New rig - Requesting Tech Support

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Zork Nemesis
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New rig - Requesting Tech Support

Post by Zork Nemesis » Wed Mar 20, 2013 2:55 pm

Just about everything showed up at my door today; bought the components for a new PC, and it's gonna be great once I put it together, should be up and running by Tuesday; one part isn't here yet and I've got to get the video card from someone else who isn't available until Monday. Here's a quick rundown:

OS: Windows 7 64-Bit
Power Supply: Corsair CX600 - 600W
Motherboard: MSI ZH77A-G43, This one specifically
Processor: Intel Core i7 3770 3.4GHz
Memory: 8GB RAM
Video Card: Nvidia GTX 460
Hard Drive: A 256GB Solid State for the OS, and a 2TB HDD for everything else; with my current 1TB external providing additional storage as (more like if) needed.
Monitor: Samsung 24" adjustable widescreen LED monitor with 1920 x 1200 resolution

For comparison, this is going from my laptop, which while it is no slouch either, my ASUS laptop tends to slow down and get super hot when the action picks up. Hard to play Chivalry even with the graphics low when everyone piles up since it chugs everything down to a crawl.

OS: Windows 7 64-Bit
Power Supply: I don't know what the power output of this laptop is, but I do know the battery is completely hosed.
Motherboard: Again, not sure
Processor: Intel i7 720QM 1.6GHz
Memory: 8GB, the machine came with 4GB, but oddly enough had two unused memory ports.
Video Card: Nvidia Geforce GTS 360M - Among the best two years ago when I bought the laptop.
Hard Drive: 500GB HDD partitioned to a 120GB and 320GB, along with an extra 20GB partition for factory restore. The same 1TB external is currently in use here.
Monitor: The LED screen built into this laptop supports a 1920 x 1080 default resolution

This laptop's had a hell of a run; it's still functional aside from needing a new battery, but I've come to realize that i'm not on the move anymore. The reason I've been on a laptop for the past four or five years is because I was in the Military and a desktop computer would have been really impractical. I've been out for a while now, and I'm in a good position to upgrade to a stronger machine. Looking forward to seeing what this new machine will be capable of.
Last edited by Zork Nemesis on Tue Mar 26, 2013 11:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: New rig

Post by Larry » Wed Mar 20, 2013 5:00 pm

I feel you about the laptop battery, my lasts long enough for me to unplug it and replug it in somewhere else.
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Re: New rig

Post by Checkm8 » Wed Mar 20, 2013 5:39 pm

Building is fun. If you have a few extra pennies, I suggest a cpu heatsink/cooler of some sort. The stock one works but, meh. After that, you are golden.
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Re: New rig

Post by NerevarineKing » Wed Mar 20, 2013 5:45 pm

Looks similar to my new rig, except I have 1 tb hd and a smaller monitor. Enjoy!
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Re: New rig

Post by Cat Square » Wed Mar 20, 2013 6:14 pm

Nice specs. 8GB is a good call for a gaming computer, I have 16GB and it almost never comes in handy unless I'm editing video (which I've not done much of lately).


Shoulda gotten Oculus Rift though ;p

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Re: New rig

Post by El_Hefe » Wed Mar 20, 2013 7:59 pm

I have the Corsair H60 enclosed watercooler on my i7, and i've never seen it get above 50 degrees..

Also, what video card are you getting? (or did you get that 460?)

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Re: New rig

Post by The Spanish Inquisition » Wed Mar 20, 2013 8:39 pm

Cat Square wrote:Nice specs. 8GB is a good call for a gaming computer, I have 16GB and it almost never comes in handy unless I'm editing video (which I've not done much of lately).

Here are the three things that allow me to beat all you kids into the server when maps change, even though I only have an i2500k cpu system.

1) Lot's or RAM 8Gb or more.
2) No anti-virus (bareback!)
3) Disable sleep/hibernate in favor of motherboard auto-controlled cpu over/underclocking.

On Windows 7 (64-bit ultimate), it will remember where applications, data, TF2 MAPS and other stuff have been loading up in RAM. If you never turn your rig off, never restart steam, it loads maps and other applications you've previously run directly from RAM. That's going to be up to 100,000 times faster than going to a regular harddisk and maybe 1000 to 30,000 times faster when going to SSD (ssd quality varies a lot.) Items 2 and 3 will invalidate your cached RAM objects, forcing your rig to run to the harddrive more often. Try it for a couple days.
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Re: New rig

Post by Zork Nemesis » Wed Mar 20, 2013 8:45 pm

Cat Square wrote:Shoulda gotten Oculus Rift though ;p
I'm already prone to migranes, an Oculus Rift would probably make them worse.
El_Hefe wrote:Also, what video card are you getting? (or did you get that 460?)
Already getting the 460, while it's probably not the best of the time, i'm getting it for free from my friend, and the whole thing (monitor included) has already cost me $1100
6Larry9 wrote:I feel you about the laptop battery, my lasts long enough for me to unplug it and replug it in somewhere else.
The battery is incapable of holding any charge. The machine powers off if power goes out or it's unplugged. Down in the task bar where the battery meter is, hovering over it says "1% available (plugged in, not charging)"
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Re: New rig

Post by Cat Square » Thu Mar 21, 2013 2:15 pm

The Spanish Inquisition wrote:
Cat Square wrote:Nice specs. 8GB is a good call for a gaming computer, I have 16GB and it almost never comes in handy unless I'm editing video (which I've not done much of lately).

