build logs and more

the shinobi stormtrooper build is progressing nicely. i have fitted the new mobo, CPU and RAM into the case and used the GPU, PSU and various drives from the old rig to finish the initial build. the wiring is currently a temporary setup, mainly done to test the new install. now that its all installed and running, its given me a better idea of the sleeving i will need to order.  I also ended up having to geek it up DOS style, after forgetting to back up some existing data before gutting the old rig. felt like a true old-school geek, already knowing the required command line commands ;P

plenty of room inside the full tower case

installed and ready to go

geeking it up DOS sytle ;P

during installation, i managed to resolve an issue with an EFI setting and, after a bit of google-fu on my smartphone, discovered that this conflict was preventing me from formatting the existing boot drive. changing this setting in the BIOS fixed this issue (in this case, shuffling the boot order so the standard optical drive booted before the uEFI option fixed it). I also overcame the " mom.exe error " by downloading and installing the latest .NET framework after the GPU's software (catalyst) kept causing an error on every boot. also, in order to save some time in the whole patch/reboot process,  i created an offline archive of windows updates, saving me the hassle of downloading nearly three gig of data. after patching and updating windows, the archive definitely helped save some time, although the reboot process during the patching process was as usual... numerous.

so, cabling to complete next and maybe some ideas on staging fleshed out ahead of time. while i would love to splurge another $300 plus on fitting a custom watercooling loop, buying all the wiring is going to cost about half that again, which means the water cooling will have to wait. I definitely have a lot of ideas for this build - and while a water cooled rig would be the ultimate geek, right now however, it's the lowest priority item in the budget.