Building a gaming PC

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That signals that it can't identify the device to put it in /dev. I wonder why though. Can you experiment with other computers using external enclosures? I'd do that as a sanity check to exclude your motherboard as being faulty.

Meaning... I should replace it? How does this even happen?
 
Meaning... I should replace it? How does this even happen?

No idea really, I'd suspect a defect or motherboard not being able to handle it. On the other hand if Windows was able to read it, it detected it somehow.

Can you check what SATA mode is set in your BIOS (UEFI)? Newer ones are usually ahci.
 
No idea really, I'd suspect a defect or motherboard not being able to handle it. On the other hand if Windows was able to read it, it detected it somehow.

Can you check what SATA mode is set in your BIOS (UEFI)? Newer ones are usually ahci.

My motherboard is BIOS-only and SATA mode is set to IDE. Is that a problem?

What I find confusing is the drive was initially recognized by both the BIOS and Windows. Then the clunk fest happened and the drive disappeared.
 
Try setting the mode to AHCI, it's preferable in general. Though I don't think this is an issue really.

Set it to AHCI and nothing changed. Hmm.

When I first booted my computer today it went through normally. The drive was found and read correctly by the BIOS as 3 TB WD. But then while formatting the noises started and that was the end. Could it be it was already defective and it was only after reading/writing that the error showed up?

This is driving me crazy. So far this is more than 500 dollars worth of computer parts that DON'T work!

---------- Updated at 12:39 AM ----------

I'll try the drive at work tomorrow on an EFI motherboard. If nothing happens I will return it. Thankfully Amazon gives me more time than Newegg...
 
For such cases it's good to have a spare external SATA enclosure. Makes double checking stuff easier since you can attach it through USB to a wider range of devices.

The fact that even BIOS doesn't recognize the drive anymore (while it did before) indicates something serious with either motherboard or more likely the drive itself.
 
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Well I requested a replacement and Amazon will ship a new drive soon.

Is there any chance at all my hardware could have damaged it? It seems impossible if you ask me, worst case scenario it shouldn't be detected and that's it. Last night it was loud, clunky and the BIOS wouldn't even read basic tags like brand and capacity.
 
Well I requested a replacement and Amazon will ship a new drive soon.

Is there any chance at all my hardware could have damaged it? It seems impossible if you ask me, worst case scenario it shouldn't be detected and that's it. Last night it was loud, clunky and the BIOS wouldn't even read basic tags like brand and capacity.

That's typical failed hard drive behavior. When the computer attempts to read it, it resets and tries to seek its MBR. It fails and keeps trying, each attempt causing a click as the heads are slewed to where the MBR should be. Sometimes these drives will show up in BIOS/UEFI but fail as soon as you try to read them; other times, they will not complete their reset cycle and fail to show up at all.
 
That's typical failed hard drive behavior. When the computer attempts to read it, it resets and tries to seek its MBR. It fails and keeps trying, each attempt causing a click as the heads are slewed to where the MBR should be. Sometimes these drives will show up in BIOS/UEFI but fail as soon as you try to read them; other times, they will not complete their reset cycle and fail to show up at all.

This sums up my recent experience. What are the odds, two devices...

On an unrelated topic, I have to upgrade everything else soon but I've been postponing it because we might move. At the moment I'm planning on bringing my new video card, PSU and hard drive as part of my luggage. Is it wise to buy the rest now and also transport a motherboard, CPU and RAM on a plane or should I just wait? I'm just impatient because the Asus Z97-A (with PCI slots!) seems to be running out of stock and, well, Witcher 3.
 
Rookie question here; Can my PC run windows purely on SSD, without even having an HDD? I'm building my 1st PC, so expect more questions as TW3 release is coming very soon ;)
 
Rookie question here; Can my PC run windows purely on SSD, without even having an HDD? I'm building my 1st PC, so expect more questions as TW3 release is coming very soon ;)

You can, however it is an expensive proposition. You can get 1TB of good mechanical HDD for the cost of 120GB SSD.
 
Is it wise to buy the rest now and also transport a motherboard, CPU and RAM on a plane or should I just wait?
I've transported complete computers without the case in a handbag on planes. If you keep the main-boards box it's not that big of a problem. Every other part just packed in those anti-static bags they're usually delivered in.

Remove the CPU fan to be sure clean off the cooling paste and leave the CPU in the main-board.
I used to do that all the time for LAN-games with far away living friends. We all just had a bunch of really cheap cases to assemble the PC's after flight.

I always just needed one big handbag or a backpack for a week LAN-party. Astonishing a whole PC+ spare clothing fits in a good backpack and the clothing protects the PC parts a bit more.
 
I've transported complete computers without the case in a handbag on planes. If you keep the main-boards box it's not that big of a problem. Every other part just packed in those anti-static bags they're usually delivered in.

Remove the CPU fan to be sure clean off the cooling paste and leave the CPU in the main-board.
I used to do that all the time for LAN-games with far away living friends. We all just had a bunch of really cheap cases to assemble the PC's after flight.

I always just needed one big handbag or a backpack for a week LAN-party. Astonishing a whole PC+ spare clothing fits in a good backpack and the clothing protects the PC parts a bit more.

Those are some good tips. I was planning on putting everything back in its original box if I end up doing this but this might actually work. I would probably still pack the power supply back in its box since it has so many spare cables.

I'll think about this...

