Part 1

Finally, I’ve caught up with almost all of my post-Expo work and can relax a bit. As part of a personal and professional project (I’ll be writing a 2 part article for Renderosity.com in Jan), I’m constructing a new Zombie Workstation (my title) for Machinima and traditional 3D work. I’ll be building it around Cinema 4D and Mach Studio Pro, a new real-time software company I’m reviewing. Of course, I’ll have several Adobe products (Audition, After Effects, etc) and Game SDK’s (Half Life 2, Dragon Age, Moviestorm, Second Life, etc) in the system as well. I plan on using this system only as a workstation for CG and video editing. My partner, Lisa Morton, gave me a nice Sony VAIO laptop for Xmas and I’ll be using it for my day to day emails, forums and surfing.

Cinema 4D

I’ll also be documenting my new system build both here at my personal site (in detail) and with more general posts at renderosity.com.

Basically, building your own computer is something just about anyone who is familiar with computers can do. If you can create machinima, you can build your own system. While it might seem daunting, it’s really not once you understand the basic hardware structure of most PC’s (MACS are another thing entirely).

The process of building a computer consists of four parts:

1. Research and shopping/buying
2. Preparing for the build
3. Assembly
4. Post-build testing & Problem solving

Mach Studio Pro

Research and Shopping

Researching any new system build is often the most enjoyable part of creating a new computer. Not only do you find lots of interesting information on computer technology, but you learn a lot in the process. Most of you already know that computer tech is advancing faster than most of us can keep up with. And high end components are often too expensive for machinima mortals like me. Still, reading about new tech is exciting to me and I enjoy comparing components and weighing the merits of various motherboards and RAM. There are also some wonderful tech sites out there with very helpful forums

This is the 6th computer I’ve built for myself and all of them have cost about $1000 to $1200 to build, although I didn’t set that budget when I started out. Most of the components I buy are slightly older, which makes them a bit cheaper since they are older technology. This isn’t nearly as bad as it sounds since popular and effective hardware has a longer life than components not as well designed or constructed. And even though a particular company might be selling a “bells and whistles” new version of their product, if you look at sales records/reviews you’ll find they make a lot of their money on their older and cheaper hardware. So, buying year-old hardware is a good way to go for system builders because it’s cheaper and you’ll find a lot of practical information (and possible problems) from users on the net (youtube is excellent for this). The trick is to buy so that you have room to upgrade, which isn’t always an easy thing to do when you are combining computer parts.

The primary task when you start research is to decide what you are using the computer for. Sounds simple, but you have to put a lot of thought into answering this question because it will determine practically everything you buy. Once you figure this out, you can buy complimentary components which should go together well in the Assembly stage.

I chose to build a workstation for CG and Machinima. A workstation usually is a computer who has a very specific function and is not used for every day kinds of things like email or typing blog posts like this one. My workstation, will be built around using Cinema 4D, Mach Studio Pro and machinima tools like Moviestorm, Second Life and the Torque Game engine. I’ll also be doing some DV editing for live action documentary work. Mach Studio Pro is a new, real-time software that allows you to edit the lighting, cameras and materials for your CG project. Since it’s real-time you there is no need for expensive render farms, but you do need a fast Graphics card which is why they bundle the ATI FirePro 8750 with the software.

On the other hand, I’ll be using Cinema 4D for the actual content creation (and to support my Machinima work) so I’ll need a fast quad-core CPU for rendering. After research at Cinema 4D sites (great one at c4dcafe.com) and reading through the Mach Studio Pro forums and FAQ’s, the best CPU for the job is the new socket LGA 1366, X58 chipset, i7 920 which operates at 2.66 Ghz, but has a ton of overclocking headroom. Add this to the requirements for the FirePro 8750 and you have the two components the workstation will be built around.

CPU: Intel i7 920 Bloomfield (X58 chipset)

 

I think it’s pretty obvious that the X58 is the way to go for a relatively current workstation build. I could have gone for the cheaper 1166 chipset, but the upcoming 6 core cpu (spring of 2010) does not support it. Only the 1366 chipset will work with the next generation of Intel CPUs. This was important to me as I want a workstation that is upgradeable and one that will last longer (my current system is 3 years old and going strong). The problem comes with the fact that the 1366 chipset requires more expensive components like DDR3 memory and specific motherboards that are mostly in the high $200 range.

In this case, I decided to pay the extra money and go with the X58, i7 920 CPU even though components supporting the chipset are more expensive.

Although I read up on a lot of sites, there are three main tech websites that I read all the time and that have excellent reviews and forums. They are

Tom’s Hardware

Anandtech.com

Xbitlabs.com

Many builds listed at the forums of these websites whose primary focus was CG used the i7 920 and almost all of the builders overclocked the CPU to at least 3.4 Ghz. I collected listings of about a half a dozen builds using this CPU and started paying attention to hardware that kept reappearing in all of the successful computer builds. The 920 was highly effective in builds for Cinema 4D with very high Cinebench scores.

ATI FirePro 8750 Graphics card

 

As it comes with the Mach Studio Pro software, the v8750 it is at the top of the workstation graphics cards. Perfect for Mach Studio Pro, it’s drivers are fine tuned specifically for CG work (and not for games), but it does a decent job for gaming and open GL. I’ll be able to run most of my games at their top settings using this card. Cinema 4D won’t see much of a boost as CPU speed is more a factor for that program, but Mach Studio should blaze away. It will be interesting to see how the card works overall in my system. I’ll definitely be testing it once the build is complete.

My main shopping sites are NewEgg.com (good, but not always reliable customer feedback), TigerDirect.com, Fry’s Electronics (a walk in store near me) and frozencpu.com are the sites I bought almost all of the parts for this build from. Taxes is high in California right now (almost 10%), but since there is a warehouse in Southern California the delivery is usually next day from NewEgg.com. Very good customer service and a well-designed website/ordering system has made NewEgg a main stop for system builders. They also have very competitive prices and regular sales.

