The PC Building Thread

I didn't use any standoffs either. I just screwed the mobo to the R4 case as it detailed in the video.

Like I say it's fine now and I'm installing windows.

Got an error initially saying CPU fan error coz it was running too slow (390rpm) but I reduced the limit to 300 as it stated on a few sites. Tbh the fan was building up speed incrementally anyway and was over 450 by the time I'd finished messing about with the bios (also changing my DRAM profile to cater for 1600Mhz and not the 1333 it states as standard).

Only thing I'm noticing now is that although everything is running ok, the motherboard power light is still red. I'd have thought it should be green.
 
Scutch said:
I didn't use any standoffs either. I just screwed the mobo to the R4 case as it detailed in the video.

Like I say it's fine now and I'm installing windows.

Got an error initially saying CPU fan error coz it was running too slow (390rpm) but I reduced the limit to 300 as it stated on a few sites. Tbh the fan was building up speed incrementally anyway and was over 450 by the time I'd finished messing about with the bios (also changing my DRAM profile to cater for 1600Mhz and not the 1333 it states as standard).

Only thing I'm noticing now is that although everything is running ok, the motherboard power light is still red. I'd have thought it should be green.
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You have the exact same board as me, I get the exact same error. Just disable the CPU fan check. I change the Fan profiles so that the fan doesn't really spin up till the CPU reaches 60c.
 
Hi, i was just after a bit of advice. I am thinking of upgrading my laptop but just wanted some advice on what upgrades i should make.

Here are the specs...

Toshiba Qosmio Laptop

Intel (R) Core (TM)2 Duo CPU T9550 @2.66 GHz 2.67 GHz
8.00 GB

Nvidia GeForce 9800M GTS

I am not new to laptop gaming but i am new to upgrading.

The only games i would normally play are PES and FIFA.

Thanks :))
 
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bsmaff said:
You have the exact same board as me, I get the exact same error. Just disable the CPU fan check. I change the Fan profiles so that the fan doesn't really spin up till the CPU reaches 60c.
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Is your motherboard power light red at all times like mine? Also did you install the stand offs to mount the motherboard?

Also, got another issue now. I can't seem to get any sound from the machine at all unless I plug in an external speaker. It clearly has onboard sound (the motherboard pretty much caters for everything) but I just don't know how to get it to play using the internal speakers, if it even has any?! Like I say, external plugged in speakers work fine.

I don't want to have to buy a sound card.
 
I'm posting this from my new PC :D.

The CPU cooler hasn't arrived yet, but I'm using the Intel stock one for now. Just sorting out drivers and stuff which is a ballache but gotta be done - just wanna start destroying games on ultra :P.

Performance seems great so far so I think I built it correctly - my PSU/case combo meant that I had to obstruct the front panel USB 3.0 power port with the CPU power connector unfortunately - still got USB 3.0 at the back though so no biggie.
 
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Scutch said:
Have you changed your DRAM frequency in the bios to 1600mhz? It will be running 1333mhz if not.

Also did you install the standoffs for the motherboard?
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There should be an XMP profile that you can enable. This will automatically set the speed to 1600MHz and sort out all the correct timings and settings. It's as easy as going into the BIOS memory settings and turning on XMP.
 
My PC boots too fast to be able to access the BIOS. :SHOCK:

Just played some TrackMania2 Stadium there... Oh lawd, so good.

Downloading some Steam games now - quick question, can you get game saves that go into "My Documents" to save onto another drive? I'd rather use my SSD space for other stuff.

Edit - Think I got it done now.
 
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Thanks for help all. I took two sticks of ram out with 2 left in and still same error. Also reset my bios and no joy.
 
Just benchmarked my GTX780 using the Valley Benchmark program on the disc that comes with the card. As an aside, what a lovely benchmark that is, some beautiful scenery and lighting effects to test the capability of the card.

This is the results on Ultra setting:

photo_zps5748fa92.jpg


Impressive. Will test on Basic settings now.
 
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On AVForums we run the test using the ExtremeHD preset. My 780 gets about 2750 stock and around 3000 with the overclock I'm running at the moment.

Valley is beautiful to watch. You can free roam the environment as well.
 
Jamezinho said:
On AVForums we run the test using the ExtremeHD preset. My 780 gets about 2750 stock and around 3000 with the overclock I'm running at the moment.

Valley is beautiful to watch. You can free roam the environment as well.
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Mine got 2729 stock.
 
Scutch said:
IF you ever go to OC yours let me know how you get on and how you actually do it!
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Overclocking is easy but best to do it with an old HD as you will blue screen quite a lot during stability testing.

I have my i7 4770k overclocked to 4.5Ghz, you should be able to take yours to around 4.2-4.3 safely but it depends on how good your processor is, as every processor is different.

But in regards to overclocking it is pretty much a case of setting what speed you want then testing it at 1.2Vcore voltage and waiting for it to blue screen, then just keep upping the voltage until the system becomes stable in Prime95 for an hour or so. Normally if your system is unstable it will not even boot into Windows or crash within 5 minutes of running Prime.
You also need to download RealTemp to check CPU temperatures during the overclock, Intel state that the Thermal threshold of a Haswell is 70c so I would recommend never letting your CPU go above this when under full load.
 
bsmaff said:
Overclocking is easy but best to do it with an old HD as you will blue screen quite a lot during stability testing.

