[superroach]

Hey all

been lurking for a while, this place is a great sff resource.

I'm wanting to put together an sff itx build, but I'm having trouble with it not turning on, or giving a post/display to a monitor at all. Fairly frustrating!

I've tried over the weekend to narrow down what may be wrong - put it on an antistatic sheet, then only plugged in the bare minimum, which is:

i7 875k
Silverstone SG05/w 300w SFX psu (stock)
1x 2gig DDR3 ram (tried in different slot as well as different combinations with two sticks in etc)
AXP-140 Heatsink and fan.
Amaze 5770 Graphics Card.

Here is a brief clip to show the rebooting loop it gets into:
http://www.vimeo.com/15501543

Some other photos of the build taken earlier:
http://imgur.com/a/KxDSe/itx_build_z...55_with_axp140

Some other things i've attempted:

- Plugging in a Nvidia 7800gtx (still reboots)
- Taking the backplate off for the rear of the motherboard that the axp 140 normally uses incase it was shorting something (no difference)
So my question is, what else can I try?

 

[miahallen]

The Zotac board is a POS....I went through two

My guess is a compatibility issue with the 875K CPU....a BIOS update SHOULD fix it....but that's not Zotac's strong suite

I'm guessing you don't have a spare 1156 CPU you can throw in to test?

 

[losttsol]

What does the motherboard do with no RAM plugged in? Do you get any beeps?

 

[lastsplash]

It's probably the PSU.

 

[miahallen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lastsplash It's probably the PSU.

What makes you think that?

If it was the PSU it'd probably give a different symptom

 

[superroach]

Thanks for the responses guys!

It's the second gen zotac by the way, a h55 itx ce . The previous ae models I read were pretty unreliable.

yeah, the ram part is odd, no ram in gives me a system that stays on, no reset.. But no beeps. I have never heard it beep actually.

I dont have a spare cpu to try either

 

[yashau]

Either the motherboard or the CPU. Take the CPU out and see it produces any beeps. You can kinda clear the motherboard as the issue that way. If so you got a faulty CPU. If not probably the motherboard

 

[superroach]

Thanks Yashau and all,

Well, It turns out it was a faulty motherboard

Thanks for the troubleshooting guys!
Time to rma, maybe see if I can get a refund and credit or something... arrggh

I tried a few other steps:

- Reset cmos settings
Umm.. thats about it this time around actually. All the other steps I had tried on the weekend.

I accidentally ordered a gigabyte h55-usb3 itx motherboard, which is a blessing in disguise really. Put the parts in that, and its booted fine. I'll leave it running on the bios screen for a while before I put more parts together.

Fit wise, I've noticed that physically, the cpu socket on the gigabyte could be a few mm closer to the ram (away from the rear panel connections), and closer to the pcie slot.

Some photos:
The bench with the Zotac H55ITX ce (right) and the Gigabyte board with parts installed (left)
http://imgur.com/2s1la.jpg

The rear, a bit dark:
http://imgur.com/MErIV.jpg

The stock settings given to the i7 875k cpu from the bios:
http://i.imgur.com/0hcXd.jpg

But still, I have a grin a mile wide after finally tracking that down. First DOA part I've had in a long time, guess I was due for one.

 

[miahallen]

You'll be happy with the Gigabyte board, it's far better than the Zotac....

I still think it is a compatibility issue with the K series CPU....I bet the board is fine LOL

 

[yashau]

Quote:

I accidentally ordered a gigabyte h55-usb3 itx motherboard, which is a blessing in disguise really. Put the parts in that, and its booted fine. I'll leave it running on the bios screen for a while before I put more parts together.

That's the best accident you could have. It's prolly the best mITX motherboard around. I know you'll love it.

Also I have a similar rig planned real soon. Can't decide on a case for the life of me

 

[superroach]

a sg05/06 or lianli q08 are both great, the latter giving you a tad more height which is good for cooling.