Now that we have decided on how the system will be used and have two major components chosen, we can begin to look at hardware that will compliment our core choices.

Next Up: Choosing the case, the mobo and other major components.

Part 2

Before I move on to the PC Case and Case mod for the new workstation build, I want to add a bit to my previous post about choosing the CPU/Socket for your build. Another source of info that I forgot to mention is an excellent magazine called MaximumPC, which I read every month. They have a nice blend of tech/game related information and reviews that provide a lot of help in choosing a computer and/or components to buy for a new build. The recent November issue has a nice piece on Windows 7 that convinced me to build my new computer using this new Microsoft operating system (in 64 bits). A short article by Gordon Mah Ung, senior editor, reminded me that most people can build a new computer without jumping up to the X58 platform and save a lot of money at the same time. Prices for a P55 rig or one built on the i5, LGA 1166 set up would probably run at least $300 cheaper than the system I’m building here. Gordon’s contention is that he won’t be upgrading his CPU until 2011 when prices are much cheaper. However, for my purposes (CG work) I’ll be upgrading to the 6 core i9 “Gulftown” cpu in the middle of next year (if it isn’t delayed).

PC Case: Coolermaster HAF 932

 

Choosing a case is a lot of fun because there are so many good ones out there at very reasonable prices. One good thing about building a system at the end of the year is that you often have several component “round up” reviews on major tech sites that go into detail on what the best specific computer components are for that year. In my previous system build, I chose the Antec P182 because it had terrific reviews and was at a very reasonable price. That case held me in good stead for several years, but I was ready to try something new this year. mdotStrange’s choice of the CoolerMaster Cosmos case for his big daddy system got me to looking at CoolerMaster cases which previously I thought were mostly for entry level builds.

I had a good browse of the cases on sale at Fry’s and discovered that the CoolerMaster HAF 922 and 932 were awfully well designed. I also liked the Zalman GS1000 which looked very stylish and functional. I toyed briefly with the idea of getting a Lian-Li case, but the high prices drove me away from these beautiful cases. After doing some research and reading reviews at sites like PCStats.com, I was liking the HAF cases even more. I usually buy a full ATX cases because my hands are large and I have a hard time maneuvering inside a small case. Plus, larger cases often are cooler cases if you design the fans and airflow correctly. Since the HAF 932 was a large case (and is it ever weighing in at 30 lbs), I focused on learning as much as I could before I committed to buy.

Browsing through youtube, I discovered an excellent vid by TJHarlow who apparently does case modding for a living. His 5 part video of repainting the interior of the case to a flat black sold me on the case for my build. And although I wasn’t going to re-rivet the case like TJ does (too much work), I did want to follow his lead and re-paint the case using his method as it would be a fun thing to learn and I like the way the case looks with a black interior instead of the light gray factory color.

After purchasing 2 cans of gray primer, 2 cans of flat black and 2 cans of clear coat along with masking tape, I set about disassembling the case and masking it for painting. Everything went fine until I had to remove the special CoolerMaster finger-press button retainers for the CD rom drives. TJ mentioned that “considerable force” was required to remove them. It was hell removing these things and I broke one of them in the process. The retainers work just fine, but they weren’t really designed to be removed and when you finally get one off the springs and plastic gears inside fly all over the place forcing me to crawl around the kitchen with a flashlight trying to find tiny parts. Fortunately, I’ll only used at most 3 drives, so I wasn’t in too much of a problem. I was worried about putting them back on though. We’ll see how that works out once everything is painted.

 

 

Another small snag came when I discovered that the two large fans at the top of the case and on the side required an Allen wrench to remove the screws instead of the standard Phillips-head. And no Allen wrench was provided with the parts that came with the case. CoolerMaster dropped the ball here, I think. Fortunately, a full set of Allen wrenches cost about $6, so it wasn’t really an issue. But why not provide the right size wrench with the rest of the parts? Strange.

Found a nice spot outside the bookstore where I work to paint the case and a few extra parts. Wish I would have spent a little more care in masking the parts that I didn’t want painted. I got the outside window, but forgot to mask the other side which let to a few splatters of gray paint on the plastic window. Dumb thing to do on my part. But after several hours (be sure to use a mask and try to work outside as the fumes can be pretty toxic), I had the three coats on and let it dry overnight.

 

 

After bringing the case home and doing some simple touch ups (be sure to do your work when there’s lots of light, I waited till the late afternoon and my light was not good), I cleaned the case off with a clean rag and set about trying to fix the gray splatters on the side panel window. Alcohol seemed to do the job (also cleaned up stray masking tape residue), but for some reason I decided to try the stronger solvent Acetone, completely forgetting that the see through window is plastic. Well, one swipe and I realized that Acetone breaks down plastic (Yikes!) and it left a smeary blur where I wiped. Another dumb mistake. I finished the job with the Alcohol, but was left with a slight blur on one corner of the window. Not a problem for me, but if I was building this system for money I’d be sunk.

 

 

 

I managed to get the case re-assembled, however I wish I had diagrammed some of the parts a bit better. The direction the fans are facing make a difference in the airflow and I didn’t write the positions of the fans down, but quick search on youtube got be back on track. Also, the HAF installation guide pretty much laid everything out except for the fans. Got it all back together fine with the exception of the button retainers which were hell to put back on. Finally, I had to use a flat head screw driver to apply enough force to get the retainers to fit. Even then one of them exploded on me and it was back to crawling around on the flow trying to find tiny parts with a flashlight. Big mistake removing these things from the case, should have left them all on and simply masked them well with tape. Plus, even when I got them back on several retainers wouldn’t work properly, so I had to remove them and fix the interior gears. Finally, after several hours I managed to get all but two to work correctly. CoolerMaster does have a parts store, so I ordered two more retainers (cheap) to replace in a couple weeks. But, man, what a pain. I’d definitely advise against removing these unless you really have a lot of patience and good tools handy. Be very careful that they don’t fly out of your hands as the small springs are nearly impossible to find on the floor.

