Wanted - hardware for complete system upgrade

[Munty]

I'm happy to say it worked! The USB CDD didn't do it's job though so I had to half-inch an internal SATA one from the same friend who loaned me the external HDD for my backup! Worked ok once I had that sorted but I had real trouble with my USB keyboard which prevented me from 'pressing any key' to boot from the Windows CD

In the end I had to enable a few additional USB device settings in BIOS but I don't understand why as the keyboard worked fine in the boot/post/bios screens and such. Just ceased functioning once the boot went further...

I've now got Windows 7 running and all my new hardware is running perfectly. It's a lot quieter although my case fan is spinning obsurdly fast compared to the CPU one. The CPU fan is automatically variable (or whatever the correct term is) so I wonder if I can replace the case fan with a similar one? I'll be building a new case soon anyway as I said but I'm still going to need a few extra fans when I do that I think!

The 212 DOES fit in my case and has a little space too, the side is still off anyway though as the borrowed CDD is connected but not installed. Will put the side on when it gets disconnected. The trouble with that is that my external CDD (a very cheap one) doesn't seem to recognise all cds, so I could have trouble once I disconnect the SATA one. It came with no paperwork and a CD with a few USB drivers and NERO burning ROM on it but I don't know if I need them for it to recognise other CD's. (It does recognise the driver cd thankfully so I can always do it later once I've experimented a little!)

CPU and system temperature are good though of course I haven't had anything more intensive than Chrome running so far. Will report on that later as I learn more performance wise. BIOS has recognised all 16GB of RAM so if anyone in the future happens to ask if Vengeance is compatible with Gigabyte's Z68 boards we can tell them yes!

The only issue I've had so far is that I was never given the option to reformat my HDD before the OS installed. The first screen after booting from the Win7 cd asks if you want a normal 'upgrade' from an older OS to 7 or a 'custom' installation which it notes will allow you to start from scratch. Or at least that's how it read to me...

Either way I never got an option to reformat and I would like to start from nothing so if anyone can tell me how to go about it without using a slave HDD I'd really appreciate it.

Right now I'm going to switch off to disconnect this CDD and connect my peripherals! Then it's time to see if I can spot any nice differences in my games. Remember it's still the old Graphics card but I'm sure that extra power will do SOME good at least! Will upgrade to DX11 while I think about it as well as it's one of the main reasons I upgraded to 7!

Cheers for all the help and advice guys, it's all looking spot on so far!

[TheMainMan]

If you pick the custom option you will see a screen that lets you pick which HDD you want to install to. The bottom portion of the screen will have the options you can do with each partition, you can specify to format there.

Glad to hear you have it all up and running!

[Munty]

Thanks TMM, must've missed those options as I simply chose to install it to the existing partition! Will reformat in the next week and get a fresh install going. In the mean time, any ideas from anyone on why this USB CDD isn't reading my CDs would be good

[AmEv]

USB Legacy support on all devices enabled?

[Munty]

I'm pretty sure that's one of the things I had to switch on in BIOS in order to get my USB keyboard working for the windows installation... Will check again later but the fact that it's able to read the driver cd (don't get excited the files on it don't seem to be drivers and none of them successfully install...) shows it has power and signal. Don't understand why it can't read other CDs. It couldn't make out the Windows one or any game cds...

[AmEv]

Finicky lens/laser?

[billygoat333]

try running a lens cleaner disc through it/blow it out with canned air. Might be a dust/dirt on the lens problem?

[Munty]

Thanks guys, still having no luck with this so far and the lens seems ok. I kind of wish I had some more of the small CDs to test as that's the only one that's worked so far. Can't imagine why size would matter though... As for when it stops working, the CDD doesn't even run up to speed before it tells me the disc is corrupt. It's not stupid though and it DOES know when there is no cd in there and spin up to speed when it has the cd in that it can read.

I emailed the guys I bought the thing off (eSecure via amazon) and said if they can't help me get it working I want to return it for a full refund. Right now I have this nice new build that I'm only able to play pre-installed, cracked or STEAM titles on... Not good!

[Munty]

Seems that the problem is the hardware itself from what I can tell... This makes no sense to me but apparently in this modern age of technology people are still making CDDs that are just that. It only works on CDs... It won't read DVDs or game discs or any kind of software at all. It only reads data files and music (the latter of which remains untested too!)

Now can anyone tell me WHY people are making something like this? Sure it may still be useful if I was an on-the-go executive who for some reason bought a notebook without a CDD instead of a laptop with one, regardless of the fact that my job makes it necessary to use CDs on such a regular basis that I deemed it necessary to buy an external drive to lug around with me everywhere instead of the former option of buying a laptop with a FRIGGIN INTERNAL DRIVE!

What's the point of this crappy little piece of hardware? Does it really serve any purpose at all? And is it really worth manufacturing them at all when for a few extra pence you could upgrade it to read all types of disk?

See now I need to buy ANOTHER CDD and I'm baffled by what I'm going to end up with now. This has got to be the most simple component in the build and it's giving me more trouble than fitting a chip and heatsink for the first time in my life! It just makes me wonder, if THIS CDD doesn't read every type of disk, how do I know that THAT one will? What if I just end up with piles and piles of CDDs, none of which bloody well work?

I really would still like to run an external drive for this build but I have no idea if I'll be able to get one that just works so I'm thinking about getting an internal one with long cables and just stealthing it away now. Same issue as the HDD really... Getting long SATA cables won't be too bad but these components will be a long way from the PSU and the last thing I want to do is add more cables to my nice tidy modular system...

Any suggestions on how I can avoid this ridiculous design choice in the future?

[AmEv]

I feel your pain


I'm not sure why you're having so many problems.