Build Thread

[Sarex]

http://www.guru3d.com/news_story/intel_skylake_processors_available_in_2h_2015_get_ddr3_and_ddr4_support.html

[Guest Slinky]

http://www.guru3d.com/news_story/intel_skylake_processors_available_in_2h_2015_get_ddr3_and_ddr4_support.html

 

Wouldn't be surprised if they push the launch a bit later, but things are going as I planned. Built a xeon rig as cheap as I sensibly could and it will carry me nicely till skylake arrives. And actually little over it for a slight price drops. Then it's monster rig time.

 

Edit: Build -> Built.

Edited June 5, 2014 by Slinky

[Sarex]

Wouldn't be surprised if they push the launch a bit later, but things are going as I planned. Build a xeon rig as cheap as I sensibly could and it will carry me nicely till skylake arrives. And actually little over it for a slight price drops. Then it's monster rig time.

 

I am more and more up for the option to pull the trigger on the Haswell-e build, 5820k will be a 6-core and "cheap", then go for a asus-pro x99 board and some cheap ddr4 sticks.

[Keyrock]

 

http://www.guru3d.com/news_story/intel_skylake_processors_available_in_2h_2015_get_ddr3_and_ddr4_support.html

 

Wouldn't be surprised if they push the launch a bit later, but things are going as I planned. Built a xeon rig as cheap as I sensibly could and it will carry me nicely till skylake arrives. And actually little over it for a slight price drops. Then it's monster rig time.

 

Edit: Build -> Built.

 

That's my plan, except substitute Broadwell in Skylake's place, reason being that switching to Broadwell will be as easy as popping the Haswell Xeon out, selling it on eBay, and popping a Broadwell in.  Skylake will require a whole new mobo as it's going to be a different socket and all that jazz.  Broadwell will be the last hurrah for LGA 1150, to the best of my knowledge.

 

If Skylake does show up next year, I think it will be very late in the year.  Skylake showing up in July or August doesn't make any sense.  We'll see Broadwell this year, so Intel has said, but I'm very convince it will only be the mobile chips.  Pushing out the desktop chips this year makes no sense whatsoever.  They just put out Haswell Refresh and Devil's Canyon, why put out desktop Broadwell this year if there is no competition whatsoever from AMD?  Pushing out the mobile chips as soon as humanly possible does, however, make all the sense in the world.  They need those chips out in the wild yesterday to take the battle to ARM.

 

My prediction is mobile Broadwell November or December 2014, desktop Broadwell April or May 2015, Skylake early 2016.

Edited June 5, 2014 by Keyrock

[Keyrock]

Speaking of Xeons.  The final piece of the puzzle is here.  Suddenly, I'm starting to feel sick.  I may need to go home early...  (j/k  )

[Guest Slinky]

Hehe, happy building. That original CPU heatsink looked really, really small compared to Thermalright Macho I put in. Stays cool for sure

[Keyrock]

Hehe, happy building. That original CPU heatsink looked really, really small compared to Thermalright Macho I put in. Stays cool for sure

I was shocked at how tiny the box it came in is.  I haven't opened the box to look inside yet, but I can only assume the heatsink and fan are pretty small.  No worries, though, as I won't be doing any overclocking anyway, so heat shouldn't be an issue, especially since this is one of the Haswell Refresh Xeons (it's the successor to the E3-1230v3), and the Haswell Refresh chips supposedly run a bit cooler than the original Haswells (even the unlocked ones, not just Devil's Canyon).

[Sarex]

Have fun dude, hope it starts on the first try.

[Guest Slinky]

I'm sure the original heatsink keeps it cool enough, you don't need that effective heatsink with 80W TDP.

 

I only got that thermalright because I like to keep my pc as silent as possible and I don't really trust original heatsinks in that regard.

[Keyrock]

Everything is showing up today.  My Tux super key keycaps, yay!

 

 

[Humanoid]

Speaking of Xeons.  The final piece of the puzzle is here.  Suddenly, I'm starting to feel sick.  I may need to go home early...  (j/k  )

Sick is the feeling when you hit the power button and nothing happens. But then it turns out it's only because you forgot to flick the switch at the back of the PSU. At least, that's how it is for me. That, or the power switch wasn't properly connected to the motherboard header.

 

EDIT: Yeah, the Intel heatsink doesn't feel very substantial. But take comfort in the fact that the dual-core Intel CPUs come with somehow even flimsier units, which amazingly is possible. And at least your case has a cutout in the motherboard tray so you can check the push-pins are installed correctly. I refuse to install an Intel HSF without being able to see reverse of the motherboard, even if that means having to pull the board and all components out of the case.

Edited June 5, 2014 by Humanoid

[Keyrock]

 

Speaking of Xeons.  The final piece of the puzzle is here.  Suddenly, I'm starting to feel sick.  I may need to go home early...  (j/k  )

Sick is the feeling when you hit the power button and nothing happens. But then it turns out it's only because you forgot to flick the switch at the back of the PSU. At least, that's how it is for me. That, or the power switch wasn't properly connected to the motherboard header.

