Installed new motherboard and new video card last night. Mostly smooth but a few hiccups.
I stayed with Socket 754 for the motherboard because I have an almost brand new CPU and didnt want to let it go to waste. However, it was time to upgrade the video card. My FX 5900 was quite dated. If I'm spending the money for a new card, I figured it might as well be PCIe so that will be upgradeable when I go to a new motherboard and CPU later. I bought a Biostar Geforce 6100 motherboard with the nForce 410 chipset. I didnt care for the onboard video, but I figured if I had problems with the new card at least it would give me acceptable video quality while I worked that out. The Geforce chipset equipped motherboards got really good reviews from anandtech and a couple of other sites, and it has PCIe x16 and x1 slots, so good there. Downside was the new motherboard required the 24 pin power supply, and mine are all 20 pin. That required a run to the computer store where I picked up a Antec 430W TruPower. Besides having SATA plugs for when I decide to switch hard drives, having the PCIe video card power plug (no adapters) and having the 24 pin cable I needed, its guaranteed to hold at its rated output. Bonus.
Everything went smooth with the motherboard install once I got the new power supply. Everything plugged in properly, documentation with the motherboard was sufficient to get all the front panel cables plugged in to the right headers. I didnt like that to use the Mic and Headphones plugs on the front I would have to disable them on the rear. I left that dead. I prefer the rear panel plug-ins. CPU was detected properly and running nice and cool at 1.4V and at 29C. BIOS gives me plenty of options for RAM timings, CPU timings and CPU voltage changes. I'm leaving those alone for now. Nice to have though.
Only one hitch from the motherboard. Onboard LAN is not working (nForce network "card"). Drivers install, and at the end it says there's an error, that something else is already using the name? I look in the Hardware Manager, it shows it with a ! and it's named nForce networking card #2 (there is no #1). It wont let me uninstall it either, says its required for boot (even though I disabled the boot from LAN in the BIOS). I can disable the onboard LAN, and it goes away in the Hardware Manager, but it comes back the same as before if I re-enable it. It was a minor glitch, as I have several 3Com network cards lying about. However it became a major problem. Discuss at end.
After working out the kinks in the motherboard, installed the new video card. Card is an Aopen 6800GT with 256MB of RAM. Incredible card and it installed flawlessly. My existing Omega drivers picked up the card and installed it without a hitch. Bonus here. This was a refurb card cost me right at 200 bucks. I was a bit worried. When I got it though, the plastic was sealed. It had never been opened. The card's BIOS does NOT show it as a 6800GT though. The video card's BIOS at startup and Windows report it as a 6800 Ultra. Sure enough, I checked the clock speeds in the Nvidia utility. Instead of the 350mhz clock speed of the GT I have a 450mhz clocked Ultra. Memory speed is 1100mhz instead of the 1000mhz GT speed. Apparently I got one that snuck through quality control lol. I'm not complaining. Those are pretty good speeds for not being overclocked.
Overall, very happy with the install. Only a couple problems to work out.
First of all, the lack of a gameport means I had to put my old Soundblaster back into service. No big deal. I disabled the onboard sound and installed the sound card. Installed drivers. Done. Everything works. I knew when I ordered the motherboard I'd have to do this, so I wasnt concerned by it.
Second problem is my big one. As I said, the onboard LAN wouldnt work. No biggie. Pop in one of the NICs I have lying about and be done. Right?
WRONG. I didnt expect this, and the board only has 2 PCI slots. I NEED that extra PCI slot though for the cooling on the video card. If I install a NIC in that middle slot, it is almost up against the video card, leaving maybe an inch clearance for airflow. Its not enough. I tried to get away with it, temps on the card skyrocketed. I'm not ruining a 200 dollar video card for a 5 dollar NIC. I dont have any other way of connecting to my home network though if I dont have that NIC. So either the sound card or the NIC has to be eliminated. If I kill the sound card I have no gameport. If I kill the NIC I have no internet connection. Is there a PCIe NIC card for the 1x slot?
*edit
Second question, if I get a USB adapter for my analog CH gear, will the rudder pedals work? Or is it for the joystick only?
