BYOOC

My iaStor Problem Solved!

2007-03-26T18:35:00.000-07:00

Disabling the on board Realtek RTL8187 Wireless device and uninstalling its Vista x64 device driver has resolved the iaStor timeout problems on Nighthawk.

After 14 hours without a single iaStor timeout problem, Nighthawk was shutdown, all USB ports (except for the Realtek RTL8187 Wireless device) enabled in BIOS, and Vista Ultimate x64 restarted. Nighthawk has now been running in this configuration for over 36 hours without a single iaStor timeout problem.

Why did I disable the USB ports to begin with?

The on board Realtek RTL8187 Wireless device is actually a USB device!

The USB Universal Host Controller 2831 uses the same IRQ as the Intel(R) 82801HR/HH/HO SATA RAID Controller - 13 (19). The USB and USB2 Universal Host Controllers also utilize memory resources right next to the memory resources allocated to the Intel(R) 82801HR/HH/HO SATA RAID Controller (more commonly known as the Intel ICH8R Controller.)

In fact, the memory resources allocated to the Intel(R) 82801HR/HH/HO SATA RAID Controller start at address FEBFF800, which immediately follows where the memory resources allocated to the USB2 Universal Host Controller 2836 ends at address FEBFF7FF.

A poorly written driver for a USB2 devices, e.g., the Realtek RTL8187 Wireless device, can easily cause a problem for the Intel ICH8R Controller if it writes outside its allocated address space, even by just one address location!

ASUS has just released ASUS WiFi-AP Solo driver V1285-7.3.13.0 for VISTA 32bit/64bit, a beta driver. I am not going to touch it. Fortunately for me, I have no need for the on board Realtek RTL8187 Wireless device.

iaStor Timeout Errors

2007-03-25T08:21:00.000-07:00

Running Vista Ultimate x64 on Nighthawk without any USB ports is not an option for me.

Yet, Nighthawk has been running without any more iaStor timeout problems for over 20 hours since I disabled all of its USB ports.

I had to figure out a way to get my USB ports back on Nighthawk without suffering iaStor timeout problems.

I noticed that the Realtek RTL8187 Wireless 802.11g device driver Version 6.1272.106.2007 was still installed. I decided to uninstall this device driver using the Vista Control Panel Programs & Features, shutdown, enable the USB ports, and restart.

The Vista Control Panel Programs & Features invoked the Realtek RTL8187 Wireless 802.11g device driver to uninstall itself. This is evident from the messages displayed during the uninstall process.

Almost immediately, Vista informs me that "A drive in a RAID 0 volume is failing. Try to back up data immediately." I immediately checked the Event Log, and sure enough, there were 45 iaStor timeout errors!

Very interesting!

I started the Intel Matrix Storage Console and marked the "failing" drive as "normal," and restarted Nighthawk with the USB ports still disabled.

Nighthawk has been running stable in this state for over 14 hours now.

My next step is to shutdown, enable the USB ports and restart Nighthawk. I'm going to do this immediately after publishing this post.

Vista Reliability Monitor

2007-03-24T18:42:00.000-07:00

One of the best features of Vista is its "Reliability Monitor."

Vista's Reliability Monitor assigns a "Reliability Index" from 0 to 10 to your system daily, based on the number and frequency of the following types of failures:

Application Failures
Hardware Failures
Windows Failures
Miscellaneous Failures

Vista's Reliability Monitor also tracks all software installations and uninstalls, which is very useful for correlating failures to software changes in your system.

Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000) was installed on Nighthawk on January 20, 2007. As one can see from the System Stability Chart, it was very stable with a Reliability Index of 10 from its Vista installation until February 1, 2007.

What happened with Nighthawk on February 1, 2007?

On February 1, I installed a new driver (and software) for my Hauppauge PVR150 TV Tuner card in an attempt to make it work with Vista's Windows Media Center.

The Hauppauge PVR150 does not work with Vista x64 on a computer with the ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP motherboard, 4GB of memory, and "Memory Remap" enabled in BIOS.

I installed the Hauppauge WinTV2000 application to see if it would work with the PVR150. The WinTV2000 application failed in each of 3 attempts with a "Stopped responding" condition as noted by Vista's Reliability Monitor.

Nighthawk's Reliability Index fell to 8.3 because of these failures.

Nighthawk's Reliability Index continued to fall in the following days as I grappled with troublesome drivers for my NVIDIA 8800GTS video card and my onboard SoundMAX audio device.

Although these problems were very annoying, the next problem confronting me starting on February 8, 2007 was more serious: my RAID0 array consisting of 2 Maxtor SATA II 500GB drives connected to the onboard Intel ICH8R Controller started failing with an iaStor error ("The device, \Device\Ide\iaStor0, did not respond within the timeout period.")

What changes did I make to Nighthawk just before this serious iaStor timeout problem started happening?

Well, I enabled the onboard Realtek RTL8187 Wireless 802.11g device and installed the ASUS WiFi-AP Version 6.1262.1212.2006 driver on February 6, 2007 as previously noted in this Blog.

Windows Update subsequently downloaded and installed an even newer version: Version 6.1272.106.2007 dated 1/6/2007 without asking me!

Vista's Reliability Monitor showed even more interesting (incriminating?) information.

On that same date, the driver for the Intel ICH8 Family USB and USB2 Universal Host Controllers 2834, 2835 and 283A were updated to Version 8.0.0.1008. Note that I had installed Intel's Chipset Driver Version 8.1.1.1010 on Nighthawk immediately after installing Vista Ultimate x64.

Yesterday, I started suspecting that the onboard Realtek RTL8187 Wireless device and its driver was the cause of the iaStor timeout problem. I disabled it in BIOS and started Nighthawk. However, Vista Ultimate x64 started experiencing iaStor timeout errors (26 errors) approximately 3 hours later.

I shutdown Nighthawk, disabled all USB devices, and restarted Nighthawk. Approximately 20 hours later, Vista Ultimate x64 was running stable without any iaStor timeout problems.

Coincidence?

No Vista x64 support for APC PowerChute Personal Edition 2.1

2007-03-18T20:17:00.000-07:00

I use APC (American Power Conversion Corporation) UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) products for all of my home computers. I consider a UPS device an essential component for a home computer. So I was happy to note that APC finally released PowerChute Personal Edition Version 2.1 for "Windows Vista."

I quickly downloaded it (23.6 MB) and immediately attempted to install it on my Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000) system (Blackbird).

The installation went through the normal process of the "InstallShield Wizard (R) extracting the files needed to install APC PowerChute Personal Edition on my computer."

The installation then went through the normal process of "preparing the InstallShield (R) Wizard to guide me through the rest of the setup process."

I was feeling good at this point. I was looking forward to finally having my Vista Ultimate x64 computer fully protected by my APC Back-UPS XS 1500 in case of power failure and/or brown-outs.

My optimism was premature.

I was greeted with the following message: "You are attempting to install software that is intended for Microsoft (R) Windows (R) Vista."

I immediately fired off an email to ACP Support to report the problem. I was actually surprised to receive a response during the weekend. I wasn't expecting one until the middle of the work week at best. Kudos to APC for good customer service.

However, I was not entirely surprised by their response: "Please note the version PowerChute Personal Edition version 2.1 can be used only with Windows Vista operating system. It cannot be used with Windows Vista Ultimate x64. As of now we do not have a software for Vista Ultimate x64. We are working on a solution, but do not have an expected release date at this time. I am sorry for any inconvenience."

I guess that's that.

Restore using Windows Home Server

2007-03-14T19:07:00.000-07:00

How many of you have a backup & recovery plan for your home computer?

And how many of you that do have tested your backup & recovery plan before you actually have to use it for real?

Backup and restore with Windows Home Server is very easy. In previous posts, I have shared how easy it is to backup your home computer(s) using Windows Home Server.

In this post, I will actually attempt to perform a partial and full restore.

To perform a partial restore (e.g., to restore files and/or folders), login to your server using the Windows Home Server Console. In the "Computers & Backup" page, select the home computer and click on the "View Backups" button.

A list of backups for the selected computer will be displayed. Select the backup from which you wish to restore and click the "Open..." button.

Depending on how many folders and files are included in your backup, it might take awhile for the Windows Home Server to create a list of the folders and files in your selected backup.

It took a long time for me, and the "Opening Backup" dialog box stayed at 95% complete for over 30 minutes.

Eventually, an Explorer window with my drives, folders and files in the selected backup was be displayed. When it did, I noticed that Windows XP detected a new device and installed a driver for the new device. I was not quick enough to get a screen capture of this. I was also informed that the driver was successfully installed and prompted to restart which I declined.

The next and final step was to select the file(s) and/or folder(s) to restore and drag to a specified location in my home computer.

That's how easy it was to restore files and folders from the Windows Home Server!

To test a full restore, I removed a 15GB hard drive from my old laptop and installed a spare 12GB hard drive. I powered up the laptop, inserted, and booted off the "Windows Home Server Restore" CD.

The boot process was very similar to the Vista installation and it successfully loaded the drivers for all the devices including the Netgear Gigabit PC Card (GA511), unarguably the most important device at this point since it is required to connect to the Windows Home Server.

Eventually, the "Restore Computer Wizard" started and I was prompted to "Log On to your Windows Home Server."

I logged on and I was prompted to "Choose a Computer to Restore." I was pleasantly surprised that my "Bluebird" computer was automatically selected! I suspect that Windows Home Server correctly identified which home computer to restore based on the MAC address of its network device.

I was then prompted to "Choose a Backup to Restore."

Unfortunately, I was unable to proceed beyond this stage because the size of the backup was 14.06GB and the available space on my blank hard drive was only 11.24GB.

However, I believe that I would have been able to successfully restore my computer if I had a hard drive with the same or greater capacity as the original drive.

I'll try again in the near future since this will be an easy way to upgrade the hard drive in a laptop to one of greater capacity!

Remote access using Windows Home Server

2007-03-12T19:48:00.000-07:00

Windows Home Server provides secure remote access to your server and home computers (with remote access enabled).

It provides this service using Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) combined with Remote Web Workplace (RWW), a popular feature of Windows Small Business Server.

According to most accounts I have read, this combination is more secure than using Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) on its own. I am still investigating the security implications of RDP over RWW, so all my testing have been performed inside my own network behind my firewall.

Access your Windows Home Server by entering its address in your Web browser and click on the "Log on" button in the Windows Home Server Website page to begin.

Enter your Windows Home Server username and password and click on the "Log on" button to continue.

Upon a successful log on, you will be presented with the Windows Home Server Website Remote Access page.

Note that you now have access to your home computers which have remote access enabled, and to the Shared Folders on your Windows Home Server.

Click on the tab labeled "Computers" to access your home computers.

The first time you attempt to remotely access one of your home computers, you will be prompted to install an ActiveX control for Windows Home Server remote access. You must install this ActiveX control.

You will then be presented with the options to connect to your Home Server or to remotely access any of your home computers which have remote access enabled.

Select the home computer you wish to remotely access using Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) over Remote Web Workplace (RWW).

This will initiate a Remote Desktop Connection to the selected home computer assuming that it is available for remote connection, i.e., it has remote access enabled.

A message reminding you that you are about to connect to your home computer in full screen connection with instructions on how to close the connection just in case you have never used Remote Desktop Connection before. Clicking on the OK button connects you to your selected home computer in full screen mode.

If you had selected the option to connect to your Home Server instead, you will be prompted for the Windows Home Server administrator password.

Note that this is not a Remote Desktop Connection to your Home Server. It simply provides you access to your Windows Home Server Console.

Regardless, it is important you have a "strong" password for your Windows Home Server administrator username, specially if you enable remote access from the Internet.

Upon successful log on to your Windows Home Server, you will then be prompted to "Press SPACEBAR or ENTER to activate and use this control" (the ActiveX control you installed at the beginning of the remote access session.)

The Windows Home Server Console is then displayed.

You can now remotely administer your Windows Home Server.

This is the reason why you must have a "strong" password for your Windows Home Server administrator username.

If you wish to access your Shared Folders instead of remotely accessing your Windows Home Server or one of your home computers, select the "Folders" tab from the Windows Home Server Website Remote Access page.

As previously stated, I am still undecided on whether to enable remote access from the Internet until I have fully assessed its security implications. These features of Windows Home Server remote access sure make it very tempting to use!

A week with Windows Home Server

2007-03-11T10:54:00.000-07:00

It has been just over a week since I moved my Windows Home Server into a closet. My server has been running non-stop since then, and I have not had any reason to physically access it.

I have noticed that disk activity on the server has also been non-stop since then. Windows Home Server definitely keeps itself busy.

A lot of files have been copied to the server in the past week.

The 1.11 terabyte of disk space in my Windows Home Server have almost been used up. There are only 135.8 GB of storage space left on the server and I have not moved everything I want to store on the server!

Just recently in the past couple of days, I have noticed that the "Shared Folders" view in the Windows Home Server Console now sports a graphical "Used Space History." The chart has a slider control to select the history period: 1 week, 1 month, 1 year and "max."

I don't know whether this is a recent update to Windows Home Server Console or not, but I had not seen it previously.

Another feature of Windows Home Server is "Media Library Sharing" which is used "to stream music, photos, and videos from shared folders on your Windows Home Server to other devices in your home."

My music on the Windows Home Server appear and play in my Windows Media Player under Vista Ultimate x64. However, I don't see my entire music collection. I wonder if Windows Home Server has not completed cataloging my extensive music collection yet.

My evaluation copy of Windows Home Server Beta 2 expires on March 2, 2008. I already know that I can't live without it.

The "Version Information" under "Resources" in the Windows Home Server Console provides an insight into what comprises Windows Home Server: Admin Console, Backup & Restore, Drive Extender, Remote Access, and Storage Manager.

I will be experimenting with remote access next.

Monitoring backups

2007-03-10T11:46:00.000-08:00

Windows Home Server actively monitors the status of backups for all connected home computers. It rates your "Network Health" based on the backup status of your connected home computers.

Windows Home Server informs all connected home computers of any and all backup status that requires the administrator's attention in a manner that is difficult to ignore. The Windows Home Server Console quick launch icon turns bright red and a pop-up message is displayed above it for every backup status that requires attention.

The administrator can also use the Windows Home Server Console to view and manage the backup details of each connected home computer.

The initial backup of each connected home computer is locked and kept by default and all subsequent backups are managed automatically. The reason why the initial backup is locked and kept by default is because each subsequent backup is incremental, i.e., only files that have changed since the last backup are included.

Click on the "Network Health" icon in the Windows Home Server Console to view all backup warning and error messages.

Windows Home Server issues a warning message if connected home computers have not backed up for 2 days or more. It issues an error message if a backup error has occurred.

There is a known problem backing up a home computer to the Windows Home Server over a wireless network connection. This is the reason for the Unicorn backup error in my network.

There are some other minor bugs with regards to the update of the backup status in the Windows Home Server Console. Other than these minor problems, backup appears to be working. However, the proof will be if I am able to restore (full and partial) from a backup.

Backup using Windows Home Server

2007-03-08T19:02:00.000-08:00

Your home computers on which you have installed the Windows Home Server Connector are automatically backed up between midnight and 6:00 AM by default.

Backup Management is also automatic. By default, the first backup of the month is kept for the last 3 months, the first backup of the week is kept for the last 3 weeks, and the first backup of the day is kept for the last 3 days.

You can change these backup parameters in Windows Home Server, and you can also manually initiate backup via the Windows Home Server Console or the quick launch icon in the Start bar.

Enter a backup description and click on "Backup Now" to manually start the backup of your home computer.

If you wish, you can monitor the progress of the backup by selecting the appropriate option from the Windows Home Server quick launch icon in the Start bar.

The backup process is unobtrusive. You can continue working without noticing that the backup is in progress.

The backup of your home computer to your home server is also relatively quick.

Network utilization by the backup also appears to be minimal.

I did not observe any slowdown in my network while backup to the Windows Home Server was in progress.

I really like how easy and painless backup is with Windows Home Server.

Configuring automatic backup

2007-03-07T19:09:00.000-08:00

A very important feature of Windows Home Server is that it will automatically backup your home computers to the server. Of course, it will also allow you to restore from the backup selective files, folders or the entire computer to a previous point in time.

By default, backup is configured to back up all files in your home computer except for temporary files, etc. You can change the backup configuration by selecting "Configure Backup" in the Windows Home Server Console.

A Backup Configuration Wizard starts which allows you to select the disk volumes to backup and folders to exclude from backup.

Note that when backing up multiple home computers, the Windows Home Server is "smart" enough to identify common files, e.g., operating system files, and it only stores these files once on the home server to conserve space.

As previously noted, user temporary files, the system page file, the recycle bin folder and the shadow volume implementation folder are automatically excluded from the backup.

You can add additional folders to be excluded from backup. These may be folders with files that are already in the Shared Folder, e.g., music, photos and videos.

The initial time I attempted to exclude folders, I was presented with a message indicating "Home PC is unresponsive" but it worked after the first time.

It is helpful that the list of folders show the size of each folder to assist one in determining which folders to exclude.

After you have completed selecting volumes to backup and folders to exclude, the Backup Configuration Wizard displays a summary of your backup configuration: the number of volumes to backup, the number of excluded folders, and the estimated backup size.

And you're done configuring automatic backup of your home computer to your Windows Home Server!

Personal Folders

2007-03-06T13:13:00.000-08:00

When a user is added to Windows Home Server, a Personal Folder on the home server is automatically created for the user.

This Personal Folder may be used by the user to store his/her files on the home server. The user is responsible for manually maintaining and keeping the files current in the Personal Folder.

The Windows Home Server Backup, to be covered in my next posting, should be used instead for automatic backup of files.

By default, "Folder Duplication" is enabled for the user's Personal Folder on the home server. As noted in a previous posting, enabling Folder Duplication means that Windows Home Server will automatically place a copy of the folder and its contents on a separate physical drive for redundancy to protect against a disk drive failure.

This option may be disabled in the "Properties" for the Personal Folder.

Also by default, only the owner of the Personal Folder has Read/Write access to his/her Personal Folder. Everyone else has "No Access" to Personal Folders other than the one belonging to them.

User access to Personal Folders can only be changed by the Windows Home Server administrator in the "User Access" tab of the Personal Folder properties. The owner of the folder cannot change user access for his/her own Personal Folder.

The Personal Folder is an easy way to provide file storage space on the home server for users. It is easily accessible via the "Shared Folders on Server" shortcut on the desktop or the "Network" link in the Start menu.

Windows Home Server Connector

2007-03-04T15:25:00.000-08:00

Windows Home Server comes with a "Connector" which is intended to be installed on the other computers in your home network.

Windows Home Server Connector "backs up your home computer daily" to the Windows Home Server. In addition, it allows the Windows Home Server to "monitor the health of your home computer."

I was a little dismayed to find out that Windows Home Server does not support 64-bit operating systems such as Vista Ultimate x64 on Nighthawk. I was not aware of this limitation and after I attempted the installation, Nighthawk locked up hard, ignoring any keyboard or mouse input. Nighthawk had to be reset to recover.

Microsoft has not announced any plans on supporting 64-bit systems with Windows Home Server which is a shame.

I restarted Nighthawk with Windows XP MCE 2005 and installed the Windows Home Server. It can be installed from a CD or from the "Shared folder for software installation programs" on the Windows Home Server. I chose the latter.

It is clear that the Windows Home Server connector is meant to be installed by the Windows Home Server "administrator" because the first thing it prompts you for is the password for the administrator.

After the administrator's password is correctly entered, Windows Home Server Connector links your home computer to the server and configures your computer backup.

A shortcut to the "Shared Folders on Server" is added to your desktop and a "Quick Launch" icon is added to your computer's Start bar. This icon allows you to:

Start the Windows Home Server Console"
Backup Now...
View Backup Status
Update Password...
Access the Shared Folders, and
Display Help information

The first thing you will need to do is add a "User Account" for the computer's user, if you haven't already done so. Windows Home Server allows you to define a maximum of 10 user accounts that can access your home server.

Start the Windows Home Server Console and upon entering the administrator's password, the console will connect to your home server.

Select the "User Accounts" page and click on "+ Add" to add a new user to your home server.

You will be prompted to enter the user's "First Name," "Last Name" (optional) and "Logon name."

Hint: Enter a "logon name" which matches the user's account on their computer.

You may also enable "Remote Access" for this user. (More on this subject later.)

Press the "Next" button and you will be prompted to enter the user's password twice (the second time for confirmation).

"If you create a user account and password on the server that matches a user account and password on your home computer then you will not be prompted for authentication each time you access a shared folder on the server."

The Windows Home Server Console will then add the user account, set access to shared folders, create a shared folder for the user on the server, and enable remote access (if you enabled this option for the user.)

That's it! That's how easy it is to define a user to your Windows Home Server.

The Windows Home Server Console is only intended to be used by the home server administrator. In fact, other users defined to your home server have no access to the home server console.

Next up: Personal folders and controlling access to Shared Folders.

NVIDIA makes some progress

2007-03-04T09:09:00.000-08:00

NVIDIA has made a huge mess of the Vista driver support for its G80 video cards. This situation has been exacerbated by its blatantly false advertisements of Vista readiness and support for these video cards, and total disregard for its customers by its lack of communication.

NVIDIA has made some progress recently. With its ForceWare Version 100.65, NVIDIA has managed to return to its "Unified Driver Architecture" for Vista, i.e., it now has a single driver for its entire line of video cards (or at least for its 6, 7 and 8 series.)

I skipped Version 100.65 and stayed with Version 100.64 for my BFG 8800GTS video card on Nighthawk. I have also stayed with Version 97.46 for my BFG 7950GT video card on Blackbird.

NVIDIA released ForceWare Version 101.41 Beta driver a couple of days ago.

I decided to download and install it on Nighthawk for the BFG 8800GTS video card.

The start was ominous.

Internet Explorer died when I attempted to download the driver from the NVIDIA Web site. I restarted Internet Explorer and tried again. The second attempt worked like a charm.

I uninstalled both the NVIDIA nTune and the ForceWare Version 100.64 driver which required a restart. Otherwise, the installation of Beta Version 101.41 completed successfully.

I am happy to report that NVIDIA has resolved the problem of "switched" monitors. Monitor #1 is now in its rightful place on the left with Monitor #2 on the right. I did not have to swap their positions as required with the Version 100.64 driver.

