Built My First Computer Today...

[Skillian]

OK, I've just finished building my first computer today. Here's what's in it:

Black Enermax CS-3051 Case (http://www.enermax.com.tw/cs-3051.htm)

MSI K7N2 Delta-L SKT A 8xAGP DDR400 Nforce2 6ch Sound LAN USB 2.0 Motherboard (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=48751)

AMD Athlon XP2500 333FSB 512 L2 Cache Barton Retail Boxed Inc Heatsink & Fan with 3year Warranty (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=46513)
Using stock heatsink and fan.

Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 9 200Gb 7200rpm 8mb Cache ATA133 Hard Drive (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=43707)

Abit Siluro Ti4200 AGP 8X 128 MB (http://www.abit-usa.com/products/graphics/products.php?categories=2&model=49)

Sony 4x DVD DUAL R/RW IDE BLACK BURNER (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=52096)
Flashed to make it a DRU-510A.

Also bought some round cables and a couple of LED fans, and I'm running XP Pro Corp.


Well, I'm happy first off. It all went together with less problems than I had imagined - I'd had some help with my choices from people in here, particularly John Lennon and Livy, and I think I made the right ones. As you can see by the fact I'm posting here, I'm up and running - I am very proud of myself :01:

First problem though - I'm not seeing my graphics card in Device Manager. It shows up on boot and the monitor's plugged into it so it's obviously plugged in OK. Any ideas?

[adamp2p]

Pics?

[Skillian]

Good picture host?

As you can see by my avatar my old one went down.

[kaiweiler]

Sounds like a nice comp!
you can try here (http://www.chinkii.com/uploads) for uploadin your pics too

[RGX]

Good spec, nice machine :)

[tesco]

your video card might not be showing becuase the driver isnt installed. Its probably listed under other devices or unknown devices, try installing teh latest driver (found here (http://www.nvidia.com)) and then see if it is listed.

[Skillian]

Before:

http://www.chinkii.com/uploads/album/misc/DSCF0022%20(Small).JPG

During:

http://www.chinkii.com/uploads/album/misc/DSCF0028%20(Small).JPG

After:

http://www.chinkii.com/uploads/album/misc/DSCF0036%20(Small).JPG

@kaweiler - cheers for the image host. Similar machine to yours I guess, apart from the vid card and the overclocked 2500+ (I might try that later ;) ).

@ROSSCO_2004 - I've not installed the drivers yet as I didn't know if I should if the device isn't showing. I've formatted before (my old comp but same card) and the card always showed up straight away.

edit: Also got two sticks of Crucial 256MB DDR400 PC3200 184-pinn Dimm Unbuffered Non ECC Memory Module (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=52436)

[james_bond_rulez]

wow congrat on ur new computer but no optic drives?

btw u just throw away that 3 year warrenty on the cpu :lol:

i hope it lasts....

[tesco]

Originally posted by Skillian@27 January 2004 - 18:27
@ROSSCO_2004 - I've not installed the drivers yet as I didn't know if I should if the device isn't showing. I've formatted before (my old comp but same card) and the card always showed up straight away.
newer cards dont have native drivers in windows xp (once u install sp1 it will though) so usually after ive reinstalled, my video card (which isnt at all new) shows up as an unknown device until ive installed sp1, then i install the latest driver. So either install sp1 or the driver and tell us if it shows up.

[Virtualbody1234]

Nice job on your first build.




btw u just throw away that 3 year warrenty on the cpu
Why do you say that, james_bond_rulez?

[Skillian]

OK I installed latest NVidia drivers and problem solved. Thanks :)

@james_bond_rulez - Did you not see the Sony DVD writer? And why is the warranty useless?

At the moment I also have no audio but gonna look through the drivers and utilities CD that came with the mobo and see if I can fix that...

[james_bond_rulez]

he oc'ed it didn't he?

EDIT: if u wanna oc ur cpu do it in increments, 1Mhz at a time. I am sure there are safety locks to prevent the board from melting if u oc too much by freezing the machine. also make sure u get some good hs and fan on that cpu of urs

doh my bad it's all black didn't see it there :D

[Skillian]

Not overclocked it yet, but I might try at some point - apparently this chip overclocks very well. Screw the warranty :lol:

The board does have heat sensors so if the chip gets too hot the comp will just shut down. Hopefully I can't do too much damage, as long as I do my research first.

Fixed the audio now and I'm all up and running - I seriously thought I'd have so many problems and questions in this forum but the whole thing went pretty damn smooth B)

Not trying to sound too smarmy here but I'd never have done it without you guys and this forum. If it weren't for you I'd have been buying a crappy pre-built from PC World at twice the price. I did an Advanced GNVQ in IT a couple of years back and learned hardly anything compared to what I've learned on this board in the year I've been here.

So even if I never talked to you directly, I probably read some of your posts and they taught me something so thanks and cheers to all :beerchug:

sorry, like I said I'm in a good mood today

[Virtualbody1234]

Originally posted by james_bond_rulez@27 January 2004 - 17:44
he oc'ed it didn't he?
He said:

(I might try that later ;) ).

