Heatsink Woes

[Springheel]

Well damn.

 

Looks like I won't be testing this on the weekend after all. I tried installing my new CPU, and now I get nothing when I turn the computer on. Fans go, but it doesn't get past POST at all, and I have no idea what the problem is. I can't for the life of me get all 4 corners of the heatsink to lock in, so it could be that, but I have no clue how to address it. Looks like I'm going to have to take it somewhere.

[Mortem Desino]

I can't for the life of me get all 4 corners of the heatsink to lock in, so it could be that, but I have no clue how to address it. Looks like I'm going to have to take it somewhere.

Uh oh. When I made a frankenstein computer 3 years ago, I had problems getting a CPU heatsink in, too. Then, a tiny tiny crack formed on the printed circuit of the motherboard. MoBo is toast. Try adjusting the screws that mount your Motherboard to the frame; sometimes, that'll just realign a cracked printed circuit.

 

My brand-new computer build's heatsink: four cheap plastic locks go through four holes in the motherboard. I swear, when the last plastic screw snapped in (It took some very careful application of pressure), I thought the sound it made was my board cracking. Thankfully, I was wrong.

[Springheel]

Turns out it was because my mobo isn't supported by the new processor. I assumed that all that was necessary was that the slot be correct, but apparently not. Anyway, now I have to upgrade my mobo as well, which will mean upgrading most of the rest of my components.

 

Anyone have a good recommendation for a video card for TDM in the $250 range?

[Tels]

Turns out it was because my mobo isn't supported by the new processor. I assumed that all that was necessary was that the slot be correct, but apparently not. Anyway, now I have to upgrade my mobo as well, which will mean upgrading most of the rest of my components.

 

Welcome to upgrade hell!

 

Anyone have a good recommendation for a video card for TDM in the $250 range?

 

You don't need to go that high. Was shopping for a card recently, and talked to a friend, so here is what we found reasonable:

 

* ATI: no clue

* NVIDIA: Geta geforce 9800 GT green, they don't take an additional power plug (which is good) and draw 70 Watts at most. That means they are not that noisy. The 9800 is a rebranded 8800 with some tiny bits added on, but it is still fast. (actually, it renders between 140 and 222 FPS on doom in the mobile version, so the desktop one should be fast enough for TDM

 

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

 

The same chip has been recently rebranded GT 240 (or whatever), so it is quite confusing.

 

Here in Germany it is about 80 € (about 120 $) with taxes.

 

You could get a 9600, they are only 50 €. However, they are about half as fast, and still not silent.

 

Newegg search here:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=nvidia+9800&x=0&y=0

 

The GTX version draw much more power, you'd want to get the GT version down a bit.

 

If you are running a 32bit OS, don't get more than 512 Mbyte VRAM on the card (512 is enough anyway), because it will be eaten away from your main memory, and the 4Gbyte max - the 1 Gbyte - other bios mappings means you will have less than 3 Gbyte available memory.

 

Any card higher than the 9800 from nvidia will cost a lot more, but deliver not much more power - and your CPU will be become the limit usually (at least with TDM).

 

Btw, if you get a new mobo, you will get an PCIx (PCI express) slot with 16 lanes, and that is where the new card fits in.