Oldnoob

Thanks for the feedback guy's. Love the pic's Dalo. The more the merrier. I had no idea what things were before the build so anything that helps to identify the parts is great. I hope people also take note of the great cable tidy you did. Keep it clear = Keep it cool cause heat kills your CPU. :D

Having just built a pc. The main things I noted; If you build your own you do not have the support/guarrantee of the store bought pc, Don't bother to build your own if you are just going for a lower end/everyday use type machine because you can pick up some fairly good deals that will last a few years without you having to do anything to them. If you are building a higher end machine for something like gaming or video editing you can save a lot of money by building yourself. And finally, the buzz you get when it comes to life. After building my first, I would never go back to store bought (even though I was absolutely terrified when it came time to push the 'on' button) :D

Hi blueorf, Whilst I am by no means an expert. I had a similar problem. The advice I received was based on what you could afford now and if you want to upgrade later. To cut it short, the best thing I could advise is to go for the best single card you can afford at present. You are running an Nvidia Gforce card at present so for the money you are talking about, if you look around the web, you could get a GTX 460. That card is about 5 times better than your current card. I don't know what sort of motherboard you have and whether it is capable of running a SLI setup (two cards at same time linked together) but that is something you could worry about at a future time. Hope that helps in some way.

Hi Dalo. I must say easier said than done. I spent many weeks reading the forums and picked up information and made many decisions based upon what the responses were to problems/advice people had. From all of this I found some consistent truths. The fact that I didn't have a clue what you were talking about sometimes sent me on other searches, trawling the internet for even more basic information e.g. two months ago I had no idea what a GPU or PSU was. I also watched several PC builds on youtube This is what I have gathered but what to do with it or how to expand it is something else altogether. 1. Decide what sort of pc you are wanting based on what it will be doing 2. The pc case must be fit for purpose, a full size motherboard will not fit into a mini tower and if you are going to use it for gaming then it must be designed for maximum airflow and allow for the larger GPU's and heatsinks. 3. The motherboard must be capable of doing the job and preferably be able to cope with inevitable upgrades. 4. The CPU must be compatable with the motherboard. 5. The amount of RAM that you are advised to use by the programmes you intend to run, a) Can the motherboard support the amount of RAM you need, b) The operating system you use may dictate how much RAM it will recognise e.g. WIN 7 32bit will only recognise up to 4Gb of RAM so having more than that is a waste of money. WIN 7 64bit will recognise as much RAM as your motherboard will hold. 6. RAM comes in an incredible variety and is not interchangeable. You must be certain that you either buy the RAM you need all at once, for consistency or keep the packaging your RAM came in to be certain of getting RAM of the same specification. 7. Without enough power to run the PC it is all just an expensive paperweight. Get advice on the PSU you will require to run your system and then add 20%-25%. This allows for fluctuations in power and for future upgrades/overclocking. 8. Don't rush into it, ask advice and read the blessed instructions that comes with the stuff you buy (in my case it required several reads) 9. Update your drivers and your operating system. 10. I am 50 years of age with little computer experience and I just built a gaming pc for my son. Yes it scared the dickens out of me but I did it and it saved me cash by doing it and gave me a great sense of satisfaction but I don't have the backup of a warranty from a store bought pc. I do however have the support of some very clever people on this forum. I now wish that I had recorded the build so that it could have been posted as an example. Some voice overs from you guys giving tips and explaining things would have been perfect.

Hi Inferect. I am no expert by any means but a similar thing happened to my wifes screen with vertical lines in many colors going down the screen. It was intermittant at first and anyway to cut a long story short it was the screen and not the graphics card. Try applying pressure to the top and sides of the screen at different points and see if it clears. If it does then you know it is the screen. Eitherway, goodluck.

Just wanted to thank one and all for the advice that you didn't know you gave me. I just completed (a few days ago) my first new build. I started with a HAF 922, ASUS P7 motherboard with USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb, Intel I5 760 (with stock cooler), XMS 4Gb RAM, Spinpoint 1Tb HDD, GTX 480 GPU and windows 7 Ultimate (because someone I know had 2 so sold me one cheap). It took probably about 6hrs to build and load all the drivers etc. Probably could have done it a lot quicker if I wasn't so blessed scared I was either going to fry the pc or myself. I may get brave at some point and try to oc the system but still a bit shaky from the build so it will have to wait till I get either the nerve or the sedation level right. Again, thanks to you all. :)

Hi all and a massive thankyou for all the advice you gave without knowing it. I don't have a lot of experience in pc's but enough for day to day use (usually). I have generally logged onto the site for info and sometimes basic info that I probably should know but don't. I am sure that I will improve with your continued brilliant advice.