Here are the three things that allow me to beat all you kids into the server when maps change, even though I only have an i2500k cpu system.

1) Lot's or RAM 8Gb or more.
2) No anti-virus (bareback!)
3) Disable sleep/hibernate in favor of motherboard auto-controlled cpu over/underclocking.

On Windows 7 (64-bit ultimate), it will remember where applications, data, TF2 MAPS and other stuff have been loading up in RAM. If you never turn your rig off, never restart steam, it loads maps and other applications you've previously run directly from RAM. That's going to be up to 100,000 times faster than going to a regular harddisk and maybe 1000 to 30,000 times faster when going to SSD (ssd quality varies a lot.) Items 2 and 3 will invalidate your cached RAM objects, forcing your rig to run to the harddrive more often. Try it for a couple days.

Yeah, this is true. Having everything just sitting in RAM is awesome.
I love firing up TF2 and jumping into a map I had played earlier in the day and having it start at Ludicrous Speed.

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Re: New rig - Requesting Tech Support....already

Post by Zork Nemesis » Tue Mar 26, 2013 11:28 am

Ok, I got the computer built, I had it running last night, performed all the necessary Windows updates and got everything I needed installed. The machine was restarted several times to make sure everything was done correctly and properly, to which I turned it off for the night.

Now, come this morning, the machine is failing to display anything. I've checked the connections inside the machine and tried multiple monitors and multiple inputs, but whatever I do the machine refuses to display anything. The machine does power; all the fans run, including the ones on the video card. Starting to get a little concerned that something beyond my knowledge needs repair. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions that I can try.

The one thing I haven't tried is to power the machine with the video card removed, however I looked through the board's manual, I don't think it has on-board video. If it doesn't and the video card isn't connected properly, would that cause a display failure as well?

EDIT: I'm a complete dumbass. The motherboard doesn't have on-board video; therefore hooking the monitor up to the motherboard doesn't work!
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Re: New rig - Requesting Tech Support

Post by Cat Square » Tue Mar 26, 2013 1:51 pm

Buy a cheap pci-e graphics card from Best Buy or some such big box store (with a lenient return policy *wink*, don't do this to the local little guy though, they hate that *scowl*), install it, fire up your machine and see if it gives you anything -- if you get video, your new graphics card is toast, if not, mobo failure.
It worked for you last night and you checked connections, so you've already ruled out pretty much every other possibility.

Either way, major bummer.

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Re: New rig - Requesting Tech Support

Post by Zork Nemesis » Tue Mar 26, 2013 2:13 pm

Cat Square wrote:Buy a cheap pci-e graphics card from Best Buy or some such big box store (with a lenient return policy *wink*, don't do this to the local little guy though, they hate that *scowl*), install it, fire up your machine and see if it gives you anything -- if you get video, your new graphics card is toast, if not, mobo failure.
It worked for you last night and you checked connections, so you've already ruled out pretty much every other possibility.

Either way, major bummer.
Yeah, that was my plan, until I noticed that I was plugging the monitor(s) into the wrong spot. Should've been connecting them to the video card, not the motherboard

So herp derp on me.
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Re: New rig - Requesting Tech Support

Post by Cat Square » Tue Mar 26, 2013 3:47 pm

Zork Nemesis wrote:
Cat Square wrote:Buy a cheap pci-e graphics card from Best Buy or some such big box store (with a lenient return policy *wink*, don't do this to the local little guy though, they hate that *scowl*), install it, fire up your machine and see if it gives you anything -- if you get video, your new graphics card is toast, if not, mobo failure.
It worked for you last night and you checked connections, so you've already ruled out pretty much every other possibility.

Either way, major bummer.
Yeah, that was my plan, until I noticed that I was plugging the monitor(s) into the wrong spot. Should've been connecting them to the video card, not the motherboard

So herp derp on me.
what in the!

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Re: New rig - Requesting Tech Support

Post by Larry » Tue Mar 26, 2013 5:43 pm

I probably would have plugged the monitor back into itself without noticing.
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Re: New rig - Requesting Tech Support

Post by Zork Nemesis » Tue Mar 26, 2013 6:59 pm

Cat Square wrote:what in the!
It's rather simple when I looked at it. There's no on-board video on the motherboard; attempting to display without a video card won't work. The video card isn't transmitting the display through the motherboard, so in order to get it to work, I have to plug the monitor into the video card in the PCI-Express port, not the board itself.

Something I was explicitly told to do in the first place and did not listen.
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This is hard to be cool and suave while being informative at the same time. Goddamn my coolness.
In my experience, common sense isn't too common.

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