I'm also happy to report that Beta Version 101.41 has resolved the brief video corruption ("Checkerboard pattern") when UAC dialog is displayed.

More importantly, this Beta version has fixed the major problem of the display unable to resume from a S3 or S4 suspend mode.

The "flickering text" problem in the Hold 'em poker game has not been fixed but this is not a big deal.

I have been forced to disable the DreamScene Ultimate Extra because it caused the display driver to crash and recover on a regular basis.

Over all. I am pleased with the progress NVIDIA has made with its Vista driver support for the G80 video cards. However, I am not ready to use this Beta driver with my BFG 7950GT on Blackbird.

Windows Home Server

2007-03-03T10:07:00.000-08:00

I finally found a great excuse for retiring Windows XP Home Edition and re-purposing my old Pentium III (1 GHz) computer based on the ASUS P3V4X motherboard. I installed the Beta 2 version of Windows Home Server on Pegasus.

The minimum hardware requirements for Windows Home Server are: 1 GHz Pentium III (or equivalent) CPU, 512 MB or more of RAM (Pegasus has 2 GB of memory), 80 GB of disk space, 100 Mbps (or faster) Network Interface Card, and a DVD drive.

It is obvious that Windows Home Server is based on Windows Server 2003 technology because there are references to "Windows Server 2003 for Small Business" and "Windows Server 2003" during the installation.

It took a little over one hour and numerous normal restarts (I lost count) to install Windows Home Server. Part of the reason may be the number and size of the disk drives on Pegasus: one Western Digital 100GB. one Western Digital 120GB, and four Maxtor 250GB hard drives.

The only additional driver required during the Windows Home Server installation was the driver for the Promise Technology Ultra133 TX2 HBA, and this could have been installed later.

Windows Home Server cannot be installed in a dual-boot setup because it requires control of all disk drives in the system. At the beginning of the installation, a warning is displayed that all files on all disk drives will be deleted!

One of the nice features of Windows Home Server is that it manages all of the system's disk drives as a single "Server Storage" which means that one does not have to be concerned about where to store files on the server.

Windows Home Server automatically creates the following Shared Folders: Music, Photos, Public, Software, and Videos. Additional Shared Folders may be created with varying degrees of User Permissions.

Another great feature of Windows Home Server is the ability to "Enable Folder Duplication" for any Shared Folder. When this feature is enabled for a Shared Folder, Windows Home Server automatically duplicates the folder on different physical disk drives to prevent data loss in case of a disk drive failure - a software-based RAID solution!

This software-based RAID solution has advantages over hardware-based RAID solutions. For one, it doesn't require the use of disk drives with the same specifications, e.g., disk capacity. It is also easy to expand Server Storage by adding internal and/or external disk drives!

In fact, Microsoft recommends disabling hardware-based RAID on your Windows Home Server if it is available.

I was surprised that Windows Home Server did not have the correct driver for the Netgear GA311 Gigabit PCI Adapter which is based on the Realtek RTL8169/8110 NIC. Not a big problem. I downloaded the driver from the Realtek Web site and Windows Home Server connected to the network immediately after installation.

The only other driver I had to install was the driver for my NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra video card which really is not needed for Windows Home Server.

Why?

Because Windows Home Server is intended to be a "headless" server, i.e., Windows Home Server operates without the need for a monitor, keyboard and mouse once it is installed and set up.

Windows Home Server is intended to be controlled and operated remotely from other computers in the network!

Pegasus has now been relocated to my "server closet" alongside my Windows 2000 Advanced Server (Centaur) which hosts my Web server for aisk.org.

One security hole in servers is the use of the Web browser on the server. I never use the Web browser from my servers. I was glad to see that Windows Home Server restricts the use of Internet Explorer from Windows Home Server - even Microsoft's MSN is not a trusted Web site by default in Windows Home Server!

Windows Home Server has other very interesting features which I will be exploring in the coming days. My experiences with Windows Home Server will be shared here.

Longhorn installed in a virtual PC

2007-03-01T18:43:00.000-08:00

While trying to figure out how to successfully install Windows Server Code Name "Longhorn" x64 on the new disk drive recently added to Nighthawk, I decided to install Longhorn x86 in a virtual PC using Virtual PC 2007.

I created a virtual PC with 2GB of memory and a 130GB virtual disk drive. Longhorn installed without a problem in this virtual PC.

The Longhorn installation was just as quick, if not quicker than the Vista Ultimate x64 installation in Nighthawk.

Unfortunately, I did not keep track of the actual installation time. I'll do that when I install Longhorn x64. That will also make a better comparison.

It was no surprise that the user interface in Longhorn is very similar to that of Vista. After all, both operating systems were initially developed under the same project.

The "Initial Configuration Tasks" is displayed after the Longhorn x86 installation is completed.

This program guides you through the initial configuration of the Longhorn server. I changed the default "Administrator" account name and assigned a strong password to the account.

I was pleasantly surprised that Virtual PC 2007 assigns a MAC address for the virtual PC's network adapter. This allowed me to assign a static IP address for this Longhorn server in my router which functions as the DHCP server in my network.

I also changed the computer name, enabled Windows Update and Feedback, and added a "role" for the server as an "Internet Information Server" (IIS Version 7.0), aka a Web server.

Longhorn makes the installation and configuration of a server much easier and quicker than Windows 2000 Server (I don't yet have any experience with Windows 2003 Server.)

I don't know how much more time I will spend experimenting with this Longhorn x86 installation in a virtual PC. I would prefer to spend the time working with Longhorn x64 installed on a "real" computer: Nighthawk.

I have also just been accepted as a Beta tester for Windows Home Server so I am now in the process of downloading this operating system which I am equally excited about.

BSOD with Longhorn Installation

2007-02-27T20:06:00.000-08:00

I downloaded the "Windows Server Longhorn (x64) Checked/Debug Build February 2007 CTP - DVD (English)" ISO image from MSDN. I went to bed when the download was less than halfway completed, and Vista Ultimate x64 estimated another 3 hours and 39 minutes to complete the download.

The download was completed by the time I checked it the following morning. I burned the ISO image to a DVD and went to work.

After dinner, I attempted to finally install Longhorn on the new disk drive I had added to Nighthawk the previous day.

The installation displayed the "Windows is loading files..." message with the progress bar.

Immediately after the loading of files completed, the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) was displayed with the following codes:

STOP: 0x0000007E (0xFFFFFFFFC0000420, 0xFFFFF8000A5CF037, 0xFFFFFA6001BB9DD8, 0xFFFFFA6001BB97A0)

I restarted and tried the installation again with the same result.

What about installing Longhorn in a virtual PC using Virtual PC 2007?

Good idea!

The installation in a virtual PC displayed the "Windows is loading files..." message with the progress bar.

It was a promising start, but unfortunately Virtual PC 2007 is unable to support x64 operating systems.

The error message displayed by the Longhorn installation was: "Attempting to load a 64-bit application, however this CPU is not compatible with 64-bit mode."

Although Nighthawk is running an x64 Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 CPU, Virtual PC 2007 emulates an x86 processor. I checked the BIOS for the virtual PC to check whether this could be changed. Unfortunately, the emulated processor type cannot be changed in Virtual PC 2007.

I needed the x86 version of Longhorn to install in a virtual PC, so I started downloading the "Windows Server Longhorn (x86) February 2007 CTP - DVD (English)" ISO image from MSDN.

However, my goal is to install Longhorn in its own disk drive in Nighthawk alongside Windows XP MCE 2005 and Vista Ultimate x64 in a multi-boot environment.

I suspect that the Longhorn installation BSOD was a result of Longhorn unable to cope with the other 2 operating systems already installed in Nighthawk.

My next step is to solve this problem before I install Longhorn x86 in a virtual PC using Virtual PC 2007.

Installing a new disk drive

2007-02-26T19:05:00.000-08:00

The installation of a new additional disk drive in an Antec Nine Hundred case is relatively easy and quick. The steps are:

Remove both side panels of the case;
Remove the 8 thumb screws on both sides (4 on each side) of the drive cage;
Disconnect the SATA and power cables from the disk drives and case fan;
Slide the drive cage forward completely out of the case;
Install the new disk drive in the drive cage with 4 screws (2 on each side);
Reverse the process.

I restarted Nighthawk after installing the new disk drive and went into BIOS to verify that the disk drive was recognized, saved the BIOS settings, and re-booted into Windows XP MCE 2005.

I disabled the new drive using Device Manager in Windows XP MCE 2005. I don't want Windows XP MCE 2005 accessing and using this new drive reserved for Longhorn, just as the RAID0 Volume containing Vista Ultimate x64 is disabled in Windows XP MCE 2005.

To summarize, Nighthawk now has 2 RAID0 Volumes on 2 physical drives (500GB Maxtor SATA) and the non-RAID 500GB Western Digital SATA.) All 3 disk drives are connected to the Intel ICH8R Controller (SATA ports 1-3.)

I then restarted Nighthawk and booted Vista Ultimate x64.

I ran the Intel Matrix Storage Console to verify that the Intel ICH8R Controller recognized the new disk drive. It did recognize the new Western Digital 500GB disk drive as a non-RAID drive.

(I've just noticed while writing this post that my SATA DVD-RW optical drive is missing. I must have forgotten to reconnect its SATA cable!)

Device Manager in Vista Ultimate x64 also shows the new Western Digital disk drive.

Note that Everest Ultimate shows the new Western Digital 500GB disk drive running at a cool 25C/77F due in part to the cooling prowess of the Antec Nine Hundred case. This case has 2 removable disk drive cages which can accommodate 3 disk drives each. Each drive bay has its own 120mm Fan in front to cool the disk drives.

The next step is to install Longhorn in the new disk drive.

Preparing for Longhorn

2007-02-25T10:47:00.000-08:00

"Longhorn" is the code name for Microsoft's next generation Windows Server which was developed alongside Vista in the same project. Both operating systems "share a number of new technologies across networking, storage, security and management."

I will be installing the Longhorn Beta on Nighthawk which already has the Windows XP MCE 2005 and Vista Ultimate x64 operating systems installed in a "dual boot" setup. In addition, the Windows 98SE, Windows XP Professional and Ubuntu operating systems are installed in virtual PCs using Virtual PC 2007 running under Vista Ultimate x64 on Nighthawk.

The Longhorn Beta will be installed in its own 500 GB disk drive which I will be adding to the 2 existing 500 GB disk drives hosting 2 RAID0 Volumes, one each for Windows XP MCE 2005 and Vista Ultimate x64.

My immediate goal is to be able to boot either Windows XP MCE 2005, Vista Ultimate x64, or Longhorn on Nighthawk. I can already boot either Windows XP MCE 2005 or Vista Ultimate x64 today on Nighthawk.

How to accomplish this?

Good question. I don't know at this point. Vista has changed the multi-boot landscape and I will have to research this problem.

My first step was to install VistaBootPRO 3.1 Beta from PROnetworks to get a picture of the "boot" situation on Nighthawk.

During the installation of VistaBootPRO, the DreamScene background on my second monitor turned to black, and the "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered" error message at the end.

VistaBootPRO itself informed me that it did not detect Vista or that Nighthawk may have an "irregular drive configuration." Starting VistaBootPRO displays the same warning message, but it does start and run.

VistaBootPRO correctly detects both Windows XP MCE 2005 (as "Earlier Version of Windows") and Vista Ultimate x64, on Boot drives D and C, respectively.

Background: Windows XP MCE 2005 was the first operating system installed in the C drive on Nighthawk. The second volume was disabled in Windows XP MCE 2005, and Vista Ultimate x64 was subsequently installed in this RAID0 volume. Vista made its own partition the C drive and changed the Windows XP MCE 2005 partition as the D drive.

The first action I took after starting VistaBootPRO was to backup the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) as recommended.

The interface for the BCD backup is confusing. There is an input field for the "Save Location" which I specified. Clicking on the "Save" button then presented the normal Windows Explorer interface which totally ignored the save location I had specified previously, but the backup was successful.

I selected to display a "detailed" view of the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store.

Very interesting.

If I am reading and interpreting this information correctly, Windows Boot Manager (the initial system booted from a disk drive which allows the boot selection for Windows XP MCE 2005 or Vista Ultimate x64) is on the same volume as Windows XP MCE 2005. This implies that this volume better be the first disk volume specified in the BIOS Boot Priority (and it is.)

Although I am not yet ready to make any changes to the Boot Configuration Data (BCD), I selected the "Manage OS Entries" option in VistaBootPRO to check what options are available.

VistaBootPRO appears to be an easy tool for managing the Boot Configuration Data (BCD). I'll let you know my verdict after I actually use it for updating the BCD.

My next step is to install the 3rd 500 GB disk drive in Nighthawk as a non-RAID drive with the existing 2 RAID0 volumes hosted on a RAID array of two 500 GB disk drives.

The best of both worlds

2007-02-22T20:23:00.000-08:00

Last night, I installed Windows XP Professional in a virtual PC on Nighthawk using Virtual PC 2007 running under Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000.) The installation completed without a problem.

Even though the Windows XP Professional installation ISO image included SP2, there were still 72 "high priority" and 11 "optional" updates to be downloaded and installed! The optional updates required another 5 high priority updates.

I updated Internet Explorer to Version 7 and that required another 2 high priority updates.

I am pleasantly surprised by the performance of the virtual PC running Windows XP Professional. The virtual PC has 1 GB of real physical memory allocated to it, which probably contributes to the good performance. I am sure that Vanderpool Technology (Intel's virtualization technology) also has a lot to do with this good performance.

With this successful test of Virtual PC 2007 and the installation of Windows 98SE, Ubuntu 6.06 LTS, and Windows XP Professional on virtual PCs all running under Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000), I am now in the process of installing Windows XP Professional in a virtual PC using Virtual PC 2007 on Blackbird, which is also running Vista Ultimate x64.

This will allow me to retire my Pentium III PC running Windows XP Home Edition. The reason why I have been keeping it around is to run software which does not run very well, if at all, on Vista Ultimate x64. This setup will allow me to run all programs which I use under Windows XP Professional or Vista Ultimate x64 on the same PC without requiring re-booting.

This Pentium III PC which has 2 GB of memory and 880 GB of disk space will be relocated to my "server" closet and re-purposed as another server running Windows Home Server, assuming I am selected to participate in the Beta program.

Ubuntu under Virtual PC 2007

2007-02-21T21:43:00.000-08:00

After successfully installing Windows 98SE in a virtual PC using Microsoft's Virtual PC 2007, it was time to test using a non-Microsoft operating system.

I created a new virtual PC and downloaded Ubuntu 6.10 - "the Newest Ubuntu Release." It would not install using Virtual PC 2007 because of incompatibility related to color depth. Ubuntu 6.10 defaults to 24-bit color depth and Virtual PC 2007 supports a maximum of 16-bit color.

There are documented workarounds for this problem, but I could not get any of them to work. I'll look into this problem again in the future.

Meanwhile, I downloaded Ubuntu 6.06 LTS - "Ubuntu with Long Term Support."

This version installed using Virtual PC 2007 without a problem by selecting the "safe graphics mode" option.

After the successful installation of Ubuntu 6.06 LTS, it detected updates which I installed promptly. The only problem I had to address was to enable the sound by specifying the Sound Blaster 16 sound card which Virtual PC 2007 emulates.

Many people have reported "crackling" sound problems with the SoundMAX device installed on the ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP motherboard. I have not experienced this problem in either Windows XP MCE 2005 or Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000) which are both installed in Nighthawk.

It is interesting that I am now encountering this problem with sound generated from the virtual PC running Ubuntu. However, there is no problem with the sound generated from the host Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000.)

Very strange.

The captured image on the right shows 2 virtual PCs running Ubuntu (in the foreground) and Windows 98SE (in the background), both of which are hosted by Virtual PC 2007 running in Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000.)

Next up: Installing Windows XP Professional using Virtual PC 2007.

Installing Windows 98SE on Nighthawk

2007-02-20T19:22:00.000-08:00

Yep. You read that right. I installed Windows 98SE on Nighthawk last night.

Why?

Actually, I first installed Microsoft's Virtual PC 2007 which was released to the general public just recently. It is installed in Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000) on Nighthawk.

I needed an operating system to install and test Virtual PC 2007. I had a copy of Windows 98SE handy, so I decided to install it under Virtual PC 2007 as my initial test.

After creating and starting a Virtual PC, I inserted the Windows 98SE CDROM and installation diskette to start installation. Windows 98SE installed without any problem under Virtual PC 2007.

It has been a long time since I installed and used Windows 98SE. I initially could not figure out why starting the Internet Explorer browser kept prompting me to identify a modem to use for the Internet connection. I can't even remember the last time I used a modem. I started using ISDN as soon as it became available to me and then switched to DSL when it also became available.

Once I finally remembered how to set up networking in Windows 98SE, I was able to browse the Web and access my other computers in my workgroup.

Windows 98SE works well under Virtual PC 2007. It is very easy to set up and use.

Have you noticed the "Vanderpool Technology" setting in BIOS for the ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP motherboard? It is Intel's virtualization technology and Virtual PC 2007 makes use of it. Enable it if you are using Virtual PC 2007.

The next operating system I will be installing using Virtual PC 2007 is Ubuntu. I also have 3 other Unix operating systems I want to try: Freespire, openSUSE and SUSE Linux Enterprise 10.

Of course, I will also be installing other flavors of the Windows operating system for both desktops and servers using Virtual PC 2007, including "Longhorn."

By the way, Virtual PC 2007 is free.

Your mileage may vary

2007-02-19T17:58:00.000-08:00

When I initially started this Blog, I warned about using a "cookbook" approach to overclocking. The reason for this warning is that it is a given that the same exact component will perform differently. Assembling the same exact set of components make it even more of a certainty that the same assembled components will perform differently.

My own experiences, more recently with Blackbird and Nighthawk, have proven this truism. Even though I have successfully overclocked both Blackbird and Nighthawk to a stable 3.4 GHz, they have both reached this speed differently.

The Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 in Blackbird runs cooler at idle (32C/90F) and load (47C/117F) than Nighthawk which idles at 39C/102F and reaches 51C/124F at load with the same processor and Zalman CNPS9700 LED Heat Sink & Fan.

Interestingly, the ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP motherboard in Blackbird runs warmer at idle (34C/93F) and load (37C/99F) than Nighthawk which idles at 28C/82F and reaches 32C/90F at load with the same motherboard and Antec Nine Hundred case (with four 120mm fans and one 200mm fan.)

The above results were obtained using the System Stability Test in Everest Ultimate 2007 (Build 885) running under Vista Ultimate x64 RTM Build 6000.

The CPU VCore Voltage in Blakcbird is also set to 1.40V in BIOS, whereas Nighthawk requires 1.45V to run stable at the same overclocked speed of 3.4 GHz.

Furthermore, even though Blackbird and Nighthawk have the same exact amount and type of memory (4GB of Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X2048-8500C5 each), the same memory requires 2.15V in Blackbird and 2.25V in Nighthawk to run stable at 1:1 (DRAM:FSB) ratio at the same overclocked speed of 3.4 GHz!

The lesson here is obvious.

Even if you had the same exact components as either my Blackbird or Nighthawk computers, there is no guarantee that you will be able to attain the same stable overclocked speed. You may be able to attain more or less. It will also be almost certain that your system will require different settings even if it managed to attained the same overclocked speed.

Your mileage may not only vary, your mileage will vary.

Also cool under stress

2007-02-18T21:12:00.000-08:00

Blackbird has been running continuously without any problem for over 33 hours now with its new Zalman CNPS9700 LED HSF, and idle temperature for the CPU @ 3.4 GHz has remained steady at 31C/87.5F. The temperature of the motherboard has also stayed constant at 34C/93F.

How about under load?

The System Stability Test of Build Version 0841 of Everest Ultimate 2006 does not work in Vista Ultimate x64 so I downloaded Build 883 of Everest Ultimate 2007. The System Stability Test in this version works in Vista Ultimate x64.

After running the System Stability Test for 10 minutes, the CPU temperature under load remained steady at 47C/117F and the motherboard temperature at 37C/99F.

I do not know whether a fair comparison can be made with Nighthawk's performance since the System Stability Test in Everest Ultimate 2007 appears to behave differently compared with Everest Ultimate 2006. In Everest Ultimate 2007, the CPU utilization remains close to 100% the entire duration of the test.

Nighthawk's CPU peak temperature during the System Stability Test was 53C/127F for comparison, in case it is valid.

At the end of the System Stability Test, the CPU temperature dropped rapidly like a stone. This is a testament to the cooling effectiveness of the Zalman CNPS9700 LED HSF.

In less than a minute, the CPU temperature is back to its idle temperature of 31C/87.5 although it is really not at idle. I wonder if the CPU is ever idle while running Vista.

The Zalman CNPS9700 LED HSF is definitely a good investment.

Running cooler

2007-02-17T16:16:00.000-08:00

Last night before I went to bed, I loaded the BIOS default settings on Blackbird before shutting it down and powering off the PSU.

This morning, I started disassembling Blackbird around 8AM. The photo on the right shows the Intel stock HSF mounted on the Core 2 Duo E6700 before I removed it.

The processor was then removed from the ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP motherboard.

The bottom of the stock HSF is circular which can be discerned from the circular pattern of the leftover stock thermal paste left on top of the processor.

I wiped off the leftover thermal paste from the processor, then used cotton swabs dipped in rubbing alcohol to clean off the remnants.

The next step was to remove the motherboard from the case to install the mount and its back plate for the Zalman CNPS9700 LED HSF.

The photo on the right shows the Zalman cooler mount installed on the motherboard.

Except for the fact that the Zalman cooler mount has to be installed before the motherboard is installed inside the case, I prefer the way the Zalman HSF is installed compared to the stock Intel HSF.

If you are thinking about using the Zalman CNPS9700 LED HSF, I recommend installing it when you initially build your computer instead of waiting later to upgrade. This will save you a lot of work.

The photo on the left is another view of the Zalman cooler mount with the processor installed.

The final step before the actual installation of the Zalman HSF is the application of the supplied "Super Thermal Grease" (ZM-STG1) on top of the processor.

A brush applicator attached to the cap of the "Super Thermal Grease" bottle makes it easy to apply a uniform layer of thermal grease on the processor.

Finally, the Zalman CNPS9700 LED HSF is installed in the mount with a clip (S-Type) fastened with 2 screws. You have clear access to the screws, even the one on the fan side. The HSF will slide as you are installing it. Make sure you have it aligned straight and centered on the processor before tightening the screws.