I have my i7 4770k overclocked to 4.5Ghz, you should be able to take yours to around 4.2-4.3 safely but it depends on how good your processor is, as every processor is different.

But in regards to overclocking it is pretty much a case of setting what speed you want then testing it at 1.2Vcore voltage and waiting for it to blue screen, then just keep upping the voltage until the system becomes stable in Prime95 for an hour or so. Normally if your system is unstable it will not even boot into Windows or crash within 5 minutes of running Prime.
You also need to download RealTemp to check CPU temperatures during the overclock, Intel state that the Thermal threshold of a Haswell is 70c so I would recommend never letting your CPU go above this when under full load.
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Correct my process if it's way out, but I tried going into BIOS and manually setting my Core CPU Voltage to 1.25V. I then went to change the multiplier "Per Individual Core" (could have the wording wrong) and set each one to 48. I believe there were 6 cores. I did a save and reset and the system didn't even get back to the BIOS so I had to do a hard reboot. Once I got past the BIOS I got a warning screen saying Overclock failed, so I must have set the multiplier too high?

I tried then setting it to 43 and it got past the BIOS but every time it got to the windows logo the system would reboot (did it about 4 or 5 times) so I assumed it failed that too. In the end I just gave up with it and set back to defaults and switched my profile back to XMP (1600MHz RAM).

Was just a little confusing for me really as it was my first attempt.

Also, last night for the first time I was getting a few random freezes which resulted in either BSOD or the requirement to hard reset the system (power button down for 3 seconds). Usually occurs on the desktop, but first happened when trying to play Borderlands 2 (system just hung during the intro). I'm sure it's a video driver error as a LOT of people are having similar issues from doing searches. Very annoying when you're browsing on the internet and the mouse cursor just stops responding which ultimately leads to the keyboard failing and the system crashing/freezing.

I did get an Nvidia driver update dialogue box last night with the latest drivers including the GTX 780 (240MB) so downloaded that, but honestly can't remember if I got any crashes after that was installed. Must have froze about 5 times in total yesterday evening though.

Shouldn't have to roll back to a previous driver or beta but I may have to for stability.
 
Scutch said:
Just ordered the Razer Blackwidow Mechanical keyboard from Amazon.

That's me DONE.
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Haha, yeah you're not done.

:( PC Gaming is wonderful, yet theres always something new coming out that will give you that extra performance... IT'S A NEVER ENDING CYCLE :CONFUSE:
 
Radiation said:
How much would a decent pc cost then?
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Depends on the Spec you want, but between £500-£800.

But pretty much any PC you buy with a decent GFX card will look better than the next gen consoles, and you will be able to play all games at 60FPS in 1080p.

Also the other advantage is by the end of the year most PC games will be 4k.
 
I have a problem with my PC.I changed my old psu 600w "not popular product" with Corsair CX600M 600w bronze.Since I installed it 3 days ago, it tries start then stops then restarts again.
Apart from that problem, everything is good.I can play on it for hours without any shutdown or restart.

I tried to reset bios and removed overclock but still does boot up from 1st time.

Any help is appreciated.
 
So it boot loops a couple of times then starts (and works) fine?

Do you have XMP memory and the XMP profile enabled? Could be a memory setting it doesn't like.
 
It boot loops only one time before starting.
I don't have XMP profile enabled or any thing.
Strangely today it worked from the 1st time,I unplugged the power cable before sleeping lastnight.Does that has any effect ?
 
If your memory has a XMP profile then probably worth enabling it.

I guess leaving the thing unplugged could have cleared the CMOS. Just keep an eye on it. Bsmaff is more clued-up on these things than me so perhaps he will be along to offer advice.
 
bsmaff said:
Depends on the Spec you want, but between £500-£800.

But pretty much any PC you buy with a decent GFX card will look better than the next gen consoles, and you will be able to play all games at 60FPS in 1080p.

Also the other advantage is by the end of the year most PC games will be 4k.
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Hmmm that's more than I'd want to spend just now.

Any suggestions on a good graphics card for say anything up to £150/170... ish? maybe atad more. But I wouldn't want to spend more than £200.

My pc's main faults at the moment are the graphics card and ram. But the ram is an easy fix... the graphics card is where I'm totally lost. so many options.
 
GFX cards are a massive problem as there are way too many stupid numbers out there, then TI and X model versions.

Also it depends on whether you want new or happy with 2nd hand.

The GTX 680 is an extremely powerful GPU, and can be picked up for around £150-£160 on eBay at present. This gives you probably the best bang per buck at present.
Or new the most recommended I would give is the AMD R9 280X will cost around the £200 mark and is again probably the BPB.

Either way both are around 80% more powerful than what is available in the next gen consoles.

Now also isn't a bad time to upgrade a PC as the new Nvidia GPU's keep getting pushed back and the new Maxwell chips are now not due till next year.

Or get saving as 2016 will see a massive performance increase in PC's.
Intel's new Skylake chipsets, DDR4, PCIE 4.0. Also the Nvidia Pascal chipset which will add a massive performance increase and will probably be the first chipset to be able to run 4K games without having to run SLI.
 
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