NF4 LanParty - initial build w/pictures

[Imrahil]

I put one on mine, it was a piece of cake.

Ok, thank you

[Radical_53]

Installing Windows does seem to be more complicated than on some other boards. Mine was extremely picky about raid drivers, so you might check which ones you're trying to install.

Also, I had better results when using a "nlite" DVD instead of the original CD, somehow worked better for my system.

[General Septem]

My problem with the Windows installation is that I couldn't customize everything like I used to be able to. I always liked to have my date/time military style (23:46 2006.1.29) but it never gave me that option in the installation. Also, I usually installed all available fonts (including foreign languages) but it never gave me that option either. Although for the fonts I can put the CD in and do it that way.

[Radical_53]

Well, normally that's something you can change with programs like nlite. Having problems like this with an "original" CD is kinda weird.

 

Btw., as you were talking of fonts... I always prefer to take them out, with some additional components removed my installation only has half the normal size (~2gb).

[General Septem]

Well, normally that's something you can change with programs like nlite. Having problems like this with an "original" CD is kinda weird.

 

Btw., as you were talking of fonts... I always prefer to take them out, with some additional components removed my installation only has half the normal size (~2gb).

I always do completely full installations, myself. This is because I keep my smallest HDD for windows and programs only, and I keep all of my personal files on a 140 GB HDD. With 40 GB, and all that's on it are program files, I tend to have tons of space which I'd never otherwise use.

[uhaulball]

Angry_games, my first build was with the expert board (yes its ironic). My build fortunately went fine. but i just wanna ask, why did u first build it outside of the case with just one ram module? is this to check if anything is wrong with each part as u recieve them? so u can RMA them if necessary? Also, on my expert board, i dont have the female 4pin connector near my chipset fan. i only have the 24pin and 4pin. and then a small 4pin near the first pci-e slot. am i missing anything? im pretty sure im not but i just want you to clarify.

[Angry_Games]

but i just wanna ask, why did u first build it outside of the case with just one ram module?

 

I think this is covered in about 200+ other threads, but I'll give you the short of it again:

 

we build outside the case with minimal components to verify that the board/memory/cpu/vid all work and will boot up so we don't go through the hassle of installing everything, including all hd's and cd-roms etc and then find out it won't boot for one reason or another.

 

Also, on my expert board, i dont have the female 4pin connector near my chipset fan. i only have the 24pin and 4pin. and then a small 4pin near the first pci-e slot. am i missing anything? im pretty sure im not but i just want you to clarify.

 

you actually have a 24-pin ATX + 8-pin EPS 12v connection, then a 4-pin floppy connector at the front of the PCI-E slot...but no you are not missing anything. The EXPERT board does not have the 4-pin molex power connection.

[WildBill]

Thanks, this thread helped out alot. Did everything as advertised. She's running out of the case still, with memtest running. So far, so good. I slapped my other stick of memory in after the initial bootup and setting optimized defaults.

 

Gonna leave it run for a bit while I cut and fit my loop in the case.

[will808]

Thanks for a great thread Angry - I've read through it for my Expert board, and I have a couple of questions that I can't see answered (or am a bit confused about) here:

 

1) I can't even see the 4 pin molex connection on my board. I've plugged in the 24 pin, and in the 8 pin socket behind it, I've plugged in my 4 pin cable as it says in the manual. I've also plugged in the 4 pin floppy. The pc boots, but I can't find the 4 pin molex - please tell me it does actually exist!

 

2) I've got some stability problems and am thinking the memory placement might be wrong. I read the post(s) to say they should be in the orange slots, but I also saw a post from angry saying that when the board is running stable, they should go in the yellow slots?

 

3) I'm currently using a single ATi X550 with no PCI-E connection. The pc runs reasonably well until I try a game such as ET or CoD2 - I can play for about 5 minutes before the system crashes with a variety of stop errors. I'm guessing I should have the S/PDIF jumper set to ALC50 rather than nForce4 SLI?

 

I think that's it for now - all temps look OK, it's just the problem with gaming causing a system crash. Many thanks for any help.

 

580 watt Hiper PSU

LanParty Expert SLI

AMD 64 3000

Ati X550 pci-e

2 x 512mb Corsair DDR400

200gb Western Digital SATA

[Radical_53]

1. The Expert has, as Angry stated just some posts before, only 24+8 pin plus the floppy connector. No 4-pin molex anymore.

2. Well, how to start with memory. I prefer to test my sticks separately first, then put both of them in and check them with the built-in memtest. Then I swap them around, like from orange to yellow slots, plus swapping the modules themselves. Sometimes that helps if you use one module as "master", even if I don't understand "why" (it works, so it's ok).

[will808]

Thanks for the response - it's a long thread so I guess I missed the obvious. I've moved both sticks into the yellow slot, and managed a good few minutes gaming without a crash, so it being Saturday and all, it's time for some serious testing

[Radical_53]

Well, go ahead With the DFI boards it has always helped me to try various combinations of memory module placement. Normally I got 2-3 combinations that "worked" (like RAM worked at specs), with some further testing ending up at one combination working "best". At that point I ususally started messing around with further timings and tweaking.