i5 gaming PC with RX470 graphics

Not a repair but a build.

It's about 10 years since I last built a PC from scratch so when I was commissioned to build this PC, I had a lot of developments to catch up on. No doubt spending the maximum amount possible on components would have yielded an impressive machine but there was also a tight budget to stick to, and a monitor, keyboard and mouse, were also required. The remit included some future proofing so the core components were selected to last. Moreover, the PC was intended to be a surprise Christmas present so eliciting information about its intended use without raising suspicions from the eventual recipient was a further challenge, especially when it came to the GPU. I'm (now) aware (from all my reading) that when it comes to GPUs, the choice between AMD and Nvidea is hotly contested and there seem to be pros and cons in each respect. However (again from all my reading and knowing what I know about the machine's intended use), my choice of an AMD card was carefully considered and deliberate.

Finally, I should also add that several Black Friday bargains helped me out a lot....

All things considered, I think I've hit the spot with this machine.Once it was all built and running, I couldn't help but wish that I was keeping it for myself.

So, the Parts List:

Guts:

Motherboard: MSI Z170A TOMAHAWK
CPU: Intel Core i5 6600K
CPU Cooler: Arctic Freezer 11i
Graphics: SAPPHIRE NITRO+ OC RX 470 4GB
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX XMP 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4 3000 MHz
Storage: ADATA 240GB SP550 SSD, TOSHIBA 1TB HDD
PSU: EVGA 650 BQ

Case:

FRACTAL DESIGNS R4

Outside:

Monitor: Asus VS248HR
Keyboard: Roccat Ryos MK Pro
Mouse: ASUS Gladius

OS:

Windows 10 Pro


And now the build. I took photos of most of the build but I got a bit carried away when installing the CPU, etc, and forgot to take any pictures of that.

Here's all the bits, ready to go:

Now some photos of the case. They've certainly moved on since my last build. This case has two 120mm fans built-in. The one at the front sucks in, the one at the rear blows out. That fact determines the CPU fan arrangement (more of which in a moment). The case itself is lined with sound deadening material. Lots of space inside, with plenty of slots and openings in the back panel for cable management, and more fans if required. The hard drive caddies simply clip in which makes installing the drives (2.5 or 3.5) a breeze - simply screw the drive into the removed caddy, and then refit..

And here the hard drives are going in. They mount sideways which helps with cable management.

And now we fast forward to the assembled motherboard, ahem. I hadn't noticed the opening in the back panel which would have allowed me to fit the CPU cooler with the motherboard in place. Still, no harm done doing it all on the kitchen table. The picture below shows the RAM in place, and the PSU mounted in the bottom of the case. The PSU contains a large fan which draws air in from underneath. There is a corresponding opening in the bottom of the case to facilitate that, along with a removeable dust filter.

As for the actual fan and cooler, according to the blurb it comes ready smeared with MX4 paste so I installed it as is. The fan and cooler can mount in any direction (blowing up, down, or to the front or back). Bearing in mind the fan arrangement in the case, I've set it so that it is drawing cool air from the front, through the cooler, to be collected by the exhaust fan on the back of the case.

Whilst I'm on about the PSU and its fan, I should mention a small problem I discovered once I'd put everything together and switched the PC on for the first time. This was a distinct rattling from the PSU fan. On closer inspection, I could see that some of the PSU's internal wiring had moved (in transit?) and was just fouling the fan blades. With the PSU removed and unplugged, I used a thin plastic drift through the grill to gently poke the wiring down, back into place. On the final fit, the PSU fan was totally silent. The wires in question can be seen in the photo below.

So now the PC is sufficiently built to run. I switched it on and checked the BIOS was happy. It was. Very nice BIOS, by the way... Here's some photos of it running. The third photo I took without a flash. The motherboard has some red LEDs on the back which cast a nice glow...

And now the graphics card goes in. It covers two slots on the motherboard. The fan and cooler arrangement is very nice and it exhausts out of the back of the case.The word "Sapphire" also lights up in blue. Note that the case still is still covered in its transit material which is why the view through the window in the side panel looks a bit wonky.

The build, including messing around with the rattling PSU, took about 90 minutes. Most of that time was required once assembly and initial testing was complete, and I was trying different configurations of cable management. I'm probably not going to win any awards for my efforts but its a tidy enough job.

I then installed the OS from USB. The SSD inside made short work of that, then some Windows updates and then installing and updating all the drivers for the motherboard and GPU which took a good while. Finally, over  the next couple of days I ran some burn tests to check that all was in order. Since I'm not a gamer I didn't have any actual games to try, I used a couple of different benchmarking programs. There were no issues with any of that and temperatures remained exactly where they ought to have been. I then did a mild overclock from within Windows using MSI's motherboard utility tool. I wish I'd taken some pictures of that, and the results in general, because it was all very exciting. No doubt the PC's new owner will want to have a play with all of that one day, and do a proper job from within the BIOS, but I was happy to see the PC stable, quiet, and cool, running at 4.2Ghz. That was enough for me.


More soon, no doubt....



D

HP Digital Sender (Scanner) 9100C - hard drive failure: repaired

We have an HP Digital Sender 9100C which we use frequently. It's an awesome scanner with a built-in document feeder and various network capabilities. We've had it from new, back in 2003/4 and although its had the occasional hiccup, it has never had any serious issues.

Here is a video of someone's 9100C in action:

And then last week it packed up. I found the self-test function and the results indicated a failed hard drive. I decided to fix it. My first thought was to simply stick a new (IDE) hard drive in there. However, after a bit of research I realised that it was a bit more complicated than that. This is because the 9100C has its own operating system which lives on the hard drive. Since the old hard drive was basically ruined, there was no prospect of recovering any data or an image from it. A bit more research lead me to the Pariswells website and a blog post on replacing the hard drive in the 9100C. Perhaps more helpfully, there is also a link to an "img" file which contains the operating system needed. I think its fair to say that but for that blog post, our scanner would be in bits right now, being sold for spares.

