Reader How Tos: Building For Stability – THG.RU

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Introduction

The purpose of this article is to explain the process I follow when building a new PC. As I have purchased and built many systems that have been unreliable, my intent is that this explanation will cover the variables that I have found to differentiate a reliable system from an unreliable system. This may help you in your decision-making process. This article is based on my own experience, and should be received as so. Please excuse the grammatical quality — I’m an engineer, hence it’s an informal document and not a submission for an English exam! That said, common sense and a logical approach should, hopefully, net results.

Systems Components Selection

Systems components selection is an important area; THG provides lots of reviews on performance, as do many others, but they usually focus on individual peripherals. This section is intended to throw a different light on selecting components for a complete system.

Generic

Before buying individual components, I consider the following general points:

• Performance
  There are lots of excellent reviewers in this area, such as THG, that look at new products. However, it is very difficult to get an appreciation for its true reliability based on a single “Golden” product sent to the tester. I believe (based on my experience of working in the industry) some manufacturers provide handpicked products for review. These parts may not take into account component variation, which can contribute to poor reliability. I recommend doing some homework as to the manufacturer’s product and customer service reputation, as well as what you want from each individual component. Speed, reliability, noise and heat are just a few of my selection criteria.
• NewsGroups
  These are an invaluable source to gauge the quality of products and to find solutions to solving problems. Common sense is required, however, as some postings are just user caused problems. I look for posts involving experienced “high” post count user (the logic being the more posts, the more experienced the writer). When selecting a product, read the newsgroups on that product or product family and find out what the users think, rather than forming your opinion from a review of a single board.
• Brand
  Not all manufacturers are equally reliable, nor will every one have equivalent driver, bios, and diagnostics support. The quality of components can vary dramatically. I won’t name my favourite manufacturers, but as with all products, all manufacturers in this field are not equal.
• Take the time to Shop Around
  I have 26 links to UK Components sites. After a quick scan, you get an idea of the sites most appropriate to your style. Prices vary tremendously, as does the support, return policies and shipping costs.
• A Balanced System
  When choosing your system components, consider the balance. I am always amused by the “high end” gaming machines that have a >2GHz processor with a GF4MX graphics card. In my opinion, this is ludicrous and is marketed toward an uninformed consumer. A balanced system is one that does not have a major bottleneck (i.e., a component that is always holding things up). Buy evenly balanced CPU, Motherboard and graphics cards. Two good illustrations of this are in the following articles:
  
  GeForce2 Scaling Analysis
  
  CPU Scaling Analysis, Part 1: AMD Athlon

Specifics

The purpose of this section is to look at the individual components that make up a PC system, and to comment on some basic considerations:

• Case
  People ask, “What’s in a case, and how can this affect system performance?” The case is a very important aspect of a system, as its dimensions, design, airflow and fan mountings can have a dramatic effect on the performance of a system. In my opinion, a large, well-designed case is not much more expensive than a poorly designed one. My major gripe with cheap cases is that some of the fan mountings have very poorly stamped grills that dramatically impede the airflow and ventilation of the case, with the result that most of the air bounces back and does not adequately cool the components in the case!

A large case gives plenty of room for free airflow, cabling and peripherals.

• Power Supply Unit (PSU)
  The Power Rating system of a PSU is deceptive. A 300W PSU that supplies 60A on the 5v line is still a 300W PSU (5 x 60 = 300W), but it would be useless in a PC system! I recommend reading the AMD site for PSU requirements and selecting carefully, as performance increases are stressing the PSU further and further. PSU fan noise can be the most annoying and loudest part of your system, so this may be a consideration. My preference is the branded dual fan PSU’s, which have two low-speed, quiet fans that provide excellent cooling. There are lower cost alternatives on the market that perform admirably, but you have to be wary. Finally, think about your power budget. If you’re planning to fill it with peripherals, will the cheap 300W, no-name import PSU be up to the job? I doubt it, and it does need some consideration. THG has just added an excellent article on this subject at Неадекватная маркировка продуктов: Тестирование 21 блока питания при полной нагрузке.
• Processor
  Which path to take, AMD or Intel? I have predominantly chosen AMD processors because they offer a bigger “bang per buck,” and I don’t like my money being wasted on TV ads! Determining the speed of processor required is addressed very well in THG’s scaling article (see the “Balanced System” section). The choice of processor type and speed also affects the power dissipation and choice of cooling. Greater cooling can require higher fan speeds and, thus, more noise, depending on your choice.

