The sandy bridge processors were expected to be released in Jan, 2011, on there arrival I was very excited to have them. The features of this new 32nm architecture kept me away from the first generation of Core i processors and i waited for it quite long.Intel has been my first preference since my first PC that was a Pentium II, Intel has really contributed to the PC market and over the years provided great features to its customers. These new processors provide integrated graphics which support DirectX 10, and give stunning performance.
I always wanted to have latest technologies when they are in my budget, and my upgrade path since Pentium II is as follows:
Pentium II > Pentium III > Pentium IV > Core 2 Duo > Core i5 2400
I am writing this article right from my sandy bridge PC, and I have been using my new PC from last couple of weeks. And it has been a exciting experience so far.
I have always used a separate graphics card, because I am also a average gamer. But for the first time I am not using a separate graphics card, because I am able to play games even without it. The benchmarks gave excellent results and the integrated graphics card performance is equivalent to medium range graphics card.
Intel Core i5 2400 was my choice as processor, i don't over clock that is why i choose this one.Intel Core i5-2400, LGA1155
1MB L2 Cache
6MB L3 Cache
Quad Core Processor
3.10 Ghz Core speed
3.40 Ghz Turbo speed
Intel HD 2000 Graphics
Dual Channel DDR3 Support
TDP 95 W
Intel Speed Step Technology provides power efficient processing, which provide less power consumption when CPU is idle or in less load.
Intel DH67CL motherboard was my first choice after reviewing different boards offered by Intel. I have always used Intel manufactured boards, so this time I went for the Intel Media series motherboard, all in one it is good motherboard. It has three PCI expansion slots and once PCI express for Discrete graphics card if needed.
The motherboard supports DVI-I and High-Definition Multi-media Interface (HDMI), DDR3 1333 upto 32GB, 2 SATA III ports, 2 SATA II ports and 2 eSATA ports.
After the release Intel announced that the new Intel 6 Series chipset has a design issue which may effect the SATA II ports, and recalled all chips. Customers who alreay purchased or build there new PC will have to get a replacement if they want to use SATA II ports. This was my first experience with Intel to have a product recalled after its release. I have not purchased this board till than so I decided to wait for couple of weeks, but I really wanted to have the new PC as soon possible.
So, I decided to take the risk and purchased the Intel DH67CL from a local retailer on condition that I will get replacement when new board arrives. Intel announced the B3 revision which will be available by April 2011.
I took following to build my new PC:
1. Intel Core i5 2400 Processor
2. Intel DH67CL Motherboard
3. Kingston DDR3 1333 2GB (2 Modules)
4. Western Digital 500GB SATA III Hard Drive
5. Sony DVD-RW
6. Cooler Master Gladiator 600 Case
7. Cooler Master 460W Extreme PSU
8. USB Keyboard and Mouse
I used the two SATA III ports as I have only devices on SATA at present, I will have more once i get the B3 revision, but for start up it is enough.
It took me couple of hours to build the system and install Windows 7 64 bit. All went smooth and fine, it was happening very fast. Then I installed the drivers which came along the board, couple of reboots and the system was ready.
In the very first hour I encountered a blue screen indicating a bug check as follows:
The bugcheck was: 0x00000101 (0x0000000000000031, 0x0000000000000000, 0xfffff880009ec180, 0x0000000000000001).After seeing that error my first thought was of some driver issue, or some RAM issue or I may have left something lose while assembling the system.
I powered off the system and re checked that all components are correctly connected or seated in the system, this part was ok. Next i decided to test the RAM, for this i had a CD with memtest86+ on it, i rebooted the system and tested my RAM using this boot able software. You can get memtest86+ ISO from http://www.memtest86.com.
The memtest86+ test was passed and all RAM modules were working correctly, so i can relax a bit.
Next I decided to test the Processor to check whether it is working correctly, for this a tool "Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool" from Intel is available to test Intel processors. You can download that from Intel download center. The processor diagnostic tests were passed as well, this also was a point of satisfaction that the processor is working fine.
The only thing that was left behind was the drivers, but I wondered why there will be any issue with the drivers, as they came along with the motherboard. Although latest drivers were listed on the Intel site.
When I checked my system event log there was a error event recorded which seem to be linked with display drivers, the error message was as follows:
Display driver igfx stopped responding and has successfully recovered.I decided to contact Intel support and for this I used Intel online chat service. The service was excellent, they listent you and give solutions to your problem very efficiently.
The Intel support told me that there is no connection of this problem to the SATA, as I was not using SATA II ports as well. They recommended me to update my BIOS and install the latest drivers.
I was somewhat reluctant to installing a BIOS update, but the install process is so simple and if you have a UPS to backup power failure than there should be no worries.
I downloaded the BIOS updated from Intel Download center and installed the BIOS, it was a success. Next i downloaded and installed the graphics drivers. After rebooting the system worked fine for hours without any issue, and i kept testing for couple of weeks, and the problem did not happen again.
Now i can fully enjoy the Sandy bridge and have some fun.
