The Computer Megathread

[rooster767]

Alright, I finally got all of my parts today, built my computer, and I turned it on. It happily sprang into life, the fans spinning like mad, the GPU light went on, aaand nothing else happened. My monitor just sat there saying "No input signal", and eventually went to sleep. I wasn't sure whether or not to plug the output cable to the monitor in my motherboard, or my graphics card (Yup. I knew everything except this, so I feel handicapped. :c ). So I'm not sure if my motherboard is going into BIOS and not displaying anything on the screen, or if something is goofed up.

Any suggestions?  

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[SPooK]

Alright, I finally got all of my parts today, built my computer, and I turned it on. It happily sprang into life, the fans spinning like mad, the GPU light went on, aaand nothing else happened. My monitor just sat there saying "No input signal", and eventually went to sleep. I wasn't sure whether or not to plug the output cable to the monitor in my motherboard, or my graphics card (Yup. I knew everything except this, so I feel handicapped. :c ). So I'm not sure if my motherboard is going into BIOS and not displaying anything on the screen, or if something is goofed up.

Any suggestions?  

It goes to your graphics card. Essentially, your GPU is a pass through for the graphics to be processed and then is outputted to the monitor. You should see a splash image when you start it up.

[rooster767]

It goes to your graphics card. Essentially, your GPU is a pass through for the graphics to be processed and then is outputted to the monitor. You should see a splash image when you start it up.

I tried it through the graphics card originally, however it did nothing. I even tried it with an HDMI cable. If it makes for any vital information, I used a cable of which I forgot what it's called, but it came with the monitor. It has a triangular shape in the middle with two screw things on the sides to secure it.

[SPooK]

I tried it through the graphics card originally, however it did nothing. I even tried it with an HDMI cable. If it makes for any vital information, I used a cable of which I forgot what it's called, but it came with the monitor. It has a triangular shape in the middle with two screw things on the sides to secure it.

The DVI connector is what I believe you are talking about. First make sure your GPU is securely inside the PCI lane, second make sure your RAM, CPU, and all power connectors are properly attached to all your hardware. You do not need to worry about your hard drive or anything like that. Just your motherboard, cpu, ram, and gpu. Check all those and make sure they have been clicked into place. 

[Spectrum2]

I think it's time for me to buy a dedicated graphics card now. (been stuck with intel onboard graphics for a while now)

Does this look like a fairly priced card? www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202004

[Jerome]

yeah that's a good card, but do you have the power supply to run it?

[SPooK]

yeah that's a good card, but do you have the power supply to run it?

All he needs is probably a 500 watt or more.

[Glassy]

I think it's time for me to buy a dedicated graphics card now. (been stuck with intel onboard graphics for a while now)

Does this look like a fairly priced card? www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202004

I have that one. Works great. (I had the 4GB one tho)

[Spectrum2]

I have an 850w power supply.

[Tokthree]

Okay, I'm almost settled on my plan of action, I just need to know one thing.

If I use an upgrade edition for Windows 8 on my OEM copy of Win7 will I then be able to activate said Win8 on a different computer in the future, say in the event of me needing to re-install Windows due to a harddrive failure? Because, needless to say, I will never be able to access that OEM copy of Win7 ever again as it's a Dell OEM and their machines are shipped with backup partitions on the harddrive which allow you to reinstall Windows but they do not come with installation DVD's for Windows.

This is an important question and I need an answer, without one the only thing I can do is drop £120 on a retail copy of Win7 blindly and hope that it was the smartest move

[devildogelite]

Hmm does it say anything about windows 8 update being OEM?

[Tokthree]

Somehow I get the feeling that you don't actually know what an OEM copy of windows is.
Call it a hunch based on your previous comments

[JPSC]

23.6" 1920x1080 Samsung SyncMaster S24B30BL LCD Monitor (x3)

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 (Going to buy 1 more at some point c:)

Blockland at max settings, average FPS 36.3 at 152,274 bricks

What the forget do you even need 3 screens for?

[nerraD]

Blockland at max settings, average FPS 36.3 at 152,274 bricks

what's the case called?

[Tokthree]

What the forget do you even need 3 screens for?

It depends on what you do, apart from anything else three monitors worth of screen space gives you a hell of a lot more room to work with when multitasking and it can be extremely useful in games such as ARMA 2 because then you can emulate peripheral vision and increase your situational awareness.
I myself have two monitors and I take up the entire secondary just with my Skype and Steam communication windows