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[mike23]

The arm requires an enormous amount of force and there will likely be a very loud noise once you manage to secure it. That's normal.

Absolute worst part about building a computer for the first time. Especially if no one tells you to expect it.

My heart broke when I installed the CPU in my first build. I moped through the rest of the build and an hour later, I turned on the computer dejectedly, fully expecting nothing but beeps.

 

[mkenyon]

Had to move my hdd, surprised it fit!

Nice! Love not having to deal with standard HDD trays.

Hmmmm how would an I3 clocked at 3.3 Ghz fair with modern games then? Also, I know you cant tell me the future, but what are people thinking will be in the next gen consoles, processor wise? If Im going to spend money on a new desktop I want to make sure its future proofed

Depends on the game. Pretty well so far. No one knows how processors are going to run on next gen engines and changing purchasing behavior based on total speculation is irrational. No such thing as future proof. The only way one can totally 'future proof', is not spend too much and expect to upgrade if necessary.

wow this r4 case is a definition of beauty and elegance

I love it. It's impossible for me to recommend any case in the $100 range above it.

 

[x3r0123]

I love it. It's impossible for me to recommend any case in the $100 range above it.

yeah specially the white one. It's so beautiful that i'm forced to replace the case that i plan to get

 

[XShagrath]

I just built my new machine earlier this month (using heaps of useful info found in this thread), and now I'm in the market for a new hard drive. I've already got a Sandisk 128GB SSD for the OS and other important programs, but I feel it's going to get full fairly quick. I have two WD 1TB "Green" drives, but they seem like they're so slow for anything other than videos/movies. What kinda drive should I be looking at to run other programs and stuff off of (and just keep the OS and essentials on the SSD)?

 

[Salsa]

I just built my new machine earlier this month (using heaps of useful info found in this thread), and now I'm in the market for a new hard drive. I've already got a Sandisk 128GB SSD for the OS and other important programs, but I feel it's going to get full fairly quick. I have two WD 1TB "Green" drives, but they seem like they're so slow for anything other than videos/movies. What kinda drive should I be looking at to run other programs and stuff off of (and just keep the OS and essentials on the SSD)?

WD caviars are good

greens are slow but pretty much silent

blues are the middle ground, probably the best choice

blacks are great for performance but super loud

 

[XShagrath]

Thanks, I'll look into those in the coming weeks (or maybe ask for one for XMas).

Are the blues/blacks fast enough to have games and stuff installed on them?

 

[x3r0123]

Thanks, I'll look into those in the coming weeks (or maybe ask for one for XMas).

Are the blues/blacks fast enough to have games and stuff installed on them?

why not just put the games in the ssd? the difference is like night and day.

 

[XShagrath]

why not just put the games in the ssd? the difference is like night and day.

There's only so much room on the SSD. I feel like I don't even have much installed on it, and I've only got 40GB free.

 

[x3r0123]

There's only so much room on the SSD. I feel like I don't even have much installed on it, and I've only got 40GB free.

then get a small new ssd for games and a hdd for applications? That depends how many games you will install

 

[Deleted member 22576]

How hot do ssds get? Could you put two of then sandwiched together? There's more than enough room in each ssd bay for two of the 830s.. What with the falling prices and all I way thinking about getting another two.

 

[t-ramp]

How hot do ssds get? Could you put two of then sandwiched together? There's more than enough room in each ssd bay for two of the 830s.. What with the falling prices and all I way thinking about getting another two.

That would be fine. SSDs shouldn't generate much heat at all under normal conditions.

 

[CatPee]

How hot do ssds get? Could you put two of then sandwiched together? There's more than enough room in each ssd bay for two of the 830s.. What with the falling prices and all I way thinking about getting another two.

That should be fine. They don't generate too much heat because of no moving parts and all.

 

[Alucrid]

How much of a performance increase would I get going from an E8500 to, say, an i3-2120? I don't want to build a new machine, just swap in shiny new parts along with a shiny new case since the Antec one I bought and it's stupid blue lights have finally pushed me over the edge.

I also currently have a Rosewill RP500-2 500W ATX12V v2.01, think it's worth going modular?

 

[xJavonta]

Nice! Love not having to deal with standard HDD trays.

Depends on the game. Pretty well so far. No one knows how processors are going to run on next gen engines and changing purchasing behavior based on total speculation is irrational. No such thing as future proof. The only way one can totally 'future proof', is not spend too much and expect to upgrade if necessary.

