Discovering That Niche – Extreme Overclocking

While we have dabbled in overclocking to gain extra performance out of our Intel CPUs over the years, we never went hardcore into the process as the time/benefit ratio just did not fit our needs.

However, as with anything else, demonstrate a knack for something, make sure folks know about it, and it will get noticed.

We received an Intel Partner Program newsletter this afternoon that had a really neat bit on overclocking in it.

•  Intel Extreme Team Newsletter

We have seen some of the overclocking results of “duck-san” before.

Some of his overclocking exploits can be found here:

• XtremeSystems.org posts by Duck
• Duck-san post: Intel Japan event 2010 Summer

That second link has some amazing overclocking results and visuals of the rigs that are used to get there.

So, what is so neat is to see that the efforts that Duck-san has put into overclocking processors has lead to him being featured at various technology events including the upcoming PAX West 2010 in Seattle Washington.

Duck-san is a very good example of how one’s hard work can pay off in possibly very unexpected ways.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

160GB Intel SSD Gen 2 Performance = WOW!

There have been a few blog posts here on the new second generation Intel Solid-State drives (post category search) lately.

A while back, we put together a box for a client that included an EVGA nVidia based motherboard (EVGA category search). We have had quite the odyssey with this particular system.

The Raptors have consistently broken the RAID 10 array we created via the onboard RAID setup. There has been no rhyme or reason to the array breaking. We even replaced the entire drive set with brand new drives hoping that it would be fixed. No joy there.

Each time the box visited the shop we made sure to update the BIOS on the motherboard and we were still hit with broken arrays.

So, we removed three of the four Raptors leaving the one behind for storage.

We installed a single Intel X25-M 160GB second generation SSD.

We then installed Windows 7 Ultimate x64 retail in 12 minutes using our OCZ ATV Turbo as the source.

Both the SSD and Windows 7 Ultimate retail were provided to our client at no cost along with the labour to install all of their needed applications. We needed to make sure that we made things right.

The scary thing is that the single Intel SSD boots the entire Windows 7 Ultimate OS from start to finish in about 15 seconds! 15 Seconds!!!

• Original blog post on the system configuration.

We define a completed boot as having the ability to click on the Start Button and open any program in the recent list or pinned there.

Even a set of four VelociRaptors configured in a RAID 10 array can’t touch that and they are fast too!

Since installing an Intel 80GB SSD in the Netbook, and soon the Tecra will be getting a 160GB version, bumping out the spindle for an SSD has been an easy sell to our clients.

They can see the visible excitement in me when I am demonstrating a full OS boot in 20 seconds on a Netbook with Windows 7 Pro and an SSD for a drive. Then the application performance for opening them as well as flipping around between open windows and more is pretty impressive on a Netbook.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

EVGA 790i Ultra RAID Error – Drive Failure

We built this system for one of our clients a while back: EVGA 790i Ultra MB and Kingston RAM.

The system came back to us a couple of days ago due to a RAID array error message.

Nothing out of the ordinary was going on when the system spontaneously locked up on the user.

The RAID array consists of four (4) 150GB Western Digital Raptor drives configured in a RAID 1+0 (BIOS indicates 0+1 which is incorrect).

Of the two pairs, one in each managed to survive the array malfunction. Thus, the array and subsequently the OS survived the failure. We were able to boot into Windows Vista with no issues.

The puzzling aspect of getting things back together was how to reset the two failed drives.

We had taken the drives out of the system and ran the Western Digital utility that does an extensive disk scan and both came up error free.

The RAID BIOS does not make it too clear how we need to reset the failed array members either.

We ended up deleting the entries in the RAID BIOS array management for the two drives that were in error state. Once we did that, they appeared as available and we were able to add them back to the array by highlighting them and setting the array into rebuild mode. Remember, all we are doing is adding the second drive that will mirror the original drive in the RAID 1+0 array (nVidia calls it RAID 0+1 in the BIOS).

The catch to an array rebuild on this setup is that we need to boot into an OS before the rebuild starts.

When we went to reboot, Windows Vista complained about missing NLS data. So, something had changed with the resetting of the “failed” drives.

