Advice for a complete noob please!

stulid · 3 Aug 2011 at 14:11

WhiteHartMart said:
Good point - Dirt3 is the more appealing but a game's a game I suppose - the XFX did review well so will probably stick with that!

Thanks

Just remember, when it comes in to stock, boom!! £40 more!!!

WhiteHartMart · 3 Aug 2011 at 14:18

Ahh, right - so best to press the button now then eh

stulid · 3 Aug 2011 at 14:23

WhiteHartMart said:
Ahh, right - so best to press the button now then eh

Take into account buying things separately = more delivery costs.

WhiteHartMart · 3 Aug 2011 at 14:31

Yea - this will be my only 'individual' purchase.

Next time will be 3 or 4 items together

(sshhhh, don't tell the wife

)

WhiteHartMart · 4 Aug 2011 at 08:02

My 2nd hand purchases have continued - replacement Ram sorted - 4gb of Kingston Hyper-X for £28.

Machine will now look like this:-

-Gigabyte GA-G31M-25L motherboard
-Intel Pentium Quad core Q6600
-250GB Maxtor 7200RPM SATA II hard disk
-1024 XFX 5770
-Thermaltake 500W TR2-500 ultra quiet power supply
-4GB Kingston Hyper-X Ram - DDR2 PC8500

Cost so far - £310 (will get £50 for selling the parts I've replaced so approx £260 then)

Money was tight in the end so went for a 2nd hand 5770 for £50 for now - would have loved that new 6870 but will save for a new GPU. I only intend playing iRacing for now anyway :-)

stulid · 4 Aug 2011 at 08:10

Bargain priced gaming

But waht else have you bought to get too £310? (£50gpu + £50cpu + £28ram)

WhiteHartMart · 4 Aug 2011 at 08:26

The 2nd hand machine (1st post) was £180 ;-)

stulid · 4 Aug 2011 at 08:29

Ahhhh

WhiteHartMart · 5 Aug 2011 at 17:36

Just wanted to say a quick thanks to those that gave help here - got my 2nd hand machine, processor and replacment GPU today - all installed in my Bitfenix Shinobi and looking/running great

stulid · 5 Aug 2011 at 17:37

Guess what.

WhiteHartMart · 6 Aug 2011 at 08:28

stulid · 6 Aug 2011 at 09:19

This thread needs pics.

WhiteHartMart · 6 Aug 2011 at 13:34

Only have a couple - so here goes:-

This is what my £180 bought (apart from the kb and mouse of course

)

And this is pretty much how it is now (although I've since moved a couple of cables.

Windows experience scores were 5.9, 5.5, 6.7, 6.7 & 5.3, now 7.1, 7.1, 7.4 & 5.3 - not bad for a total outlay of £300 approx - and I've yet to try overclocking the Q6600

WhiteHartMart · 6 Aug 2011 at 18:04

One more quick question - sorry!

The Bitfenix case came with 2 fans but I only have one header on the motherboard - I've just got the rear fan (and CPU cooler) working at the mo - do I need a fan controller or something else to enable the 2 case fans, plus one new one to be wired up together?

stulid · 6 Aug 2011 at 18:18

You need something like this,

WhiteHartMart · 6 Aug 2011 at 19:25

Thanks - something like this perhaps?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CB-007-GE&groupid=1929&catid=153&subcat=

So I'd connect this to PSU then 2 fans to the adaptor.

stulid · 6 Aug 2011 at 19:47

Well its probably one fan to the adapter, as that has a male and female 3pin on the ends.

The fans in your case use 3pin female.

This looks more promising - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CB-030-AK&groupid=1929&catid=153&subcat=

WhiteHartMart · 6 Aug 2011 at 19:55

Brilliant - will add that to my next order ;-)

Thanks (again) ;-)

WhiteHartMart · 7 Aug 2011 at 15:06

Uh, oh - thought it was too good to be true :mad:

Was using Handbrake to convert a video file earlier and machine just shut down.

Tried turning back on and its completely dead? Fans on cooler and case turn about 1 cm but thats it - machine doesn't even attempt to boot.

Any ideas - PSU light is on - could this still be PSU related or possibly the mobo?

stulid · 7 Aug 2011 at 15:09

Google, psu paper clip trick.