But, the paint job sure looks nice and I’m glad I took the time to do it. My partner Lisa is going to paint a nice zombie on the side of the case while I’m assembling the rest of the system. So this will be my Zombie build for 2009. With the red fan in front, should be perfect!

 

 

Next up: The motherboard and RAM memory.

Part 3

Motherboard: ASUS P6T Deluxe, Version 2

 

The motherboard is usually the easiest component for me to choose for a new build because I’ve been using Asus boards for all but one of my builds and not only are they great performers, but they last and last if you take care of them. So when I read the Andandtech.com X58 motherboard roundup and discovered that the Asus P6T Deluxe won their Gold Editor’s Award I was all set to order. However, NewEgg (which had the best price and is very reliable) customer comments on the mobo made me think twice as the RMA (return merchandise) percentage for the board was at 15% and many of the recent Dec comments indicated there were a lot of bad boards being shipped (or damaged in transit).

This led me to about 3 weeks of study for alternative motherboards which in retrospect was worth the time spent because I discovered a lot about other competing boards and the companies that make them. Gigabyte and EVGA were the leading contenders and both make great boards. EVGA in particular is the only American mobo manufacturer which I found intriguing. Their customer service had very high ratings and the forums were excellent. Both the Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 and the EVGA X58 SLI are superb boards. In fact, if you run Asus board at stock speed (2.66 Ghz) there is literally no difference between it and the other two boards. However, when you start overclocking, the Asus P6T Deluxe really shows it’s superiority in not only the ease of using the BIOS, but in how simple Asus has made overclocking this board using their TurboV windows-based application. And there is plenty of clearance around the CPU for the large Megahalems heat-sink which I’ll be using. The organization of the motherboard appealed to me as well. The main Sata ports weren’t going to be blocked by the huge ATI FirePro 8750 card which I’ll be using and the power efficiency of the board is perfect for this graphics card. Asus also has very good customer service and a decent warranty (3 years parts & labor) and they update their bios pretty regularly.

The version 2 part of the Asus P6T Deluxe board relates to the newest SAS hard-drives which have no moving parts (solid state and beau coup expensive). There were some problems with the first version of the board with the SAS controller, so they just removed it on version 2.

After almost buying the EVGA board, I ended up going for Asus P6T Deluxe and decided not to worry about the higher return rate. Some of that is just poor preparation by the computer builders and other factors like installation mistakes (not being grounded, etc). I’ve had faith in Asus and every board I’ve ordered from newegg has been good. Asus packages their products well (see pix) so there shouldn’t be a problem in shipping. If by some chance this board is a clinker, well, NewEgg has a very good return policy and I’ll just get another. Fingers crossed.

RAM Memory: Crucial 3-2GB DDR3 Ballistix PC3-12800 CL8, 1.65V TRACER GREEN W/XMP

 

Every build I’ve ever done has been with Mushkin memory. This Denver based company makes top notch RAM that performs perfectly over years and years. And their customer support is the best of any company I’ve ever dealt with. So why did I go with Crucial memory? Partly due to the Xbitlabs.com Triple-Channel Memory Round-Up article, but also because I simply got tired of looking for particular memory kits at the Mushkin site and finding them either discontinued or unavailable. Granted this was December, but I’ve never had that problem with Mushkin, but the Xbit article explained that the XMP profile which is part of the Crucial memory kit makes configuring RAM in an overclocked system much easier. Mushkin came in a close third in the article, but couldn’t find that memory brand at their site.

Further research on Crucial memory indicated that are a highly regarded memory company that uses quality Micron chips for their enthusiast brands like this one. And although Corsair memory seemed to be the preferred brand for the Asus P6T Deluxe mobo, it was very hard to find the Corsair Dominator memory at reasonable prices. Moreover, the Crucial Ballistix series has low clearance with it’s aluminum head-spreaders (no blocking a large heatsink like the Megahalems) and it has an unusual green LED that lights up on the top of the sticks to indicate it’s relative activity.

I liked these sticks and found ordering them at the Crucial site to easy. They arrived in 2 days and were well packed.

 

 

One oddity: the 3 stick kit I ordered is exactly as listed at the Xbit site (BL3Kit25664TG1508) which were listed as running at 1600, but when I received the sticks they had the exact same part number, but were listed as running at 12600, but I might be mis-reading the details. Re-reading the Xbit article it is clear this is the RAM kit they are reviewing, so it should work fine in my system. Crucial has a nice compatibility checker at their site which gives you a nice overview of which Crucial memory types would work with the Asus P6T Deluxe motherboard. Nice touch.

Sorry Mushkin.

Power Supply: Thermaltake ToughPower TX 750W

 

As with the RAM memory, Corsair was the PSU of choice for X58 mobo systems using the i7 920 CPU, but the 750 watt versions were all sold out at the major internet PC parts sites, so I went looking for another PSU with high ratings and a decent price. JohnnyGuru.com is THE site for power supply reviews. The tech folks at this site literally tear every PSU apart to make sure they are put together correctly as well as running well as a power supply. The author of the Thermaltake TP XT 750W review was Jeremy Schrag and after reading his thorough (and funny) review I had no doubt that the Thermaltake PSU was the one for me.

