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2:11pm August 24, 2006
Never go as planned.
The computer build didn't go as planned. I had planned on using the ECS KA3 MVP motherboard and AMD AM2 3800+, inside of the Lian-Li V1200, along with an OCZ GameXtream 700W PSU, 2GB of Corsair DDR2 800 ram, and 2 ATI X1900 crossfire cards.
I decided that I wanted to remove the unpainted internal parts of the V1200 and give them a couple coats of paint. Using a 1/8? drill bit, I removed all the rivets holding the inside of the V1200 together. I settled on using a Dupli-color automotive gloss white paint. I wanted to use red, but later on I plan on adding white UV lights, and didn?t want the paint looking like pink with the lights on. The only problem with white is that it might show collecting dust more than other colors.
I used a hand sander to scuff up the metal pieces I was going to paint. I then laid down 2 coats of wet-sand automotive primer. I used 400 grit wet sandpaper to remove the blemishes. After letting the primer dry, I used the acrylic enamel gloss white paint to finish out the parts. Some of the parts had bumps and blemishes on them, so I sanded them down again and repainted them. The problem with the paint I got is that it takes 7 days to cure, so you can?t repaint for a whole week.
During the whole painting process, I couldn?t wait to build the system, so I tore my old system out of the old hydraulic case and assembled the new hardware inside the old case. I installed the ATI x1900 Crossfire Edition (master card) into PCIe slot 3 which is where the motherboard manual says to install it. I then connected the new Seagate 320GB drives to the ATI Raid controller. I also installed the X-Fi sound card in the bottom PCI slot.
With this setup, I installed the latest Vista Beta build on the system. An important thing to note here is that Vista allows CD's to be used to install third party Raid drivers. This is a crucial difference later on in my article. Vista installed 99% then failed. I tried it once more and again it failed at 99%. I wiped the drives and proceeded to install XP.
This is where I ran into problems with ECS sending the drivers for the Raid controller on a CD. Windows XP requires them to be on a floppy. After trying to copy them to 10 different floppy disks, 100 different times, and every time the install process tells me the drivers are corrupt, I gave up installing Raid. A supposedly high-end motherboard and ECS can?t include a floppy with drivers, shame on you ECS. Another problem with the ECS KA3 MVP is that even though it has what ECS calls Dr. LED which are LED's that indicate if the cards in the slots are functioning properly, they don't give you a diagram to show what the flashing LED's mean.
Another complaint that I had about the setup was that even though the X-Fi Fatal1ty was upwards of $200, Creative didn?t bother to include a rounded cable. It?s this lack of forethought that makes me not use companies a second time. The cable is a custom IDE style ribbon cable, so you won't be use a standard rounded IDE cable.
After getting Windows XP installed, the updates downloaded, and the latest ATI drivers installed, I shut down the computer and installed the ATI x1900XT (slave card) in PCIe slot 1. While trying to boot, the system would continually lock up at the Windows load screen. I booted into safe mode, and both cards were showing up correctly. I removed the master card and couldn't get it to boot with just the slave card. I decided the ATI x1900XT must be defective and packed it back up to return to newegg.com. While unscrewing the Crossfire linking cable, I snapped the nut-post off of the master card. ATI made a horrible decision to use 2 thumbscrews side by side to connect the cable. It is impossible to turn them by hand.
So now I have a broken master card and a defective slave card. I RMA'd both and am still waiting for them to return to me. I would like to note that there is only one open PCI slot when running 2 x1900?s. This is bad for me since I run the X-Fi Fatal1ty and a TV tuner card.
I will be selling the ECS MVP as soon as the K9A Platinum comes out. I will most likely never by an ECS or Creative product again due to the problems I have had during this build.
I will add more information once I get moved to Charlotte and get the system up and running.
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I decided that I wanted to remove the unpainted internal parts of the V1200 and give them a couple coats of paint. Using a 1/8? drill bit, I removed all the rivets holding the inside of the V1200 together. I settled on using a Dupli-color automotive gloss white paint. I wanted to use red, but later on I plan on adding white UV lights, and didn?t want the paint looking like pink with the lights on. The only problem with white is that it might show collecting dust more than other colors.
I used a hand sander to scuff up the metal pieces I was going to paint. I then laid down 2 coats of wet-sand automotive primer. I used 400 grit wet sandpaper to remove the blemishes. After letting the primer dry, I used the acrylic enamel gloss white paint to finish out the parts. Some of the parts had bumps and blemishes on them, so I sanded them down again and repainted them. The problem with the paint I got is that it takes 7 days to cure, so you can?t repaint for a whole week.
During the whole painting process, I couldn?t wait to build the system, so I tore my old system out of the old hydraulic case and assembled the new hardware inside the old case. I installed the ATI x1900 Crossfire Edition (master card) into PCIe slot 3 which is where the motherboard manual says to install it. I then connected the new Seagate 320GB drives to the ATI Raid controller. I also installed the X-Fi sound card in the bottom PCI slot.
With this setup, I installed the latest Vista Beta build on the system. An important thing to note here is that Vista allows CD's to be used to install third party Raid drivers. This is a crucial difference later on in my article. Vista installed 99% then failed. I tried it once more and again it failed at 99%. I wiped the drives and proceeded to install XP.
This is where I ran into problems with ECS sending the drivers for the Raid controller on a CD. Windows XP requires them to be on a floppy. After trying to copy them to 10 different floppy disks, 100 different times, and every time the install process tells me the drivers are corrupt, I gave up installing Raid. A supposedly high-end motherboard and ECS can?t include a floppy with drivers, shame on you ECS. Another problem with the ECS KA3 MVP is that even though it has what ECS calls Dr. LED which are LED's that indicate if the cards in the slots are functioning properly, they don't give you a diagram to show what the flashing LED's mean.
Another complaint that I had about the setup was that even though the X-Fi Fatal1ty was upwards of $200, Creative didn?t bother to include a rounded cable. It?s this lack of forethought that makes me not use companies a second time. The cable is a custom IDE style ribbon cable, so you won't be use a standard rounded IDE cable.
After getting Windows XP installed, the updates downloaded, and the latest ATI drivers installed, I shut down the computer and installed the ATI x1900XT (slave card) in PCIe slot 1. While trying to boot, the system would continually lock up at the Windows load screen. I booted into safe mode, and both cards were showing up correctly. I removed the master card and couldn't get it to boot with just the slave card. I decided the ATI x1900XT must be defective and packed it back up to return to newegg.com. While unscrewing the Crossfire linking cable, I snapped the nut-post off of the master card. ATI made a horrible decision to use 2 thumbscrews side by side to connect the cable. It is impossible to turn them by hand.
So now I have a broken master card and a defective slave card. I RMA'd both and am still waiting for them to return to me. I would like to note that there is only one open PCI slot when running 2 x1900?s. This is bad for me since I run the X-Fi Fatal1ty and a TV tuner card.
I will be selling the ECS MVP as soon as the K9A Platinum comes out. I will most likely never by an ECS or Creative product again due to the problems I have had during this build.
I will add more information once I get moved to Charlotte and get the system up and running.
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