I installed the BFG 7950GT graphics card and booted into BIOS before installing and connecting the other devices. It took several power on/off before Blackbird successfully POSTed. However, I did not have to clear RTC (Real Time Clock) in CMOS RAM as I had to with Nighthawk.

Approximately four hours later around noon, Blackbird was back together running cooler at its stable overclocked speed of 3.4 GHz.

How much cooler? The temperature for the CPU at idle is now 31C/87.5F or 8C cooler than with the stock HSF. I am very pleased about this result.

I also rearranged the devices installed at the front of the case to leave room for a longer graphics card in the future, and this resulted in a 1C drop in the motherboard temperature to 34C/93F.

I am still perplexed why the motherboard temperature is this high compared to Nighthawk. The overclocked processor is running cooler than the motherboard by 3C on Blackbird!

Blackbird also gets a new HSF

2007-02-16T19:57:00.000-08:00

Just as Nighthawk got a new Zalman CNPS9700 LED HSF (Heat sink & Fan) last weekend, Blackbird will be getting the same HSF to replace the stock Intel HSF this weekend.

The photo on the right shows the size difference between the stock HSF and the Zalman HSF.

The Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 CPU in Blackbird has run cooler with the stock HSF than the same CPU (also with the stock HSF) in Nighthawk. In fact, Blackbird has been successfully overclocked to a stable 3.4 GHz with the stock HSF, whereas the maximum stable overclock Nighthawk was able to achieve with the stock HSF was 3.2 GHz.

At idle, Blackbird overclocked to 3.4 GHz with the stock HSF runs at 39C/102F for the CPU, but interestingly enough, the motherboard runs warmer at 35C/95F than Nighthawk. However, note that Blackbird has six 750 GB disk drives packed in its case whereas Nighthawk has only two 500 GB disk drives.

Here's another photo of the stock HSF and Zalman HSF in front of Nighthawk (on the left) and Blackbird (on the right.)

This time around, I will document the removal of the stock HSF and the installation of the Zalman HSF in Blackbird with photos.

I wonder whether I will have the same experience with this operation on Blackbird as I encountered with Nighthawk. This operation will begin after breakfast tomorrow morning.

Here's a "ground level" view of the two HSF's. Notice the smooth, mirror finish of the Zalman CNPS9700 LED HSF.

It will be interesting to see how much cooler the Core 2 Duo E6700 will run with the Zalman HSF in Blackbird.

A real scare

2007-02-14T19:46:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Microsoft's much anticipated DreamScene Windows Ultimate Extra was released as a "Preview Beta." Of course, I downloaded it immediately and installed it on Nighthawk. The preview comes with a single "Dream" or video to use as your desktop background. In this video, the rays move from side to side.

No, that wasn't the scare.

Yesterday, NVIDIA also released an updated Beta G80 (8800GTX and 8800GTS graphics cards) driver for Windows Vista x86 and x64. I downloaded Version 100.64 (dated 02/13/2007) last night, but decided to wait before installing it.

Tonight, I made the almost fatal decision to install it on Nighthawk. After uninstalling ForceWare Version 100.59, I installed Version 100.64. The installation completed without a problem.

I experienced problems with the NVIDIA Control panel, so I decided to uninstall and re-install nTune Version 5.05.25.00. The problems I previously documented have not been fixed with ForceWare Version 100.64. In fact, none of the major problems with Version 100.59 have been fixed. I believe that the only reason why NVIDIA release yet another Beta driver is to provide support for their new 8800GTS graphics card with half the memory (320 MB) of the original 8800GTS.

I left Nighthawk on idle while I worked on Blackbird. A few minutes later, I noticed disk activity and high CPU usage on Nighthawk so I switched over to investigate.

I was greeted with a warning message which I've seen and reported before: ".A drive in a RAID 0 volume is failing. Try to back up data immediately"

I have suspected the NVIDIA driver and/or nTune as the cause of this "false" problem, and I am even more convinced now that one or the other is the culprit.

As before, I started the Intel Matrix Storage Console to mark the drive as normal. However, this time, the console would not start successfully. I tried several more times with the same result.

I decided to shutdown Nighthawk and during the shutdown process, Nighthawk died with a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death).

During the warm restart, BIOS failed to detect the second disk drive and the Intel ICH8R BIOS flagged both RAID volumes as "Failed" and BIOS could not detect any bootable device!

I inserted the Windows Vista x64 DVD and booted it to attempt to repair the Vista installation on the RAID volume. Of course, it failed because it could not find the Vista partition.

Panic started to set in by now, but I was still not overly worried. After all, Nighthawk is a test system and at worse, I would just have to reinstall the operating system(s).

I decided to power off Nighthawk to think about the situation and what I was going to do about it.

I decided to start Nighthawk one more time to see what state it was really in. I was surprised to see BIOS detect both drives and I immediately pressed the delete key to enter BIOS setup. I verified that all BIOS settings were correct and restarted.

Vista detected that it was not shutdown normally previously and presented me with different startup options including safe mode. I elected to start normally and Vista started up with a problem.

I am posting this on Nighthawk.

The lesson learned from this scary episode is not to act hastily when confronted with a problem. I was on the verge of deleting and redefining the RAID volumes on Nighthawk. This would have certainly resulted in destroying all the data on the RAID volumes.

I still believe that this problem is caused by the NVIDIA ForceWare driver and/or nTune since this problem has not surfaced on Nighthawk when I boot Windows XP MCE 2005.

Another run at 3.4 GHz

2007-02-13T18:59:00.000-08:00

Last month, Nighthawk hit the wall when attempting an overclock to 3.4 GHz with the stock HSF. High temperature was the suspected reason for this failure. I was perfectly content to back Nighthawk down to 3.2 GHz and it has been running at that speed until yesterday.

With its new Zalman HSF and lower operating temperatures, it was inevitable that I would make another attempt at overclocking Nighthawk to 3.4 GHz.

The first step was to go into BIOS and change the DRAM:FSB Ratio back to 1:1 (DRAM:FSB) ratio by setting DRAM Frequency to DDR2-640 before changing the CPU Frequency from 320 MHz to 340 MHz. The DRAM Frequency followed to DDR2-680.

I ran Memtest86 v1.65 for a couple of passes (approximately 45 minutes per pass for 4 GB of RAM) just to confirm memory stability.

I restarted Nighthawk and allowed it to come to an idle state before taking temperature readings.

At 3.4 GHz, the motherboard stayed at the same temperature (28C/82F) and the CPU temperature increased by 1C (39C/102F) compared to the temperature readings at 3.2 GHz with the Zalman HSF.

The next step was to fire up Johnny Lee's SP2004 ORTHOS. I was dismayed to see Nighthawk hit the same wall when it had the stock HSF.

Obviously, high temperature was not the only factor in this failure to reach a 3.4 GHz overclock!

I noticed a disparity between the CPU VCore Voltage setting in BIOS (1.4000V) and the reading in Everest Ultimate which was lower. Furthermore, I noticed that starting Johnny Lee's SP2004 ORTHOS dropped the CPU Core voltage even lower!

I increased the CPU VCore Voltage in BIOS from 1.4000V to 1.4500V, restarted Nighthawk, and started Johnny Lee's SP2004 ORTHOS again.

It has been running without any problem for over 20 hours as I write this post with the CPU temperature not exceeding 51C/124F.

Nighthawk has achieved a stable 3.4 GHz overclock with temperatures I can live with!

Running cool

2007-02-11T21:46:00.000-08:00

It took another 2-3 hours to disassemble, install the Zalman CNPS9700LED HSF, and reassemble Nighthawk after I revived it earlier yesterday morning. After checking all connections, I turned the power on the PSU. The blue ASUS LED light on the P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP motherboard came on.

I pushed the power switch on the case, and the red ASUS LED light on the motherboard came on. All the devices and fans in Nighthawk were running but there was no video signal.

POST failed.

I turned Nighthawk off by keeping the case power switch depressed until all the devices and fans stopped. I then turned off the PSU and waited 5 minutes to trigger the ASUS C.P.R. (CPU Parameter Recall) feature.

I turned the PSU switch on and pressed on the case power switch once more. This time Nighthawk booted successfully to BIOS. I made all the BIOS changes to return it to the overclocked settings for Nighthawk.

One of the things I worried about was Nighthawk's RAID settings for the Intel ICH8R Controller. There was no need to worry. Nighthawk's RAID array and volumes remained intact.

Did the new Zalman HSF make a difference in Nighthawk's processor temperature?

Without a doubt.

Nighthawk's temperature readings at idle without overclocking and with the stock HSF were:

Motherboard: 28C/82F
CPU: 37C/99F

When overclocked to 3.2 GHz, the temperature readings at idle with the stock HSF were:

Motherboard: 30C/86F
CPU: 49C/120F

With the Zalman CNPS9700LED HSF, overclocked idle temperature readings are:

Motherboard: 28C/82F
CPU: 38C/100F

This idle CPU temperature is only 1C higher than the temperature at stock speed of 2.67 GHz and it is 11C cooler at overclocked speed of 3.2 GHz with the stock HSF!

What about temperature performance under load?

I ran 2 instances of SuperPi Mod1.5 XS and the temperature readings at the end of the 20th loop were:

Motherboard: 32C/90F
CPU: 44C/111F

... compared to temperature readings at the same point with the stock HSF:

Motherboard: 33C/91F
CPU: 56C/133F

That's an improvement in the CPU temperature of 12C!

The results from running the System Stability Test in Everest Ultimate were even more dramatic.

The CPU temperature readings with the Zalman HSF were:

CPU (Peak): 53C/127F
CPU (Low): 41C/116F

... compared to temperature readings with the stock HSF:

CPU (Peak): 72C/162F
CPU (Low): 57C/135F

That's an improvement of 19C at peak load and 16C at the lowest point!

Whereas I was unwilling to run the Everest Ultimate System Stability Test longer than 10 minutes with the stock HSF, I would now have no problem running it for an extended period.

The CPU temperature while running Johnny Lee's SP2004 ORTHOS never exceeded 51C/124F.

I am now pleased with the temperature performance of Nighthawk. I believe that my purchase of the Zalman CNPS9700LED HSF has been a good investment.

Blackbird will be getting the same HSF this coming weekend!

Nighthawk is getting a new HSF

2007-02-11T07:59:00.000-08:00

Nighthawk has been in a state of complete and partial disassembly since yesterday when I decided to replace the stock Intel HSF (Heatsink & Fan) of the Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 processor with the Zalman CPNS9700LED "Ultra Quiet CPU Cooler" because I was unhappy with its temperature performance. Blackbird will be getting the same HSF.

Installation of the Zalman CPNS9700LED HSF requires removal of the motherboard, so I decided to completely disassemble Nighthawk. I also wanted to take this opportunity to rearrange the peripheral devices.

It took me approximately 2 hours to disassemble, install the new HSF, and reassemble Nighthawk.

I like the way the Zalman CPNS9700LED installs with the backplate. It appears to be a better way to secure the HSF to the motherboard as compared to the Intel HSF which requires a lot of force. I just wished that I had gone ahead and replaced the stock HSF when I initially put the system together.

The blue ASUS LED on the P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP came on when I turned on the Antec NeoHE 550 PSU. It turned to red when I pressed on the Antec Ninehundred case power switch.

POST failed!

There was no video signal. I made sure to check my KVM switch (Keyboard/Video/Mouse) was set to Nighthawk (a mistake I made the very first time Nighthawk was powered on.)

Important observation: This startup was not the now infamous "power on momentarily, power off momentarily, and power on again" sequence of the Intel P965 Chipset.

Panic set in.

My initial thought was that I had destroyed my Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 processor by over tightening the installation of the Zalman CPNS9700LED HSF. I wanted to make sure that the HSF was solidly mated to the processor.

My initial action was to remove/disconnect all unnecessary devices from the motherboard including the Hauppauge PVR-150 TV tuner card, all USB connections, the Firewire connection, the audio connections, the network cable, the wireless antenna, the disk drives, the DVD-RW optical devices, and the diskette drive.

Same problem.

I turned off the PSU and let it sit a couple of minutes before turning it back on to use the ASUS C.P.R. (CPU Parameter Recall) feature of the motherboard.

Same problem.

I installed my StarTech PCI Post Diagnostics Test Card and it displayed the POST code of 43 - for the AMI BIOS, this marks the point where POST is "Ready to start DMA Controller test."

Memory-related issue!

I removed all but one stick of Corsair CM2X1024-8500C5 memory.

Same problem.

I tried all combinations of memory slot placement(s) and number of memory sticks installed.

No luck.

I removed the onboard button cell battery and moved the CLRTC jumper cap to clear the Real Time Clock (RTC) in CMOS RAM. Several times.

Same problem.

I tried a different graphics card, an ATI Radeon X700 Pro which I borrowed from a friend.

Same problem.

I replaced the Zalman HSF with the stock HSF, which meant removing and reinstalling the motherboard. What a pain.

Same problem.

There was one significant change in the way Nighthawk behaved. After approximately one minute, Nighthawk would automatically power off whereas I had to manually power off previously. I checked the mounting of the stock HSF and sure enough, one corner was not securely latched. I had to remove and reinstall the mother board again to note and remedy this problem.

But this was actually good news. It meant my processor was still alive to detect overheating!

I repeated the same series of actions to no avail, giving up a little past midnight. Before going to bed, I decided to turn off the PSU, disconnect the power cable, remove the onboard button cell battery and move the CLRTC jumper to clear RTC RAM. I left Nighthawk in this state overnight.

This morning, I replaced the CLRTC jumper to its normal position, installed the onboard button cell battery, reconnected the power cable and turned on the PSU.

Nighthawk booted into BIOS with 2 sticks of memory. I quickly set the correct date & time, loaded the default BIOS settings, and saved.

Lesson learned: it takes time for the "Clear RTC RAM" to work!

Nighthawk is powered off now while I write this post before tackling the original objective of replacing the stock HSF with the Zalman HSF.

What did I do wrong? In retrospect, I forgot to set BIOS to its default settings before I started this job. I assumed that since I was only replacing the HSF that this would not matter.

I have learned another very important lesson: if one is overclocking (or modified BIOS settings), reset BIOS to its default settings before making any changes to devices connected to the motherboard, no matter how small/minor the change.

Another scary Vista problem

2007-02-09T18:57:00.000-08:00

I downloaded the EPSON TWAIN Driver and EPSON Scan utility Version 3.04A for Windows Vista 32-bit and 64-bit Editions again this morning. The new file installed on Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000) without any problems this time, and I have been able to successfully use my EPSON Perfection 3170 Photo. EPSON must have fixed the download file overnight. Thanks to EPSON for quickly fixing this problem.

Fix a problem and up pops another problem...

After exiting the Dream Aquarium screen saver, I was alarmed to see this warning message: "A drive in a RAID 0 volume is failing. Try to back up data immediately."

I immediately opened the Intel Matrix Storage Console to get the details of the failure: an error occurred with the physical drive connected to Port 1.

I have a single RAID array using 2 Maxtor 500GB SATA2 disk drives. There are 2 RAID 0 volumes on this RAID array. One volume contains Windows XP MCE 2005 and the second volume contains Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000). A failure with either drive means that both operating system installations are at risk.

Since this is my test computer, I don't have anything stored in it which required backup. I used the Intel Matrix Storage Console to mark the drive as normal.

This same problem occurred again later on.

I know that the physical drive is OK because this problem did not occur in Windows XP MCE 2005 which is on a RAID0 volume using the same physical drive.

Here's my hardware configuration:

ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E6700
4 GB Corsair CM2X1024-8500C5
BFG 8800GTS Graphics Card (NVIDIA driver 100.59)
Hauppauge PVR-150 TV Tuner Card
2 500GB Maxtor SATA2 Disk Drives
Antec NeoHE 550 PSU
Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000)

Anyone else experience a similar problem?

Epson Perfection 3170 Photo Vista Driver

2007-02-08T20:46:00.000-08:00

I have an EPSON Perfection 3170 Photo scanner which I have been unable to use in Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000) for lack of a device driver.

During my daily check of Vista drivers today, I was excited to see that EPSON has released a TWAIN Driver and EPSON Scan utility Version 3.04A for Windows Vista 32-bit and 64-bit Editions.

I quickly downloaded it and attempted to install it.

In the middle of the installation, the following error message is displayed in the "EPSON Scan Setup" dialog window: "Could not copy files. Check the setup disc, then run setup again. C:\Users\Gerry\AppData\Local\Temp\\setup.ini"

OK. Maybe I have to run the setup as an administrator, so I tried again. The same error message followed by another error message in the "EPSON Scan Setup" dialog window: "An error occurred during setup. Restart your computer, then run setup again."

OK. Maybe restarting my computer will fix the problem.

Wishful thinking on my part. I encounter the same exact error even after restarting the computer!

What has happened to Quality Control and Quality Assurance?

Are companies like EPSON actually testing their software before they are released to the general public?

The general public has become the guinea pigs for these companies who don't really give a damn about their customers.

Realtek RTL8187 Wireless 802.11g

2007-02-06T18:58:00.000-08:00

How about the Realtek RTL8187 Wireless 802.11g device on the ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP motherboard? How well does it work with Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000)?

I downloaded the ASUS WiFi-AP Version 6.1262.1212.2006 driver and enabled "USB WIFI/USB 9,10" in the BIOS "USB Configuration" section to find out.

Note: The Realtek RTL8187 wireless device is actually a USB device and some people have physically removed it from the motherboard. Think twice before doing this. I would recommend just disabling the wireless device in BIOS instead unless you really need the additional USB ports.

Vista recognized the Realtek RTL8187 Wireless device and prompted whether I wanted it to install the driver. I declined and installed the driver I downloaded from the ASUS Web site.

Windows Update subsequently downloaded and installed an even newer version: Version 6.1272.106.2007 dated 1/6/2007 without asking me!

I configured the Realtek RTL8187 Wireless device using Vista and it connected to my Wireless Access Point immediately without any problem. The signal quality was excellent, but it had better be because the Wireless Access Point is located just above Nighthawk!

The throughput via the wireless connection was also excellent.

The Realtek RTL8187 Wireless device can also operate as a Wireless Access Point, the reason for "AP" in the ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP motherboard model name.

Unfortunately for owners of this motherboard who have a need to use the Realtek RTL8187 Wireless device as a Wireless Access Point, there is currently no Vista driver/software for this.

Fortunately for me, I do not require this capability.

APC: Lack of attention to details & the customer

2007-02-05T20:11:00.000-08:00

I am a firm believer in the use of UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) devices for all of my computers. UPS devices provide clean, stable power to the computer and provides a normal, orderly shutdown of the computer in case of power failures.

The only UPS devices I use for my computers are APC (American Power Conversion Corporation) Back-UPS devices. Blackbird uses the Back-UPS XS 1500 with the extra battery pack and Nighthawk uses just the Back-UPS XS 1500.

Since installing Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000), I have been patiently waiting for APC to release their PowerChute Personal Edition for Vista.

Yesterday, I noticed an announcement in APC's Support page (Knowledge Base) about the availability of PowerChute Personal Edition Version 2.1 for Windows Vista.

On the page is a URL for the page with the "latest versions of PowerChute Personal Edition." However, the published URL is not a link. If you want to go to the page, you'll have to copy and paste it into the browser address field.

How difficult would it had been for someone at APC to create the URL as an active link?

I copied and pasted the URL into the browser address line while muttering under my breath.

I guess my eyesight is starting to fail me because I did not see any sign of PowerChute Personal Edition Version 2.1 on the page. I put my reading glasses on just to make sure.

Yep. No sign of the mentioned Vista version.

Maybe it's on the "Free Download" page for Version 2.0, so I clicked on the button.

No sign of PowerChute Personal Edition Version 2.1 for Windows Vista on this page either. There's the version for Solaris, a couple of versions for the Mac OS X, and a couple more versions for Windows 2000 and Windows XP, one of which also works for Windows 98 or Windows ME.

I'm still hopeful of finding Version 2.1 and I click on the "Continue" button for Version 2.0 thinking that maybe Version 2.1 is not a major release, just a "dot" release not meriting its own page.

It brings me back full circle to the page which I have been checking almost daily for signs of a Vista version of the APC PowerChute Personal Edition software.

It makes one wonder is Version 2.1 actually even exists.

Did APC jump the gun in announcing its availability? Did APC provide the wrong URL? Did APC forget to post the new version?

It doesn't matter what the reason is. It demonstrates incompetence, at best. Hopefully, it doesn't demonstrate lack of customer focus and attention by APC.

I am appalled at the lack of customer service shown by the majority of companies today.

SoundMAX good news & bad news

2007-02-04T10:38:00.000-08:00

ASUS has just released a new Beta Version 6.10.2.6100 (dated 01/08/2007) of the SoundMAX driver for Vista x86 and x64.

There's good news and bad news with this new Beta driver release.

The Good News

Unlike the previous Version 6.10.1.6020 (dated 11/02/2006), this new version installed properly. The previous version could not even be loaded by Vista!

Also unlike the default driver Version 6.0.6000.16386 (dated 06/21/2006) initially loaded by Vista, the microphone actually works with this new version. I have not yet tested the line input (in the front panel).

Nighthawk is no longer deaf.

I used the Vista "Set up microphone" and enabled the "Directional Beam" microphone enhancement to take advantage of the SoundMAX SUPERBEAM microphone bundled with my ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP motherboard.

I then tested the microphone using Vista's "Speech Tutorial" which can be found in "Speech Recognition Options" of the "Ease of Access" folder. The Vista Speech Tutorial stopped listening to me somewhere in the middle so I closed it.

A message window popped up stating "Audio Enhancements Problem. Windows has detected that audio enhancements for the following device are causing problems: Microphone (SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD Audio). Would you like to disable Driver Enhancements for this device?"

I responded "Yes" and re-ran the Vista Speech Tutorial. This time around without the "Directional Beam" audio enhancement, I was able to complete the tutorial without any more problems.

By the way, the SoundMAX SUPERBEAM microphone is connected to the microphone input in the back panel. I have yet to test the microphone input in the front panel.

The line output in the back panel also works as before. I have also not yet tested the SPDIF outputs nor the speaker outputs in the back panel.

The Bad News

The bad news is very bad.

