdd and it failed.

replaced the hdd and right now running 12x235 on stock volts.

 

[Evilsizer]

bad stick failed memtest at stock speeds and timings. i have the other stick and its running fine now.

that bad stick was corrupting my windows install after a couple of restarts. i also ran seagate tools on the hdd and it failed.

replaced the hdd and right now running 12x235 on stock volts.

is this on the 3.0c?

 

[Beginner]

2.4c

i found a whole host of issues on this pc. i used old/used/recycled components like ribbon cables, floppy, fans, hdd's.

i went through every peice of hardware this time. the ram is whats causing the most issues.

i only have one stick of 512mb running. right now board is at 12x240(2.4c). i installed windows and drivers etc.

everything is peachy ... finally.

thanks to everybody

i'll start putting together the 3.0c soon. i'm going to search for some good ram and get her up and running. i'll be using a thermaltake typhoon on it.


for heavy oc'ing do these boards need all the mosfets sinked? this upcoming 3.0c will be mainly for video/audio ripping/encoding.

 

[Evilsizer]

well for my ai7 im using 512mbx2 komusa dual-C pc-42000 (adata brand) when they first come out. Paid $180 for it, not sure if the price has dropped but good ram for my rig. Good value for the money IMO.

 

[batboy]

Glad you figured it out. Having multiple hardware problems are really hard to troubleshoot. You did good.

With the Northwoods, you don't need to sink up the mosfets, as long as you have decent case air flow.

You want decent RAM with excellent timings that overclocks well? Try this G. Skill 2X512 PC3200 2-2-2-5. They should do 1:1 up to about 250 FSB with tight timings if you feed 'em plenty of vdimm. They'll go lots higher if you relax the timings a little. Fortunately, the AI7 has vdimm that will go up to 3.2v.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231013

 

[disk11]

for heavy oc'ing do these boards need all the mosfets sinked? this upcoming 3.0c will be mainly for video/audio ripping/encoding.

Well, I do know the VRM for this board isn't as powerful as the IC7s, hense why Presscotts don't run well on this board. As for sinking, all I've got this pic I found in another thread:http://www.nordiccrew.com/crotale/coolai7.jpg. I have no idea if those are supposed to be sinked or what.

 

[Spade]

yeah. you would need to have a 8X agp card sitting in the agp slot to see 8X.
its just what those boards do

 

[mdameron]

Well, I do know the VRM for this board isn't as powerful as the IC7s, hense why Presscotts don't run well on this board. As for sinking, all I've got this pic I found in another thread:http://www.nordiccrew.com/crotale/coolai7.jpg. I have no idea if those are supposed to be sinked or what.

I wouldn't sink those, for the sake of room for the cpu heatsink. Those caps or whatever on TOP of the heatsink (north of it) prevent my xp-90c from sitting in there in the right direction. (right direction = the end of the heatpipes pointing NORTH towards the PSU. Mine have to face down. It also doesn't seat right, my temps go down when I push down on it. I think if you sinked those caps or whatever they are, you'd be severely limited in cooling choices for the cpu.

 

[Beginner]

thanks everybody, i learned alot with this build.

batboy is 2x512mb of ocz platinum rev2 comparable to the g.skill your recommended? what if i find some pc4200 adata?

board is running 12x255 3-4-4-8 with one stick of 512mb of generic ram. ran dual instances of p95 for 12 hours so far.

 

[batboy]

Mdameron, the caps you are referring to are the capacitors. That's not the same as power mosfets. The mosfets are small flat black square things and they do get a little warm. Up to the individual if you want to sink 'em or not, but you don't have to with a Northwood. If you have a Prescott, then I would highly recommend it.

Beginner, the OCZ Platium rev 2 RAM is a very good choice too. It's quite comparable to the G. Skill I listed as an example. The OCZ Platinium usually overclocks better than the OCZ Gold. I have a pair of Komusa Hyperram PC4200 RAM which is about the same as Adata PC4200. It's good RAM and generally will run at high FSB which is what you want for a 2.4C. The timings won't be as tight, but as long as you can run high FSB with the 1:1 ratio, that's ok.

 

[Evilsizer]

Mdameron, the caps you are referring to are the capacitors. That's not the same as power mosfets. The mosfets are small flat black square things and they do get a little warm. Up to the individual if you want to sink 'em or not, but you don't have to with a Northwood. If you have a Prescott, then I would highly recommend it.

Beginner, the OCZ Platium rev 2 RAM is a very good choice too. It's quite comparable to the G. Skill I listed as an example. The OCZ Platinium usually overclocks better than the OCZ Gold. I have a pair of Komusa Hyperram PC4200 RAM which is about the same as Adata PC4200. It's good RAM and generally will run at high FSB which is what you want for a 2.4C. The timings won't be as tight, but as long as you can run high FSB with the 1:1 ratio, that's ok.

they hyperram you talk of batboy is from komusa in there hyperram store... there is an option to choose "adata brand" in the menu at the bottom,... best of all its no charge to choose it.

 

[batboy]

Right, my Hyperram has the same chips that Adata uses. No heat spreaders either, just bare modules. It'll run 283-285 FSB using the 1:1 ratio with 3-4-4-8 timings.

 

[Evilsizer]

Right, my Hyperram has the same chips that Adata uses. No heat spreaders either, just bare modules. It'll run 283-285 FSB using the 1:1 ratio with 3-4-4-8 timings.

yep those are mine too. all though i had a stick just up and die... only running @ddr480 with 3-4-4-8 @2.85v. been lazy so i need to call them to have the DC-kit replaced, says lifetime warrenty.

 

[Beginner]

guys, that bad stick of ram looks like it might be rma'able. i bought the ram from a forum member here and he was extremely helpful.

i'll be rma'ing the bad stick, eventually this board will be runnig 2x512mb.

even thought the 3.0c/ai7 is a northwood, i have unused heatsinks i can chop up to sink all the mosfets. i'll be heavily oc this setup. here's what i have for it so far.

3.0c "20 capper">dont know what this means
ai7
2x512mb of ocz platinum rev2
nec 3540a/3550a flashed to rpc1, speed patches, removed riplocs with bit-setting
floppy
500gb of hard drive space
ati 7000 all in wonder

guys, the aiw 7000 has remote/connectors/drivers/manual. i'm getting it for $40 shipped.

xp pro media center edition will be the os.

is the 7000 aiw a good card? i won't be gaming at all, it will be a pure pvr and audio/video backups.

 

[Evilsizer]

i cant say about the 7000 radeons but i had great dvd playback with a GF3 and this 7300gs is slightly better. IF the price is good to you and you have searched with google for reviews. They give it props? Then why not?

a low cfm fan over the pwm's will be better then simply adding heatsinks.. my pwm temps lower at all they stayed the same. The time it took to raise temp did, just by adding heatsinks. Since im redoing that comp im going to find a fan to hang somehow in the case to get air over the pwm's. just add a fan and save yourself the work that wont help.