Funny, I didn't expect the gigabyte board to be good at all, but even little things like large chips underneath the zotac board making the backplate only partially fit make me doubt it a lot. That and heaps of people having similar problems!
It's very strange how the board didn't play nice with the cpu either - if it is a cpu compat problem, I'd be really suprised - the zotac boards technically a lot newer than the gigabyte one!

What I have noticed though, is that the bios menu of the Gigabyte board seems similar to older pc's I've had, where in the boot option, they don't have a single "USB" option. There is ones like USB-ZIP, USB-HDD, USB-Lan or something etc... If it's like the older pc, that meant that I wouldn't use a usb flash drive to boot with! Hopefully not the case though, because I'll be using that extensively to install and test it.

 

[yashau]

Oh you can use a USB drive. Just use the USB HDD option. Works fine for me with all GB board I've tried recently.

 

[miahallen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by superroach a sg05/06 or lianli q08 are both great, the latter giving you a tad more height which is good for cooling.

It's an interesting comparison....but side by side they are vastly different in size.....in pictures it's not so noticable.

Silverstone SUGO SG05
(W) 222mm x (H) 176mm x (D) 276mm = 10.78L

Lian Li PC-Q08
(W) 227mm x (H) 272mm x (D) 345mm = 21.30L

As you can see, the PC-Q08 is almost exactly twice as big by volume

...crazy huh?

More here:
http://www.techreaction.net/forums/s...ead.php?t=3663

 

[superroach]

Good point

- On top of that, it's a lot heavier in construction (re: lian li q08).

I have a Shuttle SN41g2 case for nostalgia (sitting around, doing nothing lol):

Lovely cases for their time, and to put them in perspective:
300mm x 200mm x 185 mm (LWH).
Besides the depth, We've got a smaller case, with arguably better thermals (the shuttles used custom form factor motherboards, and a passive watercooling solution if you could call it that.

Thermals for the SG05 So far, seems to show it's going to be a bit toasty, measurements:
Running two hours on idle, with no fan (and outside the case)
System: 72 deg
CPU: 32deg (I'm betting this is the wrong way around, but is what the bios says, or somethings wrong).

Same, but with the AXP-140 fan on top...
System: 36 deg
CPU: 28deg (??)
Sadly the fans likely too big to fit, looking at other peoples builds when the psu is installed.

And with the parts in the case. Not all the parts installed, like the powersupply and hdd front top brackets. PSU facing heatsink, 120mm Case fan in SG05 case. I might try and find it's specs, Maybe I can put a more powerful fan instead to help get a stronger airflow.
System: 62 deg
CPU: 80deg
All those are idling, so that's fairly hot.

 

[miahallen]

In my first build...I used the Samuel 17, which is short enough to accomodate a 25mm thick fan. Performance was very good....I recommend it

Full article on that build here (includes a brief comparison with a Zotac board):
http://www.techreaction.net/2010/08/...d-prolimatech/

 

[superroach]

Well Things so far have been ok, usual niggles when building a pc. The gigabyte board actually has the great sink touching one of the gpu mounting screws on it's back. Not sure what I can do there.

Because the gpu is a 5770, I've got plenty of room at the front of the case. I wonder if I can mount the 140mm fan to replace it's 120mm stock one. That would help thermals If possible, even if the hole want made larger.

 

[superroach]

I guess I should probably try and get a title update, now that it's mostly working.

Update on the install - And it seemed to get it together this time around! The cable routing I tried something different - I made the psu cable fit inbetween the psu block, and the slim disk caddy. Probably better that way imo, because it gives it a bit more vertical space for airflow. Still, it's a cramped case! Rewarding to see it ready to put the case on.

I'm running some prim95/Fan and heat checks now for a while to see how it goes before I finally put the case on.

So heres the video showing space, cabling and temps so far:
http://www.vimeo.com/15654427

 

[miahallen]

The CPU heatsink touching the GPU heatsink mounting screw should not pose a problem....they are both "grounds".......but if it makes you feel better, a small piece of electrical tape should calm your concern......nice build