Once everything was connected and all the connections were double checked, Blackbird15 was booted into BIOS. The BIOS was configured to enable the Intel Virtualization Technology to support Android app development. The OC tuning wizard was run to improve the system performance. The Windows 8.1 install from a Blu-ray disk was easy, quick as I recall, and problem free. After the install, Windows 8.1 booted and the ASUS drives were installed for all the device hardware. The Windows 8.1 install did not load hardware specific drivers. Blackbird15 was rebooted. The machine was tested and applications were installed.
Every once in a while Blackbird15 would crash randomly. This was traced to LAN drive bug in Windows 8.1 which was finally fixed with the KB3055343 windows update. Blackbird15 doesn’t crash randomly any longer but it still has trouble waking up from sleep properly even with the hybrid boot option disabled. I’m still looking for a fix for this problem. If I leave the media player running playing music, the system doesn’t sleep so the issue isn’t encountered but it’s not a very energy efficient solution. I need to turn off the sleep function so the screen save actives at some point.
The OC Panel has been very useful in monitoring the operation of the processor and motherboard. Most of OC Panel control buttons are on the body of the panel and aren’t accessible so many functions can’t be accessed. I wish there were a few more buttons on the front of the OC panel so that the function could be accessed all the time. Figure 1 shows the OC Panel in operation during a MemTest86+ test without overclocking.
![Image]()
Figure 1 OC Panel
Figure 2 shows a video of Blackbird15 booting and the OC Panel in operation. The fans are very quiet and it is the quietest computer I’ve built. The large 140 mm fans and the fan controllers are really good at minimizing fan noise even when the processor is running at ~200 W.
Figure 2 Blackbird15 Boot and OC Panel Operation Video
Figure 3 shows Blackbird15 hybrid booting again to so show how fast the system boots. I put the camera down to enter the windows password and the picked it back up after entering the password to follow the boot sequence LEDs on the motherboard. It boots in under a minute if there are no USB devices to slow it down. Some of my USB devices are very old.
Figure 3 Blackbird15 Hybrid Boot Speed Video
Index
Every once in a while Blackbird15 would crash randomly. This was traced to LAN drive bug in Windows 8.1 which was finally fixed with the KB3055343 windows update. Blackbird15 doesn’t crash randomly any longer but it still has trouble waking up from sleep properly even with the hybrid boot option disabled. I’m still looking for a fix for this problem. If I leave the media player running playing music, the system doesn’t sleep so the issue isn’t encountered but it’s not a very energy efficient solution. I need to turn off the sleep function so the screen save actives at some point.
The OC Panel has been very useful in monitoring the operation of the processor and motherboard. Most of OC Panel control buttons are on the body of the panel and aren’t accessible so many functions can’t be accessed. I wish there were a few more buttons on the front of the OC panel so that the function could be accessed all the time. Figure 1 shows the OC Panel in operation during a MemTest86+ test without overclocking.
Figure 1 OC Panel
Figure 2 shows a video of Blackbird15 booting and the OC Panel in operation. The fans are very quiet and it is the quietest computer I’ve built. The large 140 mm fans and the fan controllers are really good at minimizing fan noise even when the processor is running at ~200 W.
Figure 2 Blackbird15 Boot and OC Panel Operation Video
Figure 3 shows Blackbird15 hybrid booting again to so show how fast the system boots. I put the camera down to enter the windows password and the picked it back up after entering the password to follow the boot sequence LEDs on the motherboard. It boots in under a minute if there are no USB devices to slow it down. Some of my USB devices are very old.
Figure 3 Blackbird15 Hybrid Boot Speed Video
Index
- X99 HPC Build 00: Introduction
- X99 HPC unboxing 01: Corsair Obsidian 750D
- X99 HPC unboxing 02: ASUS Rampage V Extreme
- X99 HPC unboxing 03: ASUS STRIX GTX 980 Video Card
- X99 HPC unboxing 04: EVGA SuperNOVA P2 1000 W PSU
- X99 HPC unboxing 05: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB memory kit
- X99 HPC unboxing 06: Samsung 850 Pro 512GB SSD
- X99 HPC unboxing 07: Intel core i7-5930k Haswell-E hex-core CPU
- X99 HPC unboxing 08: Pioneer BDR-2209 Blu-ray/DVD/CD Writer
- X99 HPC unboxing 09: WD RE 2 TB Enterprise Hard Drive
- X99 HPC unboxing 10: Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU cooler
- X99 HPC unboxing 11: Windows 8.1 64 bit operating system
- X99 HPC installation 12: Motherboard & processor
- X99 HPC installation 13: CPU Cooler
- X99 HPC installation 14: Graphics card
- X99 HPC installation 15: Power Supply Unit
- X99 HPC installation 16: SSD & HD
- X99 HPC installation 17: OC Panel and Blu-ray drive
- X99 HPC installation 18: Boot and OC Panel Operation