AVForums.com - Motherboards, CPUs, Cases & PSUs

CPU fan question

andyr300 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:20:38 GMT

I have a Core i5 750 with stock fan/heatsink.

I have enabled smart fan control in my BIOS, yet the fan seems to always be going, even when the computer is doing nothing.

In my old system (AMD athlon 3000+) there was a feature called QFan i believe, and this meant that the CPU fan only came on under higher loads and was totally off for much of the time.

My question really is, is this normal, and is there any good way of getting the fan to be quieter?

Gigabyte Motherboard with USB 3.0 and SATA III

Alan CD — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:28:54 GMT

Hi

Thought you might be interested in this new release - a Gigabyte motherboard with USB 3 and SATA 3:

Gigabyte Launches GA-X58A-UD7 with USB 3.0, SATAIII and SLI/Crossfire | Hardware Canucks

Alan

Can't track down a simple cable......HELP!!

pinnocchio — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:08:18 GMT

OK Guys I really cannot believe I'm having to post this here but I've spent hours trying to track these down.....

I have a USB device that uses a non standard connector and the cable has got lost, the device has pins on the back where the connector plugs into and I know the pinouts.

So what I'm looking for is a cable, like say an internal audio cable, but only a single wire cable with a female connector on BOTH ends so I can plug one end onto the motherboard USB header pin connector and connect the other end to the correct pin on the back of the device. The plan is to get 9 of them and thusly wire up this device (yes it does use 2 usb port) so if I could get different coloured ones that would be great.

I'm either suffering from 'serious unable to use google properly syndrome' or these things don't exist.....please help.

Thanks in advance.

Just been offered this case and CPU cooler, is it suitable to start building a PC

Stilojon — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:04:19 GMT

Hi All

I am quite keen to build my own pc soon, as I want something for gaming and media streaming, as I have little sucess in the past.

I have just been offered two items from work as we used to run computer magazine which went bust a while back and they had a load of stuff we used to review.

The offers are as follows:

Thermaltake Xaser VI VG4000 Series Case

Mugen 2 CPU Cooler

Obviously this is the starting point, but are these items worth taking to build a suitable gaming and media streaming

What exactly will I need, im not a massive gamer but would like to play call of duty modern warfare 2 on it.

A motherboard challenge...

gareth_alien — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:34:43 GMT

I'm looking for a motherboard for the new HTPC. Here's what I need (and cannot find):
Full ATX
Intel 775 socket
Onboard HDMI for picture and 7.1 (LCPM) sound
6 (minimum) SATA with RAID
3 (or more) PCI-e slots - 1 x16, 1, x8, 1 x1. Obviously 2 x16 would do too.
Decent chipset (don't know too much about them tbh)
4 RAM slots (DDR2 or 3)

This will go into the beast of a case I already have. I will be detailing the build when I have all the parts.

I've found lots of motherboards with onboard HDMI but are tiny or not having the pci-e slots required.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Gareth

Recommend a mobo?

tullyhubbert — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:46:49 GMT

Two years ago I formatted and reinstalled WindowsXP on an elderly friends PC. At the time I also installed some extra RAM (512Mb) as it had only 128Mb. This PC was running really very nicely, then the power supply died taking the mobo with it. Both are now dead - kaput.

Its an emachine model 220
Mobo = IM845GV
Processor is a Celeron of unknown speed

So what I need is a mobo that takes a celeron processor (Socket478?) has onboard sound and graphics and uses Crucial DDR400 CL3 512Mb RAM

This machine will really only be used to surf, at the moment its dial-up but she does hope to get broadband, so very limited requirements.

Cheapest new tower she can get is �260ish, I'm thinking a mobo and power supply can be sourced for around �50-60 delivered and hopefully I could get it up n running (Never done it though!)

The choice is pickling my brain, any one want to make a recommendation?

TIA ... John

Asus Rampage II Extreme

Caplin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:24:05 GMT

Hi

I have been looking at this motherboard for a while now but have been seeing mixed reviews, its a fairly big purchase for me and I have found one here https://www.pricelover.com/subcat/6/...-Motherboards/ at what seems to be a reasonable price.