I was particularly concerned about power for the FirePro graphics card, but after double-checking at the ATI site and working out the power demands (plenty of sites to figure your power needs) for my new system, the requirements were well under 750watts and the Thermaltake has plenty of connectors for graphics cards. Plus, it’s a modular unit so I’ll only use the power cords I need. And best of all it’s on sale at NewEgg with a rebate.

Heatsink for CPU: Prolimatech Megahalems Rev B

 

Since I’ll be over-clocking the CPU, I’ll definitely need something better than the stock heatsink that comes with the i7 920 CPU. There are many excellent brands to choose from (Noctua and Thermalright), but it was the heat sink with the Star Trek sounding title that won me over. While other brands had slightly better cooling results, I was very impressed with how easy it was to install this heat sink. Youtube had some excellent install/review vids in this heatsink that finally sold me on it. Price was good and it was in supply at most of the online sellers. The only caveat was that it didn’t come with a fan, so I ended up losing the money I saved on this heatsink since I had to buy two recommended fans (one to pull the other to push the air through the heatsink fins). Fortunately, FrozenCPU.com had a nice deal on the unit and I’ve always heard good things about this company, so I went ahead and ordered the Megahalems heatsink, two Yate-Loon 120mm fans and an extra applicator of Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste (for the CPU). Everything came within the week, nicely packed and now sitting on my kitchen table ready to be installed.

Of course, I’m hoping that this heatsink install will be a lot easier than the last one I did which turned out to be an hour and half of hell. I think I made the right choice though.

Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64 bit OEM

 

I’ve followed the release of Windows 7, read reviews and checked the Cinema 4D and Mach Studio Pro sites and all of them say that Windows 7 64 bit is the way to go for a CG workstation. I had an opportunity to work with Windows 7 in my new Sony laptop and liked it very much. Although I was annoyed that Microsoft made it impossible to update Windows XP unless you re-install (you have to re-install everything as the only real “upgrade” is through Vista), I liked the reviews and had nary a problem with my laptop. Seems they got this operating system right. And I definitely needed to upgrade to a 64 bit system since it allows you to have a huge amount of RAM which is very tasty for CG workstations like mine. I’ll start out with 6Gb DDR3, but will probably upgrade to 12Gb DDR3 in the spring.

 

 

So there you have it. All of the parts which took me about a month to research and choose. The main thing to keep in mind when you choose your PC parts is that they all work together (check the manufacturer’s website) and that the company you buy the parts from has a good RMA policy. I’ve been lucky in all of my builds and have never had to return a part, but there is always a first time.

I haven’t listed a hard-drive purchase or a CD rom purchase because I’ll be pulling these item from my current system. FYI, I use a 500gb Windows Black for my system drive and a Lite-On Blu Ray drive for my DVD/CD rom. I will be buying a large 1.5 Tb drive for storage once the sales start rolling in at Fry’s.

I recommend keeping a notebook which contains all of your receipts and notes on every part you’ve purchased (along with dates, etc). This will make it much easier for you in the future if you have to get this info for reference or returns. I also use the notebook to record any notes on the system build and to record the process of putting the system together. These kinds of details seem superfluous at first, but later when you need to troubleshoot a problem that might come up, your notes will come in handy.

Next Up: Assembling the Parts, or putting your new system together one piece at a time!

Part 4

 

Forgot to add the Graphics Card in the last post. One of the biggest parts of this workstation is the particular graphics card I’ll be using. Since my new rig is a hybrid (mix of traditional rendering and real-time render) the GPU is central to creating an effective workflow. I’ll be using the graphics card that comes with the Mach Studio Pro software which is an ATI FirePro v8750 workstation card. Normally, I’d be looking at a games oriented card like the ATI Radeon 5970 or the 5870, but Mach Studio Pro comes with the v8750 card and works at it’s absolute best with that card, so I’ll use it in this workstation. I’ll also be writing a review for the MSP software in January for Renderosity.com. My sincere thanks to StudioGPU (a great, hard-working company) and Ted Henning for providing the software and the graphics card for review.

The main difference between a workstation card and a standard GPU (except for the large price disparity) is in the drivers. The FirePro cards have drivers that are specifically designed for CG work and in this case the real-time rendering software Mach Studio Pro. While not quite as efficient as a gamer’s GPU, the FirePro card still works very well and should be able to handle all of my game related work at the higher end. I’ll be doing some testing in this area and will be publishing my results.

Graphics Card: ATI FirePro v8750

 

 

Assembling the Parts

The actual assembly of your computer is a slow and careful process, but not nearly as difficult as it seems. Many excellent youtube videos show a very detailed process (along with lots of good sites like this one), so I’m not going to go into specifics of how to put a new computer. But I will cover the overall steps you need to take and any problems I might encounter along the way. One good thing to have (in addition to basic tools) is another computer or laptop that has internet access. Being able to look something up on the net has saved my butt many times.

I began to build my own computers because I was ripped off by a bad computer dealer who sold me cheap parts and then vanished when I started to have problems. So, I tore the shit computer apart and researched every single component and discovered that I could buy the parts for a quarter of price I paid. Determined to build my own system, I picked up a copy of Upgrading and Repairing PC’s by Scott Meuller, which not only covered the process of building a new system in detail, but covered all of the technology as well. Highly recommended for new system builders (comes with DVD as well)

 

 

The basic tools you’ll need for a new computer build are mostly common sense items like philips-head screwdriver, tweezers, a clean cloth, etc. Two items might be new to a beginner: the anti-static wristband (to keep static electricity from damaging the computer circuits) and small tubes/cups to hold the variety of screws you’ll be using for the build. I also add a small flashlight which, because of my failing eyesight, comes in handy all the time as you work in dark corners of your case. A clear area to work in free of distractions and plenty of light are also things you’ll need for the build

I can’t stress enough how important it is to read the motherboard manual before you begin to assemble the computer. Asus makes an excellent manual which goes over how to install the CPU and all the other parts on to the motherboard. Reading the manual in detail will keep you from making mistakes which could ruin your computer, so take the time to read the manual thoroughly before you begin.