Specifics, Continued

• Heat Sink and Fan (HSF)
  I have read many HSF reviews and have not found one that puts the decision for selection in my kind of English. I believe the choice of HSF depends on requirements for power dissipation, noise, overclocking and size. My view on the noise aspect of CPU fans is simple – the smaller it is and the faster it spins, the more likely it is to be noisy. I generally go for a HSF with >80mm low RPM fans as a starting point, and because 80mm is a standard size, it allows me to try different 80mm fans. I can personally recommend the “Zalman Flower,” as it has a 90mm fan mounted on the chassis with external speed adjustment, and is an excellent quiet solution (I only name this one as I am not aware of a similar product).
  
  Overclocking a processor will usually increase the power dissipation beyond the rating of an equivalent standard part, usually because I have increased the core voltage. Finally, heat sink application seems to be often misunderstood, and I have lost count of the number of heat sinks I have reseated. My mounting method is simple: first, clean both processor and mating face of HSF (to the bare metal) with alcohol and use a clean, “lint-free” cloth. (I have found that paper towels work fine!) Apply the heatsink compound to the mating surface of HSF, and wipe in order to fill microscopic cavities, gently removing any excess. Using a razor blade, apply a uniform coating of compound to the processor, just thick enough so you can’t see through it. When fixing the HSF to the processor, try to stop the HSF from moving once it has been mated with the processor, and apply the fixing clip carefully. I do believe the polymer resin compounds (e.g., Artic Silver) will perform better due to the nature of physics, but how significant the performance difference is remains unclear to me. Generally, I take my time and maybe try several attempts to get used to how heat sink behaves, as heat sink compound is very cheap!

The Zalman Flower; overhead fan mounting not shown. Note that Northbridge chipset fan can be removed!

• Chassis Fans
  An exhaust extraction fan is almost essential to reduce and maintain a constant system temperature. I present this as an 80mm fan mounted to the rear of the case (most cases have holes and fan template already). One exhaust extraction fan is all I have ever found to be necessary, as a front inlet fan does not significantly improve cooling. I believe this has to do with the air pressure in the case. An optional voltage regulator to control fan speed and, thus, noise is an excellent addition, allowing you to fine-tune the fan speed to the optimum noise/cooling balance. A 12V speed controller can be bought commercially or made from four components. The description of how to do this is outside the scope of this article, but the 7805 regulator data sheet has the information required for an “increased voltage regulator.” Be careful, however, as the fan may not start up correctly if the voltage is below its minimum requirement (approximately 7V).

Fan Speed regulator. The commercial product is Ј10 (about $14); I made mine for Ј1 (about $1.40).

The selection of a chassis fan based on manufacturer and rating will have a big impact on noise and cooling performance. As a general rule, I recommend buying from the large, established fan manufacturers, who built fans long before the advent of the PC!

Specifics, Continued

• Motherboard (MB)
  The basic premise I believe here is that not all motherboards have the same tolerance to overclocking, performance and reliability. I base this on the complexity of the motherboard design, and the variation in simulation and testing on the final product. The layout of a motherboard PCB is very complex, and having been there, I don’t underestimate the problems involved. The layout is important for the position of power and IDE connectors, as well as RAM position with respect to exhaust of heat sink (can cause RAM to overheat). I have disagreed with two MB reviews on the basis of reliability, where the writer gave wonderful reviews, but I found three identical motherboards that had instability problems, although all the components were proven stable in other systems. I believe this to be an example of a single sample not being sufficient; it’s an observation, rather than a criticism, of the practicalities of reviews. Finally, the manufacturers vary considerably in customer service and frequency of Bios Updates; again, check the home site for older products and assess their support.
• RAM
  RAM (or lack of adequate RAM) is one of the biggest causes of instability in Windows I have found, causing numerous page faults and drops to desktop at random intervals. I always go for Branded RAM (e.g. Crucial, Kingston), because the problems with generic devices cannot be listed without expletives. Several people have argued with me on this topic, but if you’ve had to troubleshoot systems with poor quality RAM, I believe you would understand my reasoning. As a rule, get 1x256MB rather than 2x128MB etc., because motherboards can get unstable with the increased slot loading. I have overcome these problems with BIOS drive strength/ timings, but this can take a lot of time and patience to achieve.
• HDD’s
  My view of trade-offs is performance versus reliability and noise. I have had multiple experiences with the questionable reliability of the early IBM GXP family, and hence, my belief is that high performance/speed drives are not always the right choice. For non-power users, a 5400rpm drive is more than adequate. As for the size of drives, currently there seems to be no reason for getting less than 40GBs of HDD space. You can never have too much!