I decided to test the front panel output by plugging my headphones in. Both of my monitors went black immediately. Nighthawk was still powered on and the disk LED indicated some activity, but Nighthawk was not responding to any keyboard input (a good test is the "Num Lock" key because of its corresponding LED indicator light.)

I went to Blackbird to check whether I could access the shared folder on Nighthawk. Nighthawk was not responding. I also tried Remote Desktop Connection from Blackbird to Nighthawk with the same result. Nighthawk was dead.

I powered off Nighthawk, restarted, and repeated the same test. Same result. Nighthawk immediately died as soon as I plugged in my headphones into the front panel input jack.

I guess I won't be using my headphones anytime soon on Nighthawk.

The most troublesome JMicron Controller

2007-02-03T10:26:00.000-08:00

I have 2 almost identical computers based on the ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP motherboard with the most troublesome JMicron Controller onboard. One does not have to search the Internet far to read about the many problems facing users of the JMicron Controller.

I managed to avoid this problem on Nighthawk by moving my SATA optical drive (Plextor PX-755SA) from the JMicron Controller to the onboard Intel ICH8R Controller.

Unfortunately, this option is not available to me on Blackbird since I already have 6 SATA-2 disk drives connected to the Intel ICH8R Controller. I had no choice but to connect my SATA optical drive (Samsung SH-S183L) to the JMicron Controller. The JMicron Controller Mode is configured as "AHCI" in BIOS on both Blackbird and Nighthawk.

The problem?

Since installing Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000) on Blackbird last November 17, 2006, my Samsung SH-S183L DVD-RW optical drive has not been recognized as a writeable device by Vista. It can be used to read CDs and DVDs, but it cannot be used to burn CDs or DVDs.

Installing the JMicron Driver Version 1.17.3.2 dated 10/5/2006 did not fix the problem.

I was excited when ASUS officially released not just 1, but 2 JMicron drivers yesterday!

The new problem: which new driver to use? I am getting really frustrated with companies that do not make any attempt to improve communications with their customers. I think I'm computer-savvy and if I'm experiencing difficulties trying to decide which driver to use, just imagine the challenge faced by the user with little or no computer experience. It really does not take that much effort for ASUS to provide more information to assist their customers.

I downloaded both versions and installed the JMicron Driver Version 1.17.8.1 dated 12/5/2006. The driver installed without any problem and required a restart.

No luck. My Samsung SH-S183L DVD-RW still is not recognized by Vista as a writeable optical drive.

I then installed the JMicron Driver Version 1.17.6.4, forgetting to uninstall Version 1.17.8.1 first. The installation failed.

It is curious that the device driver installation failed, but I was also informed that a second JMicron JMB36X Controller is "Ready to Use."

In fact, Device Manager clearly shows 2 JMicron JMB36X Controllers under Storage controllers, one working properly and the other one with a problem.

Another error message was displayed indicating "Windows encountered a problem installing the driver software for your device. Windows found driver software for your device but encountered an error while attempting to install it. JMicron JMB36X Controller. This device cannot start. (Code 10)"

Yet another message was displayed stating "Your devices are ready to use. The software for this device has been successfully installed. ATA Channel 0 Ready to use. ATA Channel 1 Ready to use."

What the heck?!

My Samsung SH-S183L DVD-RW was still not recognized by Vista as a writeable optical drive. I decided to check the Device Manager on Nighthawk for comparison.

This exercise provided me with a hint to a possible explanation of the problems related to the JMicron Controller.

The JMicron Controller has a split (or dual) personality. On the one hand, it is a legacy IDE Controller and it appears to handle this role with few or no problems. On the other hand, it is also an AHCI/RAID Controller. I believe this dual personality is the source of the many problems users are experiencing with the JMicron Controller.

I deleted the "2" JMicron JMB36X Controllers from Device Manager and started over. Vista automatically detected it and installed the Microsoft Driver Version 6.0.6000.16386 dated 6/21/2006 for the ATA and IDE Channels. Vista also installed the JMicron Driver Version 1.17.3.2 dated 10/5/2006 for the JMicron JMB36X Controller which appears under Storage controllers in Device Manager.

This did not solve my problem (I did not expect it to since this was the "original" state of Blackbird).

Next step was to replace the driver for the "JMB36X Standard Dual Channel PCIE IDE Controller" with the JMicron Device Driver 1.0.0.0 dated 9/16/2006 which I downloaded last night as part of the JMicron Device Version 1.17.6.4. I also did not expect this to solve my problem since I am using a SATA optical drive. In fact, it did not fix my problem.

The Solution

I updated the JMicron JMB36X Controller under Storage controllers in Device Manager to use the Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller driver. This removed the JMicron JMB36X Controller from Storage controllers and added the Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller under IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers in Device Manager.

Since I am not using IDE devices, I disabled the JMB36X Standard Dual Channel PCIE IDE Controller.

Next step was to uninstall the "TSSTcorp CD/DVDW SH-S183L SCSI CdRom Device" under DVD/CD-ROM drives in Device Manager.

The final step was to "Scan for hardware changes" in Device Manager which detected and added the "TSSTcorp CD/DVDW SH-183L ATA Device" under DVD/CD-ROM drives in Device Manager.

Problem solved! I can now burn CDs and DVDs with my Samsung SH-S183L DVD-RW optical drive in Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000).

In summary, use the default Vista drivers instead of the JMicron drivers if you are experiencing problems with devices attached to the JMicron Controller.

AMD/ATI finally comes through

2007-02-01T20:14:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, on the very last day of the month of January and a day after the official launch of Vista, AMD/ATI released the long awaited Vista x64 device driver for the TV Wonder 650 Pro tuner card.

According to Vista Device Manager, the driver is Version 6.14.10.225 dated 12/16/2006. I couldn't help but notice the date. How come this driver was not released much earlier than yesterday?

Since I am still trying to get the Hauppauge PVR-150 TV Tuner card to work on Nighthawk, I decided to install the ATI TV Wonder 650 Pro in Blackbird where I had it originally installed until it caused Vista to die with the BSOD.

I turned the power off on the Antec NeoHE 550 PSU, waited several minutes, and installed the ATI TV Wonder 650 Pro tuner card. I turned the power back on the PSU and the blue light came on the ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP motherboard which is running BIOS Version 1004 - the latest version.

With a click of the mouse, I started Blackbird and immediately noticed that the Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 clock speed was set to its default of 2.66 GHz (Blackbird is overclocked to 3.4 Ghz.)

I allowed Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000) to boot and it detected the ATI TV Wonder 650 Pro card. Vista asked me whether I wanted to install a driver and I declined. Instead, I installed the ATI driver which I downloaded last night. The driver for the ATI TV Wonder 650 Pro card installed without a problem.

Vista did not require to be restarted, but I restarted Blackbird anyway because I wanted to reset my overclocked settings in BIOS.

I noticed that during the BIOS initialization, the correct overclocked CPU speed was detected. I still selected to go into the BIOS settings to confirm my overclocked settings. All my overclocked settings were in place without me having to do anything.

Strange.

The sequence I went through when I installed the ATI Wonder 650 Pro card is the same used to recover from an overclock failure. It is almost as if the motherboard decided to restart with the default settings after detecting the installation of a new PCI device. And once it was able to start properly, it automatically restored the original (overclocked) settings at the next restart.

If this is the case, it is a nice feature. But I wonder if it is a problem with BIOS Version 1004.

I went ahead, saved the BIOS settings and restarted Vista. I configured the TV Signal in Media Center, and in no time at all, I was watching live TV on Blackbird after patiently waiting for almost 3 months.

I'll try to get the Hauppauge PVR-150 TV tuner card in Nighthawk working. I was hoping that maybe the cause of the problem was the NVIDIA driver, but installing Version 100.59 did not fix the problem with the Hauppauge PVR-150. Someone has recommended a different download of the same driver I already have from the Hauppauge UK site. I'll try that next.

NVIDIA redeems itself... almost

2007-01-31T20:21:00.000-08:00

I am glad that I held my fire and did not post yesterday.

As promised, NVIDIA delivered a device driver for its 8800GTX and 8800GTS graphics cards by the end of January. It is still Beta, but Version 100.59 was delivered today as promised, right on the heels of Version 100.54, which was released just the day before when Vista was officially launched to the public.

What has angered a lot of NVIDIA's customers about this entire Vista driver episode, which continues today, is NVIDIA's arrogance towards its customers.

It would have been so easy for NVIDIA to explain to its customers why a Vista driver for its G80-based graphics cards was not made available earlier. Its weak excuse that NVIDIA needed the time to test the driver to assure a high quality, working driver is belied by its release of a beta Version 100.54 on the Vista launch date, a driver that according to most, performed worse and had more defects than the leaked Version 100.30. Then to follow it up the very next day with another beta Version 100.59 without any explanation adds insult to injury.

This arrogance appears to be symptomatic of today's large corporations. NVIDIA is not alone, and the only way to correct this type of behavior is for consumers to speak out with their purse strings. Rant off.

The first sign of good news is the size of the Version 100.59 driver versus Version 100.30 - it is 47,026 KB versus 20,747 KB in size.

I uninstalled Version 100.30 using the Control Panel "Uninstall or change a program" of Vista which required a system restart.

At the start of installing Version 100.50, Vista displayed the Windows Security message: "Windows can't verify the publisher of this driver software."

I guess NVIDIA still does not have the appropriate trusted certificate for its drivers. In fairness to NVIDIA, the Version 100.59 driver installation completed without a hitch.

The "swapped monitors" problem that was present in Version 100.30 has not been fixed in Version 100.59.

And I am not about to test the problem of the video driver unable to turn the monitor(s) back on after powering them off under a power plan. I'll leave that for others to test.

The first test I ran was 3DMark06. To be honest, I did not expect it to run. I was surprised that it actually ran and completed.

I was even more surprised with the resulting performance score of 8731 3DMarks which bested the score of 8409 3DMarks on Windows XP MCE 2005 under almost the same exact conditions. Actually, Vista was handicapped with the Windows "Sidebar" running during the test. That is a promising start for the NVIDIA driver. Here's the 3DMark comparison.

The next test I tried was to run the new Vista Ultimate Extra "Hold 'Em" poker game which did not run properly with Version 100.30. It still does not run properly with Version 100.59, resulting in the same problem: flashing text.

At least for now, I have a working video driver which I can use to conduct further testing.

Thanks NVIDIA, but you could have made it so much easier on yourself and your customers if you simply took the time to inform them. No news is worse than bad news.

Windows Ultimate Extras

2007-01-29T20:52:00.000-08:00

The first 2 "Windows Ultimate Extras" for Vista Ultimate became available via Windows Update today: BitLocker and EFS Enhancements and Hold Em Poker Game. However, the much anticipated Windows DreamScene is not available yet.

I was unable to play the new "Hold Em Poker Game" on Nighthawk because a fully working device driver for my NVIDIA 8800GTS graphics card is still not available. And the natives are getting restless over at the NVIDIA Forum. A full scale revolt is not unlikely if January ends without a G80 driver available from NVIDIA. Heads will roll.

ATI has released their Vista drivers but there is still no support for my TV Wonder 650 which is "Certified for Windows Vista" amd "Ready for the Future with a Windows Vista on your PC." I guess the future isn't here yet.

There were also 7 "Updates for Windows Vista for x64-based Systems" including 1 Important (KB930857), 5 Recommended (KB929777, KB929427, KB931573, KB928089 and KB929685) and 1 Optional (KB929735). Installing these and the Windows Ultimate Extras required 2 restarts of Vista.

International users of Vista will be very happy to know that 15 Windows Vista Ultimate Language Packs are also now available via Windows Update: Chinese (Hong Kong S.A.R.), Chinese (Simplified), Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish).

The great hunt for Vista device drivers continue...

Vista hype nears crescendo

2007-01-28T20:45:00.000-08:00

Vista is less than 2 days away from its release to the general public, and the hype is building to a climax. The various Vista news groups are seeing a lot of activity as people are already starting to get their hands on Vista and asking lots of questions. My local CompUSA store will open its doors at 10 PM tomorrow night to start selling Vista, Office 2007 and discounted merchandise at midnight.

I checked the various store ads but I didn't really see any bargains. Most discounts are tied to purchase of Vista or Office 2007, and I wonder whether some of the software which will be given away for "free" with purchase of Vista will actually work in Vista. We'll see how this launch compares with the launch of Windows 95, NT and XP.

I was one of the faithful waiting to get my hands on Vista. It is a good operating system based on my experience with it to date. I will withhold judgement on whether it is a great operating system just yet. I would be much more positive about Vista if more working device drivers were available, but that's the way it is with the early adoption of any operating system.

There are some bright spots in the driver scene. I was pleasantly surprised to see Nokia support Vista early on with their PC Suite which allowed me to synch my Nokia 6682 mobile phone with Vista Ultimate x64.

Another bright spot is Vista support for networked printers "out of the box." I was able to connect both Blackbird and Nighthawk to my HP 952C Deskjet printer attached to a Netgear Print Server PS110. I simply pointed Vista Ultimate x64 to its static TCP/IP address on my network and specified it as a "generic 2-port print server" and selected the printer as the HP 952C Deskjet printer on Port 1. It was very easy and painless.

Actually, networking is very simple with Vista, in general. Setting up file sharing with Vista is easy.

I will be waiting for the release of the NVIDIA driver for my BFG 8800GTS graphics card on Vista launch date (January 30, 2007) before proceeding with the rest of my discovery and testing on Nighthawk.

My wife was recently provided with a Core 2 Duo laptop for use at home by her work, so I might be able to keep Nighthawk permanently for my own use for more experimentation. We shall see.

Another BIOS update from ASUS

2007-01-27T12:49:00.000-08:00

Almost right on the heels of the BIOS Version 0910 official release just a few days ago, ASUS released BIOS Version 1004 (dated 01/22/2007) for the P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP motherboard yesterday.

It makes one wonder why ASUS felt the need to release this new version so soon. The release notes mention "enhance memory compatibility" and "support CONROE E0 CPU (FSB 1333)" - both are good updates, but hardly worth rushing the release of this version.

I suspect this release has something more to do with the impending release of Vista to the general public in 3 days. There are reports in the ASUS forums of Vista KMS Activation problems with the prior BIOS Version 0910.

It is also curious that BIOS Version 1004 does not appear in the "BIOS" or "Latest" sections of the ASUS download site. One must go to the "Map" section to find and download this version.

Regardless, I downloaded and installed BIOS Version 1004 on Nighthawk last night from a USB drive using the EZ Flash 2 tool in BIOS itself. This version did not require reloading my BIOS settings as BIOS Version 0910 did.

I ran my battery of stability tests overnight and Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000) has been running on Nighthawk (with its overclocked settings) since this morning without any problem.

I did not see any new settings in BIOS, nor any performance improvements. At least, BIOS Release 1004 appears to be stable so far.

More Vista driver woes

2007-01-26T19:03:00.000-08:00

Vista is now only 4 short days away from being released to the general public On January 30, 2007.

Based on my experience running Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000) on Blackhawk since November 17, 2006 and on Nighthawk since January 20, 2007, I have very little confidence that computer component manufacturers will have non-Beta device drivers ready for the Vista launch.

In this post, I will focus on add-on TV Tuner cards.

Shortly after I installed Vista on Blackhawk in November last year, I went out to purchase the ATI TV Wonder 650 since it was advertised as "Certified for Windows Vista." I don't know how ATI can claim that this hardware is "Certified for Windows Vista" since there was, and there is still no driver to make this device work in Vista x64. I should have read the fine print - fool, me.

So I went out and purchased the Hauppauge PVR-150 since it is also "Certified for Windows Vista" and a Beta driver was available for download. It did not and it still does not work in Vista x64. Fool, me - twice!

As previously noted in a prior post, the Hauppauge PVR-150 TV Tuner card was recognized when I installed Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000) on Nighthawk and it loaded the Hauppauge driver. Windows Media Center allowed me to configure the TV tuner. Unfortunately, the Hauppauge PVR-150 TV Tuner card still does not work in Vista x64. The frame rate for the TV signal is about 1 frame a minute, at best. Maybe I should have bought a quad core processor so I can watch TV on my Vista computer.

Today, Vista detected an updated driver for the Hauppauge PVR-150. Hooray! I'm finally going to be able to watch TV on my Vista computer. I installed the driver and restarted Nighthawk with anticipation.

The Hauppauge PVR-150 TV Tuner card still does not work in Vista x64. The frame rate of the TV signal has improved to 2 frames per minute. I guess doubling the frame rate is good progress. At least Nighthawk is not crashing with the "Blue Screen of Death."

The latest non-working version of the Hauppauge driver is Version 6.0.6000.16488 dated January 8, 2007. Hey, at least Hauppauge has a device driver while ATI has yet to release one.

Do you still want to be on the bleeding edge? Do you believe that a deluge of non-Beta device drivers will be delivered on January 30th when Vista is launched?

The weakest links

2007-01-25T20:43:00.000-08:00

The ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP is a solid, high-quality, versatile, and overclocking-friendly motherboard. Unfortunately, it has 2 very glaring defects: the JMicron Controller and the SoundMAX Audio device. You don't have to search the Internet far to find complaints about these two on-board devices.

I have already discussed the many problems of the JMicron Controller in an earlier post. I am now going to turn my attention to the on-board SoundMAX audio device.

When I installed Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000) on Nighthawk, Vista detected the on-board SoundMAX audio device and loaded its Microsoft audio driver Version 6.0.6000.16386 dated 06/21/2006. And I had sound from the "Speakers" and "Digital Output Device (SPDIF)" but not from my headphones connected via the front panel.

However, Nighthawk is deaf! None of the "Recording" (input) devices work. Not the 2 microphone inputs. Not the 2 "line in" connections. Zero. Nada. Zilch.

I did not expect much from the default driver, so I was not entirely surprised. I knew I could always download the latest SoundMAX driver from ASUS. And ASUS has SoundMAX drivers on their Web site for Vista: "SoundMAX Audio Driver v6.10.01.5110 for 32bit Windows Vista (WHQL) & v6.10.01.6020 for 64bit Vista(beta drivers)"

I downloaded and installed the SoundMAX Vista drivers. The first hint of trouble was a warning message indicating that Vista could not "verify the publisher of this driver software." I've seen this before, so I allowed the driver to be installed.

The Vista Device Manager confirmed that the SoundMax driver Version 6.10.01.6020 dated 11/02/2006 was indeed installed. However, note the warning symbol (exclamation mark on a yellow triangular sign) superimposed on the SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD Audio" entry in the device list.

OK. Maybe I just needed to restart as indicated by a message after the driver installation. I restarted and the SoundMAX audio device was still not working. I checked its status in the Vista Device Manager which informed me: "Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)"

So much for that exercise. I used the Vista Device Manager to "Roll back driver" to the previous version - the Microsoft default driver which at least works for audio output.

I was aware of the many SoundMAX-related problems facing owners of the ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP motherboard before I bought it. That's the reason why I did not even bother with it and installed a SoundBlaster XFi sound card in Blackbird. I will probably do the same for Nighthawk.

However, don't think that the grass is much greener on the other side. It is a little bit greener, but no that much greener. SoundBlaster users including myself have been facing similar challenges with device drivers.

Do you still want to be on the bleeding edge and install Vista when it becomes available to the general public in 5 days?

BIOS updated to Version 0910

2007-01-24T21:03:00.000-08:00

ASUS just officially released BIOS Version 0910 for the ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP motherboard. Nighthawk is currently running on BIOS Version 0804.

I usually wait awhile to hear about other people's experiences before I perform BIOS updates. In this particular case, I was not overly concerned since Nighthawk is a test system and this motherboard has the ASUS "CrashFree BIOS" feature.

I downloaded BIOS Version 0910 and installed it on Nighthawk using the AsusTek EZ Flash 2 in the BIOS from a USB drive. One always holds his/her breath while performing BIOS updates. I do and I did again in this case.

So far, BIOS Version 0910 for the the ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP appears to be stable.

I ran 3DMark06 from Windows XP MCE 2005 to check for any performance improvement from the BIOS upgrade. I did not see any. In fact, performance appears to have decreased some but this may be due to Windows XP MCE 2005 now only accessing 2GB of memory instead of 2.9GB before I enabled "Memory Remapping" in BIOS.

I will be running my usual battery of stability testing which will delay my experiments with using the on-board SoundMAX audio from Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000).

Speaking of Vista, I just noticed that ASUS now has the P5B Premium Vista Edition and P5B-Plus Vista Edition motherboards. Hmmm...

Essential Vista?

2007-01-22T19:33:00.000-08:00

NVIDIA has a logo with the words "Essential Vista" associated with their GeForce 8800 products, and the 8800GTX and 8800GTS graphics cards are the first to support the new DirectX 10 introduced with Microsoft's Vista operating system.

One would assume that a product designed for Vista will work in Vista, right? A lot of people believed so when they ran out to buy these cards when they were introduced late last year. Unfortunately, they did not read the fine print.

I read the fine print - there were and still no device driver for these graphics cards from NVIDIA.

I knew this fact when I bought the BFG 8800GTS but I had no plans on using it with Vista immediately. Until this past weekend, I was only using the BFG 8800GTS card with Windows XP MCE 2005.

Last week, a driver (alpha or beta version?) was leaked on the Internet - Version 100.30 for both Vista x86 and x64. Reports from the brave souls who installed this driver indicated that although short on features, this driver actually worked and allowed the use of Vista's "Aero" interface, albeit with some problems here and there.

I took the plunge and installed the Version 100.30 driver on Nighthawk. I am usually not this adventurous, but Nighthawk is a test system.

The driver installed without any problem, but I encountered the first problem after re-booting. I have 2 monitors connected to Nighthawk, and the driver decided to swap the monitors, i.e., physical Monitor #2 (on the right) is now Monitor #1 and physical monitor #1 (on the left) is now Monitor #2. Confused yet? I was! Other individuals have confirmed this problem.

No sweat! I switched the monitors in Vista's "Display Settings" and specified Monitor #2 as my main monitor and extend the desktop to Monitor #1. This solved the problem.

I noticed another minor problem where the mouse pointer would be left in the "home" position (upper left-hand corner) of Monitor #1 (now the monitor on the right) as I moved the pointer from the right monitor to the left monitor. To get rid of this problem, I would simply move the pointer back to the right monitor to "retrieve" it.

Why would one put up with a driver with obvious defects and incomplete feature set (the Control Panel is severely lacking in features)? Because beggars can't be choosy...

