Money Pit

Fiach Dubh

A few of you may recall I put a post up recently about a new build I couldn't get to POST. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055686761

I decided not to RMA the Asus board, not really worth the effort for a 55 Euro board and I really wanted to go for a DDR3 AM3 build anyway. I picked up the MSI 790GX-G65 Winki Edition (Skt AM3) for 145 Euro and a 2GB OCZ DDR3 kit. So now I have this setup;

MSI 790GX-G65 Winki Edition (Skt AM3)
2GB OCZ DDR3
Phenom II X4 945 3.0Ghz
MSI GTS250 Twin Frozr OC
i-Cute 700W PSU

Anyway I put the whole thing together and it's not posting either, same issue as before, beeps when only the CPU and HSF are installed, no beeps when memory installed. No signal from either the GTS250 or the onboard GPU. First time I tried with just the CPU I got a continuing series of single short beeps, now I get a 10 second silence after startup and then a 3 long beep code which I think is memory error on this board. All fans spin.

I've tried the memory kit in dual-channel mode in both channel A and B a single stick in slot 1 channel A (recommended for first boot on this board) no dice. Now unless I'm really unlucky I doubt it's the mobo or RAM that's bricked so that only leaves me with the CPU and PSU, the only parts from the origional build. I had a thought that maybe the PSU's split 12V rail is too weak to fire the board fully but I'm not sure.

+3.3V=28A +5V=28A +12V1=20A +12V2=20A -12V=0.8A +5Vsb=2.0A

I've tried clearing the CMOS like I did with the ASUS board but since I'm suffering the same problems here it seems likely both mobo's are ok.

I've already spent more on this build then I intended to and at this point I'm stumped as to what I'm looking at. Replace CPU or PSU?

Any help would be great.

Cheers.

Slutmonkey57b

If the only two components that differ between the two builds are the CPU and PSU, and you've eliminated loose wires then your problem lies there.

Never heard of i-Cute, the golden rules of PSU's are:
Never buy a no-name PSU.
If it's cheap as chips, it's only good for frying stuff.

Could only find one joke of a review for iCute online, no loads tested, so that would be the first place I would look. That system does not need a 700w PSU to start with anyway. If you have a spare, test it with that.
Komplett are selling the Corsair 400w for €40 today (freee delivery to the Pickup point) and €46 the rest of the time, that should be fine for your system, unless you've got 300 drives in RAID you're not pulling more than 250-300w load.

Edit: it is entirely possible that a POS psu has fried other components, if that does turn out to be the cause.

game4it70

Hey,
Have you tried one stick of ram in dimm slot 3 as i remember reading somewhere that the manual was printed wrong as stated wrong dimm slot.
Try booting with just cpu,onboard gfx and one stick of ram with no case fans or hard/optical drives plugged in.

Ok now for the silly questions(no offencemeant btw)
Is the 4pin atx plugged into mobo?
Have you made sure the case standoffs are in the right place and not shorting mobo anywhere.
You sure moniter is working?

Failing that it does sound like a psu problem to me as its very rare for it to be a cpu.

Edit:
I 2nd what slutmonkey says about the POS i-Cute PSU and its vital to have a quaility psu in your rig

Fiach Dubh

Sorry I should have mentioned the rig is breadboarded so it's not shorting. 4pin 12V rail is attached to the mobo. Yeah I tried a single stick in slot 3, no luck.

game4it70

Fiach Dubh wrote: »

Sorry I should have mentioned the rig is breadboarded so it's not shorting. 4pin 12V rail is attached to the mobo. Yeah I tried a single stick in slot 3, no luck.

Ok i think your only choice is to spend more cash then:(
Cosair or a great brand for PSU's but i'd go a little higher than 400w to future-proof it a bit in case you add a 2nd GFX card or upgrade.

Brands to use,
Corsair
Be Quiet
Seasonic
PC power and cooling
OCZ.

Fiach Dubh

If it is the PSU I was already planning to pick up a Corsair 750W with 60A on the 12V rail. Just wish I was sure it is the PSU.

Cheers mate.

Slutmonkey57b

750w is overkill.