  
  
  The IDE connectors are OK.

  
  
  The IDE connectors are badly obstructed.

• Graphics Cards
  My preference is to stay with one of the two main camps, Nvidia or ATI. I have read reviews on THG and others, which have lots of advice for your application and wallet. The only direct comment I have is that I personally wouldn’t buy the Nvidia GF4Mx family, as they have a very tenuous link to a GF4 part (I prefer the name GF2++, it’s much more appropriate). For the noise sensitive, not all fitted fans are the same, and some are dreadfully whiny. I have always believed Nvidia has a more proven track record of driver support than ATI, but both have released unreliable drivers with and without certification!
• Monitors
  Most users specify monitors of varying size and resolution. The quality of the display varies in many areas, but can simply be stated as display stability and focus. Depending on the usage, I recommend a high quality display for one simple reason: your eyes. You can easily replace PC components, but fixing your eyes is much more difficult. I recommend a 19″ monitor where budget and space allow, as the cost has fallen dramatically in the last few years. There are lots of good review sites available to help you decide which technology and brand is for you. I haven’t mentioned TFT displays because I haven’t bought one, but I’ve looked into them several times. I feel that for desktop work, they are an admirable solution, but most users I know have some high refresh rate graphical requirement. For performance at high refresh rates, they become more expensive, and I feel they currently lag behind their CRT counterparts.
• Beautifying
  I’ve seen spray-painted cases, neon lights and transparent side panels, and I haven’t stopped laughing since! I can say no more.

System Assembly

The following sections describe, in order, the considerations I have when assembling a PC. This is not a step-by-step guide, but is rather a commentary on my concerns.

1. Take all components from boxes (but not from anti-static bags), and sort as to which bits go where, and to note if there are any special build requirements. When you spend more time up front getting organized, you’ll be spared the pain and aggravation of doing it twice.
2. Anti-static precautions at home have always been a tricky issue. Static is difficult to counter with carpets, balloons(!), polyester and nylon clothing, and other items around the house, but my approach is simple. Before I touch an expensive component, I hold (and continue holding, if possible) a grounded part. It is difficult to define a ‘grounded’ part, as they vary from country to country, so you’ll have to find one on your own! Holding a grounded part will remove the static charge from your body and, as a rough guess, 90% of the chance of damage. Static death is an invisible, slow and silent degradation, so assuming it’s there but hard to detect, a simple precaution is worthwhile.
3. I use the motherboard to align all the mounting posts and remove blanking plates from the case. I mount the CPU and RAM before putting the motherboard in the case. I don’t do this with the motherboard in the case, as the mechanical stresses applied are not worth the risk.
4. Check that the AGP/PCI cards are seated properly, as the most common fault is the case mounting lifting the card up at the front of the connector. A swift knock can bring the rest of the card out far enough to cause intermittent faults or damage.
5. The HDD and FDD cable routing is very important. I look at the airflow and make sure it is not obscured. Insulation tape works fine for tying cables out of the way if you don’t have cable ties! Treat the IDE cables with respect, as they damage easily.
6. If you have purchased a case with a poorly designed exhaust fan grill (of the stamped out variety), this can easily be cut out and replaced with a cheap, but effective, wire frame fan/finger protector.

Exhaust fan grill; flat stamped, but this one doesn’t impede airflow. They vary considerably.

7. Finally, add only the components you really need for testing (a base system). I believe these are the following: motherboard, processor, HSF, RAM, HDD, one CD drive, and the graphics card. Additional devices, such as DVDs, sound cards and network interface cards, can only cloud the picture if problems occur.
8. Close the case, but don’t use the screws. Trust me here – you will need to be inside the case many more times.

Software Installation

The operating system choice is more problematic than it first seems. My first instinct is to go with XP, as this is where the majority of research efforts and development dollars are being invested, and, therefore, where the most noticeable improvements are going to be. Staying in touch with the most current OS can also be essential for work. However, lots of PCs I’ve built were for family use, DOS-based, and typically used for, among other things, childrens’ games. A number of these games have compatibility problems with XP (I doubt Microsoft will have ever heard of any of these titles), even with the XP compatibility function, so proceed cautiously. In my opinion, there is no comparison with the stability of XP to that of Windows 98/ME, as one is an operating system, while the other was just an attempt! The only issue I have with Windows2000 and XP is the refresh rate problem, which has been talked about on many sites, including THG. Although it has been further addressed in XP with SP1, I cannot find an explanation as to why it is present, nor why it cannot be removed, which is more amazing when you consider programs are available to fix it. I chalk it up to being one of life’s mysteries, of which I’m not privileged to answer … rant over.

