Merry Christmas in March????

[docnascar]

I ordered some new HW. I'm so excited to build a new PC. Just waiting impatiently for it to arrive.

• AMD FX-6300 Vishera 3.5GHz (4.1GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 95W Six-Core Desktop Processor FD6300WMHKBOX
• MSI 970A-G46 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
• G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL9D-8GBSR
• ECS NGT440-512QI-F1 GeForce GT 440 (Fermi) 512MB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16     
• Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
• SAMSUNG DVD Burner SATA Model SH-224BB - OEM

Wish me luck. Hopefully the pclinuxos install will go super smooth. I think I may do minime. I like adding my own programs and customizing it for my needs.

[agmg]

The only thing I would add to this system would be a small SSD for running the OS (if the budget allows it, off course )
The performance boost compared to mechanical disks is HUGE!
Also the graphics cards seems a little weak compared to the rest of the system...

Good luck! I'm sure you'll get the most out of this machine using PCLinuxOS

[docnascar]

The only thing I would add to this system would be a small SSD for running the OS (if the budget allows it, off course )
The performance boost compared to mechanical disks is HUGE!
Also the graphics cards seems a little weak compared to the rest of the system...

Good luck! I'm sure you'll get the most out of this machine using PCLinuxOS

Your dead on about the short falls. I ran out of money.

The video card is the GT 440 ddr5 vs the ddr3 GT 440, which will help a little.
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/GeForce-GT-440-512-MB-GDDR5-vs-1-GB-DDR3-Video-Card-Review/1272/13

[agmg]

Well, then, maybe add an SSD later, during Summer Christmas  
It took me 3 years to do that in my laptop. And it was like giving it steroids

I don't know what system you are using now, but the one you are going to build is very decent, despite the "short falls".

[dcwbis]

Looks like it is going to be a nice system.  I'd take it even with the "shortfalls".  Make sure you let us know how it performs after you get it put together.

[docnascar]

Got all the stuff yesterday! Put it together and I'm loving this thing.

I do have some minor issues that I need to work on. No show stoppers.

1.) I get an error (firmware bug cpu 0 invalid threshold interrupt offset) when it boots, after the initrd loads and before that "cannot something file delete" thing, that can be ignored comes up. It doesn't seem to impact anything but I wonder what it is. (sorry about the blurry image, it comes and goes so fast, my phone can't focus quick enough)

2.) Temperature of my FX-6300 cpu seems to run a little warm. Just running the BIOS it can goto 45C doing nothing. While using PCLINUX. It can go from 50c to quick spikes of 90c, not sustained. It just floats around 50c - to 60c. Seems to be common for the FX-6300. The funny thing is when I touch the heatsink its ice cold. The first time I immediately yanked the heatsink off (with the power off of course) and felt the cpu chip and it was cold. So I'm confused how it could have been at 90c. It should have felt at least warm. I just put it back together with some new thermal goo. People have complained about the stock heatsinks but the cold chip makes me wonder what it is really going on?
3.) My 1866 memory reports as 1600 in the BIOS? Why!?
4.) Memory DIMMS don't show in Hardware list within PCLINUX (mini-me and using 3.2.18 pae kernel), I just see the cached memory.
5.) Hard drive has too much space. (I'm use to a 40G harddrive in my old linux pc) I didn't know how to partition 1TB. Sheesh.... OK 100gb for root, swap pffft!, 890+gb for HOME... LOL.

[kjpetrie]

If the BIOS detects a firmware bug, it's presumably not referring to itself! So there's an incompatibility between the BIOS and something else on the MB or plugged into it.

A memory bank is not being set up correctly according to this report - bank 4. How many slots have you got, and how have you got 1866 MB of memory? You must be using an odd mixture of DIMMs, which could be a problem in itself.

If the BIOS reports the CPU running warm when it feels cold to the touch and hot when it's still cold it can't be calibrated correctly for the processor's sensor(s).

This makes me wonder whether in all that super UEFI thing, you've got some setting up to do to get the rest of the hardware correctly recognised.

[Just17]

"cannot something file delete"

You can safely ignore that message  

[Old-Polack]

If the BIOS detects a firmware bug, it's presumably not referring to itself! So there's an incompatibility between the BIOS and something else on the MB or plugged into it.

A memory bank is not being set up correctly according to this report - bank 4. How many slots have you got, and how have you got 1866 MB of memory? You must be using an odd mixture of DIMMs, which could be a problem in itself.

If the BIOS reports the CPU running warm when it feels cold to the touch and hot when it's still cold it can't be calibrated correctly for the processor's sensor(s).

This makes me wonder whether in all that super UEFI thing, you've got some setting up to do to get the rest of the hardware correctly recognised.

The 1866 is not RAM quantity, but rather RAM speed.

[uggy]

Do you have correct bios version for FX cpu?  Needs version 1.11 at least

http://www.msi.com/product/mb/970A-G46.html#/?div=BIOS

uggy

Edit: corrected link

[kjpetrie]

The 1866 is not RAM quantity, but rather RAM speed.

Ah! It's good to know someone understands what he reads.

[docnascar]

Do you have correct bios version for FX cpu?  Needs version 1.11 at least

http://www.msi.com/product/mb/970A-G46.html#/?div=BIOS

uggy

Edit: corrected link

Its at 1.11 Thanks for checking. Good thought.

[docnascar]

If the BIOS detects a firmware bug, it's presumably not referring to itself! So there's an incompatibility between the BIOS and something else on the MB or plugged into it.

A memory bank is not being set up correctly according to this report - bank 4. How many slots have you got, and how have you got 1866 MB of memory? You must be using an odd mixture of DIMMs, which could be a problem in itself.

If the BIOS reports the CPU running warm when it feels cold to the touch and hot when it's still cold it can't be calibrated correctly for the processor's sensor(s).

This makes me wonder whether in all that super UEFI thing, you've got some setting up to do to get the rest of the hardware correctly recognised.

I tried manually setting the bios to clock the memory at 1866 but the pc would not boot. I had to reset the bios so it went back to memory auto detect. I also moved the two sticks from dimms 1 and 2, to 2 and 4 as requested by the manual but that didn't do any good.

Then I read these posts, and the ram comments got me surfing. I discovered somthing a little unnerving and maybe this is due to my lack of keeping up on HW specifics. Apparently the memory (F3-14900CL9D-8GBSR)/mobo (MSI 970A-G46)  combo I chosen may not match perfectly. On G.Skill's website they don't have my mobo listed as a "Qualified Motherboard" I never realized there was such a thing, I thought PC3 14900 1866 memory was 1866 memory and was compatible with any mother board that listed that it supported 1866 memory. Guess not.

http://www.gskill.com/products.php?index=385
http://us.msi.com/product/mb/970A-G46.html#/?div=Basic

Main Memory

• Supports four unbuffered DIMM of 1.5 Volt DDR3 800/1066/1333/1600/1866/2133* (OC) DRAM, 32GB Max

For some reason MSI's site is extremely slow and has been since last night from home or work.



What to do? 

[kjpetrie]

The SPD speed of your RAM is 1600 which is why that's what the auto setting finds. It can be overclocked to 1866 if your MB supports Intel XMP.

[µT6]

try to work with one module only

in the screenshot, not sure if you are having problems with acpi or i'm reading it wrong