Topic: help me buy a computer, you nerds (Read 16030 times)

bicostp · « **Reply #50 on:** 11 Mar 2011, 18:43 »

Don't feel bad. If you ever have to remove the heatsink, or if you replace it with an aftermarket one, you'll be thankful you have some around instead of having to run around tracking some down. Just tape the tube to the inside of the PC case along with an envelope for your OS and driver discs.

I like using an old plastic gift card to spread thermal grease. Put a blob about the side of a pea in the middle and spread it out. (You want to use as little as possible and spread it as even as you can. Too much paste actually impedes heat flow and insulates the CPU.)

Don't worry about the wires coming out of the power supply, the biggest problem is figuring out what to do with all the extras after you plug everything in!

Before you install the motherboard, install the CPU. Yes that's contrary to what people usually tell you, but using the stock Intel coolers with the little push pins it's actually easier to do it out of the case. What you want to do is take everything out of the motherboard box, then put one layer of packing foam into the box. Then put the anti-static bag on top of that. Now put the board on top of that and install the CPU. Follow the directions that came with the CPU, they'll tell you how the pins should go in. It's a little tricky and you'll have to push a bit harder than you'd think you should, but doing it in the box like that supports the motherboard better than just a few brass standoffs will so you don't have to worry as much. Also once it's installed the heatsink doubles as a convenient handle.

Quote from: Caleb on 11 Mar 2011, 13:00

I was more worried about the PCI-Express slot being 2.0 and the card being 2.1

PCIe 2.1 is backwards compatible.

est · « **Reply #51 on:** 11 Mar 2011, 18:45 »

Oh yeah, definitely. It's always great to have some spare just in case.

Scandanavian War Machine · « **Reply #52 on:** 12 Mar 2011, 17:23 »

after a little praying and a little battling with the arcane instructions, i got everything correctly connected and tested it. worked perfectly.

no windows yet, but the disc is in the mail.

honestly, it wasn't as complicated as i thought it would be. slide this in, plug that in, screw that to this, and boom! you're done. amazing. i think i spent more time just trying to get the motherboard in place than anything else. i ended up taking out the case fan to give my fingers a little bit more room during that part and it was easy after that.

thanks again for all your help, everybody. i am so stoked right now. i actually went and dug out my old pc games from my parents' house the other day, and i had some good stuff in there! thief: the dark project, carmageddon, civilization 4, the first STALKER game, a few other random ones, and....well, and then there's Spore, which i have sort of a love/hate relationship with. mostly hate.

look out! Ninjas! · « **Reply #53 on:** 12 Mar 2011, 17:26 »

Did you try any fancy cable routing? Gotta do that, have a whole mess of cables behind the motherboard tray looking all neat.

Scandanavian War Machine · « **Reply #54 on:** 12 Mar 2011, 17:33 »

no, not yet. it's pretty messy. the main priority was to get it all working but now that it is, i might try to tidy it up but most of the cables are so rigid, or bent at weird angles, that i'm not sure i care to do anything besides clip or tie them together where they hang.

bicostp · « **Reply #55 on:** 12 Mar 2011, 18:44 »

As long as you don't have anything like a big fat IDE ribbon blocking all your airflow you'll be okay.

satsugaikaze · « **Reply #56 on:** 15 Mar 2011, 19:20 »

I've actually stopped bothering to close my computer case, partly because I can't be bothered cramming all the cables back in, but also because in case something goes wrong I'll be able to just stick my head under the desk to have a look-see.

Should I close it?

celticgeek · « **Reply #57 on:** 15 Mar 2011, 19:42 »

I keep the case on my wife's computer open all the time, because sometimes she needs Windows for something or other, so I will swap the Linux HD and the Windows HD, and it's just easier not to have to take the side off. You do have to blow the dust out more frequently if you leave the case open.

bicostp · « **Reply #58 on:** 15 Mar 2011, 23:22 »

Keeping the case closed helps keep air flowing the way it's supposed to, but leaving the side off theoretically opens it up to more volume circulating...

I'd close it, if only to control the amount of dust it's sucking in.

look out! Ninjas! · « **Reply #59 on:** 15 Mar 2011, 23:27 »

Yeah. Well-designed cases have all those dust filters for a reason.

satsugaikaze · « **Reply #60 on:** 16 Mar 2011, 00:50 »

Okay so I guess what I'll do

I'll go over it with a vacuum cleaner and then tie up the floating cables everywhere, and then close it up.

coo.

pwhodges · « **Reply #61 on:** 16 Mar 2011, 08:00 »

Yes, stop the cat sleeping in it and keep the dog's nose out of the fans.

satsugaikaze · « **Reply #62 on:** 16 Mar 2011, 16:07 »

The closest thing to intrusive pets I had were ducklings and they couldn't give a two-shits about the computer other than stand next to me and chirp at me as if I was their mother