I re-ran Vista's Performance Check to update my Windows Experience Index base score and Nighthawk scored 5.8! After the new base score was updated, the "Aero" interface was automatically enabled. Alright!

A more serious problem happened later when my monitors were automatically turned off after 20 minutes. Vista with the Version 100.30 driver is unable to turn the monitors back on! This problem has been confirmed by other users as well.

I was reluctant to simply turn off the power to Nighthawk using the power switch on the case. I did not want to introduce any data corruption in Nighthawk's RAID0 arrays. I would have taken the chance if Nighthawk had RAID1 or RAID5 arrays instead of RAID0. I knew that Nighthawk was still running since I could access a shared folder on Nighthawk from Blackbird.

How can I perform an orderly shut down of Nighthawk while blind, i.e., no video? I decided to take a break for lunch and think about it.

The first step was to determine what state Nighthawk was in so I could visualize what would be displayed on the screen. I remembered that I had set "On resume, display logon screen" on Nighthawk's "Screen Saver" setting. Since the monitors powered off, the "logon screen" would be the only screen Nighthawk could be on.

I used Blackbird to memorize the keystrokes required to properly shut down Nighthawk. Using the mouse without a video signal is impossible.

The keystroke sequence I used:

"Home" to position the cursor at the beginning of the password field.

"Shift End" to highlight and select whatever was in the password field since I was trying different key combinations prior to this.

"Delete" to delete whatever was in the password field.

My password. (I won't be sharing this with you.)

"Start" (or "Windows" key) to bring up the "Start" menu.

"Right arrow" three times to navigate to the "Shut down" options.

"u" to select "Shut down."

And Nighthawk gracefully shut down!

After restarting Nighthawk, I promptly set the "Power plan" to never turn off the monitor.

I immediately decided to run the 3DMark06 benchmark to compare performance in Vista to Windows XP MCE 2005 using the same exact hardware platform. Unfortunately, a problem with the Version 100.30 driver prevents 3DMark06 from running the benchmark. I know it's not a problem with 3DMark06 running on Vista because I am able to run it on Blackbird with my BFG 7950GT graphics card.

Vista displays an error message: "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered." This is one huge advantage of Vista over Windows XP. A similar problem on Windows XP would have caused a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death).

3DMark06 also displayed an error message (and did not crash): "IDirect3DDevice9::Present failed: Device lost (D3DERR_DEVICELOST)"

Hopefully, NVIDIA will have a "real" working driver for the GeForce 8800 graphics card as they have been promising when Vista is made available to the general public in 8 days.

At least Nighthawk's "sight" has been partially restored. Its sense of "hearing" will be the next focus of my attention. The sound output works with the default Microsoft driver, but no sound input works.

On the bleeding edge

2007-01-21T13:30:00.000-08:00

I have been running Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000) since November 17, 2006 when it was initially made available to MSDN subscribers. Prior to that, I also installed and tested both Vista Release Candidates 1 and 2. In fact, I built both Blackbird and Nighthawk specifically to run Vista.

Since installing Vista on Blackbird, I have spent a lot of time searching for device drivers, and scouring numerous forums and news groups for Vista tips and help so that I can use my various computer devices and programs with Vista. Device drivers are either not available and if they are available, the device drivers are in beta and incomplete in functionality. Some programs also do not work very well in Vista, if at all. I probably made it more difficult for myself in choosing to run the 64-bit version of Vista.

The retail version of Vista will soon be available to the general public in 9 days.

Unless you have a lot of time and patience looking and waiting for device drivers and updated programs which work well with Vista, I would recommend waiting until more device drivers become available and the many kinks are worked out. I still have my Windows XP Professional system available as my primary system although I use Vista as much as possible.

Preparing to install Vista on Nighthawk

My plan is to install Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000) in a RAID0 array and from a Plextor PX-755SA SATA DVD-RW optical drive, both of which are connected to the Intel ICH8R Controller on my ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP motherboard.

The Intel ICH8R Controller settings in the ASUS 0804 BIOS of Nighthawk are: SATA Configuration is "Enhanced" and "Configure SATA as RAID."

I made 2 changes in BIOS: Vanderpool Technology was enabled since I plan to run VirtualPC which may take advantage of Intel's virtualization technology; and the "Memory Remap Feature" was also enabled so Vista can take full advantage of the 4GB of memory installed in Nighthawk.

I was specially concerned about enabling the "Memory Remap Feature" since it was not clear how it would impact the existing 32-bit Windows XP MCE 2005 operating system already installed on Nighthawk. I am happy to report that Windows XP MCE 2005 works properly and the only impact of enabling the "Memory Remap Feature" is that Windows XP MCE 2005 can now only access 2GB of physical memory instead of 2.9GB it previously could access.

The last step in my preparation for installing Vista was to gather the latest drivers for the Intel ICH8R and JMicron Controllers, just in case they are required by the Vista installation process.

No drivers needed

The Vista installation on Nighthawk was started at 4:42 PM.

The "upgrade" option is disabled in the RTM release, but this option will be available in the retail version of Vista.

Vista recognized the 2 RAID0 disk arrays in Nighthawk. Since the first RAID0 array contains Windows XP MCE 2005, I selected the second RAID0 array to create a new partition to install Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000).

At 5:00 PM (eighteen minutes later), Vista restarted from the RAID0 array for the first time to complete the installation. The screen went blank twice and Vista restarted for the second time without any warning message.

At 5:05 PM with the 2nd restart, I was presented with the Boot Manager menu to select Vista or the "previous version of Windows." I selected Vista and was prompted to select a username and password. Vista then executed a "Performance Check" and Nighthawk was assigned a Windows Experience Index base score of 1.0 because of graphics performance! Keep in mind that Nighthawk has a BFG 8800GTS graphics card installed. One can't get any lower than this score.

At 5:10 PM, Vista restarted for the 3rd and final time for the installation process. Vista immediately checked for and installed updates, including the following: driver for the Hauppauge PVR-150 TV tuner, Definition Update for Windows Defender, an update for Windows Mail Junk Email Filter for x64-based Systems, and an "ATK - system - ATK0110 ACPI Utility."

The entire Vista installation took approximately 30 minutes (wall clock time) from start to finish, and it went without a hitch.

Because of the Windows Experience Index base score of 1.0, Windows Vista Basic was enabled instead of "Aero." I was able to increase the screen resolution to 1600x1200, but with only 16-bit color. I was also happy to note the audio worked with the on-board SoundMax audio device.

After activating Vista online, I updated the chipset driver by using the Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility Version 8.1.1.1010 and installed the Intel Matrix Storage Manager Version 62.1.1002 (dated 1/4/2007).

The next step is to find and install a driver for the BFG 8800GTS graphics card so I can enable the Vista "Aero" interface and use my second monitor.

3DMark06 Speed Run

2007-01-20T11:02:00.000-08:00

I could not resist for bragging rights.

After seeing the incredible 3DMark06 scores posted by owners of the Nvidia G80 (8800GTX & 8800GTS) graphics cards, I had to see how mine compared with these scores.

All of my 3DMark06 benchmarks up to now have been run with both of my monitors enabled, image set to "High Quality," Antialiasing set to "4x," and Anisotropic filtering set to "8x" - my preferred operational settings.

With my own tests, I have determined that having more than one monitor enabled while running the 3DMark06 benchmark decreases the score by approximately 100 3DMarks.

The incredible 3DMark06 scores I referred to earlier are also run at the "High Performance" setting with both Antialiasing and Anisotropic filtering turned off. So I changed my settings accordingly and disabled my second monitor to see how my overclocked BFG 8800GTS (Core Clock of 660 MHz and Memory Clock of 1000 MHz) would perform against the "big boys."

I was totally unprepared to see Nighthawk score a high of 10292 3DMarks! Here's the 3DMark06 comparison for this score. I ran the benchmark 7 times and all the scores were above 10000 3DMarks with the lowest being 10143 3DMarks after upgrading the Nvidia driver from 97.44 to 97.92.

That was a fun exercise but my image settings are now back to my preferred operational settings.

In yesterday's post, I reported that it was not clear what the Core Clock is for my BFG 8800GTS since both ATITool 0.26 and Everest Ultimate were showing different values. I set the Core Clock to 660 MHz and both tools were ambivalent about what the Core Clock was actually set to. This morning, I decided to check with the NVIDIA Control Panel: it reports Core Clock of 660 MHz so that's what I'll use.

This morning, ATITool 0.26 is now consistent in reporting the Core Clock at 660 MHz and Memory Clock at 1000 MHz. However, Ultimate Everest is still not sure. It reports "GPU Clock (Geometric Domain)" at 648 MHz while in the "nVidia ForceWare Clocks" section, it reports GPU at 660 MHz. I think this may be an error in Everest Ultimate.

I am now preparing Nighthawk for the installation of Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000) alongside Windows XP MCE 2005. I will be sharing my experiences in this endeavor with you here.

Mission accomplished!

2007-01-19T22:28:00.000-08:00

I am impressed with the overclocking potential of the Nvidia 8800GTS graphics card. My BFG version of this card managed to reach a stable overclock of Core Clock at 650 MHz and Memory Clock at 1000 MHz.

The first step in achieving these speeds was to increase the Core Clock from 600 MHz to 620 MHz and keeping the Memory Clock at 900 MHz. My usual series of tests proved the BFG 8800GTS graphics card to be stable and artifact-free at this clock speed. Nighthawk managed to score a high of 9439 3DMarks using 3DMark06. This score is an increase of 223 3DMarks over the previous high score with Core Clock at 600 MHz.

The next step step was increasing the Core Clock to 640 MHz. Note that Everest Ultimate reports the Core Clock at 648 MHz while ATIT00l 0.26 reports it as 640 MHz. Again, Nighthawk proved stable at this speed using my usual battery of tests. The top 3DMark06 benchmark score at this speed was 9567 3DMarks, an increase of 128 3DMarks.

The final step was to increase Core Clock to 660 MHz from 640 MHz and Memory Clock to 1000 MHz from 900 MHz. I normally do not like making more than one change at a time, but I decided to take a chance since I was perfectly content to fall back to the previous stable overclock setting, i.e., I really had nothing to lose and much to gain.

Note that while ATITool 0.26 shows the Core Clock to be both 650 and 660 MHz, Everest Ultimate shows the Core Clock to be both 648 and 660 MHz. I'll split the difference and call the Core Clock at 650 MHz. Can anybody explain the reason for this disparity? I wonder if my BFG 8800GTS graphics card has its Core Clock capped at 648 MHz. Remember that I first saw this reading when I set the Core Clock to 640 MHz in ATITool 0.26.

Regardless, the Core Clock is faster than the previous setting because the new 3DMark06 top score for Nighthawk is now 9605 3DMarks, an increase of 38 3DMarks. However, this small increase in 3DMark06 score may be die to the higher Memory Clock of 1000 MHz.

Here's the 3DMark06 comparison of these benchmarks.

This completes my BFG 8800GTS overclocking exercise. I am very pleased to have achieved a 26% overclock of my graphics card.

This also completes my Nighthawk overclocking exercise. I am also pleased that I was able to increase performance by slightly over 1000 3DMarks.

My Blog will continue with sharing my experiences installing Microsoft's new operating system, Vista, on Nighthawk, including a performance comparison of Vista with Windows XP MCE 2005 on the same hardware platform.

Matched 8800GTX OC Speeds

2007-01-18T20:42:00.000-08:00

My BFG 8800GTS graphics card is now running stable at the same clock speeds as the BFG 8800GTX OC graphics card: Core Clock of 600 MHz and Memory Clock of 900 MHz.

Running ATITool 0.26 for over 2 hours scanning for artifacts and the three Nvidia 8800 Tech Demos (Smoke, Adrianne, and Froggy) to visually scan for artifacts and monitor the GPU temperature clearly show that my BFG 8800GTS has absolutely no problems running at these speeds. This graphics card has ramped up to these speeds so easily and effortless that I believe it can achieve at least a Core Clock of 650 MHz - my next target.

How about the performance of my BFG 8800GTS at these speeds?

I ran the 3DMark06 benchmark six times and my BFG 8800GTS managed to score a high of 9216 3DMarks, an increase of 174 3DMarks scored at 8800GTX clock speeds.

Here's the 3DMark06 comparison.

It's apparent that an increase in Core Clock speed has a larger impact on video performance than an equivalent increase in Memory Clock speed.

If my BFG 8800GTS graphics card can achieve a stable Core Clock speed of 650 MHz, I will be ending my video card overclocking exercise at this point even if there's an indication that it can do more.

With the release of Vista drivers which I have been patiently waiting for, I am anxious to install Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000) on Nighthawk this coming weekend. I want to perform and complete testing so I can move the BFG 8800GTS graphics card to Blackbird where I have been running Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000) since it was first released to MSDN subscribers on November 17, 2006.

Will my BFG 8800GTS graphics card achieve a Core Clock speed of 650 MHz? We'll see tomorrow.

8800 GTX Clock Speeds Achieved

2007-01-17T20:09:00.000-08:00

In my prior post, I was able to overclock my BFG 8800GTS to a Core Clock of 575 MHz (the same speed as the BFG 8800GTX) and a Memory Clock of 850 Mhz. The next milestone I wanted to achieve was to reach the 900 MHz Memory Clock speed of the BFG 8800 GTX.

The first step was to increase the Memory Clock of my BFG 8800GTS graphics card to 875 MHz. After 2 hours of checking for artifacts using ATITool 0.26 and countless more hours running the three Nvidia 8800 Tech Demos (Smoke, Adrianne, and Froggy) to visually check for artifacts, my BFG 8800GTS appeared to be stable with no signs of any artifact.

I ran the 3DMark06 benchmark three times and Nighthawk scored 9042 3DMarks on its best run, an improvement of only 11 3DMarks over its best score at a Memory Clock of 850 MHz. Here's the 3DMark comparison.

The next step was to increase the Memory Clock to 900 MHz. I repeated the same routine of running ATITool 0.26 for over 2 hours to check for artifacts, and running the Nvidia 8800 Tech Demos (Smoke, Adrianne, and Froggy) for extended period of time to visually check for artifacts and to monitor the GPU temperature.

No artifacts were detected. The BFG 8800GTS running at 8800GTX speeds passed the tests with flying colors.

However, the performance benchmarks results using 3DMark06 were disappointing. My BFG 8800GTS running at 8800GTX speeds (Core Clock of 575 MHz and Memory Clock of 900 MHz) was unable to reach, much less, top its previous highest score of 9042 3DMarks achieved at a lower 875 MHz. Its results at the 900 MHz Memory Clock speed were: 8998, 9021, 9012, 9003, 9015 and 9018 3DMarks.

It is obvious that incremental increase in memory speed yields minimal, if any, performance improvement. When it comes to memory, I believe that better latency instead of faster clock speed contributes more to improved performance.

BFG Technologies now also has a BFG 8800GTX OC (Overclocked) graphics card which runs at a Core Clock of 600 MHz and a Memory Clock of 900 MHz. That's my next target. Will my 8800GTS hold up at these speeds?

Scored 9031 3DMarks!

2007-01-16T19:54:00.000-08:00

Nighthawk has broken the 9000 3DMarks barrier!

After overclocking my BFG 8800GTS graphics card to match the specs for the BFG 8800GTS OC (overclocked) model in my previous post, I increased the GPU Core Clock to 575 MHz in the Geometric Domain (resulting in 1350 MHz in the Shader Domain) and the Memory Clock to 850 MHz in my first step to match the specs for the BFG 8800GTX model (Core Clock of 575 MHz and Memory Clock of 900 MHz).

I figured out why Everest Ultimate did not reflect the same clock values as ATITool 0.26 - I forgot to refresh the Everest Ultimate GPU display, wrongly assuming that it automatically refreshed like the "Sensor" display.

As usual, I ran the ATITool 0.26 "Check for Artifacts" for over 2 hours with no errors detected. I also ran the three Nvidia 8800 Tech Demos (Smoke, Adrianne, and Froggy) to visually check for artifacts and to monitor the GPU temperature.

My wife happened to walk in the room while I was testing with the "Adrianne" demo. She innocently asked: "Who is she and what are you doing staring at the screen?"

In response, I nonchalantly said: "Just testing your new computer, my love."

Speaking of the "Adrianne" demo, I have heard a rumor that it contains an "Easter egg" that strips Adrianne down to her earrings, necklace and the "chopsticks" in her hair with the correct combination of "secret" keystrokes. Don't ask me for the secret combination because I do not know. I don't even know whether there is any truth to this rumor.

But, back to overclocking.

I ran the 3DMark06 benchmark three times at this new overclock setting for my BFG 8800GTS and I was pleasantly surprised to see Nighthawk score a high of 9031 3DMarks - an increase of 284 3DMarks over the previous overclock settings equivalent to a BFG 8800GTS OC model. Here is the 3DMark06 comparison.

My next objective is to raise the Memory Clock to 900 MHz with an intermediate stop at 875 MHz. Achieving this would match the specs of a BFG 8800GTX model. However, keep in mind that the 8800GTX has 128 Stream Processors versus 96 Stream Processors for the 8800GTS.

Overclocking the BFG 8800GTS

2007-01-15T09:12:00.000-08:00

BFG Technologies' specifications for the BFG 8800GTS are: Core Clock of 500 MHz, Shader Clock of 1200 MHz, and Memory Clock of 1600 MHz. Everest Ultimate shows the actual specifications of my BFG 8800GTS as: Core Clock of 513 MHz (better), Shader Clock of 1188 MHz (worse), and Memory Clock of 1584 MHz (worse). I got a little more speed with the processor and a little less with the memory speed, but pretty close to factory specs.

BFG Technologies now also markets a BFG 8800GTS OC (Overclocked) version which increases the Core Clock to 550 MHz and the Shader Clock to 1300 MHz. These are my initial overclocking targets plus increasing the Memory Clock to its spec speed of 1600 MHz. I set the Core and Memory clocks to these values in ATITool 0.26 and started testing for stability, i.e., "Scan for Artifacts." Note that the Shader Clock is linked to the Core Clock. Also note that Everest Ultimate does not appear to show the same clock speeds as ATITool 0.26.

I allowed ATIT00l 0.26 to "scan for artifacts" for over 4 hours while closely monitoring the GPU temperature which is 54C @ idle. The image on the right is a screen capture at just over 2 hours of scanning for artifacts with no errors. Note that the GPU temperature is at 61C. The GPU temperature would spike up to 62C once in a while, but it never exceeded 62C. After over 4 hours of scanning for artifacts, ATITool 0.26 detected no errors.

Next, I ran the Nvidia 8800 demos (Smoke, Adrianne and Froggy) for an extended period to visually check for artifacts and to observe GPU temperatures. The Froggy demo exercised both the CPU (96-100% utilization) and the GPU. While running the Froggy demo, the GPU temperature peaked at 65C/149F, the CPU temperature peaked at 53C/127F, and the motherboard temperature peaked at 30C/86F. These temperature readings are all within acceptable range and I also did not observe any artifact problems.

How well does an overclocked Nvidia 8800GTS perform?

Quite well.

I fired off 3DMark06 and Nighthawk scored 8747 3Dmarks compared to the 8409 3Dmarks scored without GPU overclocking, an improvement of over 300 3Dmarks! Keep in mind that the 3DMark06 benchmark is primarily used for graphics performance so this result was to be expected. Here's the 3DMark06 comparison.

I might be able to hit the 9000 3Dmarks score yet.

I concluded my stability testing by flying between Caribbean islands in Flight Simulator X. I am happy to report that the scenery was perfect (no artifacts) and excellent. I also had one of my best landings ever.

My next overclocking target is to inch closer to the Nvidia 8800GTX specifications. I have already increased Core Clock to 575 MHz and the Memory Clock to 850 MHz. ATITool 0.26 has been scanning for artifacts since almost 2 hours ago (with no errors so far) as I write this post. I will report the full results tomorrow.

Your mileage may vary

2007-01-14T09:54:00.000-08:00

I have 2 almost identical systems (Blackbird and Nighthawk), yet their overclocking potential have been different. Blackbird is stable at 3.4 GHz overclock, yet the maximum stable overclock for Nighthawk is 3.2 GHz.

Both systems have the same motherboard (ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP), same processor (Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 with stock HSF), same memory (4 GB of XMS2 TWIN2X2048-8500C5), same power supply (Antec NeoHE550), and the same case (Antec Nine Hundred) with the same number of fans (one 200mm and four 120mm).

The only differences are the graphics (Blackbird has the BFG 7950GT while Nighthawk has the BFG 8800GTS), the number and model of disk drives (Blackbird has six Seagate 750GB SATA-2 drives while Nighthawk has two Maxtor 500GB SATA-2 drives), the audio (Blackbird has the Soundblaster XFi Platinum while Nighthawk uses the onboard audio), and the number and models of optical drives (Blackbird has a Samsung SATA DVD-RW Lightscribe drive while Nighthawk has a Memorex IDE DVD-RW and a Plextor SATA DVD-RW.)

None of these differences should make a difference in their overclocking capabilities, but one never knows.

It is commonly accepted that 2 systems with the same exact components will overclock differently.

Do not feel bad or pressured to match (or exceed) what others with similarly configured systems are able to achieve with their overclocking. If you are one of these "others," don't gloat and just be grateful for your fortunes.

On to overclocking my BFG 8800GTS Graphics Card

I have initiated overclocking my BFG 8800GTS graphics card using ATITool 0.26.

You might be wondering why I am using ATITool 0.26 if I have an Nvidia 8800GTS graphics card. As it turns out, ATITool can be used for both ATI and Nvidia graphics cards. I selected ATITool because of its many capabilities, e.g., ability to find max core and memory speeds automatically, artifact checking, and the ability to save and load multiple profiles.

The Nvidia 8800 graphics cards have excellent overclocking potential similar to the Intel Core 2 Duo processors.

The first milestone I want to achieve with my BFG 8800GTS graphics card is to overclock it to the same GPU clock as the BFG 8800GTS OC graphics card: core clock from 500 MHz to 550 MHz and shader clock from 1200 MHz to 1300 MHz.

That's where the BFG 8800GTS graphics card is running at the moment while I use ATITool 0.26 to test for stability, i.e., no artifacts. ATITool 0.26 has been checking for artifacts at this new speed for almost one and a half hours as I write this post.

I will share the results of this overclock (including 3DMark06 benchmarks) with you in my next post tomorrow.