I love it. It's impossible for me to recommend any case in the $100 range above it.

Omg must have.

Damn you, you've made me add another new part to my list: a new case. I'm still rocking my Thermaltake V4 but that is just pure hotness.

The only question left is window or windowless?

 

[mkenyon]

Windowless. The window is a total piece of crap. Only complaint about it. I had to replace it with a piece of acrylic.

 

[Rootbeer]

I'm not building an all-new PC until next year but I need some advice on upgrading to a Windows 8 compatible soundcard.

I currently have an auzentech prelude, it has served me well, but auzentech seems to have given up on soundcards, which is quite sad because they were at the top of the game just a few short years ago. i am going to presume there will be no windows 8 tested drivers for my device. good excuse to upgrade.

I am looking for a top-of-the-line card but it must support digital optical audio in (not out... in)

the asus zonar cards only mention they support output... otherwise those look amazing

advice please?

(btw, so jealous of all the new PCs being built. I have a huge nest egg saved for a new build... but i'm definitely waiting for next year's intel refresh)

 

[Deleted member 22576]

I am way too stoned to deal with this triple headed esata power cable. It's juuust long enough to make me think I can feed it through a hole in this drive cage and get 1 ssd and the blu ray drive connected, leaving the "far" connector for the other ssd a couple inches away on the other side of the case. The easy way out seems to just be to tape the ssds together so the cable only has to hit two distinct points instead of three. Blech, I've been up form like 17 hours.. Gonna go to sleep and deal with this tomorrow.

 

[mrklaw]

Hmmmm how would an I3 clocked at 3.3 Ghz fair with modern games then? Also, I know you cant tell me the future, but what are people thinking will be in the next gen consoles, processor wise? If Im going to spend money on a new desktop I want to make sure its future proofed

Two suggestions

1) future proof - to some extent - now by buying an i5
2) buy an i3 which is fine for most games now, but buy a motherboard that'll take an i5 or higher, so you can upgrade in 2014 if needed


JTwo - cables were my biggest bugbear putting a PC together. Well, that and the CPU crushing mentioned on this page.

 

[Deleted member 22576]

At one point I was gonna make my own cables. I still plan to, just not right now.

 

[Tomodachi]

So I decided to change my case too, but I really want to spend as little as possible considering I have to grab other components and the case would be hidden, so no need for it to be flashy/elegant/etc. I just want a bottom PSU slot, one 2.5" slot (planning to add an SSD before the end of the year) and decent cable management, especially since my Corsair PSU isn't modular.
The OP suggests the Bitfenix Merc that goes for a bit less than 40€ (like 45-50$) on the local amazon store, any other suggestions for that price? I don't want to spend more than say 60€ though.
Also I have a spare case fan I will mount in addition to the one that comes already installed in the rear, should I put that extra fan in front or on the side?
Oh and the top of the case will be covered so I think I'll get the beta version instead of the alpha (2 top fan slots), is that bad?

 

[n0n44m]

At one point I was gonna make my own cables. I still plan to, just not right now.

Making your own cables because cable management is a pain?

Hahaha NO

You don't know what suffering is until you've tried to decently trim and sleeve some cables...



(buy some extensions)

 

[Alienups]

Would have to troubleshoot this one. Try a different cable, make sure your LAN drivers are installed, uninstall your LAN drivers and reinstall them, use a different port on your router, etc etc etc.

No way to know otherwise.

I'm going to wait and see a bit since i noticed my ping going down the later in the day it got yesterday. Might be an ISP issue.

 

[sk3tch]

(click to enlarge)

Got that Matrix up and running last night...installing games so I can test the voltage tweaking. So far with stock voltage I got it up to 1.216 Ghz. A couple more pics here.

 

[Wolf Akela]

PC GAF, help. Suddenly no audio playback EXCEPT for Flash.

I don't know what happened. I just booted my PC and tried to replay some videos I saved but they have no sound. I tried other players, nothing. I played online YouTube videos and they're fine. I tried playing games and none of them have sound either.

Volume Mixer indicates that the program volumes are just right and are playing sound, but I just can't hear it. I already tried restarting my PC and restarting the Windows Audio service. I'm currently downloading audio drivers but it's a pretty slow download so I'm trying other things. Nothing in the mixer is muted. Flash videos in the browser work fine.

edit: I tried playing YouTube on Chrome. NO SOUND

edit: Fixed

Turns out one of my audio jacks just got loose. That explains why DMC3 (PC) didn't have audio, Dark Souls did have audio and DMC4 only had some audio.

