Hello mates!
It's been a while since I have started a thread... but now I'm getting back into the business... :cool:
As the title suggests, this time will be a little bit different... the main goal is to go sub-zero with cooling, but I also got back to the LGA775 platform - finally! Since I have started to bench I had this idea to go through most of the platforms - and I pretty much did... for those who did not see it yet, check this thread (warning: it is long!):
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?20047-The-Chronicle-of-My-TestBenchSo, now it's time for LGA775! :cool:
I have got the Asus Commando a while ago to start with and I have collected a bunch of LGA775 CPUs (nothing fancy, just from old machines). Last weekend I have tried to fire it up, but no luck... lights are on, fans are spinning - but nothing on the monitor... Since the board was rescued literarily from the trash, I have assumed that it had a reason to be there...
Then I have started to read about LGA775 boards, and I started to really like the Asus Rampage Extreme... but that one is bloody expensive! I was at the point to give up my LGA775 dreams when an opportunity came... One of the REX boards on the ebay was actually listed from here where I live... Contacted the seller and setup a meeting for yesterday - and voila:
We have made a mutually better deal...
😄The board seems new (still had those plastic tapes/sealings on the heatsinks), has most of it's original accessories (except and english manual) - but it did not have the original box... well, I can live with that...
The goal is to go sub-zero cooling (I already have my SS unit - will present it later on), but I wanted to see this beauty working and see how it's BIOS looks like... So, for the start it got the Noctua NH-D14 for the CPU and it's NB water block changed to the regular air-heatsink:
And the sexiest thing about this LGA775 board is that it has DDR3 memories! Yes, those are one of my Pi kits used on the newest platform before:
And then I have fired it up! And nothing happened... In the morning I saw the board working at the seller's place and in the afternoon is not working anymore?! Double-checked everything what came in mind and nothing, lights on, fans are spinning - but nothing on the monitor... the same as with the Commando before...
I have started to suspect the graphics card, so I have started to swap them around... I have couple older cards left which all were tested before on other platform, but none of them gave me a signal... Finally, the light came in my mind! Started to check the other end of the power cables... - and the PCIe power connector wasn't connected to the PSU... yeah, that's how it is when you're getting old... or senile... or something...
But now my LGA775 system is working! :cool:
Here are some benchmarks I have tried wile I was pushing this system:
I think, not too bad... certainly this platform has more in it! The BIOS is definitely different, but not too hard to get used with it... The only flaw I observed until now is the temperature... I have compared the temps in BIOS with those shown in HWMonitor - but they're like showing two different systems... HWMonitor also was showing temps below ambient for the cores... Then I got rid of the HWMonitor and got RealTemp - that at least shows more acceptable core temps... but no other temps... well, the point is to pass benchmarks, not to anxiously watch temps - right?
😄