Nothing uses that much power.
400w is plenty for what you've got.
I should get the lads to sticky the link to that article.... basically a real-world system test was done with the hottest, most power hungry components you could get, multiple GFX cards, mutiple drives, everything overclocked and the system drew something like 650w total. From the wall.

Fiach Dubh

750W is it's peak output so sustained will be less, besides I may want to crossfire a couple of ATI cards later if I get it working.

Slutmonkey57b

Bull**** 750w will be its peak output.


http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/system-wattage.html

Here's a system that draws 933 watts.
It's got 24 hard drives. And 4 processors.
http://www.behardware.com/articles/670-1/pc-s-actual-power-consumption.html

The original and best:
http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=635

There are reports of i7 builds that draw 300w+ without other hardware. That's a wall measurement though, the efficiency of the PSU is taking power from it. Add in 2 GTX295's and some other stuff and you might push 750w. The system you've specced is nowhere near that level.

Effluo

+1 corsair 400watt.

If you're thinking about crossfire in the future then i'd say a 550watt

Venom

OP the system you listed will in no way come near to going over 750w. Just pick up a 450-550w PSU from the likes of corsair/CM/Tt but the i-cute you listed I would stay away from.

Marcface

I hate to state the obvious and don't mean to be an ass.. but you purchased an MSI board, I stopped buying those after I had to use Floppy disks to install BIOS updates to a mates brand new board earlier this year because they hadn't included SATA support in their own freakin BIOS... it was a total joke. I'd say, without a doubt, it's the MB being a ballcake. I'll never, ever buy MSI again.

Venom

Marcface wrote: »

I hate to state the obvious and don't mean to be an ass.. but you purchased an MSI board, I stopped buying those after I had to use Floppy disks to install BIOS updates to a mates brand new board earlier this year because they hadn't included SATA support in their own freakin BIOS... it was a total joke. I'd say, without a doubt, it's the MB being a ballcake. I'll never, ever buy MSI again.

Never used a MSI board myself as always preferred the likes of ASUS ,DFI or ABIT but depending on the board your mate bought SATA might have not been on the specs for it.

Marcface

Venom wrote: »

Never used a MSI board myself as always preferred the likes of ASUS ,DFI or ABIT but depending on the board your mate bought SATA might have not been on the specs for it.

It was indeed my good sir, it was an admitted fault, 6 SATA ports, and no software in the BIOS for it. Had to install 8 BIOS updates via floppy as we couldn't use the SATA DVD drive. All in all, took near 7 hours to work out the problem. But yeah, bad MSI.. baaad... *slap*. :pac:

Venom

Marcface wrote: »

It was indeed my good sir, it was an admitted fault, 6 SATA ports, and no software in the BIOS for it. Had to install 8 BIOS updates via floppy as we couldn't use the SATA DVD drive. All in all, took near 7 hours to work out the problem. But yeah, bad MSI.. baaad... *slap*. :pac:

Ok that's seriously ****ed up. Think Ill avoid them from now on as well lol.

Solitaire

And yet I've never had an issue with MSI... I've had a 100% success rate with them personally and have seen far more failed Asus units than MSI in the field (that's including OEM boards). And as for Gigabyte... well... lets just say that from both personal and professional experience they suck hard

Anyhow, short of a critical design defect or a bad batch I don't see an AM3 mobo having a SATA issue... I'd look toward the PSU. Recommend the CX400 too if the GTS250 is there "for looks"; if you want to upgrade to a better graphics card at some point consider a good 550W, there's lots of them about (Corsair, Antec, Gigabyte oddly enough... you get the idea)

There are reports of i7 builds that draw 300w+ without other hardware. That's a wall measurement though, the efficiency of the PSU is taking power from it.

And those are 130W TDP CPUs to boot, probably OCd for good measure. And most reviewers compound the issue by using older 1-1.6kw PSUs that are only really happy driving a fully-loaded 600-800W pro workstation/server, resulting in the low efficiency inflating the "wall" power figures (Toms use a 1.1kw Ultra that has ass efficiency, period!). The X4-945 is a 95W chip and the GTS250 isn't all that hungry; its no HD4770 but it isn't a HD4850X2 either :P