We booted into the ShadowProtect Recovery Environment to verify that everything was intact on the C: drive, which it was, but we were not able to get any further. We tried copying the NLS files over but that did not work.

So, we deleted the array in the RAID BIOS, recreated it, and attempted to restore our ShadowProtect image that we took just prior to messing around with the system. That restore attempt failed.

We finally learned the proper methodology for using ShadowProtect with Windows Vista for any backup/restore operation: First Successful Windows Vista ShadowProtect Restore! No Winload.exe Error! (previous blog post)

We had not run the preparation step indicated in the above blog post on the Windows Vista OS so we ended up needing to rebuild the box from scratch.

Once the box had been fully installed, one of the hard drive array members choked and caused the system to lock up. Perhaps we have finally found the culprit of the original array failure! We changed that drive out for a new drive using the array delete and create process and are now well into a burn-in process with no hiccups.

This time, we ran the above prep steps and then imaged the system using ShadowProtect before breaking the RAID array. We were able to then successfully restore the Windows Vista OS.

The failed drive in this case was not a part of the original pair of “failed” drives. Hopefully we now have the source of the problem. The burn-in will continue to run until our client picks up the box late Monday afternoon.

The burn-in produced no array failures and our client was happy with the system when we followed up at the end of last week.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer

One of those days! :|

Every once in a while, things just do not seem to go the way we planned and leave us seemingly spinning our tires.

Today was one of those days.

A client system with a RAID array failure, has an nForce on board RAID where the RAID BIOS refused to allow us to rebuild the array on the seemingly failed drives. The drives tested 100% okay. We had a ShadowProtect image of the Windows Vista x64 OS installation, but that failed to restore on a Winload.exe error after recreating the RAID array.

Another client system with a Hauppauge Win TV-HVR-1800 series PCI-E TV card in it keeps locking up Windows Vista on the AudioHG.exe driver. This one did not have the automatic updates enabled. When it was realized that the machine needed updates, all of them were allowed to download and install … including the MU drivers. The system choked with no hope of recovery. It was running fine until all of the updates happened.

Then, one of the Sapphire Radeon video cards on the system here has failed. There looks to be no way of bringing it back from the dead.

So, lots of troubleshooting with no real resolutions.

It is days like this one that really hone those rough personality edges. There is a need to take a deep breath before answering that thousandth phone call by the same person having an ongoing problem, to those crazy fog horn blasts in the ear because someone has a free cruise for me if I but, “sell my first born and give a pint of blood!” ;)

Yeah … one of those days. Tough on the professionalism to the Nth degree.

Leaves me thankful that I can go home to my wife and kids, after a number of really deep breaths, and enjoy a warm welcome from Monique and the fact that the kid’s screams of delight at my coming home act to separate work and home.

Refreshed, and repurposed, I will be able to approach things outside of the box and try again.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer

EVGA 790i Ultra MB and Kingston RAM

We put together a system for a client:

• Vista x64 RTM - Stop 0x0000007e on EVGA nForce 790i Ultra SLI Mainboard
• Vista x64 RTM - Stop 0x0000000A on EVGA nForce 790i Ultra SLI Mainboard + EVGA Support A++

The whole process was a learning experience for us since nVidia is not the first stop on the high performance bus for us (pun intended).

Well, when we sourced product for the motherboard, we were pretty careful to get all of the components recommended by each component manufacturer for compatibility.

One of the big losses when putting together a system like this over an Intel Xeon series server is the intensive validation that the components get on the server side.

So, guess what? At the time we built the workstation, Kingston was recommending KVR1333D3N8K2/2G for a system that would be configured with a total of 2 kits for 4GB.

Other than one of the Western Digital Raptors outright dying, the system has been hiccuping on a random basis. There did not seem to be any indication of a source for the problem though.

After the Raptor died, we made sure to flash the board's BIOS, any available firmware updates, and drivers for the motherboard, video cards, etc.

Yesterday, while on the bench, the system refused to misbehave. At least that is, until we walked in this morning and found it uttering a single long beep one after the other in slow repetition.

The motherboard's LCD troubleshooting block (it is embedded on the board for overclock troubleshooting) indicated a C1 which was memory initialization.

