The (new) Official PC building thread!

After all the feedback I have to say that I guess I just never had any luck with ATi, although aside from the power plug thing, I never had any problems with the X800GTO! I'm one of those people that have bad luck with certain things. I can easily find a bad Chevy! All I have to do is buy one, yet I've never owned a bad Ford! LOL!! I know lots of people who are the same way with Fords! The weirdest one is Sony products. If I purchase one it won't last the warranty! If I get one as a gift or someone else purchases something Sony for me, I have no problems at all. If it's a part of something else like the Sony CD Burner that came with the Dell 3000 I bought about 3 years ago, no problem. I still have the drive and it works fine. Oh well, back to computers.

The "Retro" build has been a trip! This thing talks to you! LOL!! If the CPU fan fails, it tells you "CPU fan failed"! If the CPU gets too hot it tells you "CPU temperature too high"! All in a woman's voice! LOL!! It will also post a log to the hard drive, with the particulars that show what failed and why! Neat! Overall, a very nice machine.

If anyone out there has an Athlon 3200+ Socket A (462) lying around doing nothing, send me a PM, please!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

my personal ATM companies for different products:

AMD mobos: DFI
Intel Mobos: Asus / DFI
Nvidia gfx: BFG / EVGA / MSI
Ati gfx: HIS / Saphire
Hdd: Samsung (for quietness) Seagate(for speed)
PSU: Corsair / PC Power & Cooling
Case: <£50 Akasa Zen / Coolermaster Elite 330
>£50 Cooler Master Domintor CM-690 / Antec 900 / Antec p182 / Cooler Master Stacker 831 / Akasa Eclispe 62
>£100 Cooler Master Cosmos / Thermaltake Armor+ / Lian-Li PC-A71A
>£150 Cooler Master Stacker 832 / Cooler Master Cosoms S / Lian Li PC-A10B / Silverston TemJin-09 /Lian-Li PC V2000 /
>£200 Lian Li PC-343B / Lian Li Armorsuit PC-P80 / Lian-Li PC V2100 / Zalman GT1000 / Silverstone Temjin TJ07 / Silverstone Temjin TJ10

 

I'll be honest with you, I think Sony is one of those companies that used to make good products and charged an appropriately high price for them. Now, the quality of the products has shifted to "moderate" in many areas and the price hasn't changed.
As far as Fords go, there is no Chevrolet in this country in the traditional sence, they're just rebadged Daewoos, so Korean... lol. As far as Fords go though, up until very recently they were simple to maintain, but poorly manufactured, the mainstay of my dad's business since he has to repair them for a living! They're starting to clean up their act though... If only the French would follow suit!
As for the talking motherboard, I'm sure the SKT939 Asus boards did that too, but I never had a PC speaker so I couldn't hear them!

 

Hmm.. not a gamer so dont ah,ah,ah, BUT Im still playing farcry LOL and doom- ,my Q is will they pley better on my raptor or 320 WD 10k vs 72? I realize one spins faster then the other BUT from what I have heard from gamers...its really depending on the games nowa days]

 

Well, the acces time of the raptor means much faster game loading times for games that have complex file structures (lots of folders and files) but because the transfer speed isn't much faster than a normal drive these days, the loading time for games that have a few large files won't be much different.

 

well then Ill just keep the rapter for OS...here is something simple that I have not over come...my screens look ok whne in use...but when they are off I see stricks...now matter how I cleaan them, how do you brothers keep your screen clean?....come on give it up LOL

 

These...
http://www.electromarket.co.uk/products.asp?partno=126.364

 

bro..im in the us..have to copy and past in goole I see

 

alright ppl I need your help,

alright heres the deal, im putting a CPU fan on an older computer, the computers motherboard does not a 3 pin power connection available, but it does have 2 big 4pin power connections(molex) free, so what kind of connector do i need to go from 1 4pin to the 3pin mini?

excuse my vocab the 3pin mini is (referred to as 3pin ATX) the same type of power connector used on any cpu fan, and of course it's a male pin, the 4pin MOLEX ALSO NEEDS TO BE MALE~its the wide kind

i see this one here
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...184-27078&SRCCODE=SHOPPINGDF&CMP=OTC-SHOPPING
but the male 3pin has only two pins in the picture?


