First Post - i7 Build

[keto]

Well, howdy from Edmonton, everyone. I'm an old vet of the hardware enthusiast scene (anyone remember overclockersclubcanada? I used to review and newspost.) who's lost touch with things in the past few years. And so, discovered this site for the first time a couple days ago as I was doing my research for a new build.

Just got home with a boxload of stuffs, looking forward to putting it together tonight. Still posting on my 4600+ for now, that's going to be donated to mrs. keto. I will be sad to see her system go - 1700+ on an NF-7, that system has been running overclocked 24/7 for god knows how long, must be 7 years or so? More? It was my primary system at one time, then my surfing rig on a KVM alongside my gaming rig, then was just a folder for a while, then wife's.

I'll be scavenging the case and HD (Seagate 500GB - I'm not a big storage user) from my old system. Otherwise, we have:

• i7-920 (I can't find stepping info on the box or chip face, where do I check?)
• Gigabyte EX58-UD5 (wanted the 4, MemEx doesn't carry)
• OCZ PC3 14400 3x 2GB
• Sapphire 4890 OC Edition (inspired by the review here)
• TR True 120 Black, with dual SFlex 1600RPM 120's in push pull (I know I might have to lap this and the chip HS, will see once I get it running)
• PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750W PSU (didn't care about modular)
• LG 22X DVD (don't care about Blueray, don't watch movies on comp)

I'm trying to get the Win7 Release Candidate but am having some login issues, so may put XPPro on for now.

My hope is to run this chip at something like 3.5 for day to day operations. We'll see, obviously.

Go easy on the n00b (me) if I ask a few questions, I do have a bit of a learning curve to make up but should get the hang of things quickly.

[keto]

Just found the stepping info, good thing I didn't do this particular bit of research BEFORE I went shopping /sarcasm SLBCH = C0. Well, I'll hope for the best in the overclocking department

[Caldezar]

Welcome to the community! Looks like you'll have your hands full for the next little bit building that new i7. And a personal Swoot!��™ for going Gigabyte!

[Caldezar]

Originally Posted by keto

Just found the stepping info, good thing I didn't do this particular bit of research BEFORE I went shopping /sarcasm SLBCH = C0. Well, I'll hope for the best in the overclocking department

Doh! Time to exchange it for an SLBEJ

[rjbarker]

Good luck with it..don't hesitate to ask for help!

[keto]

Well, what a massive PITA this has been.

-WinXP disk died
-found ISO, bad write and failed
-heck with that lets try Win7 release client
-bad media
-go buy DVD's
-proper write.....but I missed the step for formatting C, and wrote Win7 on top of my existing WinXP
-/wrist

I have a headache and a very short temper right now.

[Full Speed]

Oh man that sucks. I've been there before. Nice build. Gigabyte

[keto]

Ok so we seem to have that hammered out ^, fresh install. Win7 is vastly different from XP Pro (HELLO, CAPTAIN OBVIOUS? IS THAT YOU?), which I have been using exclusively for years. If anyone knows any real good and thorough Win7 (I suppose Vista64 would work) tweak guides, might save me some time sorting thru the Google dreck.

On wierd thing I noticed in Device Manager, it won't let me click 'update driver' for any single item. It's greyed out. I'm sure it's a native setting I need to change. But there are lots of 'native Windows' drivers, it didn't even require an updated driver for the 4890, tho I did go get the Cats.

Man, is it depressing being *this far* behind the curve lol.

OH another request - back in the day (he said, putting in his teeth and hiking up his pants to his nipples) we used to use Motherboard Monitor for watching temps & voltages. What's the current state of the art in freeware monitoring programs for temps?

I have CPU-Z already, that much hasn't changed.

[Evylldemon]

CoreTemp
Realtemp

[keto]

Thanks, had RealTemp up and running before I read that ^

Next question: the 3DMark series......I'm dl'ing Vantage now. When I installed//tried to run 3DMark06 it wanted to install Directx9....does this mean I have to flip back and forth between 9 and 10??? Won't run as is, says missing d3dx9_28.dll - or can I just find that one file and dump it in the directory?

**EDITED* to say the same thing happens with Vantage - it's looking for DX10, but Win7 comes with DX11. Any simple workaround?