The (new) Official PC building thread!

OK more mud in the water for the CPU's.......now what about the video card(Sapphire ATI Radeon HD2600 Pro Advantage 512MB) will this be enough to play team fortress 2?
how much memory? I was thinking 2gb.. 2 x 1gb sticks

 

Ok. I turned on the new computer build, suspense builds to a cresendo, and I don't seem to be getting anything. The computer has power, the fans are running, the optical drives have power and the lights are all blinking. I cannot seem to get the drives to read. I know that I need to get to BIOS to set up a few things but I don't seem to be able to do that. One book I read said to tap delete over and over to enter system bios. Is it correct? Makes me wonder why I bought the book when ya'll are more helpful. I await your response.

 

mphsbelle,
Are you at least posting?? (screen giving you something) That's very important at this point. You installed RAM right? (sorry had to ask... )

On getting to the BIOS you may have to try other keys; some (most) require the delete key but others use F8 or F9 if memory serves. YOu may have to look it up for your mobo.

....gm

 

Nonetheless if there's no video, you won't have an option to use the BIOS.
Is there a 4 pin Power connector on your motherboard, and is it plugged in? Are all your cards and RAM sticks seated correctly? Is the CPU heatsink securely attached?

 

I am getting a screen that has green bar on top, red space in the middle and a blue bar that says monitor is working. Green bar says self test, red bar says no signal. I have tried several keys to enter bios - nothing. I am thinking I have missed a connection from the hard drive. I connected a red cable from the hdd to the mother board, and a ribbon cable to the mother board and a power cable to the hdd. The jumper is set to master. There is one other place on the back of the hdd for some type of cord but no info on what goes there. I'll look on the documentation for info. Thanx for your quick reply.

 

just wondering are using a sata harddrive?

 

Is the monitor hooked up to the DMI/dSUB connection from the video card?? Is the video card properly seated? I'm assuming at this point that the questions that sam asked have been addressed.

You connected a red cable to the mobo, ribbon cable, and power cable. I'm not sure you should have 3 cables at this point from your HDD to other components. WHAT kind of HDD is it? SATA or PATA?? If SATA you should have a 'small thin' cable that goes from the HDD to the mobo and basically clips in. Your power connections will look similarly but about twice as wide. IF you have PATA HDD then you will have a 4-pin molex to power the HDD and the 40/80 pin ribbon/cable to interface with the mobo. hth.....

.....gm

 

I just took out and re-installed the hard drive. It has a red thin ribbon like cord that goes to the motherboard and a power cord from the psu. The monitor is plugged into the back of the motherboard. I reinstalled the graphics card as it had to come out to get the hard drive out. No jumpers on the hdd. It is a SATA. My motherboard docs said to use the F2 key. However, my keyboard will not plug into the keyboard slot on the motherboard. Keyboard is a USB port plug in.

 

First thing "belle" is don't get frustrated. You can use one of the USB ports on the back of your tower to plug in your KB.

On the SATA HDD just hook up the "small" cable (might be red) to the proper SATA "plugs" in the mobo and HDD. Connect the power 'cable' from the PSU to the HDD and you should have power.

Everything seems to be going fine just keep your chin up and you'll get thru this, I PROMISE.

....gm

 

A little frustrated. There is a green light actually on the motherboard and it is on. I plugged the kb into a USB port but the computer does not even recognize that I am depressing the F2 key. I am still getting the green/red/blue box on the monitor. All 3 fans are working. Gonna go to Seagate and see what they have to say. Last Seagate drive was a snap. This is the only drive for this new build. Lots of bays and can install more as needed, providing I get it up and running. LOL

 

Is is possible that one of my ribbons/cords is bad? I can replace both of the cords to the hard drive easy enough.

 

OK I've got some questions of my own and want some experienced advice on these components. This is for a friend of mine and he will do ZERO OC'ing as far as I know. I may do some playing around for him but nothing of great consequence. The most demanding thing he will do is play M$ Simulator X and some autocad stuff.

mobo choices:

GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35

GIGABYTE GA-P31-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P31

RAM choices:

Patriot Extreme Performance 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2

CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2

CPU choices:

Intel E6750

Intel E6550

GPU choices:

ASUS EN8600GTS/HTDP/256M GeForce 8600GTS 256MB 128-bit GDDR3

This was the best bang for the buck that I could find. If there are any others that would be as good for about the same price go ahead and make your suggestions. I want to keep it at a good enough level that will run his stuff with some good resolution. He has a 22" Viewsonic I think so it's not for a 30" monitor or anything.

Your help and expertise is greatly appreciated as usual.

....gm

 

If it's a new build, it could be a number of things, and I'm not looking at the hard drive as the main culprit.
You should have:
CPU heatsink attached securely, CPU fan connector plugged into motherboard.
RAM in correct RAM slots (try changing them perhaps)
Hard drive power cable attached to power supply
Hard drive data cable attached to motherboard (usually thin and red)
Power cable attached to CD Drive
Data cable from CD drive attached to motherboard (if it's the large IDE Ribbon cable, check it's the right way round)
20 or 24 pin power connector plugged into motherboard
4 pin CPU power connector plugged into motherboard
Blue VGA or White DVI monitor cable attached to graphics card or graphics chipset, and connected to monitor.

Is all this present and correct?



Greensman: You casually put down Flight SIm X, but that's more demanding than any of the games I play. Flight sim games require powerful hardware to run well. I'd suggest something beefier than an 8600GTS if he's going to want high resolutions. Will he be using Vista and DirectX10? If not you could go with something like an X1950XT. If he is, go with an 8800 series.

Go with the P35 motherboard, the E6750 and the Corsair memory.

 

Sorry I've been doing some research and chasing the 2 year around the house for a while.

GREEN light is good. Is there a "beep" code when you start the process up?? There should be a "legend" to let you know what these codes mean somewhere in the mobo documentation.

Trying different connectors and cables is a good idea. Do that if you can. Do you have an extra ps/2 type kb available?? YOU might try that if so. Which machine are you typing from and what does it use for your mouse and kb? ps/2 or USB? Try the new kb in the old machine if you can. That'll let you know if it's good or not. I would still try the ps/2 kb just because.

I hope this helping in some way.

...gm

 

I found an old KB down in the basement from a Win98 computer but it still hooked up with USB. Interesting that you asked, the build makes all kinds of beeping noises when I start it up. Tomorrow when I finish working I will try different cords/cables. I had purchased a 630 PSU with all the round cords for max airflow in the case. It came with tons of extra cords so I can replace all the cords. I went thru and check that I had connected all of the cords to the right places on the motherboard and that I had power supply and connections to everything. I believe that everything is as it should be. The MB did not come with alot of info other than a diagram and a sticky for the case. The heatsink was easy to install as the holes were in the right places. All the fans work; sorry if I am repeating myself. I bought an Intel MB because it would support the cpu that I bought. Had to have new Quad Core CPU. Silly girl, first build and spents lots of $ - but less than my Big Box computer, lots less. Learning but obviously have a long way to go. Thanx a million to all for the help.

 

Once you get it working it'll be a far better PC than one you could buy off the shelf too. Specifically what beeps did you get?
Also when you installed the motherboard, did you screw it onto risers, or directly into the case? If you screw your motherboard in too tight, or forget to use the risers, it won't work...

 

Sam, what do you mean by the "risers"?

 

http://www.pcstats.com/articleimages/200308/buildacomputer_2.JPG
The one on the left is what I usually use.

 

I just screwed mine directly into the case. The place where the motherboard goes already is risen up from the case.

 

From what I recall, thats sometimes the case but not always. Besides, they're often already in place.