 

 

The basic elements of a computer a fairly simple; a cpu, a motherboard, ram memory, a pc case, power unit and cd rom are all you need to start with. Once these items are assembled correctly, you’ll be able to load the operating system of your choice (in my case, Windows 7 64-bit).

The CPU I have chosen is an Intel i7 920 quad core. This cpu has a lot of head room and can easily be overclocked. It is also well documented and widely used by gamers and CG artists alike. Great care must be taken in handling the CPU, installing it on to the motherboard and in adding thermal grease to the cpu which will help the heat conductivity between the CPU and the heatsink.

The Asus p6T Deluxe motherboard makes it very easy to install the CPU. I usually remove the mobo and stand it on top of the box with the anti-static bag underneath in order to install the CPU with lots of room to negotiate. A simple lever releases the main device that secures the CPU into place. You then very carefully align the CPU so that it fits the socket and slowly lower it into place. Once done you re-secure the lever and proceed to adding thermal grease.

 

 

Much discussion on the net about which is the best way to add thermal grease, most opt for a small line of grease at roughly the center of the CPU, but I like to spread the grease around using the finger of a plastic glove (cleaned with alcohol first). The point of using thermal grease is to make sure it spreads evenly across the face of the CPU, this method allows you to do this. Important to make sure your gloved finger is clean and that the face of the CPU is clean as well.

Once this is done, I prepare the heatsink. I’m not using the provided stock Intel heatsink, but a custom one which cools better and makes overclocking much easier (overclocking makes your CPU run much hotter). I chose the Prolima Megahalems which are supposed to be easy to install.

Not.

Why do heat sink manufacturers make such awful manuals? The Prolima manual, while correct, is useless as it doesn’t show direction and it lacks detail. It took me a good hour just to make sure I knew what I was doing. This is why you need the net to do research if you are stuck. Prolima actually has a much better guide on their website which I wish I would have sought out sooner.

The problem came in figuring out how the the back-plate fits on to the rear of the motherboard. Since the heatsink is so large, you have to have a strong back-plate to keep the unit securely fastened to the motherboard. I couldn’t figure out which side of the back-plate fit on to the back of the Asus board. Finally, after finding a picture on the Prolima site, I was able to figure out the orientation and it installed fine. Still, most back-plates have a small adhesive pad which sticks to the back of the motherboard and holds it in place. The Prolima unit does not, or rather it does but apparently it’s only used for another type of CPU which was not the one I was using.

Scratch head several times.

Finally, after assembling the backplate and supporting clips separately, I understood how it worked (along with watching a few youtube vids) and got it attached to the motherboard pretty quickly. Another problem cropped up when I realized I hadn’t spread out the clamps which hold down the heatsink enough and had to re-install them again. But this was a minor problem.

Interestingly, this heat-sink requires that you add thermal grease to the metal head that sits on the CPU. Usually, you only put grease on the CPU. So, I used the finger in glove method again and added only the slightest cover of grease to the head. Once this was done it was a simple matter to install the heatsink and screw it down tight to the CPU and motherboard.

 

 

Another problem came up when I realized I hadn’t decided which fan orientation I wanted for the heatsink. You see, I’ll be adding a fan or two to the body of the heatsink to make it work more efficiently. I chose an upward orientation with the logic being that the fan will “push” air across the blades of the heatsink and into the fan on top of the case which is “pulling” hot air out of the case. Setting up the fan orientation requires you to change the direction of the heatsink fins, so it’s an important decision.

After the entire heatsink was installed, I added the 3 sticks of RAM to the board making sure to place them in the correct RAM slots (read the motherboard manual). You do this because it’s much easier to do it outside of the case. Now it’s time to place the motherboard into the case.

 

 

With the PC case on it’s back, the first thing you do is to install metal stand-0ff’s (eight of them) provided by the PC case manufacturer (Coolermaster HAF 932). This is done so that the motherboard sits up a bit from the metal backing of the case. If it sat on the metal it would short out. Once done, the faceplate for the side of the motherboard should be installed. I had a hard time figuring out how to do this as the faceplate provided by Coolermaster seemed much too small for the opening in the case. Another half hour spent checking the net and reading the HAF 932 manual (fairly well-written except on this part). Eventually, I realized that the faceplate needed to be installed on the “inside” of the case and not the outside. It snapped right in perfectly and slapped my forehead (‘doh!).

Placing the motherboard in the case is a little tricky as you don’t want to force anything or bend any of the clips on the faceplate, but with a little finesse it went in fine. Some corners of the board are hard to see and here’s where the little flashlight comes in handy. I try to be very, very careful with my screwdriver so as not to slip and damage any of the traces on the motherboard (bad, bad, bad).

 

 

Next up: Attaching the power, case headers and organizing the cables.

Part 5

Assembling the Parts (continued)

 

 

One of the main obstacles for me in building a new computer is the size of my hands. They are very large, which makes it difficult to work in tight spaces inside of a PC case. The worst part has been installing all of the small headers that connect your power switch, reset switch and any front panel items (audio, usb, etc) to the motherboard. That is until now.

Asus has finally come to the rescue of big handed people like me with a new device which allows you to plug all of the connections into a single plastic container which you then plug directly into the motherboard. No more endless squeezing of tweezers and peering into the dark recesses of your case to push an tiny female plug on to an equally tiny male header on your motherboard. In the past, it would take me hours to get the headers attached; this build, because of Asus ingenuity, I had it all done in about 15 minutes.

Thank you, Asus Tek.

