Kyle_K_ski

Arrrrrgh!!!!! I have spent over 9 hours building my first computer, and it's still not working properly! Please, if any of you can think of something that I'm getting wrong, or missing, don't hesitate to send your advice my way. First, the parts that I used for this build can be found listed here: List of Build Parts. What is working? 1. The power turns on. 2. The optical drive's LED is lit green, and its tray opens/closes on demand. 3. ALL of the fans are spinning and the one's that are supposed to glow do so, and... 4. ...the Power and Reset buttons on the motherboard panel are lit up red (I'm assuming that these lights can only glow red, and not green). What's not working: 1. Nothing is displayed on the monitor. And "Yes" it is turned on. 2. The LED light on the front of the case to indicate hard drive activity briefly flashes a red glow at startup, but nothing thereafter. Perhaps the hard drive shows no activity because the drivers haven't been installed, and the operating system is waiting to go on. That said, the 320 GB SATA hard drive is a used one, but its previous owner is meticulous, and it's HIGHLY unlikely that there's anything wrong with it. I'm assuming that there is data on said hard drive. What could be wrong? These are my inexpert musings, but in case they can prove of value, I'm presenting them here: The manufactorors of the HIS Radeon graphics card supply a x2 4 pin to a x1 6 pin power connector. Although they supplied said device, they strongly advise not to use it if there's a 6 pin PCI Express power connection available (which there is). I have tried both means of supplying power to the graphics card, and both means supply enough power that the card's cooler fan is spinning. The manual keeps making constant references to plugging in TWO PCI Express power connectors into the card, but this card has only ONE receptacle (I have scrutinized its exterior numerous times, there is but the one power connection). Could the graphics card be working, but because the hard drive (might) be improperly operating, that its signals can't be displayed on the monitor? In regards to the hard drive's LED light at the case's front: it has a clear red plastic bubble (so it has to emit a red glow, right?), I checked the motherboard's manual over and over again, so I'm confident that I have it's x2 pronged cable hooked up right into the System Panel Header, especially since the Power and the Reset switches are being lit up (but they're lit red, is this color the lights' default color, or does it indicate that they're wired up improperly?). So, if I can figure it out for two of the three devices, then I'm assuming that I have the third one correct as well. Perhaps there's something wrong with the hard drive? And, if there is, could it be having an impact on nothing showing up on the monitor, and the graphics card is really working, but we just can't tell because the hard drive is kaput? Or are the graphics not being displayed because the older 600 W power source is not delivering the wattage it used to deliver when it was newer? Or is it due to my house being so old that not enough juice is being pumped out of the wall socket so that the wattage can be properly generated and channeled to the graphics card? I can't recall the exact expected wattage-demand that was calculated when I was doing my research, I'm pretty sure it was around 480 Watts, but perhaps that calculator was off a good degree, and I need more power? Or is the graphics card defective, or...? And that's all that I can think of at this point. I am earnestly hoping that I'm missing something simple, and that there aren't any defects in the parts. I worry a little bit that I screwed the cooler unit on too tightly over the top of the processor, but before I even started screwing it on, I checked several instructional articles and videos, and they all said to tighten down the cooler unit's screws till they quite-suddenly tighten to a near stop. This is exactly what I did, so... And the manuals for all of these devices are nearly impossible to make sense of, with the least helpful illustrations, and with extremely limited Keys/Legends to make sense of all of the notations. I swear, had they invested in another quarter page's worth of paper and ink, they could avoid having to field a lot of nervous email/telephone requests for help, and thus save big money on supplying service help to those who made mistakes and/or are confused. But I guess they like loosing money. Again, any help would be greatly appreciated (especially since the 30 day return deadline is fast approaching!). Thank you! Kyle April 17, 2011