So, no I don't think it's overclocked.

[bigdawgfoxx]

Originally posted by james_bond_rulez@27 January 2004 - 17:44
EDIT: if u wanna oc ur cpu do it in increments, 1Mhz at a time. I am sure there are safety locks to prevent the board from melting if u oc too much by freezing the machine. also make sure u get some good hs and fan on that cpu of urs


1Mhz at a time is a bit too safe...go like 5 for a while then maybe 3...or like me..go 15...then like 50 at one time haha...and your stock HS/F should work GREAT!

[abu_has_the_power]

nice comp. u should oc that cpu for sure. at least to 3000

[tesco]

Originally posted by bigdawgfoxx+27 January 2004 - 19:15--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (bigdawgfoxx @ 27 January 2004 - 19:15)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-james_bond_rulez@27 January 2004 - 17:44
EDIT: if u wanna oc ur cpu do it in increments, 1Mhz at a time. I am sure there are safety locks to prevent the board from melting if u oc too much by freezing the machine. also make sure u get some good hs and fan on that cpu of urs


1Mhz at a time is a bit too safe...go like 5 for a while then maybe 3...or like me..go 15...then like 50 at one time haha...and your stock HS/F should work GREAT&#33; [/b][/quote]
lol reminds me of my friend last week, he tells me to come over to show him how to overclock but his multiplier was locked so all he could do was his fsb. He had good temps at the time so decided to just put that up, so he goes from 133 to 200 in one go to see what would happen and went to windows and all was okay and he thought he was so cool with such a fast cpu then checked his temps and they were at like 60 and he screams and shuts the thing off for a while then i reset his cmos and started it back up and he was ahppy when it was back at 39 lol.

[SciManAl]

I have to say what seems best is this guys attitude... i predict great things from this boy... great things... :helpsmile: hehehe :P

And the finsihed looked clean too... very nice Bravo Chap Cheers&#33;&#33;&#33; you deserve a beer after that&#33;&#33; :beerchug:

[Skillian]

Okay thought I&#39;d bump this thread cos it already has my specs etc. in it.

My machine has been running fine for about a week, it&#39;s on 24/7 and with only a few reboots in that time. Today it froze for about 30 secs and then the screen went to 640*480 resolution and 16 colours or less and told me of a device failure and that i should reboot.

In Event Viewer the problem was:


I&#39;ve obviously experienced crashes before on my old comp but seeing as this is mine I&#39;m more interested to actually know what the problem was. I suppose that device is my video card, right?

Is it anything to be concerned about?

I should add that I have also overclocked the processer now, a Barton 2500 now running at an FSB of 190 and multiplier of 11, although I haven&#39;t overclocked my video card (Abit Siluro Ti4200 AGP 8X 128MB).

[tesco]

it froze from a driver problem. what driver are you using? do you have the latest one? if not get it, if you do then just wait and see if you get the problem again and if you do try older versions of the driver.



oh and btw, which cpu heatsync is better, the one that skillien has on his cpu (its a stock one) or the other stock one with the green fan and really thin fins on it that feel like they could break right off if you bent them. (youll see his heatsync by going up and looking at one of his posts with a pic of the inside of his computer (all that is there is the motherboard and cpu and psu))

[Skillian]

Yeah I&#39;m using the latest drivers and have been for a while but that&#39;s the first time it&#39;s happened. If it&#39;s a rare occurence and not a hardware problem I guess I can live with it.

Cheers for replying.

[Livy]

Originally posted by ROSSCO_2004@3 February 2004 - 23:34
oh and btw, which cpu heatsync is better, the one that skillien has on his cpu (its a stock one) or the other stock one with the green fan and really thin fins on it that feel like they could break right off if you bent them. (youll see his heatsync by going up and looking at one of his posts with a pic of the inside of his computer (all that is there is the motherboard and cpu and psu))
the one your are refferign to is the amd microfin design., it looks as though it will work better, although the stock oen itself is pretty good.

and they aitn much way of deciding what fan you get.

[tesco]

Originally posted by Livy+4 February 2004 - 11:18--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Livy @ 4 February 2004 - 11:18)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-ROSSCO_2004@3 February 2004 - 23:34
oh and btw, which cpu heatsync is better, the one that skillien has on his cpu (its a stock one) or the other stock one with the green fan and really thin fins on it that feel like they could break right off if you bent them. (youll see his heatsync by going up and looking at one of his posts with a pic of the inside of his computer (all that is there is the motherboard and cpu and psu))
the one your are refferign to is the amd microfin design., it looks as though it will work better, although the stock oen itself is pretty good.

and they aitn much way of deciding what fan you get. [/b][/quote]
both are stock fans...

are you saying that the one i said was the really thin fins that could break is the microfin design?

if so which is better the original or the microfin???

[Livy]

i&#39;m not sure, im not sure if there is ny direct comparision, i remember clocker bringing it up, but in thepry anyway, the microfin stock fan should be better