The Official PC building thread!

Also try www.shopgenie.co.uk - it's a kind of metasearch shopping feature like kelkoo for computer stuff.

 

Woops. Can some one help me.

I got my power supply in, and my mother board.

My motherboard doesnt seem to have 24 pin connector? or is it just me?

My power supply has a 24 pin connector.

What do i need to do, this is my motherboards power supply section...



[bold]***EDIT***[/bold]
I found out how to connect it now.
I just slightly prised the last 4 pins over, not even 1mm and its snug fit. Perfect!

 

you can buy an adapter for about £4 i had to for mine

 

My Next Build:

AMD Opteron 175 Dual Core @2.2Ghz
Azus A8N SLI Premium
OCZ 2GB DDR 400 Dual Channel Platinum kit
2x XFX 7800GT 256mb DDR3 (factory OC)
2x WD Raptor 74gb 10,000rpm SATA
Enermax Noisemaker 600w PS
Thermaltake Armor VA8000 case black w/clear side panel
19" Viewsonic LCD
$400 custom liquid cooling system: High performance Swiftech pump w/ Swiftech "Storm" CPU waterblock, 2x Swiftech GPU waterblocks, Black Ice Xtreme III 3x120mm Radiator
Im going to use the Logitech MX 5000 keyboard and MX 1000 lazer mouse I already own, plus the logitech 5.1ch 280w surround sound i have. Case will have all blue led fans, all cables will either be UV blue reactive, or i will over them with UV cable sleeving, Liquid cooling system will have UV blue reactive dye added to the coolant. Opteron will OC to equivilant of an Athlon 4800 X2 but will cost about $200 less! I also plan to OC the Sh!t out of those 7800s since they will be water cooled. Tell me what you think.

 

I'm drooling everywhere! Enough enough! I can't take any more!

That is some serious proverbial there adam. Good CPU, good RAM, good GPU setup, good motherboard, good monitor, good power supply, good hard disks, good everything! If I had more money than I do now (a lot more I hasten to add) That is pretty much what I'd get to the tee.

 

All i did was press the last 4 pins over with my thumb, not enough to break or actually permanently bend anything, but enough to clip the power supply in and have the remaining 4 overhang. I have read that some motherboards can do this, but some will actually need to have the last 4 pins removed from the main part (not actually taking it off, but breaking the plastic).





For the eagle eyed among you, YES there is NO RAM!
I'm still waiting for that, and YES i havent got my X700 Pro in there either! I was going to wait untill its all booted and running before installing that!

Sorry about quality of the photo's - dont have a good still image camera, was taken with a mini-dv cam-corder.

What do you think of the cables? Make it more neat?

 

I used to do my own upgrades all the time, but it seems that its harder now to save much money over pre-built systems. Especially for general usage. Is it just me?

A Gateway with AMD 3500+, 1 gb system ram, DVD burner, GEForce 6100, 200GB hard drive, Windows Media Center is under $600 now at CompUSA.

To build a better system on my own would cost more.

Now I know this isn't a supercharged system...but fine for the average home user.

 

I know, I'm looking at a maximum of £150 saving on a computer that costs over £1000. It will be miles cheaper than places like Dell or Alienware, but when compared to places like pcspecialist I do wonder whether it's worth it.

 

I really doubt they are in the wrong place, there keyed so they can only fit in one way.

 

As is everything these days. Modern connectors are all designed to be foolproof. The only connector I can think of that you can put in the wrong way round is a floppy disk cable, and they're ANCIENT!

 

HELP!

I tried to boot my PC for the first time, and all i got was SMOKE!

Everything plugged in, power connected properly.

I turned the power supply on, my mouse lit up, and then slowley faded, then i smelt smoke!

What do i do now?

 

Right, generally with smoke it isn't a case of dumb connecting, it's usually faulty components. Firstly, what make is your power supply? Second, where did the smoke come from? Third, what noises did you hear? Generally, in this instance, unless you know a damn lot about whats in that hardware and have your own test gear, I'd get a repair job. Ironic for a new PC, but I'm afraid it's necessary. Whatever's diagnosed to be faulty you can send back, and if one component has fried another, you should be able to claim something back of them too.

 

There was no sounds. The power supply fan didnt even move when turned on!?

I didnt see where the smoke came from, but i did have a smell around (not really good for you really is it) and still couldnt locate where it was coming from.

I'm using the Hiper Type R 480W.
Connections to:
HDD: Maxtor Diamond 160GB SATA
3 Case fans: Molex 4 pin.
Using Onboard ATI Radoen Xpress
A DVD -/+ RW Dual Layer.


I have most of my components out, and have not smelt metling / burning on them.

I had the CPU out and the Heatsink! - I'm glad that has no hint of smoke or smelling of anything!

There was no noise when i turned on the PSU.
I did recieve the PSU with NO power lead, so i used a power lead from my other PC, a 5 amp one.

Where do you suggest i take my PC then?

 

last time when that happens to me my mobo and cpu and rams were toasted.

since u said your cpu and heatsink are out maybe it's your mobo.

take it to a local computer shop to do a dianogstic test

it's around 30-50 dollar.

 

I said i took my components out after the smoke, so it still could be my CPU Ram and mobo. I really hope it isnt.

I will take it to the local PC shop tomorro, see what they say.

 

Any local computer repair shop will do. You won't distinguish where the smell is coming from with all the stuff in situ. If you can get a clean flat surface to put them on then remove each component in turn and give it a good old sniff. If something made smoke, it will smell, significantly. The likely areas are the motherboard and the disk drives (hard and floppy but not usually optical). A surefire way of telling if the motherboard is a problem is if any capacitors have domed (the shiny metal bit on the top bulging out rather than sitting flat) They may be OK, but if they arent then thats quite possibly the problem.

 

Ok, i have had everything out of my PC. Put them all out onto a table, and checked each part.

I couldnt smell smoke / burning of most parts, but did on the motherboard!

Here is where:


And here:



Thats where the sockets are for the case's Power LED, Switches and reset buttons. The cables for them smell like matches...

The things on the motherboard was not domed, but they did smell like smoke, although the PSU is close to these.

The PSU did smell slightly of melted plastic. Only Slightly.

I will still have to have the PC checked out, because im not sure if anything still works.

 

If the PSU is new, it will smell slightly, a kind of plastic-y rubbery smell, that's fine. However, burning smell from the motherboard suggests problems. The components youve circled are, funnily enough all capacitors. The plug you showed me is a header, so there are no components inside it. However, if it smells then it suggests an overcurrent has passed through it, causing it to heat up and melt, hence the smell. This means that the circuit that runs your front panel is shorting, and all this points to a faulty motherboard. I suspect this will be the outcome, but get them to thoroughly check each component, in case that has damaged anything else. Something can still be broken and not smell. My 200GB hard disk that was destroyed by a Qtec PSU didn't smell much, but it is indeed very broken.