Skylake --- we have lift off................

[floppybootstomp]

My eSata/USB 2 dock died on me recently so on my next order from CPC I'll be buying one of These.

It's usually on offer for £12.95 + VAT as well. In the meantime I have a USB2 dock which does the job, albeit slower.

Your Startech USB3 is a classier bit of kit though.

My external Startech 2 x 4Tb RAID drive uses USB3 and it's fast.

 

[Abarbarian]

My eSata/USB 2 dock died on me recently so on my next order from CPC I'll be buying one of These.

It's usually on offer for £12.95 + VAT as well. In the meantime I have a USB2 dock which does the job, albeit slower.

Your Startech USB3 is a classier bit of kit though.

My external Startech 2 x 4Tb RAID drive uses USB3 and it's fast.

Well I wanted the twin facility and I have a bit of spare loot and I need a treat.

http://www.awd-it.co.uk/icybox-ib-1...0-esata.html?gclid=CNLvtIC6qcgCFeae2wod24sBDg

Above is me single slot which is a very nice piece of kit.Has a nice blue light, not too bright and matches me mouse glass and mouse

I am looking forward to having a nice speedy all round set up. I could do with cheering up a tad.

Are those 4 TB's for your singles collection or the albums collection ?

 

[Abarbarian]

Well I finally have my hands on a Skylake i7. Not from the original supplier in my opening post but from these excellent folks,

https://www.pcreview.co.uk/threads/digitalpromo-co-uk.4069584/#post-14249132

I knew I should have waited a few months before ordering anything but was worried about getting caught up in pre you know what madness. A hens teeth or unicorn horn bracelet would have been easier and quicker to source than a full highish spec Skylake build over the last few months.
I recon Intel are drip feeding cpu's out to build up a frenzy for the coming you know what season. Ram has been in just as short supply.

 

[Abarbarian]

Whooooooooooooooooooooooooppppppppppppppppppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee all me bits have arrived.
Should have the beast built and running some time this weekend.

 

[muckshifter]

pics, or it never happened.

 

[Abarbarian]

pics, or it never happened.

Ok here are some pics of the components. The addon pcie card came with its own screwdriver which I thought was cute. An just look at the size of the NVME stick

There has been a hold up in the build as some fool forgot that an ATX has nine standoffs for the mobo and not six.

The case is a very old one and it has a slide out draw for the mobo which is dead cool as the GFX and add-on cards screw to it and are very solid. I may just use the draw as a base and build a wooden case around it. For the moment I will use the case and draw and have already had a grinder in action to modify the case to suit.

 

[muckshifter]

you missing the Xmas tree ...

 

[Abarbarian]

you missing the Xmas tree ...

I was going to put one in the pictures but you know what folk around here are like about that particular seasonal celebration.

 

[Abarbarian]

Standoff problem sort of solved with the kind generosity of a member here. I called in a local pc shop and asked if they could supply me with some thin washers. They did not have metal ones but gave me nine of those red fairly stiff ones. They almost made up the shortfall and I fitted a full set of the 6mm standoffs. I recon that the small difference will not make a great deal of difference as cards will still sit well in the slots and get decent support from the back plate.

Comes to fitting the AIO cooler and ,,, Huston I have another problem,,,,,,,,,

Seems like Skylake boards have a different setup and there is a part of the cpu backing plate that interferes with the AIO backplate. So I am going to get the old four and a half inch grinder an make a barbaric modification.

 

[Abarbarian]

In the post above you can see the cpu holder which looks like it will interfere with the AIO support bracket. So hence the grinding plan.

However,

Should have gone to Spec Savers. I woke up this morning and found that the cushioning on the back of the support plate has a cut out to accommodate the cpu holder. How did I miss that yesterday ???

Well I pressed on after that good find and now the mobo is almost built up and ready to be inserted in the case.
I am away for the weekend so do not have time to de bubble the AIO. I will get this build finished eventually.