We ran through the BurnInTest Pro in memory torture mode with no results. Leaving the machine idle and go into screen saver last night seemed to be the key to bringing out the gremlins.

So, after running the memory test built into Windows Vista which turned up error free, we were in a quandary ... until verifying the RAM info at Kingston's site again:

EVGA nForce 790i SLI Motherboard RAM Compatibility List

Notice a difference between what we installed and what is listed today?

We are looking at an "N9" instead of an "N8".

Now, we are heading out to pick up the N9 RAM to see if that actually does make a difference.

Just to qualify: We have run into RAM compatibility issues like this before with listing changes over time on Kingston's site on both server and workstation configurations. So, this situation does not come as a surprise to us.

Now, does the RAM change fix the problem ... we will keep you posted! :)

And if it does ... anyone need four 1GB sticks of KVR1333D3N8K2/2G memory?

One more thing ...

Part No Longer Exists

Gotta love when that happens. :(

Buyer Beware ...

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

Vista x64 RTM - Stop 0x0000000A on EVGA nForce 790i Ultra SLI Mainboard + EVGA Support A++

The system we put together based on the EVGA nForce 790i Ultra SLI Motherboard (previous blog post) had a similar install issue as the Intel boards we work with: Vista setup would not run with more than 2GB installed.

We eventually had a successful install of Windows Vista Ultimate x64 RTM on the system. Once the OS booted up fine with the 2GB of RAM, we shut the system down and installed the additional 2GB for a total of 4GB DDR3 RAM.

When we went to boot the system up, we were greeted with a BSOD Stop Error: 0x0000000A with no indicators as to the problem.

Having struggled with Blue Screens to this point, it was time to place a quick call to EVGA support. For one, to test their product support system as it looked good from their Web site, and to see if there was a quick fix.

The requisite phone menu system was in place to guide us through to the correct support technician. Once the button presses were finished, and our call was transferred, the unthinkable happened: We did not wait on hold and got to speak to someone on the NA continent!

James was the EVGA support technician who helped answer the quick question: Who, what, where, and why are we getting this particular Windows stop error?

We were pointed to: MS Knowledge Base article 929777: Error message when you try to install Windows Vista on a computer that uses more than 3 GB of RAM: "STOP 0x0000000A".

From the description:

This problem occurs if the following conditions are true:

• The computer uses more than 3 GB of RAM.
• The computer uses a storage system that is running the Storport miniport driver.
• The computer uses a controller that uses 32-bit direct memory access(DMA).

In our case, the first point definitely qualifies us for this issue.

We were given a support case ID by James, and we concluded the call, but not before indicating to him that in this day and age of off-shoring tech support and long hold times, we were really impressed by the level of tech support provided by EVGA.

With the system off, the extra 2GB of RAM was removed again, we booted the system up, and applied Windows Vista Service Pack 1. The service pack installed in very short order.

Once complete, the system was shut down, the 2GB of RAM reinstalled, and the system booted up again.

No BSOD! :D

Completed QX6850, EVGA nForce 790i Ultra SLI in an Antec Nine Hundred

The above picture was taken quite late at night. We don't get a break on sunshine here! It stays light well past 22:00hrs (10PM) now. Otherwise, the LEDs would stand out a bit more.

Neat rig. Our client is sure to be quite happy with the end result. The final system configuration can be found in our previous blog post: EVGA nForce 790i Ultra SLI Motherboard near the bottom.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

Vista x64 RTM - Stop 0x0000007e on EVGA nForce 790i Ultra SLI Mainboard

A relatively new client of ours wanted us to figure out why their system was not able to "SLI" on a pair of EVGA 8800GTX Ultra video cards in the system. They had recently picked up a game that they wanted to run on a larger high resolution monitor. There was also a need to tune up the system after about a year of usage.

The system configuration as it came to us:

• Intel QX6850 Quad Core Extreme
• Asus Maximus Formula X38 motherboard
• 4GB Crucial BallistiX DDR2
• EVGA GeForce 8800 Ultra PCI-E Video (pair)
• 74GB Raptor (OS), 400GB Seagate (storage), and 500GB Seagate (storage)
• 1KW PSU
• Antec Nine Hundred Case
• Windows Vista Ultimate x86

Anyone catch the reason the nVidia SLI function was not available?

