- Joined
- Feb 21, 2008
- Location
- Baltimore, MD
ok, so i decided to beef up my HTPC. Its been doing fine on its HTPC duties thus far, but i wanted to bump it up a tad to start getting it to handle some games.
old specs are in the sig. use that for reference.
TV is a Samsung LED/LCD hooked up to the GT430 via an HDMI cable (audio and video passed to the TV via the GT430).
i have 3 connections to the box. Power, HDMI, and 1 USB for KB/Mouse
internet is supplied wireless via a PCI card
so ive been looking for a new quad core processor for a while now on ebay, and finally scored an X3360 (2.83GHz quad, 12MB L2). according to the intel supported processors page :
http://processormatch.intel.com/CompDB/SearchResult.aspx?Boardname=dg33tl
the X3360 is fully supported. given that i have at least the min BIOS listed. so i threw in the new chip, re-TIMed it. power on. nothing. power cycle. nothing.
CRAP, forgot to update the BIOS. so i threw the E5200 back in, TIMed, powered up. go to download the latest BIOS, wait a tic... I already have the latest BIOS. hmmm. so i reflashed it anyway with the same BIOS.
threw the X3360 back in. TIMed. powered up. nothing. power cycle. SUCCESS. go into the BIOS, everything seems fine, but the TV was emitting a loud high pitched squeal. Turned the TV off and back on and the noise went away. boot into windows, again everything seems fine. ran 20 cycles of LINX, no errors, temps under 70C (passively cooled at that!).
two problems i've noticed so far.
1. Intermittent POST or power up.
Seems to only power on 50% of the time. Restarts via Windows almost always results in the computer failing to POST on reboot. power cycle fixes it and it comes up fine. However, Sleep mode seems to work ok, and it resumes properly from sleep 90% of the time.
thinking the power issue was due to the old 400w dynex PSU (even though my system should use WELL below that - closer to 150w), i decided to just replace the PSU and see what happens. I replaced it with a Corsair CX750M 750w PSU that is rated for 80+ bronze (best they had at Best Buy, it was between this or a Thermaltake TR2 600W or 420W, I chose the Corsair for the reputation and for the efficiency rating, and it was only $2 more expensive than the TT 600W). Ideally i would have purchased something 80+ rated that was 500-550W.
The Corsair PSU did not fix the issue.
2. Weird Sound Glitchiness.
when powering on, the default windows start sounds are always glitchy. almost like a stutter or hesitation. the same glitchiness can be heard when starting and shutting down Windows Media Center. most of the time when playing movies/shows/netflix, the sound is OK, but i have heard the same issue during playback before, its just less common.
thinking the sound issues were due to lag on the part of the hard drive (even though it's an SSD), I replaced the SSD from the OCZ 60GB to an Intel 80GB G2 that i had laying around. I re-imaged the system with a year old image (pre-issues). Re-imaged, extended the partition to the full 80GB, and installed new updates, and updated the drivers and also installed the latest Nvidia drivers (audio and video).
still glitchy sound.
so what do you guys think? MB screwed? or could it possibly be some kind of fault with the CPU itself? I want to say that the issues are related, as i know most audio processing is performed on the MB, but how exactly does it work with GT430->HDMI? is the GT430 actually processing the sound, or is it just passing it from the MB?
old specs are in the sig. use that for reference.
TV is a Samsung LED/LCD hooked up to the GT430 via an HDMI cable (audio and video passed to the TV via the GT430).
i have 3 connections to the box. Power, HDMI, and 1 USB for KB/Mouse
internet is supplied wireless via a PCI card
so ive been looking for a new quad core processor for a while now on ebay, and finally scored an X3360 (2.83GHz quad, 12MB L2). according to the intel supported processors page :
http://processormatch.intel.com/CompDB/SearchResult.aspx?Boardname=dg33tl
the X3360 is fully supported. given that i have at least the min BIOS listed. so i threw in the new chip, re-TIMed it. power on. nothing. power cycle. nothing.
CRAP, forgot to update the BIOS. so i threw the E5200 back in, TIMed, powered up. go to download the latest BIOS, wait a tic... I already have the latest BIOS. hmmm. so i reflashed it anyway with the same BIOS.
threw the X3360 back in. TIMed. powered up. nothing. power cycle. SUCCESS. go into the BIOS, everything seems fine, but the TV was emitting a loud high pitched squeal. Turned the TV off and back on and the noise went away. boot into windows, again everything seems fine. ran 20 cycles of LINX, no errors, temps under 70C (passively cooled at that!).
two problems i've noticed so far.
1. Intermittent POST or power up.
Seems to only power on 50% of the time. Restarts via Windows almost always results in the computer failing to POST on reboot. power cycle fixes it and it comes up fine. However, Sleep mode seems to work ok, and it resumes properly from sleep 90% of the time.
thinking the power issue was due to the old 400w dynex PSU (even though my system should use WELL below that - closer to 150w), i decided to just replace the PSU and see what happens. I replaced it with a Corsair CX750M 750w PSU that is rated for 80+ bronze (best they had at Best Buy, it was between this or a Thermaltake TR2 600W or 420W, I chose the Corsair for the reputation and for the efficiency rating, and it was only $2 more expensive than the TT 600W). Ideally i would have purchased something 80+ rated that was 500-550W.
The Corsair PSU did not fix the issue.
2. Weird Sound Glitchiness.
when powering on, the default windows start sounds are always glitchy. almost like a stutter or hesitation. the same glitchiness can be heard when starting and shutting down Windows Media Center. most of the time when playing movies/shows/netflix, the sound is OK, but i have heard the same issue during playback before, its just less common.
thinking the sound issues were due to lag on the part of the hard drive (even though it's an SSD), I replaced the SSD from the OCZ 60GB to an Intel 80GB G2 that i had laying around. I re-imaged the system with a year old image (pre-issues). Re-imaged, extended the partition to the full 80GB, and installed new updates, and updated the drivers and also installed the latest Nvidia drivers (audio and video).
still glitchy sound.
so what do you guys think? MB screwed? or could it possibly be some kind of fault with the CPU itself? I want to say that the issues are related, as i know most audio processing is performed on the MB, but how exactly does it work with GT430->HDMI? is the GT430 actually processing the sound, or is it just passing it from the MB?