 

[Manp]

Some pics....

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/314175_10152224330675604_1823911888_n.jpg

Cable Management wasn't still finished there at the end, but pretty close.

the cpu fan... on the other side.

 

[Relix]

the cpu fan... on the other side.

Oh fuck XD! I had that doubt for a long while haha

 

[Shaheed79]

I want to do a future proof Win7 on SSD build under $800 that will have parity with Norbit/Dingo next-gen consoles. If possible I really don't want to have to build it from scratch because I haven't done a ground up build since 99. I can replace CPU's, GPU's, RAM, Disc drives and PSU's without too much trouble.

Should I wait for late next year or can I manage this build between Dec.-Jan.?

I've pretty much decided that my build will likely be based around Intel i5-3570 or i7-3770 which should be a nice amount better than any CPU in Sony and MS's new hardware. Is there an obvious difference between them during in game performance?

 

[Akkad]

(click to enlarge)

Got that Matrix up and running last night...installing games so I can test the voltage tweaking. So far with stock voltage I got it up to 1.216 Ghz. A couple more pics here.

 

[gokieks]

Oh fuck XD! I had that doubt for a long while haha

As long as your fan is mounted in the correct direction, the difference between a push and a pull configuration is actually negligible.

 

[Relix]

As long as your fan is mounted in the correct direction, the difference between a push and a pull configuration is actually negligible.

Well, the rear fan seems to be pulling out quite some air, so I guess n the direction is fine... right? I mounted it that way because I thought the fan wouldn't fit over the RAM Sticks with heatsinks.

 

[gokieks]

Well, the rear fan seems to be pulling out quite some air, so I guess n the direction is fine... right? I mounted it that way because I thought the fan wouldn't fit over the RAM Sticks with heatsinks.

Just make sure the fan on the CPU heatsink is pushing air towards the back of the case (most fans these days have an arrow to indicate direction of airflow), and you're fine.

 

[Relix]

Just make sure the fan on the CPU heatsink is pushing air towards the back of the case (most fans these days have an arrow to indicate direction of airflow), and you're fine.

Just opened the case and put my fingers to feel the airflow. Seems to be fine... the CPU fan pulls the air to the other fan, who then pulls outside. In the other side of the heatsink I felt no air being pushed, more like pulled.... So I guess its fine? I've had no temp problems so far.

 

[iavi]

I love it. It's impossible for me to recommend any case in the $100 range above it.

Have an opinion on the Corsair 550D? It's goes for the same understated elegance as the R4, but reviews have it performing a bit better in cooling/noise. Same price bracket.

 

[gokieks]

Just opened the case and put my fingers to feel the airflow. Seems to be fine... the CPU fan pulls the air to the other fan, who then pulls outside. In the other side of the heatsink I felt no air being pushed, more like pulled.... So I guess its fine? I've had no temp problems so far.

Yeah, it should be fine.

 

[mkenyon]

Just opened the case and put my fingers to feel the airflow. Seems to be fine... the CPU fan pulls the air to the other fan, who then pulls outside. In the other side of the heatsink I felt no air being pushed, more like pulled.... So I guess its fine? I've had no temp problems so far.

It'll be about 4-8 degrees warmer than it would otherwise. Up to you.

 

[Deleted member 22576]

Making your own cables because cable management is a pain?

Hahaha NO

You don't know what suffering is until you've tried to decently trim and sleeve some cables...



(buy some extensions)

Everyone says this, but it honestly sounds like fun to me. Get the first few done, then just zone out and watch a tv series or something, idk. Y'all will be jelly when I do get around to it.


Anyway, awake, feeling refreshed. Gonna make some tea and get to it.

 

[abracadaver]

Xonar DG soundcard ? Only 30 $ ?

I hate my onboard sound, I get no bass at all while playing. Is the xonar really that good ? I have never heard of it. I thought only creative was allowed to make soundcards and they are much more expensive.

 

[Deleted member 22576]

So this mobo came with a cable that consolidates the chassis cables into one connector. Pretty slick.


Also, so these three grey strips on nth bottom of this CPU heatsink are pre applied thermal compound, right?

 

[Tomodachi]

Xonar DG soundcard ? Only 30 $ ?

