Building New Computer

[Ddrak]

Wow. I love how I have a problem with my set up and I automatically assume it's a hardware issue. Everything that's been "fucked up" so far has been a stupid mistake by me. The 4-plug power connector that was making the computer not work was the wrong one. It looks exactly like the one that should go in except the curved plugs are mirrored. I was wondering why it was so hard to push in! I found the right plug, and it slides in with a simple click and the whole this works now - gogo vista install. Thanks for being patient with my stupid questions guys.

Nah - I think we were all assuming it was user error, just trying to teach you how to diagnose what the issue was. First rule of assembling PCs - the cables are keyed for a reason and should never take significant pressure to connect. You really are kinda lucky that you didn't kill your motherboard with that one.

Dd, the big power cord to the mobo only has 20 plugs. I was concerned about this before but my motherboard manual states that it can take 20 or 24 plug connectors and that with the 20 plug, you just shift it over and ignore the last 4. It seems to all be working fine so far so I must have done something right.

Yeah - if Vista's installing then you got it together right. I figured you had the 20 pin connector in the right place or it wouldn't go, was just wondering why the power supply didn't have the full 24 (usually the last 4 are in a separate cable that kinda plugs in beside the 20).

Glad to hear it's all working. Let us know what the gaming performance is like.

Dd

[Taxious]

Installed Guild Wars and has been playing on it all day so far. Not that GW is graphically intense at all, but I have everything turned up to max and it's much much better than my other computer. I'm loading faster than everyone now and there is absolutely no choppiness. So nice!

Popping Visual Studio on right now to do some homework. So far Vista is pretty nice so far IMO. It's pretty neat looking and I looks like it has a lot more options available when it comes to customization. The only thing I've run into so far is when I decompress .zip files. WTF slow?

[Fallakin Kuvari]

Vista gets some slow downs on reboots after a while (when its coming back into windows). Dunno what exactly causes it, but I'm experiencing it on multiple systems with different setups.

[Ddrak]

Vista gets some slow downs on reboots after a while (when its coming back into windows). Dunno what exactly causes it, but I'm experiencing it on multiple systems with different setups.

Vista is different to XP in that it starts a bunch of stuff about 30-60s after the actual logon screen is first popped up. This makes it faster to get to the logon screen, but you'll see some slowdowns for a while after you log on until everything is stable. Vista *does* start more stuff than XP too (at least by default), so that may be some of the difference as well.

Dd

[Mukik]

Installed Guild Wars and has been playing on it all day so far. Not that GW is graphically intense at all, but I have everything turned up to max and it's much much better than my other computer. I'm loading faster than everyone now and there is absolutely no choppiness. So nice!

Popping Visual Studio on right now to do some homework. So far Vista is pretty nice so far IMO. It's pretty neat looking and I looks like it has a lot more options available when it comes to customization. The only thing I've run into so far is when I decompress .zip files. WTF slow?

maybe you should download zip7

[Bahd Zoolander]

I prefer WinRAR.

[Flunkie]

Mine.

[Select]

Nice
Love the lights, but I hope your bed isn't in that room.

[Flunkie]

No, my computer has it's own room, LOL!

[Select]

With the shape of your computer... I'm imagining "its own room" to be like that Companion Cube shrine in Portal.

[Embar Angylwrath]

What model computer is that Flunkie.. the Geek2000?

[Select]

Question Flunkie... That case doesn't look like the standard shape... does it fit all standard parts? Are they just arranged differently? (I'm still new to PC building )

Flying my first solo mission building a PC tonight. Xil had helped me with my powerhouse.
Motherboard connections are quite confusing, especially when the manual is too small to read. >.<

Shit - this is probably a stretch. I can't figure out three cables and I don't see them in the manual.
There are these three cables coming out of the case itself. One yellow, one red, one black. They say CPU, HDD, and VGA. The tips are orange-gold and long and flat. Kinda reminds me of ceran-wrap(sp)

http://images.tigerdirect.com/SkuImages ... 4505-l.JPG

I tried Googling the names, to find better images, but no luck. You can see one of them in the way back of the case. That orange, long one standing up.

WTF is it and where does it go? >.<

[Ddrak]

How many pins do each of the cables have? Are they thin wires, thick wires, ribbon wires? What does the plug look like? Got a digital camera - that will help?

As for case mods - just google "case mod" and you'll see you can do just about anything!

Dd

[Select]

They have two thin little prongs that come together to make a v. Those prongs are wrapped in the orange/gold stuff and are visible through it.
The wires themselves are regular thin wires and are red, yellow, and black.

I have a camera, but accidentally left my cord at school in the dorms. I wish I could take a picture!!

[Bahd Zoolander]

Those sound like temperature sensors. Does your case have something on it that shows temperatures?

[Select]

Yes! It has a screen in the front that shows the temp and time.

Where would I put those sensors?

[Flunkie]

http://ivyking.com/striker_extreme

You can read my write-up on the system I built. It really is overkill, although I did leave room to dump even more money into it.

[Ddrak]

Yes! It has a screen in the front that shows the temp and time.

Where would I put those sensors?

Sounds like you're just supposed to shove them somewhere near where they are labelled. Probably not even necessary to put them anywhere - they'll only be for the LCD display at the front.

Dd

[Bahd Zoolander]

Yeah, you just stick them next to the things you want to have show up pretty much. Just make sure you don't put them where they can jam a fan.

On the case that I have with sensors I stuck one between my 2 hard drives and the other under the heatsink on the back of my video card.

[Select]

I hate having wires just lay around in a case... but ah well, if that's what you have to do.

Thanks for clarifying!
I've learned a lot doing this alone. (We won't count a little advice from a friend over AIM ) The challenge (and keeping the cats away) was fun.

I still need to get a fan for the CPU and a case fan. Then I'll cross my fingers and hope it works!