 

[Abarbarian]

Skylake launch stopped by code 55. Troubleshooters are investigating.

The build has had some problems. The worst being a couple of severed cables, four and a half inch grinders are notoriously difficult to control in tight spaces, and repairing the very fine cables with my creaky old hands was a tad challenging.

 

[muckshifter]

bios post code 55 ? RAM ... yours is compatible with the MB/CPU, yes?

 

[Abarbarian]

bios post code 55 ? RAM ... yours is compatible with the MB/CPU, yes?

Thanks for that mucks. I could not find any info on five long beeps on the net. So I e-mailed Lambda-Tek where the mobo came from and they gave the same info plus they told me to take out all but one of the ram and which slot to put it in. So their support deserves a very favourable mention.

The ram is defo suitable.

Did not help matters having the tv on the wrong hdim socket. So with the ram in the right slot and the tv set right I finally made it to a bios screen. Cpu temp 27C.
Picked up the dvd drive from my open plan old rig and uncoupled the ide cable and power cable and thought , hmmmm that is strange there does not seem to be a socket for this on the new mobo. So I had to butcher my travelling rig as it had a sata dvd drive.
Hooked up and popped in a live Slax dvd and voilà I have a working pc. That was pretty late at night so I will be back at this on Saturday. Going to use the Slax to make partitions as I am going to dual boot 7 and Arch and maybe a RoboLinux at some later date.
Still to try all four ram sticks to see if it will boot with them all.

 

[Abarbarian]

Whhhhhhhhooooooooooooooppppppppppppeeeeeeeeeeeee finally have a Skylake in orbit with W7.

Mind you I won't be playing Skyrim or Fallout Four with that magnificent 1 for the gfx score

I had to jump through some burning hoops to get this running with 7. If I had made the jump to 10 it apparently would have been plain sailing. More to follow.

 

[V_R]

You need a decent case, its fugly, that hardware deserves better. More importantly that case looks like its got terrible airflow.

 

[Abarbarian]

You need a decent case, its fugly, that hardware deserves better. More importantly that case looks like its got terrible airflow.

Ha ha that ain't my case. That last set of pics were of the pull out mobo tray. Mind you you could see some of the case in the background.

These are pics of the case with the kit nearly fully installed.

Now that looks much better I am sure you will agree

Notice the ultra small usb3 stick hanging on a lanyard, that was a impulse buy and by gum it was very very useful. Cut down the install time by at least two days I recon.

 

[V_R]

Ha ha that ain't my case. That last set of pics were of the pull out mobo tray. Mind you you could see some of the case in the background

I was talking about the case on the chair in the background with the pull out tray.

 

[Abarbarian]

I was talking about the case on the chair in the background with the pull out tray.

Ah ha rightyo I had forgotten about the earlier pics. Airflow can not be that bad as there are no side panels or top and only part of the bottom.
I swapped out the fans that came with the AIO for a pair of daisy chained Arctic 12L's with four pin connectors. Room temperature is 20C and fans running at 33 % and cpu temp is according to MSI AfterBurner 15C. It has been running all night as I am downloading a game on my slow slow broadband.

Would the case look better do you think if I sprayed it black like the case of the Cyberpower Zeus Mini Evo I-970 that Becky reviewed

For anyone having trouble booting the 951 NVMe on a Gigabyte mobo I have posted a guide here

https://www.pcreview.co.uk/threads/...samsung-sm951-nvme-m-2.4069719/#post-14249981

 

[V_R]

Ah I didn't realise you were going ghetto with the case.

 

[Abarbarian]

I found some benchmark screenshots at the official Samsung SP951 forum and they are slightly different from mine. There are some results for a 950 Pro as well for comparison. Do not know what driver they used for the 591. I used the HP driver as instructed in the guide and here are my results.

I added the results from a Crucial MX200 and a Patriot USB 3 stick both running on the new rig just for a bit of fun.