Yup, that was me.

Who's this mystery man/woman?

And I'd say my system is high end, for the moment. I can run just about anything in a good resolution with high detail and AA and AF on. Of the games that are out now, I mean. But anyhoo; it's high end for another few months.

it cost me, including case, floppy, DVDRW, assembly and everything: 1130€. Which is (checks) 768.753£. So that's a good way lower than your budget.


Even tho I'm definitely high-end, you could really go nuts and go for Fx CPU's, Crossfire/SLI gfx card configs, or just a monster card like Derf's 7800GTX.

EDIT: Ah, it was you.

EDIT 2: Satis, another possible DVDRW-BSOD cause: because I can't install the chipset drivers, I can't install the IDE and SMBUS ones either. That could very well be it.

Ox, I think your computer is on crack. Funny...a coworker of mine just built a computer and he's having mad probems with it, too. His problem, though, is that he can't get the CPU to run cooler than 54c (at idle). And he can't return it because he bought it online. Sucks to be him.

lol @ 54° idle. That's insane, however did he get that problem?! WOuldn't a 'broken' CPU just break down instead of overheat or summit?

didn't see this one go over 40° yet. It owns.

mmm, i think i was looking at a pricey retailer after all. Either that, or Ox has some black-market connections.

Can i raise an issue? Why do DIY pc's often have trouble getting going the first time round?

95% of the time, it's because the person building it did something stupid.

The other 5% of the time, there's either a hardware conflict or a piece of hardware is bad. In this case, I think the CPU is bad. I had a gfx card that went that way...started overheating for no real reason. Fans and heatsinks were still fine. Just odd.

I like those odds...Hey Ox! You're stupid!

heheh...there's a difference between being stupid and doing something stupid. :p The first couple computers I built, I had all kinds of problems with. However, the more I got under my belt, the less problems I have. I can usually get a pc assembled and fully functional without any screwups now. It's all a matter of reading the instructions when it comes to the iffy parts (like front panel connectors).

very good!

My front pannel connectors (excep the HDD light and one other the reset button) are disconnected because the connections coming from my case are like this:

o - hole with a wire in
x - hole with no wire.

My power light is

oxo

and the connection is only a two pin. So it doesn't fit. Same with my speaker con.

that's fine. As long as you have your power on button and reset button, you should be fine. In fact, only the power button is technically necessary, but the reset is too handy not to have, imo.

Because there still isn't a chipset driverset that can be installed after a later BIOS (1008 in my case) so I could test if IDE and SMBUS drivers could solve my DVDRW issue, I'm thinking of flashing my BIOS back to an older version. Then install the chipset, then flash the BIOS back to a later version.

With the Asus flash tool flashing BIOS is a joke, so I don't think i'd mess up a lot in that department. But is it possible to down-flash a BIOS a step or two? Doesn't give any complications other than any related to the lower BIOS? (normally speaking, I mean)

dunno if the tool will let you. Technically, no, there's nothing to stop you, but I try to never flash any bios if I can help it. All it takes is one 'oops' and your motherboard/whatever is trash.

I hate my job.

I was cleaning up a bit today and found some CD-R's and DVD-R's lying around...w00tness. So I decided to test that DVD/RW drive on burning, and guess what, everything goes as smooth as a baby's bottom...both formats, in nero. Conclusion: I only have problems with starting a video DVD in the DVD software. So next thing on the list is uninstalling the software and installing another one... let's see if that works.

Update:

When I booted my pc this morning it made a horrible noise of a cooler fan dying, you know the speeding up-slowing down type of stuff. Pc booted fine though. I opened the case to see what was producing the noise..turns out to be the chipset cooler on the mobo. Something like this




After checking for dust or fiddling slightly with it it didn't go away, so I suppose it's officially screwed. I'll probably bring it in Tuesday (under warranty). In the meantime I can (probably) use this old piece of shit to get online, but not to play games. Bah. (sometimes being too lazy to reformat is a good thing...pc was still here, 2 meters from the old one )

Anyway, any opinions on dying chipset coolers? I think peltz had the SLi version of this mobo (a8-n) and his died too..not sure. Should I think of getting a passive cooler instead when I bring it in? And just how damaging could this be anyway? I'm guessing not a horribly lot.