need some PC building expertise/help

[fishology]

anyone have skills building a gaming PC. I have my new rig almost built but now its coming down to the scary part of adding the grafx card and operating system and firing it up. Any one feel like offering some help in exchange for $$ or tanks , etc. etc. fish ?? Let me know

 

[Travis]

Adding a grafx card shouldn't be that scary? You just press it down and put the case screw in? What OS are you putting on it?

 

[fishology]

windows7..I know the card is easy to put in.... I've just never booted up a newly built(by me) machine before...I'm getting a bit nervous now that it's getting close..

 

[Travis]

I've never installed windows7 so I wont try to offer any advice. I switched to OSX after WinXP.

 

[emartin]

Agreed on the video card not being the scary part. The only part you should worry about is installing the cpu properly with the appropriate amount of thermal paste, and making sure all the motherboard components are installed properly and everything is plugged into the right areas.

I actually overlooked that latter part last spring when I was upgrading my motherboad, cpu, video card, and powersupply on my computer. I fed the front panel USB/Audio cables to the wrong areas on the motherboard and heard a loud POP and a burning smell when I turned on the PC. I thought for sure I just fried the brand new motherboard and was freaking out, but it turns out I didn't break anything except maybe I damaged that section of the motherboard were the front audio/usb panel connects to. I never bothered reconnecting, the right way this time, those cables since I was just relieved I didn't just ruin a $100 motherboard and I didn't really need the front audio panel anyway...

windows7..I know the card is easy to put in.... I've just never booted up a newly built(by me) machine before...I'm getting a bit nervous now that it's getting close..

If you've invested a lot of money into it and are in doubt you put it together properly you could always bring your computer to a local PC shop (don't ever go to Best Buy, they WILL rip you off there) and ask them to look it over for you to make sure everything looks okay. Most of the time they'll do that for free since it's less than 5 minutes of their time and they'd want you to go back there in the future if you have problems with your computer.

Really though the two things to worry about are motherboard connections and the CPU installation.

 

[mdlnewman]

My RL job is computer hardware. So if you have concerns/questions pm me.

 

[minifoot77]

he lives right down the street from me mike...

 

[toddnbecka]

Installing windows 7 on my new system was simple enough, but expect a load of updates after you connect to the internet. I built a new system a couple months ago because I picked up a copy of Starcraft 2, then found out my 6 year old Dell wasn't ever going to be able to run it.
I got a 3 core AMD Athon II processor and a GE Force GTS 250 video card. New toy has 4 GB RAM plus another 512 MB on the video card, with open slots on the motherboard to hold up to 4 more GB. With what it has in it now it runs SC2 with all the settings maxed. I figure with some more memory added eventually it should be up to speed for a few more years anyway, then I'll upgrade the processor if necessary. I put in 2 612GB hard drives and 2 DVD/RW drives. Only hangup aside from a DOA processor that had to be returned was that my ASUS M4A785-M motherboard doesn't have a connector for a wired mouse, so I picked up a Logitech wireless optical mouse. Then a few weeks later I snagged a used microsoft wireless keyboard/mouse on e-bay dirt cheap so I don't have to swap the keyboard back-and-forth. Now I just need a new, bigger flatscreen moniitor...
I hope you bought a good power supply, a guy at the lfs last week was crying about a cheap one melting down his new system.

 

[mdlnewman]

Which version of Windows 7 did you install 32 or 64bit? If 32bit you will be wasting money buying more RAM. It can only access 4gb and use less. If using 64bit buy more ram as soon as you can afford it. It will definitely speed things up.

Actually your board has 6 places to put a mouse. Just, as you figured out, not the old style p/s2 mouse.

Installing windows 7 on my new system was simple enough, but expect a load of updates after you connect to the internet. I built a new system a couple months ago because I picked up a copy of Starcraft 2, then found out my 6 year old Dell wasn't ever going to be able to run it.
I got a 3 core AMD Athon II processor and a GE Force GTS 250 video card. New toy has 4 GB RAM plus another 512 MB on the video card, with open slots on the motherboard to hold up to 4 more GB. With what it has in it now it runs SC2 with all the settings maxed. I figure with some more memory added eventually it should be up to speed for a few more years anyway, then I'll upgrade the processor if necessary. I put in 2 612GB hard drives and 2 DVD/RW drives. Only hangup aside from a DOA processor that had to be returned was that my ASUS M4A785-M motherboard doesn't have a connector for a wired mouse, so I picked up a Logitech wireless optical mouse. Then a few weeks later I snagged a used microsoft wireless keyboard/mouse on e-bay dirt cheap so I don't have to swap the keyboard back-and-forth. Now I just need a new, bigger flatscreen moniitor...
I hope you bought a good power supply, a guy at the lfs last week was crying about a cheap one melting down his new system.

 

[fishology]

so far.... purchased and installed
-Antec 900II case
-Corsair 850 watt HX series P/S
-ASUS M4A79 XTD EVO mobo.
-AMD PhenomII x4 965 Black edition 125 watt proc.
-OCZ Black Edition AMD 8 gigs RAM
-OCZ XTC memory cooler
-WD Caviar Black (2) x 1 TB. HD's

then add in ... soon to be purchased
-Radeon HD5970 Grafx card (1 for now)
-Windows7 64bit O.S.

 

[mdlnewman]

Gonna have a really nice setup there.

so far.... purchased and installed
-Antec 900II case
-Corsair 850 watt HX series P/S
-ASUS M4A79 XTD EVO mobo.
-AMD PhenomII x4 965 Black edition 125 watt proc.
-OCZ Black Edition AMD 8 gigs RAM
-OCZ XTC memory cooler
-WD Caviar Black (2) x 1 TB. HD's

then add in ... soon to be purchased
-Radeon HD5970 Grafx card (1 for now)
-Windows7 64bit O.S.

 

[toddnbecka]

I installed the 64 bit version, and can afford more memory, just didn't figure I'd need it yet. The new system is much faster than the Dell was even when it was new, and I haven't put much on the hard drive/s yet. I was looking to get by w/out spending too much on the new one, so I went with the 3 core AMD since most current games are based on a 2 core setup. In a few years, when the new games are based on 4 cores, the price of those processers will be lower.
My Dell has been acting strange lately, and keeps displaying a message that there's not enough free memory. I'm thinking one or both sticks of RAM in the Dell are going down? Virus scans all come up negative...

 

[mdlnewman]

No, not saying you "need" more RAM but you will notice the difference. Not enough mem errors are usually related to hard disk space not actual ram.

I installed the 64 bit version, and can afford more memory, just didn't figure I'd need it yet. The new system is much faster than the Dell was even when it was new, and I haven't put much on the hard drive/s yet. I was looking to get by w/out spending too much on the new one, so I went with the 3 core AMD since most current games are based on a 2 core setup. In a few years, when the new games are based on 4 cores, the price of those processers will be lower.
My Dell has been acting strange lately, and keeps displaying a message that there's not enough free memory. I'm thinking one or both sticks of RAM in the Dell are going down? Virus scans all come up negative...