-tripplite

 

sammorris,

It comes through the sound system, even before the sound drivers are loaded, not the PC unless you un-plug the sound system from the computer then the pC speaker kicks in. I almost jumped out of my shoes when I accidentally snagged the Fan plug and pulled it out while i was trying to tie up the excess cables from the PS. Extremely tinny though! LOL!! With the stock AMD cooler (it's all I have at the moment) the temps are 33C for the MB and 42C for the CPU. It's the one with the big Copper slug in the middle of an aluminum block. Not too bad though! It even came with a IDE to Sata adapter packed in the box. The MB has 2 Sata 1.5 ports as well. I would guess it was a higher end MB in it's day as it also has 2 Gigabit Lans and 6 channel sound. Works well though!

I'm going to try and find a faster CPU if I can. Socket A went up to an Athlon 3200+, so I would love to find one. Very quick machine for what it is. Faster than the Dell 300 3.0 Prescot was! ROFLMAO!!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Tripplite - I have 3 of them myself that Im not using (came with fans) - and all of them have just 2 pins - I think its because standard molex fan connectors only require 2 cables - red and black, Im assuming because you cant speed control fans on the PSU and the yellow is the 5V???

Same is true in reverse:- http://www.amazon.com/Fan-Molex-Pin-MB/dp/B000BSJGL0

Edit - either of your links will be fine.
Edit 2 - Looks like the third cable may just report the RPMs of the fan back to the motherboard - which would also explain why its not needed.

 

OMFG ya wanna off load some of them to me?~i got paypal!
(the cables need to male 3pin and male 4pin)

it seems that because the 3pin ATX obviously doesn't require as much as the 4pin MOLEX in order to limit the power it balances its self out by cutting the receiving end to 2 pins(just a guess), i was just a bit concerned because i saw some with all 3pins and 4 wires, and others with 2pins and 2wires...

because its not even registered with the computer (not connected through MB) that sounds right...oh well!

-tripplite

 

heres a pic of one of mine:-

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c62/pja77uk/DSCF1100.jpg

Where are you located as ebay will probably be cheapest:-

£1.99 delivered

And youve linked USA already.

And heres one for the reverse to connect a 4 pin fan to the motherboard 3 pin header (note still only two wires) :-

 

i just got it all figured out!! he he ALRIGHT!

thanks all!

oh hell ya i dont think there is another thread with such high quality rapid response on the net!

-tripplite

 

never fails. newegg now has the memory I ordered from buy.com earlier this week back in stock and I could have saved another $12. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145043 I paid $66 after the $40 MIR.

 

Pepp77,
Someone should get the "Bonehead of the year" award for that design! I can just see some newbie plugging the male end into a hard drive or a DVD drive! Can you say Sparks? LOL!! Don't think it would do the drive much good either



I could see it if it was on a fan as a pass through, but what else would you do with a male molex plug? Especially one that gets it's power from the fan header! Are they wanting you to use more than one fan, as some fans have both plugs, but that would still leave that male plug on the fan free for someone to plug in somewhere it shouldn't be plugged in!

LMAO,
Russ

 

Pepp: In a molex connector, Red is 5V, Yellow is 12V, Black is 0V. In a 3-pin fan connector, Red is 12V, Black is 0V and Yellow is Speed Monitoring.
What a lot of connectors do is use the molex connector to provide the power to the fan and then have a separate connector running off to the motherboard if you want to still monitor its speed, but not attach it to the board for power (although why you'd do this I'm not sure)
Mort: Unlucky, but I suppose you pay for convenience, they had it, newegg didn't!
Theone: I've used connectors like that to daisy-chain into hard drives. What's wrong with that? It's much the same as using a Molex splitter...

 

Know what sucks? USPS came with my Q6600 yesterday. No one was home so I have to go pick it up on Monday!

Being patient sucks

 

sammorris,

Take a closer look at the Asaka adapter, then take a look at a standard pass through fan connector!



Pay close attention the the 3 prong plugs on both! The one above is used to power a fan from the power supply and be a pass thru connection so you don't lose a molex plug. Now take a careful look at the pic of the Asaka's 3 prong plug! It's the opposite! It gets it's power from the fan header on the motherboard, not the power supply! It's not a pass thru connection, which would leave the other end which is a male molex plug, that's exactly like what comes out of a power supply! It would be very easy to make a mistake and plug it into a video card or drive. See what I mean? The male plug is useless, as anything you plugged it into it would be powered by the fan header on the MB! Not a very good idea! ROFLMAO!!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

So it is! Hah, my bad, the connector I used could work either way round because it included both of the 3-pin connectors, male and female!