Ugh

Scandanavian War Machine · « **Reply #63 on:** 20 Mar 2011, 15:07 »

holy shit you guys i finally got windows (what a pain in the ass) and i've spent the last 16 hours or so playing the first STALKER game and Civilization 4 and i'm so stoked

unfortunately, right on the day when i get windows, our internet went out again after going strong for like a week. it'll probably be back soon, it's just really disappointing timing. stupid old house. So i'm at a friend's house right now about to downlad Minecraft and a couple other things (Stone Soup, for example) onto a portable harddrive to take home.

i'm excited to actually try to play through STALKER, i've played the beginning of that game like eight times but i never end up sticking with it.

snalin · « **Reply #64 on:** 20 Mar 2011, 15:28 »

Please, please tell me you've heard about Stalker Complete. It's probably the mod for any game I've ever played - better looking, better sounding, better playing, and better AI, without changing anything that's great about the game at all. Only real gameplay change is the ability to repair stuff, which comes balanced money-wise. I think you can import saved characters into it (I hope), and it just looks brilliant, so definitely go check it out.

Cire27 · « **Reply #65 on:** 20 Mar 2011, 19:49 »

Yea I'm playing it now with Complete and the weapon damage mod that is optional and it's great.

snalin · « **Reply #66 on:** 21 Mar 2011, 03:48 »

I'm not a big fan of some of the new scopes for complete - they have a bit of a rugged look which reduces visibility some - but that's only a problem in the early game, and since you only have the flashlight and the sucky night vision v1 at that point, you can't see anything at night anyways.

Scandanavian War Machine · « **Reply #67 on:** 21 Mar 2011, 10:24 »

alright, i downloaded Stalker Compete, it looks really awesome. unfortunately, i downloaded the World Wide version of patch 1.0005 or whatever, instead of the US version, so I can't use it yet.

also i can't even play Minecraft offline yet since i don't have Flash or Java or whatever it is it needs to run. derp. computing without the internet is hard.

smack that isaiah · « **Reply #68 on:** 21 Mar 2011, 11:21 »

It's Java that it runs with. Not Flash. Minecraft only requires the 1.5 JRE (Java Runtime Environment) to run, I think. You don't need 1.6 or a full JDK (Java Development Kit). Hopefully you can get that going and finally play Minecraft again. There's been quite a lot added, and soon we can have pet wolves.

Scandanavian War Machine · « **Reply #69 on:** 22 Mar 2011, 14:40 »

yeah, okay Stalker Complete is the shit. it's so much prettier and NPCs are actually capable of buying guns and crap from you so no more running all the way back to the Trader chugging energy drinks to make a few bucks and unload my inventory! woo

i actually had to turn the settings down to "high" to get it to run buttery smooth, but i didn't notice any appreciable difference in quality

i think i might actually be inspired to see more than the first 1/5 of the story this time!

snalin · « **Reply #70 on:** 22 Mar 2011, 14:47 »

The fact that they can play more than two songs on their guitars help a lot.

Scandanavian War Machine · « **Reply #71 on:** 22 Mar 2011, 14:56 »

yeah, the new songs are awesome.

i actually toggled crouch by a campfire last night and just sat there letting them jam out for a while while i smoked some weed and cleaned up my room, it was super

est · « **Reply #72 on:** 22 Mar 2011, 15:53 »

Man, I might have to check it out again then. I liked Stalker a lot to begin with but tired of it pretty quickly for some reason. Maybe this'll help

satsugaikaze · « **Reply #73 on:** 23 Mar 2011, 20:28 »

Hoorah, my computer now BSODs and resets every time it tries to start up Windows XP

Might be the IDE hard drive which I'm using for the OS. Might be dying.

bicostp · « **Reply #74 on:** 23 Mar 2011, 21:21 »

Try Safe Mode or Last Known Good Configuration. If either work, System Restore to a couple weeks ago. If not, unfortunately you're probably hosed. If you get a new hard drive and install to it, you can most likely recover all your files off the bad drive.

1 Terabyte 7200 RPM hard drives are pretty cheap nowadays...

satsugaikaze · « **Reply #75 on:** 25 Mar 2011, 20:44 »

Last Known Good Config and Safe Mode also BSODs.

I might get a Live CD and then just move everything away from the old IDE to my new SATA and then nuke the damn thing by reformatting

Might as well get another terabyte and leave a separate partition for the OS.

Scandanavian War Machine · « **Reply #76 on:** 25 Mar 2011, 21:03 »

posting from my newly built computer!

i had it working for like a week but our internet was out, but now it's back and I'm borrowing a wirelss usb adapter, so here i am on the internet in my bed, on my 37" tv with minecraft in another window

can't form sentences too happy

KvP · « **Reply #77 on:** 25 Mar 2011, 21:24 »

Quote from: est on 22 Mar 2011, 15:53

Man, I might have to check it out again then. I liked Stalker a lot to begin with but tired of it pretty quickly for some reason. Maybe this'll help

Check out Call of Pripyat if you haven't already. It took them 3 games to make a game without tremendously glaring design flaws (though there isn't quite the "holy shit" factor of playing the game for the first time)

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Author Topic: help me buy a computer, you nerds (Read 16030 times)