I was wondering if anyone here was using this board and how they have found it.

thanks

Mod Comment: font tags removed

Minimum Spec CPU to watch Blu-ray on

frosty1979 — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:26:23 GMT

Just after a bit of advice please. I am after building a new PC to have in the lounge, mainly for watching Blu-ray and HD DVD's on from disc and also from images stored on the pc. I just need to know what is the minumum spec CPU that is needed, as I am trying to keep costs down and don't want to buy a cpu that I only use half of. Can be either amd or intel as I have not bought any of the other components yet.
Thanks in advance.

Simple Water Cooling

jdmoyers — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:27:21 GMT

Anyone use one of these basic water cooling systems such as:

Corsair CWCH50-1 Hydro Series H50 High-performance CPU Cooler, LGA775/1156/1366, AM2/2+/AM3 **NEW** - Scan.co.uk

or
NQ-3580 - NorthQ Siberian Tiger Liquid Cooling All AMD/Intel with 120mm Ceramic NorthQ Fan control. Retail - Scan.co.uk

Just wondering whether they are any good. They seem like a great solution as they avoid all the complexity of the larger water cooled systems. No doubt there is some major downfall?

Does such a case exist?

darthfoolish — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:59:53 GMT

I'm looking for a new media case as WAF is getting low on my current one because of it's size and colour

The reason being, it's silver and huge (Silverstone LC13-E). I've just purchased a PS3 slim (black) and will be getting a black HDTV and Sky HD, which will be black.

I want it to be black, (obviously), full ATX, as cheap as possible, low profile, and as unfancy as possible.

This box used to be my media centre, but it's not powerful enough to do HD, hence the PS3.

So if I could buy a case as detailed above and a low profile (and power) agp video card, things would be sweet.

I could then just use the box as a uPNP server for the PS3.

Googling for this has led to mostly unsuitable or too expensive options. e.g. over �100

winxp is not detecting esata hdd?

deejay.2001 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:16:17 GMT

i have motheboard asus m2n sli deluxe.
i have win xp pro sp2, and when plug in external esata HDD rack to motheboard system will not detect it.
if i use usb2 it is detecting OK just over esata it wont detect.
can someone please let me know what i have to do?

do i need jmicron jmb363 installed in system if i need to use external esata hdd?
how to find out if jmicron jmb363 is already installed in my system? would i see it in device manager?

in bios i found: jmicron controler-4options:disabled(right now),ide,raid,ahci (do i have to enable something to get esata work?

i have heard that enabling ahci is not good idea if not made by installation of win.

thanks for any input

Any New PSU's Coming From Seasonic or Enermax?

Useless_Help — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:18:33 GMT

Hi,

I recollect reading somewhere that there were to be 'Gold' standard PSU's from Seasonic and Enermax in the very near future in the range of 400-550W, anybody have any news on that front?

In fact are there any other PSU manufacturer like Zalman, Corsair and PC Power & Cooling likely to bring anything new to the table in that wattage range?

Corsair had the HX450W but that's now EOL!

Thanks.

I ask as I've been asked by my brother to build him a new rig, so new components only, he like's shiny!
If not, I'll tell him to hold on or use my HX520W PSU for the time-being!

Found this HTPC case...�120

Michael_L — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:37:15 GMT

I don't really need one atm, but I thought you guys might be interested...
Seems to come with everything you need exept Cpu Ram and Hdd.

MSI Barebones AM2 HTPC_eBuyer

Looks good for anyone attempting HTPC for the 1st time.
It also appears to have a slot-loading cd drive port.

I'm sorely tempted to buy myself one for xmas, as you could have a nippy W7 machine for <�250

e6600 overclock

rajanm1 — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 01:57:52 GMT

just wondering if you have an e6600 what speeds you are able to safely reach and with what cooling and settings etc.?

thanks

Motherboard dead after bad bios update?

Hawklan — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:12:22 GMT

Hi

I was having problems with my MB not remembering changes to the bios (in particular boot drive order)

The mother board is a Asus Maximus

I'd read elsewhere with people having the same problem - some solutions included reflashing the bios.
Since I'd flashed my bios many times before I didn't see a problem in doing it again:god:
The bios version that I downloaded was the same as that on the board. All seemed to go OK until I got an error message as it was writing the bios (don't remember what it was).

Now all I get is a black screen, no beeps - the fans and lights and hard drives all spin OK but I still get nothing. Even the reset cmos switch does nothing when pressed.

So my guess is the the bad flashing killed or corrupted the bios chip - any any suggestions before I RMA it. I do have the same MB in another PC if that helps

Many thanks

RON