I hate my onboard sound, I get no bass at all while playing. Is the xonar really that good ? I have never heard of it. I thought only creative was allowed to make soundcards and they are much more expensive.

I had the same problem, hated my onboard. I got the Xonar DG and it was one of the best purchase I made for my PC. I use it most often with a pair of AKG K77 headphones (low budget but very good for their price, as far as I can tell) since the card has a built in headphones amp and the combination is really great. You can even set three different modes of gain in the control panel according to your headphones impedance expressed in ohms, so you can use >64ohms headphones with no trouble at all.

 

[Tess3ract]

I'm borrowing my dad's xonar card, but it needs a power source and it also is passed through to an old receiver via optical. I can't tell if it's working better or worse than my old mobo via the same path with HD555s :\

 

[Eideka]

Sorry if this is not the right topic but in my Nvidia Display driver folder I have several folders corresponding to older nvidia drivers (296, 301 etc...) should I delete them (except the one I'm currently using) ?

N00b question I know.

 

[Deleted member 22576]

Upsetting amount of pressure needed to seat the CPU in the little flappy tray thing. Err, an upsetting resistance when lockin it together.

Moving on..

 

[Deleted member 22576]

So am I correct in assuming that the green/white correspond to positive and negative on both these cables? One is from asus and the other is from silverstone. On the asus one there is an arrow pointing to the green side which I assume means positive, while the green one on the silverstone cable is clearly labeled positive.

Also what the hell is TPU and why does the motherboard manual recommend it switch it on?

Ok. See this nut? That's attached to the screw that is holding the daughter board on this asus motherboard. It lines up perfectly with the two motherboard mounts inside my case.. Am I supposed to remove this nut and then screw it into the case mount? I feel like this is what I'm supposed to do but it's no where in the documentation, if I don't the mobo will only be held in place by the two screws on the opposite side..



NVM FOUND THE RIGHT SCREWS IN THE MOBO BOX

 

[Lone_Prodigy]

So I decided to tinker with the BIOS (put my RAM at 1600, turn on XMP, and now Windows won't start. Already tried system restore and startup repair, and defaults in BIOS.

 

[Manp]

So am I correct in assuming that the green/white correspond to positive and negative on both these cables? One is from asus and the other is from silverstone. On the asus one there is an arrow pointing to the green side which I assume means positive, while the green one on the silverstone cable is clearly labeled positive.

it's always
white = negative
colored = positive

for speaker
black = negative
red = positive

 

[YianGaruga]

So I decided to tinker with the BIOS (put my RAM at 1600, turn on XMP, and now Windows won't start. Already tried system restore and startup repair, and defaults in BIOS.

It probably has nothing to do with Windows since it happened after messing with the BIOS and startup repair never does anything useful anyway in my experience. Did you check that your BIOS settings are correct after setting them to default? Like AHCI mode for your HDDs and boot order?

 

[Dark Octave]

After about two months of going back and fourth, I finally decided to just get Windows 7 HomePro OEM instead of waiting for Windows 8 which I thought came out yesterday lol. $90. It works just fine. PC is blazing fast, so I'm happy.

I think my next step is to get one of those PC racks someone here posted a picture of. Keep my PCs elevated and slow down dust build up.

 

[Infinite Justice]

So am I correct in assuming that the green/white correspond to positive and negative on both these cables? One is from asus and the other is from silverstone. On the asus one there is an arrow pointing to the green side which I assume means positive, while the green one on the silverstone cable is clearly labeled positive.

yea the one with the arrow indicates the positive side.

 

[Deleted member 22576]

lol I'm eating toast and just dropped some crumbs in there

 

[mkenyon]

After about two months of going back and fourth, I finally decided to just get Windows 7 HomePro OEM instead of waiting for Windows 8 which I thought came out yesterday lol. $90. It works just fine. PC is blazing fast, so I'm happy.

I think my next step is to get one of those PC racks someone here posted a picture of. Keep my PCs elevated and slow down dust build up.

Industrial wire racks. Get a big pack of zip ties too.

lol I'm eating toast and just dropped some crumbs in there

I love following this build! Providing some good chuckles.

Sorry if this is not the right topic but in my Nvidia Display driver folder I have several folders corresponding to older nvidia drivers (296, 301 etc...) should I delete them (except the one I'm currently using) ?

N00b question I know.

Always. Make sure you always delete that folder prior to updating.