Luminus: Guardian of the Data - Overclock.net

*CyberDruid* · 12-11-06

Just got another Rig together over the weekend--up till 4 am and all that as usual.

I call this one Luminus. The name just sort of arrived in my head when I first saw her all put together.

Case is from taeric--an Aluminus Ultra--silver, very lightweight, tall, long, sort of narrow--with a big window.

The interior is so huge that it looks really clean after a little cable management.

For the nonce I have an FX57, Asus A8NSLI, 2GB OCZ, 2 Cheetahs in RAID1, and 2 x 160GB SATA3.0 in nothing--as the NVraid controller will not do a thing I want it to just yet--an x1950pro (I bought two to try Crossfire--but having no Crossfire mobo I am running it single), and my personal favorite: an 800 Watt PSU with 54A devided between the quad rails. That is the phattest PSU I have ever owned--not sure if it is good make though (BFG) but it does have a warranty so whatever...

Not thrilled at all with the SCSI set up--it is slow as mole asses. When I have the time I will try and update the HBA BIOS and see if RAID0 performs any better.

Nothing to show yet as far as Benches, but I will post them as I go along.

Currently Clocking the FX57 at 2700mhz--apparently stable.

One downside of the light aluminum case is that is incredibly NOISY. I mean like a dishwasher or laundry machine or something--the fans/'drives reverberate throughout so I will need to put some matting in there. The Dynex fans are el cheapo Best Buy units that make some noise--but it does not seem to be one particular thing--everything together more like.

Anyway--it was a relief to be dealing with a familiar BIOS (Asus) but I am still somewhat annoyed by the NF4 chipset in regards to it's RAID host. I have RAID enabled, the channels enabled, the Motherboard drivers installed--and still the drives do not show either in Windows or during the POST. I must be missing something. I have been through the BIOS again and again looking for that missed option that will magically make the SATA drives appear.

Wierd..

ICHR FTW IMO

Fishie36 · 12-12-06

Got any pictures?

**The Duke** · 12-12-06

Did you set up the RAID configuration?
I'll pop back in mine and see if you missed anything... have results for you tommrow.

*CyberDruid* · 12-13-06

It does not list it as an option in the POST--usually it is F4 for NF4 and CTRL+S for SiS...

Could be the SCSI controller is making it skip that...not sure.

Yes I have lot's of pics Fishie--soon!

*CyberDruid* · 12-15-06

Much struggling later I got the SCSI gear installed and it was SLOW as mole asses. I mean minutes to boot and a 2.5 MBs transfer rate...I dunno...

SO I popped in a pair of SATA 3.0 160GB drives and wrestled with the install some more and wierdly enough the Asus CD make disk was creating the wrong disk for the RAID drivers! I kept getting a Hard Error NTLDR.DLL error

I Explored the CD and found the Disk Drivers and simply put them on a Floppy.

Now I have the drives plugged intot he NV RAID headers (as lableled on the the mobo) but the Foppy drivers say SiS Soft RAID5 drivers..nonetheless I loaded them F6 and everything went fine--in fact Windows loaded very fast indeed.

A little quirky--but much better than on the DFI board.

Can't wait to bench the drives and see what they can do.

I also pulled the X1950pro and lovingly inserted a pair of Zalman cooled 7800GTs by EVGA. I set up everything on the board and in the BIOS for SLI so I am hoping for the best.

Luminus has been transformed from a Slug to a Bullet.

Still loading stuff so nothing to report just yet--I have been taking pictures of all of this and will be sharing them shortly...

**The Duke** · 12-15-06

Daunting at times

*CyberDruid* · 12-15-06

=

These shots are all with the SCSI gear installed--I have new shots--just need to finsih the install and I will post them--much cleaner without the peppermint taffy...