 

 

At this point, I make sure all of the case fans are plugged into the motherboard. I have 6 fans; three large ones on the top, front and side panel; two fans attached to the heat-sink in a push/pull configuration; and a rear fan. The idea is to bring cool air in from the front and sides of the case, then blow the hot air out the top and back of the case. The two fans attached to the heat-sink are specially designed to be low noise, but high volume of air which will push air through the heat-sink on one side and pull out air on the other side.

I was highly influenced by a great post at overclock.net by ShadowClock who outlined the basic ideas behind case/system cooling and providing working links to everything. This is one of the reasons why it is so important to have another internet ready computer handy while you are building. At one point, I wasn’t quite sure which way to orient my heat sink and which direction a fan was blowing air (one way to check is to simply plug in your PC power unit and try the fan out live; easy to see which way it blows then).

You won’t find these many fans in an off-the-shelf computer by HP, for example, because they haven’t over-clocked their GPU or CPU which produces plenty of heat. Since HP runs it’s units at standard speeds, there’s no need for anything more than just basic cooling. But I plan on pushing both the graphics card and the CPU a bit, so I need the extra fans. And in the southwest during the summer our apartment can get very hot. Even more reason to have extra fans.

 

 

Once the fans are all set, and the dvd-rom drive is inserted into the front of the case and secured, we are ready to add the power cables for everything. Since our Thermaltake PSU is modular, we add only the cables we need, which will reduce clutter inside the case and improve airflow.

All of the cables (plus some nifty cable ties) come in a nice pouch. All cables have multiple sockets on them and are very clearly labelled. Simple job to pull out Sata power cable, figure out how to run it from the PSU to the drive and then tie the cables off so they are out of the way. I was worried that the cable for the DVD drive might not reach as it’s all the way to the top/front of the case, but it was not a problem.

 

 

The Sata data cables (red, flat cables) plug into each drive (2 hard drives, a front of case sata port and a single DVD drive) and into Sata inputs on the motherboard. I’ve labelled each one with a note so I can remember which drives they are attached to. It’s very important that these connections are secure and tight. I triple-checked these to be sure.

Once all of the cables are tied off and out of the way (an important process that is often neglected), it’s time to start on the huge FirePro v8750 graphics card. I’ll install it to the PCI Express slot, secure it and then add 2 power cables (this is a hungry beast).

 

 

I chose the HAF 932 case because it had enough room for this large GPU. It takes up two spaces on the motherboard and runs almost all the way to the end of the board. Fortunately, the HAF is a match for it and there is plenty of space. Attaching the two 6-pin power cords was easy. Be sure to pay attention to how you route the power cables, since you want them to be out of the way.

One important point I’d like to make here is that, even though it’s obvious, don’t plug in the power to your PSU yet. You don’t want to run the risk of powering up by accident.

 

 

Now is the time to go back over your assembly and check to make sure everything is as it should be. Use the list you made earlier for the assembly and check items off: CPU secure, Ram installed correctly, PSU set with all connections to the right place and tight, all of the drives installed correctly, fans connected to the motherboard, etc.. You get the idea.

One last bit of fiddling with the cables and organizing them a bit better and it’s time to close up the sides of the computer and move it to my work space so I can attach the monitor, keyboard, internet cable, audio and power cable.

Ready to hit the power button and………..will you, won’t you, will you, won’t you, will you power up?

 

 

 

Next up: epic fail or epic build?

Part 6

Fail!

No Power. Push the power button as much as you want and everything is dead-o. Yikes!

Don’t panic, I tell myself because here’s where one of the most important rules of problem solving with computers comes in: think the problem through logically, reduce the amount of variables to the problem until you have the fewest, then use the manual (or internet article) to re-check those variables.

Of course, I was nervous because even after building several computers it’s possible to make a mistake that will ruin the build. Now, I know that the power cord has power since it’s coming from the same outlet that I used for my previous computer and the new power cord looks fine. Sniffing around the PSU, I didn’t smell anything burnt. The inside of the case looks fine once I take the side panel off. Checking the power line from the PSU to the motherboard (2 of them) and they are both tight. It seems like the problem is with the motherboard simply not getting the power it needs to boot since all the other hardware looks good right up to the motherboard.

Usually a motherboard will have a few small lights on the board which start up when you plug the power cord into the PSU. In fact, some have small LCD”s on them that give you post codes which, when checked in the manual, tell you what the problem is. Asus doesn’t have one of these, but there still should be some small lights on the board. So, I undid the power cord, made sure it was securely plugged into it’s own outlet, re-checked the switch, plugged it back in and…

Nothing. No Power to the motherboard.

Time to open the case back up and find out what the problem is. Got the monitor and all the rest detached and carried this (heavy) case over to the work-table to problem solve.

 

 

The first thing to do is to make sure that the two power plugs into the motherboard are correct and secure. For the Asus P6T, the motherboard manual states that there are two places where you attach power; one is a large 24-pin connector and the 2nd is a small 8-pin (12 volt) connector. No other sources of power (reduced variables).

The first connector is tight and looks good. The 2nd one…ah, it’s a 4-pin power connector, where the manual says:

“Do not forget to connect the 4-pin/8-pin EATX 12 volt power plug; otherwise the system will not boot“

Hmnn, it says 4-pin or 8-pin. If my memory is correct from my last build, it was an 8-pin connector, but when I look at the actual connector on the Asus motherboard there are only 4-pins available. I grab my little flashlight and look closer.

What the hell? There seems to be some sort of black cover over 4 other pins on the board. A quick google search on my laptop brings up the problem; Asus, without mentioning it in the manual, has placed a black cover over 4 of the pins. This must be the problem; the motherboard needs 8 pins in order to boot. So if I remove the black cover and plug in the 8-pin connector instead of the 4-pin, the system should boot.