My comments on the Software Installation Procedure on a base system follow:

1. Check for BIOS Update if possible and update. Read the instructions and pitfalls on loss of power during an update. Depending on the problem and your skill level, the worst that can happen is that you may have to send for another BIOS Chip. I always recommend updating the BIOS, although details on exactly what has been fixed are always sketchy. I believe it’s in the manufacturer’s interest to put far more detail in the BIOS updates, but are they too embarrassed to admit mistakes?
2. The initial BIOS settings of the motherboard are very important. I first set up a system with conservative settings; you can turn them up once you attain stability. My main area of focus is the RAM and AGP settings, as I have found these have the greatest effect on stability. RAM timings can be considered as the clock frequency at which they are accessed (100MHz, 133MHz, etc.) and the delays/ timing between accesses. The clock rate is easy to set; set it to the RAM’s rated speed, not necessarily that of the processor FSB. The CAS timing is interesting as it is defined in terms of “T” (a common British drink); T is how many clock cycles it takes to perform a refresh (of the data stored). It is measured in fractions of a second; for example, 2.5T is longer than 2T, and thus 2.5T is the slower and more conservative setting. In the first instance, I would set the RAM to its correct frequency and the slower access time (e.g., 2.5T). Conservative AGP settings should have fast writes disabled, video shadow buffer disabled, AGP aperture set to half or less of system RAM. Finally, I do not have the BIOS set as PnP enabled when using Windows 2000 or Windows XP. There are daunting websites dedicated to BIOS settings, and hence a lot of users avoid a simple verification of the basic settings.
3. Installing the OS and formatting is not something I’ve seen problems with, other than actually booting the install CD from the drive.
4. Drivers are one of the most important features of software stability. I cannot remember when I last used the drivers provided on the CD. The latest, most “stable” drivers may not be so stable. I determine stability by reading newsgroups on the device and websites. I have found WHQL is a good indicator of stability. I have used the following drivers extensively and I can offer the following comments:

   Motherboard Chipset Drivers
   Ordinarily, I have not needed to update the chipset drivers. My experience is mainly with the Via drivers for motherboards using their chipsets, and after a long and torrid development, they now appear to be stable, even under XP.

   Graphics Cards Drivers
   Nvidia has the Detonator, an excellent, all-in-one driver (“unified”) for which I can only applaud them. However, there have been unstable detonator driver releases, and I personally check drivers on hardcore graphics sites, such as www.guru3d.com. This site and others give reviews on driver releases, in terms of stability and performance. I can offer little comment on ATI, but in my opinion, they seem to have improved tremendously.

5. I install all available OS updates/service packs, and have them downloaded and on CD, wherever possible.
6. You have now completed a minimum clean install with minimal components.

Stability Testing

I cannot overstress the amount of pain and headaches that can be avoided with some basic testing of a clean system. Once you have installed all your other hardware and software, the number of permutations for the problem increases dramatically. Testing should be on a base hardware system with a minimal software install above driver and OS updates. The first question to ask is, “Is the computer stable?” If you know the basic computer is stable (by testing), this will help if you encounter problems with a fully loaded system. My experience has found three main causes of computer instability:

1. Hardware
   Examples of this are faulty hardware, poor or intermittent connection, and PSU overloading. The PCI slot chosen and interrupts assigned need consideration on older OSes (predominantly Windows95/98/ME). Which RAM slot do I use? The position can have a significant effect on stability by changing the loading and timings. Read the manual and newsgroups for confirmation.
2. Heat
   Heat has several effects. Heat increases susceptibility to the hardware problems mentioned above. This is because semiconductor properties, especially their timings, change with temperature. So, two unmatched components (e.g. Motherboard and RAM) can be brought to the limit of their timings by increased temperature. Heat can also shorten the lifetime of a component.
3. Software
   Software can be blamed a lot for faulty hardware and vice versa; look at the history of the “infinite loop” problem in WindowsXP and the number of guesses to the solution. With a basic install, the only changes you can make to improve stability are the drivers, installation process (order of installation has made a difference) and BIOS settings.

Understanding the cause of instability is one thing. Testing for instability is another, and this is what we need to do. My first test always uses the 3dMark suite of tools (www.madonion.com), which are free to download and test most of the components to their limits. I use the standard benchmark in the looping mode on 3dMark 2001, or 3dMark 2000 for low-end graphics cards. I run a 12-hour continuous loop before I declare a system stable. I have never found a PC that completes this stability test to have a problem afterward. I have found many PCs that took considerable time to pass this test due to poor component selection and cooling. The only exception to this rule I have found is MPEG encoding, which is more processor intensive and can raise the processor temperature even higher.