In this particular case, our client had gone to one of the local computer stores in the city to get the components needed to setup a new system.

At that time, about a year ago, DDR3 memory was hard come by and extremely expensive. So, it looks as though the sales clerk had move our client into the Asus Maximus Formula for its DDR2 capability.

The sales clerk missed something very important in the process: The Asus Maximus Formula was an ATI CrossFire enabled board! With the ATI setup, the video card bridge comes with the video cards. With the nVidia setup, the bridge comes with the motherboard. ATI CrossFire and nVidia SLI motherboards are not cross compatible. That is, one cannot plug in a pair of SLI video cards into a CrossFire based motherboard and expect to get nVidia SLI to function.

Since the video cards were also made by EVGA, and we had access to the EVGA nForce 790i Ultra SLI Mainboard, that was the direction that we recommended and our client accepted.

Once we had the EVGA motherboard and a set of 4GB DDR3 1,333MHz Kingston memory, everything went together relatively well.

One caveat we ran into was the length of the video cards versus the hard drive cage setup in the Antec 900. We needed to move the cages a step out to enable the video cards and the Raptors to work together in relatively the same space.

EVGA 8800GTX Ultra snugged up to the 150GB WD Raptor

We were fortunate in that the SATA data cable on the back of the Raptor was able to fit just so in behind the EVGA's plastic housing.

When installing Windows Vista Ultimate x64 RTM on the system, we had the full 4GB of RAM installed on the motherboard.

During the initial spool up of the Windows Vista setup routine we received a BSOD with a 0x0000007E indicator and that was it.

It has been our experience on the Intel side of things that Windows setup will fail with more than 2GB of RAM installed on the motherboard. It looks like the nForce chipset suffers the same problem.

Once we removed two of the 1GB RAM sticks to bring things down to 2GB on the motherboard, setup proceeded as expected.

The system was fast! Vista Ultimate x64 installed in no time flat.

One thing to keep in mind when setting the system up is to not plug in a network cable into either of the NIC ports. Make sure to install the EVGA nForce 790i board drivers first, then the nVidia video card drivers and the requisite reboots.

The EVGA motherboard had production BIOS P01 installed out of the box. No matter what we tried we could not get the second video card recognized without a Vista BSOD.

So, we needed to update the EVGA nForce 790i Series BIOS (EVGA support forum) to the most recent version which was P05p released the day before yesterday. P05 would not allow the second video card to be recognized either.

For the SLI or dual card setup to work properly for us:

1. Single card to start.
2. Update the BIOS (record those settings and restore to defaults before updating)
• Note that any RAID configuration would not be lost when the RAID controller was disabled.
• Make sure to enable the RAID controller and set the appropriate drives after the update.
3. Reboot
4. Make the requisite BIOS settings changes.
5. Power down.
6. Install the second SLI video card and the SLI bridge.
7. Boot into the OS.
8. The nVidia drivers will probably need to be reinstalled.
• The BIOS update and second video card wiped out our nVidia driver setup.
9. Reboot and engage SLI if required.
• The driver will pop up the management screen after the reboot.

Once we finished getting the SLI function going, the system was pretty much good to go.

There was one more snag, but that one will go into a separate post.

There certainly is an art to overclocking systems. Looking through the forums with all of the discussions around system hardware configurations and BIOS settings for all of the different variables was mind boggling!

Here was the existing components with the components we added:

• Intel QX6850 Quad Core Extreme (existing)
• EVGA nForce 790i Ultra SLI Motherboard
• 4GB Kingston KVR1333D3N8/1G (PDF spec sheet)
• EVGA GeForce 8800 Ultra PCI-E Video (pair) (existing)
• 300GB Western Digital Raptor 10K RPM in RAID 0+1 (4 150GB Raptor drives)
• Zalman CNPS9700NT CPU cooler
• Antec Nine Hundred Case (existing)
• 1200 Watt Thermaltake Toughpower 4 Rail PSU

Here is how the system spec'd out on the Windows Vista Experience Index:

5.9 across the board! Time to update that assessment. ;)

Neat :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.