On 6/9/2018 2:27 PM, Paul wrote:
Bill Anderson wrote:
On 6/9/2018 10:53 AM, Bill Anderson wrote:
On 5/25/2018 2:16 PM, Bill Anderson wrote:

I don't know what else to do.Â* Memtest never finds an error and
Windows and Aida report my 32 gigabytes of DDR3 are behaving
normally.Â* I think there's got to be a MBO problem, but if you have
another idea I'd like to hear it.Â* Otherwise I'm about to do some
expensive shopping.Â* At least I'll be starting with a nice new power
supply.


I'm now convinced the P9X79 is my problem.

I bought a new MBO -- Asus Prime X-299A and outfitted it with a new
i7 processor and 16 gigs of ddr4 memory and (my new pride and joy) a
500 GB Samsung NVMe m.2 socket SSD card. Man that thing is blazing
fast -- I'm convinced even faster than my old Samsung 500 GB SSD. And
in case you're wondering, a Kraken X61 cooler moves from a LGA 2011
socket to an LGA 2066 socket with no fuss at all.Â* Fits perfectly.

In building the new system I came to the embarrassing (but mistaken)
conclusion that my whole problem had a bad Colossus video capture
card, as I couldn't get my old one to work on the new MBO for some
reason. The new system wouldn't start with that Colossus card
installed.Â* Well I just knew that must have been my problem all
along, so I ordered a new Colossus 2 card which is working flawlessly
in the new system.Â* I was confident I'd identified the problem and
pretty annoyed at myself for buying a new MBO and processor and all
the rest when all I'd needed to do was replace that Colossus card.
Sure, I wanted a faster system, but still...

So last night, with the new system up and running great, I gathered
some unused parts and rebuilt my old system. I had a spare case and
cooler and power supply and really everything I needed except an
optical drive and strangely, a little motherboard speaker -- both
easily obtainable. I certainly had enough parts to fire up the
rebuilt P9X79, which I did and it started perfectly, everything
working.Â* And then I shut down and restarted and ... nothing.Â* I head
no beeps because I had no MBO speaker, but it was easy to tell it
wasn't booting.

Wait, try, wait, try, wait ... then it booted.Â* Same behavior as
before, and this time with practically no peripherals installed.
Removed all memory but one card ... nothing.Â* Switched out that card
... nothing. Wait, try, wait, try, wait ...and it boots.

So I want a new motherboard for my Intel LGA 2011 i7 3930 processor
and 32 gigabytes of Corsair Vengeance DDR3 memory.Â* And I can't seem
to find anything worth having for less than about $400.Â* I can find
micro motherboards that come with a processor already installed for
under $150, but I want a full ATX with onboard sound and a few slots
for peripherals like my spare nVidia GTX 570 video card.Â* And I don't
want to pay $250 to $400 to build a system I don't really need but
would like to have around just in case...you know.

Anybody have a suggestion for where to find something cheap?Â* And
good? Please help me find a use for all my spare parts....



Maybe this?

https://goo.gl/wqcfA7

https://www.amazon.com/Procaja-Mothe...ga+2011+socket


The Amazon entry, the dimensions are somewhat strange.
You'll want to convert the measurements to inches and
see whether it's even MicroATX.

I couldn't find any reference to the brand.

But apparently, X79 motherboards from China are a "thing".
The dude here receives one, that doesn't even have a
heatsink on the VRM components.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg739TdPFeA

Now if I was building that up:

1) Build on kitchen table.
2) Lay motherboard in the open so it can be seen.
3) Run Prime95.
4) Stick finger on VRM. Get burnt or whatever.
5) Plan a cooling strategy.
6) Then... install in a case.

You'd probably check the VRM even at idle in the case of
that motherboard (with no heatsink on VRM). The one in your
case has an extruded aluminum piece bolted to it for
looks. Aluminum fins, it doesn't pay to make them too
tall, as you can't get heat flow up to the top of the
fin all that well. And that's why the shortness of
those fins probably isn't a total disaster. While surface
area is what you want on heatsinks, if you have a
really thin 1" tall fin, the top half inch isn't
doing anything. This is why for CPU coolers, heatpipes
are wound through the fin arrays to shorten the distance
from heatpipe "perfect thermal conductor" to the fin.
If the fins were thicker, then they could be taller,
but with thicker fins there would be fewer of them.

I ended up using impingement cooling on my VRM,
but the heatsink on my board isn't really shaped
for any good cooling strategies. I just "pointed
the fan at it and hoped for the best". I installed
the fan, because I burned my finger on the VRM
heatsink.

Since the dude in the video received a three page
fold-out "manual", chances are you'll be doing
a build with zero support from the manufacturer.
If you're lucky, there might be an all-Chinese
manual as a PDF on the CD. I've worked with
all-Chinese manuals before, and the diagrams
still have value.

The BIOS on that Youtube motherboard is AMI,
but who knows whether AMI knows about that
particular manufacturer.

I would prefer to see a "CPU support table", with
some notion of BIOS version versus supported CPUs.
Just dropping a few CPU model numbers into a
single sentence answer, isn't confidence building.

But it is cheap :-) Er, ah, I mean "good price".
The larger Chinese plants use automation for mfg
(standard pick and place, double IR reflow tunnels),
and only test is done with humans. They cannot
afford to make too much garbage - in a low margin
business, you'd go bankrupt in a year if you
couldn't achieve some level of build quality.
But that doesn't address whether the board layout
and controlled impedance were done well. They have
to steal an experienced designer from one of the
larger motherboard houses, to expect good work.
I don't think we're at the level yet where a
high school student can have "first time success".

Â*Â* Paul

You make some very good points, as usual. This one at least has reviews
and the cost is about the same:

https://goo.gl/Mhq69H

https://www.amazon.com/Beyang-Intel-...tome rReviews

I'm going to give it some more thought as I'm headed out of town
tomorrow. But for the price I think this is worth a shot. We shall
see. And thanks for pushing me toward a heat sink.

--
Bill Anderson

I am the Mighty Favog