After seeing graphics performance problems with my Office PC, I upgraded its graphics card from the
Zotac GTX 570 Amp! to the
MSI GTX 970 Gaming. In preparation, I moved the
LSI MegaRaid SAS 9260-8i raid card from the PCIe 2.0 x16 slot to another slot. Doing so, however, broke something on my
Asus P8Z68-V Pro motherboard, and my PCIe 2.0 x16 slot no longer functioned. The graphics card no longer worked in its original slot.
To fix this issue, I would have to buy a replacement motherboard - but the
Asus P8Z68-V Pro motherboard was out of production and no longer available.
I decided to replace the motherboard and the processor (all new Intel desktop processors use socket 1150 or 2011), stay on budget, and get an 1150-compatible motherboard.
My first attempt to rebuild used an
Asus Z97-Pro and an
Intel i7-4790K (4.0 GHz Haswell) CPU in my
Antec Titan 550 case. I reused the memory (DDR3-1600) and power supply from my earlier build (along with all the drives). I could boot Windows 8.1 Pro x64 during the installation phase, but when I installed the MSI GTX 970 Gaming video card, I got no video on DisplayPort. I tried to use video but noticed a lot of noise on the video signal (kind of like snow). In addition, after the computer was idle for some time, it would shut down but would give me an error during boot time. I could not understand what was happening. Was the motherboard at fault? Was the Intel processor damaged? I updated the BIOS on the motherboard and re-installed Windows, but the result was the same.
I decided to try a different motherboard and returned the Asus Z97-Pro to Newegg. I purchased a new Z97 Sabertooth Mark 2 from Fry's. With the new motherboard, I saw the same problem that plagued me earlier - namely, the noise on the video and the weird shutdown. I was almost ready to give up. I decided to try a new power supply. In researching new power supplies, I realized some were advertised as Haswell compatible. The new Intel Haswell processors have a couple of new low-power states, C6 and C7. Many power supplies do not handle these states correctly. My CoolerMaster Silent Pro 800 Gold was listed as compatible, but I was unsure.
I decided to buy a new Power Supply anyway and ordered an EVGA 850 G2 supply that advertised Haswell compatibility. I also ordered a new computer case, as my Antec Titan was rugged. The recent Fractal Define R5 case was much easier to work in, with excellent access to hard disks and great cable routing. I installed the Cooler Master 212 Plus cooler on the Z97 Sabertooth Motherboard and powered it on.
I saw the noise on the video again (could it be the processor)? I got no video when I installed the MSI GTX 970 graphics card. I updated the board's BIOS to the latest version to ensure it was not the problem. The video worked after flashing the BIOS and hooking up the DVI cable instead of the display port. After that, I installed the rest of my cards (Xonar Essence STX, LSI MegaRaid) and Windows 8.1 Pro x64 on the Samsung 840 SSD.
Installing Windows 8.1 Pro from USB is much faster than from DVD. To enable fast performance on the LSI MegaRaid, I set up the PCIe 2.0 x16 slot in x4 mode (instead of x1 default). This disables some onboard USB 3.0 but helps raid array performance.
If you are unaware of the Intel Haswell C6/C7 states, installing a new Intel Haswell processor could be pretty painful (due to the constant need to make Windows recovery).
My complete system is as follows:
