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[riflen]

So uh... My PC won't turn on. I shut it down then switched out a monitor and now it won't come on. I see the leds on the mobo are lit though... So it's getting something. Did my on/off button on my case go out or something....?

wth

The only time I've experienced something like this was because of a power delivery problem of some sort; a spike or surge perhaps. Try unplugging the PSU from the wall socket and leave it for 15 mins.

If you still have no joy, you could try triggering power on without the switch by bridging the pins on the motherboard with something conductive. Fingers crossed it's nothing serious.

 

[DrBaalzamon]

Oh boy, for those with a gigabyte board do not try to update the bios with the @BIOS utility. I think I managed to brick the new board I got from frys using it. Its also impossible to get it to invoke the dual bios to fresh it and even when I did that, board wouldnt come up.

Most people suggest not touching the @BIOS app or using QFLASH. I mean, I wasnt going to update the bios at all but their website claims the F2 revision of the board I had z87x-HD3 had an update so theres that.

I got stuck in a loop where it would flash a screen black, reboot, no signal to monitor, over an dover again. If i mashed the del key it would take me to the bios that showed F2 was loaded but nothing. I even managed to reload windows7 but once i restarted once everything went down the tubes again (and this was with the backup bios reloaded!). Before that, everything was working fine, etc. Im going to have Frys swap the board, or get a different brand, and see if all my stuff works fine. Oh boy. I know my other HW is fine, considering i threw my old mobo back in my case, with my power supply and video card, reloaded windows and its all good.

what a nightmare! sorry for the rambling post

 

[IHeartTSwift]

Hey everyone. I'm pretty noob with computers and I need to get a desktop soon as my old laptop is beginning to die on me. I want a desktop that I can use for music production as well as playing/livestreaming games like dota 2 and other games I'd like to play at higher settings. I was thinking of spending between 800-900. If anyone could help me with mixing and matching parts that would be best for my needs that would be lovely.

 

[Prophet Steve]

Hey everyone. I'm pretty noob with computers and I need to get a desktop soon as my old laptop is beginning to die on me. I want a desktop that I can use for music production as well as playing/livestreaming games like dota 2 and other games I'd like to play at higher settings. I was thinking of spending between 800-900. If anyone could help me with mixing and matching parts that would be best for my needs that would be lovely.

You would need to try to fill in the form in the OP.

Without a country (and a currency for that matter) it is difficult to do so. Plenty of people here that are not US. You could also pick one of the builds in the OP as a starting guide.

Also whether it has to include a monitor and Windows and such.

 

[IHeartTSwift]

You would need to try to fill in the form in the OP.

Without a country (and a currency for that matter) it is difficult to do so. Plenty of people here that are not US. You could also pick one of the builds in the OP as a starting guide.

Also whether it has to include a monitor and Windows and such.

Oh okay thanks!

 

[CyanideFuse]

Is the reddit softwareswap legit?

How does it work?

Yes it's legit. Many people have access to free codes using their school or whatever license with Microsoft. They then sell this for cheap. Many people have had success with it. Just PM the seller, paypal the money and thats it.

I used this method a few weeks ago to get a Windows 7 64bit key. It went absolutely fine; a lot of the sellers have feedback from other buyers that can help put your mind at ease.

 

[kharma45]

I'll run the 780 on a CX600w, so i would hope so! (i'm at the limit tho)

You can run a 780 on less than that.

 

[Rootbeer]

Wow nice tip on /softwareswap/, definitely going to check it out. Some great deals on there.

 

[Serandur]

I have this odd electrical buzzing type noise coming from my new PSU (Corsair HX750) in games where I push my GPU (780 GHz Edition) to full load (99%, otherwise noise is severely reduced; assuming it's connected to power usage).It's not too particularly loud (can't hear it over the game at decent volume), but the noise irritates me just by being there or when I boot up something demanding with my volume turned down. I assume this is some form of coil whine? Messing with BIOS power states does nothing and oddly, furmark doesn't reproduce the noise, only games/unigine benchmarks do. It's a bit irritating to spend so much on a quality, otherwise silent PSU and end up having this. Constant fan noise I can deal with, but what am I supposed to do about this?

 

[LilJoka]

I have this odd electrical buzzing type noise coming from my new PSU (Corsair HX750) in games where I push my GPU (780 GHz Edition) to full load (99%, otherwise noise is severely reduced; assuming it's connected to power usage).It's not too particularly loud (can't hear it over the game a decent volume), but the noise irritates me just by being there or when I boot up something demanding with my volume turned down. I assume this is some form of coil whine? Messing with BIOS power states does nothing and oddly, furmark doesn't reproduce the noise, only games/unigine benchmarks do. It's a bit irritating to spend so much on a quality, otherwise silent PSU and end up having this. Constant fan noise I can deal with, but what am I supposed to do about this?

I get this at the end of Unigene bench, when the final screen renders at 1000fps, but not while in the benchmark itself.

 

[Serandur]

I get this at the end of Unigene bench, when the final screen renders at 1000fps, but not while in the benchmark itself.

Do you have vsync enabled in the benchmark?

 

[Objectively Bad Opinion]

Lets say I had 2 7970s and a MSI 790fx-gd70 Motherboard, and could only get one card to run 16x and the other at 8x do I need a new motherboard? Cards are in slot 1 and 3, or am I a noob? I am trying to Help a friend so any advice would be helpful.

You're good probably. Make sure you don't have a GPU hooked up to a lane provided by a PLX chip. Other than that it doesn't matter if it's 16 or 8.

 

[LilJoka]

Do you have vsync enabled in the benchmark?

I dont, but i did have EVGA Precision limitng fps to 60 at one point, and thats when i realised that on the credits screen the 1000fps was causing the coil whine on the GPU.

Also i just scored a Rampage Gene IV off ebay boxed for £155 =DD New X79 mATX build soon!

 

[DarkFlow]

Oh boy, for those with a gigabyte board do not try to update the bios with the @BIOS utility. I think I managed to brick the new board I got from frys using it. Its also impossible to get it to invoke the dual bios to fresh it and even when I did that, board wouldnt come up.

Most people suggest not touching the @BIOS app or using QFLASH. I mean, I wasnt going to update the bios at all but their website claims the F2 revision of the board I had z87x-HD3 had an update so theres that.

I got stuck in a loop where it would flash a screen black, reboot, no signal to monitor, over an dover again. If i mashed the del key it would take me to the bios that showed F2 was loaded but nothing. I even managed to reload windows7 but once i restarted once everything went down the tubes again (and this was with the backup bios reloaded!). Before that, everything was working fine, etc. Im going to have Frys swap the board, or get a different brand, and see if all my stuff works fine. Oh boy. I know my other HW is fine, considering i threw my old mobo back in my case, with my power supply and video card, reloaded windows and its all good.

what a nightmare! sorry for the rambling post

I have the same board, I think F2 is the newest but, I could be wrong. There support pages seems out of date with upgrades. Anyway Fry's might not take it back now, they are anal about motherboards.

 

[LilJoka]

I have the same board, I think F2 is the newest but, I could be wrong. There support pages seems out of date with upgrades. Anyway Fry's might not take it back now, they are anal about motherboards.

Does the board not have removable BIOS chips? You could then just inser Bios chip 2 into slot 1.

 

[DarkFlow]

Does the board not have removable BIOS chips? You could then just inser Bios chip 2 into slot 1.

It has a backup bios but he says it not working.

I found these steps to get to work if he still has it hooked up.

You can force the backup bios to overwrite the main bios. Shut down and turn off the psu with it's switch. Hold in the start button and flip the psu switch until the motherboard gets juice, then flip the psu switch back off. Now do a normal start up and the bios should take over and write the backup to the main.

Also here's some beta drivers, at this point you have nothing to lose.
http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/28441-gigabyte-latest-beta-bios.html

 

[LilJoka]

It has a backup bios but he says it not working.

I found these steps to get to work if he still has it hooked up.



Also here's some beta drivers, at this point you have nothing to lose.
http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/28441-gigabyte-latest-beta-bios.html

What i meant was, if the motherboard is not detecting a failure and switching to the backup bios, it maybe possible to just physically remove the bios out the sockets and switch them over. That way the good backup chip will boot by default. Of course not possible if they are soldered in, maybe worth a check.

 

[DarkFlow]

What i meant was, if the motherboard is not detecting a failure and switching to the backup bios, it maybe possible to just physically remove the bios out the sockets and switch them over. That way the good backup chip will boot by default. Of course not possible if they are soldered in, maybe worth a check.

I doubt it has that, it's a rather low end board for z87 chips.

 

[justsomeguy]

Yes it's legit. Many people have access to free codes using their school or whatever license with Microsoft. They then sell this for cheap. Many people have had success with it. Just PM the seller, paypal the money and thats it.

I'd be staggered if it was legit.

I can't get hold of the ts & cs of the Dreamspark programme which gives students free software, but I cant imagine they are permitted to resell license keys.

 

[kennah]

So uh... My PC won't turn on. I shut it down then switched out a monitor and now it won't come on. I see the leds on the mobo are lit though... So it's getting something. Did my on/off button on my case go out or something....?

wth

Did you get this figured out?

 

[Objectively Bad Opinion]

So uh... My PC won't turn on. I shut it down then switched out a monitor and now it won't come on. I see the leds on the mobo are lit though... So it's getting something. Did my on/off button on my case go out or something....?

wth

Paperclip test. If the motherboard is getting standby power, but won't turn on, the PSU may not be waking up. Short out the circuit that tells the PSU to wake up manually with a paperclip. If it doesn't turn on, then the PSU is the problem.

 

[DarkFlow]

I'd be staggered if it was legit.

I can't get hold of the ts & cs of the Dreamspark programme which gives students free software, but I cant imagine they are permitted to resell license keys.

Well it's legit as in they are not stolen. MS really does not give a shit, this has been going on a long time.

 

[riflen]

I'd be staggered if it was legit.

I can't get hold of the ts & cs of the Dreamspark programme which gives students free software, but I cant imagine they are permitted to resell license keys.

Yes. People in this thread have a curious definition of legitimate. It seems to be "if I wont get done for it, it's legit."

There may be some people who have retail keys through their Microsoft Partner or MSDN subscriptions, which they are allowed to sell on, but a subscription is not cheap and the price that these keys go for is suspiciously low.

The majority of these keys are almost certainly sold by students who are breaking license agreements to do so. Whether this is legit or not is not even open to discussion, but people who come here for advice should know exactly what they are buying.

Microsoft could stop the practice if they cared, but I suspect it's a net win for them if the more people use Windows the better.

 

[justsomeguy]

Well it's legit as in they are not stolen. MS really does not give a shit, this has been going on a long time.

i find this the most tenuous of arguments, personally. You could apply it almost completely to regular piracy of games. "if they cared theyd make it so cracks don't work and theyd shut down bit torrent", yet gaf has a very strong anti piracy stance.

Anyway, I have no desire to derail my favourite gaf thread - I'll just float my opinion as food for thought for those considering using softwareswap.

 

[BIGWORM]

Do you have more detail on that?

Pretty self-explanatory, honestly:

1. Call MS
2. Request Win7 Ult key
3. Pay over phone
4. Key sent to provided email address
5 Grab an image from here:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...i-have-a/7d964b05-2be9-4800-bc7f-3ca30356fc3d

2nd post has x86 or x64 flavors

6. Burn image with your favorite image-burning program. I use ImgBurn @ 8X
7. Install
8. ???
9. Profit

 

[kennah]

You're missing the details - what number do you call? Why is this a thing? Is it replacement keys for people that lost theirs? Is it part of their Genuine Program?

 

[Drame]

Heya PC-Gaf!

I'm building my first PC and while I'm excited I'm also rather nervous about breaking some parts while putting it together, but you never learn a thing if you don't try it. My budget is 1300€ without the monitor (I'll use my old keyboard and mouse) and I live in Finland.

I've been looking into these parts and the prices can be definitely found cheaper over here.

CPU: INTEL Core i5-4670K 3,4GHz LGA1150 BOXED (204,90€)
CPU Cooler: CM Hyper 212 Evo (37,80€)
Motherboard: ASUS Z87-A Socket1150 4xDDR3 ATX Z87 (125€)
Memory: KINGSTON HYPERX 8GB 1600MHZ DDR3 (2x4GB) CL9 (66€)
Storage SSD: CRUSIAL M500 240GB SSD 500/250 SATA3 (109,90€)
Storage HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3,5" SATA3 7.2K 64MB (79,90€)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 280X DC II TOP OC 3GB GDDR5 (305€)
Power Supply: CORSAIR RM650 650W 80+ Gold Modular PSU (108,40€)
Operating System: Win 8.1 64-bit OEM (95€)
Case: Fractal D. Define R4 Black ATX (99,90€)
Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-24F1ST 24X DVDRW BLACK SATA (14,90€)

Total: 1246,70€

How does it look? Will I need to buy any separate cables or are everything needed included with the various parts, I know this stupid question, but I really don't know! Also, is the PSU "right" for video card and cpu? As I've heard some horror stories about some PSU's being rather unreliable. I will be building the computer at the end of May.

Oh, and I should say that this PC will be used (when it is build!) for gaming and Photoshop.

 

[BIGWORM]

You're missing the details - what number do you call? Why is this a thing? Is it replacement keys for people that lost theirs? Is it part of their Genuine Program?

(800) 936-5700

This is a thing because it saves people money, like poster in the last page about to buy Home Premium.

It was a replacement key for me, as I lost my Signature Edition key in a house fire end of January. I don't believe you can only qualify if it's a replacement key, per se.

Yes, it's part of their Genuine Program. I don't think MS would sell you a key for it NOT to be.

 

[Smokey]

The only time I've experienced something like this was because of a power delivery problem of some sort; a spike or surge perhaps. Try unplugging the PSU from the wall socket and leave it for 15 mins.

If you still have no joy, you could try triggering power on without the switch by bridging the pins on the motherboard with something conductive. Fingers crossed it's nothing serious.

Did you get this figured out?

Paperclip test. If the motherboard is getting standby power, but won't turn on, the PSU may not be waking up. Short out the circuit that tells the PSU to wake up manually with a paperclip. If it doesn't turn on, then the PSU is the problem.

So I got it back on. When I said I turned machine off and switched monitors, I also tried my sensei raw mouse that I've had for awhile. I remember the raw software damn near killing my machine when I first got it.

I've changed monitors plenty of times with no issue, but the sensei had to do something. I tried different outlets. Multiple times I flipped switch off and on the PSU. I ended up unplugging everything but the monitor and power cable. It came on. I turned it off and then plugged in my keyboard + Corsair m65 mouse and it wouldn't cut on. Did the same process and it came on. Then I plugged everything back in after it was up and that's where it's at now.

I have no clue what happened or is going on. I've had a couple of issues where I'll be gaming and my PC would just completely shut off. Event viewer didn't say anything beyond generic system shut down. I've got a 1000w Seasonic Platinum PSU so I have plenty of power. All just very odd.

Last night though the mobo lights were on as if everything was normal... But mashing on the power button did nothing.

 

[DrBaalzamon]

I doubt it has that, it's a rather low end board for z87 chips.

Thanks all for the tips/advice! There are no removable chips for the bios. This board is relatively low end, yes. Its suppose to have a dual bios for redundancy - or if the main one fails but I find it very curious that it was working fine literally right before i tried to update it and then poof it didnt work. Its a bummer, but it is what it is. The only reason I even bothered with trying to update it is because the site had the F2 version and the board shipped with F1 - and that the F2 version claimed 4th gen 'support' whatever that means.

It was literally flawless before that. Goes to show you not to muck around with the bios Anyway, since all my hardware seems to be working fine with my prior board (although I have no way of testing the CPU ), going to just try a direct swap with them. If that doesnt work, Ill try to create a bios update USB stick with QFLASH and update the bios through the actual bios utility. Darkflow, do you know what v your bios is at by chance? Thanks!

 

[phxxBullet]

even for a down the road 780 sli, that psu seems to be overkill. i think a good 850w should be safe

Well, better save than sorry. Also, if hes going to OC CPU + 2 780s, he'll want the 1000watts

 

[kennah]

Well, better save than sorry. Also, if hes going to OC CPU + 2 780s, he'll want the 1000watts

Totally unnecessary. Power consumption is on a downward trend.


And for the windows poster - very interesting. I personally don't like the reddit software swap Windows, but if MS has a competitive alternative I'm all for that.

By genuine program I meant was it part of their initiave to get people off of pirated versions of their software

 

[scogoth]

So I got it back on. When I said I turned machine off and switched monitors, I also tried my sensei raw mouse that I've had for awhile. I remember the raw software damn near killing my machine when I first got it.

I've changed monitors plenty of times with no issue, but the sensei had to do something. I tried different outlets. Multiple times I flipped switch off and on the PSU. I ended up unplugging everything but the monitor and power cable. It came on. I turned it off and then plugged in my keyboard + Corsair m65 mouse and it wouldn't cut on. Did the same process and it came on. Then I plugged everything back in after it was up and that's where it's at now.

I have no clue what happened or is going on. I've had a couple of issues where I'll be gaming and my PC would just completely shut off. Event viewer didn't say anything beyond generic system shut down. I've got a 1000w Seasonic Platinum PSU so I have plenty of power. All just very odd.

Last night though the mobo lights were on as if everything was normal... But mashing on the power button did nothing.

Unplug any internal USB headers and give it a shot. I've once had a multi card read connected to a USB header that was shorting and caused similar erratic behaviour

 

[riflen]

Well, better save than sorry. Also, if hes going to OC CPU + 2 780s, he'll want the 1000watts

Depends on the price. I'm running 2 x 780Ti and 3570K @ 4.5 on a Corsair HX850. Admittedly it's a very good 850W PSU, but you certainly don't need 1000W and there are definately 1000W PSUs that are utter garbage.
The important things for PSUs are efficiency, voltage regulation and output quality, followed by heat and noise probably. Some places that do decent PSU reviews are hardwaresecrets and jonnyguru.

 

[scogoth]

I'm running, 2 680s, 5Ghz 3770k, 2 SSDs, 2 pumps, 12 fans, tons of lighting, and come nowhere near using 1000W.

 

[ZombieFred]

Say guys, what's the best GPU to get right now or is it worth waiting until later this year? I have two AMD 6970 Cross Fire setup at the moment and would like to change soon. My PC spec is still pretty good, even if it's three years old (16 gb ram, i7 3.4 8 cores processor) but I know I would need to change my GPUs and get another hard drive soon.

What would you guys say is best?

 

[phxxBullet]

Depends on the price. I'm running 2 x 780Ti and 3570K @ 4.5 on a Corsair HX850. Admittedly it's a very good 850W PSU, but you certainly don't need 1000W and there are definately 1000W PSUs that are utter garbage.
The important things for PSUs are efficiency, voltage regulation and output quality, followed by heat and noise probably. Some places that do decent PSU reviews are hardwaresecrets and jonnyguru.

If I'm not wrong your PSU should be 80Gold? Well, if u'd get a 80Bronze, 1000watt isn't so overkill anymore compared to a 80Gold.

 

[hoserx]

Say guys, what's the best GPU to get right now or is it worth waiting until later this year? I have two AMD 6970 Cross Fire setup at the moment and would like to change soon. My PC spec is still pretty good, even if it's three years old (16 gb ram, i7 3.4 8 cores processor) but I know I would need to change my GPUs and get another hard drive soon.

What would you guys say is best?

You have an 8 core i7? Do you have a xeon?

 

[ZombieFred]

You have an 8 core i7? Do you have a xeon?

Sorry, was a typo, I meant 4 cores, I7 2600K (I forgot it is 8 logical processors due to the threads :lol)!

 

[riflen]

If I'm not wrong your PSU should be 80Gold? Well, if u'd get a 80Bronze, 1000watt isn't so overkill anymore compared to a 80Gold.