So, why this post? Well, having now fixed our 9100C, I thought I'd update the instructions for doing the repair as the information on the Pariswells website isn't quite complete (or, at least, doesn't cover the setup I was using to write the HP image to the replacement drive).

1. Download the HP image file using the link on the Pariswells website. Extract the image into a folder on your PC.

** if the links on Pariswells ever stop working, drop me a line and I'll sort something out for you **

2. Attach the replacement IDE hard drive to your PC or laptop. Since I was using a laptop, I used a IDE to USB converter which worked, but the result was that the hard drive was represented as a USB drive rather than a component of my system. This was an arrangement that the "SelfImage" software from the Pariswells site did not like at all.

3. Wipe the replacement hard drive (if its not new), and delete all partitions on it. Make a new 40GB partition formatted as NTFS. I used Aomei Partition Assistant for this.

4. Download and install USB Image Tool. This is a little program that would normally be used to backup an image from a USB stick. It can also write an image to a USB stick using its restore function.

5. Run USB Image Tool, In "Options" check the "Show non-removable devices (USB hard disk drives)" option. The hard drive's 40GB partition should appear on the left hand side. Select it, then click "Restore". Find the HP image file and select it.

6. Sit back and wait for the image to be written (my set-up took about 45 minutes).

7. Once done, go into File Explorer on your computer. There should be three extra partitions. There will be a few folders in each one, if you fancy having a nosy. The new partitions are small and are now in FAT format (rather than NTFS).

8. "Eject" the drive and then install it in the 9100C. Refit all the cables and wires, etc.

At this stage, I actually didn't have to do anything beyond switching the 9100C on. No initial configuration was needed to get it on my network. I used the HP web based interface (just type the IP address of the 9100C into a browser) to fine tune the settings. First access requires a login and password. The login is "Administrator". The password field should be left blank. Remake your address book if, like me, you haven't kept a backup of it...

Easy :)

More soon, no doubt....


D

EXakt Saw EC310N - Gear fault repair - put it back together

Righty. The new parts arrived today. The gear was £7.99 and the brushes were £3.99. I should say at this point that having since checked the existing brushes, I decided to leave them in a bit longer (to get my money's worth and all that). So, this post is just about replacing the brass gear.

First, some pictures of the new bits:

Now I'm going to swap the brass gear. The gear assembly is held together with a circlip. Remove the circlip, then remove the bearing and finally the gear itself:

I did contemplate simply putting everything back together at this point but, really, there was a lot of swarf in the gearbox grease. So I decided to clean things up a bit. This was quite messy and I didn't take any pictures. What I'm left with in the next picture is a cleaned up gearbox with everything re-assembled:

Looking good. Here's the other part of the drive gear. I've also cleaned that side of things out. I added some fresh grease (in the end and after a great deal of deliberation, I added a bit more than what can be seen in the picture):

So now its time to re-assemble the device. Before attaching the gearbox plate, replace the spring and end-stop assembly in its channel. There's a small metal bush which goes in there as well. I've highlighted it in the picture:

At this point the two halves of the device can be put back together. However, I found that the easiest way of getting that rogue nut to stay in place was to attach it to the depth-stop screw first. Then put the two halves back together and screw them up. Finally remove the depth-stop screw, replace the collar and rubber seal, and re-fit the depth-stop screw:

That's it. All being well, you'll now have a fully working Exakt saw. I do :)

More soon, no doubt...


D

EXakt Saw EC310N - Gear fault repair - take it apart

I've got one of these Exact Saw things. I've had it about six years and mainly used it for cutting wall tiles. I've done plenty but even so, the carbide blade is still as good as new. The important thing, it seems, is to make sure that the dust extraction system is always used. Failure to do so means the gearbox on it fills with crap and eventually something goes wrong. In my case, it was the (deliberately soft?) brass bevel gear that stripped. This was something I discovered on taking it apart the other night. Before starting, I did a bit of googling for a "How To Take An Exakt Saw Apart" tutorial but couldn't find anything. So, I took a step into the unknown and, lucky for you, I took some pictures of what I did. I've already ordered the new parts and once they arrive, I'll cover the replacement and rebuild in another post.

Here is my saw:

Remove the guard using the tool that came with the saw. If, like me, you have long since misplaced that tool, a T25 star bit will work instead:

Remove the cutting disc. Again, a T25 star bit and a pair of pliers will do:

The body is held together with five screws. Make a mental note of where the long screw comes from. The fifth screw is hidden under the guard lever mechanism (arrowed), which lifts away once the long screw is removed:

Next, cut through the label on the underside. This will void your warranty (if you still have one):

Unscrew and remove the depth-gauge knob and pull the collar off. Note the placement of the rubber seal before doing so:

The tool should now break apart. I had to stick a flat screwdriver into the join to get it started.
Et voila:

Some close ups of the internals for your enjoyment. In the first picture, I've highlighted a nut which fell out, and where it needs to go on re-assembly:

Now its time to open the gearbox. There are four screws which need to be undone. In the picture below they are already partially undone:

With the screws undone and removed, lift the gearbox plate away. This will reveal the internals.In the first picture, I've highlighted a small metal bush which will fall out and where it needs to go on re-assembly:

In mine, the gear and disc mechanism came away with the gearbox plate. It seems to be held in place with grease and dirt, but I won't know for sure until I take the final drive apart to replace the gear. I'll cover it in my next post. The pictures below clearly show the damage to the brass gear.

As I say, I'll do another post once the new parts have arrived. I thought I might as well do the brushes whilst I've got the tool open.

More soon, no doubt....


D