8Gb is 'fine'.
I wanted 12Gb, but that was a mismatch with the dual channel mobo, since it's 3 sticks.
So 16Gb is the natural step. Still not too far from the budget so, why not? :woot:

VMware does come into it, of course. I experiment at home a little for things I can't do at work (often stuck with using decently sized databases, so I try to fill the gap that disk IOPS create with more RAM).

I suppose I could scale down to 8Gb (2x 4) though, maybe 1866 with the same timings as the 1600? :)



Either way, I'm less bothered by the RAM thing than by the CPU cooler thing. Had to swap too much to feel good about it (like 8 times before getting to thisone). Pretty close to saying "**** it" and just taking a Zalman...

16Gb + RAMdisk for VM images will also be interesting :)

Motivated by the fact I have to go to Aartselaar today (to the Antwerp Moto Store & Alternate is just a little further down the A12) and fueled by the recent notice that I would be getting my vacation pay soon, I splurged and made the Alternate.be order. :)

Had to pick other HDDs, DVD writer & fancontroller, because those weren't in stock. But those weren't really special anyhow. Can go pick the stuff up later this afternoon.

Don't know when I'll get around to assembling it, but I guess other non-prior plans for this weekend will be postponed. |D

multiboot into Hackintosh for some iLife action? :)

First benchmark score for 3DMark11 is P5631 (with everything running stock). But I ran it while the computer was still busy building my RAID. |D

It can only get better with some tweaking (and after the intel chipset isn't busy building the damn array, has been at it for over 5 hours now).

No fan of Macs (or their OS). I'm more a Win 7 + Debian kinda guy. ;)


As for general comments on assembly:
- The top of the case has more flex than you'd expect. Still solid, but somewhat odd.
- The OCZ PSU's cable for the ATX-8 connector (or whatever the proper name is) is SHORT! It seems they expect it to be above the motherboard. Of course this case has the PSU on the bottom... I had to run the cable past the PCI slots and run it under the gfx card to make it to the connector. As is, it's blocking most of my expansion slots (which is fine, no plans to use them). I'd rather have run the cable behind the mobo tray though, but it's just too short. If it was 0.5cm shorter, I wouldn't have been able to plug it in.
- The fan controller I picked (because the other wasn't in stock) is pretty shitty. Has temp diodes included, as well as single sided heat tape, but 3 out of 4 have already let go after less than a day of use. Should I use electrical tape instead? Are there dangers of electrical tape melting if I put it to the back of the GPU? Guess I should get something especially rated for this...

I ran into the little Asus - Intel - OCZ - SandForce blame circle. The dreaded BSODs and freezes in Win 7. Since I couldn't troubleshoot it any other way, I was forced to do it the OCZ way, which means firmware update and then wiping the entire SSD to start with a clean sleight.
Sure hope this works, but I'm calling it quits for now. And tomorrow night BBQ, so thursday night is the soonest I'll be getting around to starting the OS install all over again and hoping the firmware fixes whatever the problem was (since SF has officially still not been able to replicate the issue, yet rumours of recalls keep buzzing around).

I do regret not waiting for the Intel 510 that wasn't in stock, I'll tell you that much.

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/fo...330#post652330

For anyone interested in the SSD woes.
I'm going to ask Alternate to replace it with an Intel 510 120Gb & pay a little extra. I hope they bite.

hate to say this but, first time adopters are most of the time "beta testers"
not saying to build last generation system, but slightly less bleeding edge components might give you better reliability vs performance.

most of your components are now proven to be working, but buying the same config in january would also have proven first adopter anomalies; (chipset).

anyhow; hope that Alternate helps you out; even a last generation SSD will be plenty fast in my humble opinion

Well, **** happens. :)

They said that if my final tests fail, they would take it back, test it and if they have the same issues, they'll let me swap to Intel.

Pretty screwed if they "can't replicate it" though. I'll have to fight OCZ directly in that case.

At work I issued older Intel X-25 in the development laptops and they work great. The codemonkeys are happy with 'em.
But I feel bad if I don't go for the 'best' within my price range. That has risks of course.

Removed daisy chained power. Only things plugged in now are motherboard (24 + 8), PCI-E 6pin x2, DVD-RW on a separate powerline, Vertex on a separate powerline, fan controller on molex on a separate powerline. Other drives not plugged in.

Mobo BIOS updated to 1703 (beta).
Secure Erased Vertex 3 which is already at latest FW 2.09.
EPU, TPU, etc are disabled. No overclock whatsoever on any component.
Bluetooth, JMicron & Marvell chips disabled in BIOS.

AHCI enabled, but hotplug disabled.
Outcome: BSOD before chosing a user & computer name during the install.

AHCI enabled, but hotplug enabled.
Retry outcome: Cautiously optimistic. Win 7 install ok, drivers are now installed, stable enough to run 3DMark11 (and scored higher than last time: P5889 with everything @ stock) and be up an running for 30 minutes... Cross your fingers.



Of course, this won't help me much as such, since I still need to connect the HDDs, put them in Raid mode, etc... But there might be hope yet... To be continued.