My HX850 is Silver.
It's up to you. I just wanted to let you know that fixating on wattage is the wrong way to buy PSUs. Efficiency is far more important. I just don't know why you would want a less efficient PSU because it has a 4-digit peak output when the machine is likely to draw ~650Watts at most.

 

[kennah]

Say guys, what's the best GPU to get right now or is it worth waiting until later this year? I have two AMD 6970 Cross Fire setup at the moment and would like to change soon. My PC spec is still pretty good, even if it's three years old (16 gb ram, i7 3.4 8 cores processor) but I know I would need to change my GPUs and get another hard drive soon.

What would you guys say is best?

My as well wait at this point. New gpus later this year. The 780 is almost a year old now. Your cpu is good for a long time yet (overclock it!).

Best upgrade you could do is an SSD if you don't already have one.

 

[ZombieFred]

Well I do have a SSD but it's only 60 GB and I've noticed it gets very hot. I have the OS installed on it and I might have to create an image and then transfer it to another down the line. I have not done much overclocking myself, I have not had much experience with this and I don't havn't done nay cooling either! My tower is a NZXT Phantom series so fairly big. Thanks for the input on this, really appreciate it

 

[phxxBullet]

My HX850 is Silver.
It's up to you. I just wanted to let you know that fixating on wattage is the wrong way to buy PSUs. Efficiency is far more important. I just don't know why you would want a less efficient PSU because it has a 4-digit peak output when the machine is likely to draw ~650Watts at most.

Trust me, I know the difference between garbage China bombers with no power on the 12V rail and quality PSUs lol

 

[Crimsonsky]

Say guys, what's the best GPU to get right now or is it worth waiting until later this year? I have two AMD 6970 Cross Fire setup at the moment and would like to change soon. My PC spec is still pretty good, even if it's three years old (16 gb ram, i7 3.4 8 cores processor) but I know I would need to change my GPUs and get another hard drive soon.

What would you guys say is best?

That's the question of forever right there. If we knew the right answer we'd all be hooking it up. The best advice I can give is this: Wait until you can't wait anymore. Then get the card that has the best bang for your buck. If you care about additional features like Shadowplay then skew towards the Nvidia spectrum, if that doesn't matter to you then choose whatever you like. For Nvidia the 760-780 all have good performance per dollar ratios, anything above that is a luxury purchase. Which is fine, just not the most efficient. Once Radeon's return to msrp prices the 280 and 290 are the cards to get. The x models are fine they just cost more than the performance they bring is worth.

 

[riflen]

Trust me, I know the difference between garbage China bombers with no power on the 12V rail and quality PSUs lol

lol!

This is a thread for advice on PC components. We gave our advice.

 

[Artex]

What's the consensus on OS? Stay away from Windows 8 or what?

 

[RumblingRosco]

What's the consensus on OS? Stay away from Windows 8 or what?

W8 (8.1 specifically) is great. Absolutely use it if you're building a new system. I'm not convinced it's worth spending the money just to upgrade from W7, but for new systems, no reason to stick to W7 at this point.

 

[riflen]

W8 (8.1 specifically) is great. Absolutely use it if you're building a new system. I'm not convinced it's worth spending the money just to upgrade from W7, but for new systems, no reason to stick to W7 at this point.

I'd second this.

 

[Granadier]

What's the consensus on OS? Stay away from Windows 8 or what?

The opposite.

Go for Windows 8.1 (newest release) and disable the Metro UI if you don't like it.

Classic Shell

Tweak the settings to avoid Start screen and hot corners.

 

[FlawlessCowboy]

Hey guys,

Any recommendations for a $700 build? I'm really needing to upgrade soon as the PC I'm using currently was built on a budget back in 2008 (and I'm still using Windows XP).

Anyway, I already have everything I need except the tower (i.e. monitor, OS, m/kb). I'm going to be mainly using the computer for gaming, but also some school related work. One thing I'd really like to have is an option to upgrade the tower in the future so I could run the Witcher 3 for example. Any suggestions or advice?

Thanks!