Memory errors at DDR2-960 MHz

2007-01-12T18:08:00.000-08:00

I set the DRAM Frequency to DDR2-960 MHz in BIOS which equates to a 12:8 (DRAM:FSB) ratio with the CPU overclocked to 3.20 GHz (10x multiplier).

My Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X2048-8500C5 should be able to handle this easy. It is rated at PC2-8500 or DDR2-1066 MHz. According to its EPP (Enhanced Performance Profile) named "High Frequency" (Optimal Performance Profile), this memory can run at the memory speed of DDR2-1066 (memory clock speed of 533 MHz) at 2.2V with timings of 5-5-5-15 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) with a Write Recovery Time (tWR) of 8T.

I ran Memtest86 v1.65 to test the new configuration and it failed with an error after 3 hours (or maybe sooner since I was not constantly monitoring the test.) I attempted to change the DRAM Write Recovery Time to 8 DRAM Clocks in BIOS.

Note that the EPP specified a Write Recovery Time (tWR) of 8T, but the ASUS 0804 BIOS allowed a maximum of 6T.

I had no other choice but to set the DRAM Write Recovery Time to 6 DRAM Clocks. I restarted Memtest86 v1.65 and it failed after 1 hour and 40 minutes with 2 errors.

I decided to loosen the memory timings to 5-5-5-18 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) knowing that increasing the DRAM RAS# Activate to Precharge (RAS) setting to 18 DRAM Clocks would have very minimal impact on memory performance.

I ran Memtest86 v1.65 once more with the new memory timing and the test failed after 4 hours and 30 minutes with one error.

I believe that the only way I will be able to run this memory at DDR2-960 and up to DDR2-1066 is if the ASUS BIOS will allow DRAM Write Recovery Time (tWR) to be set to 8 DRAM Clocks as specified by the memory's Enhanced Performance Profile.

Given that the lastest version (0804) of the ASUS BIOS for the P5B Deluxe WiFi/AP motherboard does not allow this and maxes out at 6 DRAM clocks, I reset the DRAM Frequency to DDR2-800 MHz, memory timings to 5-5-5-15 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS), and DRAM Write Recovery Time (tWR) to 5 DRAM Clocks in BIOS. These were the last stable (error-free) settings for my memory.

I highly recommend that if you are running your memory at or close to its highest rated speed, check its stability by running Memtest86 overnight, specially if you have "Configure DRAM Timing by SPD" enabled to confirm that it is stable. If Memtest86 detects errors, disable SPD and set your memory timings manually according to your manufacturer's specifications.

I am perfectly content to run my Corsair memory at DDR2-800 MHz. This brings my attempt to optimize my memory settings to a close.

Next up will be overclocking my BFG 8800GTS video card.

Memories

2007-01-07T11:45:00.000-08:00

Up to this point, I have focused and concentrated on getting the most out of my Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 processor using the stock HSF, except for a short detour into improving the performance of my disk drives by migrating from a non-RAID set-up to RAID 0 using the Intel ICH8R Controller and Intel Matrix Storage Console.

I am pleased with accomplishing a conservative 20% overclock of the C2D E6700 from 2.66 GHz to 3.20 GHz with a very stable system.

During this particular phase of my overclocking exercise, I intentionally kept the DRAM:FSB ratio at 1:1 to keep the memory component "out of the way" while I experimented with the CPU clock since both the CPU and memory clocks are tightly linked together. Changing the CPU clock has an immediate and direct effect on the memory clock. Keeping this ratio at 1:1 made overclocking to this point so much easier.

But is this 1:1 (DRAM:FSB) setting optimal?

Hiker, in a post in the ASUS Forums about his overclocking experience, makes a case that this may not be the optimal setting for high performance memory.

Let's find out in this next phase of my overclocking exercise. Now that I have completed getting the optimal performance from my CPU and stock HSF, I turn my focus on getting the optimal performance from my memory: 4 GB of Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X2048-8500C5 memory.

As usual, my first step was to set a baseline at my current 1:1 (DRAM:FSB) ratio using the Everest Ultimate Cache & Memory Benchmark. The baseline DDR2-640 measurements are: 6470 MB/s for Memory Read, 5832 MB/s for Memory Write, 5915 MB/s for Memory Copy and 71.3 ns memory latency.

I then changed the DRAM:FSB ratio in BIOS to 10:8 by setting the DRAM Frequency to DDR2-800 MHz. After restarting the system (with the usual automatic temporary power-off followed by a power-on which is unsettling to people who are not used to this normal Intel P965 chipset behavior), the Overclock view in Everest Ultimate confirmed the new 10:8 (DRAM:FSB) ratio with the memory clock now running at 400 MHz (or DDR2-800 MHz).

Everest Ultimate also has a "SPD" view which you can use to check the SPD (Serial Presence Detect) and EPP (Enhanced Performance Profile) settings for your memory (if it supports either or both) which are read directly from the memory sticks themselves. More importantly, you can use the information in this view to confirm that you have "matched" memory sticks, i.e., memory with the same specifications, which is important for DDR2 operation.

I used this information to verify that the memory timings in BIOS are already at the optimal settings for my Corsair memory.

So, were there any performance improvements with the memory at 10:8 (DRAM:FSB) ratio (DDR2-800 MHz)?

The Everest Ultimate Cache & Memory Benchmark showed that Memory Write stayed the same, but there was a dramatic increase in Memory Read performance and improved Memory Latency.

Memory Read performance went up from 6470 MB/s to 7491 MB/s and Memory Latency improved from 71.3 ns to 63.2 ns. The improvement in Memory Read performance directly contributed to the improvement in Memory Copy performance from 5915 MB/s to 6397 MB/s.

I also ran 3DMark06 and there was a slight improvement. You can view the comparison here.

Hiker from Sweden may be right after all.

I ran Memtest86 v1.65 overnight for over 8 hours and 38 minutes (wall time) executing 18 passes to confirm system stability with this new memory setting. No errors were detected.

The next step in my overclocking exercise is to set the Corsair memory to 12:8 (DRAM:FSB) ratio or DDR2-960 MHz. I will report on this later this coming week since I will be gone travelling on business.

Hitting the wall at 3.4 GHz

2007-01-06T16:00:00.000-08:00

I ran Memtest86 v1.65 overnight for over 9 hours and 33 minutes (wall time) executing 19 passes without an error.

I restarted the system and allowed Nighthawk to settle in an idle state. The temperature readings at idle and 3.4 GHz overclock are: motherboard @ 30C/86F, CPU @ 49C/120F, Core #1 @ 55C/131F, Core #2 @ 56C/133F, and the GPU @ 53C/127F.

The first benchmark I ran was 3DMark06 and Nighthawk scored 8491 3DMarks, an improvement of 82 3DMarks over the 3.2 GHz benchmark. The graphics scores were similar but there was an improvement of 138 Marks in the CPU score.

The next benchmark I ran was the Everest Ultimate Cache & Memory Benchmark. There were improvements in all results, and the Memory Read result of 6856 MB/s now exceeds my highest score of 6781 MB/s achieved at no overclocking when memory was running at DDR2-1066.

I then ran 2 instances of SuperPi mod1.5 XS and took temperature readings at the end of the 20th loop of the 32M calculations. The temperatures were: motherboard @ 33C/91F, CPU @ 56C/133F, Cores #1 and #2 both @ 62C/144F, and GPU stayed at 53C/127F.

Both instances of SuperPi completed faster at 3.4 GHz versus 3.2 GHz overclock, completing 32M calculations 1 minute 14.031 seconds and 1 minute 14.312 seconds faster.

Everest Ultimate System Stability Test

My prior experience with the Everest Ultimate System Stability Test is that it really stresses the CPU more than other similar tools since I have observed it generate very high CPU temperature readings. This test keeps the CPU usage at 100% most of the time, with the usage dipping down to 50% when it switches tests.

The CPU temperature peaks at 72C/162F at 100% utilization, with both Cores #1 and #2 hitting 75C/167F.

During the periods when the Everest Ultimate System Stability Test is using the CPU at 50% while it is in transition between tests, the temperatures come down to more reasonable values.

The CPU temperature goes down to 57C/135F at 50% utilization, with both Cores #1 and #2 going down to 63C/145F.

At these very high temperature readings, I was not comfortable running this stability test longer than 10 minutes.

The good news is that all the temperatures are back at "idle" levels within 5 minutes of ending the stability test. The CPU temperature returns to 49C/120F, with Core #1 at 55C/131F and Core #2 at 56C/133F. The mother board and GPU temperatures stayed at 30C/86F and 53C/127F, respectively, throughout this stability test.

The Wall

I was feeling very good at this point so I fired up Johnny Lee's SP2004 ORTHOS as my final stability test with the intention of letting it run the rest of the day and overnight.

Nighthawk hit the wall just a little over 2 minutes into this stability test. Orthos stopped with the following messages: "FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4. Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file."

Windows XP MCE 2005 appeared to be running normally even after this error. I re-booted and tried a few more times before I gave up.

I lowered the overclock to 3.2 GHz and I have been running Orthos on Nighthawk since then, over 2 hours ago as I write this post. I can probably get over this hurdle by replacing the stock HSF and tweaking the voltages, but I am perfectly content at being able to overclock Nighthawk to 3.2 GHz, a respectable overclock.

Another one the rules I follow when overclocking is: Don't be greedy.

New baselines set

2007-01-05T23:12:00.000-08:00

I have confirmed other people's findings that if you are enabling or disabling PECI in BIOS, you must power reset in order for your PECI setting to become effective. My temperature readings at 3.2 GHz overclock are now back to "normal" after my experimentation with enabling and disabling PECI in BIOS. These will be the temperature readings for 3.2 GHz overclock @ idle which I will be using as my baseline going forward.

Before going forward on my next step in overclocking Nighthawk, I also wanted to resolve the anomaly in my 3DMark06 results which showed better results @ 3.0 GHz overclock versus 3.2 GHz overclock.

I decided to lower my overclocking speed back to 3.0 GHz and re-run 3DMark06. A score of 8308 3DMarks was representative of the scores @ 3.0 GHz overclock. I will be using this as my 3DMark06 baseline score for 3.0 GHz overclocking.

I then raised my overclocking speed to 3.2 GHz and this set-up scored 8409 3DMarks which is very close to my previous benchmark score at this speed. I will be using this as my 3DMark06 baseline score for 3.2 GHz overclocking.

These scores make more sense, an increase of 101 3DMarks (Overall score) and 177 Marks (CPU score) @ 3.2 GHz over 3.0 GHz overclocking. The SM2.0 and SM3.0 graphics scores were equivalent at both speeds which is what I expected. I was unable to account for the anomalous results I previously found.

Nighthawk is now running at 3.4 GHz overclocked speed. It will be a night of running Memtest86 stability testing followed by a full day of SP2004 ORTHOS testing for stability next.

Who needs water?

2007-01-04T18:35:00.000-08:00

Who needs water or other forms of extreme cooling for overclocking on the ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP motherboard? Based on my experience so far, the answer is nobody. SImply disable/enable/disable PECI a few times!

To summarize my experience to date (all temperature readings are at idle using Everest Ultimate): Before overclocking and PECI disabled, CPU temperature was at 37C. Overclocking to 3.0 GHz raised the CPU temperature to 44C (with PECI still disabled). Overclocking to 3.2 GHz further raised the CPU temperature to 49C (with PECI still disabled).

I then disabled PECI and CPU temperature at idle dropped to 39C (still at 3.2 GHz overclock). A comment was posted on this blog (since deleted by the author) that disabling PECI again did not change the CPU temperature back up, but instead remained at the same temperature when PECI was enabled. Another post in the ASUS Forums indicated that disabling PECI further dropped the CPU temperature to the 22-27C range!

Of course, I decided to do my own test and disabled PECI on Nighthawk. Guess what? I'm still overclocked at 3.2 GHz but my CPU temperature at idle dropped down to 27C - a drop of 12C!

Note that the temperature of both CPU cores are still around 56C compared with the previous 54-55C readings.

Based on these information, I do not believe that enabling or disabling PECI has any effect on the CPU temperature unless you have case fans attached to your motherboard.

But obviously, there's a problem here somewhere. I suspect the problem is with BIOS Version 0804 which I am using.

I quickly checked to see whether the PECI setting had anything to do with the drop in Nighthawk's 3DMark06 score. It did not. The score remained the same; the BFG Nvidia is still under-performing at 3.2 GHz overclock compared to 3.0 GHz overclock of the Core 2 Duo E6700.

Speaking of overclocking, Tom's Hardware has the 2nd part of their Overclocking Guide: Suggested Components & Settings.

Tom's Hardware also has a recent article titled "The Southbridge Battle: nforce 6 MCP vs. ICH7 vs. ICH8" which contains useful information about the ICH8R controller.

Stable, but mixed performance results

2007-01-03T21:28:00.000-08:00

I successfully ran Johnny Lee's SP2004 ORTHOS overnight without any problem. Before I retired to bed, I observed the motherboard temperature peaking at 34C/93C, the CPU peaking at 56C/133F (with PECI enabled*), and both CPU cores peaking at 74C/165F. This is close to the temperature readings when Nighthawk was overclocked to 3.0 GHz.

* I have observed a difference of 10C in the CPU temperature when PECI is enabled (lower) and disabled (higher).

I also ran 2 instances of SuperPi Mod1.5 XS. At the end of the 20th loop of the 32M calculation, the motherboard temperature was +4C higher than @ 3.0 GHz overclock, the CPU temperature was +7C higher than @3.0 GHz overclock, and both CPU cores were +5C higher than @ 3.0 GHz overclock.

The system definitely runs hotter overclocked at 3.2 GHz in comparison with a 3.0 GHz overclock, but still well within the operating range of the CPU and motherboard.

Both instances of SuperPi at 3.2 GHz overclock completed faster than at 3.0 GHz overclock by 1 minute 35.924 seconds and 1 minute 45.766 seconds.

I don't know how much of this can be attributed to the increase in CPU speed and how much can be attributed to the new RAID 0 setup of the disk.

I would suspect that most of the improvement in SuperPi performance is attributable to the increase in CPU speed.

My final benchmark this evening was 3DMark06. Nighthawk overclocked to 3.2 GHz scored 8384 3DMarks versus 8772 3DMarks @ 3.0 GHz overclock, a decrease of 388 3DMarks! CPU score increased by 152 Marks, but the SM2.0 and SM3.0 scores decreased by 349 and 148 Marks respectively. Here's the 3DMark06 comparison.

I was not expecting this kind of result. Is the increased speed of the Core 2 Duo E6700 processor at 3.2 GHz overwhelming the BFG 8800GTS graphics card and causing it to slow down?

I'm baffled. I will forge ahead for now and continue overclocking the CPU, but I am now seriously considering overclocking the BFG 8800GTS as well. I have heard that the Nvidia 8800GTS graphics card overclocks almost as well as the Intel Core 2 Duo processors.

Overclocked at 3.2GHz

2007-01-02T18:30:00.000-08:00

After being off for 2 weeks over the holidays, it was back to the salt mines for me.

Since my post yesterday, here are the changes I made to Nighthawk:

Set CPU Frequency to 320 MHz (and verified that DRAM Frequency followed to DDR2-640 MHz.)
Moved my Plextor PX-755SA SATA optical drive from the JMicron Controller to the Intel ICH8R Controller.
Disabled the Nighthawk_VISTA RAID 0 Volume in Windows XP MCE 2005.

Here are my observations (I'll save my observations from overclocking to 3.2 GHz for last):

Moving Plextor PX-755SA SATA Optical Drive to the ICH8R Controller

Windows XP MCE 2005 now sees my PLextor PX-755SA DVD-RW optical drive!

Windows XP MCE 2005 also boots up significantly faster.

Based on this experience and my experience on Blackbird with my Samsung SH-S183L SATA optical drive connected to the JMicron Controller (Windows Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000) does not recognize it as a writeable device), I highly recommend that you do not attempt to use a SATA optical drive with the JMicron Controller. It appears that this controller and/or its driver cannot properly handle SATA optical drives.

Unfortunately, I cannot connect the Samsung SATA optical drive to the ICH8R Controller on Blackbird since I already have 6 disk drives connected to it. I will probably be moving my Memorex IDE optical drive from Nighthawk to Blackbird.

Although the Plextor PX-755SA Motherboard Compatibility chart does not identify the ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP as being compatible, they are, indeed, compatible as long as you connect the Plextor PX-755SA optical drive to the Intel ICH8R Controller.

For additional helpful information about the Intel ICH8R Controller and the Intel Matrix Storage Console, check out Hiker's post in the ASUS Forums. (Highly recommended)

Disabling the 2nd RAID 0 Volume in Windows XP MCE 2005

Why did I want to do this? I am reserving this 2nd RAID 0 Volume for my test Windows Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000) installation on Nighthawk. I have read accounts of Windows XP thrashing Windows Vista installations in a multi-boot environment. I simply do not want to take this chance.

I also wanted to know whether the Intel Matrix Storage Console in Windows XP 2005 MCE would have a problem with disabling one of its RAID volumes in the OS. I'm happy to report that the Intel Matrix Storage Console was still able to "see" the disabled RAID 0 volume.

The Nighthawk_VISTA RAID 0 Volume is now ready for my test Windows Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000) installation. Now, if Nvidia would only release a Vista x64 driver for my BFG 8800GTS graphics card!

Overclocking to 3.2GHz

I ran Memtest86 overnight for 9 hours and 48 minutes at Nighthawk's new overclocked speed of 3.2GHz. I'm happy to report that no errors were reported after 19 passes.

Tonight, I will run Johnny Lee's SP2004 ORTHOS to further validate the stability of Nighthawk at this new speed.

The first test I ran was the Everest Ultimate Cache & Memory Benchmark. All results exceeded the 3.0GHz overclock benchmark.

Memory latency now matches the 71.3 ns observed prior to overclocking (compared to 76.1 ns at 3.0GHz overclock) and the memory read result (6469 MB/s) is closer to the 6781 pre-overclocked result (compared to 6178 MB/s at 3.0GHz overclock.)

However, the temperature readings bothered me. The motherboard temperature was now 3C higher at 3.2GHz overclock versus 3.0 GHz overclock.

The CPU temperature was 5C higher at 3.2GHz overclock versus 3.0GHz overclock.

By the way, I am using the stock HSF (Heat Sink & fan).

I read Tom's (Corn) post in the ASUS Forums about his overclocking experience and the effect of PECI (Platform Environment Control Interface) settings on temperature readings. He observed that temperature readings were lower when PECI is enabled in BIOS. I have PECI disabled in Nighthawk since I do not have any case fans connected to the motherboard, so I thought I would try changing it.

Sure enough, my CPU temperature went down to 39C from 49C. That's an incredible drop in temperature by just enabling PECI.

But, is the CPU actually running cooler? I'm not sure. Ultimate Everest shows both CPU cores still running at the same temperature (55C) with PECI enabled or disabled. Does anyone have an explanation for this anomaly?

I'll run the rest of the benchmarks tomorrow.

Happy New Year!

2007-01-01T10:19:00.000-08:00

Let's recap what I have done to the disk set-up on Nighthawk to date:

At initial assembly, I installed two Maxtor SATA-2 500GB drives.
Set the ICH8R Controller to RAID (in BIOS 0804, SATA Configuration as "Enhanced" and Configure SATA as "RAID."
Left the two drives as non-RAID.
Installed Windows XP MCE 2005 on disk #1 (with the other disk unused and reserved for Windows Vista).
Created a RAID array using both drives and migrated Windows XP MCE 2005 to a RAID0 volume which utilized half of the space on the array.

What to do with the remaining space on the RAID array?

I started the Intel(R) Matrix Storage Console and selected the "Create RAID Volume" action. I was greeted by the Create RAID Volume Wizard with the following messages (I highlighted the key words I focused on):

This wizard creates a RAID volume across hard drives or across available space on an existing array.

WARNING: Creating an initial RAID volume will permanently delete existing data on the selected hard drives or array. Back up all important data before continuing.

In order to preserve the existing data on a hard drive, use the 'Create RAID Volume from Existing Hard Drive' action instead.

The warning message caused me to pause and re-read the messages several times very s-l-o-w-l-y to make sure I understood the implications of what I was about ready to do.

I pressed 'Next' to continue and the 'Configure Volume' dialog was displayed. I specified "Nighthawk_VISTA" as the Volume Name. Note that the RAID Level allowed me to select RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10 or RAID 5.

That is very interesting. RAID 0 and 1 make sense since the existing RAID array consists of 2 physical drives. RAID 10 requires 4 physical drives and RAID 5 requires at least 3 physical drives (and a maximum of 4 physical drives on this controller). So, why is RAID 10 or RAID 5 an option here?

I selected RAID 0, the default Strip Size of 128 KB and pressed 'Next.'

The "Select Volume Location" dialog was then displayed. Only the existing array with available space was displayed as an option. However, I believe that if there were additional physical drives and/or other arrays with available space, they would show up here.

I was relieved to read the following message in the dialog box:

WARNING: Selecting hard drives will permanently delete the data on the hard drives. Backup all important data before continuing.

Since I selected an existing array (Array_0000) with available space and not hard drives, I felt relatively safe from losing any data.

The "Specify Volume Size" dialog was displayed after I clicked on 'Next.'

However, every input field was 'grayed out' in the dialog box. I can only conclude that there is a maximum of 2 RAID volumes in a RAID array. I had presumed otherwise prior to starting this exercise.

I clicked 'Next' and I believe there was a confirmation dialog which I failed to capture during the 'heat of the moment.'

Almost instantaneously, the RAID 0 volume was created and Windows XP MCE 2005 detected the 'new hardware.'

So Nighthawk now has 2 RAID 0 volumes (Nighthawk_XP_MCE and Nighthawk_VISTA) on a RAID array (Array_0000) consisting of 2 physical drives.

The 2 RAID volumes could also have been both RAID 1 or a combination of one RAID 0 volume and one RAID 1 volume.

I believe that the ability to create multiple RAID volumes (maximum of 2, it appears) in the same RAID array is the reason for the "Matrix" in the Intel(R) Matrix Storage name. My previous understanding of RAID technology was limited to RAID arrays and physical drives with an array equivalent to a volume.

My next steps are to get the Plextor PX-755SA optical drive working by connecting it to the ICH8R controller instead of the JMicron controller and to disable the new RAID 0 volume (Nighthawk_VISTA) in Windows XP MCE 2005. I do not want Windows XP MCE 2005 to "see" (and possibly corrupt) Windows Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000) when it is installed on Nighthawk_VISTA.