I spent the past two days looking HARD at what it might cost me to purchase parts on my own, and then have a friend help me put it together. Please feel free to look over the following information, and if you detect any systemic bottlenecks, or where I could get the listed part for less, or if there's a part that's likely to be defective, don't hesitate to let me know. Most of the following prices expire on Mar. 31. Also, if someone could help me figure out with greater accuracy how large a Power Supply Unit I would need for this system. I think that I would need to go with a 600 W unit. If that seems a little high, it's because I've been told to "add 100 W" to whatever the initial estimate is, because it's far better to go with a larger figure than a smaller one. MOTHERBOARD ------------------- ASRock Socket AM3/AMD 870/Hybrid CrossFireX/SATA3&USB 3.0/A&GbE/ATX Motherboard 870 Extreme3 $89.99 ------$13.99 for 3 yr. warranty Motherboard link ============================ PROCESSOR --------- AMD Phenom II X4 840 Edition Deneb 3.2 GHz 4x512 KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor - Retail HDX840WFGMBOX (Black) $109.99 -------no warranty desired ---Buy with Corsair RAM & save $25 (see below) Processor link ============================ RAM --- Corsair Vengeance 8 GB ( 2 x 4 GB ) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800) 240-Pin DDR3 Memory Kit for Intel Core i3, i5, i7 and AMD Platforms SDRAM CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 $99.99 -------no warranty desired ---Buy with AMD Phenom II X4 480 and save $25 (see above) RAM link ============================ GRAPHICS CARD ------------- EVGA 01G-P3-1467-AR GeForce GTX 465 (Fermi) Superclocked 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card $179.99 after mail-in rebate card -------no warranty desired as it has a LIFETIME warranty by default ---Size & power concerns: Width: 9.5" Height: 4.376" Minimum of a 550 Watt power supply. (Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 38 Amps.) Graphics card link ============================ HEATSINK (unnecessary?) -------- Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler, RR-B10-212P-G1 $29.99 Heatsink link ============================ HARD DRIVE ---------- OCZ Technology Vertex 2 Series 90 GB SATA II 3.5-Inch Solid State Drive (SSD) OCZSSD3-2VTX90G $169.99 NOTE: Drives should be shipped with the latest firmware but make sure you double check. Upgrading the firmware of the drive is not supposed to cause any data loss however it is possible. The best thing to do if your planning to upgrade would be to install the drive as a secondary drive, use the OCZ utility to upgrade the firmware, and then (re)install the operating system and move everything over to the new drive. SSD link QUESTIONS: Why isn't there an option to purchase the 3 year warranty through Amazon.com? If purchased through Newegg.com, then... $169.99 -------$19.99 one year extended warranty. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=20-227-601&SortField=0&SummaryType=1&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Keywords=%28keywords%29&Page=1#SnetMark_120 *****ALTERNATE HARD DRIVE***** - - - - - - - - - - - Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $39.99 ------$11.99 with 2 year extended warrranty ---do NOT buy from Amazon.com as they're having SERIOUS issues with how they ship their hard drives! NOTE: It not only has no instructions or software, it also does not have a connector cable, an IDE four-pin to SATA power adapter, or mounting screws. A jumper has to be setup when utilizing this hard drive with Windows XP. * The jumper must be installed prior to drive installation and partitioning. * After partitioning the jumper must not be removed. See here for more information! http://www.wdc.com/global/products/features/?id=7&language=1 ALTERNATE hard drive link ============================ CD/DVD DRIVE ------------- Asus 24x DVD±RW Drive DVD-RAM/±R/±RW 24x 8x 16x (DVD) 48x 32x 48x (CD) Serial ATA Internal OEM DRW-24B1ST (Black) $19.99 ------$7.99 warranty for two year including accidents (Liam!) CD/DVD Drive link ============================ SOUND CARD ----------- ASUS XONAR_DG 5.1 Channels PCI Interface Xonar DG Sound Card $19.99 after mail-in rebate card 2.99 shipping and handling Sound card link ============================ SeaSonic S12II 520 Bronze 520W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply $74.99 9.65 shipping and handling 520 W Seasonic link Need 600 W supply? OCZ ModXStream Pro Power Supply (600 W) $68.94 6.95 shipping and handling 600 W OCZ Power Supply link I'm debating if even the heatsink is necessary, but it's important that I build a system that's going to LAST for five years or more. Few things are harder on a computer than heat, so... Some might wonder why I'm going with a Solid State Drive rather than a typical hard drive. The reason for that is pretty simple: our computer is centrally located in our home, out in the open. It's important to my wife and I that our two little children see that "computer time" is "public time." What we do can be scrutinized by all. That said, these two little kids are bumping into things all of the time, including our desktop's tower. Having a SSD will make it far less likely that a bump will ruin it. Plus, I want my programs to load up super-fast. I'm in the process of getting a (hopefully very low) estimate on purchasing Windows 7, and it's my understanding that SSD's work very well with the new OS. Again, any timely input on this would be highly valued. I had wanted to not exceed $500, but I'm over that amount by about $240. Roughly $40 of that could be eliminated by getting rid of the warranties that I would like to have to cover my butt. Yet, if there are any warranties that I've listed that you feel would be highly unnecessary to have on an item, let me know about that as well. Thank you! Kyle Mar. 27, 2011