---------- Updated at 04:39 PM ----------

More food for thought:

I went back to my old MSI GTX 560 Ti, which used to sit at around 32º C desktop and 80+º C gaming in a warm room (24º C?). That was with my old Thermaltake PSU. With the new Seasonic PSU, it sits at 35 - 38º C desktop and 85+ gaming. Can the PSU make the GPU run hotter? Could it be it was previously underpowered? If anything it should be cleaner than when I removed it in November, I gave it a good dusting.
 
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Those are some good tips. I was planning on putting everything back in its original box if I end up doing this but this might actually work. I would probably still pack the power supply back in its box since it has so many spare cables.

I'll think about this...

---------- Updated at 04:39 PM ----------

More food for thought:

I went back to my old MSI GTX 560 Ti, which used to sit at around 32º C desktop and 80+º C gaming in a warm room (24º C?). That was with my old Thermaltake PSU. With the new Seasonic PSU, it sits at 35 - 38º C desktop and 85+ gaming. Can the PSU make the GPU run hotter? Could it be it was previously underpowered? If anything it should be cleaner than when I removed it, I gave it a good dusting.

Interesting observation. It could have been. nVidia's high-end cards do sense power and adjust themselves. You may find that it is running faster under load than it was before.
 
ok under mod suggestion i'm re posting this here i'm bulding this befoure the end of the month, and i'm willing to recive suggetion about optimizations pieces to be able to make a future proof 1440/4k rig this is my actual list part


i'm using an asus pa279q monitor

16 gb ram DDr3

main SSd 500 giga

3 other Hdd respectivlie of 500 giga, 1 tera and 2 tera

Corsair CP-9020062-EU RM1000 - 1000W 80+ Gold active ATX modularr power supply

Xigmatek Elysium Black Server Edition ATX Super Tower Computer Case Overview

Custom made water cooling system including all gpus and cpu ( only solutioin worth the time/cost efficent i've found)

ASUS Rampage IV Black Edition LGA 2011 Intel X79 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard

blu ray/dvd reader/writer LG BH16NS40

Intel Core i7-4930K Ivy Bridge-E 6-Core 3.4GHz LGA 2011 130W Desktop Processor BX80633i74930K

asus gtx 980, 4giga SLI x 3 ( yes i decided to immediatly go for the 3 way)


toughts? opinions? suggestions? thanks again.
 
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My PC specs for Asus g551jk
LCD:15,6 led 1920×1080 (display)
Vram:2gb
CPU:Intel i7-4710HQ, 2.5 GHz
GPU:NVIDIA GTX850M
HDD:1TB led
Ram:DDR3L 8G
OStype: win 8.1 64bit

So will this work on ultra settings for witcher 3
 
My PC specs for Asus g551jk
LCD:15,6 led 1920×1080 (display)
Vram:2gb
CPU:Intel i7-4710HQ, 2.5 GHz
GPU:NVIDIA GTX850M
HDD:1TB led
Ram:DDR3L 8G
OStype: win 8.1 64bit

So will this work on ultra settings for witcher 3

I'm concerned about the ability of any notebook to withstand this game. It's going to load the GPU and generate a lot of heat. Some notebooks are going to go into thermal limiting.

That said, yours is not a bad candidate to run the game at some setting, which won't be Ultra and won't be 1920x1080. The GPU is your limiting resource. It's sub-minimum, but not badly so. In architecture, it's comparable to a desktop 750Ti, but it's not as fast.

It's got a very fine CPU, but I don't think the CPU will be limiting. I think you're looking at satisfactory performance around 1280x720.
 
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Hello everyone, for Christmas I'm planning to buy myself a gaming computer, using this website https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/pcs/ and I was hoping that there would be a few people here willing to give me good advice on what parts would be best to buy. I'm not completely clueless when it comes to computers but I've never bought a PC designed specially for gaming, so any advice on what works and what doesn't would be greatly appreciated.

Ideally I don't want to spend more than £1500.
I'd like to be able to play games (like the Witcher 3) in high settings, if possible, to give you an idea of what kind of performance I'm looking for.

At the moment, the computer specs I've chosen are as follows:

CPU: Intel Core i7 six core processor i7-4930K (3.4GHz) 12MB cache
Motherboard: ASUS P9X79 LE: INTEL SOCKET LG2011
Memory (RAM): 16GB Kingston Hyper-X Fury Dual-DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 8GB )
Graphics Card: 4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 980 - 1 DVI, 1 mHDMI, 3 mDP - 3D Vision Ready
1st Hard Disk (and my only hard disk): 500GB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 16MB CACHE
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive: 8x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW
Memory Card Reader: INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply: CORSAIR 650W VS SERIES™ VS-650 POWER SUPPLY
Sound Card: Asus Xonar DG 5.1 SoundCard & Headphone AMP (Award Winner)
OS: Genuine Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Keyboard & Mouse: CM Storm Devastator Keyboard and Mouse


The cost of this is (with VAT incl) £1619, which is a little over my budget. I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for cheaper alternatives or if I've chosen something unnecessarily powerful and so on.

Also, I have no idea whether it's better to have 2 okayish graphics cards or one amazing graphics card... so I picked one that is quite expensive.

Any feedback would be appreciated!!

also i'm sorry if i posted this in the wrong section

i think this rig is quite good after as people said before 8-12 gig ram is enougt and for graphic card geforce 970 . Me i only have a gtx 780 i will upgrade when the 980 ti or better will come
 
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