It also appears that Nighthawk has been very stable running at 3.0GHz so I will be overclocking it to 3.2GHz ahead of schedule.

Before I conclude my posting today, I want to quickly return to the ICH8R Controller. I am running 2 RAID arrays (one RAID 5 volume on each) with 3 Seagate 750 GB disk drives on each on my other system, Blackbird. I selected RAID 5 because of it provides the maximum insurance against loss of data due to a physical drive failure at the lowest cost.

One of the lessons I have learned about setting up a critical system where loss of data (whether on a RAID or non-RAID set-up) is unacceptable is to make sure that one has a good backup and recovery plan. I think everyone knows this, but I am always amazed at how many people do not bother to test their backup and recovery plan until they need it.

I have tested my backup and recovery plan for Blackbird since it is my "production" system. I have tested the ICH8R controller's ability to recover from a single disk drive failure by deliberately taking one physical drive in a RAID 5 array off-line (with the system powered off, of course), starting the system (the controller detects the missing drive and shows a "degraded" RAID status), stopping & powering off the system, placing the disk back on-line, and restarting the system.

Repairing the "degraded" RAID array is simple with the Intel(R) Matrix Storage Console and you can continue working with the system while the array is being repaired. The repair process barely uses CPU resources and system performance remains good. It takes almost 48 hours to repair a RAID 5 array consisting of three 750 GB disk drives! But the good news is that the ICH8R Controller is up to the task.

Before I conclude this post, I would also like to share 2 other things I have found with the ICH8R Controller:

Since the operating system no longer "sees" the physical disk drives in a RAID set-up, the OS loses its ability to monitor the health of the drives using S.M.A.R.T. but the Intel(R) Matrix Storage Console performs this. Unfortunately, it does not display the temperatures of the disk drives so you will lose the ability to monitor disk drive temperatures in a RAID set-up.
Once you have defined your RAID array(s), you can safely move the SATA connections to your physical drives around in the 6 SATA ports without any impact to your RAID set-up.

That's it for today!

RAID 0 Migration

2006-12-31T09:02:00.000-08:00

My first experience with RAID technology was over 10 years ago. The Lotus Notes servers I was responsible for were the first servers in my company to run RAID5. Since then I have wanted to use RAID5 technology at home, but until recently, this has been an expensive and difficult proposition.

One of the primary reasons why I selected the ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP motherboard for my recent 2 computer builds was for its RAID5 capability provided by the Intel ICH8R Controller. I wanted to learn more about the capabilities of this controller and the Intel Matrix Storage Console interface. My Nighthawk project provided me with that opportunity.

My original test plan with Nighthawk was to install Windows XP MCE 2005 on one physical drive, Windows Vista Ultimate x64 on a second physical drive, and the "Longhorn" Server beta on a 3rd physical drive.

I currently only have 2 physical drives installed with the ICH8R Controller set to "Enhanced/RAID" although I was not using both drives in a RAID configuration.

I highly recommend that if you have the Intel ICH8R Controller on your motherboard, set it initially to RAID in BIOS even if you are not planning on using RAID now.

It will make it much, much easier for you to migrate to RAID technology if you later change your mind.

Those who have been reading and following my Blog know that I have completed installing Windows XP MCE 2005 on the 1st physical disk drive. I was not using the 2nd disk drive since I was reserving that for my Windows Vista Ultimate x64 installation as soon as Nvidia releases a Vista driver for the Nvidia 8800GTS graphics card.

As I researched and learned more about the ICH8R Controller and the Intel Matrix Storage Console, I became fascinated with 2 of its many capabilities:

The ability to migrate disks from a non-RAID to RAID set-up, and
its "Matrix" capabilities.

I decided to explore these 2 capabilities while waiting for Nighthawk to settle at its new overclocked speed. This is the new disk configuration I decided to implement:

Utilize both disk drives in a RAID0 configuration and migrate the existing Windows XP MCE 2005 installation.
Create 2 RAID0 Volumes in this RAID0 Array of 2 physical drives, the first volume containing Windows XP MCE 2005 and the second volume reserved for Windows Vista Ultimate x64.

The incredible Intel ICH8R Controller and Intel Matrix Storage Console made this reconfiguration very easy.

I started the Intel(R) Matrix Storage Console (Version 6.2.0.2002) in Windows XP MCE 2005, selected the "Advanced Mode" view and "Create RAID Volume from Existing Hard Drive" action.

Volume Name: Nighthawk_XP_MCE
Raid Level: RAID 0
Strip Size: 128 KB (default)

The Console then prompted me to "Select Source Hard Drive" with the following note:

The data on the hard drive you select will be preserved and migrated across a new RAID volume.

I selected the 1st physical drive containing Windows XP MCE 2005 and I was prompted to "Select Member Hard Drive(s)" with the following warning:

Once the new RAID volume is created, it will span the source hard drive as well as 1 to 3 member hard drive(s).

WARNING: Existing data on the selected hard drive(s) will be permanently deleted. Back up all important data before continuing.

I selected the empty 2nd drive and I was prompted to "Specify Volume Size" as follows (I highlighted my inputs below):

Maximum Volume Size (GB): 931.5
Minimum Volume Size (GB): 470.4
Percentage of Available Space: 50 (initially set to 100)
Volume Size (GB): 470.4 (initially set to 931.5)

The following notes were displayed to assist you in specifying the volume size (highlighting is mine):

The minimum requested size for the RAID volume is determined by the size of the source hard drive. If you create a volume that uses less than 100% of the hard drive space, you may create a second RAID volume to use the remaining space.

Volume migration can take up to two hours depending on the size of the hard drive being used.

You may continue to use other applications during this time.

I started the migration without any hesitation at 5:28 PM and it estimated that the migration would take 3 hours and 30 minutes. During the migration, I continued browsing the Web while watching TV on Media Center on Nighthawk. The Windows Task Manager (Performance Tab) and Everest Ultimate were also running so I could monitor system performance. The migration barely used the CPU.

I am using two 500 GB disk drives and the estimate was not even close like other Windows estimates of disk operations. The migration completed at 9:55PM or 4 hours and 27 minutes later.

I restarted the system since the migration status window informed me that:

Migration is in progress. When migration is complete, you will need to reboot your system to use the entire volume capacity.

The main advantage of RAID0 is performance and this is already well documented. The main disadvantage is that risk of data loss increases since a failure on either disk drive will result in data loss.

That's how easy it was to migrate from a non-RAID to RAID set-up with the Intel ICH8R Controller and Intel Matrix Storage Console!

My objective today is to create the 2nd RAID Volume for Windows Vista Ultimate x64 installation. I'm still debating on whether to use RAID0 or RAID1 for the second RAID Volume. You will know my decision in my post tomorrow.

Quiet day of more testing

2006-12-30T17:49:00.000-08:00

Contrary to what I reported in yesterday's post, the Nvidia 8800 Tech Demo of "Froggy" does not utilize the CPU at 100%. My subsequent executions of the "Froggy" demo only utilized 45 to 50% of the CPU. I'm perplexed why my initial run yesterday showed 100% CPU usage. I'll have to find another program that stresses both the CPU and GPU at the same time.

Johnny Lee's SP2004 ORTHOS ran overnight and for most of the day on Nighthawk without any problem. I noted that CPU temperature reached as high as 67C/153F and the motherboard temperature maxed out at 32C/90F during the execution of ORTHOS. It appears that Nighthawk is running stable at 3.0GHz overclock, but I am not going to rush the process.

Patience is one of the keys to successful overclocking.

I am posting this right now from Nighthawk while the Media Center TV is on. Of course, Everest Ultimate is also running so I can monitor the system.

However, what is most interesting is that "a RAID 0 migration is in progress" also. I started this migration about half an hour ago.

My post tomorrow will focus on this RAID 0 migration and the incredible Intel ICH8R Controller on the ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP motherboard and the Intel Matrix Storage Console. There's a reason why "Matrix" is used instead of "RAID" in the console's name.

Overclocked at 3.0GHz

2006-12-29T13:16:00.000-08:00

I ran Memtest86 overnight for over 10 hours and 33 minutes without any errors.

I restarted into BIOS and checked the hardware monitor:

Motherboard temperature: 31C/87.5
CPU temperature: 45.5C/113.5F
CPU Fan Speed: 1776 RPM

All systems go for overclocking.

I then changed CPU Frequency from 266 MHz to 300MHz and verified that the DRAM Frequency automatically followed at DDR2-600 MHz staying at the 1:1 (DRAM:FSB) ratio.

I saved this profile to O.C. Profile 2 in BIOS, saved BIOS and restarted Nighthawk.

Computer "Properties" in Windows XP MCE 2005 (Rollup 2) showed:

Intel(r) Core(TM) 2 CPU
6700 @ 2.66 GHz
3.00 GHz, 2.81 GB of RAM
Physical Address Extension

and Everest Ultimate confirmed:

Maximum Clock: 3800 MHz
Current Clock: 3000 MHz
CPU Overclock: 12%
Memory Bus: 300 MHz
DRAM:FSB Ratio: 1:1

I allowed Nighthawk to sit for awhile and come to an idle state with the following readings:

Motherboard temperature: 27C/81F
CPU temperature: 44C/111F
CPU Fan Speed: 1776 RPM
GPU temperature: 51C/124F
Disk temperature: 23C/73F

The first benchmark I ran was the Everest Ultimate Cache & Memory Benchmark. There were significant improvements in all results except for two: Memory latency went up from 71.3 ns to 76.1 ns and memory read went down from 6781 MB/s to 6178 MB/s. At the same time, memory write went up from 4818 MB/s to 5419 MB/s and memory copy went up from 5399 MB/s to 5654 MB/s. The L1 and L2 results all improved.

The next benchmark I ran was 3dMark06. After overclocking, Nighthawk scored 8772 3DMarks, improving on the 8536 3DMarks scored before overclocking.

There was an improvement of 309 Marks in the CPU score, but only 7 and 3 Marks improvement in the SM 2.0 and 3.0 scores, respectively. Based on these results, my initial conclusion is that the Core 2 Duo e6700 CPU running at stock 2.66 GHz speed is not holding back the Nvidia 8800GTS video card at all. Hmmm. I may have to look into overclocking the video card also!

The last benchmark I ran were 2 instances of SuperPi Mod1.5 XS, primarily to see what impact 100% CPU utilization would have on the CPU temperature. The screen capture on the right was taken after the completion of the 20th loop for each instance of SuperPi. I was relieved to see the CPU temperature not go higher than 49C/120F @ 100% CPU usage by 2 instances of SuperPi.

From a performance improvement perspective, SuperPi showed none. The 1st instance showed an improvement of 2.031 seconds but the 2nd instance was worse by 2.048 seconds.

All in all, the 3 benchmarks show a slight performance gain from this initial step at overclocking. The proof will come when the final stable overclock is reached.

I really wanted to see how Nighthawk performs from a temperature perspective when both the CPU and GPU are running at 100% utilization after overclocking. I downloaded the 3 Nvidia GeForce 8800 Tech Demos: Adrianne, Box of Smoke and Froggy. While the Adrianne demo is visually stunning and stimulating, the demo stresses the GPU but not the CPU (only an average of 30% CPU utilization). The same applied to the "Box of Smoke" demo (average 5% CPU utilization.)

On the other hand, the "Froggy" demo uses both the CPU and GPU simultaneously at 100% so I ran it for one hour. The highest temperature readings during this period were:

Motherboard temperature: 30C/86F
CPU temperature: 51C/124F
GPU temperature: 65C/149F

After this run, the temperatures quickly settled down to their "idle" temperatures reported earlier in this post (see above.)

I will be running Nighthawk at 3.0GHz for about a week before I overclock it to 3.2GHz. This will give the components in Nighthawk time to get acclimatized to running at this faster speed.

Going on Manual

2006-12-28T18:27:00.000-08:00

Before doing anything today, I switched the speed of all the case fans from low to medium. This resulted in about 2C drop in both the motherboard and CPU temperatures.

My objective today is to get CPU and memory frequencies and voltages from their auto settings to manual.

The first BIOS change I made was to set the CPU VCore Voltage to 1.4000V (CPU frequency was already set to 266MHz), restarted and checked to verify that everything else was working properly. I left Nighthawk running at this setting all morning while closely monitoring temperature and voltages - no significant changes.

When I was convinced that I still had a stable system, I shut down and made the following changes to the memory settings:

DRAM Frequency: DDR2-533MHz
Memory Voltage: 2.25V

Configure DRAM Tuning by SPD: Disabled
DRAM CAS# Latency: 5
DRAM RAS# To CAS# Delay: 5
DRAM RAS# Precharge: 5
DRAM RAS# Activate to Precharge: 15
DRAM Write Recovery Time: 5
Static Read Control: Disable

I also disabled ASUS C.G.I. at this time.

I saved & exited BIOS.

Note: It is normal for the system to power off momentarily and restart after making these types of changes.

Nighthawk restarted normally and I quickly verified that the DRAM:FSB Ratio was set to 1:1 (it was originally at 12:8.) I ran 3DMark06 to see what the impact of this ratio change was. The system actually scored 8544 3DMarks at this 1:1 ratio which is higher than the prior 8529 3DMarks at 12:8 ratio. You can draw your own conclusions from this result.

Nighthawk is currently running at around 50% CPU Usage with the Motherboard temperature at 30C/86F and the CPU temperature at 49C/120F, with the CPU fan running at around 1767 RPM. The BFG Nvidia 8800GTS GPU temperature is at 55C/133F, for comparison.

All the preparatory work is now completed. I will leave Nighthawk running Memtest86 all night and if there are no errors detected, I will make the initial overclocking change to run the CPU at 300MHz (3GHz at the default 10x multiplier) and memory at DDR2-600.

It will be interesting to see how this initial overclock will affect the 3DMark06 benchmark. I am specially interested to find out whether the Nvidia 8800GTS has been constrained by the Core 2 Duo E6700 processor running at its default clock speed.

We shall see tomorrow.

BIOS Clean-up

2006-12-27T19:34:00.000-08:00

I'm using dual monitors with Nighthawk and I was wondering whether this has any impact on the 3DMark06 benchmark testing. I disabled the 2nd monitor and ran 3DMark06. There was an improvement of 101 3DMarks (8638 for single monitor versus 8537 for dual monitor).

I haven't shared a lot of details about the assembly of Nighthawk. There's plenty of information on the Web already about this particular topic, e.g., "How to Build a PC" from Tom's Hardware (one of my favorite Web destinations for over 10 years.)

Here's another good article from Tom's Hardware: "Overclocking Guide" - Part I of a series still in the middle of publication. Don't forget to check out the Tom's Hardware forums on overclocking - a great source of information.

Today, my next step in overclocking Nighthawk was to "clean up" the BIOS.

I wanted to disable anything I am not planning on using.

More importantly, I wanted to "lock down" the PCI Express Frequency and the PCI Clock Synchronization in BIOS. The many components in a computer work together in synchronicity with each other. If you ask one component to work faster, it will cause other components it depends on do it its work and/or other components which depend on it to do their work to also work faster! Two components you definitely do not want running faster or slower are the PCI Express and PCI buses. Most of your peripheral devices (e.g., your disk drives) are connected to either of these buses. The most common cause of instability problems when overclocking is when either or both of these clocks are set to the wrong values, inadvertently or intentionally.

Any performance gain to be realized from overclocking the PCI Express and PCI buses is negated by the certainty of system instability. It is simply not worth the certain agony and grief to follow.

Here are the BIOS changes I made to Nighthawk:

JumpFree Configuration

AI Tuning: Manual
PCI Express Frequency: 100
PCI Clock Synchronization: 33.33MHz
Spread Spectrum: Disabled

Note: I left all other new parameters from setting "AI Tuning" to manual at their default values for now.

CPU Configuration

C1E Support: Disabled
Vanderpool Technology: Disabled
Intel(R) SpeedStep(tm) tech.: Disabled

Vanderpool Technology (Intel's Virtualization Technology) can only be enabled or disabled after a cold start of the system. I may enable this at a later point in time when I start experimenting with Microsoft's Virtual PC. It is still unclear to me whether Vista and/or Virtual PC take advantage of this technology.

I saved the BIOS changes and restarted Nighthawk. I ran 3DMark06 to confirm that the BIOS changes had no adverse effects on performance. The score of 8536 3DMarks was off by only one point from the previous 8537 3DMarks (with dual monitors).

The only significant change I observed was that CPU temperature at idle is now at 43C/109F compared to 36C/97F prior to the BIOS changes. I may change the case fan settings from low to medium speed tomorrow.

That's all for today. I'm going flying - with Flight Simulator X on Nighthawk to do more testing!

Pre-Overclocking Baseline Measurements

2006-12-26T17:52:00.000-08:00

Faster speed for computer components usually requires more voltage which, in turn, generates more heat. Excessive heat contributes to component failure and reduces the life of electronic components. It's a delicate balance and I will be closely monitoring voltages and temperatures during my overclocking project.

I took my first reading in BIOS right after I turned on the computer:

CPU Temperature: 38C/100F
Motherboard Temperature: 24C/75F
CPU Fan: 1767 RPM
VCore Voltage: 1.288
2.3V Voltage: 3.232
5V Voltage: 4.966
12V Voltage: 12.038

There are 5 fans in the Antec Nine Hundred case: two 120mm infront (one set to Low and the other set to Medium), one 120mm on the side (set to Low), one 120mm fan in the rear (set to Low), and one 200mm fan on top (set to Low).

I allowed the computer to idle for 15 minutes.

I then started ASUS PC Probe, Everest Ultimate, and SpeedFan to get temperature and voltage readings:

ASUS PC Probe:

Motherboard Temperature: 28C
CPU Temperatyre: 37C
CPU Fan: 1767 RPM
VCore Voltage: 1.18
3.3V Voltage: 3.23
5V Voltage: 4.97
12V Voltage: 12.04

Everest Ultimate:

Motherboard Temperature: 28C/82F
CPU Temperature: 36C/97F
Core #1 Temperature: 40C/104F
Core #2 Temperature: 42C/108F
GPU Temperature: 53C/127F
Disk Drive Temperature: 25C/77F
CPU Fan: 1795 RPM
CPU Core Voltage: 1.18
3,3V Voltage: 3.23
5V Voltage: 4.97
12V Voltage: 12.04
+5V Standby: 4.90

SpeedFan:

Motherboard Temperature: 28C
CPU Temperature: 37C
Disk Drive Temperature: 25C
CPU Fan: 1786 RPM
VCore Voltage: 1.18
3.3V Voltage: 3.23
12V Voltage: 12.04

I ran 2 instances of Super Pi mod 1.5 XS, each instance calculating 32M digits of Pi. One completed in 21 minutes and 9.890 seconds. The other one completed in 21 minutes and 17.562 seconds. Both instances pegged both cores of the CPU at pretty much 100% utilization during the calculations. I ran 2 instances because I have observed that running just one instance of Super Pi in a dual core system kept one core fully occupied while barely utilizing the other core.

During the 20th loop (out of 24 loops) of the Super Pi calculations, I captured the temperature readings from Everest Ultimate and SpeedFan. Both tools showed Motherboard temperature at 32C, CPU temperature at 49C and 50C (the temperature reading of both cores was 55C) and fan speed at 1795 RPM and 1805 RPM. The slight discrepancy is due to both tools not taking readings at exactly the same time.

I then ran the Everest cache & Memory Benchmark. The results are as follows:

Memory:

Read: 6781 MB/s
Write: 4818 MB/s
Copy: 5399 MB/s
Latency: 71.3 ns

L1 Cache:

Read: 62647 MB/s
Write: 42522 MB/s
Copy: 85039 MB/s
Latency: 1.1 ns

L2 Cache:

Read: 20119 MB/s
Write: 16018 MB/s
Copy: 22003 MB/s
Latency: 4.5 ns

I followed this with running the Everest Stress Test for 5 minutes. Twice during this test, the ASUS Probe warned of CPU temperature exceeding 60C, but the computer continued running properly.

The last test I ran was 3DMark06. Nighthawk scored 8537 3DMarks, with the breakdown as follows:

SM2.0 Score = 3725
SM3.0 Score = 3709
CPU Score = 2338

The details of this test results can be viewed here.

Tomorrow is when I start tweaking the BIOS for overclocking.

Pre-Overclocking BIOS Reference Point

2006-12-25T20:48:00.000-08:00

One must have a reference point before setting out on a mission in order (1) to know how one is going to accomplish his/her objective, and (2) to be able to measure one's progress in achieving his/her objective.

Here are the initial BIOS settings for Nighthawk before I start my overclocking mission:

V02.58 American Megatrends, Inc.

Main

Legacy Diskette A: 1.44M, 3.5in.