 

 

It seems that because it was dark in this corner of the case, I was unable to see the dark cover on the 8-pin connector. Tricky getting it off, but a little work with a pencil and a pair of tweezers did it and you can see the full 8-pins in the above picture (right side). After plugging in the correct power connector and making sure the cable was snug behind the motherboard, I closed up the case and brought it back over to my PC table to re-attach the monitor, power cable, and all the rest. Fingers securely crossed this time.

YES! Power on and the machine is booting!

 

I think I’m taking back my thanks to Asus because of this odd omission in their manual. They should have stated that the “8-pin connector had 4 pins covered, if you need the other 4 pins remove the covering”. Strange that they’d have it there in the first place. I couldn’t find an answer after a bit of research. Be that as it may, we are on to the last part of our new computer build:

Post Build Testing/Problem Solving

Actually, I left out a step before you test the computer; you have to adjust the bios and load in the operating system, in my case Windows 7 64-bit. The testing comes after you have loaded in the operating system.

The bios for a motherboard controls the basic in/out switches and levels for your computer. Think of it as what’s under the hood of your car. You interact with your car’s engine (the bios) by looking at the panels inside of your car, but the basic controls are under the hood. So it is with your computer.

Accessing the bios is pretty easy as you simply have to hold down a particular keyboard key when the motherboard logo flashes on the screen. You’ll see the note at the bottom of the screen to hold down the “delete” key to access bios. In my case, I have the American Megatrends bios which are excellent to work with.

Here’s how you provide basic info to the bios and set it up to load your Operating system from the CD rom. Once the computer starts booting, when you get to the logo screen you hit “delete” until the main menu for the bios appears. At this point you enter the date, time and check to see if the drives and your ram show up. Each bios topic division is at the top of the screen and you access each one by using the arrow keys and the enter key. Instructions are at the bottom of the screen.

The main bios topics for the Asus P6T Deluxe v2 are Main, AI Tweaker, Advanced, Power, Boot, Tools and Exit. The bios set up program is under the Main topic. Just use the down arrow keys to get to the section you want. All of the hard-drives, etc are listed here and their names and sizes, along with CD Rom drive, should appear here. Mine are all there, so I’m looking good.

 

 

Not much to change in the bios for simply loading in the operating system, but I do need to disable the floppy disk since I’m not using one. What I need to do know is to change the boot order so that the machine boots from the CD Rom 1st. This is pretty easy to do, so once that’s done I hit F10 (save and exit bios) and the system re-boots only this time it will start with the CD-Room with the Windows 7 disc ready to install.

Sure enough the Windows disc starts to load in files for the build and we are ready to install the operating system.

 

 

In the past, windows would take about 30-40 minutes to format the hard-drive and then load the operating system. In my system with the i7 920 CPU, it took about 15 minutes (or less because I didn’t expect it to be so fast and went to get a cup of coffee).

I decided not to use my old hard-drive as I was just going to have to load Windows XP back on to the drive at some point since I want to use my old computer as a render farm for Cinema 4D. So I bought a new Western Digital Caviar Black 640Gb drive and plugged it into the first Sata port on the motherboard. It’s unformatted, so Windows asks you if you want to partition the drive (create separate sections like a E drive or an F drive), I generally don’t like to partition my drives so I use the whole drive. Set Windows 7 to partition the drive and it took about 5 minutes. Amazing.

Oh, one little trick you should keep in mind when the Windows install wants to re-boot and continue: go back onto the bios and change the boot order again so that you are booting from the hard-drive you just formatted. Be careful that you pick the correct drive as I had two drives installed, one for the operating system and one for storage. You should be able to tell which drive is which by the size of the drive and the letters in front of the numerical values. In my case I have Western Digital 640Gb (WD) and a Seagate 1.5 Tb (SG) drives so it’s easy to tell them apart.

Now, when the system starts it will boot into the Windows 7 installation to finish up. And as I said it was the fastest install I’ve ever had the pleasure to witness.

 

 

From fear that my install was wonky to a Windows 7 desktop and a new CG workstation that is purring along very nicely. It’s really a good feeling to know that something you put together with care actually works. This is one of the reasons I build my own systems.

Side benefit from the case and the motherboard are the nice, simple lights inside the case. The RAM sticks (in green) are fascinating to watch as they blip blip blip along on the tops of the sticks according to how much you are using them. The important thing is that they work, but it’s pleasant to watch them especially at the end of a very long day putting this system together. Whew!

Next up: Testing the build and adjusting air-flow. Finishing up.

Part 7

 

While I can heave a big sigh of relief that the computer I’ve researched and assembled actually works, there is still testing to do to make sure that the system components will function well under stress. I bought a quad core CPU which when you add Hyper-Threading kicks the amount of computing threads up to 8, but can they stand up to several hours worth of continuous function at close to 100%? This is where you find out if the components of your build are all that they are cracked up to be.

Most home-builders like myself either use free programs like memtest or prime9 to test their builds, but I like a more complete system of tests that will also give me information about my system components as well as testing practically every piece of hardware in my build. For that you have to shell out a few bucks. I chose PassMark Software’s Burnin Test 6.0 and Performance Test 7.0. PassMark is an established software company whose programs have become standard at major review sites like Anandtech.com and Tomshardware.com. I added the Performance Test application because Passmark had a special on both for $44.

But before we get into testing, I want to mention why I chose Windows 7 64 bit for my new operating system. I’ve had little faith in Windows OS since the major screw-up of Vista, but many positive reviews at trusted sites plus running for several weeks on my new laptop convinced me that it was worth the money. The 64 bit version allows for a higher amount of RAM for the system ( I plan on upgrading to 12Gbs sometime this year). And practically every major CG application runs much better (and faster) on a 64 bit system, so I chose that version of Windows 7.

