A first build on a £500 budget.

 
 
Stroller4 said:
Given that the 7850 (or GTX 660) sounds like it should be able to cope with anything I can throw at it (currently), is the i5 overkill? I'd rather stay in budget now get a good wireless keyboard and mouse (just realised that I missed them off my list) and upgrade the CPU in a year or two?
Click to expand...

The i3 gives great performance for the price and I would recommend it on a budget - but in two years time Haswell will probably be here, which means new motherboard sockets, which means needing a new motherboard to be able to upgrade to the newest processor at the time, but of course you could just put in a Ivy Bridge i5 if you wanted to.
 
OK - many thanks for all the input. It's brilliant to get so many replies, so quickly!

I think it will be hard to justify an i5 given that an i3 will cover my current needs. By saving on the CPU I can go for the 660 - that should cover me for a while!

I'm hoping that the build itself will be a good experience. I built an arcade cabinet from scratch over Easter and the 2nd hand PC I bought on ebay to run it was the only thing I didn't mess with. That build turned out very well (I exceeded my own expectations at least), so I hope I find my way around CPUs, GPUs and motherboards, as well as I did a router, screws and chipboard!
 
 
No signal from graphics card... help!?

Hi,

I have assembled the PC and installed windows using the on-board GPU and everything seems fine. This morning my GPU arrived (after everything else) but when I put it in, my monitor receives no signal.

I bought this card

MSI HD 7850 Twin Frozr III OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards w/ Nexuiz & Sleeping Dogs PC Games [V273-003R]

I slotted it into the closest PCI slot to the CP on my

Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard [GA-Z77-D3H]

I have plugged in the 6 pin PCI-E cable into the GPU and then used the DVI to VGA converter to connect the GPU to my monitor. So far as I can see, there is nothing else to plug in. I have also tried linking my monitor to the motherboard VGA socket and also hooked up my PV to the GPU HDMI socket but still nothing.

The fans spin up on the GPU, so it is not a power issue. Any ideas?
 
Stroller4 said:
Hi,

I have assembled the PC and installed windows using the on-board GPU and everything seems fine. This morning my GPU arrived (after everything else) but when I put it in, my monitor receives no signal.

I bought this card

MSI HD 7850 Twin Frozr III OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards w/ Nexuiz & Sleeping Dogs PC Games [V273-003R]

I slotted it into the closest PCI slot to the CP on my

Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard [GA-Z77-D3H]

I have plugged in the 6 pin PCI-E cable into the GPU and then used the DVI to VGA converter to connect the GPU to my monitor. So far as I can see, there is nothing else to plug in. I have also tried linking my monitor to the motherboard VGA socket and also hooked up my PV to the GPU HDMI socket but still nothing.

The fans spin up on the GPU, so it is not a power issue. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Yes, you need to update the bios. Download F18 from the link below.
Then just follow the Bios update guide in your manual.
That will fix the Gpu issue. Any problems, just post back.

http://uk.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4327#bios
 
Hi - thanks for the quick reply. I downloaded the BIOS and updated it using the QFlash. I am now getting an Windows Boot Manager error... is that normal and do I just reinstall Windows?
 
Is the boot order correct in the BIOS?

After the update you loading failsafe defaults?
 
Last edited:
Re-install windows then.

Rapidly hit the delete key as the PC boots up to go into the BIOS, you could also try connecting the keyboard to other USB ports.
 
I have windows back - the problem my trying to keep cables tidy, maximise airflow and the placement of my drives;

I installed Windows onto a SSD connected to SATA 5. Once
Windows was on I hooked up a HDD to SATA 4. I checked the order and it is now back up an running.

Going to put the GPU back in place now and hope the new BIOS fixes it.
 
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