 

I always get tripped up by that.  The ASRock mobo documentation and the actual writing on the mobo itself are fairly clear, so I think I have it all connected properly, but I won't know for sure until I put the chip in place and plug the PSU in later today.  Why can't all the mobo manufacturers get together and make one standard layout then make that whole thing one connector that can only fit one way instead of several small connectors you need to **** around with?  Is it because it makes too much sense?

Edited June 5, 2014 by Keyrock

[Humanoid]

Well one benefit is that you can leave all but the power and reset switches disconnected, because screw the obsession with bright blue LEDs.

[Keyrock]

Well one benefit is that you can leave all but the power and reset switches disconnected, because screw the obsession with bright blue LEDs.

But blue LEDs are purrrrrrrrdy. 

[ManifestedISO]

How do you boot to disk with Linux anyway. The SteamOS doesn't have a formatting thing, does it. No Windows splash page, I wouldn't know what to do with myself. 

[Keyrock]

How do you boot to disk with Linux anyway. The SteamOS doesn't have a formatting thing, does it. No Windows splash page, I wouldn't know what to do with myself. 

Same way you boot to disk in Windows.  Linux installers come with formatting and partitioning tools, generally far more robust tools than the ones that come with Windows installers.  There's a splash screen booting to Linux, you can even customize it yourself if you know what you're doing.

 

I'm going to toss a SteamOS iso on a USB stick (possibly a custom one with better partitioning tools than the official SteamOS iso) and adjust BIOS to boot from the USB stick.  From there in a few steps SteamOS will install itself on my SSD.  It will be a few extra steps for me since I like to do custom partitioning schemes.

 

Once everything is installed and I reboot and remove the USB stick, I'll get a screen that will look something like this:

 

 

If I was doing a dual-boot setup then it would look something like this:

 

 

But I won't so the first image will be closer to what it looks like.  If I don't press anything then after 5 or 10 seconds it will boot into the first option (I'll likely fiddle with this myself and change it to 2 seconds).  From there it boots up just like Windows into a login screen then either straight to Steam Big Picture Mode or the desktop.

[Sarex]

So Keyrock the big question, how do you apply your paste? Do you spread it over the cpu with a credit card or do you put some in the middle and let the heat sink spread it out?

[Keyrock]

I use a card to spread a thin layer covering the whole surface myself.

[mkreku]

I used my finger. I felt like a pervert.

[Sarex]

I use a card to spread a thin layer covering the whole surface myself.

 

You create air bubbles like that.

 

[Keyrock]

Moot point for this particular CPU since the paste comes already applied to the heatsink.

[Sarex]

Yeah I was just wondering.

[Keyrock]

It's alive.  It's aliiiiiiiiive!  Of course the official SteamOS installer is garbage, so I'm in the process of downloading a custom installer iso one of the Linux hackers made that has way better...  everything (Seriously, GabeN, you used to work for freakin' Microsoft.  Can't you make a decent installer?).  But I booted the beast up and it ran, went into BIOS (the ASRock BIOS looks sexy as ****), changed the XMP mode for my RAM.  Everything works fine so far.  Monitor looks good, no dead pixels noticed.  Granted, this is all from a few moments of experience.

 

It only took me 3 tries to get everything hooked up correctly.  I actually had all the switch and LEDs hooked up correctly first try, but neglected to connect the 12V CPU power connector (doh!).  Once I got that hooked up I noticed I neglected to hook up the chassis fans to the power supply (doh! doh!).  Now I think everything is hooked up properly.

Edited June 5, 2014 by Keyrock

[ManifestedISO]

That is exciting. I love fixing a 'dead' component just by actually plugging it in.  Which game will be first ...

[Keyrock]

Which game will be first ...

The Witcher 2.  I am limited in what I can play until my new 360 controller arrives (hopefully tomorrow, likely Monday).  Also, I want something that pushes graphical boundaries so that I can see what the 780Ti can do and orgasm to 1440p glory.  The Witcher 2 will surely achieve that.  It's downloading at the moment.  In the meanwhile I'm de-gimping SteamOS into a more full featured Linux system.  I understand why so much stuff is hidden from the user in the default setup, since it's meant to function like a console, and in its default setup it does just that, booting you straight into Steam Big Picture Mode.  So far I've changed it to booting to a login screen from where I can go straight to desktop (also, I'm not a fan of having a computer, even a private desktop in a locked apartment that bypasses login and boots straight into the system with no password needed) and I've added in official Debian repos so that I can install more programs.  Next order of business is to replace this Gnome 3 desktop with something I like better, either Cinnamon or XFCE.  The great thing about Linux is that ifi you don't like something, even parts of the base system, you can replace them with something else, and there will likely be several, if not dozens, of alternative choices.

 

As an aside, I am THOROUGHLY impressed with how quiet the 3 stock 120mm fans in my ANTEC GX500 case are.  They essentially make no noise at all even when running full bore, all you hear is the movement of the air.

Edited June 6, 2014 by Keyrock