It’s usually much better to do a clean install rather than an upgrade (lots of driver issues) and since there really is no viable upgrade from XP to Windows 7 (it’s essentially a new installation), I decided to simply buy a new OEM version of Windows 7. The OEM version is cheaper as it doesn’t come with a manual, etc, and is essentially limited to one machine, but that’s not an issue for me. Newegg.com ships Windows 7 64-bit Professional OEM for around $140. Took me a bit of research to realize that I didn’t need the Ultimate version of Windows 7; the Professional version is just fine for my needs.

 

 

Both RAM tests and CPU test crunched for over an hour and both of them performed flawlessly. I also download Real Temp (a cpu temperature program that reads all 4 core temps in real time) and an essential application, CPU-Z which reads all of the information about your CPU you’d ever want to know.

-I decided to wait on over-clocking the CPU until I’ve had a chance to test everything and conduct more research on the best techniques for overclocking a i7 920 CPU. It’s more complicated with this CPU and chipset, so I want to be sure I’m fully aware of what I’m doing before I start making changes to the bios. I don’t plan on doing a large over-clock, but something more modest like 3.4 Ghz (the CPU standard clock speed is 2.66 Ghz). More on this in a future post

 

 

Running Real Temp at the same time as I’m testing the RAM and CPU gives you a good idea of how the Prolima Megahalem heat sink is cooling the CPU when it’s under stress. The results were good, but a little higher than I expected. At idle the cores run at about 32 c and under full load (98%) they can get as high as 56 c. Most of the test results I read indicated that the Megahalem heat sinks kept the CPU under 50 c, but many forum posts indicated that my results were pretty standard. Plus, 56 c under load for an hour is well below any kind of over-heating, so I’m good hear. Still, I decided to go back to the “push/pull” arrangement of 120mm fans on the heat-sinks (I had taken one off and placed it at the bottom of the case pulling in air). Once I did this, I dropped a couple degrees C, so I’ll keep it that way.

Also added a cheap Aerocool front fan/temp indicator to keep track of my fan speeds and temps. The touch 1000 adds the ability to control 4 fans and check temps for the PC case, the GPU, the RAM and hard-drives. Installing was a bit of trouble as I suddenly had a lot of new connectors to hide/bundle, but it took about an hour and I was all set. Left the main fan on the heat-sink connected to the mobo so I won’t get an alarm from the bios. Plus, you can’t really attach a thermal sensor to the CPU once it’s been installed and has a huge heat-sink attached, so I just place a sensor near the center of the case for basic system temps.

 

 

And there you have it. From selecting/researching the components, assembling them, problem solving, installing an operating system and testing, I’ve got a very fast machine that’s designed specifically to create machinima and computer graphics. From here it’s simple taking the time to load in back up files and all of my applications. I’ve designed this computer to be a true workstation devoted solely to animation, so most of my daily emails/etc will be on the new laptop I got for xmas (and where I’m typing this now). That way the system is kept clean of too many unnecessary software installs, etc.

I’ve mentioned at the beginning of this project that the new workstation is built around Cinema 4D and Mach Studio Pro, but I’ll also be loading in Moviestorm, IClone 4, Blender, Steam and the entire HL2 saga + tools, Dragon Age and it’s toolset, plus the Torque Engine and Second Life, both of which I plan on learning a lot more this year. I’ve got plenty of space with a fast 640 Gb hard-drive, so it’s on to installing.

Wrap Up and Suggestions

Some of you have commented that after reading my posts on building a CG workstation, you’d like to try building your own system. I’m very glad to hear that since that was partially my goal in writing these chronicling my process of building a computer. If you are serious, there are several step-by-step guides on the net that would come in handy. GeekTeks has a nice overview of the process; Newegg.com has got a good tutorial which includes a review of the case I used (the HAF 932). If you like written tutorials here’s a nice one that goes into great detail: mysuperpc.com. I’m partial to Scott Mueller’s Upgrading and Repairing PC’s since it comes with video tutorials and a written text as well. It’s also a great bible for trouble-shooting computer related problems.

Cost? My new workstation cost approximately $1000, but I used several parts from my old computer which brought the price down a bit. If I did this entire build from scratch, I estimate it would be about $1400, which is damn good considering the power and speed that this workstation is capable of.

However, I’d recommend that if you want to build your own computer, don’t go with the i7 CPU as they are much more expensive than the i5 CPU and the motherboards/Ram are much cheaper. Tomshardware.com has a nice series of system builds that include an i5 in the mix. And here’s an excellent article on building a balanced Game PC from Tom’s Hardware that goes over a lot of possible hardware choices.

And that’s it for this 7 part article on building your own CG workstation. It’s been a lot of fun for me to do and I hope you all have found it interesting. I plan on posting a one-page version of all 7 entries for those who want to read/print the whole thing in one sitting.

And here are my final workstation specs:

Machinima/CG Workstation Build:

Mobo: ASUS P6T Deluxe Version 2

CPU: Intel i7 920 1366 chipset

RAM: 6 GB Crucial DDR3 Ballistix PC-12800 Memory

CASE: Coolermaster HAF 932

GPU: ATI FirePro v8750

PSU: Thermaltake toughPower 750W PSU

Heatsink: Prolima Megahalem w/2 120mm Yate Loon fans

HD: Western Digital 640 GB Caviar Black Sata HD

OS: Windows 7 64-bit OEM

Main Software: Cinema 4D, Mach Studio Pro, Adobe Premiere/Audition, Moviestorm, IClone, Blender/Steam Games

Misc: Aereocool 1000 LCD temp/fan speed indicator for front panel

And basic LCD monitor, keyboard and mouse.