Check the “Looping” tick box from the Options menu to run continuous 3D Mark tests.

The test time can be tailored to the application – for an office/Internet machine, 12 hours of intensive graphics testing seems unreasonable. In my opinion, a minimum of a four-hour loop would give a reasonable level of confidence. I also need to mention that during the first hour I monitor the temperature of components (with my hand) to make sure things aren’t getting too hot, which could be due to poor circulation or component installation. Additional temperature monitoring can be made in the BIOS, with the manufacturer’s motherboard application or generic applications such as “Motherboard Monitor“. These methods normally use sensors on the motherboard to report the temperature.

Stability Testing, Continued

The final stage is what to do if it does fail. The following information represents my thought process, but what I try to do is identify it as fitting into one of my main categories for instability (i.e. Hardware, Heat or Software);

1. The type of failure will help to determine my gut reaction. I have found a complete lock indicates hardware, as normally a software fault causes a system crash of some description. A BSOD (blue screen of death) can indicate hardware or software, depending on the error description. Reboots generally point to hardware, although a crash to desktop can be either, but I have found it normally points to RAM. I have found reboots are difficult to distinguish from a crash to the desktop when testing overnight, so I add a login screen or similar to clarify.
2. If the test fails, I rerun it with the case off in a cool room. (It is difficult to gauge “cool,” but be aware of the ambient temperature.) This should eliminate heat-based problems, so if it didn’t crash with the case off, I further investigate my cooling solutions (e.g. heatsink mounting, airflow through case).

Consider your cooling; this solution has a PSU exhaust and chassis fan around the processor.

3. If I suspect a software-based error code, then I investigate drivers, moving backward through releases and reading comments on newsgroups. Have they made “optimisations” that reduce stability? Software errors can hide a PSU or RAM read/write error due to effectively causing a bad read/write. The software does not compensate for bad reads/writes of RAM, and this can cause a software error where the hardware is at fault. In my opinion, as VIA drivers have been notoriously unreliable in the past, I recommend reading the VIA arena forums (http://forums.viaarena.com/) for feedback on the latest revision, but the principle is the same for the other chipset manufacturers, as well. Graphic card drivers also suffer the same problem, so I check forums and look for new “beta” drivers, as these are often the preliminary fix for just my problem. (It can be weeks before the official release, and some drivers never get beyond beta!)
4. If I suspect the hardware as the cause, then I start to use more directed benchmarking. There are numerous RAM tests (that run from boot disks) to help check for RAM integrity. I have found this has sometimes failed to recreate the problem, as is does not produce the same amount of loading (hence heat) compared to a full multimedia test.
5. The SiSoftware Sandra application (http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/sandra) provides a “burn in” test, but it has not always recreated my problem. I tend to loop a mix of tests that have heavy system loading with some that test fundamental hardware performance. There are numerous processor, graphics card and RAM tests available, free to download off the net. Good, free resources can be found with minimal effort.
6. If you still believe there is a hardware problem, you should have a reasonable hunch as to the cause of the problem. The process can be approached from several angles: first, a replacement item(s) from the original supplier can be arranged (though it takes time). I also borrow components from a “donor” system for testing, or, finally, put suspect components in a donor system to see if the problem is recreated. Make sure you ask the owner of the donor PC first, because there is a small chance you could damage donor parts.

This guide is not exhaustive, but the main aim should be to think about the possible causes and use a systematic approach if problems occur.

Conclusion

I wrote this article because I had not seen one that I thought discussed the many areas of concern I have when building a PC. There is a lack of detail in many areas in this article, as I am trying to describe my approach, rather than to just provide an endless list.

If you consider all the OSes, chipsets and processors involved, I believe you could write a book on this subject. However, I hope my description provokes thought when contemplating building and putting together a system.

My approach has been criticized as being overly cautious, but I believe the need is understood when building a PC for someone else (particularly distant friends, where repair is difficult), or when you encounter problems with reliability. If you have never experienced such problems, consider yourself very fortunate!

My Systems

I currently have two PCs, both Athlon XP-based using VIA KT266A chipset. I won’t bore you with the specifications, but I have devoted a lot of attention to noise, as fan drone drives me mad! My XP1700+ is overclocked to a 1900+, but is whisper quiet with a GF4Ti4400.