IDE Configuration
SATA Configuration: Enhanced
Configure SATA as: RAID
Hard Disk Write Protect: Disabled
IDE Detect Time Out (Sec): 35

System Information
AMIBIOS
Version: 0804
Build Date: 10/20/06
Processor
Type: Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 CPU 6700@ 2.66 GHz
Speed: 2666 MHz
Count: 2
System Memory
Available: 2880 MB

Advanced

JumperFree Configuration
Configure System Frequency/Voltage
AI Tuning: Auto
DRAM Frequency: Auto
LAN Cable Status
Post Check LAN Cable: Disabled

USB Configuration
Module Version: 2.24.0-11.4
USB Devices Enabled: None
Legacy USB Support: Enabled
Port 64/60 Emulation: Disabled
USB 2.0 Controller Mode: HiSpeed
BIOS EHCI Hand-Off: Enabled
USB WIFI/USB 9, 10: Enabled

CPU Configuration
Configure advanced CPU setting
Module Version: 3C0E
Manufacturer: Intel
Brand String: Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 CPU 6700@ 2.66 GHz
Frequency: 2.66 GHz
FSB Speed: 1066 MHz
Cache L1: 32 KB
Cache L2: 4096 KB
Ratio Status: Unlocked (Max:10, Min:06)
Ratio Actual Value: 10
CPUID: 6F6
Modify Ratio Support: Disabled
Vanderpool Technology: Enabled
CPU TM function: Enabled
Execute Disable Bit: Enabled
PECI: Disabled
Intel(R) SpeedStep(tm) Tech.: Automatic

Chipset
North Bridge Configuration
Memory Remap Feature: Disabled
Configure DRAM Timing by SPD: Enabled
Static Read Control: Auto
Initiate Graphic Adapter: PEG/PCI
PEG Port Configuration
PEG Forece X1: Disabled
PEG Link Mode: Auto
South Bridge Configuration
PCIEX16_2/PCIEX1_1 Force: Auto

Onboard Devices Configuration
Configure Win627EHT Super IO Chipset
HD Audio Controller: Enabled
Front Panel Support Type: HD Audio
Onboard 1394 Controller: Enabled
Onboard PCIE GbE LAN_1: Enabled
LAN Option ROM: Disabled
Onboard PCI LAN_2: Disabled
JMicron SATA/PATA Controller: Enabled
JMicron Controller Mode: AHCI
Serial Port1 Address: 3F8/IRQ4

PCIPnP
Plug and Play OS: No
PCI Latency Timer: 64
Allocate IRQ to PCI VGA: Yes
Palette Snooping: Disabled
IRQ3 assigned to PCI Device
IRQ4 assigned to PCI Device
IRQ5 assigned to PCI Device
IRQ7 assigned to PCI Device
IRQ9 assigned to PCI Device
IRQ10 assigned to PCI Device
IRQ11 assigned to PCI Device
IRQ14 assigned to PCI Device
IRQ15 assigned to PCI Device

Power

Suspend Mode: Auto
Repost Video on S3 Resume: Disabled
ACPI 2.0 Support: Disabled
ACPI API Support: Enabled

APM Configuration
Restore on AC Power Loss: Power off
Power On By RTC Alarm: Disabled
Power On By External Modems: Disabled
Power On By PCI Devices: Disabled
Power On By PCIE Devices: Disabled
Power On By PS/2 Keyboard: Ctrl-Esc
Power On By PS/2 Mouse: Enabled

Hardware Monitor
CPU Temperature: 44.5C/112F
MB Temperature: 28C/82F
CPU Fan Speed (RPM): 1795 RPM
CPU Q-Fan Control: Disabled
Chassis Fan1 Speed: N/A
Chassis Fan2 Speed: N/A
Chassis Fan3 Speed: N/A
Chassis Q-Fan Control: Disabled
Power Fan Speed (RPM): N/A
VCORE Voltage: 1.288V
3.3V Voltage: 3.232V
5V Voltage: 4.966V
12V Voltage: 12.038V

Boot Settings

Boot Device Priority
1st Boot Device: [IDE: PLEXTOR DVDR P]
2nd Boot Device: [IDE: Memorex 16X-DD]
3rd Boot Device: [RAID: Maxtor 7H500F]
4th Boot Device: [1st FLOPPY DRIVE]
5th Boot Device: [ATAPI CD-ROM]

Hard Disk Drives
1st Drive: RAID: Maxtor 7H500F
2nd Drive: RAID: Maxtor 7H500F

Boot Settings Configuration
Quick Boot: Disabled
Full Screen Logo: Enabled
AddOn ROM Display Mode: Force BIOS
Bootup Num-Lock: On
PS/2 Mouse Support: Auto
Wait for 'F1' If Error: Enabled
Hit 'DEL' Message Displayed: Enabled
Interrupt 19 Capture: Disabled

Security
Supervisor Password: Not Installed
User Password: Not Installed

The ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP motherboard has 2 features I really like. The first one is the ability to store/load 2 O.C. Profiles. I saved the current profile to "Profile 1." The other feature I like is the ability to backup/load the BIOS to/from a USB thumb drive. I backed up the current BIOS and settings as A0804-00.ROM, just in case.

The next step is to record baseline readings of temperature, voltage, fan speed, and, of course, system performance. But all that work is for tomorrow.

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-24T14:32:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to all! Peace on Earth and good will to all men, women and children. All 3 of my children are safely home for the holidays and all is well with life.

I installed the latest chipset drivers using Intel 's Chipset Software Installation Utility and it fixed the "PCI Device" and "SM Bus Controller" problems. The only side effect was that I had to re-install the driver for my on-board sound device. I also installed the Hauppauge video decoder and the Nvidia PureVideo Decoder (trial) which now has my Media Center fully operational. The only remaining problem is that my Plextor PX-755SA DVD-RW is still not recognized by Windows XP MCE 2005, but I'm not going to worry about that for now since my Memorex IDE DVD-RW is fully operational. I think I am done with the setup.

Nighthawk is ready to fly.

Regarding temperature, voltage and fan speed readings, I have the ASUS PC Probe II, Everest Ultimate and SpeedFan all running right now while watching TV on Media Center. All 3 programs show the same exact temperature, voltage and fan speed readings. This is what I expected since all 3 are reading from the same sensors from the Winbond chip.

For fun, I installed the Flight Simulator X demo on this new system to see how well the BFG Nvidia 8800GTS video card performs. Flight Simulator X (FSX) is one of the most resource demanding program you can run on your system today (and probably for the next year or so.) FSX will gobble up whatever hardware component you can throw at it today and you still won't be able to run it well with all FSX settings at "Ultra High" - try it yourself. I was pleased just to see it perform reasonably well on Nighthawk with "High" settings. Now, flying with FSX is definitely a fun way of performing benchmarks - not to mention, it is also the safest way to fly!

One of the reasons why I wanted to install the Media Center Edition of Windows XP instead of just plain XP was to test my Hauppauge PVR150 TV Tuner since I haven't been able to run it in my Windows Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000) system - no Vista x64 driver! I also have an ATI 650 Wonder TV Tuner card with the same problem - no Vista x64 driver. But I have the ATI Wonder Elite installed in my Windows XP Professional system, so it was a good opportunity to do a comparison of the 2 TV tuners.

This is not a scientific comparison by any means. I used the same model monitor (Samsung SyncMaster 213T) for the "side by side" output display. One significant difference is the digital (DVI) connection for the ATI tuner versus the analog (RGB) connection for the Hauppauge tuner. The image from the ATI tuner is on the left and the Hauppauge image is on the right in the following photos for comparison:

In my opinion, I prefer the image output of the ATI Wonder Elite TV Tuner. The colors are richer and brighter. I tried to adjust the brightness of the Hauppauge PVR150 TV Tuner but increasing the brightness washed out the colors.

I will perform a similar comparison of the ATI Wonder Elite (based on the 550) with the ATI Wonder 650 in the future, after I have successfully overclocked Nighthawk.

An all-nighter (almost)

2006-12-23T13:27:00.000-08:00

I did not get to bed until the wee hours of this morning. I can't remember the last time I've done this. I didn't notice since my kids and their friends were still up partying when I finally called it a night (or morning). More to the point, I was enjoying myself working on Nighthawk.

Yesterday, before I installed the diskette drive so I could install Windows XP MCE 2005, I decided to install Windows Vista Ultimate x86 (RTM Build) on Nighthawk. The Vista installation proceeded to a point where it notified me it required a driver for the JMicron controller although it had already successfully booted from the Plextor PX-755SA DVD-RW hooked up to this controller! No sweat. I have the JMicron driver on a USB thumb drive (Vista can use USB thumb drives and optical drives during installation!) Vista found the driver but could not load it. I tried numerous times including changing the JMicron setting in BIOS to IDE, AHCI and RAID. Vista simply refused to install the driver (I tried different versions of the driver as well).

This appears to be a common problem documented in several 'Net forums. I'm still scratching my head over this one because I used the same optical drive to install Windows Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000) on Blackbird. I recall running into the same problem, but I got around it somehow. I just can't remember what I did. I'll look into this more when I install Vista next on the 2nd drive of Nighthawk.

To avoid the same problem while installing Windows XP MCE 2005, I decided to install an IDE Memorex DVD-RW drive (also connected to the same JMicron controller as the Plextor) in Nighthawk, making it the first boot device and the Plextor DVD-RW as the second boot device. BIOS sees both optical drives but Windows MCE 2005 does not detect the Plextor PX-755SA DVD-RW at all. The only other driver I had to "F6" install was the Intel ICH8R RAID driver.

I ran into a minor snag installing Windows XP MCE 2005 Update Rollup 2. It comes in 2 CDs. Well into the installation process, it prompted me to install the 2nd CD and installation continued. I was then prompted to insert the Windows XP Service Pack 2 CD which I did not have! I immediately went to the Microsoft site to download SP2 (it took over an hour to download), burned the ISO image, inserted it into Nighthawk - only to be informed that the files Windows XP MCE 2005 wanted were not on the CD. I cancelled the operation and the installation proceeded and completed.

Windows XP MCE 2005 booted successfully off the hard drive. I immediately noticed that I had no Internet Explorer. I was also unable to install device drivers, etc. Obviously, the installation was incomplete. I installed Service Pack 2 which I had already downloaded for over an hour. It appeared to run successfully but still no Internet Explorer! It's a real problem when one does not have an Internet browser these days! I finally solved the problem by performing an "upgrade" installation of Windows XP MCE 2005.

Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 looks great! It looks almost like Vista with the "glass" look. The first things I did was to install Windows update (60+ items including Internet Explorer 7), the Nvidia driver for the 8800GTS video card, and other device drivers. There are 2 devices not working: SM Bus Controller and an Unknown Device). The unknown device is my Hauppauge PVR150 TV tuner since I can't watch TV and/or DVDs in Media Center. I'll look into these problems later.

I was anxious to see how well the BFG Nividia 8800GTS video card performs so I installed the latest version of the 3DMark06 benchmarking tool and fired it up. Nighthawk scored 8542 3DMarks! In comparison, the overclocked (3.4GHz) Blackbird which has the BFG Nvidia 7950GT video card only scored 5328 3DMarks.

Here are the full results:

Nighthawk
Blackbird

I also installed the ASUS PC Probe II utility which shows Nighthawk idling with the motherboard at 28C, the processor at 38C, and the CPU fan running at 1767 RPM. In comparison, Lavalys' Everest Ultimate shows Blackbird idling (except for Media Player providing the music) with the motherboard at 32C, the processor at 42C, and the CPU fan running at 1688 RPM. I've heard there's some disparity about temperatures and voltages shown by various tools. I'll test, validate and document my findings on this subject later.

My next step is to install the usual benchmarking and stability testing tools on Nighthawk and start setting baselines at the default BIOS settings.

And its name is Nighthawk

2006-12-22T18:14:00.000-08:00

The computer I just completed building has a name: Nighthawk, and it takes its place (albeit temporarily) right alongside its almost identical twin, Blackbird.

I noticed that Nighthawk runs a lot quieter than Blackbird. This is probably due to the case fans running at low speed on Nighthawk as opposed to medium speed on Blackhawk. The low noise is also probably due to Nighthawk running 1 disk drive as opposed to 6 disk drives for Blackbird.

Memtest86 V1.65 ran almost 17 hours overnight without any memory errors! I'm very pleased.

Although I have 4 GB of memory installed, BIOS currently only sees 2.88 GB which is normal since I do not have the "Memory Remap Feature" enabled. The operating system I am currently installing is 32-bit Windows XP Media Center Edition. I will have this feature enabled when I install Windows Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000).

I have just started installing Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 on the first drive. The drive is currently being formatted. It is 500 GB in size so it will take a while to format. I do not like to perform a "quick" format, specially if the drive is new.

This process required the "F6" installation for the Intel ICH8R RAID driver and I do not have diskette drive installed on Nighthawk or Blackbird. I know I could have created a "slipstream" installation CD to automaticcaly include the driver and avoid having to use a diskette drive. It was easier for me to install a diskette drive, so Nighthawk has a diskette drive now. It's coming off as soon as I get done with the installation!

Now, I remember what I hated most about Windows XP installation. Come to think of it, my previous P4 computer also does not have a diskette drive. I wonder how I installed Windows XP Professional on it. Maybe I did not have to perform an "F6" installation.

Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 should be up and running on Nighthawk in my next post.

The moment of truth

2006-12-21T17:55:00.000-08:00

The mystery of my computer going to sleep in the middle of night probably has something to do with the new APC UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) which I connected just the previous day. Windows Vista recognized it when I first plugged the USB connector from the UPS to my computer. I just noticed that the APC UPS device no longer appears in my device list.

I waited the better part of the day for my Corsair memory. I knew it was going to be delivered today because I checked the Fedex tracking and it had already arrived at the local Fedex distribution center this morning. I got a little worried when late afternoon arrived and there was no sign of Fedex. I decided to check Fedex tracking and I was surprised to see a note that the package had been left on my front porch. I immediately checked and sure enough, my package from Zip Zoom Fly was on the porch. I shake my ahead in wonder 0f today's technology and the reach of the Internet. I had to check a server somewhere on the Internet to tell me that a package is waiting for me on my front porch!

I opened the package containing my 4 GB of Corsair XMS2 PC8500C5 DDR2-1066 memory and left it on my desk for an hour to let the memory reach room temperature (it's cold and wet outside - raining.)

I installed the memory, a BFG 8800GTS video card, a Hauppauge PVR150 TV tuner card and connected all the data and power cables. I performed a last check of all connections and turned the power supply on. The blue LED light on the motherboard turned on! So far, so good. I went through another round of checking everything visually.

And then I could no longer postpone the moment of truth.

It doesn't matter how many PC's one has built in the past, one still holds his/her breath for that initial push of the power switch. The moment of truth.

Click! A quick visual check shows all case fans and, more importantly, the CPU fan turning.

No video! Where the heck is the video signal? My heart was in my throat and I'm already thinking ahead about my approach for troubleshooting the problem.

Wait! The KVM (Keyboard/Video/Monitor) switch was on for my other PC. I quickly switch the KVM to the new PC and there's the reassuring prompt to go into BIOS since a new processor was detected! Whew! The only other time I experienced a heart-stopping moment like this was when I forgot to turn the power supply switch on and nothing happened when I clicked on the case power switch. Other than these 2 incidents, I have been very fortunate that every PC I've built successfully came alive on that initial power on.

I set the date & time and noticed that BIOS version 0302 (07/10/06) was installed. I upgraded the BIOS to the latest version 0804 (10/20/06) from a USB thumb drive using the ASUSTek EZ Flash2 BIOS ROM Utility V3.00. Make sure the USB thumb Drive is inserted before starting the PC. Otherwise, the EZ Flash2 utility won't recognize it. In my humble opinion, this is the safest way to update the BIOS on this board instead of updating from an operating system.

I left most of the BIOS settings on default for now except for the following: disabled the onboard Wi-FI, the 2nd Gigabit Ethernet port (PCI), disabled Quick Boot, set the motherboard to power on with either the PS/2 keyboard (Ctrl-Esc) or PS/2 mouse click, set the ICH8R controller to RAID and the JMicron controller to AHCI.

A quick check of the temperature indicated the CPU running at 48C/118F, the motherboard at 32C/89.5F and the CPU fan running at 1844 RPM. I have all 5 case fans (four 120mm and one 200mm) running at the low setting for now.

What's the new computer doing now? I started Memtest86 V1.65 almost 2 hours ago to test the memory and to "burn-in" the computer. I will leave it running Memtest86 overnight and if there are no errors detected tomorrow, I will start installing Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005.

It will be a while before I start any attempt to overclock this new computer. I want to make sure that it is stable and running without problems at the default settings before I start making changes.

Putting it all together

2006-12-21T09:23:00.000-08:00

I almost had a heart attack this morning. I leave my PC on all the time and this morning when I walked into my study, my PC was powered off. The first thought that crossed my mind was my PC crashed overnight. With my heart pounding heavily, I powered on with a click of my mouse and I was very relieved to see the "Resuming Windows" message. Whew!

I was somewhat surprised that Windows Vista put my PC to "sleep" since I have it set to "never put the computer to sleep." The only thing different I did last night was I closed all active applications except for the Windows Sidebar. Must be a Windows Vista feature: it must be smart enough to know that the PC isn't really doing anything so it will put itself to sleep regardless of what the power plan settings are.

OK. On to my new build...

I have all the components assembled and wired together for the most part. The ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP motherboard is mounted in the Antec Nine Hundred case with the panel connections (Firewire, USB, Audio, power, reset, and HD Led) all wired to the motherboard. The additional USB header for the back has also been installed (using the PCIEX16_2 slot position since I am not planning on installing a second video card in this PC.)

The Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 processor and stock HSF (Heat Sink & Fan) has been mounted on the motherboard and the CPU fan cable connected.

The Antec NeoHE 550 power supply has also been mounted in the case and the 24-pin EATXPWR cable connected to the motherboard. The plastic cover on one half of the EATX12V connector on the motherboard has been removed but I will wait until later to connect the 8-pin EPS +12V connector from the power supply to the motherboard until later.

The Plextor PX-755 SATA DVD-RW drive and one Maxtor 500 GB SATA-2 disk drive (I will add the other 2 disk drives later) have been mounted but not connected yet.

At this point, I'm waiting for my Corsair memory which I ordered from Zip Zoom Fly before I can proceed further. It was shipped yesterday so I should be receiving it later today. A note about Zip Zoom Fly: this is my second order from them, the latest one I submitted online last Sunday. It was only yesterday (Wednesday) when I finally connected with customer service on the phone that my order was processed. Unlike other online retailers, Zip Zoom Fly appears to require some interaction over the phone - at least based on my experience. But once everything is cleared up (Zip Zoom Fly is very cautious about credit card authorization and changes in shipping address, etc.), they get your order to you quickly. In fairness to Zip Zoom Fly, my first order was shipped to my work address and this second order is being shipped to my home address.

While waiting to complete final assembly, I will share what I plan to do with this new computer I am building. Ultimately, the plan is to run Windows Vista Ultimate x64 on this overclocked computer (with 3 Maxtor 500 GB drives in a RAID5 set) when I finally turn it over to my wife in February 2007.

Until then, my plan is to install a separate operating system on each of the 3 drives: Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, Windows Vista Ultimate x86 (RTM Build 6000), and Windows Vista Ultimate X64 (RTM Build 6000). Only one hard drive will be connected at any point in time during this experimentation phase when I will be conducting performance benchmarks and other testing.

What's this BYOOC about?

2006-12-20T19:20:00.000-08:00

BYOOC = Build your own overclocked computer

The purpose of this Blog is to share my experiences building my own "overclocked" computer so others can learn from my experiences & mistakes (hopefully none).

Why build your own computer? I find a lot of satisfaction in building something with my own hands that works and is useful.

What is "overclocking?" Simply, it means making your computer run faster than its rated specifications without any instability. Today's computer components make it even easier to "overclock" than ever. In spite of this, many individuals are afraid to do so and many who try fail - mostly because they try to use a "cookbook" method based on what other people have done. I'll try to avoid providing you with this approach, but rather provide you with the fundamentals so you can make your own choices.

Also, I'll warn you ahead of time that this is not about "extreme" overclocking. If that's what you're interested in, there are plenty other sites on the Web on extreme overclocking. This Blog is directed towards the individual who might be interested in overclocking, or someone who has attempted and failed in overclocking.

Why "overclock?" Probably for the same reason that others customize and "soup up" their cars.

I have built over 10 computers for myself and my family. My most recent build has the following components: ASUS P5B Deluxe Wifi-AP motherboard; Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 processor overclocked to 3.4GHz; 4 GB Corsair XMS2-8500C5 DDR2-1066 memory; BFG 7950GT video card; Soundblaster X-FI Platinum sound card; 6 Seagate 750 GB hard drives (2 RAID5 sets); Samsung SH-S183L DVD-RW drive; Antec NeoHE 550 power supply; and all housed in an Antec Nine Hundred case. I'm running Windows Vista Ultimate x64 (RTM Build 6000) on this computer. I selected these specific components based on my own prior experiences and after a lot of research on the Web.

I'm about ready to build a similarly configured computer for my wife. The only differences in configuration will be: no sound card (I'll be using the onboard sound); BFG 8800GTS (this will be swapped to my computer once the Vista driver is available); Plextor PX-755SA DVD-RW drive; and 3 Maxtor 500 GB hard drives (RAID5). This system configuration will be the basis of this Blog.

Does she really need a high-power computer like this? Yes, if I can convince her to do the video editing of the many hours of 8mm videotapes we have collected of our children. That's my primary ulterior motive in this exercise - to save myself work! The second ulterior motive is that I plan to use her computer to experiment and test before I turn it over to her in February. The third and final ulterior motive is that I can use her computer in the future as backup in case of emergency.

BYOOC

My iaStor Problem Solved!

iaStor Timeout Errors

Vista Reliability Monitor

No Vista x64 support for APC PowerChute Personal Edition 2.1

Restore using Windows Home Server

Remote access using Windows Home Server

A week with Windows Home Server

Monitoring backups

Backup using Windows Home Server

Configuring automatic backup

Personal Folders

Windows Home Server Connector

NVIDIA makes some progress

Windows Home Server

Longhorn installed in a virtual PC

BSOD with Longhorn Installation

Installing a new disk drive

Preparing for Longhorn

The best of both worlds

Ubuntu under Virtual PC 2007

Installing Windows 98SE on Nighthawk

Your mileage may vary

Also cool under stress

Running cooler

Blackbird also gets a new HSF

A real scare

Another run at 3.4 GHz

Running cool

Nighthawk is getting a new HSF

Another scary Vista problem

Epson Perfection 3170 Photo Vista Driver

Realtek RTL8187 Wireless 802.11g

APC: Lack of attention to details & the customer

SoundMAX good news & bad news

The most troublesome JMicron Controller

More NVIDIA Vista driver problems

AMD/ATI finally comes through

NVIDIA redeems itself... almost

Windows Ultimate Extras

Vista hype nears crescendo

Another BIOS update from ASUS

More Vista driver woes

The weakest links

BIOS updated to Version 0910

Essential Vista?

On the bleeding edge

3DMark06 Speed Run

Mission accomplished!

Matched 8800GTX OC Speeds

8800 GTX Clock Speeds Achieved

Scored 9031 3DMarks!

Overclocking the BFG 8800GTS

Your mileage may vary

Memory errors at DDR2-960 MHz

Memories

Hitting the wall at 3.4 GHz

New baselines set

Who needs water?

Stable, but mixed performance results

Overclocked at 3.2GHz

Happy New Year!

RAID 0 Migration

Quiet day of more testing

Overclocked at 3.0GHz

Going on Manual

BIOS Clean-up

Pre-Overclocking Baseline Measurements

Pre-Overclocking BIOS Reference Point

Merry Christmas!

An all-nighter (almost)

And its name is Nighthawk

The moment of truth

Putting it all together

What's this BYOOC about?